They gave us a republic: The Nightowl Newswrap
Prairie Weather: Fraud
The Brad Blog: TN GOP fights against the rule of law and paper ballots
The Sideshow: Health Care Roulette
Pensito Review: Carl Hiaasen's letter to Sarah Palin from her publisher
Happy Blogiversary to bark bark woof woof!
I don't usually comment on a blog post that comments on another blog post, but I believe Matt Yglesias hits on an important issue in his observations on Andrew Exum's interview with Washington Post reporter and author Greg Jaffe.
Greg Jaffe, speaking to Andrew Exum, says “This whole conventional vs. irregular debate is stupid.”
War is war. And we waste far too much energy trying to categorize it. I think most lieutenants, captains and majors are beyond this false conventional vs. irregular frame that we try to impose on war. I wish I could say the same for the more senior people in the Pentagon.
I think there’s a lot of truth to that. At the same time, just because things look one way to “lieutenants, captains and majors” and another way to “senior people in the Pentagon” doesn’t mean we should take a dismissive view of the senior people’s outlook in a rush to celebrate the insights of the practical warfighter.
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And when you get down to the guts of defense budget politics, these high-level strategic concepts matter a great deal. Nobody, of course, is going to say that the U.S. should somehow completely abandon its ability to fight conventional wars. But the choice between a mindset that says “the main purpose of the military is to scare China & Russia” or a mindset that says “the main purpose of the military is to intervene effectively in third world backwaters” has very real implications for what kind of hardware purchases look cost effective.
There is no doubt in my mind that the issue of "hardware purchases" looms very large in the minds of senior military and civilian decision makers. Conventional warfare means lots of tanks, armored vehicles, stealthy jets, next generation bombers, submarines, destroyers, and aircraft carriers. And let's not even get into the care and feeding of that massive military machine. Counterinsurgency operations, or COIN, is completely the opposite, with a focus on maintaining security and diminishing the insurgent grasp on the population without destroying real estate. Also a no-brainer that the DOD budget is already too bloated, and that in managing two wars, protecting the homeland, and trying to modernize its equipment, there's going to be some in-fighting.
But more importantly, the issue is also in the theory and execution of national strategy. The basic idea of military doctrine is that small military units execute tactics on the ground that must support the overall plan of operations within a theater. The theater commander needs to ensure that he has adequate numbers of personnel, that operations continue toward a particular set of goals, and that the logistics support those operations - and his operations must support the overall national strategy for that region. If your tactics and operations don't align against the strategic goals and expected outcome, then you're doing something wrong - even if you're General McChrystal.
Now under the Bush administration, strategic goals and outcomes changed every Friedman unit (six months), which made it difficult to effectively plan operations or execute tactics. But one thing that was certainly clear was that conventional tactics that destroyed the Taliban in 2002 and that took the Iraqi army out in 2003 didn't support the post-conflict goals. You can't prosecute military operations with a conventional frame of mind when what one really needs is an approach to irregular warfare. That's why we failed in Lebanon in 1983.
Greg Jaffe is a good journalist, and I look forward to reading his book. On the other hand, making a statement like "War is war. And we waste far too much energy trying to categorize it" is a remarkably stupid statement. Nuclear war is not the same as conventional war. Conventional war is not the same as irregular war. Our military needs to be able to operate across a range of different operations, and needs to be equipped properly to execute its operations quickly and efficiently. But what we really need is national leadership that understands the nature of war, that knows how to develop a strategy that is executable, and that knows when it's time to go. From Sun Tzu:
All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Thus ends the lesson.
Paul Krugman explains why we can't settle for stabilizing the economy, and says unless there's a bigger economic stimulus package, high unemployment is here to stay for a long, long time:
The effects of the stimulus will build over time — it’s still likely to create or save a total of around three million jobs — but its peak impact on the growth of G.D.P. (as opposed to its level) is already behind us. Solid growth will continue only if private spending takes up the baton as the effect of the stimulus fades. And so far there’s no sign that this is happening.
