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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Archive | July, 2009

Sen. Ensign: Mommy, Daddy, Will You Pay Off My Mistress?

By on 10 July 2009

Man, John Ensign brings new meaning to the words, Who’s your daddy?

A statement by his lawyer, Paul Coggins, on behalf of the Mr. Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, said that in April 2008 the senator’s parents each gave $12,000 apiece to Cindy Hampton, her husband, Doug, and two of their children in the form of a single check for $96,000.

“The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts,” the statement read. Under federal tax regulations, $12,000 is the most that a person can receive as a gift from any one person without having to declare or pay taxes on it.

Ah, right, gifts.

Looks like the Republican pretty boy veterinarian got caught with his tale wagging. You know, since the pay offs to the woman he was sleeping with were made during the time of their affair. That they just meet the legal limit you can give, I’m sure, is a coincidence.

Hey, but let’s remember. John Ensign is really the model Republican for Nevada. A place where Gov. Gibbons’ own sex scandal seems to signal a standard for the Republican Party.

The GOP’s inappropriate sexual promiscuousness really goes well beyond Nevada. Take Gov. Sanford, Sen. Vitter, Sen. Craig… going all the way back to Newt Gingrich. So, don’t worry, John. After all, Republicans don’t really have anyone to take your place. They’ll take you just the way you are.

As for Democrats… Calling Shelley Berkley?

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Clarence Thomas’s Patron Tries to Swiftboat Joe Sestak

By on 10 July 2009

“”We’ve learned today that Arlen Specter can abandon his party, but he just cant quit making Republican swift-boat attacks on the integrity of Democrats who served in our military,” Sestak also said in the statement. He added, “My question to Arlen Specter is this: do you regret voting for George Bush and John McCain? Why should Democrats support someone like you who actively campaigned as recently as last year for politicians with values like George W. Bush?” – CNN… “Specter: Sestak a ‘flagrant hypocrite’”

As a woman, every time I see Arlen Specter, all I can remember is his reprehensible double standard and flagrant character assassination against Anita Hill. That Hill was recently vindicated after Thomas weighed in that strip searching little girls is constitutional, you’d think Specter would be at least a little humble. But, no. It seems now that he’s got a real challenger for his Senate seat, he’s turned his vitriol from attacking women to attacking a military veteran.

Yeah, that’s my kind of Democrat.

SPECTER: I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.

But seriously, what is it about Republicans… er, I mean… Oh, right, Specter is now a “Democrat.” But it seems he just can’t quit opining like Rush Limbaugh, as he attacks a 35-year dedicated military man trying to find something with which to ding Joe Sestak’s resume.

Good luck with that.

I guess Specter learned well from Kurt Weldon, the guy Sestak demolished, especially once I published the piece that Weldon couldn’t figure out why he ducked the military.

This time it’s Specter, trying to make a story out of Sestak’s years as a Democrat, when as a leading military officer, party affiliation isn’t exactly something people in the U.S. Armed Forces parade around on their sleeve.

No doubt Arlen Specter would channel Rush and Dick Cheney in insulting Colin Powell too.

…and the weird part of it is, why in the world would Specter attack on political party loyalty? Considering he just became a Democrat in order to keep his job, I guess he thinks Pennsylvanians are stupid.

It seems Clarence Thomas’s patron can’t wait to put a veteran’s scalp next to Anita Hill’s.

Knowing quite a bit about Joe Sestak, I’d say Specter better gear up. He’s not a woman who you can basically call a liar, while acting as a beard for Clarence Thomas. The only Supreme Court justice who thinks strip searching little girls is constitutional.

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Netanyahu: ‘Suffering from Confusion and Paranoia’

By on 09 July 2009

Haaretz has quite an article up on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, revealing what a small man he’s become, even in his own mind. Requiring validation from every quarter, while evidently being shocked and dismayed that Pres. Obama is fully concentrated on American interests first.

Poor Bibi, waking up to the reality that there won’t be Bush-Cheney enabling anymore. (I can hear AIPAC pals in Congress stirring as you read.)

Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communication normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.”

“He thought that his speech at Bar-Ilan would become mandatory reading at schools in the United States, and when he realized that Obama gave no such order, he went back to being frustrated,” one of his associates said.

“Self-hating Jews” refers to any Jewish person who believes a two-state solution is critical to Israel, as well as the Palestinians.

With Rahm Emanuel leading this policy prescription without apologies, he’s become a target, as has Mr. Axelrod. Thankfully, none of the neocon criticisms have deterred the Administration.

I’m certain that Secretary Clinton exhibiting no daylight, as they say, with he boss on this issue has also led to Bibi’s recent “confusion and paranoia.” Many predicted Clinton would offer a back channel. Not so.

Kadima chief Tzipi Livni has reportedly been courted by Netanyahu, which isn’t surprising. But she’s outwardly a two-state supporter, something that Bibi talks about, but whose actions haven’t backed up. Though, let me add, Livni’s opinions are not always what they seem, political maneuverings ever a constant partner in Israeli politics regarding a two-state solution, to which Ms. Livni is not immune.

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Obama – Congressional – CIA War Breaks Out

By on 09 July 2009

In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,” said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers. – Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress for Years

You really have to go back to Panetta’s May 15th statement to CIA employees to understand what’s unraveling right now. It begins:

There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone.

