One more time on Cy Twombly. The New York Times had a wonderful long review of his work today as promised. He was nicknamed Cy after Cy Young and was in cryptography during his military service, which probably explains his fascination with coded writing in his paintings. While he lived in Italy most of his adult life,a woman here in Virginia talked on the radio about having dinner with him recently in Lexington, Virginia where he grew up. In the past couple of years, he alluded to his staying in Lexington for months a time.
If you want a good book on his work, including color plates of details of his paintings, Richard Leeman's Cy Twombly, A Monograph (Flammarion) fills the bill. Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish today highlighted Twombly's work approvingly quoting art critic David Sylvester saying that his paintings recalled the marks on one's bed after making love. Interesting observation or fixation as the case may be.
Steve Benen at Washington Monthly had a power outage today so he couldn't keep the heat on Williard Romney. At the appropriate time, the Obama campaign should make Steve the head of opposition research of Mitt--he has him down pat. Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune picked up the slack today criticizing Romney's meanderings on the economy. Think Progressive nails him for his statements that the Dodd-Franks financial reform bill went too far but then he couldn't say what was in it. This seems to be a regular pattern with the GOP. They don't even know what's in the Health Care bill for instance.
Benen's writing on Romney reminded me that I find Mitt somewhat creepy and can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's the story of him tying his labrador retriever to the roof of the car when the family went on vacation. Or his recent remark that he loves to read L.Ron Hubbard sci-fi. Maybe it is his Mormonism. One of the more interesting stories coming out of Mormonland is the dislike of the Huntsman clan for the Romneys. Is any reporter going to ask either man how much of the Book of Mormon they believe?
To reacquaint myself with the orgins of Mormonism, I am currently reading Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith", who also declared he was running for President. This book allegedly got Fawn Brodie thrown out of the Mormon religion. But reading it, I was struck how much Glenn Beck with his conspiracy theories resembles Joseph Smith, whose work of fiction/divine revelation contains all the conroversies of the time--anti-Catholicism, the whole Masonic conspiracy and the religious fights within the protestant movement. Smith was literally someone who dug for treasure in Vermont and New York State,reminding us that Beck sold gold on his show. Later he even created a bank and printed his own money. It's actually perfect Beck is a Mormon. His embrace of David Barton makes sense also as Joseph Smith was for a theocracy and didn't believe in the separation of church and state, much like Barton.
President Obama had his first tweeter on-line townhall meeting. He's good at it. He's mastered the form in responding to questions. John Boehner even tried to sneak into the act by asking "Where are the jobs?" He's a good one to ask. At the present rate, the current Congress will go down as the least productive in modern history,surpassing the record of Harry Truman's famous "Do Nothing Congress" of 1948. Compare it with the first two years of Obama's presidency. Which do you prefer?
The Obama Administration would like to play down the possibility of invoking the 14th amendment to resolve the debt ceiling issue. He even avoided the question today in his townhall meeting. But the legal community is beginning to write about this. The question then becomes what is the national debt. According to Republicans, it is what is owed bond holders. To normal Americans, it's everything owed by the government, including Social Security and pension payments. A teabagger in the House vowed that the House would impeach Obama if he invoked the 14th amendment. That would be interesting. The last two Democratic Presidents impeached. Think that wouldn't be a story.
Talk shows are commenting that Wall Street simply is not acting as if there will be a problem. Financial analysts have said they expect the Republicans won't give on tax hikes so the budget cuts will be lower than has been discussed in the negotiations, the ceiling will be raised and we go on from there.
The Washington punditry has finally caught on that the GOP might actually be mad. It's taken them over a year to realize this. Richard Cohen wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post the other day about how the GOP has become the Grand Old Cult. He remarked about the penchant of Republicans to sign on to strange lists like a pledge not to raise taxes, a pledge to prohibit abortion even in cases like incest and rape. Previous positions on climate change have gone by the board. But this town seems genuinely worried that the GOP will continue their hostage-taking because none of the GOP leadership will stand up against the teabaggers. Rand Paul has turned out to be even more unruly than his father,vowing to filibuster the debt ceiling vote until he gets his way on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I don't have the time or inclination to explain why that is an absolutely insane idea.
David Brooks must have just gotten off his book tour and finally realized that the GOP was actually nuttier than he believed. Brooks noted what Michael Steele said last year that the GOP is not fit to govern. Steele had warned Republicans in 2010 that they might win the by-election but they were not ready to lead. Brooks finally woke up to the fact that his party has no regard for academics, scholars and policy analysis of any sort.
What put him over the edge was that the budget deal offered by Obama was a no-brainer to "normal" Republicans--minimal tax hikes and massive spending cuts. David Frum weighed in that President Obama should never have gotten himself into this situation in the first place, offering to negotiate with hostage takers. I actually agree. But Brooks' remarks actually generated push-back from conservative talk show hosts and resident Very Serious Person, Paul Ryan, who touted head Wahhabist Grover Norquist's line about no tax increases. Bloggers have begun to question whether Republicans who take his pledge not to raise taxes are violating their oath of office by pledging their allegiance to a private citizen. Interesting question.
The Willard juggernaut released his fund-raising figures. We were told to expect between $25 and $30 million but the number came in at $18.5 million, less than Romney's take in the first quarter of 2007. Although this puts him light years ahead of anyone else in the field, it underlines how the Romney people play fast and loose with numbers. I guess they got the hang of the new GOP.
A 14-year old blogger going under the tag "Youngprogressive" posted his experience of asking a question of Romney in New Hampshire. He could give Steve Benen a run for his money. The blogger wanted to find out whether there was any moderate left in Romney. He said he hesitated to ask his question in the public forum because Romney was trying to imitate a teabagger. But after the presentation he went up to the candidate and asked him about his statements on repealing "Obamacare" when he had passed a similar program for Massachusetts.
Romney gave his state waiver answer but the youngster started asking him whether he would repeal the section on prohibiting exclusive of insurance for preconditions. Romney said he didn't think so and then the blogger asked about repealing life time caps, which would penalize senior citizens. Romney couldn't give him a straight answer and that's what made the boy conclude Romney was a phoney because he was too afraid of his own party to give a straight answer. Sharp judge of character. It's going to be interesting to see where Romney goes as he has to articulate real answers to real questions.
The Newt is having money woes--the campaign seems to be running a deficit at this stage of the game. I browsed through his American Exceptionalism tonight and just couldn't buy it. Alot of it is just rehashed arguments about how liberals crushed America and that Obama doesn't appreciate the uniqueness of America and basically that we must recapture our sense of our unique destiny as a nation. It's basically an update on his Obama book that criticizes the President for trying to create a socialist, secular society. With assaults on every part of our social safety nets, we might need more socialism at this time.
Pat Buchanan on Morning Joe said that the American Empire is stretched too thin and that it is going down. He gave his pithy isolationist chant that we are borrowing from Japan to defend Japan, we're borrowing from the Middle East to defend the Middle East, we're borrowing from Europe to defend Europe. Actually there is alot of truth in his sentiments. When Eisenhower faced large deficits, he cut defense dramatically. It's being suggested that this is what Panetta's mandate will be . But already the defense industries are mounting an attack against defense cuts, even though the defense budget has tripled since 1999.
Zbig showed up on Morning Joe and because his daughter is co-host, he doesn't get guff. Zbig is the first well-known figure that I can recall that has said that the enormous disparity in wealth in this country is potentially destabilizing. His point was that this glaring social fact raises questions about social justice, fairness and the nature of our society. Failure to address this creates very bad optics that lead people to question other elements of our society. He neglected to say when the tipping point would be but he suggested other such societies experience political violence. I'm glad he said it because outside the Beltway one can sense the deep frustration and anger that is building about the economy and the failure of our political system to respond to the current economic challenges. Poll after poll shows people think that the wealthy must pay a greater share than they do today.
