The waffling Pinocchio (a compilation of greatest hits to come shortly) launches into pious monologue about not being a career politician. Newt Gingrich once again exposes the baloney about Romney not actively seeking a career in politics. Basically, Mittens has not been in elected office for the last 18 years because he kept losing. Video below:
One can debate whether the country is better off as a result of the slash and burn venture capitalism he helped pioneer or whether it has much relevance to being an effective President (it sure did not do much in creating jobs in Massachusetts), but Mitt Romney has accomplished a lot in his business career. But his phoniness is so transparent it makes this blogger want to barf. It also explains the tepid enthusiasm for him in an awful Republican field.
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We thought we would mark it by a recent homage to one of the finest cartoon strips ever written. Enjoy the video below and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a wonderful new year:
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Two international figures died this weekend. Vaclav Havel personified the Czech nation in bringing down communism and remained a moral authority after his presidency. He will be widely mourned.
The second was the patriarch of possibly the only obese family in North Korea. Coming to power after the first dynastic succession in a Communist nation, Kim Jong-Il deepened the impoverishment and isolation of his unfortunate country. Other than the brainwashed minions, few will mourn him. Kim Jong-Il was widely reputed to be ailing and earlier this year named his inexperienced son Kim Jong-un as the heir to the crumbling hermit kingdom. The youngest Kim will probably rule with the help of a regency council designated by his father until/if he ever takes over.
Kim Jong-il could to some extent feed off the mystique of his father Kim Il-sung. However, by the end of his rule it has been difficult for North Korea to hide the extent of its backwardness and impoverishment from its own people. Too many South Korean movies and television programs displaying their far healthier and prosperous brethren circulate in North Korea. Too many North Koreans have crossed back and forth across the Yalu River into China for an information blackout to be absolute. With little moral authority left it could be difficult for the regime to hang on.
And so a delicate diplomatic dance begins. South Korea has placed its armies on high alert. Seoul and Washington must evaluate the diplomatic language to use in responding to the news and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of expressing condolences. The Chinese, the primary prop for this bankrupt regime, must evaluate whether they should play along with the succession or encourage Jong-un’s fatter brother to seize power. In the short run it appears that a weaker regime in Pyongyang leans closer to becoming a Chinese satellite.
Yet even presumed Chinese satellites are uncomfortable with the close embrace of the dragon. Fear of Chinese dominance has pushed an equally paranoid Burmese government to ease its isolation. How far will the weak regime in Pyongyang resist Beijing’s diktats? And does this regime have the strength to survive a glasnost? The next few months will be interesting.
2011 has not been kind to dictators. Long standing regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were toppled. Syria and Yemen are tottering. Bahrain has been shaken to its core. Even the previously secure corporatist regime of Vladimir Putin has seen cracks appear in the foundation. Even if the death of Kim Jong-il was not as gory as the video below:
he leaves a shaky regime in the hands of his inexperienced son. Rot in hell Kim Jong-il.
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Faux News never ceases to disappoint. As the pepper spray incident at UC Davis (the latest in police attacks on peaceful protesters) drays outrage, the bobble-heads at Faux News chimed in to predictably to make excuses for the officers. Everything is fine people:
- pepper spray is essentially a food product, so presumably it is no problem to spray it into their face (though the bobble-heads acknowledge that some people ended up in the hospital)
- Davis is a liberal campus, so perhaps these students had it coming
- The police chief may be a scapegoat, even though video evidence suggests (even the bobble-heads acknowledge) that she may have lied about the level of threats in justifying the pepper spraying. Personally, I believe Chancellor Katehi should be gone too.
Most egregious is the excuse trotted out in the past to justify torture, that we have no right to Monday Morning Quarterback the police. It is a dangerous philosophy that can be used to justify any sort of government brutality. Video below:
Even liberal blogs have acknowledged that a long term occupation of cities by a group that has not articulated concrete demands at some point brings diminishing results. But that does not justify the wave of police gassing or clubbing citizens peacefully assembled in protest. But then Faux News is primarily concerned about the tyranny of government health care and other conspiracy theories they peddle about the Obama administration. Meanwhile Megyn Kelly’s latest idiocy has gone viral on twitter. Check out the hashtag #FakeMegynKelly
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First there was the Mitt Romney whopper about a fictional Obama apology tour. Then a flailing Rick Perry desperate to remain relevant in the Republican race raised him with an outright lie that Obama called American workers lazy. Now Mittens has decided to double down with a blatant lie, taking a clip of Obama quoting McCain and pretending it was an original Obama statement.