CQ reported this week that House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Reyes wrote to Rep. Hoekstra (the Republican leader on the Committee) that the CIA indeed “affirmatively lied to” Congress during briefing sessions.

“These notifications have led me to conclude this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to,” Reyes wrote.

The letter pictured above requests CIA Director Panetta to “publicly correct” his May 15th statement, given his subsequent June 26th letter. He has declined.

Speaker Pelosi has been in a running battle over intelligence briefings for months, with her critics believing this is all about providing her cover.

As for the Intelligence Authorization Bill, President Obama has issued his first veto warning if the bill includes an expansion of congressional participants in classified briefings that goes beyond the “Gang of Eight,” to include entire members of the intelligence committees.

The bottom line is that Panetta evidently told congressional leaders on June 26th, however obliquely and without pointing a direct finger at George Tenet or the Bush-Cheney administration, that Congress had indeed been misled. But if you read Panettas May 15th statement, that it is “not our policy or practice to mislead Congress, That is against our laws and our values…” The difference between what was done during the tenure of another director and under a different Administration, doesn’t negate CIA policy and practice, according to Panetta. He also states in that statement that leaders were “briefed truthfully” on Abu Zubaydah. This directly refutes Speaker Pelosi, but doesn’t go any further to include other briefings referenced in the June 26th letter, which Reyes and others are insisting Panetta make official.

As for briefing a larger number of congressional people on sensitive covert and national security actions, Obama is right to keep control of who is briefed and how many. I still don’t understand why a provision isn’t written in that members who are briefed can be permitted through statute to seek official legal counsel that has a further channel to find remedy, if what they’re hearing in those briefings alarms them.

The reality is that Panetta has to protect the integrity of the Agency. If he sells out, so to speak, a prior director or employees for following orders, how much trust will he have with his people?

Another reality is that Obama can’t allow sensitive national security information to be in the hands of a wide group of congressional representatives, especially in the partisan atmosphere of Capitol Hill, where not everyone is a grown up and partisan politics takes precedence.

But making clear what Bush-Cheney allowed the CIA to do with briefings to Congress, which is mislead them directly or by omission, is important and goes well beyond any cover people are saying it offers Pelosi. It sets the record straight on what we already know happened through Cheney’s bullying of Agency analysts. It’s been reported, congressional Democrats simply now want it made official.

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a moment, please…

By on 09 July 2009

We’ve had a shocking family tragedy, so forgive me for being a bit tardy in posting this morning.

I’ll have something up to talk about soon… as for the tragedy, an explanation will come on another day. Thanks for bearing with me this morning a bit.

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Was Palin Moose Hunting When Clinton Was Being Slimed?

By on 09 July 2009
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Honestly, where was Sarah Palin in the 1990s? Did she fall off an iceberg and miss it?

According to St. Sarah, no other woman came before her. She’s like the immaculate politician, going through fire first and experiencing all sorts of press hell, going where no other person has ever tread.

The money section in Jay Newton-Small’s Time article (h/t Think Progress):

At one point during the campaign you said Hillary Clinton whines a little bit too much about being in the public eye. Do you now sort of sympathize with her?

What I said was, it doesn’t do her or anybody else any good to whine about the criticism. And that’s why I’m trying to make it clear that the criticism, I invite that. But freedom of speech and that invitation to constructively criticize a public servant is a lot different than the allowance to lie, to continually falsely accuse a public servant when they have proven over and over again that they have not done what the accuser is saying they did. It doesn’t cost them a dime to continue to accuse. That’s a whole different situation. But that’s why when I talk about the political potshots that I take or my family takes, we can handle that. I can handle that. I expect it. But there has to be opportunity provided for truth to get out there, and truth isn’t getting out there when the political game that’s being played right now is going to continue, and it is. When you realize that it doesn’t cost them a dime and it’s a fun sport for some, you know it’s going to continue. I love Alaska too much to put her through this in a lame-duck session.

That any female politician could say with a straight face that Hillary Clinton didn’t have to endure lies, including after the accusations had been proven false, is so pathological you’ve got to wonder if Sarah slipped and hit her head on her fishing boat, taking on water when she fell in the water, swallowed a fish that had her blacking out, causing oxygen to momentarily not get to her brain.

But, no. This is just Sarah being Sarah.

What Palin calls “fun sport for some” is exactly what Hillary Clinton had to endure for over two decades going back into Arkansas territory, when political enemies hunted her for sport.

Does the name Kenneth Starr ring a bell, Mrs. Palin? How about the whoppers that came out of Sean and Rush’s mouths about murdering Vince Foster? Or the one about Hillary being a lesbian, which morphed into further lies that she was having an affair with her assistant?

Women supporting her better get down with the fact that Sarah Palin would sell you and your interests out in a heart beat if she thought she could further her own ambitions. This is nothing new, of course, but maybe this time it will sink in.

Sarah’s the center of her own universe that resides in a parallel world that doesn’t have reality as ground zero.

Words fail.

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TM-DC Podcast

By on 08 July 2009
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The latest podcast is up.