Maybe these right-wing governors elected in 2010 know something about today's American I don't. But how long will people put up with something like Scott Walker in Wisconsin using prisoners to perform jobs once performed by public workers? How long can people tolerate Rick Scott's various give-aways to the private sector when public education in Florida is being eviscerated? And John Kasich's crimes in Ohio are too numerous to list. Does the average American continue to be rolled by these guys or will there be more than just political pushback?
Francis Fukuyama continues on his political rehabilitation. In his latest book, he describes how under the Han dynasty the wealthy actually went so far to protect their privilege and riches as to cause the collapse of China. This chapter is being dissected on the political blogs as a lesson for today's America.
Not helping his momentary rehabilitation, David Stockman, who had been approvingly quoted for challenging current GOP orthodoxy on tax cuts, appeared on the Diane Rheim show and gave a bloodless position on why a debt default might not be too bad a thing. He said that the only way Obama could overcome our economic situation is to eliminate the tax cuts for everyone,including the middle class, and convening the military to say he wanted $250 billion cut over the next five years. In the meantime, Stockman argued that a default would raise interest rates and screw those on Wall Street holding Treasury Bonds but tough. In his scenario, it was just a matter vof math, not human beings.
A book that has nice parallels today is Scott Miller's "The President and the Assassin--McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century"(Random House). Aside from the Lincoln assassination, we tend to forget other political assassinations. The book covers the election of William McKinley over William Jennings Bryan as the first election where American corporations poured money straight from their business into the campaign because of their fear of Bryan's populism. Miller reports on the 100,000 person rally in New York organized by business--the first Freedomworks Teaparty--to rally against Bryan's assault on the gold standard. The financial backing and corporations coming right out and suggesting they would layoff their workers if Bryan won overcame Bryan's lead. If 30,000 votes had switched in key states, McKinley would have lost.
But the other side of the story was that corporations were so dominant in American society that the average American faced little mobility and faced sweeping changes threatening their livelihood. One such man was the assassin Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who was inspired by the anarchist killing of the King of Italy. The assasssination did little but bring Theodore Roosevelt to power, who did embark on efforts to change the situation. The campaign funding laws restricting corporate financing of political campaigns came to past a few years later. Those were the laws overturned by the Roberts Court and we have seen the results.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Goodby,Cy
Cy Twombly died today at the age of 83 from cancer. Last year Cy painted the ceiling of the Louvre, the first artist given the honor since Georges Braque in the 1950s. The work was inspired by the blue used by Giotto. The last paintings I saw of Twombly's were strange landscapes of Oman. Years ago in Venice at the Biennale,I saw the seige of Lepanto and its companion pieces.
Born in Lexington, Virginia, he settled in southern Italy in 1957 where he embraced classical themes rendered in his style of graffiti, fragments of classical verse, erasures, drips and his noted scratching. He studiously avoided publicity and virtually ignored his critics which were numerous and vicious in the first decades of his career. His started gaining younger artists' attention in the 1980s and was viewed as a seminal influence on their development.
Eventually he won all the prestigious honors--the Legion of Honor, the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale and Japan's Premimum Imperiale. In a restrospective at the Tate, he told an interviewer," I had my freedom and that was nice."
He only made one written statement about his art and that was in an obscure Italian art journal during the 1950s. He wrote,"It's more like I'm having an experience than making an experience."
The reproductions of his paintings, which are available in the many retrospectives published over the past decade,pale compared to the real thing where the canvass becomes a complex texture of his markings, painting and drawings.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand made a poetic statement on Twombly's passing: "A great American painter who deeply loved old Europe has just left us. His work was deeply marked by his passion for Greek and Roman antiquity, and its mythology,which for him was a source of bottomless inspiration."
Luckily for us, he apparently left one of his best shows for last at the Lambert Collection in Avignon, France.
The New York Times already has an obituary with a promise of a longer account of his life later. And a fitting piece was written by Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press.
I'll certainly miss him. His work gave me much satisfaction and amusement. I sympathize with Donald Judd, when he was an art critic, who claimed there was no painting there when reviewing an early Twombly show. Cy was an acquired test but well worth the effort.
Born in Lexington, Virginia, he settled in southern Italy in 1957 where he embraced classical themes rendered in his style of graffiti, fragments of classical verse, erasures, drips and his noted scratching. He studiously avoided publicity and virtually ignored his critics which were numerous and vicious in the first decades of his career. His started gaining younger artists' attention in the 1980s and was viewed as a seminal influence on their development.
Eventually he won all the prestigious honors--the Legion of Honor, the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale and Japan's Premimum Imperiale. In a restrospective at the Tate, he told an interviewer," I had my freedom and that was nice."
He only made one written statement about his art and that was in an obscure Italian art journal during the 1950s. He wrote,"It's more like I'm having an experience than making an experience."
The reproductions of his paintings, which are available in the many retrospectives published over the past decade,pale compared to the real thing where the canvass becomes a complex texture of his markings, painting and drawings.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand made a poetic statement on Twombly's passing: "A great American painter who deeply loved old Europe has just left us. His work was deeply marked by his passion for Greek and Roman antiquity, and its mythology,which for him was a source of bottomless inspiration."
Luckily for us, he apparently left one of his best shows for last at the Lambert Collection in Avignon, France.
The New York Times already has an obituary with a promise of a longer account of his life later. And a fitting piece was written by Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press.
I'll certainly miss him. His work gave me much satisfaction and amusement. I sympathize with Donald Judd, when he was an art critic, who claimed there was no painting there when reviewing an early Twombly show. Cy was an acquired test but well worth the effort.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Summer Reading
Now that my software seems to be working, I find I am blind as a bat. Forgive the typos. They float all through the review of Kurzman's book.
In the last few months, there have been several books which I enjoyed. Here are some of them.
If Keith Richards is still alive, I always feel I should be. In paperback, Keith Richards' Life is a great read. I particularly enjoyed it when he would go off at great length to explain the musical techniques behind his guitar playing and his theory on rock lyrics. And, of course, there are naughty bits galore throughout. Oh and he never got those annual blood transfusions.
Manning Marable's A Life Of Reinvention: Malcolm X.(Viking) . Black historian Manning Marable died before this biography of Malcolm was published. If you are used to writings about the civil rights struggle emphasizing Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin, then this book complements them as it traces the development of the Black Muslim movement, its strains of separatism and its conflicts with the mainstream civil rights movement. Malcolm X transforms himself throughout the period and ends up being more Muslim and more integrationist than his previous religion. Marable contributes his theory as to who and why Malcolm was assassinated in Harlem.
Patricia Albers, "Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter--A Life (Knopf). This is a real keeper. In my opinion, Joan Mitchell is one of the most significant painters of the last century. This biography is absolutely the best treatment of Mitchell I have read. From the days at Smith to the Village with the New York School of Painters over to Paris where she painted her masterpieces for decades. One of the founding women of Abstract Expressionism--which she would deny and denounce--she was so far ahead of her time she rejected being shown in latter life with other women artists. She hated being a "Lady Painter", she was a painter--period. Albers does a marvelous job in capturing Mitchell throughout her love affairs, her physical ailments, her alcoholism and her psychiatric sessions. She had an eidetic memory, which bothered her in her youth but became her strength as a painter. And you actually get to read about all her paintings. One of my great memories is walking by a museum on the West Side of New York and there sitting all along the curb were Mitchells after Mitchells waiting to be delivered for a retrospective.
Gail Levin "Lee Krasner: A Biography"(William Morrow). If artists are making a living today, you can thank Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's widow who single-handedly created the modern art market. Feminists have tried for years to restore Lee Krasner's reputation as an artist in her own right. There is a case but I have never responded to her paintings like I do to Mitchell or Frankenthauler or Grace Hartigan. Perhaps I am too attached to Pollock's special genius not to see her. She was reviled after Pollock's death and was seen as too manipulative of his estate. But history has shown her judgments to be correct. For a walk through that time of the New York School, this is a superb introduction. Maybe Gail Levin can convince you on Krasner's merits as an artist. Obviously Hans Hoffman thought highly of her talent.