This is the latest salvo in a campaign where a president who lowered taxes, oversaw a return of corporate profits to pre-recession levels, prevented a collapse of the Detroit auto-makers, passed a healthcare plan originally drafted by Republicans, ordered the raid that took out Osama deep in the heart of Pakistan and midwifed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi is somehow a befuddled America hating marxist/socialist naif. Mitt Romney should know better, but then we already know that there is nothing he will not do to gain the Presidency.
Problem is, others can take Romney quotes out of context to lie as well (video below):
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Saturday’s Presidential debate saw most of the Republican candidates embrace torture. Most pretend that “enhanced interrogation” is a magic incantation that prevents acts like waterboarding from being torture. Herman Cain channeled his inner Romney to try to have it both ways, but the magic incantation trumped deference to the military (which calls waterboarding torture).
As Conor Friedersdorf notes Newt Gingrich was outright scary on assassinating US citizens. Friedersdorf reserves his praise for the two Republicans who understand why we do not torture, why it is counterproductive and how it militates against American values. Neither of them will get the nomination, though Jon Huntsman could win the general election if nominated. Ron Paul, while he has some kooky economic theories and is an isolationist, has always had the moral courage to stand up for what he believes in (like refusing to join the post 9/11 frenzy to rubber stamp the Patriot Act) – unlike most of the weasels in public life today.
The clip below highlights the stark contrast between the candidates of the soundbite (Cain and Bachmann) versus two men who have clearly given it some thought.
I don’t praise Republicans often in this blog, but today I will. Thank you Mr. Paul and Mr. Huntsman for having the guts to stand up for American values and opposing a practice that has been illegal for over a century.
I wonder how loudly the rest of the candidates would howl in outrage if another country subjected captured Americans to “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
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With his poll numbers finally starting to sink under the weight of sexual harassment allegations, the bubble on the Hermain Cain boomlet may finally be bursting. It is in many ways a reflection of the current Republican Party that someone so frighteningly ignorant on public policy has been the putative leader in the polls for so long. But the Republicans have desperately been seeking an alternative for the immaculately coiffed weather-vane from Massachusetts. Since many of the adults (Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Christ Christie etc.) chose not to run, the party has vaulted an impressive collection of blowhards (The Donald), batshit crazy (Michele Bachmann) and empty shirts (Rick Perry) to the top of the polls, only to see them dragged down by the dead weight of their absence of gravitas. For a long time it appeared Herman Cain’s Teflon shield would hold. Thankfully, this nightmare is now coming to an end.
On its face terming a charismatic and successful CEO and former governor of the Kansas City Federal Reserve a Know Nothing would seem odd. Alas, Herman Cain like most of the other Republican candidates not named Huntsman, Ron Paul or Romney (on non-foreign policy issues), is an empty shirt. Rarely has a candidate at the top of the polls expressed such total lack of awareness of public policy (domestic or foreign). This is compounded by bizarre leaps into bigoted Islamophobia, a seeming willingness to electrocute illegal immigrants at the border (which may or may not have been a joke, since Mr. Cain characterized his comments both ways depending on the audience), an ignorance on the constitutional limitations on restricting Congressional activities and the constitutional amendment process, a bizarre financial plan that may have been lifted from the Sim City game, departures into race baiting when it is convenient and finally a proud ignorance on any matters relating to foreign policy. Then came a barrage of sexual harassment allegations dating back to the 1990s when he lead the National Restaurant Association. The flailing response from the Cain campaign (even though they had 10 days to prepare for the story’s publication) demonstrated an operation not ready for prime-time.
Seeing the debacle, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Cain campaign for the presidency is a publicity seeking stunt gone awry. The candidate did not help dispel such rumors last month by disappearing from the campaign trail for a book signing tour. After all, a half-term quitter from Alaska has provided a blueprint on cashing political celebrity into millions of dollars. The Clintons have demonstrated just how lucrative life post-presidency can be.
When challenged on his ignorance, Mr. Cain has a few stock answers. His critics are wrong, he is right and trust him.
The ignorance on domestic policy is bad enough. (Video below):
Foreign policy is worse. After repeated attacks on his foreign policy credentials he assured us that he is not as foreign policy dumb “as they think”. Video below:
After making that bold assertion, Mr. Cain provided us the gem below. This makes Governor Perry’s brain fart pale in comparison and highlights what happens when you get your rote learning jumbled up in your head. For 5:16 Herman Cain struggles to answer a basic question on a war conducted and concluded in the past six months and to highlight why exactly he opposed Obama’s policy (other than the typical knee-jerk opposition to Obama):
To make it worse, his campaign trotted out the excuse (not for the first time) that the candidate was operating on 4 hours sleep.
This sleep deprived soul should not have his fingers on the nuclear trigger and has no business running for President.
The Herman Cain comedy hour may be coming to a close. The new hope of the anti-Romney brigade appears to be a former speaker whose passionate patriotism drove him to adultery. Somewhere Saturday Night Live writers are cheering.
