TM Connect


Use "My TM" for log in & register.

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

Archive | August, 2010

Public Consensus Coalescing Against Afghanistan

By on 03 August 2010

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Retired U.S. Army Colonel Bacevich talks about the similarities when it comes to Republicans and Democrats on national security. For candidate Obama, this was one thing his supporters believed was different about him. I knew it wasn’t and said so, but it is a big reason Pres. Obama hinds himself up against it right now.

V.P. Joe Biden and other establishment Democrats are pushing back hard against a growing narrative, saying we’re not nation building in Afghanistan, when that’s exactly what we’re doing and have been for years, certainly since Obama came into office. It proves how freaked the Administration is that this talking point will take hold. Anti Afghanistan war advocates made the mistake a long time ago by not grabbing this meme from the start (something I’ve written about for a very long time).

For details on the ground read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s piece today about Kandahar, the new Baghdad.

Voters and supporters took Obama’s anti Iraq war stance to mean something it didn’t. That’s not his fault. But in politics people get mad at politicians for their own inability to go behind the political marketing that seduced them in the first place once governing doesn’t match the promises they feel were made.

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows a public consensus building against the Afghanistan “war”, and going beyond the polling, this includes some Democrats and Republicans in Congress who have had it and are getting vocal about it. A lot of progressives joining together to vote against funding just recently. Afghanistan is starting to make allies out of the left and right, a coalition that could help bring the public’s frustration to root in policy. Via USA Today:

Public support for President Obama’s Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.

Support for Obama’s management of the war fell to 36%, down from 48% in a February poll. Now, a record 43% also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The decline in support contributed to the lowest approval ratings of Obama’s presidency. Amid a lengthy recession, more Americans support his handling of the economy (39%) than the war.

Who can blame anyone for being frustrated on Afghanistan, especially considering domestic challenges that continue to rise? The people have good reasons to want to withdraw from that country, with Iraq a place we should definitely no longer be fighting.

Pres. Obama’s language on Afghanistan is the problem. He’s trying to make bad news sound good, or in the case of Afghanistan, an obviously failed strategy sound plausible, with even people like me who have supported his broader purpose there the last 18 months no longer buying the strategy he’s selling, because Gen. McChrystal’s career implosion made it clear that COIN as implemented simply wasn’t working.

Obama intends to stay the course in Afghanistan until one year from now. It will likely be a very long year. If conservative Republicans decide to join Democrats against Afghanistan, Pres. Obama will be in for it, but that’s a very big if.

Read full story · Comments { 7 }

New Yorkers Reveal Best of American Spirit

By on 03 August 2010

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9 to 0 against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, where the $100 million center would be built. That decision clears the way for the construction of Park51, a tower of as many as 15 stories that will house a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, and a pool. Its leaders say it will be modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. – Mosque Near Ground Zero Clears Key Hurdle

The same cannot be said for conservatives, Sen. Joe Lieberman, as well as that bastion of wingnuttery Newt Gingrich, and fear cheerleader Sarah Palin.

Lieberman’s statement was particularly classic. That he delivered it on the Don “nappy-headed hos” Imus show is just too ironic. Lieberman said he was “troubled by it, but I don’t know enough to say that it ought to be prohibited.” What a schmuck. He doesn’t know enough, but he weighed in on the side of temporary bigotry just to be safe.

There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. The right wants to punish an entire religious group for the actions of 19 fundamentalist extremists. It’s un-American.

Thank the gods for the New Yorkers who stood up against this religious bigotry, as well as the hysteria coming from the Pamela Geller nut squad.

I love New York, including those fearless New Yorkers who know that the Cordoba House mosque near Ground Zero is the best F-U to extremists that can be sent.

Read full story · Comments { 12 }

Robert Reich: Activist phase of Obama Administration Comes to a Close

By on 03 August 2010

Whatever the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections, the activist phase of the Obama administration has likely come to a close. The president may have a fight on his hands even to hold on to what he’s already achieved because his legislative successes have been large enough to fuel strong opposition but not big enough to strengthen his support. The result could be disastrous for him and congressional Democrats. – The Obama Agenda and the Enthusiasm Gap

The enthusiasm gap that handed Virginia to Obama is gone where health care is concerned, with a federal district court judge advancing a law suit against the Affordable Care Act. The Obama administration has responded by drilling down on the ruling, saying that it doesn’t go to the unconstitutionality of the health care bill, but recognizes that Va. attorney general has standing. As one attorney told me, it’s a chance to work through it in discovery.

