Thursday, October 8, 2009

08 Oct 2009 07:31 am

If The Recovery Doesn't Come

David Frum is all sunshine and rainbows:

1) Those in the Obama administration betting on a roaring Reagan-style recovery seem to be heading for a nasty surprise, economically and politically.

2) The horrifying unemployment numbers will not improve soon. Unemployment hit 9.8% in figures released Friday. Job-seekers are finding it takes more than 26 weeks to gain a new job, the worst number since record-keeping began in 1948. Unemployment among those 16-24 now exceeds 50%. And the number of those who have lacked work for more than six months has also hit a post-Second World War high.

3) With the private economy remaining so weak so long, U. S. tax collections will not improve any time soon — meaning more terrible budget deficit numbers and more accumulated government debt.

Continue reading "If The Recovery Doesn't Come" »

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

07 Oct 2009 10:28 pm

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish we put out an especially varied mix, given the lack of news. The president's poll numbers looked up, both at home and abroad, while anti-gay forces in Maine continued their awful campaign. (And speaking of awful.)

In punditry, Andrew owned up to the McCaughey affair, Conor went another round with Breitbart, Reihan defended Rove, Bartlett received a great review (buy his book!), Beck talked to Newsmax, Cohen countered Galston, AL reeled in Greenwald,  readers revolted against an anti-atheist post, and Andrew discussed why he prefers Ptown to DC.

For such a slow day, it's no wonder that this post was our most popular.

-- C.B.

07 Oct 2009 08:51 pm

Monty Python Turns 40 This Week

via videosift.com

07 Oct 2009 08:35 pm

Fighting On Behalf Of Russia, China, And India

Bob Kaplan's view of the war in Afghanistan:

Everyone keeps saying that America is not an empire, but our military finds itself in the sort of situation that was mighty familiar to empires like that of ancient Rome and 19th-century Britain: struggling in a far-off corner of the world to exact revenge, to put down the fires of rebellion, and to restore civilized order. Meanwhile, other rising and resurgent powers wait patiently in the wings, free-riding on the public good we offer. This is exactly how an empire declines, by allowing others to take advantage of its own exertions.

Kipling understood. At some point, the American people will ask why their kids and their money are being leveraged to help China win the race for the 21st century.

07 Oct 2009 07:58 pm

How American-Grown Marijuana Is Hurting the Drug Cartels

Steve Fainaru and William Booth report:

Almost all of the marijuana consumed in the multibillion-dollar U.S. market once came from Mexico or Colombia. Now as much as half is produced domestically, often by small-scale operators who painstakingly tend greenhouses and indoor gardens to produce the more potent, and expensive, product that consumers now demand, according to authorities and marijuana dealers on both sides of the border. The shifting economics of the marijuana trade have broad implications for Mexico's war against the drug cartels, suggesting that market forces, as much as law enforcement, can extract a heavy price from criminal organizations that have used the spectacular profits generated by pot sales to fuel the violence and corruption that plague the Mexican state.

Now imagine the blow to the Mexican drug cartels if prohibition were lifted. But we couldn't do that, could we?

(Hat tip: Reason)

07 Oct 2009 07:49 pm

Face Of The Day

Spc. Matthew King of Lompoc, California, who has been without a shower since July 4 of this year, rubs his face in a below ground bunker October 6, 2009 in Forward Operating Base Zerok in Paktika province, Afghanistan. Conditions are harsh for the soldiers of the 3-509 US Army's 25th Infantry Division and their Afghan Army counterparts at the Zerok field base near the border with Pakistan. The troops stationed at the base frequently patrol the adjacent mountains on foot and endure frequent attacks by militants, as well as living without showers or laundry for months. By Chris Hondros/Getty.

07 Oct 2009 07:34 pm

Creepy Ad Watch, Ctd

A reader writes:

Don’t you think your Creepy Ad Watch from today ought to acknowledge (1) that you linked this very same VW advert in January 2005, and (2) that you also discovered in January 2005 that it is a fake. It still amuses me, in its dark way, so I’m pleased if a new generation sees it because of your re-post today. 