If/when Romney does get the Republican nomination, I have his acceptance speech prepared for him. Video below:
Go for it Mitt…
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Mitt Romney deviated from his tired canard about Obama apologizing for America to provide the sort of platitudes that comprise his foreign policy platform. After all, you have to dig deep to call the President who ordered a raid into the heart of Pakistan to get Osama Bin Laden and who helped bring down Gaddafi weak. So the solution is the blanket statement below on the Iranian push for a nuclear bomb.
So Mitt, since you are evidently willing to go to war to achieve this end please tell us how you manage this:
- Almost every military expert agrees that an aerial bombardment of the type Israel is itching to launch would at best delay the Iranian push for the device. So are you going to send in ground troops?
- Where would such an invasion be launched from?
- How would we pay for this?
- What would be the impact on an overstretched military that is seeing light at the end of the tunnel of two long wars in the countries on the West and the East of Iran?
- What will be the impact in Iraq if Iran unleashes its Sadrite proxies or on Israel if Hezbollah gets involved?
- How will you handle the economic shock of an almost certain spike in oil prices (to go with the mess in Europe)?
- If this is a snatch and grab, how will we prevent Iran from restarting the program?
- How will you handle the fallout with Russia and China – or do you just not give a damn?
- Are you willing to consider a full fledged invasion? If so, how will you handle an occupation?
The ugly reality is that there are few good options to prevent Iran from getting the Bomb. Iran has wanted the Bomb since the days of the Shah. The pursuit of the Bomb is incredibly popular even among the anti-cleric democratic movement. The Obama administration has been incredibly successful in getting Russian and Chinese support for a practical containment policy. But if Mittens has a silver bullet for Iran other than his usual foreign policy bluster, I am all ears.
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A couple of Jon Huntsman commercials highlight why Mitt Romney cannot break away from a pack consisting of lunatics and ignoramuses. The core problem the base has is that even for a politician Romney has an extremely malleable set of core values that adapt to the office he seeks and the time he seeks it. Videos below:
Other examples of Romney’s extraordinary agility are very easy to find on YouTube:
This is the latest one
This is not a new charge. The last election cycle provided some entertaining Whack-a-Mitt sessions as the rest of the field piled on the candidate they despised.
Romney does come with strong business credentials (though his business experience often seems to have resulted in acquiring companies, sucking out their assets and bankrupting them). While he was a pragmatic governor, his job creation record was at best mediocre. On foreign policy he resorts to the same fluff and platitudes that the rest of the Republican field not named Jon Huntsman or Ron Paul resort too. But ultimately he is a pragmatic candidate who has some appeal to the center. He was a competent and pragmatic governor. He probably will be an adequate President (more than can be said for any of his opponents other than Huntsman). But where in the political spectrum a President Romney will govern from remains a mystery. The Weather Vane is probably still monitoring the winds. To take a DNC quiz on where Romney has stood on issues to date – click here (includes videos).
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This blog has been dormant for a while, but the graphic images from Sirte has shaken it out of its stupor. Perhaps for the first time since Baghdad residents got to vent their anger on the corpse of Nuri as Said in 1958, has a middle eastern mob had a similar opportunity against a despised and hated leader. A year ago the graphic videos from Libya were unthinkable. A few months ago with his tanks at the gates of Benghazi it looked like the 41 year rule of the mercurial dictator would survive the Arab Spring. And then NATO with the fig-leaf of Arab support got involved and the “Northern Alliance” strategy finally bore fruit.
And then the hunt for the deposed tyrant began. The end was pathetic. As his hometown of Sirte finally fell to his enemies the wounded Gaddafi was dragged from his hiding place (a drain pipe). As the fallen dictator pleaded for mercy he met his end soon after in murky circumstances. Cell phone videos of a bleeding Gaddafi are available for anybody willing to conduct a Google search.
The rest of the Gaddafi clan is either captured, dead or has fled (warning gruesome pictures in link).
Apart from one expected quarter, Gaddafi goes to his grave unmourned. His legacy is broken, factitious oil rich tribal mish-mash bunched under a new/old national flag. Libya faces an uncertain future once the euphoria over the lynching in Sirte fades.
Also uncertain is the future of NATO. The French and the British wanted this operation, but soon discovered that they could not sustain a campaign against a fourth rate military without access to the American arsenal. Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates departed with a well timed salvo at Europe questioning the worth of an alliance where only one country carries the weight. The solution from Congressional hawks appears to be to bankrupt the United States by continuing to sustain 40% of global military spending alone. A reappraisal of American military commitments and spending is long overdue.
With the specter of their crazy leader gone, the people of Libya sleep easier tonight. So do perhaps diplomats in a land of cheese, chocolates and banks.
