Jan 11, 2010
Repub In-Fighting
The wrangling going on with the Rebups looks like a purge. Here's a tho't: If I wanna look like I'm operating in the "center-right" of the spectrum; and I need to be sure nobody sees me as either moving to the left or acting like I'm some kind of Centrist/Moderate, then what I need to do is to make myself appear a little less like a fanatic by encouraging a bunch of nuts off to my right to go crazy, and then pointing out that they're a bunch of crazy nuts to make myself look more acceptable to wide range of voters who are typically camped out in the middle, waiting for me to lead them.
Jan 9, 2010
The Undies Bomber
The good news is that Team Obama is working hard at (and having some success in) keeping us from losing our shit. Napolitano tried to wiggle thru with some spin about 'at least part of the system worked' - and she got spanked for it, but the demands for her scalp were fairly muted and short-lived.
It's also good that only a few Repubs (plus of course, all the rocket scientists at Cluster Fox) are saying demonstrably stupid things like:
-it's a horrible thing that Obama took 3 whole days to say anything about the attack.
(Bush took 6 days to address the Shoe Bomber incident in Dec 2001)
-there were no terrorist attacks under Bush.
(can you say Nine-Eleven? Shoe Bomber? Antrax? DC Sniper? UNC Chapel Hill?)
It may be that the bad news has to do with our getting a glimpse of the political intrigue at work in DC. We don't usually get to see much of the real workings of governance, much less the maneuverings of people who lust after power. Some of what I've heard and read the last several days points to a probability that the dots weren't connected because somebody didn't want the dots connected. That doesn't necessarily indicate some big conspiracy to screw Obama or to jack up the stock price of some Security Contractor though. Sometimes, you get a piece of info from a source you've been working on for a long time, and you don't just turn it over to another agency because you're worried about how that colleague will use the info; possibly blowin' your deal with your source, or even endangering people's lives - certainly, there could be ripple affects through operations you've never even heard of.
This time, a Nigerian ambassador directly and openly warned the US State Dept and somehow we either missed it; or purposely ignored it in order to play it to our better advantage in some other way? It's just not adding up.
It's also good that only a few Repubs (plus of course, all the rocket scientists at Cluster Fox) are saying demonstrably stupid things like:
-it's a horrible thing that Obama took 3 whole days to say anything about the attack.
(Bush took 6 days to address the Shoe Bomber incident in Dec 2001)
-there were no terrorist attacks under Bush.
(can you say Nine-Eleven? Shoe Bomber? Antrax? DC Sniper? UNC Chapel Hill?)
It may be that the bad news has to do with our getting a glimpse of the political intrigue at work in DC. We don't usually get to see much of the real workings of governance, much less the maneuverings of people who lust after power. Some of what I've heard and read the last several days points to a probability that the dots weren't connected because somebody didn't want the dots connected. That doesn't necessarily indicate some big conspiracy to screw Obama or to jack up the stock price of some Security Contractor though. Sometimes, you get a piece of info from a source you've been working on for a long time, and you don't just turn it over to another agency because you're worried about how that colleague will use the info; possibly blowin' your deal with your source, or even endangering people's lives - certainly, there could be ripple affects through operations you've never even heard of.
This time, a Nigerian ambassador directly and openly warned the US State Dept and somehow we either missed it; or purposely ignored it in order to play it to our better advantage in some other way? It's just not adding up.
Jan 7, 2010
Jan 6, 2010
The Undies Bomber
The freakout wasn't quite so bad afterall. The usual buttheads (Dick Cheney, Peter King, et al) tried the usual crap, but it's not selling as well as it used to. Of course, there's still vestigial traces of the bullshit about "the President's number one job is to keep Americans safe", but at least, we're starting to hear more about ideas for handling terrorism that might actually work.
From Juan Cole:
You can't catch terrorists by casting a broad net. You catch terrorists with good police work. You look at networks, suspicious behavior, clues. Ignoring the desperate plea of a father who goes to the CIA with information about his son being radicalized in Yemen, but then patting down 170 million Nigerians ever after, is brain dead.