The beautiful wet moose should have been the clue. Since I didn’t do a broadcast last week, Sarah Palin’s resignation and two-week notice to her boss, the people of Alaska, she’s a big part of the podcast. …so is Michael Jackson, a real stunner of story.

Some links: John Fund’s excuse, Palin still strong among GOP, aka “never underestimate the GOP rank and file.”

As with all my podcasts, remember, they’re not at all like the reporting or blogging I do. It’s like radio, only it’s a podcast.

Enjoy. (Dave’s Top 10 is a hoot.)

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7.8.09: Remembering Michael Jackson; Sarah Palin Resigns, Dave Laughs

By on 08 July 2009

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Palin’s Mavericky Popularity

By on 08 July 2009

The challenges for Republicans remain among swing voters, which is no surprise. Sarah Palin doesn’t help that, but she’s no worse than anyone else on the right, while her popularity with her GOP peeps is strong.

When it comes to a potential presidential run, the USA TODAY Poll displays Palin’s strength in the Republican base and weakness among swing voters, who traditionally decide national elections. Republicans by 71%-27% say they’d be likely to vote for her if she ran for president in 2012, while independents by 51%-44% would not.

“Don’t know what the future holds,” Palin said Tuesday on ABC. “I’m not gonna shut any door. That — who knows what doors open?”

But as everyone spins their angle on why she resigned, with my take still where we should anchor for now, it’s John Fund who offers a wacky version that’s fitting of Palin’s own mavericky acting out. It’s all because of FOIA. I kid you not.

This situation developed because Alaska’s transparency laws allow anyone to file Freedom of Information Act requests. While normally useful, in the hands of political opponents FOIA requests can become a means to bog down a target in a bureaucratic quagmire, thanks to the need to comb through records and respond by a strict timetable. Similarly, ethics investigations are easily triggered and can drag on for months even if the initial complaint is flimsy.

Evidently, the Wall Street Journal will print anything these days.

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Stimulus II?

By on 08 July 2009

–updated–

I’d like to smack all those conservative Democrats up side the head with the federal check book. What were they thinking and why did Obama let them thwart what could have made the stimulus do the work it was supposed to do? However, Obama says he’s happy with it, even if Sen. Whitehouse believes another one is needed, while Sen. McCaskill, Obama’s super fan, says it’s a “non starter.” Floating what looks inevitable isn’t working so well, now is it? I’d believe in it if I didn’t think we’d just get part two of what hasn’t worked fast enough in the first place.

Steny’s hinting we may need a second stimulus, while Harry Reid would rather walk to into a casino and bet the house rather than propose one.

The economists have a different opinion:

“To my mind it’s pretty obvious we need another stimulus package, probably a lot bigger than the last one,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “It’s horrible that you have all of these people suffering because you have people in Washington with rocks in their head.”

Paul Krugman concurs.

Laura Tyson, one of the Clinton’s econ gurus, said all along the stimulus was too small and she’s still saying it. Earlier this year I heard Tyson speak, with her feeling we can afford a $10 trillion short fall, if it’s only in the short run.

“The money is just really starting to come out in more significant amounts now,” Tyson said. “The stimulus is performing close to expectations but not in timing.”

Frankly, looking at this from the political analysis side since I’m not an economist, all I see are danger signs ahead. If Democrats wade into the stimulus II water we hand Republicans all sorts of talking points for 2010, which since the economy isn’t rebounding as hoped is beginning to set up in places like Ohio as nothing good. Seriously, have you seen these numbers? However, considering I never believed the first stimulus was put together in a way that would provide what was needed, the talk of a second stimulus is totally understandable. But the politics for Democrats and Obama are treacherous if they do.

Republicans are looking for their issue and a second stimulus on top of one that’s working too slowly will bring out the econ hawks. A second stimulus will put them over the top.

It will also likely give people fodder for why health care will be too expensive.

Bad set up. (…unless you’re Mitt Romney.)

Duck! Here comes the punch line.

In a research note that’s been making the rounds of economics blogs this week, Berner declares that “America’s long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now under way.”

By “train wreck,” he means out-of-control federal budget deficits that he’s sure will finally drag the economy under — as if we weren’t already feeling badly enough about its shaky state.

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Patrick Murphy Takes on DADT

By on 08 July 2009

–bumped–

From The Hill:

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has taken up the mantle as the chief opponent of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in Congress, and he’s confident the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military will get its first full committee hearing in a decade and a half this session.

Murphy, a second-term Democrat, will be lead sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell” — a policy first passed by Congress and signed into law under President Bill Clinton.

“It’s our job,” Murphy said of a repeal. “This was an act of Congress in 1993 and it will take an act of Congress” to reverse it.

Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is evidently promising Murphy the bill will get a full hearing this year.

Let me hear a hu-rah!

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Michael Steele on Palin: ‘I take 2012 off the table’

By on 07 July 2009
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Talk about elites panicking. Someone should tell Michael Steele that Sarah Palin has other ideas, as she begins to Palin gather names, smartly.

But Michael Steele has spoken. Without even talking to Sarah Palin, the self ordained omnipotent head of the RNC has deemed running for the presidency, according to him, is a no-go for Sarah.