Sylvia Winter Pollock "American Letters 1927-1947: Jackson Pollock and Family". (Polity) Interesting artifact about Jackson Pollock but much more interesting as the letters of a family struggling through the Depression. While Jackson is the hook, it is his eldest brother Charles who comes across as the more interesting character. A radical, labor union organizer,a participant in the WPA, he knows Pete Seeger and other radicals of the time. Through his letters, we learn how FDR tried to purge the WPA of Communists and radicals and how the Pollock brothers tried to avoid all this by subterfuge. Jackson has severe problems with alcoholism from an early age and has to be committed to an asylum for a while. What comes across is a closely knit family, who communicated constantly with one another as family members travelled around the country looking for work. LeRoy and Stella Pollock, while living a working class existence, were enormously supportive of their sons' ambitions to become artists. The book provides the background for understanding Jackson's well-known closeness to his mother, who previously had been painted as somewhat overbearing. In fact, it was time Jackson assumed his role in supporting his mother who had become a widow. A wonderful vignette of hard times.
E.L. Doctorow "All the Time in the World" (Random House). What do you do with favorite writers? Should you reread Billy Bathgate,Loon Lake, and the Waterworks? I think Ragtime was ruined by the movie. One approach is to savor the best lines of a good author. This book contains six new stories from an American master--some are excellent; others not so much.
Do you remember Progressive Republicans? They are becoming a very distant memory. But Edmund Morris finishes his work on Theodore Roosevelt with "Colonel Roosevelt" (Random House), the saga of TR's last years and the death of his son Quentin in WWI. Running throughout the story is the mystery whether TR would run for President again as his friends and many of the progressives wanted. Behind the scenes, TR is working to undermine Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations. Like the war horse he was, he thought he could do a better job of fighting the Germans. And on the Republican front, he was outraged by William Taft selling the Republicans to the corporate moguls. A fascinating portrait and one of Morris' finer volumes on Roosevelt.
In the last few months, there have been several books which I enjoyed. Here are some of them.
If Keith Richards is still alive, I always feel I should be. In paperback, Keith Richards' Life is a great read. I particularly enjoyed it when he would go off at great length to explain the musical techniques behind his guitar playing and his theory on rock lyrics. And, of course, there are naughty bits galore throughout. Oh and he never got those annual blood transfusions.
Manning Marable's A Life Of Reinvention: Malcolm X.(Viking) . Black historian Manning Marable died before this biography of Malcolm was published. If you are used to writings about the civil rights struggle emphasizing Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin, then this book complements them as it traces the development of the Black Muslim movement, its strains of separatism and its conflicts with the mainstream civil rights movement. Malcolm X transforms himself throughout the period and ends up being more Muslim and more integrationist than his previous religion. Marable contributes his theory as to who and why Malcolm was assassinated in Harlem.
Patricia Albers, "Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter--A Life (Knopf). This is a real keeper. In my opinion, Joan Mitchell is one of the most significant painters of the last century. This biography is absolutely the best treatment of Mitchell I have read. From the days at Smith to the Village with the New York School of Painters over to Paris where she painted her masterpieces for decades. One of the founding women of Abstract Expressionism--which she would deny and denounce--she was so far ahead of her time she rejected being shown in latter life with other women artists. She hated being a "Lady Painter", she was a painter--period. Albers does a marvelous job in capturing Mitchell throughout her love affairs, her physical ailments, her alcoholism and her psychiatric sessions. She had an eidetic memory, which bothered her in her youth but became her strength as a painter. And you actually get to read about all her paintings. One of my great memories is walking by a museum on the West Side of New York and there sitting all along the curb were Mitchells after Mitchells waiting to be delivered for a retrospective.
Gail Levin "Lee Krasner: A Biography"(William Morrow). If artists are making a living today, you can thank Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's widow who single-handedly created the modern art market. Feminists have tried for years to restore Lee Krasner's reputation as an artist in her own right. There is a case but I have never responded to her paintings like I do to Mitchell or Frankenthauler or Grace Hartigan. Perhaps I am too attached to Pollock's special genius not to see her. She was reviled after Pollock's death and was seen as too manipulative of his estate. But history has shown her judgments to be correct. For a walk through that time of the New York School, this is a superb introduction. Maybe Gail Levin can convince you on Krasner's merits as an artist. Obviously Hans Hoffman thought highly of her talent.
Sylvia Winter Pollock "American Letters 1927-1947: Jackson Pollock and Family". (Polity) Interesting artifact about Jackson Pollock but much more interesting as the letters of a family struggling through the Depression. While Jackson is the hook, it is his eldest brother Charles who comes across as the more interesting character. A radical, labor union organizer,a participant in the WPA, he knows Pete Seeger and other radicals of the time. Through his letters, we learn how FDR tried to purge the WPA of Communists and radicals and how the Pollock brothers tried to avoid all this by subterfuge. Jackson has severe problems with alcoholism from an early age and has to be committed to an asylum for a while. What comes across is a closely knit family, who communicated constantly with one another as family members travelled around the country looking for work. LeRoy and Stella Pollock, while living a working class existence, were enormously supportive of their sons' ambitions to become artists. The book provides the background for understanding Jackson's well-known closeness to his mother, who previously had been painted as somewhat overbearing. In fact, it was time Jackson assumed his role in supporting his mother who had become a widow. A wonderful vignette of hard times.
E.L. Doctorow "All the Time in the World" (Random House). What do you do with favorite writers? Should you reread Billy Bathgate,Loon Lake, and the Waterworks? I think Ragtime was ruined by the movie. One approach is to savor the best lines of a good author. This book contains six new stories from an American master--some are excellent; others not so much.
Do you remember Progressive Republicans? They are becoming a very distant memory. But Edmund Morris finishes his work on Theodore Roosevelt with "Colonel Roosevelt" (Random House), the saga of TR's last years and the death of his son Quentin in WWI. Running throughout the story is the mystery whether TR would run for President again as his friends and many of the progressives wanted. Behind the scenes, TR is working to undermine Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations. Like the war horse he was, he thought he could do a better job of fighting the Germans. And on the Republican front, he was outraged by William Taft selling the Republicans to the corporate moguls. A fascinating portrait and one of Morris' finer volumes on Roosevelt.
The Missing Martyrs
Charles Kurzman "The Missing Martyrs--Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists",Oxford University, 248 pages.
John Brennen recently discussed that the Obama Administration is now seriously considering defeating Al Qaeda. Remember the whole Long War Doctrine? It seems bin Laden spent his last days contemplating Al Qaeda's image problem and thought of re-branding the group with a new name. His counter-intelligence chief had resigned in frustration and he was having problems fund-raising. He seemed to think that Al Qaeda hurt itself by killing so many other Muslims. During this time, Al Qaeda's American spokesperson cut a YouTube video to urge all American Muslims to go to gun shows and buy weapons and use them against the Crusaders. So far that has been a bust.
But for reasons best known to ideologues, almost ten years after 9/11, Americans are supposed to be more afraid of the Muslim threat and be on the lookout for creeping sharia law and the building of mosques. Despite the rhetoric from both the Bush and Obama administrations that we are not waging war against Islam, we have a whole very vocal subculture saying we are and we want to be.
Charles Kurzman's latest book is an ideologue's worst nightmare--a well reasoned argument about why ,in fact, there are so few Muslim terrorists and why the level of terrorist acts have remained fairly consistent for over two decades. In fact, Muslim terrorist themselves ask the same questions as Kurzman. Fewer than 100,000 Muslims have been involved in terrorist acts over the last quarter of a century. Al Qaeda's number 2, the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri frequently laments the lack of militancy among Muslims. In 2008, he declared,"Each day,the sheep in the flock hope that the wolves will stop killing them, but their prayers go unanswered. Can any rational person fail to see how they are misguided in hoping for this? This is our own state of affairs?"