From Juan Cole:
You can't catch terrorists by casting a broad net. You catch terrorists with good police work. You look at networks, suspicious behavior, clues. Ignoring the desperate plea of a father who goes to the CIA with information about his son being radicalized in Yemen, but then patting down 170 million Nigerians ever after, is brain dead.
Jan 4, 2010
Jan 3, 2010
Jan 2, 2010
George Carlin
I miss him. He got to be a real pain in the ass for me when he flopped over into kind of a standard Glibertarian Mode, but it was always obvious to me that there was some real thinking going on.
This bit with Jon Stewart has some great stuff. My fave is Carlin's take on drugs and the cost/benefit angle. I'm thinking that if we adapted his views into some coherent policy, the war on drugs would already be over.
This bit with Jon Stewart has some great stuff. My fave is Carlin's take on drugs and the cost/benefit angle. I'm thinking that if we adapted his views into some coherent policy, the war on drugs would already be over.
Jan 1, 2010
Dec 30, 2009
Just Askin'
Isn't there some probability that organizations like al-Qaeda will have to run out of dumb-ass rubes and poor little rich kids who're willing to blow their nut sacks off to suck up to Allah?
And also too - if it's such a geat fuckin' idea to be a suicide bomber, why don't Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahri do it? These guys have to be some of the greatest salesmen ever.
And also too - if it's such a geat fuckin' idea to be a suicide bomber, why don't Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahri do it? These guys have to be some of the greatest salesmen ever.
My General Malaise
I've been wondering for a little over 10 years now what it is that gives me this feeling of unease. There's been something going on (several somethings is more probable), but I can't quite get my arms around it.
Today, there's a post by DougJ at Balloon Juice that gives me a real starting point. He links to a piece in The Atlantic by Chris Good, who writes that Repubs will run on the meme that everything Obama and the Dems are trying to do will end in disaster. There's nothing new in that of course; the wingnuts on both ends have been screaming about that kinda thing for years. What struck me is the phrase "untethered to verifiable fact".
Over the last 20 years or so, we've moved from a fairly well centralized info system (network TV and hometown newspapers) to a system that's fragmented down to a point where I can customize my "news" so that everythng I hear fits my own preconceptions. If I get a story that challenges my worldview, it's easy for me to find someone to rebut that story and help me pretend nothing's changed. I need that pacifier so I can spend as little time and effort as possible sorting thru the data and processing the information so I can get back to being stressed out over my job or my kids or my house or my car or my breakfast cereal or whatever else the marketing department is pushing on me this season.
I'd really like to find a way to wrap this up neatly, but I'm stumped again. I guess all I can say is that I think we get closer to the Big-T Truth by gathering the smaller bits of little-t truth as we go.
Today, there's a post by DougJ at Balloon Juice that gives me a real starting point. He links to a piece in The Atlantic by Chris Good, who writes that Repubs will run on the meme that everything Obama and the Dems are trying to do will end in disaster. There's nothing new in that of course; the wingnuts on both ends have been screaming about that kinda thing for years. What struck me is the phrase "untethered to verifiable fact".
Over the last 20 years or so, we've moved from a fairly well centralized info system (network TV and hometown newspapers) to a system that's fragmented down to a point where I can customize my "news" so that everythng I hear fits my own preconceptions. If I get a story that challenges my worldview, it's easy for me to find someone to rebut that story and help me pretend nothing's changed. I need that pacifier so I can spend as little time and effort as possible sorting thru the data and processing the information so I can get back to being stressed out over my job or my kids or my house or my car or my breakfast cereal or whatever else the marketing department is pushing on me this season.
I'd really like to find a way to wrap this up neatly, but I'm stumped again. I guess all I can say is that I think we get closer to the Big-T Truth by gathering the smaller bits of little-t truth as we go.
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