Yes, now you remind me, I do remember it. When you've been blogging a couple hundred posts a week for ten years, total recall of every link or post, especially when you are always absorbing new material, can elude you, Apologies.

07 Oct 2009 07:12 pm

Dissents Of The Day

There has been much response to this post, the tone of which I apologized for here. A reader writes:

I’m 55 and have been an atheist for as long as I can remember. Throughout my life I’ve had to listen to smug preachers railing against the evil of atheism, gleefully describing the torment we’d endure after we died.

I was very active at one time in state politics as an employee of the state Democratic Party. I got interested in running for office, but was told unless I was willing to join a church, preferably a Baptist church, I could forget about it. I listened to the U.S. president publicly state that “atheists should not be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots.” On those few occasions where I let people know about my lack of belief, reactions ranged from supercilious pity (“You poor, pitiful lost soul…I will pray for you that you may see the light.”) to outright hostility.

I was a scoutmaster for 10 years, well liked and appreciated by the kids and their parents. But, the entire time I knew that if a parent ever found out that I was an atheist; I would have been immediately removed. With all that, and more, do you really wonder why I have a general disdain for religion and all the wonderful things it does for our society? Throughout my life, religious belief has been nothing but a sword hanging over my head, ready to fall the moment my lack thereof was discovered. Do you really wonder why I would like to see that sword broken and cast into the forge?

Another reader:

Continue reading "Dissents Of The Day" »

07 Oct 2009 06:55 pm

"Safe Schools"

The anti-gay forces flooding Maine with ads right now have honed in on the issue they think will work: the age-old fear that gay people will corrupt children. In fact, schoolkids will not be in "safe" schools if they are told about the mere existence of gay married couples. Maine's school curriculum has no content that could be used to indoctrinate kids; but it seems to me that the existence of gay married couples should not somehow be excised from what children are taught. Gay marriage is now part of the world's reality. It has been the law in a nearby state for several years. This is a difficult balance, but just as Catholic kids need to know they live in a country where divorce and contraception exist, even though their own church disavows and opposes both, so simple information about gay couples seems to me to be part of a proper education. I think it should veer on the side of extreme caution so as not to offend parents or tilt into propaganda. One reason I back marriage rights is that the existence of such couples in itself is an educational tool that schools simply need to acknowledge, not proselytize for. I think the details are best conveyed by parents, not schools.

But the underlying truth is: this ad is designed to provoke fear of a small minority and its factual basis in Maine does not exist, which is why they have to cite California. Against this kind of fear, reason has a Sisyphean task. But I trust the people of Maine - not an easily intimidated lot - will see through this. Or rather I hope so.

07 Oct 2009 06:36 pm

Creepy Ad Watch

No wonder it was banned:

07 Oct 2009 06:19 pm

The Bill For The Bill

The CBO scores the Baucus bill and concludes that it would shave $81 billion off the deficit over ten years. Marc's parsing:

Baucus says he can get this bill to the floor. It's a bill that at least one Republican -- Sen. Olympia Snowe -- could vote for. And no Democrat -- or Republican -- can argue that, based on the shared reverence for the CBO source, health care will add to the deficit... even though, as the CBO admits, a projection is just a projection.

Further thoughts from Suderman, Cohn, and Klein.

07 Oct 2009 05:46 pm

How Much Of Clunker?

A reader writes:

Holtz-Eakin is right about the first time homebuyers' tax credit, but he's dead wrong to link the failed initiative with the successful Cash-for-Clunkers program. Holtz-Eakin accuses C4C of yielding few benefits, because consumers could obtain the rebate by "simply raising your mileage by only four miles-per-gallon." That was an interesting theoretical objection *before* the program was initiated, but now that it's over, we can actually measure its relevance. The preliminary data show an increase from 15.8 to 25.4 mpg, a gain of some 61%. Oops. He also derides the benefits of Cash-for-Clunkers as illusory, when creating an illusion of growth and thus stimulating consumer confidence was its principal objective.

Continue reading "How Much Of Clunker?" »

07 Oct 2009 05:17 pm

More Central Fronts

Goldblog doesn't understand why Afghanistan is considered the central front of the war on terror. He has some other candidates.