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After weeks of horrendous economic news, Barack Obama and NATO can heave a sigh of relief. The longest ruling despot in the world appears to have fallen.
As expected, the fall was dramatic. Just last week the squabbling rebel alliance cut off the dictator’s supply lines. Today they entered Tripoli to cheering crowds. Some of Gaddafi’s sons appear to be in custody. Gaddafi’s fate is yet unknown.
It remains to be seen whether the tribes united by the Libyan flag can create a national state. Hopefully a revenge bloodbath can be avoided.
This also turns the spotlight uncomfortably on Bashar Assad. The fears of unraveling Syria’s ethnic quilt kept many Western states quiet. Last week it became clear patience was running out. While NATO bombardment is unlikely, the younger Assad is finding it hard to emulate his father in suppressing dissent with an iron fist.
The bufoonish Gaddafi falls largely unmourned, except perhaps in Caracas, Havana, Harare and some African capitals.
The bloody Arab summer has harvested its first tyrant.
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There are times one despairs at the scum infesting the human race. Riots provide cover for the vermin in our midst to engage in criminal acts at their leisure. If the video of the Reginald Denny beating provided the definitive image of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the video below may provide the highlight of the current anarchist rampage in London as David Cameron’s government fiddles in futility. The video below is disturbing. It shows some onlookers helping a bloodied riot victim to his feet before deciding to rob the stunned and helpless victim:
There are legitimate privacy concerns about a Google Group using facial recognition software to identify the looters. Hopefully they turn their sights on these scumbags.
And now a word of derision for the bumbling response of Prime Minister David Cameron’s inept government. The spark for the riot may have been a suspicious police killing. There is deep unrest in Britain about the depth of cuts imposed by the current government. But it was clear early enough that the outrage was hijacked by criminals indulging in looting and burning.
Yet incredibly Home Secretary Theresa May responded to calls to crush the rioters with this nonsense:
The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.”
Small wonder that the riots spread beyond London and have tarnished Britain’s reputation around the globe. It took three days for 16,000 police to descend on London. I am not a huge fan of scapegoats, but I am willing to make an exception for Ms. May. There were concerns about Rio’s ability to host a safe Olympics. It appears that London’s competence must also now be questioned.
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Today Minnesota Senator Al Franken demonstrated once again that people who focus on his Stuart Smalley persona are seriously underestimating him. In the video below he logically demolishes Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery’s blatant misrepresentation of a HHS study showing better outcomes for children in nuclear families.
I wish Senator Franken has the opportunity to similarly debunk on video some of the bullshit being spewed by some Republicans that the United States should default by not raising the debt ceiling, particularly the two nuts from his home state running for president.
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Alaska’s half-term quitter’s latest “look at me” attempt – the laughably mistitled hagiography ”The Undefeated” – was telecast in selected cities this week. The response appears to have been underwhelming. The Sarah Palin fan club led by bullshit artist Andrew Breitbart promptly saw a conspiracy. Others made laughable attempts to tout six people attending a showing of the propaganda flick.
Meanwhile, Palin like many other celebrities before her has got the Downfall treatment. Video below:
Inside Palin Campaign HQ – Launch of ‘The Undefeated’ Fails from Moosehelmet Films on Vimeo.
I still have a hard time seeing Palin launch a credible campaign for President. Her fellow loony tunes seeking the Presidency have not had a great couple of weeks either. In a week where large chunks of the Republican party embraced insanity by welcoming an American default, the fringe candidates added their mite too.
- Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann jumped at the opportunity to sign a controversial family values pledge.
- Bachmann’s husband drew attention for his controversial counselling to cure homosexuality and now she may have to answer questions about her health.
- Herman Cain took his anti-Islam bufoonery to new levels. Video below:
- Mitt Romney who should be able to brand himself as the adult of this bunch draws so little enthusiasm that a large section of the Republican party is still seeking a white knight (whose spouse will permit a presidential run). With Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie not running, Rick Perry is up next. It remains to be seen whether Perry’s accounting gimmicks that have created a fiscal disaster in Texas and other skeletons in his closet will hold up under the scrutiny of the national media.
It is a pity Jon Huntsman is gathering no traction in the menagerie running for the Republican nomination. Heck, Romney has no principles but I will take him (or Huntsman) over the rest of this lot.
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As previously noted, South Sudan officially became the world’s latest nation today, triggering joyous celebration on the streets of Juba. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir magnanimously appeared for the independence celebrations in what was once the southern half of his country, but the conflict is not over yet. The run-up to independence saw the two sides clash over the border town of Abeyi, and a division of oil revenues is still a sticking point. But let the wringing of hands wait for next week. This weekend South Sudan gets to celebrate the success of its struggle for independence. Happy birthday.
