Colin Powell is, in my view, a war criminal. His dishonest performance in front of the United Nations was the final push that a lot of fence sitters needed to agree to invade Iraq. The fact that he knew he was telling a very Big Lie constructed of hundreds of small ones annihilated any credibility he had, in government, and in public life.
On Meet The Press Powell endorsed Obama, a move that had been predicted for months. Turns out his comments just outside the studio were more interesting than those spoken in front of a national TV audience. His comments about taxation are particularly useful, and bear repeating amidst the constant insanity of tax-cutting-because-we-can mania. Too bad he didn't choose to say those on the air.
October 19, 2008
October 18, 2008
"Liberal" Is Equivlaent To "Traitor"
This Representative from Minnesota is quite special.
The money quote:
The money quote:
What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or Anti-America? I think the American people would love to see an expose like that.Joe would be so proud!
October 16, 2008
Maverickism
I'm confused.
If John McCain is truly the maverick we are bludgeoned into believing he is, why was it left to Bill Kristol the choice of Sarah Palin as running mate?
Much has been said and written about how McCain failed the very first executive test as a presidential wannabe: the choice of vice presidential candidate. Palin was a truly odd, and now obviously reckless choice, but at least we believed McCain himself had made the pick.
Curiouser and curiouser.
If John McCain is truly the maverick we are bludgeoned into believing he is, why was it left to Bill Kristol the choice of Sarah Palin as running mate?
Much has been said and written about how McCain failed the very first executive test as a presidential wannabe: the choice of vice presidential candidate. Palin was a truly odd, and now obviously reckless choice, but at least we believed McCain himself had made the pick.
Curiouser and curiouser.
October 13, 2008
The Anti-Government Industry
I am nearly finished with a great little book by Garry Wills, entitled "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government". It is a concise treatment of the origins of modern anti-government thinking, and it is a delightful eye opening read. The most important thing I carry away from it (among many many useful things) is the practical streak that those who founded this country almost all shared. They had their beliefs and ideologies, but more than anything, a practical way of adapting their viewpoints to match reality, and thus create the best master governing document extant in the western world.
The book was published before W. took office, so it doesn't examine in any way the last frontier of anti-government sentiment in our country - the neo-conservatives who have been running it for the last eight years, and for longer at the congressional level. Wills may not have chosen to include them in his book had it been written later, and for that, we have Thomas Frank and his explosive "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule", which deconstructs what happens when those who believe the federal government is not a legitimate authority take possession of the levers of power.
This pair of books go very nicely together. I recommend them both heartily to anyone who enjoys learning something new.
The book was published before W. took office, so it doesn't examine in any way the last frontier of anti-government sentiment in our country - the neo-conservatives who have been running it for the last eight years, and for longer at the congressional level. Wills may not have chosen to include them in his book had it been written later, and for that, we have Thomas Frank and his explosive "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule", which deconstructs what happens when those who believe the federal government is not a legitimate authority take possession of the levers of power.
This pair of books go very nicely together. I recommend them both heartily to anyone who enjoys learning something new.
October 11, 2008
Exactly Right
Frank Rich sums up the McCain/Palin effort to delegitimize Barack Obama as a candidate for president.
All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.
What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.
By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.
That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.
We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.
October 9, 2008
To The Reichstag!
Put Godwin aside, for the moment.
Consider the recent assertions by the McCain/Palin campaign that Senator Obama is "palling around with terrorists". It has been spoken by Palin at her rallies, spurring cries of "terrorist!" and "kill him!". The locals who introduce either candidate continue the disingenuous maneuver of using Obama's middle name every time they mention him, in an effort to paint him as "other". McCain has just released an ad for the web (which inevitably get lots of free air time on the various cable news programs - talk about return on the dollar!) which reaffirms that Obama is friends with a violent terrorist and "cannot be trusted" with the presidency.
They say this:
And people believe it:
I realize we are not in second grade any more, but go ahead and take a moment to read that over again, and really contemplate what it means. A major party candidate for the highest office in the land, and possibly the most powerful office on earth, is accusing his opponent of being a sworn enemy of his own country. That is exactly what those statements and ads amount to - an accusation of murderous treason on the part of a US Senator with aspirations on the presidency.
And those making these assertions know full well there is not a shred of truth in them.
So while I am not usually inclined to make a serious comparison between the Republican party and the Nazis, I am free to make it now, and it sticks. This is the "Big Lie" tactic, where one political party or figure asserts the other party or candidate is in fact, the enemy, a person who intends to commit treason and destroy his own country. Not content to frighten Americans with "the terrorists" from some foreign land, they have moved to equating a fellow serving senator with those who really would strap on a bomb or steal an airliner and murder American citizens. It is astonishing when you really consider the magnitude of the accusation, and the likely ripple effects it is engendering now that will be in play well after McCain loses the election and returns to the senate.
Bereft in this campaign without a policy leg left to stand on, they have descended to the lowest form of political discourse, beyond the usual shots at character involving hints and allegations of financial wrongdoing or sketchy family background. This entire "Obama is a terrorist" meme is directly on par with the "he's a Jew" or "he's a communist" labels used in Germany in the 1930's to paint people as enemies of the state and all good Germans everywhere. There is absolutely no substantive difference between what the Brown shirts were doing then, and what McCain, Palin, and their campaign surrogates are engaged in today.
Consider the recent assertions by the McCain/Palin campaign that Senator Obama is "palling around with terrorists". It has been spoken by Palin at her rallies, spurring cries of "terrorist!" and "kill him!". The locals who introduce either candidate continue the disingenuous maneuver of using Obama's middle name every time they mention him, in an effort to paint him as "other". McCain has just released an ad for the web (which inevitably get lots of free air time on the various cable news programs - talk about return on the dollar!) which reaffirms that Obama is friends with a violent terrorist and "cannot be trusted" with the presidency.
They say this:
And people believe it:
I realize we are not in second grade any more, but go ahead and take a moment to read that over again, and really contemplate what it means. A major party candidate for the highest office in the land, and possibly the most powerful office on earth, is accusing his opponent of being a sworn enemy of his own country. That is exactly what those statements and ads amount to - an accusation of murderous treason on the part of a US Senator with aspirations on the presidency.
And those making these assertions know full well there is not a shred of truth in them.
So while I am not usually inclined to make a serious comparison between the Republican party and the Nazis, I am free to make it now, and it sticks. This is the "Big Lie" tactic, where one political party or figure asserts the other party or candidate is in fact, the enemy, a person who intends to commit treason and destroy his own country. Not content to frighten Americans with "the terrorists" from some foreign land, they have moved to equating a fellow serving senator with those who really would strap on a bomb or steal an airliner and murder American citizens. It is astonishing when you really consider the magnitude of the accusation, and the likely ripple effects it is engendering now that will be in play well after McCain loses the election and returns to the senate.
Bereft in this campaign without a policy leg left to stand on, they have descended to the lowest form of political discourse, beyond the usual shots at character involving hints and allegations of financial wrongdoing or sketchy family background. This entire "Obama is a terrorist" meme is directly on par with the "he's a Jew" or "he's a communist" labels used in Germany in the 1930's to paint people as enemies of the state and all good Germans everywhere. There is absolutely no substantive difference between what the Brown shirts were doing then, and what McCain, Palin, and their campaign surrogates are engaged in today.
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