07 Oct 2009 05:12 pm

"McChrystal Is NOT Shinseki"

Michael Cohen counters William Galston's claim of liberal hypocrisy surrounding the McChrystal affair:

General McChrystal not only had his strategic review leaked to the Washington Post, but he has appeared on 60 Minutes in recent days and even went to London to plead the case for population centric counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. In other words, McChrystal voiced his candid views in public instead of in private up the chain of command. Eric Shinseki did nothing of the sort. In 2003, he was Army Chief of Staff and when he publicly contradicted the Bush Administration's rosy view of the post-war occupation of Iraq he wasn't being interviewed on television - he was testifying under oath to Congress. As Shinseki's spokesperson correctly pointed out at the time, "He was asked a question and he responded with his best military judgment." We should expect nothing less.

Cohen adds:

Continue reading ""McChrystal Is NOT Shinseki"" »

07 Oct 2009 04:58 pm

The Fierce Urgency Of Whenever, Ctd

Jon Stewart won't be sucking up to the president next Saturday night like the HRC crowd. Instead, he's actually standing up for the troops this president continues to persecute:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Gay After Tomorrow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

07 Oct 2009 04:42 pm

Early Returns

Tom Schaller checks in on Tim and Mitt:

I'll go on the record right now as saying I don't think that Romney will win the nomination. He had enough problems with the evangelicals and social conservatives, and he now has an equally bigger policy problem on health care. As for Pawlenty, I think he's more likely to be on the bottom of the ticket.

What I'm looking forward to is the battle between Huckabee and Palin.

07 Oct 2009 04:20 pm

Mental Health Break

A stunning look at PRC's parade last week. Creepy, yes, but gob-smacking nonetheless:

China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

07 Oct 2009 03:59 pm

"I Am Trying To Paint Him Into A Corner!"

Conor responds to Breitbart's letter at length. The Dish has aired Andrew's defense. It's only fair to air Conor's rebuttal:

In a letter published on Andrew Sullivan’s site (and posted at Big Hollywood), Andrew Breitbart complains about recent pieces I’ve written that include criticism of his approach to political discourse. I want to direct readers who’ve read my work to his objections, and to respond. Before I begin, I want to note that I’ve repeatedly complimented Mr. Breitbart for publishing the ACORN pieces on Big Government, and dubbed him a savvy media critic who lands some punches against his targets.

Of course, I’ve also got major objections to his punditry, hence the criticism that I’ve offered.

It is my understanding that The Daily Beast, where we’ve both written, is up for hosting a debate where we can air our disagreements, and engage in what I think would be a productive conversation about journalism on the right, the left, and otherwise.

I’d certainly be up for that, or a Bloggingheads episode (assuming that they’re willing to host) or both.

Meanwhile I’ll address Mr. Breitbart’s letter.

He writes:

In the piece you link to and affirm in the Daily Beast, “The Right’s Lesser Press,” Conor Friedersdorf refuses to interview me as he continues to be my unofficial biographer. (I’m VERY reachable, Conor.) He writes opinion pieces on me purporting to be journalism. He doesn’t quote or cite me, he simply assumes and pushes the point of view he thinks I have and makes an argument based on these alleged positions. It’s sloppy and you, of all people, should know better.

This gets a couple of things wrong.

Continue reading ""I Am Trying To Paint Him Into A Corner!"" »

07 Oct 2009 03:24 pm

Voices From The GOP Base

Pam Spaulding rounds up reaction to Mary Cheney's pregnancy among readers of the Free Republic. This gem pretty much sums it up:

Who is the father? Yes, you selfish lesbians, there is ALWAYS a father. Not that the baby will benefit from one. sick.