And you would think that we should have numerous domestic Muslim terrorists since we are in several wars in the Middle East. But, contrary to even the warnings of our own law enforcement officials, fewer than 40 Muslim-Americans planned or carried out acts of domestic terrorism
over the period since 9/11. Since then, only a dozen people in this country were convicted for having links with Al Qaeda. Islamist terrorists have found it especially hard to recruit in the United States. In fact I can almost recall every example from the northern Virginia boys who went to Yemen and the teenagers from the Somalia community in Minnesota.
When Kurzman started the study for this book,Muslims were offended by his question, even though he was supporting their contention that few were involved or even knew anyone involved in terrorism. What sparked the book was the assumption after 9/11 that we would see Islamist violence all over the country and terrorist attacks throughout the world. In fact, despite the sensational acts that occurred abroad in Spain and London, terrorist acts actually went down throughout the world and eventually the bulk of them were contained during the war in Iraq. So naturally, the question becomes why were there not more.
Kurzman has had his share of attacks from the Right as have serious Middle East scholars, who are believed as not getting the facts straight. These same people,however, are routinely consulted by Homeland Security and the Defense Department to get a gauge on the upcoming threats. Kurzman takes a shot at Bernard Lewis, a brilliant scholar of medieval Islam, who became one of those advising the Bush Administration to invent Iraq to send a message to the Mulsim world. Kursman points out that Lewis has never factored in the appeal of modernity to modern Muslims and by the end actually reversed everything he had written about the Middle East, saying that Bush's campaign for democracy would work, despite a lifetime arguing against the idea. Kurzman is particularly good in dissecting Sam Huntington's view that we were in a clash of civilizations.
Kurzman is particularly good in summarizing all the polling data we have from Islamic states. While the Muslim world is not enthusiastic about America's foreign policy, it widely endorses our core ideals of democracy and participatory government. The same applies to our domestic Muslim-Americans. What Kurzman found was that polling in Turkey and in Indonesia shows that our ratings as a country rise and fall according to what we do. This isn't true for other Muslim countries. Muslims tend to think that all our rhetoric of democracy and human rights is just white wash for an imperialist agenda. Like our own Left, Muslims believe we are just interested in their oil and gaining power over them. Yet,even still, this does not generate the type of violent reactions that people believed would happen after 9/11.
In fact, despite Tom Friedman's lament about the lack of Muslim condemnation of 9/11, almost all the religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, radical groups like Hamas,and other religious figures around the region openly condemned both 9/11 and terrorism. Kurzman is particularly good in delineating the arguments radical Islamists have with terrorism and notes the internal and vicious debates groups like the Muslim Brotherhood had with Al Qaeda on this issue. The issue where it was seen as permissable to engage in these acts was in Iraq because thye radicals felt the United States was an occupying force. But even there, the excesses of foreign fighters soon drew stronhg condemnation from the surrounding countries.
What Kurzman shows is that the terrorists we are familiar with tend to be educated, tend not to have a deep religious background and are often alienated from their families or from their country. The Gang of Boys theory tends to support some of the findings about terrorist rings in Canada and the United States like the Lackawana Six. These efforts were blatantly amateurish, although extremely deadly if successful. The Canadian young people even wore their camouflage to the local fast food franchise, which enabled them to be detected and caught. The Times Square bomber was having his home foreclosed and he had lost his job. The underwear bomber came from a rather well-to-do Nigerian family and felt alienated from England, where he was going to school.
What is most interesting in Kurzman's analysis is the importance of family as a key component in inhibiting Muslims from becoming terrorists. This is particularly a problem for groups trying to recruit new members. Asked about this on the Jihadist internet sites, groups are forced to say that the Quran says that your responsibility to your family supercedes your duty to jihad. This is such a delicate issue that Al Qaeda would give bonuses to people who left their family and tried to support those left behind. But it remains a thorn in their side.
This book was written before the Arab Spring but it anticipates what has become obvious. The Muslim world would love to be rid of authoritarian leaders--many of whom unfortunately were backed by the United States. The Islamist terrorists have all said that democracy was a sham. But their message has been soundly rejected by Muslims when given a choice. The first instance of this was in Indonesia where the Islamists opposed the democratic transition and found themselves isolated as the entire country rejected their position. The same is now true throughout northern Africa and the Middle East. Al Qaeda has slow to comment on the Egyptian Revolution and only late in the game begrudgingly supported it rhetorically.
What Kurzman is good at is to highlight the fact that there has been a century of Muslim liberal movements--some succeeded , other failed. In fact, he produced a large anthology of liberal Muslim thought, which his colleagues doubted there existed enough material. But these movements all embrace democratic forms of government and even the full participation of women. Even the radical Islamists condemned the Taliban for its feudalist view of the world. Where there is a key difference is the distinction between mosque and state and even here there are wide differences of opinions. The most modern of the movements emphasize the need for a secular order, even if it is informed by religious teachings. How sharia law is considered is all over the map. But very few Muslims consider sharia in the same way our Islamophones do here in the United States.
This small, well-reasoned book is a welcomed antidote to the rhetoric we hear constantly about the Islamic threat and fear of our own Muslim Americans. If anything,our fellow Muslim Americans seem to believe more in the American dream than we do right now.
I think Kurzman does us a favor by suggesting we consider the terrorist groups much like we did the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Red Brigade. Lethal grouplets that share some of the same psychological profiles. As Kurzman's informants kept telling him, Al Qaeda and the like might invoke Islam but they have nothing Islamic about them.
John Brennen recently discussed that the Obama Administration is now seriously considering defeating Al Qaeda. Remember the whole Long War Doctrine? It seems bin Laden spent his last days contemplating Al Qaeda's image problem and thought of re-branding the group with a new name. His counter-intelligence chief had resigned in frustration and he was having problems fund-raising. He seemed to think that Al Qaeda hurt itself by killing so many other Muslims. During this time, Al Qaeda's American spokesperson cut a YouTube video to urge all American Muslims to go to gun shows and buy weapons and use them against the Crusaders. So far that has been a bust.
But for reasons best known to ideologues, almost ten years after 9/11, Americans are supposed to be more afraid of the Muslim threat and be on the lookout for creeping sharia law and the building of mosques. Despite the rhetoric from both the Bush and Obama administrations that we are not waging war against Islam, we have a whole very vocal subculture saying we are and we want to be.
Charles Kurzman's latest book is an ideologue's worst nightmare--a well reasoned argument about why ,in fact, there are so few Muslim terrorists and why the level of terrorist acts have remained fairly consistent for over two decades. In fact, Muslim terrorist themselves ask the same questions as Kurzman. Fewer than 100,000 Muslims have been involved in terrorist acts over the last quarter of a century. Al Qaeda's number 2, the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri frequently laments the lack of militancy among Muslims. In 2008, he declared,"Each day,the sheep in the flock hope that the wolves will stop killing them, but their prayers go unanswered. Can any rational person fail to see how they are misguided in hoping for this? This is our own state of affairs?"
And you would think that we should have numerous domestic Muslim terrorists since we are in several wars in the Middle East. But, contrary to even the warnings of our own law enforcement officials, fewer than 40 Muslim-Americans planned or carried out acts of domestic terrorism
over the period since 9/11. Since then, only a dozen people in this country were convicted for having links with Al Qaeda. Islamist terrorists have found it especially hard to recruit in the United States. In fact I can almost recall every example from the northern Virginia boys who went to Yemen and the teenagers from the Somalia community in Minnesota.
When Kurzman started the study for this book,Muslims were offended by his question, even though he was supporting their contention that few were involved or even knew anyone involved in terrorism. What sparked the book was the assumption after 9/11 that we would see Islamist violence all over the country and terrorist attacks throughout the world. In fact, despite the sensational acts that occurred abroad in Spain and London, terrorist acts actually went down throughout the world and eventually the bulk of them were contained during the war in Iraq. So naturally, the question becomes why were there not more.