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It appears the uniformed thugs of Europe’s last dictatorship (the authoritarian regime in Moscow deserves a bold asterisk on its classification as a democracy) are capable of medical miracles. The regime of Alexander Lukashenko is struggling to contain public protests over the collapsing (and already impoverished) economy. So the security services have started hauling in perceived dissenters. And therein lies the miracle - one armed men have been convicted of clapping and deaf-mutes have been convicted of shouting.
Lukashenko has survived so far due to the tacit support of Moscow, which likes pliant states in its “near abroad.” Yet last year Vladimir Putin sent out signals that the Kremlin’s patience for Lukashenko was not unlimited. Russia’s favorite foreign policy bludgeon - cutting of gas supplies – was used to bring Belarus to heel. Going forward Russia has denied Lukashenko’s bankrupt regime needed loans, focusing instead on (in competition with China – another regime used to dealing with nasty despots) buying up Belarusian assets at cut rate prices.
It is hard to see a clean solution to this crisis. Lukashenko is unlikely to go without a fight. Putin’s Russia is terrified of the “color revolutions” in its neighborhood planting subversive thoughts in the heads of its serfs…I mean citizens. Russia can be counted on to sabotage any independent minded popular government that emerges from any such revolution (see Ukraine).
Unfortunately for Belarus, its past probably gives some hint of its future. The frustration of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine has already shown Little Russia how hard it is to escape the suffocating embrace of Great Russia. Poor White Russia which spent most of the last 800 years shuttling from the imperial domination of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Empire of the Czar of All the Russias is well on its way to repeating history. Impoverished, with no functioning government structures or tradition of democratic rule and fatally dependent of the Kremlin for gas and oil, Belarus will likely end up in tighter Russian thralldom. The West will probably lose interest after Lukashenko leaves, and in any case will not pick a fight with Russia over Belarus.
Yet another example of the perils of being a midget in a giant’s backyard.
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In the last couple of days Michele Bachman and Rick Santorum became the first Republican candidates to sign “The Marriage Vow – A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family” that calls for among other things a “Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.”
The pledge also calls for an unconstitutional blanket ban on pornography and a “[r]ejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.” The oddly phrased reference to Sharia Islam (which is not a particular school of Islam but appears to be a blanket rejection of the entire religion itself) is the latest islamophobic attack for the non-existent Sharia Law threat ginned up by the right.
It is a pity that these wannabe theocrats don’t take a closer book at what their own holy books have to say about “intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous” and for that matter women’s rights in the institution.
Via Andrew Sullivan quoting an earlier Bruce Bawer post on marriage in the Bible:
“Lamech [Noah’s father] married two women, one named Adah, the other Zillah.” (Genesis 4)
“Sarai brought her slave-girl, Hagar the Egyptian, to her husband and gave her to Abram as a a wife.” (Genesis 16)
“When [Rachel] gave [her husband Jacob] her slave-girl Bilhah as a wife, Jacob lay with her, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Genesis 30)
“Esau took Canaanite women in marriage: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite and Oholibamah daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Horite, and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.” (Genesis 26)
“When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder, then, when the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he must not treat the sons of the loved wife as his firstborn in preference to his true firstborn, the son of the unloved wife.” (Deuteronomy 21)
“If, on the other hand, the accusation [by a newlywed man that his bride is not a virgin] turns out to be true…then they must bring her out to the door of her father’s house and the men of her town will stone her to death.” (Deuteronomy 22)
“When a virgin is pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the town and lies with her, bring both of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death; the girl because, although she was in the town, she did not cry out for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife: you must rid yourself of this wickedness.” (Deuteronomy 22)
“When brothers live together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow is not to marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to have intercourse with her; he should take her in marriage and do his duty by her as her husband’s brother.” (Deuteronomy 25)
“David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel, were among the captives.” (1 Samuel 30)
“Sons were born to David at Hebron. His eldest was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel; his second Cileab, whose mother was Abigail widow of Nabal from Carmel; the third Absalom, whose mother was Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth Adonihah, whose mother was Haggith; the fifth Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital; and the sixth Ithream, whose mother was David’s wife Eglah.” (2 Samuel 3)
And that’s just a scattering of items from the first quarter of the Bible; we haven’t even gotten around to Bathsheba yet, or to King Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines….
To help matters Boston Bravery came up with a helpful graphical representation of marriage in the Bible:
The reality is that most religious texts say things that look ridiculous or even offensive to today’s social mores. Yet the people Andrew Sullivan refers to as Christianists want it both ways. They pick on other religions (notably Islam) by highlighting offensive or misogynistic lines in their holy books yet blithely ignore similar language in their own texts. They also ignore that the reason we do not groan under the type of theocratic tyranny of Iran and Saudi Arabia is the secularization of Western Society after the “Age of Enlightenment” in the 18th century. As late as the late 17th century, Catholics in England and Protestants in France were not permitted to freely practice their faith.