Mr. Reich talks about the people angle in his Wall Street Journal article:

The health-care law, too, is big enough to have unleashed fierce attacks about a “takeover” of the health-care sector. But it’s not nearly large or bold enough to assure most people truly affordable care in the future. By leaving the system in the hands of private for-profit health insurers rather than building on Social Security and Medicare, the law continues to subject most Americans to escalating costs. Yes, people with pre-existing conditions will gain coverage, and those who become seriously diseased can’t be dropped. But most Americans will have to contract with insurers that already have or will be able to gain significant market power.

On another note, Republicans have surged back into the lead on the generic ballot, according to Gallop.

As for establishment Democrats, it’s something that’s stayed below the radar until Rep. Rangel’s ethics violations, with Pres. Obama’s relationships with the Congressional Black Caucus getting more daylight. It will be interesting to watch on all fronts.

Read full story · Comments { 14 }

DRUG WAR: Mexican Drug Gangs Exacting Control Over Press

By on 02 August 2010

Nevada, a swing state, has twice rejected pot legalization initiatives in the past, though support increased to 44 percent in 2004, the last time it was on the ballot. Supporters plan to put it on again in 2012. Whether it can pass isn’t some Democrats’ top concern: As long as it can get unlikely voters to a polling station they’d otherwise avoid, it’s a success. – Could Pot Drive Turnout In Key Elections?

Two weeks ago when all hell broke loose on the border just across from Laredo, Texas, not a single word about it appeared in the local news media in Mexico. Kidnapping journalists is nothing new there, which shows no signs of abating. Meanwhile, drug cartels are now using car bombs in their attacks, a clear escalation that CBS dubbed “al Qaeda tactics.” Christian Science Monitor did another side of the al Qaeda – Latin American drug cartel story back in January. From CBS:

“There’s a lot of homicides in any hour, any day of the week,” said Marco Flores Lopez, a crime reporter for TV Azteca Sonora. Nowhere is bloodier than Juarez. This city just across from El Paso, Texas is more dangerous than Baghdad — with more than 1,000 drug related slayings so far this year.

Gov. Brewer’s walking while Hispanic law that codifies racial profiling won’t do anything to curb the reality in Mexico, but instead makes a mockery of what’s happening across the border. Neither Ms. Brewer’s law or Sen. Kyl’s demagoguery about curtailing birthright citizenship address Mexico’s challenge.

Mexico has areas that now threaten the country’s populace and could turn it further towards a burgeoning narcostate. We need a much more aggressive immigration policy beyond Pres. Obama’s strong and laudable efforts, including legal visa expansion, but Pres. Obama and Congress should be highlighting what’s happening beyond our southern border, including that Pres. Calderon is failing to do what any president must, keep the Mexican people safe. Calderon seems to have lost control over areas of his country.

So, while we focus on terrorism in Afghanistan and Central Asia, closer to home a disturbing reality has been unfolding for a very long time, getting much worse over the last year, but not in Arizona.

Carlos Lauria, the Latin America director of the Committee to Protect Journalists commented that “The Mexican government cannot lose this fight over information. It is at the very center of democracy.”

Nuevo Laredo has three television news channels, four daily newspapers and at least five radio stations that broadcast news, but every outlet ignored the biggest story of the year. Nuevo Laredo is not an isolated village but the busiest city along the U.S.-Mexico border, a vital U.S. trade partner with a population of 360,000, professional sports teams, universities and an international airport.

Fearing for their lives and the safety of their families, journalists are adhering to a near-complete news blackout, under strict orders of drug smuggling organizations and their enforcers, who dictate — via daily telephone calls, e-mails and news releases — what can and cannot be printed or aired.

“We are under their complete control,” said a veteran reporter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Editors and managers of news organizations who agreed to speak with The Washington Post insisted that the interviews take place away from their offices, at back tables in empty bars. “The cartels have eyes and ears inside our company,” one editor said. [...]

What Mexico is facing, which could impact U.S. border states immensely as it grows, goes well beyond Gov. Brewer’s push to double down on what’s already in federal law. This is a federal national security issue that Pres. Obama should deal with openly, loudly and directly with Congress’ help that should have happened years ago under George W. Bush, but our leaders simply couldn’t get it done.