“Not having talked to the governor, I take 2012 off the table right now simply because given everything she’s going through personally, dealing with the financial mess that all these ludicrous investigations have put her and Todd in, at the moment, I think she’s trying to focus on getting her house in order, her personal house in order,” Steele told FOX News. “I look forward to welcoming her out and helping us in our campaigns this fall if and when shes ready to do that. Sarah Palin will be the ultimate arbiter of when she will engage and how she will engage,” he said.

As ABC’s Kate Snow wrangles the big get.

“The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy, so you can’t afford to serve,” she said, calling the attacks “bull crap.”

But in the end we are watching the GOP establishment rise up, which leads back to Mr. Kristol:

If you have an anti-mainstream-media and anti-GOP-establishment bone in your body, it’s hard not to root for her at least a bit.

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Coverage of A Cultural Icon

By on 07 July 2009

“I just want to say, ever since the day I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. I just want to say I love him so much.” – Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, at the end of her father’s memorial

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It’s tough when the boss says you have to cover a world event when you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about or the sensibilities to even feign wonder that you don’t, letting those who do opine instead. At least CNN puts up a pretense that what they’re covering is news, that it matters to millions. Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC joining the Peter King – Bill O’Reilly tone deaf contingent, as the elite look down on the cultural phenomenon that was Michael Jackson, making fools of themselves in trying to make sense of what’s unfolding. Contessa Brewer trying to get a word of reporting in here and there amidst Ratigan’s embarrassing blathering. For TV cable coverage, it’s ugly out there.

“…I recognize that’s a lot of conjecture and speculation on my part. … That’s not news. That’s not toxicology. That’s me sitting here looking at circumstances and saying, You tell me how it is if you look at all the factors. Am I crazy to be thinking this?” – Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC’s “Morning Meeting”

Hey, but if you want disrespect and disgust, and Ratigan, King and O’Reilly aren’t enough for you, Lisa De Moraes is your girl.

Plenty of venom cued up just for MJ’s memorial.

Ratigan’s guest commentators today illustrating their inner imbecile as they try to equate any part of their life to Jackson’s. That stratospheric talent has no comparisons, except if you want to lump in Elvis, though he had the good fortune to live and die before non stop cable and new media broke loose.

But you’ve really got to wonder what King thought his comments were offering. Why Bill O’Reilly’s media criticism is even relevant, as he does yet another impression of Mr. Wilson telling those kids to turn down that radio. O’Reilly and King just two more ignorant cultural commentators who think that attacking a dead man they judge unworthy will somehow add to the public discourse. It’s amazing the venom of “Christians” targeting people they hate, showing no humility at all for the accomplishments they themselves could never reach, because in their own lives the purpose is only to judge others and offer pious pronouncements on cultural phenomenons they levy as unworthy.

The intense media coverage of Michael Jackson is warranted, but many of the people opining proving they are woefully inadequate to the moment. They are exhibits of a cultural divide and insensitivity just as wide as between what happened during the ’08 primary season’s “bittergate.” If you’re not in that crew you are simply on the outside looking in. You’ll live, as everyone else takes a moment to stop and note the passing, but more importantly, the talent of the man who spent a short time on this planet.

The world headlines will continue.

The bedlam being unleashed in China will remain; Iranian fissures ever present; health care reform splintering in all directions noticed.

We can handle the pause for this person.

So let the stuffy sniveling be secondary, taking a few hours on a few days, which culminates today, to celebrate the uplifting nature of art, of culture, and what music and performances from this man meant. Like him or not, Michael Jackson was a quintessential export of these United States. A product of America.

Besides, celebrating art matters; today it’s MJ’s rendition of it.

Jackson’s passing is noteworthy, because what he created is part of what helps us through what life delivers.

I can’t imagine the Vietnam War without the music; the soundtrack of our battles.

Music marks the passing of our life, our stages from young to old, our victories, defeats, escorting us along.

Play a certain piece of music and you can be immediately transported. That feeling returns.

MTV made music video take a spot next to what only could be heard and felt, with Michael Jackson shattering the barriers in that world.

So, if nothing else, today is a moment to step outside the cerebral nature of being human and think for one moment of something beyond what the average person can create.

We all know how Michael’s story ended. Horribly. …and he’s paid for what his choices wrought.

Believe me, this creative stuff isn’t easy; the dedication to perfection of art by someone like Jackson is enough to kill you even without the drugs.

Few escape the pitfalls of performance, especially started as a child, which twists a person’s character because of flights of perfection and drive that pushes you toward better expression. Yes, it sometimes ends in mania.

And there’s always the taskmaster somewhere in the story, whether you’re Sally, John or Michael. For Jackson, it was his father. A man who beat him, “threw him up against walls,” according to his son, and terrified him.

Many artists, including myself, have teachers of varying insanity we remember and hear whenever we decide to step up on the stage to make magic. They never leave you. That tyrant who screamed how bad a performance was, if only for your own good so you’d rise again to higher heights. The instructor with the harsh glance that made you shrivel when you found out they saw that missed mark. Terrifying judgments that leave deep scars.

But when the lights are on and the miracles happen, all that disappears and you wouldn’t change a moment for kindness.

One can only imagine what it meant to be Michael, talented, driven crazy by a parent, as well as his own ambition and, yes, genius. Don’t think for a moment Jackson would trade any of it. It’s the price for fame, as they say.