Unlike the world view of the Taliban (or for that matter originalist readers of the Constitution), our society has evolved and is more tolerant of minorities (racial, religious, sexual) and other points of view. Yet our wannabe theocrats cling to their version of the Bible, except when as quoted above it does not suit them.
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On his crusade to privatize the TSA, Ron Paul appeared on Faux News to make the incredible assertion that banning guns on planes was partly to blame for 9/11. Gee Ron…can’t you think of any reason why allowing non-law enforcement plane passengers to pack heat or why a shootout at 35,000 feet may not be a good idea.
Not so surprisingly, the Faux News bobble head does not challenge the absurdity of Paul’s position but moves right on to their pet cause of profiling brown people by race or religion. Of course it may not have not have flagged the Nigerian born underpants bomber or the half white-half Jamaican shoe bomber Richard Reid. Right-wing conservatives and Faux News keep on parroting how stupid it is to search 95 year old grandmas or young kids. Unfortunately, this tragic story from Afghanistan demonstrates how the sadistic bastards we are fighting will work around racist profiling of the sort advocated by Paul. The Taliban thugs in the article linked above tricked an 8 year old girl into becoming a suicide bomber.
Paul also willfully misstates current policy. Nothing at present prevents the TSA from searching a “suspicious person.” Also, as brown-skinned passengers will be happy to inform you racial profiling is still alive and going strong, in violation of current rules. Personally, I am not surprised that a congressman who stated he would have voted against the Civil Rights Act has a cavalier attitude to discrimination against people who don’t look like him.
I will reluctantly give Paul credit for one item in his diatribe. The pre-9/11 policy of passengers not resisting was in retrospect a mistake. It was based on the assumption of sane hijackers who would negotiate. This mistake was first rectified by the brave passengers of UA Flight 93 and helped stop the shoe bomber and the underpants bomber. It still does not justify the idiocy of guns on planes.
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Otto von Habsburg the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne has died at the age of 98. The son of the unfortunate Karl I (Karoly IV in Hungary), Otto became crown prince in 1916 when his father became the last Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia and King of Galicia and Lodomeria after the long 68 year (tragedy and clamity riven) reign of Franz Josef I came to a close (video of the funeral with a young Otto in the procession below).
Otto with Kaiser Franz Josef
Franz Josef witnessed the loss of his dynastic holdings in Italy during Italian unification and the loss of Austrian paramountcy in Germany to Prussia. His private life was even more calamitous.His brother Maximilian chasing the ephemeral Mexican imperial crown was executed in 1867, his only son Rudolph committed suicide in a bizarre murder-suicide pact in 1889, his beautiful temperamental and estranged wife Elizabeth was assassinated in 1898 by an Italian anarchist who just “wanted to kill a royal” and in 1914 his nephew and heir Franz Ferdinand was assassinated ushering in the First World War.
King Charles IV of Hungary, with Zita and Crown Prince Otto. Coronation portrait Budapest, 1916
Emperor Karl was ill-equipped to sustain the creaky Hapsburg state which splintered in 1918. Failing in two attempts to return to the Hungarian throne, Karl died in exile on the island of Madiera in 1922 leaving the 9 year old Otto at the head of his family. Prohibited from returning to his native Austria, the young Otto still played a role in the interwar years. Unlike most of the similarly dispossessed German princelings (Bavaria being an exception), Otto was always an opponent of his fellow Austrian Hitler (the Nazi plan for the invasion of Austria was code named “Otto”). World War II forced the large Habsburg clan into even remoter exile to avoid closer acquaintance with Gestapo prisons.
It is somewhat fitting that the man once the heir to a creaky pan-European dynastic edifice would morph into a European statesman, serving in the European parliament and working to bring former eastern-bloc countries into the European union. It is also a reminder how different the political map of Europe looked a century ago. In 1914 France, Switzerland and Portugal (since 1910) were the only Republics in Europe. The monarchies of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey collapsed in World War I. The monarchies of Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania & Bulgaria (the last monarchs of the last two are still alive and Symeon II of Bulgaria managed to get elected prime minister a few years ago) were swept away in World War II. After spending large portions of the previous decades on “vacation” the King of the Hellenes was packed off to his London exile in the 1970s. Spain is the only oddity to have actually restored its monarchy in the post world-war period.
Royalty survives only on the fringes – Scandinavia, the UK, Spain and the Low Countries – and in memory through the hordes of tourists who flock to Versailles, Neuschwanstein and the Hofburg each year. So here is a nod to the heir of a bygone Europe who spent his life helping create the new Europe and boldly opposed the Nazis and the Communists.
