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

Archive | April, 2011

Progressive Notes: I Was Elected President of Important Dem Club in Texas!

By on 30 April 2011

Texan4Hillary offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.

I have very exciting news: I was elected president of one of the most active and important Democratic clubs in Texas. I intend to push for holding our politicians accountable when they betray the party principles of F.D.R. and Truman.

Governor Snyder of Michigan is a good reason why Democrats, progressives and independents will turn out in droves in 2012 against their GOP pols. In a week of amazing video here is one with a shouting match between this governor and his citizens who beg for him to raise taxes:

Ralph Nader is in the news and if he succeeds at his latest plan he will be getting loads of news: he is organizing primary challengers to Obama to try and push him to the left on specific issues:

…Nader told POLITICO on Wednesday that he is working on bringing together about half a dozen presidential candidates who could “dramatically expand a robust discussion within the Democratic Party and among progressive voters across the country.” Each would focus on a specific issue where the far left says Obama hasn’t done enough, including the environment, labor and health care.

Nader, who has run for president five times as an independent or third party candidate — including his 2000 run on the Green ticket, which some Democrats say cost Al Gore the election — said that for next year, he believes an ideologically-based, multi-candidate primary challenge would be the best way to pull Obama to the left ahead of the second term he believes Republicans will not be able to stop….

Nader thinks Obama will win re-election but should be held accountable on his promises by progressives. He floats one name already as a possible challenger:

Nader suggested that Jim Hightower, a liberal commentator and a co-chairman of his 2000 presidential campaign, could be one candidate but didn’t offer other names. The ideal candidates, he said, would be people who have a history of progressive positions and who have specific knowledge or credibility in a certain policy area.

The largest firefighter’s union, a longtime ally of the working class and the Democratic Party is ending contributions to all federal candidates after the numerous betrayals and ineffectual leadership from the White House to protect unions and working Americans. This is a huge body blow and national party leaders should be more worried about things like this than the deficit:

… the International Association of Fire Fighters, said it would focus its contributions and energies on state and local races because many legislatures have sought to curtail collective bargaining or otherwise weaken public-sector unions.

Harold A. Schaitberger, the president of the 300,000-member union, said in an interview that he was dismayed with Democrats in Congress for not fighting harder against Republican budget cuts and efforts to weaken unions in more than a dozen state legislatures.

“We’re tired that our friends have not been willing to stand up and fight back on our behalf with the same ferocity, the same commitment that our enemies have in trying to destroy our members’ rights,” he said. “Quite frankly, our enemies are trying to kill us as a labor movement and union trying to represent workers and help the middle class.”

Maddow interviews the head of the I.A.F.F. on her show this week and it must see. As she says Democrats are great at shooting themselves in the foot and losing the I.A.F.F. on the trail is a killer. Recall this group went to bat for Kerry when he was swift boated and has been key in the Democrats’ fight to take control of congress in 2006. And now?

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

Another townhall moment from the Mainstreet Movement, this time with Congressman Duffy in Wisconsin. He better be careful, stop whining about how poor he is on a congressional salary and stop doing things like this at town halls. After all his district went for Gore, Kerry and Obama and liberal Obey represented it for decades. Duffy probably should not yell at voters and tell them to leave and have their own town hall because they want the rich taxed:

In Tuscon we have a inspiring story of school kids fighting back alot harder than the politicians are these days. Arizona wants to eliminate Latino and native American studies programs. Well students stormed the Tuscon school board meeting and forced the board to shut down before they could vote to scrap the program!

A group of Mexican-American students in Tucson, Arizona prevented their school district from voting on Tuesday night for a controversial measure that would destroy an ethnic studies course that some have called one of the most effective Latin American education program in the U.S. public school system.

The students of UNIDOS stormed into the Tucson School District board room chanting, “Education is under attack! What do we do? FIGHT BACK!” Just as the group was making its presence known, with no warning 10 students rushed the board’s seats and chained themselves together as others unfurled a banner that read “UNIDOS Presents The Youth School Board.”
…
Despite police presence, the protest was so successful that the school board was forced to cancel the vote and reschedule its meeting for May 5.

Watch:

Breaking glass ceilings is at the heart of progressivism. And in Iowa Christie Vilsack, a powerhouse Democrat whose husband is the former popular governor of the state, is trying to shatter the ceiling in her state forever. No woman has ever been elected to federal office from Iowa. EVER. So Christie is taking on tea party fav Congressman King in a newly drawn district, and King is showing his colors towards women. He won’t debate her. Why? Well because she is not a man!

… King is making no commitment to debating Christie Vilsack.

“Nor am I declining. That’s something that I would think would be discussed between the two camps, if it got to that point,” King says. “But I would just say that most everybody in Iowa knows that I’ve debated a Vilsack many, many times…Tom and I served in the Iowa Senate together as we engaged each other over and over again. And then as he as governor, and I as a senator and then, he as governor and I as a congressman and now he as the secretary of agriculture and I as a congressman.”

King suggests he’ll have even more debates with Tom Vilsack before debates Christie Vilsack. King made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “The Exchange”.

Uhhhh yeah right. Christie is giving him the run of his life and is underestimating women.

Back to those pesky citizens going to townhalls to shout down their congressfolk for backing mad budget cuts and tax breaks for the very fortunate Congressman Barletta, a freshman Republican from Pennsylvania, has caught hell from constituents. These people are the real heroes. One woman takes him on for backing the Ryan plan, another lets him have for voting for tax breaks for big oil. His response? He laughs at them:

And on a very positive note Vermont’s state senate passed single payer healthcare. Governor of Vermont Shumlin campaigned on single payer and is about to deliver on that promise. A true progressive putting policy into action for the people. He was interviewed on Maddow April 26th. We need more like him.

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Queer Talk: Homo-Genius

By on 30 April 2011

When the smaller government you support doesn’t do what you want, what to do? Earlier this week in Tennessee, the Republicans in the state House provided an answer: you pass a state law nullifying the city law you don’t like. Nashville Metro Council recently passed an anti-LGBT bias ordinance, requiring any business contracting with the city to agree not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. So the state House voted, 73 to 24, in support of a bill that bans such ordinances.