Michael Jackson is yet another troubled artist who struggled to keep on the even side of normal and failed.

Quite apart from the life, there’s the gift that’s being celebrated by many people around the world, but particularly the artistic community, led by black artists. Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer, as well as Martin Luther King III, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and many more.

Oh, for one moment of grace and acknowledgment, because you don’t have to understand what it’s about to pay your respects to what’s unfolding.

I bet you didn’t know Jackson graciously returned Little Richard’s music to him even though it was worth several million to Michael if he’d kept it.

That’s only one story King and O’Reilly don’t want told, Ratigan remaining clueless while just trying to fill two hours. But it’s not surprising that these upper crust white guys don’t get it. They’re too busy competing with Jackson, the coverage, the celebrity of it, trying to sound relevant juxtaposed against a creative genius they cannot understand, because they don’t create.

Michael Jackson’s life has been delivered to his God, who will judge him as he lived. That’s not our place. A little humility is in order, though you won’t find it in the coverage.

It’s simply time to celebrate and enjoy the concert amidst the media circus, which is where Michael Jackson lived his whole life.

Breaking news will have to wait.

“I grew up on his music. Still have all his stuff on my iPod. I think that his brilliance as a performer also was paired with a tragic and, in many ways, sad personal life. But I’m glad to see that he is being remembered primarily for the great job that he brought to a lot of people through his extraordinary gifts as an entertainer.” - President Barack Obama

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Did Toppling Saddam Inspire Iran’s ‘Green Wave’?

By on 07 July 2009
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Christopher Hitchens asks this most astounding question in his latest column. I could see tapping what happened in China yesterday, at least tangentially to Iran, but Iran’s “green wave” to Iraq? Hitchens is too smart for this, but he tries to rewrite history anyway, as another pro invasion neocon attempts to find cover, tying it in to the remarkable event over the holiday weekend.

It may not be the final tipping point that sends the “green wave” to the shores of freedom, but it’s evidence that there is no turning back now.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult.

“The New Democrats” article in TNR, a true must read for anyone interested in understand Iran beyond the 101 stage, will give you an idea of the Persian pride of the Iranians, but also the Shiism splintering that “has been roiling Iran for more than a century.”

That is at least a partial answer to Hitchens’ question, even though he evidently missed it, even as he points to the same TNR article. But I’ll cite Hitchens as he continues to argue in the affirmative for the American toppling of the Iraqi dictator.

But consider this: Many Iranians go as religious pilgrims to the holy sites of Najaf and Kerbala in southern Iraq. They have seen the way in which national and local elections have been held, more or less fairly and openly, with different Iraqi Shiite parties having to bid for votes (and with those parties aligned with Iran’s regime doing less and less well). They have seen an often turbulent Iraqi Parliament holding genuine debates that are reported with reasonable fairness in the Iraqi media. Meanwhile, an Iranian mullah caste that classifies its own people as children who are mere wards of the state puts on a “let’s pretend” election and even then tries to fix the outcome. Iranians by no means like to take their tune from Arabs—perhaps least of all from Iraqis—but watching something like the real thing next door may well have increased the appetite for the genuine article in Iran itself.

I’m flabbergasted that someone who’s had the opportunity to safely travel to Iran, as well as interview Iranians, something I continue to covet (though Iran isn’t the only spot on my wish list itinerary), so blows his analysis.

It’s just as easy to say that the bitter disappointments of Khatami, with the subversive actions by Khamenei aiding in his failures, an Ayatollah who has little scholarly credentials, led modern Persians, a majority of whom are young and love what we stand for in the West, simply to risk all to regain more of what Persia once meant to the world. Not an outcast, but a leading force.

Hitchens, in trying to wrap the invasion of Iraq around Iran’s remarkable “green wave” makes a mockery of what Iranians are doing from the inside out. Seeking independence the old fashioned way, through their own will, as the modern Persian populace of Iran rise up willing to die for what they want their country to be, taking on risks at all costs. Not because a superpower did it for them.

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Are You Ready for Michael Jackson Tuesday?

By on 06 July 2009

Consider this your Monday brain break.

We’ll start with the quote of the day, part one:

Just because you don’t know what Sarah Palin is doing doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

Part two comes compliments of Palin’s attorney speaking to Andrea Mitchell, who, by the way, is taking Michael Jackson Tuesday off.

“… She laid out exactly the reasons she had for stepping down and it was really a form of self-sacrifice.”

To add… Rush reacts from an undisclosed golf outing.

Here’s the Palin HuffPost piece I wrote.

Okay. Fox News Channel pushes the Republican wedge deeper with an analyst that isn’t anymore impressive than anyone else they’ve got over there. But it does reveal that some Republicans sure want Sarah Palin to exit permanently, though there are no signs that’s what she’s willing to do.

On another subject entirely, a dishy, summer page turner is being teased today by the New York Post: JACKIE’S DOOMED LOVE – WITH RFK.

According to Gore Vidal, “The one person Jackie ever loved . . . was Robert Kennedy.”

“You had to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see it,” recalled Kennedy family friend Chuck Spalding, who often traveled with the pair.

Dreaming of taking down Joe Lieberman again? Via an interview in Playboy Magazine, Alec Baldwin talks about retiring from acting in 2012, after his contract expires. What then?