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The American economic hostage crisis continues as the Republicans continue to balk at letting the government pay its bills, consequences to global economic stability be damned. Commentators like Matt Yglesias have previously commented how absurd it its to de-link the budget apportionment process from the debt ceiling. If Congress does not apportion sufficient funds to pay for the expenses it authorizes, the government has only two options: risk hyperinflation by printing money or borrow the difference. The irony is that even though the rising US debt is a long-term concern, there is little interest rate pressure at present to pay down the debt right now, i.e. the United States could defer this until revenues recover from the drop in tax receipts due to the great recession and the disastrous fiscal effect of the soon to expire Bush tax cuts.
Yet the Republicans are refusing to budge unless medicare and medicaid are slashed (insulating them from the negative effects of the Ryan plan to privatize medicare) and tax loopholes for big-oil and other profitable corporate fat cats are retained. With some Republicans departing from reality that a default would not be so bad (congrats Chamber of Commerce you helped elect these guys), some commentators like Bruce Bartlett have opined that President Obama can simply ignore the debt limit – because it is unconstitutional.
The argument stems from two sources. First, is the text of Section 4 of the Constitutional Amendment most hated and ignored by Republicans – the 14th Amendment:
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
On its face, the text refers to the suppression of insurrection. Which brings up the second leg of the argument – the 1935 Supreme Court case (before the “activist liberal court” derided by conservatives) of Perry v. United States, 294 U.S. 330 at 350, 351, 354 interpreting the clause above as follows:
The government’s contention thus raises a question of far greater importance than the particular claim of the plaintiff. On that reasoning, if the terms of the government’s bond as to the standard of payment can be repudiated, it inevitably follows that the obligation as to the amount to be paid may also be repudiated. The contention necessarily imports that the Congress can disregard the obligations of the government at its discretion, and that, when the government borrows money, the credit of the United States is an illusory pledge.
We do not so read the Constitution. There is a clear distinction between the power of the Congress to control or interdict the contracts of private parties when they interfere with the exercise of its constitutional authority and the power of the Congress to alter or repudiate the substance of its own engagements when it has borrowed money under the authority which the Constitution confers. In authorizing the Congress to borrow money, the Constitution empowers the Congress to fix the amount to be borrowed and the terms of payment. By virtue of the power to borrow money ‘on the credit of the United States,’ the Congress is authorized to pledge that credit as an assurance of payment as stipulated, as the highest assurance the government can give, its plighted faith. To say that the Congress may withdraw or ignore that pledge is to assume that the Constitution contemplates a vain promise; a pledge having no other sanction than the pleasure and convenience of the pledgor. This Court has given no sanction to such a conception of the obligations of our government…
…The Fourteenth Amendment, in its fourth section, explicitly declares: ‘The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law , … shall not be questioned.’ While this provision was undoubtedly inspired by the desire to put beyond question the obligations of the government issued during the Civil War, its language indicates a broader connotation. We regard it as confirmatory of a fundamental principle which applies as well to the government bonds in question, and to others duly authorized by the Congress, as to those issued before the amendment was adopted. Nor can we perceive any reason for not considering the expression ‘the validity of the public debt’ as embracing whatever concerns the integrity of the public obligations.
The decision is old enough (and unrelated to gun rights or election funding restrictions on corporations) to possibly draw stare decisis protection from the current conservatives on the Supreme Court. However, even such an assertion followed by the predictable Republican and tea party hyperventilation could still spook the markets. However, in addition to holding the Democrats and the economy hostage the Republicans are caught between their own Scylla and Charybdis. On one side are the tea partiers and a bunch of their presidential candidates adamantly opposed to raising the debt ceiling, though it is hard to envision a legitimate scenario where the government can cut enough expenditure to avoid raising the ceiling. On the other side is the Chamber of Commerce which is sweating bullets at the Russian roulette played on with economy.
The fragile economic recovery (already buffeted by a series of global weather disasters, the European debt crises, the global food price hike, etc.) hangs in the balance. Please, please, please let sanity win the day.
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These are difficult times for Pakistan and its citizens. Since the 1980′s Pakistan’s military rulers have ridden the tiger of Islamic radicalism to bleed arch-rival India and install pliant regimes in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan is now discovering how hard it is get off the tiger. In recent years jihadists have slaughtered innocents in Pakistan’s cities, countryside, mosques, schools and even military bases. Then came the national humiliation of the American military attack that killed Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani cantonment town of Abbotabad, a stone’s throw from its national military academy.
The raid that eliminated Bin Laden was a double humiliation: First, because the most wanted man in the world was found ensconced comfortably in the heart of Pakistan (leading to suspicions he was protected by Pakistan’s secret service agency the ISI). Second, because the Americans launched a military raid deep into Pakistan without the Pakistani army’s knowledge or without them being able to do anything about it.