Kurzman has had his share of attacks from the Right as have serious Middle East scholars, who are believed as not getting the facts straight. These same people,however, are routinely consulted by Homeland Security and the Defense Department to get a gauge on the upcoming threats. Kurzman takes a shot at Bernard Lewis, a brilliant scholar of medieval Islam, who became one of those advising the Bush Administration to invent Iraq to send a message to the Mulsim world. Kursman points out that Lewis has never factored in the appeal of modernity to modern Muslims and by the end actually reversed everything he had written about the Middle East, saying that Bush's campaign for democracy would work, despite a lifetime arguing against the idea. Kurzman is particularly good in dissecting Sam Huntington's view that we were in a clash of civilizations.
Kurzman is particularly good in summarizing all the polling data we have from Islamic states. While the Muslim world is not enthusiastic about America's foreign policy, it widely endorses our core ideals of democracy and participatory government. The same applies to our domestic Muslim-Americans. What Kurzman found was that polling in Turkey and in Indonesia shows that our ratings as a country rise and fall according to what we do. This isn't true for other Muslim countries. Muslims tend to think that all our rhetoric of democracy and human rights is just white wash for an imperialist agenda. Like our own Left, Muslims believe we are just interested in their oil and gaining power over them. Yet,even still, this does not generate the type of violent reactions that people believed would happen after 9/11.
In fact, despite Tom Friedman's lament about the lack of Muslim condemnation of 9/11, almost all the religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, radical groups like Hamas,and other religious figures around the region openly condemned both 9/11 and terrorism. Kurzman is particularly good in delineating the arguments radical Islamists have with terrorism and notes the internal and vicious debates groups like the Muslim Brotherhood had with Al Qaeda on this issue. The issue where it was seen as permissable to engage in these acts was in Iraq because thye radicals felt the United States was an occupying force. But even there, the excesses of foreign fighters soon drew stronhg condemnation from the surrounding countries.
What Kurzman shows is that the terrorists we are familiar with tend to be educated, tend not to have a deep religious background and are often alienated from their families or from their country. The Gang of Boys theory tends to support some of the findings about terrorist rings in Canada and the United States like the Lackawana Six. These efforts were blatantly amateurish, although extremely deadly if successful. The Canadian young people even wore their camouflage to the local fast food franchise, which enabled them to be detected and caught. The Times Square bomber was having his home foreclosed and he had lost his job. The underwear bomber came from a rather well-to-do Nigerian family and felt alienated from England, where he was going to school.
What is most interesting in Kurzman's analysis is the importance of family as a key component in inhibiting Muslims from becoming terrorists. This is particularly a problem for groups trying to recruit new members. Asked about this on the Jihadist internet sites, groups are forced to say that the Quran says that your responsibility to your family supercedes your duty to jihad. This is such a delicate issue that Al Qaeda would give bonuses to people who left their family and tried to support those left behind. But it remains a thorn in their side.
This book was written before the Arab Spring but it anticipates what has become obvious. The Muslim world would love to be rid of authoritarian leaders--many of whom unfortunately were backed by the United States. The Islamist terrorists have all said that democracy was a sham. But their message has been soundly rejected by Muslims when given a choice. The first instance of this was in Indonesia where the Islamists opposed the democratic transition and found themselves isolated as the entire country rejected their position. The same is now true throughout northern Africa and the Middle East. Al Qaeda has slow to comment on the Egyptian Revolution and only late in the game begrudgingly supported it rhetorically.
What Kurzman is good at is to highlight the fact that there has been a century of Muslim liberal movements--some succeeded , other failed. In fact, he produced a large anthology of liberal Muslim thought, which his colleagues doubted there existed enough material. But these movements all embrace democratic forms of government and even the full participation of women. Even the radical Islamists condemned the Taliban for its feudalist view of the world. Where there is a key difference is the distinction between mosque and state and even here there are wide differences of opinions. The most modern of the movements emphasize the need for a secular order, even if it is informed by religious teachings. How sharia law is considered is all over the map. But very few Muslims consider sharia in the same way our Islamophones do here in the United States.
This small, well-reasoned book is a welcomed antidote to the rhetoric we hear constantly about the Islamic threat and fear of our own Muslim Americans. If anything,our fellow Muslim Americans seem to believe more in the American dream than we do right now.
I think Kurzman does us a favor by suggesting we consider the terrorist groups much like we did the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Red Brigade. Lethal grouplets that share some of the same psychological profiles. As Kurzman's informants kept telling him, Al Qaeda and the like might invoke Islam but they have nothing Islamic about them.
Good Things on July 4
I recommend E.J. Dionne's column about the meaning of this day and the emphasis the signers placed on the common good. As E.J. writes, the signers didn't hate government or laws,just the manner in which they were being enforced. While our independence day is July 2 or a month later when all the signers finished their work,it should be remembered that a good third of the signers lost all their property and wealth in standing up for independence. Another 9 were killed in the Revolution. Signing the document entailed real risks and many paid an enormous cost. I could do without the accusation against the King leaving the colonists to the threats of the wild Indian breeds.
Since the American Right would like to co-opt the whole American revolution, we should remember that the original tea party was a protest against the King granting the East India Company corporate tax breaks so they could wipe out the local American tea merchants. And,unlike revisionists who want to make them Christians, we should remember the gathering place for the make believe Indians were the Masonic Lodges in Boston.
For the future generations, I hope Greek Prime Minister Papandreau is wrong when he says,"The economic system is stronger than the will of the people."
The next few weeks--Obama's traditional bad season--should see some frightening occurences. Rand Paul, who would not know the common good if it hit him in the face, will filibuster the debt ceiling vote. This should make us remember that few gave America a chance to survive on the day of its birth. I find it ironic to have received an e-mail today from the Campaign for Liberty,Ron Paul's campaign, claiming that the situation today is similar to when Americans found against the King. This time we are supposed to fight our own government which I recall was democratically elected the last time I look--and perhaps the last democratically elected one will may have for a while.
While politics has become dreary recently, there are a few bright spots in our culture.
I recommend Steve Benen in his crusade against Mitt Romney's claims to being a job creator, If Steve keeps at it, his findings might find their way into the mainstream media, which has studiously ignored Willard's rather lame record on precisely what he thinks is his strength. Steve says that Romney is "leading with his chin" on this front.
Andrew Sullivan's website "Daily Dish" reminds us everyday that art,culture,science, religion and music may inform our lives more than the hackneyed debates in Washington. I especially love the website's use of poetry. The time-lapsed videos posted every few days reminds us of the beauty of planet earth. Beauty does matter. Andrew, a naturalized American, retains a fondness for the British Conservative Party and its strange austerity program. But to his credit, Andrew was aeons ahead in arguing the basic conservative nature of same-sex marriage and has lived to see the day when his lonely work has paid off.
Who would have ever thought that one of our leading ethical and moral leaders would turn out to be Dan Savage? I don't know whether that is a good or bad sign for our culture. Dan Savage has become immortal in our political life. Try to Google Santorum. When all the establishment gay organizations sat on their hands, Dan and his partner took the initiative to video, "It'll Get Better" to address the concerns of young gays, who were being bullied or afraid to come out of the closet. This simple campaign that has gone viral with celebrities, sports teams, even the White House taping messages is credited with saving hundreds of teenagers from committing suicide. While I miss reading about the furries in Savage Love, Dan shows that one person can make a real difference and is a reason for optimism in our troubled land. My political mentor, Bayard Rustin, would have loved Dan. Bravo for everything you do.
And thye digital generation keeps surprising us. Playing For Change reminds us that the relationship we have with music is global. If you've never heard them, check out the YouTubes or better yet buy the album with the DVD. Musicians from around the world collaborate long-distance on some of the world's best known songs.
For the geezer crowd, I recommend Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, a cinematic tribute to Paris and a fairy tale about the days in the 1920s of the "Lost Generation". Having walked the same streets less than a month ago,Woody Allen evokes the Paris I've known and loved--even if he's on the touristy side. And after all these years, he still maintains his grudge against California. And Carla Bruni was a nice touch as a tour guide at the Rodin Museum.