U.S. southern border security is a political hot potato, because neither political party will come at it as a national security issue first. Answers like building a fence, as well as xenophobic anti immigrant laws, are not only anti-American but cosmetic and don’t address the Mexican/South American cartel issue.

President Calderon blames U.S. drug consumption: “The way they see it, they are fighting our war on drugs,” said Jenkins, the Rand Corp. analyst who was quoted recently by CBS. Calderon declared war on the cartels, deploying over 45,000 troops. But Mexico’s drug enemies bring in over $25 billion. He’s got a war alright, which means we’ve got one raging, not in Arizona, but across the border that is percolating.

A bunch of Brewer state laws won’t do anything to address this.

If the press is muzzled, parts of Mexico are clearly on the verge of imploding. A larger issue nobody, including Gov. Brewer, Republicans and Democrats, especially conservatives in both parties and Pres. Obama seem to want to take on directly.

There is also simply no evidence whatsoever that the U.S. political structure is mature enough to address the drug issue beyond “declaring war,” which simply assures an unending cycle of insanity. Ask Pres. Calderon. Certainly someone in the U.S. national security structure under Obama has a clue that Mexico is at war, not unlike Afghanistan is with the narcotraffickers.

So, what’s the plan? So far there isn’t one that comes close to working.

It seems the entire U.S. political establishment, but especially people like Gov. Brewer and her allies, think that this is all about immigrants on our side. No one is educating the public, so the knee jerk reaction is to support a law because it’s seen to do something as the feds hide their heads and do nothing. But no amount of state anti-immigrant laws will take on Mexico’s internal combustion.

The collective naïveté, which on the conservative side is rank stupidity, on the “drug war” reveals that no one is learning anything as the bodies and territory seized by the cartels pile up in Mexico. Throwing a bevy of state laws aimed at immigrants, as Mexico’s teetering status violently tips, won’t do squat.

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

The Filibuster

By on 02 August 2010

“Sit and watch us for seven days,” one senator says of the deadlocked chamber. “You know what you’ll see happening? Nothing.” – George Packer, New Yorker

ILLUSTRATION: STEVE BRODNER

ILLUSTRATION: STEVE BRODNER

If you want to know why one reason why the Senate is like it is George Packer’s article in the New Yorker on the filibuster lays it out.

Tom Udall, a freshman Democrat from New Mexico, could not recall seeing a senator change another senator’s mind. “You would really need a good hour or two of extensive exchange among folks that really know the issue,” he said. Instead, a senator typically gives “a prepared speech that’s already been vetted through the staff. Then another guy gets up and gives a speech on a completely different subject.” From time to time, senators of the same party carry on a colloquy—“I would be interested in the distinguished senator from Iowa’s view of the other side’s Medicare Advantage plan”—that has been scripted in advance by aides.

While senators are in Washington, their days are scheduled in fifteen-minute intervals: staff meetings, interviews, visits from lobbyists and home-state groups, caucus lunches, committee hearings, briefing books, floor votes, fund-raisers. Each senator sits on three or four committees and even more subcommittees, most of which meet during the same morning hours, which helps explain why committee tables are often nearly empty, and why senators drifting into a hearing can barely sustain a coherent line of questioning. All this activity is crammed into a three-day week, for it’s an unwritten rule of the modern Senate that votes are almost never scheduled for Mondays or Fridays, which allows senators to spend four days away from the capital. Senators now, unlike those of several decades ago, often keep their families in their home states, where they return most weekends, even if it’s to Alaska or Idaho—a concession to endless fund-raising, and to the populist anti-Washington mood of recent years. (When Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House, in 1995, he told new Republican members not to move their families to the capital.) Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader, said, “When we scheduled votes, the only day where we could be absolutely certain we had all one hundred senators there was Wednesday afternoon.”

Nothing dominates the life of a senator more than raising money. …

Of course, this doesn’t address the very notion of politics today, which goes beyond raising money. The reality that most politicians exist to support their party’s structure over the interests of constituents, as well as their own purpose to drive issues, and that Congress is no longer an equal branch of government. The independence that is needed for issues to prevail is punished by the party to which they belong. Back the president if he’s in your party, or just say no to everything on his agenda that his people are trying to pass if he’s not.

The founders weren’t crazy about political parties and there was a reason they weren’t. Their prescience is today’s politics and our punishment.