So the government needs to do much more. Unfortunately, the political prospects for further action aren’t good.
What I keep hearing from Washington is one of two arguments: either (1) the stimulus has failed, unemployment is still rising, so we shouldn’t do any more, or (2) the stimulus has succeeded, G.D.P. is growing, so we don’t need to do any more. The truth, which is that the stimulus was too little of a good thing — that it helped, but it wasn’t big enough — seems to be too complicated for an era of sound-bite politics.
But can we afford to do more? We can’t afford not to.
High unemployment doesn’t just punish the economy today; it punishes the future, too. In the face of a depressed economy, businesses have slashed investment spending — both spending on plant and equipment and “intangible” investments in such things as product development and worker training. This will hurt the economy’s potential for years to come.
Deficit hawks like to complain that today’s young people will end up having to pay higher taxes to service the debt we’re running up right now. But anyone who really cared about the prospects of young Americans would be pushing for much more job creation, since the burden of high unemployment falls disproportionately on young workers — and those who enter the work force in years of high unemployment suffer permanent career damage, never catching up with those who graduated in better times.
Even the claim that we’ll have to pay for stimulus spending now with higher taxes later is mostly wrong. Spending more on recovery will lead to a stronger economy, both now and in the future — and a stronger economy means more government revenue. Stimulus spending probably doesn’t pay for itself, but its true cost, even in a narrow fiscal sense, is only a fraction of the headline number.
O.K., I know I’m being impractical: major economic programs can’t pass Congress without the support of relatively conservative Democrats, and these Democrats have been telling reporters that they have lost their appetite for stimulus.
But I hope their stomachs start rumbling soon. We now know that stimulus works, but we aren’t doing nearly enough of it. For the sake of today’s unemployed, and for the sake of the nation’s future, we need to do much more.
Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling--May 25, 2009
I think I've mentioned before that I'm married to a Dane, and I am of Irish/English descent on my mum's side. Maybe it's our genetic background, maybe it's our foodie nature, but we're big cheese lovers: from crumbled feta in our salads to creamy brie with a glass of wine after the kids go to bed to seriously stinky Danish Gamle Ole, that has powerful flavor, but can make your mouth smell like week-old gym socks afterwards. But it occurs to me, watching this video, that there is such a thing as loving cheese a little too much. It also seems to me that there is something painfully reminiscent our little Sunday get-togethers. We love that cheese--that little nugget of truth--and we go chasing after it, thinking we're going to catch it. But when it comes to the Sunday shows, it's uncatchable and we stumble and we fall and we get hurt, time and time again. And it really forces one to wonder: is it possible to want it too much?
'Cuz if it's Sunday, it's John McCain time again--this time on Face the Nation, with Russ Feingold. Health care is going to be a big topic of discussion. Of course, we have the most reactionary Republicans to lie a little more to us: Mitch McConnell on This Week, John Kyl on FNS and John Cornyn on Meet the Press. Best of all, FNS has a representative of AHIP on too. Watch that cheese roll even further out of our reach. And Afghanistan is also of note, with Afghan candidate and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah on State of the Union and Hamid Karzai appearing on Fareed Zakaria GPS. So tumbling down the hill we go, hoping beyond hope that we're gonna catch that cheese.
ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Helene Cooper, Dan Rather, Andrew Sullivan and Kathleen Parker. Topics: Who's the Likely Loser in the Fight Between the White House and the Right? Will Talk Radio Run the GOP's Presidential Nominating Process in 2012? Is the Far Right more likely than the White House to have its hardball tactics backfire? YES: 7 NO: 5; Do the Democratic leaders pushing the public option already know it is dead? YES: 7 No: 5.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Afghan presidential candidate and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah; Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Jim Webb, D-Va.; Ed Gillespie, former Bush White House counselor.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - President Karzai gives his first interview since agreeing to allow Afghanistan to hold runoff elections. Many vital questions remain: why should the international community believe a runoff can be any less fraud-filled than the original August election? And if Karzai were to be re-elected, is his legitimacy now tainted? Plus Shashi Tharoor, the man who handles India's foreign affairs.