In Aspen. Bill Clinton resumed his role as elder statesmen and political analyst, which he is good at. Clinton likes Jon Huntsman as an authentic human being and a pretty good Governor, thinks Romney has picked up his game since last campaign and expressed surprise at Michelle Bachmann's prowess on the campaign trail even though he disagrees with her about everything. He concludes that President Obama will win re-election because he has a good story to tell and significant achievements to show. He says that the President's national security creds will be strong . He says this was true even before he got Bin Laden. He also warned Obama not to cave to the Republicans over the debt ceiling vote.
The Newt spent July 4th with his lovely bride Callista trying out his new niche issue campaign. Newt's new book on American Exceptionalism is out. Newt's problem in my view has been his courting the Religious Right with phony historian David Barton by his side and his funding of the anti-gay marriage efforts in many states. He decided to go hard right before he knew tha landscape and how his campaign would be depopulated. So correcting course to his more geeky side is going to be tough.
Joe Biden reminded me of Hubert Humphrey in his speech before the NEA, when he attracked the Republican assault on teachers and public employees as one of the "biggest scams" in American history. For his effort, NEA overwhelmingly endorsed Obama for a second term.
Maybe we should look more kindly on the Three Amigos--John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham--as sort of a nostalgia group, a reminder of the neocons. They can keep touring for the rest of their terms and remind us that we should never withdraw from a country we invaded and since we have such a large defense budget we should invade more countries. It's really best if McCain stays away from any discussion of tax issues because it reminds us all of the 2008 debacle when he suspended his campaign to set the country right.
These three on a tour to Afghanistan were horrified that President Obama would dare pull 12,000 troops out by the end of the year. The Left has widely criticized the President for not pulling out more since it's unclear what is to be gained by shoring up the Karzai regime, which seems to be endorsing the worse policy ideas of the Taliban daily. And, of course, why should we withdraw from Iraq at all. I mean Tim Pawlenty says it's a model for the region. Lieberman says that Iran is petrified by being surrounded by democracies. Does anyone listen to these guys anymore? That's why I think we should keep the Three Amigos around so that we never fall back into this kind of thinking again. At last count, the total costs for our liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan will total $4 trillion.
Karl Rove is still up to his mischief. Now he's picking up the theme of how the Obama Administration favors the Muslim Brotherhood. Some one should show him the photo of Ike meeting the head of the Muslim Brotherhood at the White House. I'm sorry, Karl, keep to producing the ads that the stumulus was a failure and that the Democrats want to cut Medicare benefits, while the GOP wants to eliminate it. Does anyone find it strange that the Swiftboat billionaires are bankrolling Rove's operation? Remember when the Bush White House swore this was an independent operation not connected to their campaign against Kerry?
Does anyone thiunk it's strange that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, says that marriage is between a man and a woman? How about a few women? Isn't that the tradition?
My challenge this July 4th is to avoid delving into all the nonsense being said by the GOP on the debt ceiling issue. I take the CBO view--Do nothing. Restore the Bush tax cuts and implement the cost-savings measures in the Affordable Care Act and the debt will be manageable. Better yet withdraw troops in a timely manner from Iraq and Afghanistan and cut defense spending where appropriate.
Another good thing about this country is Paul Krugman. While I don't agree with him calling Obama "Herbert Hoover", I do agree with him that we have instantly lost sense of any lessons that the 2008 financial crisis taught us. Here's hoping his predictions about the future are wrong. He got to be right once and let's leave it at that.
And who can neglect Rachel Maddow--the only fresh face on television who has both intellect and humor. Her reporting on DADT probably influenced the Obama Administration's decision more than we know. She has been ahead of the curve on reporting on the war against Americans in the states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. And we owe her a debt of gratitude for her constant reporting on the war against the uteri, the unnerving campaign to restrict reproductive rights in about two dozen states.
Enjoy the Fireworks!
Since the American Right would like to co-opt the whole American revolution, we should remember that the original tea party was a protest against the King granting the East India Company corporate tax breaks so they could wipe out the local American tea merchants. And,unlike revisionists who want to make them Christians, we should remember the gathering place for the make believe Indians were the Masonic Lodges in Boston.
For the future generations, I hope Greek Prime Minister Papandreau is wrong when he says,"The economic system is stronger than the will of the people."
The next few weeks--Obama's traditional bad season--should see some frightening occurences. Rand Paul, who would not know the common good if it hit him in the face, will filibuster the debt ceiling vote. This should make us remember that few gave America a chance to survive on the day of its birth. I find it ironic to have received an e-mail today from the Campaign for Liberty,Ron Paul's campaign, claiming that the situation today is similar to when Americans found against the King. This time we are supposed to fight our own government which I recall was democratically elected the last time I look--and perhaps the last democratically elected one will may have for a while.
While politics has become dreary recently, there are a few bright spots in our culture.
I recommend Steve Benen in his crusade against Mitt Romney's claims to being a job creator, If Steve keeps at it, his findings might find their way into the mainstream media, which has studiously ignored Willard's rather lame record on precisely what he thinks is his strength. Steve says that Romney is "leading with his chin" on this front.
Andrew Sullivan's website "Daily Dish" reminds us everyday that art,culture,science, religion and music may inform our lives more than the hackneyed debates in Washington. I especially love the website's use of poetry. The time-lapsed videos posted every few days reminds us of the beauty of planet earth. Beauty does matter. Andrew, a naturalized American, retains a fondness for the British Conservative Party and its strange austerity program. But to his credit, Andrew was aeons ahead in arguing the basic conservative nature of same-sex marriage and has lived to see the day when his lonely work has paid off.
Who would have ever thought that one of our leading ethical and moral leaders would turn out to be Dan Savage? I don't know whether that is a good or bad sign for our culture. Dan Savage has become immortal in our political life. Try to Google Santorum. When all the establishment gay organizations sat on their hands, Dan and his partner took the initiative to video, "It'll Get Better" to address the concerns of young gays, who were being bullied or afraid to come out of the closet. This simple campaign that has gone viral with celebrities, sports teams, even the White House taping messages is credited with saving hundreds of teenagers from committing suicide. While I miss reading about the furries in Savage Love, Dan shows that one person can make a real difference and is a reason for optimism in our troubled land. My political mentor, Bayard Rustin, would have loved Dan. Bravo for everything you do.
And thye digital generation keeps surprising us. Playing For Change reminds us that the relationship we have with music is global. If you've never heard them, check out the YouTubes or better yet buy the album with the DVD. Musicians from around the world collaborate long-distance on some of the world's best known songs.
For the geezer crowd, I recommend Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, a cinematic tribute to Paris and a fairy tale about the days in the 1920s of the "Lost Generation". Having walked the same streets less than a month ago,Woody Allen evokes the Paris I've known and loved--even if he's on the touristy side. And after all these years, he still maintains his grudge against California. And Carla Bruni was a nice touch as a tour guide at the Rodin Museum.
In Aspen. Bill Clinton resumed his role as elder statesmen and political analyst, which he is good at. Clinton likes Jon Huntsman as an authentic human being and a pretty good Governor, thinks Romney has picked up his game since last campaign and expressed surprise at Michelle Bachmann's prowess on the campaign trail even though he disagrees with her about everything. He concludes that President Obama will win re-election because he has a good story to tell and significant achievements to show. He says that the President's national security creds will be strong . He says this was true even before he got Bin Laden. He also warned Obama not to cave to the Republicans over the debt ceiling vote.
The Newt spent July 4th with his lovely bride Callista trying out his new niche issue campaign. Newt's new book on American Exceptionalism is out. Newt's problem in my view has been his courting the Religious Right with phony historian David Barton by his side and his funding of the anti-gay marriage efforts in many states. He decided to go hard right before he knew tha landscape and how his campaign would be depopulated. So correcting course to his more geeky side is going to be tough.