I also stumbled across these comments in Ann Althouse's blog, regarding my skepticism of Sarah Palin's pregnancy stories. I deserve criticism on this and have aired it on this blog by my readers and by Patrick - not because my doubts have been put to rest, but because I know I'm out on a limb and I know that means you take your fair share of whacks. But look at these comments, which Althouse engages with and certainly doesn't remove. I have a thick skin but really:

I wouldn't be completely surprised if Andrew felt his mother hated him and that she didn't want him to be born.

sullivan has had his fudge packed so tightly it has replaced what diseased grey matter may have once occupied is cranium-

Here is a human whose sexual desires fight against the flow of life itself. Cursed by a disease that may wither him to a shrub of what he once was, he screams for more attention. It's all about taking down the societal purity the Palin represents.

isn't it a direct truism that by definition a raging homosexual such as Sullivan would be the human manifestation of resistance to shame?

Please. One ought always to refer to Sully by his true and complete regnal name: Her Divine Majesty Queen Mary Jane Milky Loads, Sultana of Sodom, Governess of Gomorrah, and Empress of All Urania.

Continue reading "Voices From The GOP Base" »

07 Oct 2009 03:16 pm

The View From Your Recession

A reader writes:

My father is a Thoroughbred breeder in Virginia.  For pure breeding operations such as his, the cash flow works as follows:  mare is bred early in the year, foal is born early the next year.  Stud fee is due once foal stands and nurses, in most cases.  The following September, the yearling is sold at auction.  This year, between 50% and 75% of yearlings sold for less than the stud fee paid.  As a result, breeders do not have the cash on hand to pay the stud fees for mares that are now in foal.  Mares are being put down so that the foal cannot stand and nurse, and the stud fee is then not due.  Just to clarify, my dad has not and will not be putting down any mares, but anecdotally, it is happening.

07 Oct 2009 02:51 pm

Quote For The Day

“Faith means doubt. Faith is not the suppression of doubt. It is the overcoming of doubt, and you overcome doubt by going through it. The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a man of faith,” - Thomas Merton.

07 Oct 2009 02:44 pm

The Right's Looming Foreign Policy War

Drudge is a leading indicator on the populist right just as George Will is a leading indicator on what now passes for the intellectual right. Before too long, the GOP will, in my view, come back to the conservative idea that we should withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as we responsibly can, even at some risk. You cannot return to limited government without unwinding the empire. The neocons will fight very hard and try to find some pliable hood-ornament to maintain their Christianist base for neo-imperial expansion. Watching these forces fight will be fascinating. Hagel could take on the neocons; maybe Huntsman. Ron Paul's conservatism is not dead. It's one of the few signs of life out there.

07 Oct 2009 02:29 pm

Reihan Defends Rove

Reihan has an exchange with Sam Tanenhaus over Sam's new book. It's worth reading in full. No one loves Reihan more than I do but in my view he is far too sanguine about the malign intentions of a cynic like Rove and far too soft on the rank paucity of responsible thinking on the mainstream right in recent times. His last book was flawed in my view in the same way, however imaginative it was trying to be. No viable conservatism will emerge from ignoring the cynics and crooks who got us into this mess or from giving the decomposing corpse of the Dixie rump emergency CPR.

And does Reihan truly, really believe that Karl Rove, for Pete's sake, was trying to avoid gay-baiting his way to victory in 2004 - when he strategized a polarizing, brutalizing gay marriage ban in the one state that he needed to win and that alone gave him victory? Here is Reihan:

Karl Rove never imagined that opposition to same-sex marriage would cement a permanent Republican majority. It was a distraction that I'm sure he found distasteful. President Bush himself could barely stomach talking about the issue. Yet talk about it he did, in deference to the need to press every advantage.

Rove thought this was a distraction? From his realignment? Does Reihan recall the kind of politics Rove cut his teeth on in the South? Gay-baiting was one critical part of his strategy for realignment. It was designed not just to rally evangelicals but to win over a segment of African-Americans and Hispanics. And distasteful?

Continue reading "Reihan Defends Rove" »

07 Oct 2009 01:54 pm

Obama And Bush, Hand In Hand?

The Anonymous Liberal counters Greenwald:

[L]et's keep the pressure on Obama to do the right thing and support better policies, but in doing so, let's not lose sight of the fact that the primary criticism of the Bush administration was not that its terrorism policies were bad (though they were), but that they were illegal. Cheneyism, at its core, has little to do with policy and everything to do with process. It is exemplified by contempt for the rule of law and a willingness to disregard even clear legal constraints on executive power. So far at least, I have not seen evidence of that mentality in the Obama administration's approach to terrorism policy.