Read full story · Comments { 8 }

Washington Post’s Tom Shales Attacks Christiane Amanpour

By on 02 August 2010

What did I tell you? It began in March. Tom Shales right on cue:

Perhaps in keeping with the newly globalized program, the commendable “In Memoriam” segment ended with a tribute not to American men and women who died in combat during the preceding week but rather, said Amanpour in her narration, in remembrance of “all of those who died in war” in that period. Did she mean suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?

He cannot be serious. It’s so laughable that Washington Post editors must be shooting for page views to help keep their sinking profit margin boosted online.

Tom Shales’ review of Ms. Amanpour is swiftboating high art. I know you won’t be shocked that Newsbusters is delighting in his derisive attack. Considering the way Shales judges women, it’s understandable that right-wingers would relate.

But Shales takes out after Christiane Amanpour’s impressive reporting history by diminishing her 27-year resume. Ms. Amanpour has tackled the toughest subjects and gone places on earth Shales has not ever seen. His misogynistic mumbling reduces Amanpour to a “globe-trotting Fancy-Pants” that is unbefitting this career professional and the respect she has earned.

Even so, the adept and likable Tapper stood a good chance of steering “This Week” into the kind of dominance that “Meet the Press” has so long enjoyed. And it didn’t require any globe-trotting Fancy-Pants to do it.

As for “pomp and panoply,” that’s hardly Amanpour, who’s done everything she can over her decades-long career to stay out of politics. At least he didn’t say Iranian globe-trotting Fancy-Pants, which we all know is where Shales’ beef really lies. Though after calling her “Little ms. Politics,” no one should doubt that Shales simply has a problem with women.

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

Sarah Palin Gets More Like George W. Bush Every Day

By on 02 August 2010

…no one in the Democratic leadership — not President Obama, not Nancy Pelosi, not Harry Reid — is arguing against extending the tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year ($200,000 a year for individuals). Indeed, the Obama administration — irresponsibly in my view — has said those “middle class” cuts should be made permanent. The only disagreement is over whether to let the tax cuts expire for the upper brackets — at a cost of about $700 billion over ten years. – Ruth Marcus

“Demagoguery and hucksterism,” that says it all about where conservatism is today.

It’s not the media’s fault that independents don’t like Sarah Palin (see video).

This is not the conversation I want to have about leading female politicians and Sarah Palin shouldn’t be serving herself up like this. Notes on the woman’s palm, facts wrong even then, a veteran news anchor playing along like it’s okay. Palin’s fans may find it charming, but being unprepared and uninformed isn’t charming.

The right would have exploded with derisive venom and photoshopped hillbilly photos if Speaker Pelosi had shown up to talk to Christiane Amanpour with hand notes on her palm. But at least maybe Pelosi would have made sure the scribble on her hand was correct.

Mrs. Palin couldn’t even get that part right.

There is something very weird, frightening even, when you compare Sarah Palin’s treatment to what Hillary Rodham Clinton went through for 16 years. Hillary was demonized for the smallest things, with caricatures made vilifying Hillary in the worst ways. Can you just imagine if Hillary had come on “Fox News Sunday” (or any other Sunday show) with notes on her palm? The sound of the collective head explosion on the right would have been deafening.

There is simply no excuse for a professional female politician in the 21st century to present herself like this, especially while pointing the finger at political opponents and challenging their intestinal fortitude, as if “cojones” is all it takes to be president.

We had one cowboy in office and we don’t need a cowgirl.

As for Palin’s palm prompter, transcript via Think Progress:

“My palm isn’t large enough to have written all my notes down on what this tax increase, what it will result in,” Palin continued.

Host Chris Wallace noticed that Palin did indeed have something written on her palm. “Can I ask you, what do you have written on your hand?” he asked.

“$3.8 trillion in the next 10 years,” Palin responded, “so I didn’t say $3.7 trillion and then get dinged by the liberals saying I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Chris Wallace laughs while asking Palin what’s on her hand, but her inability to even remember the simplest number reveals a stunning lack of depth that is appalling. That she dares to put herself above people currently in government reveals her arrogance, which she’s proving herself isn’t justified.

Ignorance and arrogance are a very dangerous combination in someone who has the ambition of Sarah Palin. She’s getting more like George W. Bush every day and we all know how that ended.

This essay has been updated.

Read full story · Comments { 24 }

Bond, Bourne, and then came SALT.