BALDWIN: I have sometimes thought I could move to New Jersey or Connecticut and run. I’d love to run against Joe Lieberman. I have no use for him. But it’s all fantasy. I’m a carry-me-out-in-a-box New Yorker. Here, anything can happen. Who thought Eliot Spitzer would go down the way he did? Senator Hillary Clinton left to serve as secretary of state. Two of the biggest forces gone. Maybe Andrew Cuomo will run for one of their old seats. How much longer will Chuck Schumer stay as senator? After 2013 Bloomberg will be gone. What happens then? Do I run for Congress on Long Island? What’s Tim Bishop going to do? He represents my district. People get sick, die. They’re offered lucrative deals and want to cash in and make money for their retirement. People misstep. Unfortunately, an opportunity for me may mean bad things for someone else. I don’t wish that.

Obama’s still traveling. With Al Franken’s swearing in to finally take place tomorrow in D.C.

Video compliments of Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson’s ex-wife, who had a bit of a public meltdown when meeting the press.

TMZ reports that Mariah Carrey will perform, with “I’ll Be There” the possible song she’ll sing.

The only hope in salvaging the day for the media is if it turns into a juicy concert. CNN starts at 6 a.m.; MSNBC 11 a.m. (Can’t preempt “Morning Joe” or the new lame line up that follows thereafter, though I’m personally thankful no one has to listen to Dr. Nancy. Poor woman doesn’t realize that on TV you have to entertain.) However, no one will provide the virtuoso dancing tomorrow. If you saw the BET awards recently you witnessed how unlikely that is.

Doubtful any news will impede the Michael Jackson memorial. After all Sarah Palin can only resign once.

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Robert S. McNamara Changed

By on 06 July 2009

“He’s like a jackhammer,” President Johnson said. “No human being can take what he takes. He drives too hard. He is too perfect.” – Ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara Dies at 93

Coming from Johnson, the king of political jackhammers, that’s quite a statement. Though as history has proven over time, Robert S. McNamara was anything but “perfect.” Labeling Kennedy pulling missiles out of Turkey “luck that prevented nuclear war,” in the end McNamara’s reflections on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations was welcomed candor from someone who was there.

Like Barry Goldwater before him, Robert S. McNamara upon retirement came to a philosophical shift that was the product of experience, watching the world from the driver’s seat and ending up a man whose life’s work and storyline ended up dramatically departed from where he started.

All stories about McNamara must include Errol Morris’s 2003 documentary “Fog of War” that includes “Rolling Thunder,” the massive and aptly named bombing campaign. More clips are available here, here, here, here, here.

After the New York Times piece yesterday, which reveals where Obama’s “nuclear-free vision” began, but also the press conference held today with Obama and Russia’s Medvedev, it’s impossible not to quote McNamarra’s views (h/t FP) as they existed at the end of his life.

If the United States continues its current nuclear stance, over time, substantial proliferation of nuclear weapons will almost surely follow. Some, or all, of such nations as Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Taiwan will very likely initiate nuclear weapons programs, increasing both the risk of use of the weapons and the diversion of weapons and fissile materials into the hands of rogue states or terrorists. Diplomats and intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden has made several attempts to acquire nuclear weapons or fissile materials. It has been widely reported that Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former director of Pakistan’s nuclear reactor complex, met with bin Laden several times. Were al Qaeda to acquire fissile materials, especially enriched uranium, its ability to produce nuclear weapons would be great. The knowledge of how to construct a simple gun-type nuclear device, like the one we dropped on Hiroshima, is now widespread. Experts have little doubt that terrorists could construct such a primitive device if they acquired the requisite enriched uranium material. Indeed, just last summer, at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said, “I have never been more fearful of a nuclear detonation than now.… There is a greater than 50 percent probability of a nuclear strike on U.S. targets within a decade.” I share his fears.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution resounded loudly during the lead up to the Iraq war, though Democrats and Republicans in Congress weren’t listening, which allowed the Bush administration to launch a war based on fictional reports of WMDs in Iraq. It proved that the U.S. hadn’t learned the lessons.

“It didn’t happen.” – Robert S. McNamara

Neither did WMDs in Iraq, but only David Kay could bring himself to be as forthright.

The best of our leaders after a long life are able to learn from participating in history and share what they’ve learned through confessions that often don’t serve their own interests, but something larger. McNamara, one of the “best and brightest”, was just one of those leaders.

The cost of not learning from people like McNamara is still manifesting daily. If you don’t learn from history… you end up where we are today.

“… .. …On November 11, three days after the McNamara recommendation to introduce combat forces, there was a new McNamara paper, done with Rusk, which reflected the President’s position. … Kennedy would send American support units and American advisers, but not American combat troops. We would help the South Vietnamese help themselves. …” The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam (pg. 201)

Sound familiar?

Only now we’re also sending American combat troops.

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Biden Statement Unleashes Nervous Nellies

By on 06 July 2009

“Whether we agree or not. They’re (Israel) entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. What we believe is in the national interest of the United States, which we, coincidentally, believe is also in the interest of Israel and the whole world. And so there are separate issues. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.” – Vice President Joe Biden

Translation is obviously required, but I frankly don’t know why.