Continue reading "Obama And Bush, Hand In Hand?" »

07 Oct 2009 01:17 pm

One Of My Heroes: Bruce Bartlett

David Leonhardt offers a fair profile. Bruce did not sacrifice his principles or his intellect during the Rove years and was all but ostracized as a result. He didn't have my independence from the conservative movement and so had to face down much worse than I did in confronting the accelerating catastrophe of the Bush-Cheney years. But he at least has the knowledge that he was right all along. Odd that neither Bruce nor I were featured in the recent WaPo piece about conservative intellectuals who swam against the tide in the Bush years. I know our books were ignored by the right, but that doesn't mean they weren't out there or serious intellectual contributions to the debate. (And if you watch the video above, you can see that I was a tea-partier on spending and debt when Bush was in office and am giving Obama a break in this recession solely because his inheritance was basically impossible. Compare that with these current populists who backed Bush to the hilt as he bankrupted this country and are now up in arms at a president who has been in office for a few months, dealing with the wreckage in a global recession. And I'm regarded as the liberal!)

Maybe Hayward simply never heard of "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How To Get It Back" or "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy", because the Rovian cocoon shut them out of the discourse. But they stand up pretty well in retrospect and revealed that not all conservative thinkers sold their souls to Karl Rove.

Bruce, moreover, is still thinking. Tireless and ballsy, he's now a conservative in favor a a sales tax hike once the economy recovers, as I reluctantly am. Leonhardt:

Continue reading "One Of My Heroes: Bruce Bartlett" »

07 Oct 2009 01:00 pm

"I Am Not Very Socialized In Washington"

Another installment of my chat with TNC.

07 Oct 2009 12:47 pm

McCaughey's Transformation

Earlier this week Ben Smith moderated a debate between Betsy McCaughey and Anthony Weiner. Smith:

Some of McCaughey's claims have been substantially debunked, or don't match up with the current legislation. Others are broader conservative health care critiques. In either case, she's nowhere near the player she was in 1994 -- in part perhaps because she's seen as a partisan, not an honest broker, and that's due in no small part to the relentless, effective assault from the left, a refighting of the last war that ensures they won't lose that battle, at least.

Continue reading "McCaughey's Transformation" »

07 Oct 2009 12:27 pm

Beck On The War On Terror

His view, as expressed to Newsmax:

Look, the shine came off of George Bush for me pretty quickly after 9/11. We started to not fight a war to win the war. Wars are horrible, ugly — it’s killing people. The idea is kill them faster than they can kill you, and kill them at such a rate that it takes their breath away and they put their guns down and say OK, OK, enough. That’s what it is about. We weren’t doing that, and now, we’re in this long, drawn-out war.

So he must surely support leaving Afghanistan immediately, right? Or does he believe we should be killing Jihadists "at such a rate that it takes their breath away and they put their guns down and say OK, OK, enough." So he opposes McChrystal and Petraeus? Or is asking these kinds of actual serious question beside the point with him?

I picked up a copy of Newsmax in the airport last week.

Continue reading "Beck On The War On Terror" »

07 Oct 2009 11:58 am

Those Useless, Spineless, Rudderless Democrats

Glad to see I'm not the only one who looks at that party and shudders. The rest of them tend to be ... Democratic voters.

07 Oct 2009 11:46 am

The View From Your Window

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 11.30 am

07 Oct 2009 11:10 am

McCaughey And Me

I said my piece about this on this blog a while back. I do not think it's professional to air the specifics of internal battles after the fact, and I take full responsibility for being the editor of the magazine that published the piece. I accepted an award for it. I stood behind it. In my view, it had many interesting points and as an intellectual exercize in contemplating the full possible consequences of Hillary Clinton's proposal, it was provocative and well worth running. But its premise that these potential consequences were indisputably in the bill in that kind of detail was simply wrong; and I failed to correct that, although all I can say is that I tried.  One key paragraph - critical to framing the piece so it was not a declaration of fact but an assertion of what might happen if worst came to worst - became a battlefield with her for days; and all I can say is, I lost. I guess I could have quit. Maybe I should have. I decided I would run the piece but follow it with as much dissent and criticism as possible. I did discover that she was completely resistant to rational give-and-take. It was her way or the highway. 

