Keep this in your sights

Glenn Beck is dangerous. I think he’s very dangerous. Neither Palin nor Limbaugh attract at such a deeply emotional level. And that is partly because Beck compels your attention. Even his critics can get momentarily drawn in (speaking as one of his critics). Beck is a new thing – at least in this modern media age.

He is going wherever the road leads – and he is  the one laying the paving stones.  Even Beck isn’t sure where he’ll land. I think he’s just making it up as he goes along and staying with whatever works (where have I heard that before?)

I don’t think he’s planning to run for any office. Doing that would force him to pigeon-hole himself to some extent; to address the issues of  whatever office he sought. Not really his style. I think his two favorite subjects are himself and things he fears or doesn’t understand and must therefore attack. He is really the epitome of the long and fabled paranoid strain in American political life.

Since I don’t think Palin is running for anything either, maybe the best  we can hope is for Beck and Palin to go at each other. That would be tidy.

From the business section of today’s New York Times: Glenn Beck Stakes Out Activist Role in Politics

So that’s what I saw . . .

In a post earlier this week, I described watching a ‘break dance’ at the Miami Book Fair. Alas, another sign of age – identifying something with a decades old name when in fact it’s something entirely new. (Which shouldn’t surprise, since I stopped being able to identify most cars a  l-o-n-g  time ago.)

This morning, The New York Times informs me that what I saw is called ‘jerking’. Right name or not, I got one thing right. It was the best of sidewalk theatre. And I was grateful to have been right there.

More Oliver

This morning I’ve been trolling some blogs I haven’t visited in a while. Old favorites, including Oliver Wills. I don’t know when I got out of the habit of checking in with him. When Oliver first moved into my line of sight, I think he was about 13 years old. Well, maybe he was 20. Or 21. Or something. His archives appear to be offline, so I can’t confirm when he began blogging. But I followed him pretty closely for a number of years. He was young and had such a fresh perspective. And it was cool to be my age and learn from someone so much younger. And it was reassuring to see someone his age caring enough to be informed. And in those days his graphics theme was all Superman, all the time. And I respected that!

This morning he brings us a little reality check. And he asks ‘where were the tea parties then?’

 

 

Good morning

It’s early enough in the morning to consider going back to bed. But I doubt our troops can do that today, the 45th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

All too familiar . . .

Bill Moyers will be retiring from TV in the spring. I’ll miss him.

Last night’s show was an hour examination of Lyndon Johnson’s painful journey to a course of action in Vietnam in the first year of his presidency. There were taped conversations – agonizing conversations – with Fulbright, McNamara, Russell, Bundy, Mansfield. No one, not a one, had a clear idea of what to do or even a favored course of action. And all the while of course, the hawks and the generals were calling for troops – for escalation.

Ultimately, it was the thrust of events that forced a decision.

Here’s Moyers (being as good as he gets):

Now in a different world, at a different time, and with a different president, we face the prospect of enlarging a different war. But once again we’re fighting in remote provinces against an enemy who can bleed us slowly and wait us out, because he will still be there when we are gone.

Once again, we are caught between warring factions in a country where other foreign powers fail before us. Once again, every setback brings a call for more troops, although no one can say how long they will be there or what it means to win. Once again, the government we are trying to help is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.

And once again, a President pushing for critical change at home is being pressured to stop dithering, be tough, show he’s got the guts, by sending young people seven thousand miles from home to fight and die, while their own country is coming apart.

And once again, the loudest case for enlarging the war is being made by those who will not have to fight it, who will be safely in their beds while the war grinds on. And once again, a small circle of advisers debates the course of action, but one man will make the decision.

We will never know what would have happened if Lyndon Johnson had said no to more war. We know what happened because he said yes.

Like kryptonite to stupid*

I noticed this myself  when I watched the trailer (?) earlier today for the apparently actual upcoming tea-bagger documentary. (Really. There is one.)

A black guy named Nate appears a LOT in the trailer. I think it’s probably because he’s so handsome, not because he was the only black guy they could find. Here are three of his five appearances.

*An early blog title by an early blog hero: Oliver Wills.

I like this. I really like this.

An email from Susie with an interesting idea from Gene:

If  hawks want more war and 40,000 more troops, let Obama address the nation and say “you want foot soldiers? It will cost you.” Then announce an immediate tax increase to pay for these  40,000 unfortunates.”

What a novel idea – pay for our wars! Let us never forget that Afghanistan/Iraq were the first wars we ever fought that were not accompanied by a tax to pay for them. (But then, it wasn’t so easy to borrow from China in those days.)

And further, let us not forget that budgets for the last seven years did not include the wars – they were ‘funded’ by ’supplementals’, so they stayed off the balance sheet. The current budget includes the cost of the wars.