Denying any anti-LGBT bias, Rep. Glen Casada (R), said, no doubt with an entirely straight face: “This bill is about creating jobs and making things homogeneous across the state. This flippant attitude of ‘Well, you comply with my morality or you won’t do business with my city’ – that’s the reason I’m bringing this bill.’”

Right. It’s a my-morality-trumps-yours jobs bill. That’s homo-genius thinking, that is.

Also from the Volunteer State: Called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its opponents, last week it advanced out of the Tennessee Senate Education Committee. Via ThinkProgress:

The bill would prohibit teachers from discussing (sic) of any sexuality except heterosexuality in grades K-8, ‘even with students who may be gay or have gay family,’ according to Ben Byers of the Tennessee Equality … (Project) … .

Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) is passionate about this legislation, which he previously sponsored unsuccessfully in the state House for six years. In 2009, Campfield explained that he’s not homophobic; it’s just that the issue is ‘complex.’ He clarified this past September that he supports promoting tolerance, but not acceptance ….

He also thinks teachers don’t have enough time to teach core subjects: ‘If I can take one thing away and say, hey, you don’t have to teach about homosexuality to your second-graders, you can spend more time on arithmetic.’

How about combining Arithmetic and Homosexuality for Second Graders? 1 man + 1 woman = marriage. 1 man + 1 woman + 2 innocent children = a real family. 1 homosexual + 1 homosexual = way more than you can handle, but I’ll bet the kids can.

Homo-genius thinking isn’t limited by state lines, of course. In Montana, for example, Rep. Ken Peterson (R), thinks felony charges should be filed against homosexuals who “recruit.” Via Timothy Beauchamp:

“According to Peterson, chair of the House Judiciary Committee,” one such “prosecutable offense, … punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine,” is described thus: “Homosexuals can’t go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts.” I’m actually a bit surprised that he distinguishes between “recruiting” and “homosexual acts.” He provides an example of felony “recruitment”: “Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let’s go in this bedroom, and we’ll engage in some homosexual acts. You’ll find you like it.” Okay, I’m a lesbian, not a gay man, but still, I’m thinking that as a pick-up line, this isn’t likely to be successful.

By the way, Peterson is careful to say he’s never actually witnessed anything like this: “I don’t associate with that group of people at all. … I’ve associated with mainstream people all my life.”

The recent DOMA debate has provided so many options, it’s hard to choose. First, a very selective summary: Obama decided to stop defending DOMA. Boehner hired a law firm, King & Spalding, to do the job. Lots of unhappiness, in and out of the firm, and the case is dropped, but Paul Clement, the partner at King & Spalding who took the case, leaves and takes it with him to another firm, Bancroft PLLC. A series of homo-genius eruptions result.

Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barbar argued that defense of DOMA is necessary by comparing marriage equality to counterfeit money. Via RightWingWatch: / “If gays are allowed to get married, who knows how many straight people are going to get duped into getting gay-married because it will be impossible to tell the two apart.” Just think about that one for a moment.

Also from RightWingWatch, we hear about the ever dependable Pat Robertson’s “outrage: “This law says marriage … is between a man and a woman. … Are we going to knuckle under to the pressure of homosexuals? … Are they going to destroy people? The answer is yes. They are very well organized and very vociferous.” I’m fairly certain he meant “yes” to the “destroy” comment, not to “knuckling under.”

As dependable for homo-genius talk is Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. He appeared on Houston’s Fox affiliate to talk about the Fox program, Glee, in particular the “gay relationships” on the show. Also via RWW, http://tinyurl.com/3srwr7e Damali Keith, the anchorwoman, asked Fischer about the “homosexuality storylines.” He is “deeply concerned … because what these television programs are doing is glamorizing homosexual behavior.” Keith responds: “And we all know about product placement. You throw a soda in a movie and within a few seconds later everyone in the theater is thirsty for that particular brand.” Keith can hold her own in the homo-genius realm.

Not DOMA, but still about marriage, California’s Prop 8 also produced some recent illustrative comments. From Keen News:,

Proponents of Proposition 8 filed a motion Monday, April 25, in federal district court, seeking to vacate the August 2010 ruling by Judge Vaughn Walker that the initiative is unconstitutional, citing Walker’s recent disclosure that he is gay and has been in a relationship with a man for 10 years. …

“Given that Chief Judge Walker was in a committed, long-term, same-sex relationship throughout this case (and for many years before the case commenced),” states (Charles) Cooper (lead attorney, Yes on 8), “it is clear that his ‘impartiality might reasonably [have been] questioned’ from the outset.” …

Lambda [Legal]’s (Jon) Davidson said that reasoning, if applied, would presumably disqualify any judge -straight or gay. …

Counterfeit money. Product placement. Very vociferous destroyers. Felony recruitment. They who must not be named. Homo-genius ideas really are all the same kind of thing …

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My $0.02/Saturday: Sailboats at Sunset

By on 30 April 2011

Escaping Dystopia 2011...

Morning, news junkies.

Chris Hedges ushered in 2011 by calling it a brave new dystopia. For a brief moment in time, the Egyptian and Wisconsin protests provided a glimmer of “there’s something happening here,” but then we were returned to our regularly scheduled dystopic nightmare. I don’t know about you, but lately I’m finding that the actual headlines these days sound more satirical than the ones in the Onion. They leave me either wanting to lolsob…or just sob. So, on that note…

Above, to the right… from National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel:

This photo of sailboats at sunset has us yearning for the sea, which makes it an Editors’ Pick for week one of our 2011 Traveler Photo Contest in the category of Outdoor Scenes. The photographer Ken Michael Jon Taarup writes, “Boracay has never ceased to amaze many people from all over the world. With its white crystal sand, pristine blue waters, and beautiful sunsets, this place still tops the list of the most visited and beautiful resorts in the Philippines.”

That’s so you have something calming to visualize while you read my Saturday picks.

Alright, grab your morning cuppa if you haven’t already, and read on.

Let’s just get the biggest distraction out of the way first…

Tornado aftermath: Pictures say a 1000 words

“Depressing women’s history news of the week”

Being pro-choice means understanding that self-determination for women regarding sex, sexuality, reproduction and motherhood is a fundamental precursor to womens’ ability to achieve their own educational, economic and familial aspirations, a fundamental precursor to the health and well-being of individuals and families, and a core condition of the long-term stability and health of society. It therefore also means understanding the profound connections for women–supported by more than ample evidence–between economic and educational status and unfettered access to comprehensive sexual health education, contraception, family planning services, and abortion care.