Except that our Middle East policy has been tied to the hip of Israel’s for so long people can’t accept when someone is saying bluntly that we do not control what Israel does. The Obama administration will continue on our own course, believing our policy is in everyone’s best interest.

However, if you want to see how treacherous the mine field around stating the obvious about Israel in regards to Iran is all you had to do is read the responses after Vice President Biden was on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. First the sequence of statements by Obama’s veep:

The United States, Mr. Biden said in an interview broadcast on ABC’s “This Week,” “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.”

“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” he said, in an interview taped in Baghdad at the end of a visit there.

…If Mr. Biden’s comments on Israel and Iran were perhaps off the cuff, he did not back away from them when given a chance to do so.

George Stephanopoulos, the program’s host, asked: “But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?”

And Mr. Biden replied: “Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination — if they make a determination — that they’re existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country.”

First, there are no “mixed signals” on Iran.

The U.S. cannot dictate to sovereign nation their actions to protect their own country, whether we’re talking Iran or some other country. This is news?

Yes it is for people who haven’t shaken off the Bush-Cheney neocon lock step theory of Israel is joined at our hip foreign policy strategy.

Newsflash: Israel is not under our thumb and shouldn’t be.

Israel decides for herself what is in the country’s best interest and we don’t determine what that is. Again, the Bush era of driving U.S. Middle East policy through Israel is over.

If any message should be sent to Arab nations this one is it.

It’s preposterous to take away from what Biden says that we’re somehow giving Israel a green light to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In fact, what Biden is actually doing is what the U.S. should have done a long time ago. Separate our foreign policy towards Iran from Israel, sending a message that whatever Israel does is on Israel. That we have nothing to do with their foreign policy decisions, even if we’ve also sent every signal that any strike on Iran would be destabilizing, as Adm. Mullen reiterated on Fox yesterday.

It’s not often I think it wise to disagree with Marc Lynch, but this is one of these times. He goes on to cite the “poorly sourced” Times of London piece about some Saudi nod as evidence of making things more dangerous, as well as unhelpful, let’s just say, after Yosemite Bolton’s recent op-ed.

As for interpretation, well, that’s the problem here. Almost everyone is running around with their rhetorical reaction on screech. It illustrates the nervous Nelly syndrome of most people on the Middle East, even when the Administration’s vice president states the obvious.

Haaretz picks up on Biden’s statement.

JPost.

Israel is her own guide.

The U.S. has no business inside Israel policy. Besides, we’ve made our feelings very clear. Adm. Mullen:

Asked about Biden’s comments, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday the U.S. position on Iran and a military strike involves a “political decision.”

“I have been, for some time, concerned about any strike on Iran. I worry about it being very destabilizing, not just in and of itself but unintended consequences of a strike like that,” Mullen said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that is very destabilizing,” he said.

It’s long past time to separate U.S. policy from whatever Israel thinks they need to do on Iran.

Meanwhile, engagement is our policy, if Iran accepts the invitation. That’s a pretty clear message to Israel as well.

So what’s the problem? There is none.

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Right Wing Hate Marches On

By on 06 July 2009
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Next target, Judge Sotomayor, compliments of Randall Terry.

See Right Wing Watch for the full plan, but here’s an excerpt:

“We must stop permitting this hypocrisy, cowardice, and treachery in our midst. Pro-life voters are calling on pro-life Senators to filibuster Sotomayor.

“A Senator cannot say, ‘I want to overturn Roe,’ and then vote to confirm a Supreme Court Judge that will uphold Roe. A vote to confirm Sotomayor is a vote to uphold Roe.

“Many senators use pro-life rhetoric to seduce us; they get our money, our volunteer labor, and our votes. But once an election is over, they discard us like an embarrassing mistress. They say that they want to overturn Roe, but they do little or nothing to protect the innocent. Whether they are ‘pro-life’ Republicans like John McCain (AZ) and Sam Brownback (KS), or pro-life Democrats like Ben Nelson (NE) or Robert Casey (PA), we have been lied to again and again.

“Whether they ‘have the votes’ to sustain a filibuster or not, they need to fight to stop her, for the sake of the babies who will die under her judicial reign.

Filibuster Sotomayor Tour… (read on)

The “Filibuster Sotomayor Tour” was first announced via “Christian News Wire”. Forever dumbing down the meaning of “Christian” to something closer to raving lunatic, one event at a time.

This post has been bumped.

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Sarah Palin’s Second Chance

By on 05 July 2009

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. “It’s just not true.” He added that there was “no wiggle room” in his comments for any kind of inquiry. – Sarah Palin not under FBI investigation, agency spokesman says

For those of you just tuning in, the reinvention of Sarah Palin has already begun.

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It begins with tough words and direct rebuttals, a good place to start. The Palin team makes clear that anyone defaming Sarah Palin is putting themselves in line to hear from Sarah’s lawyers. Now, I’m not a fan of the governor’s policies, but good for her. Nobody should have to take wholesale defamation from any quarters, particularly in the media (old or new), which her lawyer warns will not be ignored. Via Politico, there’s a four-page letter warning against it.

