More Miscellany and More Thread

"Duquesne Whistle" - Bob Dylan

- I am going to sub out the work on the Chicago Teachers strike to my friend Rick Perlstein.  Teachers and teachers' unions have been beaten up so badly -- too often by Democrats as well as Republicans -- that I am gratified to see them take a stand.  

- I needed a laugh and this supplied it.  I always appreciate a man with a Plan B. 

- Naomi Wolf is going to be at my local bookstore on September 24th to promote what sounds like it might be the worst book not published by Regnery Publishing.  I can't decide whether to go or not -- I am afraid my snickering might be rude.  Wolf strikes me more and more as a classic smart stupid person.

- And then there is Bob Woodward, who is simply a stupid person, who once got incredibly lucky.  I have never seen Woodward make a single interesting observation about American politics or power.  The banality of his thinking is mind boggling and his ahistorical approach astonishing.  Not to mention his lack of memory, i.e. his notion that Clinton pretty much "worked his will" on the Congress in a way that Barack Obama could not.  I guess that's why Clinton got his health care reform bill so much easier than Obama did and why he was not impeached.  Oh wait.

So what's going on with you?

Comments

[T.R. Donoghue]

I downloaded Wolf's book on crisis capitalism last year. I was shocked at what utter garbage it was. I only read a bit before I had to put it down. And I agree with her thesis! It was just so bad from a basic logic and competent writing standpoint I couldnt go on.

And may Jah Bless the CTU!

[kathy a.]

ryan is doing WHAT? ok, then. carry on.

[janinsanfran]

I've actually interacted with Naomi Wolf. You've nailed it. Not tightly wrapped, but flashy.

[Crissa]

Paula's post from yesterday is interesting, but I don't know of any other crime you can get out of 'because you would have incriminated yourself'. If I skip a building permit, I can't say 'gosh, if I told you, I'd have incriminated myself'.

[oddjob]

ryan is doing WHAT?

Lloyd Bentsen did that in 1988.

[low-tech cyclist]

The Census Bureau just released Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011.

The topline stuff: the poverty rate didn't change significantly from last year, but median household income is down 1.5%. And the percentage of Americans with health insurance increased from 83.7% in 2010 to 84.3 percent last year.

The median incomes of male workers, whether you're looking at full-time, year-round workers, or everyone, are below what they were in 1973. Women's incomes have gone up over that time, of course, but the median income for full-time, year-round women workers has only gone up by 29.5% since then.

Median household income is only 5.2% greater, in real terms, than it was in 1973.

Now, we're a much, much richer country than we were in 1973. I think we know who's gotten most of that added richness. But the Broderists of the world know that what we really need is to cut Social Security and Medicare, and other programs that average Americans, not to mention those towards the lower end of the income scale, use.

[kathy a.]

oddjob -- i think you'll agree that it does not send a message of the veep nominee's confidence in this election. maybe ryan is smarter than i thought; he can do more direct damage in the house, anyway.

ltc -- this is not a story of a rising tide floating all boats.

this is a story of the super-luxury liners riding high, while the rowboats around them have developed leaks, and the tugboats are barely hanging on. but the liners are riding high, so they can't LA LA LA LA see that.

[kathy a.]

the big story today is the US ambassador to libya, and 3 other americans, being killed. the US has naturally condemned this strongly.

the killings happened after a violent protest at the US embassy in cairo yesterday. that was apparently sparked by some idjit californian's inflammatory video.

anyway, mitt jumped right on it, before the information was even in, condemning the US response to the attacks. only problem is, he was condemning the response of cairo embassy personnel trying to keep the peace -- and save their own people's lives -- before the killings happened in libya. in other words, romney's immediate response was to see this as a political opportunity to bash his opponent, which does not reflect well on his suitability for foreign relations matters or holding the big button.

so naturally, romney is doubling down, standing by his stupid attack on the president. even ryan (and many other romney surrogates) managed to see this as a tragedy, and the need for US leadership.

mind you, the protests and attack happened on 9/11.

[kathy a.]

you know romney has stepped in a big pile of it and is tracking it all over the house when the wapo editorial board takes only hours to roll up the newspaper and say "bad dog."

[Sir Charles]

Romney really is a despicable human being with no moral compass whatsoever.