The War on Unions… now brought to you by Dems in MA?

The bill will take a month before coming to the state Senate, but the overwhelming vote in the House, and [Gov.] Patrick’s kinder, gentler rights-stripping plan, make it look like something’s going to happen in Massachusetts. Time to get out in the streets in another blue state.

“I’ve played at hundreds of protests and demonstrations, and this was really unique,” he said. “It was every segment of society. It was radical students and cops on the same side, and I’d never seen that before.”

Hillaryland

  • The otherwise serious and reliable Laura Rozen overreacted a bit to Hillary taking a few days of Easter R&R time off with her family. There’s a reason Hill was dubbed the “Energizer Secretary.” The woman works non-stop. She has a personal life that she’s entitled to attend to and/or just recharge every few years or so.

Click to view HQ. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

When Bushies fight… Get out your popcorn

First of all, I didn’t have modest experience in management. Managing Stanford University is not so easy. But I don’t know what Don was trying to say, and it really doesn’t matter. Don can be a grumpy guy. We all know that.

As always, Black Agenda Report tells it like it is…

  • This is an instant classic! Please read and disseminate. Bruce A. Dixon’s Top Ten Answers To Excuses For Obama’s Betrayals and Failures. Note Number 9 — it’s for all the Obamaphiles who won’t accept that Obama is the third Bush-Cheney term. And, to quote a snippet from Numero Uno (Re: “It’s our fault the Obama presidency hasn’t kept its commitments. We need to ‘make him do it.’”):

You cannot make a US president do what he fundamentally doesn’t want to. Michelle Obama is nice to look at, but she is no Eleanor Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt used to publicly bask in the hatred of wealthy banksters. Barack Obama’s dream is mostly not to piss off rich people.

  • For more on the atrocities of Bush-Cheney III, give BAR’s April 25th podcast a listen. In the first segment BAR’s Glen Ford interviews Labor Notes editor Mark Brenner, who sees no growth and no jobs on the horizon and says:

“Absolute disaster for working folks. If we follow the Ryan plan or if we follow the Obama plan, none of it spells good news for the rest of us.”

  • In another segment, Clarence Thomas, former Local 10 union secretary-treasury, says “what one needs to understand is that this is not simply an attack on public sector workers, it is also an attack on public services.” Thomas says the goal is to put labor back where it was before the New Deal, noting that it is a corporate and rightwing agenda in which “the Democratic party is complicit.”

The ongoing crackdown on dissidents: Syria, China

In response to the brutality of the crackdown, President Barack Obama signed an executive order today instituting sanctions against the Syrian intelligence agency and two of Assad’s brothers, a White House official confirmed. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council voted in Geneva today to condemn the Syrian crackdown.

“The [Executive Order] is a watershed,” Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Envoy. “This is the first time an Assad has been designated by the [U.S. government], and the first time the USG has issued an EO on human rights in Syria. Until a few months ago Human Rights was a distant fifth on our list of issues with Syria. Now it’s emerged as the center of our policy.”

Ms. Cheng was arrested on what was supposed to have been her wedding day last fall for sending a single sarcastic Twitter message that included the words “charge, angry youth.” The government, lacking a sense of humor, sentenced her to a year in labor camp.

Timeout: Art break

We’re about halfway through, so click to read the rest… Continue Reading →

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Activist Sues Sarah Palin for $100,000

By on 29 April 2011

… back when Sarah was the Gov. In fact, Thoma claims he proposed state action to solve the problem and even made up signs and fliers to push the issue. But Palin didn’t take kindly to the criticism, says Thoma, and she “undertook a campaign against [Theodore] … to punish, embarrass, discredit and silence” him. [...] Thoma wants Palin to fork over more than $100k for all of the harm she’s caused. – Palin Sued For $100k Over Alleged Traffic Conspiracy

This is only the beginning of what could turn out to be quite a season pain for Sarah Palin.

A cascade of anti-Palin books are also on their way. Oh, and if you didn’t know already, the snapshot is Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in HBO’s upcoming “Game Change,” based on the dishy blockbuster book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. There’s nothing in the book that’s positive for Palin, so chalk that up as another coming her way.

St. Martin’s Press has “The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power,” by Geoffrey Dunn coming out next month. Dunn did a stem-winding Trig Trutherism piece recently, which HuffPos refused to post.

Politico did a big piece on the anti-Palin push, as well as Trig Trutherism, Andrew Sullivan’s claim to infamy, and is supposedly going to be the subject of other books yet unnamed, with a Kentucky professor going after it, too.

Simon & Schuster has evidently bought disgruntled former aide Frank Bailey’s manuscript, which he’s been shopping for a while.

Crown’s got “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,” by journalist and author Joe McGinniss, the guy who planted himself next door to Sarah in Alaska.

With Palin sounding more and more like a candidate these days all this negative talk will keep her busy. I doubt her fans will care, because nothing will deter them, though the negative press will keep them busy. Rebecca Mansour better get some sleep. She’ll need it.

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Trump to China: ‘Listen you mother——ers we’re going to tax you 25 percent!’

By on 29 April 2011

… [Donald Trump] assured a woman in the crowd who urged him to run that he expected to make her “very happy,” but added later, “there is a really good chance that I won’t win because of one of these blood-sucking politicians. – Donald Trump drops F-bombs on Las Vegas crowd

Did Donald Trump just pre-announce his intention to announce in Las Vegas?



Just when you thought this man couldn’t top himself.

On the nation’s involvement in military actions overseas, he said: “We build a school, we build a road, they blow up the school, we build another school, we build another road they blow them up, we build again, in the meantime we can’t get a f——ing school in Brooklyn.”

On how to deal with OPEC to lower oil prices?

“We have nobody in Washington that sits back and said, you’re not going to raise that f—-ing price,” Trump said, according to KTNV in Nevada.

And how he’d tell China he wants to slap a tariff on their exports?

“Listen you mother——ers we’re going to tax you 25 percent!”

Trump’s low brow approach reached a new bottom with the f-bombs. But it somehow seems fitting for the Clark County’s GOP. See Sharron Angle.

If you’re looking at primary states, which one could Donald Trump take? **crickets** Who’s going to tell him?