Joe Biden reminded me of Hubert Humphrey in his speech before the NEA, when he attracked the Republican assault on teachers and public employees as one of the "biggest scams" in American history. For his effort, NEA overwhelmingly endorsed Obama for a second term.
Maybe we should look more kindly on the Three Amigos--John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham--as sort of a nostalgia group, a reminder of the neocons. They can keep touring for the rest of their terms and remind us that we should never withdraw from a country we invaded and since we have such a large defense budget we should invade more countries. It's really best if McCain stays away from any discussion of tax issues because it reminds us all of the 2008 debacle when he suspended his campaign to set the country right.
These three on a tour to Afghanistan were horrified that President Obama would dare pull 12,000 troops out by the end of the year. The Left has widely criticized the President for not pulling out more since it's unclear what is to be gained by shoring up the Karzai regime, which seems to be endorsing the worse policy ideas of the Taliban daily. And, of course, why should we withdraw from Iraq at all. I mean Tim Pawlenty says it's a model for the region. Lieberman says that Iran is petrified by being surrounded by democracies. Does anyone listen to these guys anymore? That's why I think we should keep the Three Amigos around so that we never fall back into this kind of thinking again. At last count, the total costs for our liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan will total $4 trillion.
Karl Rove is still up to his mischief. Now he's picking up the theme of how the Obama Administration favors the Muslim Brotherhood. Some one should show him the photo of Ike meeting the head of the Muslim Brotherhood at the White House. I'm sorry, Karl, keep to producing the ads that the stumulus was a failure and that the Democrats want to cut Medicare benefits, while the GOP wants to eliminate it. Does anyone find it strange that the Swiftboat billionaires are bankrolling Rove's operation? Remember when the Bush White House swore this was an independent operation not connected to their campaign against Kerry?
Does anyone thiunk it's strange that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, says that marriage is between a man and a woman? How about a few women? Isn't that the tradition?
My challenge this July 4th is to avoid delving into all the nonsense being said by the GOP on the debt ceiling issue. I take the CBO view--Do nothing. Restore the Bush tax cuts and implement the cost-savings measures in the Affordable Care Act and the debt will be manageable. Better yet withdraw troops in a timely manner from Iraq and Afghanistan and cut defense spending where appropriate.
Another good thing about this country is Paul Krugman. While I don't agree with him calling Obama "Herbert Hoover", I do agree with him that we have instantly lost sense of any lessons that the 2008 financial crisis taught us. Here's hoping his predictions about the future are wrong. He got to be right once and let's leave it at that.
And who can neglect Rachel Maddow--the only fresh face on television who has both intellect and humor. Her reporting on DADT probably influenced the Obama Administration's decision more than we know. She has been ahead of the curve on reporting on the war against Americans in the states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. And we owe her a debt of gratitude for her constant reporting on the war against the uteri, the unnerving campaign to restrict reproductive rights in about two dozen states.
Enjoy the Fireworks!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Happy July 4th Eve--Strange Doings
Orly Taitz has re-emerged and she's taking her birther case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. That should be interesting.
Andrew Ferguson , a contributor to the Weekly Standard, wrote in the New YorkTimes Magazine on Newt's literary output. He reminded us of the futurist bent to Newt's thinking and how at every election cycle he always says we are at a crossroads. The Washington Post reports that the new Newt will try to cobble together a coalition based on single issues such as Alzheimer's. Newt expects Alzheimer's to cost America trillions of dollars in the future and promises to increase funding to find a cure. Not bad. This is the interesting Newt.
John Kasich wants to sell off the Ohio Turnpike for a few billion. He is modelling his plan on Indiana's sale of its northern turnpike. So this means about five times the fares for my trips out there. Meanwhile the unions have gotten enough signatures for SB5, the union busting bill, to be put to a referendum. And they delivered them with that cool semi that showed up in Wisconsin during the demonstrations.
Readers of this blog will remember my wish that photographers would document our current Depression. Washington Post had a feature on the new generation of photographers called Facing Change.
Too many software problems tonight. We'll try tomorrow
Andrew Ferguson , a contributor to the Weekly Standard, wrote in the New YorkTimes Magazine on Newt's literary output. He reminded us of the futurist bent to Newt's thinking and how at every election cycle he always says we are at a crossroads. The Washington Post reports that the new Newt will try to cobble together a coalition based on single issues such as Alzheimer's. Newt expects Alzheimer's to cost America trillions of dollars in the future and promises to increase funding to find a cure. Not bad. This is the interesting Newt.
John Kasich wants to sell off the Ohio Turnpike for a few billion. He is modelling his plan on Indiana's sale of its northern turnpike. So this means about five times the fares for my trips out there. Meanwhile the unions have gotten enough signatures for SB5, the union busting bill, to be put to a referendum. And they delivered them with that cool semi that showed up in Wisconsin during the demonstrations.
Readers of this blog will remember my wish that photographers would document our current Depression. Washington Post had a feature on the new generation of photographers called Facing Change.
Too many software problems tonight. We'll try tomorrow
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Stoogeland From Abroad
Being secluded in Baghdad, it was fascinating to observe events stateside. The madness only looks worse from abroad. The debt ceiling debate, when contrasted to the situation in Greece, looks absurd. I think Obama should just invoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling by himself and force a constitutional crisis. The Republican positions around the country indicate that they have become the party of hostage taking. Take Minnesota, for instance, where GOP demands for a budget solution all of a sudden morphed into anti-abortion demands, stopping stem cell research at the Mayo Clinic and a new voter ID law to bring Minnesota in line with the national voter suppression campaign. In Washington, there has not been a sound explanation from the Republicans about what happens when the United States defaults on its debt. Finally, Alan Simpson, the co-chair of the Catfood Commission,in his cranky fashion called their position "absolute bullshit".
What's interesting from abroad is that it is transparently clear that the United States now only represents the interests of large corporations. My favorite felon governor, Rick Scott, tried to privatize parts of Florida's state parks without anyone knowing. This is the new model of political leadership for Republican governors, once elected you act like a CEO and don't have to account for your actions. Scott and Rick Perry both had state emergencies going on but managed to find time to attend the Koch Brothers' annual conspiracyfest of hate America firsters. But why not they believe they are in the same league as corporate heads.
While away, the incomes of our vaunted congesscritters were released. And it makes it transparent that our House members are simply legislating for their portfolios. Rep. Issa wants an investigation of the administration's actions against Goldman Sachs while he buys Goldman bonds the same day. Eric Cantor walkes out of the debt talks over a snit about ending the tax loopholes for corporate jets while it turns out he is invested in a fund that shorts Treasury Bonds and would make a pile if the United States defaulted. While this has gone on all my life, this naked and raw legislating for one's personal profit has taken off into a realm beyond anything I've seen before.
I watched on the internet as New York passed marriage equality and the state didn't turn into North Korea overnight as the Catholic Cardinal had proposed. The homophobia rampant in the country seems to me aimed more at the fact that something positive is actually happening to someone in the United States. Little noticed has been the DOJ urging the courts to rule that DOMA is unconstitutional. Instead, liberals are criticising President Obama for not coming out at the gay fundraiser for same sex marriage. Republican presidential candidates are saying that same sex marriage will be a litmus test for the judges they appoint to the Supreme Court. But no one from our media seems to examine this proposition.
The Clarence Thomas scandal--and it is a scandal--is worse when viewed from a distance. It makes the Abe Fortas incident look like child's play. The Texas real estate mogul, who is the Thomas' chief financial patron,had interests in 9 cases before the Court. In each case,even when all 8 judges agreed, Thomas was always on his benefactor's side even if casting the sole vote. The solution is obvious--the DOJ can indict a sitting Supreme Court justice as John Dean has noted. It will not be done.