I hope this hurts him -- it certainly should.

[oddjob]

"...If Romney is elected, US foreign policy in the Middle East will be outsourced to the Likud."

[kathy a.]

here is the post linked by sully in oddjob's link. powerful and factual, no?

also -- way to go, private entrepreneur who made the anti-islam trailer setting off unrest in cairo. a clip reportedly endorsed by rev. jones, of the "let's burn korans" fame.

[kathy a.]

the first amendment protects both freedom of speech and freedom of religion. it is not a free ticket to inciting international violence by condemning those of a different religious tradition -- NOT.

those who support the apparently hateful and incendiary video sparking unrest in cairo are wrong. and yes, SC, romney is despicable for treating this horrible attack on our own embassy in libya as just a political opportunity. he is not running for prom king, or whatever. he seemed to show more sense when he was governor. i can forgive gaffes, but if he can't keep his head and remember there are larger issues than this campaign during an international incident, he is a loser in as many ways as i can think to describe him.

[kathy a.]

pretty much universal condemnation of romney's response. via TNC.

[nancy]

Mitt exits, stage left.

There's no there, there. Not today anyway.

[kathy a.]

ezra, on romney's mess-up. and see this; i'm told that ezra is hosting the ed show tonight.

[low-tech cyclist]

A U.S. ambassador gets killed in the line of duty, and the first thing Romney can think of to do is to take advantage of the tragedy by concocting a total lie, a reprehensible smear, to try to score some cheap points on his opponents.

He is the moral equivalent the stuff you wipe off your shoe so as to not track it inside. There are slugs and slime molds that are more deserving of high office than this shitstain, this despicable excuse for a higher life form is.

[Crissa]

Seems pretty clear the two attacks yesterday weren't related, and there is no evidence either of them had anything to do with it being 9/11.

The attacks in Benghazi against the consul by terrorists have been ongoing over the last year or so, but without direction; the Libyan forces reportedly stopped the attack after a protracted fire-fight with the terrorists.

The riot in Egypt seems fomented by this extremist movie-maker. One can have sympathy for being powerless in the face of such an insult from what seems a force you aren't allowed to speak against.

[nancy]

A U.S. ambassador gets killed in the line of duty, and the first thing Romney can think of to do is to take advantage of the tragedy by concocting a total lie, a reprehensible smear, to try to score some cheap points on his opponents.

One has to believe his conscientious and thoughtful father would be deeply ashamed of his heir were he alive. Among other important things, Romney sullied his father's memory. That goes to the grave.

[kathy a.]

this seems to be a good, succinct roundup of what is known and not known, and the issues in play.

[Linkmeister]

Egypt's government's response has been pretty disappointing. I know the Muslim Brotherhood has to appease its hard-right fringes, but it ought to know enough about Realpolitik to publicly condemn the rioters and their behavior at the American embassy if it still wants American cash. Congressmen and women get much more hotheaded about that than either the Dept. of State or the White House do.

[low-tech cyclist]

They won't do it, of course, because too much of the GOP base really eats up the stuff that Romney just fed them. But if the GOP were a party deserving of any respect, this is the point at which they'd send a high-powered delegation to Romney to ask him to step down as the GOP candidate for President.

I personally think Romney should do us all a favor by renouncing his U.S. citizenship, and following his money to the Caymans.

[kathy a.]

john mccain on the murders in libya.

[kathy a.]

mccain said the things that romney should have said. except of course, romney cannot say all those things, because he truly has no understanding of foreign affairs and did not know the ambassador.

romney's intended domestic policy is rather unclear, since he has not bothered disclosing details (except to [a] blame the president for not fixing the economy already, and [b] promote tax cuts for the rich and service cuts for everyone else). the assumption is that his business experience will let him run the country like a corporation. i disagree; but at least he has disclosed enough for me to have an idea where he is headed.

on foreign policy, about all we knew until the last couple of days is that he is a chickenhawk, and his surrogates want more war. we should just charge around the world putting people in their places. (how this fits with fiscal responsibility, much less tax cuts for the rich, is one of those mysteries.) he sees russia as our largest enemy and threat -- no idea where that came from, unless he is boning up on the cold war playbook and planning to catch up with current events later.