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Obama White House Punishes Reporter in ‘Carla Fatwa’

By on 29 April 2011

The White House Press Correspondents’ Association pool reporting guidelines warn about “no hoarding” of information and also say, “pool reports must be filed before any online story or blog.” While uploading her video probably was the best way to file her report, Carla may have technically busted the letter of that law. But the guidelines also say, “Print poolers can snap pictures or take video. They are not obliged to share these pictures…but can make them available if they so choose.” Then what guidelines is the White House applying here? Again, we don’t know. – San Francisco Chronicle

Beware reporters trying to do your job.

The President’s practice not just with transparency but in other dealings with the press has not been tracking his words, despite the cool glamour and easy conversation that makes him seem so much more open than the last guy. It was his administration that decided to go after New York Times reporter James Risen to get at his source in a book he wrote about the CIA. For us here in SF who went through the BALCO case and other fisticuffs with the George W. Bush Attorney General’s prosecutors, this is deja vu.

The media spoiled Barack Obama and now one reporter is paying for it. The Obama administration diminishes itself by this action, with his team again trying to control everything.

Other sources confirmed that Carla was vanquished, including Chronicle editor Ward Bushee, who said he was “informed that Carla was removed as a pool reporter.” Which shouldn’t be a secret in any case because it’s a fact that affects the newsgathering of our largest regional paper (and sfgate)and how local citizens get their information.

What’s worse: more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public. Really? That’s a heavy hand usually reserved for places other than the land of the free.

But bravery is a challenge, in particular for White House correspondents, most of whom are seasoned and capable journalists. They live a little bit in a gilded cage where they have access to the most powerful man in the world but must obey the rules whether they make sense or not.

CBS News reporter, Mark Knoller, has publicly protested the limited press access to Obama fundraisers, calling the policy “inconsistent.” “It’s no way to do business,” wrote Politico’s Julie Mason, “especially [for] a candidate who prides himself on transparency.”

Pres. Obama lectures everyone about transparency, but how he and his team deal with reporters resembles George W. Bush, as do other things. The Presidents’ Club rules now apply.

“We’ve come full circle here,” Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Foundation’s Project for Excellence in Journalism told me today. “A newspaper reporter is being punished because she took pictures with a moving camera. We live in a world where there are no longer distinctions. The White House is trying to live by 20th century distinctions.”

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Kate and Prince William’s Fairytale Day

By on 29 April 2011

**UPDATED**

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN – The Queen has today been pleased to confer a Dukedom on Prince William of Wales. His titles will be Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. Prince William thus becomes His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge and Miss Catherine Middleton on marriage will become Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge. – Titles announced for Prince William and Catherine Middleton



Marriages can signify a moment, a real chance for renewal. If ever there was that opportunity for the British monarchy, today was it.

How stunningly spectacular she looked, now her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, after the Queen bestowed titles on HRH the Duke of Cambridge, aka Prince William, and his duchess, today.

This is not the story of Diana. There’s no resemblance to it at all, thank the gods.

When Catherine Elizabeth Middleton marries William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor, a prince of the royal blood, in Westminster Abbey on April 29, she will be scoring a number of firsts. Kate will be the first royal bride to have a university education, the first to live with her husband before marriage, the first to have a mother who used to be a flight attendant. Most impressively of all, Catherine will one day be the first queen of the realm to have fallen over at a roller disco in a pair of yellow hot pants.

NEWSWEEK: Citizen Kate – Here comes the smart, sexy, grocery-buying, blessedly normal commoner who could save William—and the royal family.

Seasoned partners, Kate and William have the best chance possible at making it. For England, it is seen as important that they do. After divorce, after scandal, after tragedy, and embarrassment, the Royals need a win.

Few in America care or can relate to the pomp and expense of today, even if the Royals are actually paying for the wedding ceremony, something once unheard of, though the taxpayers will foot the bill for the security, the Middletons chipping in, too. But surely the celebrity is something Americans can relate to, after all, our own equivalent, The American Presidency, has become the same thing. All pomp and pageant and political pandering, little substance for the people in the end.

It’s a Disney fantasyland day for anyone who believes in love and relationships, in ceremony and celebrations.

As I always say, it’s not the wedding that’s hard it’s the days after. But at least this time Kate and Prince William already know what that’s about, because they have tried it out. Breaking with Royal tradition may actually save the monarchy, which still seems to be important for British identity, history and country.

Continue Reading →

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Lara Logan Breaks ‘Code of Silence’

By on 29 April 2011

From Brian Stelter:

Her experience in Cairo underscored the fact that female journalists often face a different kind of violence. While other forms of physical violence affecting journalists are widely covered — the traumatic brain injury ’suffered by the ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff in Iraq in 2006 was a front-page story at that time — sexual threats against women are rarely talked about within journalistic circles or in the news media.

With sexual violence, “you only have your word,” Ms. Logan said in the interview. “The physical wounds heal. You don’t carry around the evidence the way you would if you had lost your leg or your arm in Afghanistan.”

The account is harrowing, as we all knew it would be:

As the cameraman, Richard Butler, was swapping out a battery, Egyptian colleagues who were accompanying the camera crew heard men nearby talking about wanting to take Ms. Logan’s pants off. She said: “Our local people with us said, ‘We’ve gotta get out of here.’ That was literally the moment the mob set on me.”

Some things Ms. Logan wouldn’t talk about…

“What really struck me was how merciless they were. They really enjoyed my pain and suffering. It incited them to more violence.”

Egyptian soldiers and a group of citizens saved her from the wilding of the mob of men.

Logan has decided to steer clear of the Middle East, citing the very nature of her job, which is to communicate information, putting her in danger.

One of the other things that came crashing into her reality is the oppression of women in these countries. It should never be far from our consciousness.

Ms. Logan will tell more of her story Sunday on “60 Minutes.” It will be her only interview about the horror she experienced in Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

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Down the Memory Hole with the New York Times

By on 28 April 2011

It is inconceivable that this campaign to portray Mr. Obama as the insidious “other” would have been conducted against a white president. – A Certificate of Embarrassment, The New York Times

Are you kidding me?

It’s a “certificate of embarrassment” all right, for the New York Times.