CNN's "Amanpour" - Afghan opium; Women for sale.
"Fox News Sunday" - Abdullah; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Mike Tuffin, of America's Health Insurance Plans.
So what's catching your eye this morning?
Jon Stewart took CNN apart over their insipid fact-checking of a SNL skit about President Obama while never having the time to give us REAL FACTS about health-care reform when their guests come on and lie. CNN and most cable networks allow health-care obstructionists like Sen. Kyl and Orrin Hatch to throw out bogus facts all day long without ever questioning their validity, and it is frustrating.
Stewart nails CNN for always saying "We're out of time," and never getting to the truth. And then we have the FRC's Tony Perkins, who claims there are really only 5-10 million uninsured people in America.
Perkins: ...when you get down to a hard core number, it's about 5-10 million that can't afford health care. Out of a nation of 330 million that's a small percentage.
Stewart: Without an explanation he went from 30 million uninsured down to you know the hard core number. 5 or ten million. Well that's pretty close...it's only double.
And the ultimate slap in the face is when TDS clips together almost every anchor saying: "We'll leave it there."
Stewart: There are 24 hours in a day, how much more time do you need? CNN's new slogan: Nobody Leaves More Things There.
It was somewhat gratifying to see Chris Matthews' right-leaning panel on his Sunday show -- which was, as expected, eager to deny the role of racism in the ugly animus that's been directed at Barack Obama -- at least admit the truth:
David Brooks: What Rush and Glenn Beck are doing is race-baiting. 100 percent. That's race-baiting.
...
Kathleen Parker: What Rush Limbaugh and Beck did in those two clips is to empower racists.
But it was even more interesting to watch Brooks in particular somehow manage to stumble upon the core of the problem:
Matthews: Would the White House like the leaders of both parties to say, 'Cool it'?
Brooks: Well, I think they would. First, I think Father Coughlin was objecting to FDR, and he -- that's what we're seeing, Father Coughlin, that's what these guys are --
Matthews: And he was far right.
Brooks: He was far right. The White House understands, you've got 10 percent of the country over here on the wacky right, 10 percent on the wacky left, that's not what they can pay attention to. And they're not going to pay attention to it. They're sticking with the independents -- that's what the health care, why it's tending toward the center.
The one danger -- the main danger of all this, the Glenn and the Rush and all that -- they're not going to take over the country. But they are taking over the Republican Party.
And so if the Republican Party is sane, they will say no to these people. But every single elected leader in the Republican Party is afraid to take on Rush and Glenn Beck.
Brooks' percentages are off -- it's more like about 5 percent on the left and 30 percent on the right side, and this latter fact is actually what he identifies as the problem; the right has been so overwhelmed by its wingnutty elements that they have largely taken over the GOP at this juncture in time. And there's no prospect of the David Brookses ever getting it back -- in no small part because they refuse to acknowledge the magnitude of what they're up against.
But at least they recognize the problem. That's a start.
RaceWire: Best photo from the 9/12 Tea Party
Harold Meyerson: The "values" of the largest private-sector employer in the U.S. are shaping our national economy -- and that's a very bad thing.
The Agonist: Monsanto
uggabugga: Interested in a deep-think read?
Multi Medium: Healthcare perspective from Kristof
OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Delusions of Lucidity, Republican Dirty Tricks, Blue Heron Blast, Alien Truth
The Amazing Atheist: "Tell The Truth!" (h/t DU)
I've been in a funk this weekend. It's hard to look at the coverage of the 9/12 protests and not come to the conclusion that this country is seriously--and possibly irretrievably--messed up. I'm not even sure that half the country even knows what the truth is any more, or could recognize it if it was standing in front of them. I don't know if it's an unfortunate byproduct of the rough and tumble internet age, but the uninhibited rage scares me. And where is our media now? Trying to temper misinformation and out-and-out lies? Surely, you jest.