i know i've been yammering on for the last 24 hours, but his response to the riots and attack on our embassy are horrifying to me. they scare the living shit out of me on so many levels. he honest to god cannot see past his campaign -- attacking the president is his highest goal. he falsely accused his own government of being "apologists." he did not even have the self-restraint to find out more about what happened, or to learn the larger context in which it happened. he implied that embassy personnel were anti-american for trying to defuse a violent situation -- one sparked in cairo by an inflammatory video that is most assuredly NOT reflective of US policy. and as to libya, he failed to recognize that the murders of our ambassador and others did not represent the libyan government or its people, but was the work of violent extremists.

so. it was kind of funny that he managed to disrespect britain, our strong ally, when they hosted the olympics. but that may have just demonstrated his knack for foreign relations. we can't just "fire" countries where something bad happens, or when we have some differences of policy.

but worse -- how can any americans overseas feel he has their back? how can our diplomats, our military, our citizens living other places feel protected when his first instinct at reports of violence against our embassies is to attack his political opponent, rather than to protect and grieve our own, to stand up for our national interest?

[Sir Charles]

I just want to know what happened to the Bush Democracy Agenda?

It seems that now the Republicans are not so keen on letting the people of the Middle East have a say in running their countries.

Of course the Bush Democracy Agenda was always hopelessly naive -- somehow "the people" would not be Anti-American or Anti-Israel. Such sentiments were simply the product of manipulation by despotic leaders. And yet. . . .

[Gene O'Grady]

The book on crisis capitalism is by Naomi Klein, who I believe to be intelligent and on to something, not by Naomi Wolf, of whom I probably have a somewhat higher opinion, which does not mean a high opinion, than the other posters.

The Romney press conference, and the hideous grin with which he walked off the stage, take me back to the days when he was an anti-anti-war protestor at Stanford. Still a cynical coward and bully, unaware of his privilege. One thing that bothers me is that is unlike any of the other Mormons I've known, and I've known quite a few, although mostly from the periphery rather than the central power group.

[low-tech cyclist]

The Bush democracy agenda was naive, but the real problem with it was it was waved around as a threat, along the lines of "if you don't behave, we're gonna come over there and shove democracy down your throats." With the subtext that of course the wogs will have the right kind of democracy, because that's the kind they'll get when we stick it to them good and hard.

The naivete was in believing that we could decide that for them, even with the full might of the U.S. military behind the decision. But they were smart enough, I think, to realize that Arabs weren't likely to do democracy the Bush way if democracy wasn't imposed on them by American force.

[Sir Charles]

Gene,

I think Romney isn't much like other Mormons because he grew up in exceedingly rarefied air, with a father who was both rich and powerful (although far more decent than his son).

I think TR might have been referring to Wolf's writings on Occupy Wall Street, although maybe he was confusing her with Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine."

l-t c,

I think there was extraordinary naivete and a total lack of how the people in these countries genuinely feel.

[nancy]

Sir C, re Naomi Wolf. Personally I'd be skipping that little gathering, but if you choose to go I hope you'll offer up some photos and a de-brief.

janinsanfran, Not tightly wrapped, but flashy. :) I'm going to borrow that if that's ok.

Mitt. Political malpractice at work. There is, about him, the whiff of Sarah Palin in the aftermath of the Tucson killings. Double down, get defensive, bluster, get loud and stay ugly.

She, one of the last Mitt apologists standing btw, yapped to Bill O'Reilly about events still unfolding yesterday, in possibly the foulest crudest on-air-sexual-pathology-on-display, Fox News Golden Classic, ever. I'll spare you a link -- Chris Matthews has the replay. Mitt should have doused those Tea Party fleas but just couldn't bring himself to do so. I only bring this up because Foxworld viewers -- well, they vote en bloc. Hers is a voice they continue to hear, while Fox continues to blur timelines and throw up "Obama apologizing to...everyone on the planet, but our enemies first" headlines and bottom-screen subliminal scrolls.

[oddjob]

I think there was extraordinary naivete and a total lack of how the people in these countries genuinely feel.

This is no small part of why I find neoconservatism juvenile. With all its clueless certainty about how the world works it reminds me of nothing so much as the product of an adolescent mind.