You have to look for yourselves

It is . . . well, just go there. I would have thought even a Republican from Utah would know better.

 

We are truly kidding ourselves

It we really think Congress and  the associated agencies give a damn about decent governance. I wonder who owns the FEC these days?  Imagine this scenario: Congress passes a clearly reformist law. They look good doing it and pose for the pictures which no doubt will be used in the next campaign. And then their buddies at the Federal Election Commission undo things and we’re right back where we were. And  I guess Congressman It’s-All-About-Me gets to fly on the Goldman-Sacks jet again. (h/t Eric Alterman)

Wonder if this will make the nightly news?

What Glenn Beck meant

C”mon down Glenn ! The ‘weather’ is just perfect.

Going the extra mile

Because it’s worth it for the dear little things, and – as the sign says (in case you can’t read that bottom line):

KEEP OUR CHILDREN RADIATION FREE!

I like that exclamation point.

 

It’s movie time kids!

And here are your NICKELODEON Sponge Bob SQUAREPANTS Gummy Krabby PATTIES-Yummy Gummy Candy. They’re just full of all the things your mom . . . well, let’s be specific here kiddies. These babies are made of:

CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, GELATIN (BEEF), SORBITOL, CORN STARCH, CITRIC ACID, AGAR AGAR, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, MINERAL OIL, CARNAUBE WAS, BEESWAX and lots and lots of ARTIFICIAL COLOR so these will be really pretty.

They also carry on the box that Nutrition Facts label, so essential when evaluating your CARNUABE WAX.

The opening end of the package is sealed with a sticker that says “SEALED FOR YOUR PROTECTION” because we will not allow any harm to come to you little dears.

I wonder if they make them in chocolate?

Good morning

It’s almost ten a.m. on Saturday and it’s the 44th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

We can’t cure them, but we sure can kill ‘em

Things I know because Gene Lyons at Salon told me.

Projected cost of health care reform bill

• Annual cost – $100 billion
• Ten year total – One trillion

Pentagon spending projected

• Annual – $673 billion
• Ten year total – $6.73 trillion

For me, but not for thee

Ahhh, personal responsibility – a comforting principle and so, so easy to say, and so, so easy to use as a cudgel  and it even fits on a bumper sticker  -an absolute requirement for the politics of the scolds.

Not all people are smart

Not all people are able.

Most important of all, not all people are adults.

So just knock it off.

Good morning

It’s not yet ten o’clock on the 43rd day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan

And he could have been a congressman

I wuz robbed!

The almost-Congressman from NY-23 who was beaten by the Democrat, after the Palin wing of the GOP put him up because of the affront to their purity, represented by actual Republican candidate. Him. Odd looking man, looks slightly mad in fact. And while he was a neophyte at the time of his race, he sure has gotten him some savvy now. And he has brilliantly identified the cause of his electoral loss. ACORN, the unions and vote tampering by Democrats. It’s really a shame we’ve been denied this fine mind in our national legislature.

Intertubes slowing down?

Over the last weeks, it seems to me that internet access is slower than it used to be. Sites that used to load in mere seconds are suddenly taking up to a minute. Am I alone in this? Is Rupert Murdoch intervening between me and my ISP? Is this the beginning of socialized access?

Worthy of Jon Stewart

More and more these days, I find myself turning to Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times for a dose of context and sanity. Because he hasn’t become a ‘celebrity journalist’, he holds onto his credentials as an actual journalist, who forms his opinions as a columnist by doing actual ‘reporting’.  (Archaic. I know.)

This morning, he brings us some predictions – from 1964, when Medicare was a-bornin’.

“Critics storm that health care reform is “a cruel hoax and a delusion.” Ads in 100 newspapers thunder that reform would mean “the beginning of socialized medicine.”

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page predicts that the legislation will lead to “deteriorating service.” Business groups warn that Washington bureaucrats will invade “the privacy of the examination room,” that we are on the road to rationed care and that patients will lose the “freedom to choose their own doctor.”

Good morning

The sun is shining, I’ve had my coffee. I hope that is also true for American troops overseas, because today is the 42nd day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

Good morning

An old friend is visiting and we’re competing for laptop space and plugs. Which is kind of fun, but then I note that it is nearly noon on the 41st day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

And he’s right dammit

An old friend and a good man, has come some distance in recent years in his political thinking. One of the reasons is because he has spent the last two decades caring deeply about this country’s infrastructure, especially its transportation infrastructure.  He’s not been too happy with what he sees and is becoming more impatient to see any kind of action on the challenges we face. So I follow his doings and tongiht bring your attention to an editorial in his latest newsletter.