As per usual, the Sunday shows will give those out-of-touch-with-reality, anger-management-needing conservatives plenty of air time to confuse Americans. Rep. Joe "The Heckler" Wilson will get to lie some more on Fox News Sunday, Newt Gingrich (yes, again) will be on Meet the Press to spin away, Gang of Six Queen Olympia Snowe will be on Face the Nation and Tenther Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be on This Week. A single intellectually honest discussion of issues to be had? Surely, you jest.
ABC's "This Week" - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - David Axelrod, White House senior adviser; Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and John Cornyn, R-Texas; Howard Dean, former national Democratic Party chairman; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Helene Cooper, Howard Fineman, Joe Klein, Ceci Connolly. Topics: Has President Obama regained control in the health care debate? What is behind the venom President Obama has faced? Meter Questions: Was the anti-Obama venom unavoidable? YES: 6 NO: 6; Has Obama Got Command Back? YES: 12 No: 0.
CNN's "State of the Union" - White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - This week - an in-depth look at Afghanistan. The election, the war, the country as a whole. All riddled with problems. What can the U.S. and the world do? We'll speak with two of the Afghan presidential candidates, with Michael Ware who spent a week in the heartland of the insurgency, and with a panel of experts debating the options.
"Fox News Sunday" - Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.
Viewer note: Barack Obama will make his third appearance on 60 Minutes tonight, talking health care. But until then, what's catching your eye this morning?
Tom Ridge wants to have it both ways. He sat on his hands then to save his job and now he wants to get paid again. Remember, he could have made a difference. Now he describes the terror alerts he propagated as "political" when he has a book to sell, but it's not sitting well with a lot of us, especially when he already knew that in 2004.
First, the timing of terror alerts raises questions that aren’t adequately answered.
If there’s no intent to benefit the president in a re-election year, Ridge should say more than “we don’t play politics” at the Department of Homeland Security.
Especially after doing a virtual campaign ad by announcing “new” threats just after the Democratic convention and praising “the president’s leadership in the war against terror.”
And it wasn’t said off the cuff or in answer to a question. It was said in prepared remarks.
It makes Ridge more salesman than guardian, more political servant than public servant.
Same with failing to divulge the full context of information on potential terror sites later revealed as three to four years old.
How does pushing the president while holding back the truth give anyone confidence “we don’t play politics”?Maybe he’s told what to say, when and how, and maybe that’s why he wants out. A source close to Ridge tells me the relationship between Ridge and the White House “isn’t what it used to be.” Still, it’s his gig.
This too funny. Apparently Bill-O isn't happy with the way Jon Stewart has taken Fox to task for its "news coverage" and thinks he's "off the rails" for his treatment of his network. Truth hurts, doesn't it Bill? Bill tried to qualify his use of the word "loons" when it comes to liberals by cherry-picking one segment featured on the Daily Show, ignoring the fact that he throws the slur out there about every time he uses the word liberal. I'm sure the Great Orange Satan Markos Moulitsas or the good folks over at Media Matters that make Bill-O's head ready to explode on at least a weekly basis can attest to that.
Bill wraps this one by being worried that too many people think that Jon Stewart is "presenting an accurate picture of this country on his program". The propagandist doth protest too much about the court jester doesn't he? Sadly Bill, most people who watch The Daily Show are a whole lot more well informed than the ones who watch your show or your network, and the informed ones are well aware they're watching satire, and not "news".
Walter Cronkite covering the Apollo 11 landing, July 1969. Part 1--watch Part 2 and 3 here.
Walter Cronkite's death this week really brought into sharp focus for me just how much we've suffered journalistically since Cronkite retired in 1981. Gone are the days where we can view our news media as fulfilling their obligations as the Fourth Estate and using the freedom of the press to hold DC accountable for their actions, as originally envisioned by Jefferson:
"No government ought to be without censors, and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth whether in religion, law or politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know nor notice its sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter."