Almost immediately afterwards, several unscrupulous people have asserted false and defamatory allegations that the “real” reasons for Governor Palin’s resignation stem from an alleged criminal investigation pertaining to the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex. This canard was first floated by Democrat operatives in September 2008 during the national campaign and followed up by sympathetic Democratic writers.1 It was easily rebutted then as one of many fabrications about Sarah Palin. Just as power abhors a vacuum, modern journalism apparently abhors any type of due diligence and fact checking before scurrilous allegations are repeated as fact.

The FBI spokesperson couldn’t have been any clearer. “Absolutely no truth… no wiggle room” in their statement.

Call off this witch hunt.

Not that any of her fans paid any attention to it or that it dampened their enthusiasm for Mrs. Palin.

“Sarah Palin is America’s Margaret Thatcher,” reads one comment out of dozens and dozens on her Facebook page.

“I am sooooo sorry for the way you have been treated as well as your family. It only has happened because you are a threat to the powers that be!,” read another.

“Run Sarah, Run ! We need you now , more than ever. Palin/Romney 2012,” another fan encouraged.

Greetings from Baghdad! Go Sarah, GO!

Plenty of dissenters too: “Quitter-in-Chief of Alaska. You actually believe you can become President of the United States? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha…my stomach hurts from laughing.”

Taking a walk through her Facebook fan comments, anyone who thinks her political career is over doesn’t get it. They also don’t know Sarah Palin, but particularly haven’t listened to her fans, the base of which likely doubled this weekend, if not because of her wacky resignation speech and politically weird decision to bail on her governorship, but because of the reaction to it by the media, old and new alike.

On the flip side there is another “1,000,000 strong against Sarah Palin” Facebook group as well.

We know many things right now. But one thing is for certain. With Palin free of her governorship she can travel the country for Republicans in 2010 likely being the hottest ticket in any town, not stopping with trips inside the U.S. She will draw gigantic Obama sized like crowds wherever she goes and will make huge headlines, even as she refuses national media, picking her conversations and outlets much more carefully than she did the first time around making sure that friendly journalists get the nod first.

We’ll see if Palin’s presence on the 2010 stump makes a difference for Republicans. If it does, she’s done what’s needed, because Romney, Huckabee and Newt combined won’t be able to do what she can with crowds, which is why she decided to dump the governorship in the first place. It’s an albatross looking at 2012.

Oh, and one more thing for all those people who think she’s “finished,” that she “can’t possibly run now,” that she’s “history.” (Andrea Mitchell is likely pulling her hair out about now.) It was hilarious when it was said then but after what she posted late yesterday (while I was getting ready to see fireworks) on her Facebook page, I’d say anyone doubting she won’t be a contender going forward is deluding themselves. (ps… and I got my wish.)

In the 2008 election season, nobody was tougher on Palin than I was and for good reason. She was unprepared, ill-equipped and uninformed on all foreign policy issues, making a mockery of women who know what they’re doing but don’t have her other gifts, like the “it” political factor, which Palin has in abundance that draws people to a person regardless of it being earned. Sarah’s now got another chance. She has to sense the millions of people behind her, because she saw it in action during the ’08 election.

Men get second chances all the time and regardless of my polar opposite political views, Sarah Palin deserves equal to what any man would get as long as next time she comes equipped with the knowledge required for the job she seeks. After all, it shouldn’t be too hard, George W. Bush did it.

Democrats, put down your mockery and pay attention. A prepared Palin would be formidable, don’t kid yourselves.

“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness! God bless you! And I look forward to making a difference – with you! – Sarah Palin (via Facebook page – full July 4th statement below

Oh yeah, baby, 2012 here she comes.

Happy 4th of July from Alaska! Today at 4:55pm On this Independence Day, I am so very proud of all those who have chosen to serve our great nation and I honor their selflessness and the sacrifices of their families, too.

If I may, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the last 24 hours and share my thoughts with you.

First, I want to thank you for your support and hard work on the values we share. Those values led me to the decision my family and I made. Yesterday, my family and I announced a decision that is in Alaska’s best interest and it always feels good to do what is right. We have accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two – and I am proud of the great team that helped to build these wonderful successes. Energy independence and national security, fiscal restraint, smaller government, and local control have been my priorities and will remain my priorities.

For months now, I have consulted with friends and family, and with the Lieutenant Governor, about what is best for our wonderful state. I even made a few administrative changes over that course in time in preparation for yesterday. We have accomplished so much and there’s much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most. And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier – I’ve never been one to waste time or resources. Those who know me know this is the right decision and obvious decision at that, including Senator John McCain. I thank him for his kind, insightful comments.

The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.

I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America. I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!

God bless you! And I look forward to making a difference – with you!

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A July 4th Celebration

By on 04 July 2009

5:10:08 PM: It’s been a rock ‘n roll day at our house, compliments of Deep Tracks. Happy 4th to all. Fireworks in DC tonight!

5:12:28 PM: Thinking about our soldiers and the families who support them. Hu-rah. We toast you tonight.

6:29:40 PM: Walkin’ in. Past marshes.. beauty of a waterbird… and bull frogs! What a night.

8:36:12 PM: Potomac is a boat, dingy, yacht parking lot waiting for fireworks.

9:33:22 PM: THE MOST SPECTACULAR ART SHOW IN THE SKY EVER!!! What fireworks!!

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