It was none other than the Times who allowed Jeff Gerth to fictionalize Whitewater during the 1992 campaign season, which ratcheted up the hunting of Pres. Bill Clinton, simply because he wasn’t Ronald Reagan.

Anyone remember Sally Quinn and her insider collection of anti Clinton moaning over consensual sex?

“This is a contractual city,” says Chris Matthews, who once was a top aide to the late Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill. “There are no factories here. What we make are deals. It’s a city based on bonds made and kept.” The president, he went on, “has broken and shattered contracts publicly and shamefully. He violates the trust at the highest level of politics. Matthews, now a Washington columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and host of CNBC’s “Hardball,” also says, “There has to be a functional trust by reporters of the person they’re covering. Clinton lies knowing that you know he’s lying. It’s brutal and it subjugates the person who’s being lied to. I resent deeply being constantly lied to.”

Nothing counts if you’re a Clinton and you don’t even have to be president yet for it to apply.



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Obama’s Economic Message Malpractice

By on 28 April 2011

Republican primary voters at this early stage of the game now give billionaire developer Donald Trump the edge over presumptive favorites Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in the race to be the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012. – Another Meaningless Poll That Sends a Message to Democrats


From Superman Reannounces US Citizenship – Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda.

It got blown out by Trump versus Obama contest, but a Washington Post – Pew poll released late Tuesday night revealed why so many people are disenchanted with the Democratic Party. In the age of Obama, Republican economics has now completely replaced Democratic Party ideals, which have always been moored to jobs, middle class growth, and retirement security.

Democrats have also led the way on changes to the concern question: 81 percent of Democrats now say the federal budget is a major problem that must be addressed now, up from 64 percent in December.

A new Marist poll backs up Pres. Obama’s economic malpractice: 40% — approve of how the president is dealing with the country’s economy while nearly six in ten — 57% — disapprove.

This is why the argument recently forwarded by Ezra Klein that Obama is a “moderate Republican” is so damaging, even as Obama loyalists try to lap it up as a positive triangulation that could work for Democrats, because all that matters is reelecting Pres. Obama.

Why do Democrats and progressives want to back a moderate Republican to lead the Democratic Party? This is supposedly what progressives found so abhorrent about Pres. Bill Clinton’s presidency, along with the fact that he hurt the party, but no one can say that jobs weren’t his number one focus. So why are these same progressives accepting Barack Obama who is not advancing Democratic Party economics or focusing on jobs?

Missed in all the noise of Donald Trump is something very simple. David Frum talked about it yesterday, while tying himself in knots, citing Trump’s background as a “troubled student (at one point he attended a military school) who nonetheless gained admission to Wharton.” Frum going on to say his father’s wealth was an aid to his trajectory to Wharton, but it’s the former that’s the issue.

Trump’s bullying braggadocio of Pres. Obama, as well as his puffing up of his own prowess, is gauchely low brow. It’s common. As David Brooks wrote recently, it’s the “gospel of success,” which every person wants to dream about again, but which they can’t grab a hold of today. It’s rooted in something well beyond Democratic versus Republican economic points of view. Ups and downs, failures and fulminating falsehoods and all, this billionaire to bankruptcy and back again represents what people see America needs to do, too. Our great country economically hobbled with no one having the answers except to take things away from people who are barely holding on, Donald Trump not only says no to Paul Ryan’s Medicare scheme, but in the same breath he says no to China, OPEC, the Saudis and everyone else he sees laughing at America.

Meanwhile, Pres. Obama is in charge, but seen to be failing at doing anything about jobs or the economy, barely mentioning jobs in his first term.

It’s also why Obama’s reelection campaign began with a question “are you in?” Because the optimism, hope and change portion of Barack Obama’s mystique has left the stage, with all that’s left behind is let’s win this one for Obama.

I have no idea if a legitimate Republican can grab on to the message of what’s possible in America today, which Pres. Obama can’t find with both hands, his aides and the power of the presidency behind him. But the kernel of success in 2012 lies in parts of what Donald Trump’s low brow persona has tapped in the American populace through his crassly competitive and confrontational style, even if people recoil at the prospect of ever voting for Donald Trump.

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The Event that Binds Democrats Closer to Obama

By on 28 April 2011

“Trump and the rest have played a very divisive card from the fact of his birth to now implying that he got into two Ivy League schools … by affirmative action, which clearly brings race into the matter,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “It certainly enrages a lot of African-American voters, Latino voters and progressive whites that feel that this is the most divisive, polarizing tactic.” – President Obama takes on the birther political circus

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Orly Taitz got thrown off Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night, after a screaming match that was as much of a circus as anything that went on yesterday.

Before that happened, Lawrence O’Donnell attacked his own employer’s involvement for their silence over Donald Trump using “Celebrity Apprentice” as cover, but this morning there is collective silence. That should tell you all you need to know about the media power and the story we’re watching on Pres. Obama’s long form birth certificate. O’Donnell claims, which you can see in the video above, that NBC executives already know if Trump is coming back as a paid NBC employer next year and they should announce it now, otherwise they are complicit in Trump’s crazy.

Today there is a lot of spin out of the White House on why they released the long form birth certificate, including that allowing Donald Trump to go on and on would help Obama’s Republican opponent, whoever he or she may be.

The White House thinks you’re stupid, but knows the media covering him is. At present, though Americans are disgruntled with the direction of the country, with gas and the economy making Pres. Obama very beatable in 2012, there is no Republican yet who can accomplish the act.

The White House excuse is not only nonsense, but over exercised political righteousness that is trying to hide the problem. You also had an anonymous Democrat saying that the party had learned that swiftboat lies take hold and can be dangerous, explaining why Pres. Obama finally petitioned Hawaii to release his long form birth certificate. Unfortunately, the reason for the release is that Obama and his people had already let this happen, let the birther insanity take root.

What was revealed in polling is that Independents and Republicans were glomming on to the birther issue as true. This is why Obama and his team did what they did, because they had to.

Question is, are these Independents and Republicans racist or is it about something else? The consensus is that Trump and others are racist. What do you think?

Whatever it is you can bet that the charges coming from Trump are going to bind many Democrats closer to Obama than they were before. Rally ’round the President is a powerful call. If the whole birther event is seen as racist instead of just crazy it will also cause a shunning of Republicans, which is why David Frum wrote what he did yesterday.