In it, he takes our President aside and points to a few sorry truths.

Everything old is new again. And again. And again.

Well, I may have nothing to say, but Jeff Toobin does. And he says it so very well in The New Yorker.

“In the United States, at the time the Constitution was adopted, abortions before “quickening” were both legal and commonplace, often performed by midwives. In the nineteenth century, under the influence of the ascendant medical profession, which opposed abortion (and wanted to control health care), states began to outlaw the procedure, and by the turn of the twentieth century it was all but uniformly illegal. The rise of the feminist movement led to widespread efforts to decriminalize abortion, and in 1973 the Supreme Court found, in Roe v. Wade, that the Constitution prohibited the states from outlawing it.”

Abortion will go on no matter what the law. And when it’s not legal, women die. That is all.

I gotta say, I’ve got nothing to say

And I will defend to the death my right to say it and my right to have nothing to say and my right to say that.

So just don’t tread on me.  There.

A slap on the back would be more American, yes?

While the usual cable and radio blowhards have apparently been shamed by the etiquette shown by their President  in Japan, David Sanger at The New York Times reminds us of another time, same place.

” . . . reminiscent of another argument over the exact same issue – 20 years ago.

“It was a different president, of course: George H.W. Bush, who came to the issue with some pretty solid credentials: as a young man who was shot out of the sky by the Japanese. And it was a different moment: The funeral of Emperor Hirohito, Japan’s wartime leader, and father of the current Japanese emperor.

“Mr. Bush was even newer to the presidency at that moment than Mr. Obama is today. Barely a month in office, he traveled to Tokyo for Hirohito’s funeral, declaring it was the right way to honor a former enemy turned ally. It was the first imperial funeral in many decades, a huge state event. And naturally it poured rain on the guests; ladies in their finest kimonos and Sumo wrestlers alike sank into the mud.

“Then came the moment: When Mr. Bush approached the emperor’s casket, he bowed deeply.”

So, to my fellow Americans for whom this is too much to bear, I ask with the greatest respect that you stick a sock in it.

Scholars in the sun

That’s what it felt like at the Miami Book Fair. Tens of thousands of people, moving easily around the designated venues on the astonishing urban campus of Miami-Dade College. Notebooks, schedules and sunglasses grasped in hand, looking

John Hodgman

toward the next event. Joyce Carol Oats! Taylor Branch! John Hodgman! (John Hodgman?) Some poetry perhaps. Or the star turn – for which I had a splendid seat – Al Gore himself. The uber celebrity of the young scholastic set. (Gotta admit, I was pretty darn star struck myself.)

No frowns, no angry faces, sunshine and smiles. And then, icing on my cake – a spontaneous break dance performance on a sidewalk in front of me. Six or seven teenage boys – volunteers at the Fair with their bright yellow teeshirts – removed  their badges and glasses and put down bags and ipods and phones in a pile. And to the beat of a music they pulled from the air to their ears only, began to dance and leap and walk on air. And after a few minutes a little girl, no more than four years old moved into their space and without missing a beat they surrounded her in a circle and made her their only audience. And she smiled and clapped and was soon trying to do what they were doing.

Don’t think I’ll forget that one soon.

Good morning.

It’s been a lovely break but time continues its relentless march and nothing changes. It is, sadly, the 40th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

One more thing

. . . and then I’m on my way – but I didn’t want to miss noting this little charmer which I just heard on C-Span. It seems that while the Republicans in Congress have been making sure that abortion is squeezed out of  Public Option or otherwise subsidized health plans . . . wait for it . . . the Republican National Committee provides its own staff with coverage for elective abortions. Isn’t that thoughtful of them? (And don’t say ‘but it’s not gov’t money’ – you believe it or you don’t believe it.) They’ve offered this abortion coverage for 18 years.

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly has the story.

Off to Miami!

Light posting for the next few days. Very shortly I’ll jump into my trusty vehicle, unhealthy volumes of coffee and Diet Coke at my side, and head off to the Miami Book Festival.

It’s a great event, and tomorrow morning Paquita and I have tickets to hear Al Gore. And in the afternoon we’ll hear Taylor Branch.

If I don’t float away first on a sea not-good-for-me!! beverages.

Good morning

A little after nine on a lovely morning which is also the 36th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan

Good news?

My generation remembers well the horror of the Vietnam War going nowhere, of the endless call for more troops, more troops. We remember the deaths, the tragic, often drug addicted, veterans stumbling home, having given their future to their country. So many. We eventually sent half a million troops to Vietnam. And we lost. And that took 15 years. To what end for this country?

So my hackles go up when the call for more troops for Aghanistan gains steam.