The War against the Uteri makes the country look absolutely daffy. Planned Parenthood in Kansas had their clinic inspected and reported the inspectors said everything was fine. The following week the state ruled that no abortion clinics passed the inspection. Then when called out, they relented and allowed the one to remain open. The federal courts are ruling against all these efforts to restrict abortion rights and closing Planned Parenthood. But the toll has been enormous threatening Planned Parenthood around the country. Despite medical evidence to the contrary, Ohio passed the Heartbeat bill that further restricts abortion rights. A federal court ruled that South Dakota's new anti-abortion bill was insulting to the dignity of women by forcing them to attend a lecture at an anti-abortion clinic before proceeding to have the procedure.
The Republican race is now down to Romney versus Bachmann. Others throw in Rick Perry, who would lose Texas to Obama. While away Steve Benen kept up his fine criticism of Romney. Now Steve has floated the proposition that Ronald Reagan is to the right of Barack Obama. This to show how far gone the Republicans have gone. And he may actually be right.
Newt apparently had another Tiffany credit line for $1 million. But he's yesterday's news. Pawlenty can't seem to raise a dime and for optics he went back to Minnesota to applaud the GOP shutting down the state government. Put a fork in him. At least Thaddeus McCotter has thrown his hat in the ring. The 45-year old Michigan representative says he represents true conservatism. God helps us all.
Illegal immigrants caused the fires in Arizona. Senator McCain's statements reflects the nativism of the new Republican Party--the crackpot views of the wealthy. But the anti-immgeration laws showed a negative consequence as all of Georgia's harvest is rotting on the ground because of the lack of labor.
I have never seen in my lifetime the current Republican Party. The views--social, culturally and economic--predate Herbert Hoover, who was positively progressive compared to the current bunch. What was obvious from abroad was how quickly the Republicans have abandoned the messianism of the neoconservatives. The Party has made a hard right into isolationism. Yes, they will criticize Obama on policy but you can feel their heart isn't into it. Their great 9-11 moment--You are either for us or against us--is over. The Long War is no more.
Instead, the new GOP is back to culture wars, despite Washington pundits ignoring this, and feel the American people are now so vulnerable that they can roll back the New Deal. From abroad, this feels like a total war against the United States itself. We have met the enemy and it is now us.
If you want an experience, try watching Fox News in Baghdad. It's like watching science fiction about a remote parallel universe. Embassy personnel scrambled to find BBC or Al Jazeera so that they could get news about the real world.
Politically, the United States appears to have lost influence even though we are the 1,000lb gorilla in the room. No one can take the economic discussions here seriously. And it looks like the Democrats got suckered into the who can out-cut the other one the most. Lonely Paul Krugman keeps suggesting that we really need to focus on employment but the GOP wrecking crew is doing it's best to thwart the recovery. Unemployment created by Republican governors will hit in the next two months. While it's one thing to chalk this up to the desire to defeat President Obama, doesn't anyone really think that the GOP would then turn on a dime and actually try to create jobs if they won in 2012? There is virtually nothing in their current ideology to suggest they care.
What's interesting from abroad is that it is transparently clear that the United States now only represents the interests of large corporations. My favorite felon governor, Rick Scott, tried to privatize parts of Florida's state parks without anyone knowing. This is the new model of political leadership for Republican governors, once elected you act like a CEO and don't have to account for your actions. Scott and Rick Perry both had state emergencies going on but managed to find time to attend the Koch Brothers' annual conspiracyfest of hate America firsters. But why not they believe they are in the same league as corporate heads.
While away, the incomes of our vaunted congesscritters were released. And it makes it transparent that our House members are simply legislating for their portfolios. Rep. Issa wants an investigation of the administration's actions against Goldman Sachs while he buys Goldman bonds the same day. Eric Cantor walkes out of the debt talks over a snit about ending the tax loopholes for corporate jets while it turns out he is invested in a fund that shorts Treasury Bonds and would make a pile if the United States defaulted. While this has gone on all my life, this naked and raw legislating for one's personal profit has taken off into a realm beyond anything I've seen before.
I watched on the internet as New York passed marriage equality and the state didn't turn into North Korea overnight as the Catholic Cardinal had proposed. The homophobia rampant in the country seems to me aimed more at the fact that something positive is actually happening to someone in the United States. Little noticed has been the DOJ urging the courts to rule that DOMA is unconstitutional. Instead, liberals are criticising President Obama for not coming out at the gay fundraiser for same sex marriage. Republican presidential candidates are saying that same sex marriage will be a litmus test for the judges they appoint to the Supreme Court. But no one from our media seems to examine this proposition.
The Clarence Thomas scandal--and it is a scandal--is worse when viewed from a distance. It makes the Abe Fortas incident look like child's play. The Texas real estate mogul, who is the Thomas' chief financial patron,had interests in 9 cases before the Court. In each case,even when all 8 judges agreed, Thomas was always on his benefactor's side even if casting the sole vote. The solution is obvious--the DOJ can indict a sitting Supreme Court justice as John Dean has noted. It will not be done.
The War against the Uteri makes the country look absolutely daffy. Planned Parenthood in Kansas had their clinic inspected and reported the inspectors said everything was fine. The following week the state ruled that no abortion clinics passed the inspection. Then when called out, they relented and allowed the one to remain open. The federal courts are ruling against all these efforts to restrict abortion rights and closing Planned Parenthood. But the toll has been enormous threatening Planned Parenthood around the country. Despite medical evidence to the contrary, Ohio passed the Heartbeat bill that further restricts abortion rights. A federal court ruled that South Dakota's new anti-abortion bill was insulting to the dignity of women by forcing them to attend a lecture at an anti-abortion clinic before proceeding to have the procedure.
The Republican race is now down to Romney versus Bachmann. Others throw in Rick Perry, who would lose Texas to Obama. While away Steve Benen kept up his fine criticism of Romney. Now Steve has floated the proposition that Ronald Reagan is to the right of Barack Obama. This to show how far gone the Republicans have gone. And he may actually be right.
Newt apparently had another Tiffany credit line for $1 million. But he's yesterday's news. Pawlenty can't seem to raise a dime and for optics he went back to Minnesota to applaud the GOP shutting down the state government. Put a fork in him. At least Thaddeus McCotter has thrown his hat in the ring. The 45-year old Michigan representative says he represents true conservatism. God helps us all.
Illegal immigrants caused the fires in Arizona. Senator McCain's statements reflects the nativism of the new Republican Party--the crackpot views of the wealthy. But the anti-immgeration laws showed a negative consequence as all of Georgia's harvest is rotting on the ground because of the lack of labor.
I have never seen in my lifetime the current Republican Party. The views--social, culturally and economic--predate Herbert Hoover, who was positively progressive compared to the current bunch. What was obvious from abroad was how quickly the Republicans have abandoned the messianism of the neoconservatives. The Party has made a hard right into isolationism. Yes, they will criticize Obama on policy but you can feel their heart isn't into it. Their great 9-11 moment--You are either for us or against us--is over. The Long War is no more.
Instead, the new GOP is back to culture wars, despite Washington pundits ignoring this, and feel the American people are now so vulnerable that they can roll back the New Deal. From abroad, this feels like a total war against the United States itself. We have met the enemy and it is now us.
If you want an experience, try watching Fox News in Baghdad. It's like watching science fiction about a remote parallel universe. Embassy personnel scrambled to find BBC or Al Jazeera so that they could get news about the real world.
Politically, the United States appears to have lost influence even though we are the 1,000lb gorilla in the room. No one can take the economic discussions here seriously. And it looks like the Democrats got suckered into the who can out-cut the other one the most. Lonely Paul Krugman keeps suggesting that we really need to focus on employment but the GOP wrecking crew is doing it's best to thwart the recovery. Unemployment created by Republican governors will hit in the next two months. While it's one thing to chalk this up to the desire to defeat President Obama, doesn't anyone really think that the GOP would then turn on a dime and actually try to create jobs if they won in 2012? There is virtually nothing in their current ideology to suggest they care.
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