I wish it were otherwise, but it does seem that these racialized attacks on Obama have exacted a toll on him. But they also have exacted a toll on the opposition to Obama. The too-faint repudiation of birtherism by regular Republicans has shaped not only the Obama brand, but also the Republican brand. It was not only white people who heard the implied message about who counts and who does not count as a “real American.” – The Birther Disgrace

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Well, That Settled It.

By on 28 April 2011



It was the second time in one day Pres. Obama directed comments towards Donald Trump, the first when he referenced “carnival barkers.” Then from the pool report last night, from a fundraiser benefiting the Obama Victory Fund, a joint account of the DNC and the reelection campaign, Obama opened his remarks with this:

“[...] But it was also a serious day because part of what happened this morning was me trying to remind the press and trying to remind both parties that what we do in politics is not a reality show. It’s serious.” … – Pres. Obama

As you can see from the graphic above, not only does WND put a question mark at the end of “born in the USA,” but birth certificate is in quotation marks.

“The news media and the political establishment were quick to rush to judgment regarding Obama’s eligibility in 2008, without any basis. It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions as it answers,” Farah added. – Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND

You can’t appease crazy.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney is clocking Pres. Obama in polls that mean nothing today, Donald Trump continued his self-congratulation tour.

Yet throughout the day on his inaugural trip to New Hampshire — this election cycle, at least — Mr. Trump proceeded to keep talking about the subject. He mentioned it in private conversations during a stop at the Roundabout Diner. He raised it during a private Republican fund-raising luncheon. And he asked an audience at a factory whether they heard the news.

“Oh by the way, I don’t know if you heard? Did you hear?” Mr. Trump asked employees of Wilcox Industries, a defense manufacturing firm here. “I am so proud of myself. I got this guy to release his birth certificate. I’m really, really happy.”

This would be a good time for Sarah Palin to announce an exploratory committee. Jerry Springer always had dueling battles on his stage, so it’s fitting that Republicans should too.

Blame Hawaii.

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Hey Donald, Your Tax Returns, Please

By on 27 April 2011

Quote of the day:

“Donald Trump said he’d release his tax returns as soon as the president released his birth certificate, so the ball is in his court now and I know everybody is anxious to see his tax returns over the last 10 years.” – Robert Gibbs


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Netanyahu Dismisses Fatah & Hamas Deal

By on 27 April 2011

“You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said, in remarks directed at Abbas. “Choose peace with Israel.” – Fatah and Hamas agree to historic Palestinian reconciliation deal

Haaretz (and Reuters) calls it “historic.” PM Netanyahu’s reaction proves he doesn’t want to deal with the Palestinians at all (as if we needed it). He slams Abbas’s efforts to form an interim government with Hamas, when we all know that if Abbas did a straight deal with Israel Hamas would balk. After Bush pushed the Palestinians on elections, which put Hamas in power in the first place, it’s a bit hard to un-ring that bell. Much more at the link above, with Abbas doggedly moving forward on having Palestine declared whether Netanyahu likes it or not.

MJ Rosenberg on the matter:

Netanyahu, who rarely gives any indication of favoring any agreement with the Palestinians that would require ceding the West Bank (i.e., any agreement) may be worried that a Hamas-Fatah deal makes negotiations more likely rather than less.

Elliott Abrams proves why the Council on Foreign Relations matters less now than it ever has before.

This deal, if it is real, will be interpreted in Israel as a choice by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to make peace with Hamas rather than with Israel.

If Abbas and Hamas aren’t squabbling it sort of puts the spotlight on Netanyahu, which is exactly what he doesn’t want, which Mr. Abrams certainly knows.

Any movement towards an agreement between the factions of the Palestinians is a step in the right direction.

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Pres. Obama Rescues Donald Trump Who Claims a Win

By on 27 April 2011

“Today I am very proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else was able to accomplish,” Trump said after landing in the Granite State. [...] “I hope that it’s true so we can get on to much more important matters. So the press can stop asking me questions,” he said. “I am really honored to have played such a big role in hopefully getting rid of this issue.” – Trump: ‘Very proud of myself’

Calling out the “sideshows,” then labeling the birthers “carnival barkers,” Pres. Obama laid one squarely on Donald Trump’s jaw this morning by releasing his long form birth certificate.

However, not only didn’t Donald Trump’s jaw shatter, he did what a more seasoned pol would do and that is declare victory.

If Trump isn’t serious about running for president he should now just simply walk away, because it’s not going to get any better for him. But instead he doubled down, not only saying experts will now have to decide the authenticity, but also questioning Pres. Obama’s educational records. For someone of Trump’s ego, there is nothing in this episode that reveals he’s ready to quit.

Pres. Obama’s appearance assures that along with Trump, he will get covered as well. Therein lies the problem for the President. It should never have come down to this action, no matter what the establishment and traditional press are saying. A president should never have to compete with a “carnival barker.”

So, why did Pres. Obama wait until now to release this information? The polling made him do it, this coming from USA Today just yesterday, but it’s hardly the first:

Still, in the USA TODAY poll, only 38% of Americans say Obama definitely was born in the USA, and 18% say he probably was. Fifteen percent say he probably was born in another country, and 9% say he definitely was born elsewhere. Views already are polarized about President Obama and some major Republican candidates for 2012. Republicans are inclined to say the president was born abroad by 43%-35%.

The traction of saying nothing was mounting. But it wasn’t until Donald Trump stood and aggressively, unabashedly and relentlessly called Obama out that Pres. Obama’s hand was forced.

The Obama loyalists will say they won, as Chris Matthews was doing today, with Chuck Todd offering the White House line, which is to present the President versus the “carnival barkers,” which is obviously the Trump contingent. Republicans and anti-Obama people will say Trump won, with Tea Party birthers looking the most ignorant and foolish.

Another thing about Donald Trump, in my opinion, is that no one wants to openly admit they’d vote for Trump, but secretly they’re rooting for this guy to keep going.

It is quite interesting that Pres. Obama felt the need to punch down at Donald Trump by invoking “carnival barkers,” because there isn’t anyone that didn’t know who Obama was talking about. That should give someone like Donald Trump a lot of satisfaction, because no matter what Pres. Obama says, he still ended up releasing information he hadn’t before Trump started his campaign.

Pres. Obama blinked, the polls made him do it.