By on 01 August 2010



Female action heroines have arrived. Angelina Jolie rocks and delivers as Salt.

From “bitch is the new black,” to exactly what I’ve been talking about when it comes to women talking tough on national security (original essay here). Ladies, we’ve arrived. Strong men will welcome the shift. It’s not kumbaya, but maybe it’s a bridge to getting women respected as men on issues like national security so we can begin the shift to offering our own way forward given time. Of course, I’m now talking way beyond culture and action film characters.

On that note as a jumping off point, there is a story in the New York Times about targeted killing in Afghanistan. I’m not surprised or alarmed by this story, though I realize I’m among the minority around here. In fact, it’s exactly what Pres. Obama should be doing.

Eight months later, that counterinsurgency strategy has shown little success, as demonstrated by the flagging military and civilian operations in Marja and Kandahar and the spread of Taliban influence in other areas of the country.

Instead, what has turned out to work well is an approach American officials have talked much less about: counterterrorism, military-speak for the targeted killings of insurgents from Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Faced with that reality, and the pressure of a self-imposed deadline to begin withdrawing troops by July 2011, the Obama administration is starting to count more heavily on the strategy of hunting down insurgents. The shift could change the nature of the war and potentially, in the view of some officials, hasten a political settlement with the Taliban.[...]

Obviously, we can’t kill our way to stability. What we need is a way through to make deals with certain Taliban in a power sharing arrangement, however that can be made and by whatever means that saves U.S. soldiers’ lives, as well as Afghan civilians.

McChrystal’s departure dovetails with a shift away from COIN, and towards what V.P. Biden suggested all along, which was reiterated on “Today.” Counterterrorism is back in style and with a vengeance.

“We are in Afghanistan for one express purpose: Al Qaeda,” he said. “Al Qaeda exists in those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are not there to nation-build. We’re not out there deciding we’re going to turn this into a Jeffersonian democracy and build that country.”

Biden’s response on “nation-building” is exactly what I expected, because as I’ve written for over a year that’s what we’re doing in Afghanistan. Notice that Joe Scarborough has been beating that drum hard lately? If that talking point gains steam Obama’s cooked. He can’t allow that, so the subtle shift, which Gen. Petraeus’s presence allows.

My beef is that the U.S. doesn’t allow women to become snipers or fight in forward areas. Women can shoot as well as any man. It’s time to open that door.

Screen capture of Ms. Angelina Jolie via photos from Huffington Post.

Read full story · Comments { 12 }

Christiane Amanpour Breaks ‘If it’s Sunday, it’s Misogyny’ Sunday Show Ceiling

By on 01 August 2010

–bumped–


The Sunday political shows are the most important news shows in politics. It’s when people beyond the obsessed sometimes check in to see what’s going on. Women have been missing since the major networks Sunday show inception. ABC’s “This Week” changes all that this Sunday with Christiane Amanpour.

Candy Crowley for CNN was the first woman to break through on Sunday, with Christiane Amanpour the first on the big three. Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer have made Brian Williams the last man standing on the big three nightly news shows.

I began ranting at the late Tim Russert’s “If it’s Sunday, it’s Misogyny” MTP foundation years ago. Politico finally wrote on the subject in June 2010, after the ladies election night cemented the Hillary effect was in full force. On Russert’s shows where religion, abortion and “family values” were discussed, there was seldom if ever a woman invited on to share headliner status. David Gregory continued the status quo when during the health care debate when the Stupak amendment was raging, one important Sunday when the headlines focused on abortion, Gregory didn’t have one female headliner, not one on to discuss a topic that impacts women more than any man. Thanks to Rachel Maddow’s growing prominence, “Meet the Press” and their Executive Producer Betsy Fischer have been forced to welcome Maddow on the show. She can get Gregory ratings he cannot get himself.

There is a lot happening for women today. It’s been happening slowly for quite some time, which Hillary’s historic presidential candidacy broke out into the open. After all, Hillary’s 18 million cracks is why McCain chose Sarah Palin, and the rest is history unfolding, with the Hillary effect in action, the Washington Post the first to write about it where world ambassadors are concerned.

The Atlantic Magazine is featuring a provocatively titled summer piece by Hanah Rosin, (ahem) “The End of Men.” Not crazy about the title, but it includes interesting data points.

Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But for the first time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed. Cultural and economic changes always reinforce each other. And the global economy is evolving in a way that is eroding the historical preference for male children, worldwide. Over several centuries, South Korea, for instance, constructed one of the most rigid patriarchal societies in the world. Many wives who failed to produce male heirs were abused and treated as domestic servants; some families prayed to spirits to kill off girl children. Then, in the 1970s and ’80s, the government embraced an industrial revolution and encouraged women to enter the labor force. Women moved to the city and went to college. They advanced rapidly, from industrial jobs to clerical jobs to professional work. The traditional order began to crumble soon after. In 1990, the country’s laws were revised so that women could keep custody of their children after a divorce and inherit property. In 2005, the court ruled that women could register children under their own names. As recently as 1985, about half of all women in a national survey said they “must have a son.” That percentage fell slowly until 1991 and then plummeted to just over 15 percent by 2003. Male preference in South Korea “is over,” says Monica Das Gupta, a demographer and Asia expert at the World Bank. “It happened so fast. It’s hard to believe it, but it is.” The same shift is now beginning in other rapidly industrializing countries such as India and China.

Rosin also tangentially addresses what I talked about back in April. We have different threads, but I discussed the militaristic language of men used by women like Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney, as well as people like Jane Harman and others where national security is concerned. Talking like men because there’s is the language on national security people recognize, with women not yet breaking out and free to craft our own way on matters of war and peace. Rosin’s slant is different, but still fits the general narative.

In fact, the more women dominate, the more they behave, fittingly, like the dominant sex. Rates of violence committed by middle-aged women have skyrocketed since the 1980s, and no one knows why. High-profile female killers have been showing up regularly in the news: Amy Bishop, the homicidal Alabama professor; Jihad Jane and her sidekick, Jihad Jamie; the latest generation of Black Widows, responsible for suicide bombings in Russia. In Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, the traditional political wife is rewritten as a cold-blooded killer at the heart of an evil conspiracy. In her recent video Telephone, Lady Gaga, with her infallible radar for the cultural edge, rewrites Thelma and Louise as a story not about elusive female empowerment but about sheer, ruthless power. Instead of killing themselves, she and her girlfriend (played by Beyoncé) kill a bad boyfriend and random others in a homicidal spree and then escape in their yellow pickup truck, Gaga bragging, “We did it, Honey B.”

The advent of Christiane Amanpour on “This Week” has already revealed one campaign launched against her (with Tom Shales as front man), because of who she is (born in Iran to an Iranian father named Mohammad), but also because she reported on Islam for CNN, while also being an honest broker on the Middle East and Israel. Let’s see who comes after her next. On the first show she will interview the most powerful woman in American politics, Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Love her or hate Pelosi, she’s no Sarah Palin, not a quitter, and not relegated to pontificating on Facebook. Though to give credit where it’s due, Sarah Palin made history on the Republican ticket and no female in Republican history has ever possessed her star power and impact on conservatives, which has nothing to do with Executive Branch viability. However, Pelosi has risen steadily in a male dominated arena to be the first female Speaker of the House, no easy feat, though her legacy will be forever weighed down by her Bart Stupak – Catholic Church arranged alliance, as far as many of us are concerned.

I’ll be watching on Sunday when Ms. Amanpour makes history. Women have been doing a lot of that lately.

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

Sunday News Round-Up

By on 01 August 2010

Good morning and happy August 1st! If anyone knows where the summer went, let me know. Below is a video of latte art, which I think is pretty cool.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZs__m5iAI] On this day in history, Aug. 1, 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against the Nazi occupation.

Here is a rundown of the Sunday talking heads coming to a tee vee near you.

Links to go with your morning coffee/tea:

~Prosecutors in Oregon have announced there is insufficient evidence to bring sexual assault charges against former VP Al Gore.

~Once again, Obama waffles back and forth on a key issue and in the process alienates both the left and the right. They are continuing to stall on announcing the venue for the trials of key terrorism suspects, including KSM, some of whom still have not had charges formally brought against them despite years of detention. Some are saying they won’t make an announcement before November.

~Tension between India and China simmer below the surface as each side ramps up their efforts to secure a disputed border along the Rohtang Pass in the Himalayas. The significance of this is that both countries are increasing their military presence on this particular border, making some foreign policy watchers nervous that an actual conflict could ensue.