Not given to deep introspection, the military establishment has focused on the latter and has made ham handed to warn the Americans about future Pakistani cooperation against the Taliban by playing the China card. Unfortunately for the generals, more humiliation was to come. The Bin Laden raid was followed by a daring terrorist attack on a naval base, possibly with inside involvement.
All of this has severely dented the credibility of the Pakistani military establishment, previously immune from domestic criticism. Yet criticism of the military can be fatal. Shortly after writing about Al-Qaeda infiltration of the Pakistani navy, journalist Saleem Shahzad was found beaten to death - allegedly in ISI custody. Which brings us to the indomitable Asma Jahangir.
Along with her sister Hina Jalani, Jahangir has been one of Pakistan’s foremost human rights advocates who bravely stands up for women’s right in the face of fundamentalist neanderthals. In the clip below she boldly eviscerates the Pakistani military for sheer incompetence, impotence and venality.
For those of you who do n0t understand Urdu a rough translation from the blogger Beena Sarwar is provided below:
I don’t need to get a medal for patriotism especially from those who belong to the establishment. We must talk harshly and realistically. I remember during the Bangladesh war, we heard the same discourse. People said that those who criticised the army action in Bangladesh were not patriots. My father was imprisoned; many people we know called me the child of a traitor. But I know that the army’s policy – they are duffers, political duffers (idiots). If you go along with their policy the way we have been doing, Pakistan will not progress. I don’t care what people in America or Africa think. I want our people to be saved from the army. They have put us in a situation where terrorism is cropping up at every corner and neighbourhood. They encourage and support it, detract from debate. They’ve got a whole propaganda machinery going. I am not saying that this goes for all soldiers, but for these generals who play golf and laugh, and keep an eye out for plots. What happened in Karachi – there was a wedding hall at that sensitive place. They’ve made us their slaves. It is time to say please, with folded hands, go back to your barracks, let our children live here. We don’t want bloodshed. If you want acclaim, go and fight – and win — a war. You fought Kargil, killed the Light Infantry soldiers. You’ve become used to making young boys into human shields. You can’t fight, or run the country, or make policy. You are the ‘qabza group’ (land grabbers) of this country. Politicians and everyone should say this clearly. If you ask me, I can give several examples of their stupidity. We need to take out a procession on Mall Road, with folded hands, to say please go home, you ‘eating drinking’ party.”
Brave words against a military establishment whose raison d’être has been anti-India hostility, towards which end it leeches off a quarter of impoverished Pakistan’s budget in a unwinnable military race with its far larger and stronger neighbor. In the process the army lost Pakistan its eastern wing in 1971. And 3 out of its remaining 4 provinces (not counting the so-called Azad Kashmir) are seething with discontent at domination by the Punjabi majority. It is a pity that Pakistan’s venal civilian politicians are incapable of fulfilling the promise of its brave human rights activists like Asma Jahangir. Until a competent civilian leadership emerges, Pakistan will continue to be dominated by its incompetent uniformed thugs.
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The weather-vane of the Republican party has a problem. His record. Even if some of his policies were pragmatic and defensible, he faces a party that rejects former conservative ideas when they are embraced by the Democrats, particularly Barack Obama. Mitt Romney has shown an impressive ability to change positions like a chameleon changes colors (and then to attack opponents for holding positions he held a short while back). Needless to say his opponents in 2008 pounced on this trait during the debates, particularly in the two videos below:
Now a democratic operative in South Carolina has added to Romney’s misery by preparing the attack ad below composed almost entirely of Romney statements.
Note to the rest of the Democrats – there is a treasure trove out there on YouTube that is begging for attention. Much of it does not even need to be “quoted out of context.”
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For all those who have wasted hours on one of the most addictive games in recent history:
Somehow seems appropriate that an Israeli comedy show came up with this.
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As expected, the birthers will not go away quietly into the night. At least not until Roger Ailes cracks his whip to force his in-house nitwits to move on to new alternate realities about the Democrats. The latest comes from Eric Bolling on Fox Business who gave a platform to Islamophobe Pamela Geller and regular Fox paranoid conservative Monica Crowley (she has a PhD from Columbia University?!?!?!) to question the authenticity of the President’s birth certificate. Video below:
As MediaMatters notes, the end of the video highlights the sheer stupidity of birthers. According to Bolling and Geller the fact that the family of the doctor (who died in 2003 before Barack Obama entered the national spotlight after his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention) was unaware he delivered a future President more than 40 years before his death casts doubt on the authenticity of the certificate. Nice to know that Fox Business lives down to the low standards of its parent “news” network.
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