I’m encouraged this morning. The  The New York Times carries a story about the clash brewing between McCrystal and the former Afghan ambassador, himself a retired  top Military American Commander there, who is publicy questioning the need for troops.

From the Times’ story:

In the national security meeting ” the president pushed for revisions in the options to clarify how — and when — American troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government. He raised questions, officials said, about the exit strategy for American troops and sought to make clear that the commitment by the United States would not be open-ended.”

Good morning

Sunrise

It’s ten a.m. on the 35th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

Last night, as Veteran’s Day (formerly Armistice Day, a celebration of a war’s end) wound down, Obama gave those vets a gift. He turned down McCrystal’s four proposals – which were really just variations on a theme. All four had to do with troop levels. So let us see what’s coming and what the discussion is going forward. And take all the time you need Mr. President. Step back in this ninth year of the war and take a long, long look. And ask the questions, the first of which is, why are we there, and what do we want to accomplish.

Hypnotic. Ab-so-lute-ly

Lifted from Andrew Sullivan again. He finds great videos. A lot.

 

He doesn’t even hear himself

Chris Matthews just opened his show with “Happy Veterans’ Day!”  His language skills are seriously lacking – not his motor mouth skills, they’re in fine shape – but what kind of an idiot says ‘happy’. Does he want all the parents and spouses and children of those who’ve died serving to go out and party? What a putz.

UPDATE: Sleepygirl and Ed point out that Veterans’ Day is NOT Memorial Day. And they are right. Oh my god, I have to apologize to Chris Matthews? Okay. I apologize.

Next time, ask your nurse if she has health care

At his site, Andrew Sullivan has begun another of his occasional  ’series’, where he invites readers to submit photos or anecdotes or stories relating to a certain subject. His latest series is called The View From Your Sickbed.  Today he publishes this from a reader:

A personal story: my girlfriend has a tumor on her ovary and no health insurance. She’s taking her last class for her nursing degree, but since she’s not going to school full-time, she’s not elligible for insurance through the school. She has two jobs bartending, neither of which offer health benefits, working nights so she can spend her days studying and taking care of her six year old daughter (who thankfully is on her father’s insurance).

I don’t know a person who works harder than her and who gives so much of herself to others.

It is a travesty that the country she lives in–the richest in the world–can’t provide her and people like her decent affordable health insurance. Arguments over funding abortion are trivial in comparison to the magnitude of health care problems facing millions of people every day in this country. As a supporter of reproductive rights, I’ll happily cede that ground to the anti-abortion zealots and fight another day, if it means people in the same boat as my girlfriend are able to have access to the care they need.

Veterans’ Day

It is seven a.m. on the 34th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan. Just hung the flag out on the front porch.

Good morning

It’s not quite noon of the 34th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan

This is serious stuff

To the boys and girls in Washington, DC, who have the reins of the governance of 300 million people in their hands:

Refusing access to medical insurance for living children with cancer because you have moral objections to a woman availing herself of a legal medical procedure is not in itself moral.

Why can you not understand that?

Well, lookee here

Ever wonder who voted AGAINST the Franken rape amendment a few weeks back? Here ya go.

The pictures are out of alignment because I wasn’t able to grab a single image and manipulate it to fit;  this is actually 30 individual images and each one is link.  For the full effect – and to see all of them -  go to the source.

The map shows the distribution of who tolerates rape and who doesn’t (based on how the senate voted).

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)	Richard Shelby (R-AL)	Jon Kyl (R-AZ)	John McCain (R-AZ)	Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)	Mike Crapo (R-ID)	James Risch (R-ID)	Sam Brownback (R-KS)	Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)	Mitch McConnell (R-KY)	David Vitter (R-LA)	Thad Cochran (R-MS)	Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Kit Bond (R-MO)	Mike Johanns (R-NE)	John Ensign (R-NV)	Judd Gregg (R-NH)	Richard Burr (R-NC)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)	Jim Inhofe (R-OK)	Jim DeMint (R-SC)	Lindsey Graham (R-SC)	John Thune (R-SD)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)	Bob Corker (R-TN)	John Cornyn (R-TX)	John Barrasso (R-WY)	Mike Enzi (R-WY)

What will it take?

A true believer

For the Secret Service to get a little closer? Or even the DC police. Isn’t standing outside an elementary school calling two of the students ‘”satanic spawn” threatening enough? How about disturbing the peace, or perhaps “something-or-othering” the pubic commons?

Witness Fred Phelps et al  protesting outside Sidwell School:

“You pretend to be all non-violent, and you allow the most bloody, deceitful, evil, murderous bastard and his shemale sidekick to place their satanic spawn within your four walls?”

UPDATE: This mitigates it a bit.