Donald Trump got what he wanted, then pivoted to another issue of vetting Pres. Obama, a subject that shouldn’t be up for debate but is because the traditional press didn’t do the job the first time around.

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White House Releases Obama’s Long Form Birth Certificate

By on 27 April 2011

Yo birthers, you asked for it and now you’ve got it. Donald Trump’s statement to follow, no doubt. Want to bet that it won’t appease the Tea Party rabble?

From the White House:

In 2008, in response to media inquiries, the President’s campaign requested his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The state sent the campaign the President’s birth certificate, the same legal documentation provided to all Hawaiians as proof of birth in state, and the campaign immediately posted it on the internet. That birth certificate can be seen here (PDF).

When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.

The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting. President Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate can be seen here (PDF):

This is going to just kill Jerome Corsi’s book sales.

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ABC News: Leon Panetta to Replace SecDef Gates, Petraeus to CIA

By on 27 April 2011

**UPDATED**

Sources tell ABC News that President Obama will nominate CIA director Leon Panetta to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The president will nominate Gen. David Petraeus to serve as director of the CIA. The president will also nominate Marine General John Allen to replace Petraeus as ISAF commander in Afghanistan, and Ryan Crocker as US Ambassador to Afghanistan, replacing Karl Eikenberry. – Jake Tapper, ABC News

Well, at least I’ll quit getting emails that Sec. Clinton is going to Defense, which was never going to happen.

Remember when Bob Woodward was hawking his book and he floated all sorts of baloney to push it?

Panetta as SecDef sets up a continuing confrontation about cuts in the Pentagon that Gates has championed, with loyalist Panetta a good pick if you’re judging on Pres. Obama having his own man at Defense. The choice of CIA Director Panetta going to Defense was in the air for a while.

SecDef Gates, a former CIA director himself, has been strong at Defense, with his leadership well respected. I just wish Pres. Obama, Sec. Clinton, Samantha Power and Ambassador Rice would have listened to him on Libya. Gates had said there would be no boots on the ground in that country as long as he was SecDef; we’ll see if that will shift under Panetta. Gates will be missed.

General David Petraeus, who saved the day after McCrystal’s Rolling Stone implosion moves to CIA, something that was also rumored recently.

Speaking of Libya, Sarah Palin chimes in on the subject, showing more proof she may yet be a presidential candidate. The title of her Facebook post is “America Deserves Libya Explanation.” Whoever ghost wrote this post deserves extra credit. She actually sounds like a sane conservative.

At this point, to avoid further mission creep and involvement in a third war – one we certainly can’t afford – you need to step up and justify our Libyan involvement, or Americans are going to demand you pull out. Simply put, what are we doing there? You’ve put us in a strategic no man’s land. If Gaddafi’s got to go, then tell NATO our continued participation hinges on this: We strike hard and Gaddafi will be gone. If, as you and your spokesmen suggest, we’re not to tell Libya what to do when it comes to that country’s leadership, and if you can’t explain to Americans why we’re willing to protect Libyan resources and civilians but not Syria’s, Yemen’s, Bahrain’s, Egypt’s, Israel’s, etc., then there is no justification for U.S. human and fiscal resources to be spent.

We hadn’t heard much from Palin until Donald Trump started getting all the coverage. With her polls in the crapper, someone obviously told her that it was now or she’d never get another chance.

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John Boehner’s Oops

By on 26 April 2011

“Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and, frankly, they’ve got some part of this to blame,” the Ohio Republican told ABC News today. Blame aside, what about the cold, hard cash — the billions of dollars in tax breaks and other subsidies big oil receives every year? President Obama has proposed doing away with many of them, which he says would save $45 billion over the next 10 years. “It’s certainly something we should be looking at,” Boehner said. “We’re in a time when the federal government’s short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share.” – ABC News

This is a moment.

That quote was Speaker Boehner yesterday. Sen. Schumer seized on it:

“Gas hitting four dollars per gallon seems to have finally caused Speaker Boehner to see the light on the insanity of providing subsidies to profit-soaked big oil companies,” he said in a statement. – Schumer pressures Boehner on oil subsidies

When a Republican speaker opens up a path on oil subsidies you need to take it.

It looks like Democrats are doing just that.

Rush Limbaugh wasn’t pleased, so we’ll see if Boehner holds.

Pres. Obama’s dear Congress:

While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps we can take to ensure the American people don’t fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices over the long term. One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in these subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter. In fact, in the past CEO’s of the major oil companies made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks. As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can’t afford these wasteful subsidies, and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY11 and FY12 budgets.

I was heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Our political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step, and I hope we can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done.

In addition, we need to get to work immediately on the longer term goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and our vulnerability to price fluctuations this dependence creates. Without a comprehensive energy strategy for the future we will stay stuck in the same old pattern of heated political rhetoric when prices rise and apathy and neglect when they fall again.

All of this is not seen in a vacuum, however. There hasn’t been a more important issue than energy since Nixon, but big oil always wins. Obama should have made it his moon shot from the start. The stars were aligned then for him, they aren’t now, but the people are feeling pain at the pump and ready to blame anyone who adds to it, so he just might be able to get this done.

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The Ugly, The Bad, & The Good Can Oust the Worst

By on 26 April 2011

Donald Trump is upping the ante against President Barack Obama’s legitimacy, raising questions on Monday night about how the president was admitted to two Ivy League schools. Trump openly questioned how Obama, who he said had been a “terrible student,” got accepted into Columbia University for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law School. – Donald Trump: How did Barack Obama get into Ivies?

The un-Obama in the opening act of circus 2012 is popular for a reason. Listen to any politician today and you’ll get it. Crazy, wrong, right or insulting, however you judge Donald Trump, he is fearless and speaking his mind bluntly, openly and without reservation. He’s not a “lamestream media” wimp, as Sarah Palin is, nor is he inside government; there is also a chance he’ll never get past the opening act stage, though that hardly matters, because he’s blown out the stench of calculation and caution, even polite political patter. No matter where he ends up it’s a lesson in how starved people are for anyone speaking in terms that they can understand, no matter what’s being said. It’s not the messenger or even the message as much as the audacious Americanism of Donald Trump elbowing the establishment off the scene, with there something low brow about Trump’s trash talk.