~How can anybody not see this headline as the perfect summary of everything that is wrong with Congress: “Despite anger over BP oil spill, Washington might not act on it.” Yeah, we wouldn’t want to do anything hasty, now would we? I mean, now that we know BP engages in practices which make it more likely than not that there will be more problems with deep water drilling, we wouldn’t want to play offense, would we? Nah, better to wait until the next catastrophe and then point fingers at others when trying to assign blame. Speaking of oil spills, an oil pipeline in Michigan burst leaking over a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River and surprise, surprise- the same sort of claims of totally inappropriate regulator-industry shenanigans are turning up in this case but instead of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) it’s the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA.

~Pressure is being applied to the Palestinians to engage in direct peace talks with Israel. Some say that the administration has said that the so-called “settlement freeze” could be extended as an incentive to get Abbas to the negotiating table. Aaron David Miller has yet another depressing commentary up over at Foreign Policy about how direct peace talks are a political trap and will likely yield no results. I totally understand Miller’s cynicism but given his stature on this issue due to his having been a part of Mideast talks with several different administrations, I am starting to wonder why he keeps pushing the “we are all doomed” scenario. I guess I am left wondering what he thinks the U.S. should or shouldn’t do because he never seems to speak to that.

~Birther Queen Orly Taitz is in the news again. Her latest tin-foil-hat stunt is to attempt to appeal the imposition of monetary sanctions against her – the sanctions were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and she has appealed directly to her apparent favorite Justices on the Supreme Court, Thomas and Scalia. Nice Judge-shopping Orly. Naturally this appeal has been denied because, well, she doesn’t know what the hell she is doing- she filed the wrong documents and it should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that you don’t get to hand pick which Justice you want to initially review your appeal.

~“As goes Kandahar, so goes Afghanistan”- Adm. Mike Mullen

~There has been a notable escalation in the “lets have a third war- this time with Iran!” rhetoric and some are saying that there could be a self-fulfilling prophesy aspect of this which could backfire against the administration. With each passing day the steady drum-beat for war, with the full participation of the the MSM elites, looks more and more like the run-up to the Iraq War and it’s no small coincidence that so many of the same people who were so wrong about not only the need to attack Iraq but also the consequences of doing so, are now claiming that the only way to stop Iran’s as-of-yet non-existent nuclear weapons, is to take military action. Over at Foreign Policy, Marc Lynch discusses how some may use WikiLeaks to claim that an attack against Iran is justified based upon alleged Iran-al Qaeda ties. In another post, Lynch also makes a very compelling argument as to why the case for a military strike against Iran is actually weaker than it ever was, despite the rhetoric to the contrary.

~Speaking of WikiLeaks, the Justice Department is now considering the possibility of going after Julian Assange, who apparently runs the web site, for espionage. And all over the news here in Massachusetts today, an MIT grad is being considered a ‘person of interest’ in the leak investigation.

~More than 800 people have died as a result of floods in Pakistan this week. The flood waters have receded but Pakistan is reporting that getting an exact number of those killed is difficult because many people are still missing.

~Hey, did you hear? There was a big wedding in Rhinebeck N.Y. yesterday! Something to do with the daughter of a former President, a current Cabinet Secretary and lots and lots of secretive wedding plans. But now there are pictures!

~Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has announced that she may “tweak” the Arizona immigration law in response to the federal court ruling last week which put a hold on some of the most controversial aspects of the bill. Brewer has vowed to take this fight all the way to the Supreme Court, further ensuring that her 15 minutes of fame will be the longest 15 minutes in recent memory, save perhaps for the amount of time allotted to Levi Johnston who, yes, is back in the news. Again.

~If Democrats don’t jump all over this, then they are truly hopeless: Republican Mike Pence, who goes around lecturing us all on the evils of federal spending, doesn’t have a problem with spending almost a billion dollars on unnecessary weapons systems or equipment. This is one of the achilles’ heels of the GOP right now- their tendency to rubber stamp any spending package with the word “defense,” “national security,” “war” or “military” in it. There is no talk of having to ensure it’s paid for or even whether the spending is the best use of federal funds. Everybody likes to talk about massive spending cuts in an effort to sound fiscally responsible but when it comes to actually articulating which programs they will cut, well, all we get are *crickets.*

~Obama kind of threw Charlie Rangel under the bus on Friday.

~Rep. Maxine Waters might want to keep an eye out for oncoming buses, too.

Read full story · Comments { 19 }