Sadly, it appears that all we have in the media now is sycophants and censors and very little--if any--free press. And our democracy is mortally crippled by it.
As for this Sunday's offerings, if you are sick as I am of the poor downtrodden privileged white men threatened by Sonia Sotomayor, I don't recommend watching Sen. Jeff Sessions on State of the Union. WH Budget Director Peter Orszag will be making two appearances to reassure us that all is going along with the stimulus plan and the Goldman Sachs bonus bonanza is proof that it's working. And we're still talking health care on The Chris Matthews Show and with HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius on Meet the Press. But what I'm looking forward to--space geek that I am--is Buzz Aldrin and Sen. John Glenn reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
ABC's "This Week" - Pre-empted by British Open golf tournament.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; former astronaut and Sen. John Glenn.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Clarence Page, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks and Kelly O'Donnell. Topics: Is the cost of health care reform President Obama's greatest vulnerability? Who got the better deal out of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton coalition? Meter Questions: Will Obama sign a health care reform law this year? YES: 12
NO: 0; Will the Republicans support a health care bill with new taxes?
YES: 7 NO: 5.CNN's "State of the Union" - White House Budget Director Peter Orszag; Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; Rev. Jesse Jackson.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Rwandan President Paul Kagame sits down with Fareed to discuss his nation's 15 year journey from genocide to economic growth and autocratic, but stable governance.
"Fox News Sunday" - Orszag; Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
So what's catching your eye this morning?
(Okay - admit it: When's the last time you heard Hawaiian guitars?)
I don't know about you, but here we are in the dead of summer where it's 90+ degrees with 90+ percent humidity and the only thing I want to do is go vacant in front of a large air-conditioner and imagine balmy breezes and tiki bars.
So naturally, my fingers wandered over to a stack of Hawaiian 78's, recorded in the 1950's by the great Rudi Wairata and The Mena Moeria Minstrels.
You probably haven't heard of them. And to tell you the truth, neither had I until a few years ago when I got a collection of 78's from a friend in Europe.
It seems The Mena Moeria Minstrels were a combination Dutch Indonesian and Hawaiian and were pretty big in Europe, apart from their popularity on the Islands, and these discs were put out by a Dutch company Omega Records in 1953.
Aside from the historic aspect, I was hooked on this track "Maui Moon" after the first few bars.
The 1950's were loaded with a lot of interesting (and some downright strange) music, aside from the flood of rock n' roll and R&B. Not a whole lot of it has been explored and some of it has been unjustifiably neglected.
This might be one of them.
Shakesville: Facts Schmacts...but Waxman-Markey passes the House anyway
Scott Horton: Did a Bush Justice Department official obstruct the Renzi investigation?
FAIR Blog: Why I couldn't say what Dan Froomkin said reporters should do
Mondoweiss: Naomi Klein in Bil'in: Boycott Israel
Iraq Today: War News. It aint good
Alien Truth: Ayatolla tweets can't be beat
Many thanks to Batocchio for filling in so ably for the past ten days
Speaking today at the National Press Club for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation journalism awards, Dick Cheney said:
"I think that freedom means freedom for everyone," replied the former V.P. "As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don't support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis. ... But I don't have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that."
And in truth, Darth Cheney has said similar things on the subject in recent years. But it is a little odd that one of those most rightwing of all national political figures can have any position to the left of the current president.
TalkLeft: Rosen recants on Sotomayor, Turley takes up his standard, but who will represent white males on the court?
The Pump Handle: The Climate Bill is less than ideal, but the best we're gonna get right now
The Big Picture: The back story to "Bailout Nation" (h/t swimgirl)
TPMMuckraker: A sketchy DOD report does not attempt to establish the original status of the detainees it claims "reengaged" in terrorism, and does not consider the possibility that some of the 540 men released from Gitmo just might have been radicalized during their imprisonment.
American Street: Death rattle of the cult of Intelligence?
OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Scoop44, Alien Truth, Politics In Color, Michigan Liberal