It’s the lesson Democrats never learned from the health care debate. People won’t accept something they can’t understand and if there was anything that was incomprehensible it was Pres. Obama and the Democratic message on health care and the Affordability Care Act.

This is one hurdle that’s very tough for Pres. Obama to get over, because he is always engaged in a circular conversation, rarely coming down anywhere on the declarative side of things.

This segues perfectly into the latest pitch for Pres. Obama, given by Ezra Klein, who posits Obama is a Republican and that’s not bad, especially since he’s the only one standing in front of the crazies taking over. It’s an insider opinion from someone 4 years too late, but is no doubt going to be hailed as a way to make the case for Pres. Obama in 2012. People who’ve been reading here since 2007 will recognize the template, the tardiness proving that “political analysts” are not all equal.

Segue to Lawrence O’Donnell, who eviscerates the notion that Rush Limbaugh or any other of his bootstrap political hack club are remotely interested in aiding the poor or the middle class, but instead are only concerned with championing wealth for its own sake, even if it ends the middle class as we know it, which Limbaugh did today on his show making the case for corporations.

Lastly, Rachel Maddow, well, you really should watch this one for yourself. It reveals why movement progressives have to keep on keeping on, because they are the heart of what people want, even if the ignoramuses in Congress and the White House believe austerity is king.

Now Democrats just have to digest that to save the party they have to weed out the conservatives who think being closer to Republicans is a virtue instead of a curse. Then digest that Pres. Obama is not your friend, no politician is, especially once he or she thinks they can sell out principles and make the lives of the working class harder.

The more independent you are from the political powers and the more courage you have to walk away from the established elite the more power you have as a voter and the quicker you’ll change what’s not been working in this country for a very long time.

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Ryan Lizza: Obama is a ‘Consequentialist’

By on 26 April 2011

One reaction among liberals to the Bush years and to Iraq was to retreat from “idealism” toward “realism,” in which the United States would act cautiously and, above all, according to national interests rather than moral imperatives. The debate is rooted in the country’s early history. America, John Quincy Adams argued, “does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all,” but the “champion and vindicator only of her own. In 1966, Adams’s words were repeated by George Kennan, perhaps the most articulate realist of the twentieth century, in opposing the Vietnam War. …The use of force to stop human-rights abuses or to promote democracy, they argue, usually ends poorly.” – Ryan Lizza



Consequentialist? Say what?

Mike Allen led with Ryan Lizza’s story in the New Yorker yesterday in his Playbook, logging it under “West Wing Must Read.”

It requires hip-waders.

Philosophically speaking, Lizza contends that whether a decision by a president is moral or right depends on the consequences of that action, which he concludes makes Pres. Obama’s evolving doctrine “consequentialist.” By that theory isn’t every president’s doctrine consequentialist by nature?

Oy, some experts…

Read it anyway, at least then you’ll understand Libya.

If there is such a thing in foreign policy as a “consequentialist” doctrine, Harry Truman might agree, though his interpretation of Lizza’s theory would be far different from Obama’s, because Truman believed the buck stopped in the White House. John F. Kennedy, a president who doesn’t resemble our current one at all, wouldn’t agree at all with Lizza, because imagining Kennedy bombing Libya requires enormous feats of mental acrobatics, regardless of the consequences.

Libya is doing for Pres. Obama exactly what I warned would happen.

Interesting premise pulled out of thin air to try to unwind whatever it is Pres. Obama is attempting to do on foreign policy, which is hardly clear at this point. Unfortunately, Obama’s actions also reveal timidity to declare U.S. intent, because admitting an altered U.S. policy based on Lizza’s “consequentialist” theory would cause political havoc for Obama in 2012.

From Lizza’s article:

Nonetheless, Obama may be moving toward something resembling a doctrine. One of his advisers described the President’s actions in Libya as “leading from behind.” That’s not a slogan designed for signs at the 2012 Democratic Convention, but it does accurately describe the balance that Obama now seems to be finding. It’s a different definition of leadership than America is known for, and it comes from two unspoken beliefs: that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Pursuing our interests and spreading our ideals thus requires stealth and modesty as well as military strength. “It’s so at odds with the John Wayne expectation for what America is in the world,” the adviser said. “But it’s necessary for shepherding us through this phase.” – The Consequentialist – How the Arab Spring remade Obama’s foreign policy.

Ah, China, but first America has to wean itself off of our Middle East obsession, which includes that we can create an outcome by anything we do. But the take away on this one is “leading from behind,” with the notion of a “humanitarian hawk” haunting U.S. foreign policy in a very real way, the latest in Libya, neoconservative unilateralism replaced with righteous certainty of America the savior in countries that are not of strategic interest, meanwhile we can do nothing in Bahrain, with sanctions on Syria coming in 3… 2… … .. 10… 9… 8… Oh, and just try to do anything in the Middle East by pissing off the Saudis.

David Drezner’s take:

On the structure – despite Lizza’s 9,000 words, and despite Obama’s stated intention to reorient American foreign policy to be less Middle East-focused, the essay…. is totally focused on the Middle East. I’m not saying that the Middle East is unimportant, but I’d have liked to have read something about how the Obama administration is dealing with the rest of the world. Indeed, Lizzaa notes that Obama visited South America during the opening days of the Libya operation precisely “to show that America has interests in the rest of the world.” Despite this effort, the thrust of the article demonstrates its futility during the start of a war. New military conflicts crowd out attention that should be paid to other arenas of foreign policy. It would have been nice to see how the administration’s strategy is playing/affecting the rest of the world.

The inside elite from Pontificate Hill, of which Ryan Lizza is certainly one on foreign policy, lays down that Obama is a consequentialist, which is really just shorthand for making stuff up as he goes along, moving from crisis to crisis with no guiding light, except outcome. Good God.

Brzezinski, too, has become disillusioned with the President. “I greatly admire his insights and understanding. I don’t think he really has a policy that’s implementing those insights and understandings. The rhetoric is always terribly imperative and categorical: ‘You must do this,’ ‘He must do that,’ ‘This is unacceptable.’ ” Brzezinski added, “He doesn’t strategize. He sermonizes.”

Then Mike Allen says Lizza’s is “West Wing Must Read,” which sends the message.

All it means to me is that if Lizza and Allen are correct we’re in bigger trouble than I thought we were and I didn’t think that was possible.

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