Longer than the average attention span, but greatly informative. Stay with it.
Sep 29, 2009
The Prediction
Like the man said: if you eliminate what's not possible, what remains must be the truth.
Sep 28, 2009
Conservative vs Liberal
A lively discussion is going on over at Balloon Juice about the 'definitions' of Conservative and Liberal as those descriptors are perceived today.
For the last several years, I've tho't things were changing rather dramatically, and that the old reliable labels were becoming inadequate. A couple of examples:
Gimme some more.
For the last several years, I've tho't things were changing rather dramatically, and that the old reliable labels were becoming inadequate. A couple of examples:
- If you think you have the right to own any weapon you want and to do whatever you want with it, then that's a pretty liberal interpretation of the 2nd amendment.
- If you want to make it illegal 'to desecrate the flag', then you're in favor of greatly expanding the government's authority; and so you're not a conservative.
- If you want to limit US involvement in armed conflict; &/or you want to limit the capacity of the government to exert deadly force then you're neither conservative nor liberal - you're just kinda normal.
Gimme some more.
Sep 27, 2009
Cred Check
We should remind ourselves once in a while just how stupid and wrong our crystal-gazing prognostications can look after some time has passed (and thus be a little cautious about what we're predicting will happen). I guess what irritates me the most is that some of these guys insist we take them seriously even after they've been proven wrong time and again.
"So now we stand at an epochal moment. The debate is over. The case has gone to the jury, and the jury is history. Events will soon reveal who was right, Bush or Chirac ... But there are two nations whose destinies hang in the balance. The first, of course, is Iraq. Will Iraqis enjoy freedom, more of the same tyranny, or a new kind of tyranny? The second is the United States. If the effort to oust Saddam fails, we will be back in the 1970s. We will live in a nation crippled by self-doubt. If we succeed, we will be a nation infused with confidence. We will have done a great thing for the world, and other great things will await," -David Brooks, March 17, 2003 - from a Glenn Greenwald piece at salon.com
"So now we stand at an epochal moment. The debate is over. The case has gone to the jury, and the jury is history. Events will soon reveal who was right, Bush or Chirac ... But there are two nations whose destinies hang in the balance. The first, of course, is Iraq. Will Iraqis enjoy freedom, more of the same tyranny, or a new kind of tyranny? The second is the United States. If the effort to oust Saddam fails, we will be back in the 1970s. We will live in a nation crippled by self-doubt. If we succeed, we will be a nation infused with confidence. We will have done a great thing for the world, and other great things will await," -David Brooks, March 17, 2003 - from a Glenn Greenwald piece at salon.com
Sep 26, 2009
We've Got 'Em Surrounded
The news coming out of Pittsburgh about catching Iran redhanded; together with Obama's decision to nix the deployment of missle defense systems in Poland and Czecho (which apparently brought Russia over to our side), finally gives us a nice clear picture of movement toward some real success in foreign policy. And I'm thinking this goes way beyond Iran. It sure looks like we've got Iran kinda bottled up now, but there's a lot more to it.
ie: We're in Afghanistan to help stabilize Pakistan. We need to keep Pakistan stable because we need to help India stay cool. We need Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (along with all the Fucked-Up-istans of the old USSR), plus Georgia and Russia; plus Japan and S Korea because...wait for it...that gives us a near-perfect circle around China.
I don't really know jackshit about foreign policy, but at least I know that it's not simple and it's not very often about common sense, and it's not about this endless crap of 'My-Dick's-Bigger-n-Your-Dick'.
Isolating the bad actors can certainly present other dangers, but this all looks pretty positive. I wonder how much credit Hillary will get for any of this.
ie: We're in Afghanistan to help stabilize Pakistan. We need to keep Pakistan stable because we need to help India stay cool. We need Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (along with all the Fucked-Up-istans of the old USSR), plus Georgia and Russia; plus Japan and S Korea because...wait for it...that gives us a near-perfect circle around China.
I don't really know jackshit about foreign policy, but at least I know that it's not simple and it's not very often about common sense, and it's not about this endless crap of 'My-Dick's-Bigger-n-Your-Dick'.
Isolating the bad actors can certainly present other dangers, but this all looks pretty positive. I wonder how much credit Hillary will get for any of this.
The New Face...
...of "The War On Terrorism" - or whatever we're calling it now.
From a story in NYT:
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, senior government officials have announced dozens of terrorism cases that on closer examination seemed to diminish as legitimate threats. The accumulating evidence against a Denver airport shuttle driver suggests he may be different, with some investigators calling his case the most serious in years.
Documents filed in Brooklyn against the driver, Najibullah Zazi, contend he bought chemicals needed to build a bomb — hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid — and in doing so, Mr. Zazi took a critical step made by few other terrorism suspects.
If government allegations are to be believed, Mr. Zazi, a legal immigrant from Afghanistan, had carefully prepared for a terrorist attack. He attended a Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, received training in explosives and stored in his laptop computer nine pages of instructions for making bombs from the same kind of chemicals he had bought.
And this one from Dallas Morning News:
A 19-year-old Jordanian citizen is expected to make an appearance before a federal magistrate in Dallas this morning after authorities accused him of attempting to blow up a downtown Dallas skyscraper.
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested Thursday after he parked a vehicle laden with government-supplied fake explosives in the underground parking garage of Fountain Place, a 60-story tower in the 1400 block of Ross Avenue at North Field Street, authorities said.
Without fanfare - without the breathless Jack Bauer bullshit we always got from Cheney and Ashcroft, et al - they're just out there doin' the job. They're following the leads and looking for the bad guys; and they're not using it to scare the shit outa people.
There may still be some concern over certain tactics used by law enforcement (some of it looks a lot like entrapment), but I can't help thinking we're starting to regain our composure.
From a story in NYT:
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, senior government officials have announced dozens of terrorism cases that on closer examination seemed to diminish as legitimate threats. The accumulating evidence against a Denver airport shuttle driver suggests he may be different, with some investigators calling his case the most serious in years.
Documents filed in Brooklyn against the driver, Najibullah Zazi, contend he bought chemicals needed to build a bomb — hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid — and in doing so, Mr. Zazi took a critical step made by few other terrorism suspects.
If government allegations are to be believed, Mr. Zazi, a legal immigrant from Afghanistan, had carefully prepared for a terrorist attack. He attended a Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, received training in explosives and stored in his laptop computer nine pages of instructions for making bombs from the same kind of chemicals he had bought.
And this one from Dallas Morning News:
A 19-year-old Jordanian citizen is expected to make an appearance before a federal magistrate in Dallas this morning after authorities accused him of attempting to blow up a downtown Dallas skyscraper.
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested Thursday after he parked a vehicle laden with government-supplied fake explosives in the underground parking garage of Fountain Place, a 60-story tower in the 1400 block of Ross Avenue at North Field Street, authorities said.
Without fanfare - without the breathless Jack Bauer bullshit we always got from Cheney and Ashcroft, et al - they're just out there doin' the job. They're following the leads and looking for the bad guys; and they're not using it to scare the shit outa people.
There may still be some concern over certain tactics used by law enforcement (some of it looks a lot like entrapment), but I can't help thinking we're starting to regain our composure.
Healthcare Debate
Death Panels and Rationing? That's what we have now under "the free market" system - which isn't really free-market at all, but that's a different rant. The point is that we've evolved a 3-tier system that works well for the top 8 or 10% of us; is so-so for the next 25 or 30%; and is just fuckin' awful for everybody else.
Check out this NYT piece. It looks like more evidence that we're killing ourselves by trying to force healthcare into the Standard Business Model.
Check out this NYT piece. It looks like more evidence that we're killing ourselves by trying to force healthcare into the Standard Business Model.
Sep 25, 2009
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