I ensured that TNR ran a long and detailed rebuttal; and I also ensured, as a conservative steward of a liberal magazine, that we editorialized in favor of the Cooper plan for universal healthcare, which we did consistently. During that period, I also commissioned and ran dozens of pieces explaining the healthcare debate from the Clinton point of view.

Again, I take responsibility.

Continue reading "McCaughey And Me" »

07 Oct 2009 10:53 am

The Re-Branding Of America, Ctd

Frum takes issue with this survey:

Can we take this report as definitive proof of how silly such surveys are? For any item about which people really care - their brand of toothpaste for example - opinion is legendarily difficult to move. If global approval of the United States can be swung so dramatically by an election return, does that not suggest (even assuming that the survey is valid) that global approval of the United States is a very shallow and fleeting attitude? That the movement in such attitudes is more like the swinging of the dials in a focus group than like a true change of mind? Anything that swings one way very fast can swing another way very fast - and that tells us that when we chase such fluctuating moods, we are chasing nebulous nothings.

Keep dreaming, David. The main reason for the dramatic swing is simply massive global relief that Bush and Cheney are now gone and some kind of rational discourse and diplomacy have replaced the "axis of evil" and "enhanced interrogation."

Continue reading "The Re-Branding Of America, Ctd" »

07 Oct 2009 10:31 am

Reality Check

Obama's approval ratings on health insurance reform have been rising for a while now - ever since the Town Hall hysteria:

07 Oct 2009 10:27 am

Managing Decline?

That's Michael Wolff's take on Rupert Murdoch's online strategy:

The more he can choke off the Internet as a free news medium, the more publishers he can get to join him, the more people he can bring back to his papers. It is not a war he can win in the long term, but a little Murdoch rearguard action might get him to his own retirement. Then it’s somebody else’s problem.

Wouldn't that be his son's?

07 Oct 2009 10:15 am

Thank God For Shep Smith

Once again, his intellectual honesty redeems his network:

07 Oct 2009 09:56 am

How Marijuana Heals, Ctd

A reader writes:

A couple years ago I found that my productivity at work was declining and I was losing interest in doing just about anything in my life.  A friend of mine recommended I see a psychiatrist; I was diagnosed as having depression, and prescribed Wellbutrin. Within a month I was starting to feel a little bit better and was a little more productive, but there was a huge tradeoff: the medication was causing my heart to race and skip beats and was making my jaw clench.  I was afraid to continue Wellbutrin given its side effects, but I didn't want to give up on trying to treat my depression.

Being in California, I went to my doctor and got a recommendation for marijuana.

Continue reading "How Marijuana Heals, Ctd" »

07 Oct 2009 09:42 am

What Would Change Your Mind About The War?

Marc Lynch wants new Afghanistan metrics:

For everyone involved in the debate -- including me -- what specific developments, metrics, or events would lead you to change your mind?  What are the things which, if observed over the next year, would lead you to support a different policy?  For me, it's perhaps the consolidation of a more legitimate Afghan political order and stronger evidence that Afghans and Pakistanis shared America's conception of interests.  For Steve Biddle yesterday, it was the opposite:  evidence that 12-18 months of sustained American efforts had not improved Afghan governance or political legitimacy.  For Nagl, it was Pakistan giving up its nuclear weapons (?).  Yesterday John Nagl said that we shouldn't think of the Afghanistan war having gone on 8 years, since COIN was only now being tried.  Well, the debate about the Afghan war has really only been going on for a couple of months.  Let's give that some time too.

07 Oct 2009 09:07 am

"My Favorite Memo Ever"

The Dish spotlighted the great blog "Letters Of Note" last month, but this memo written by some guy named "Matt" is worth sharing:

(Hat tip: BF)

07 Oct 2009 08:28 am

The Ghost Of Bipartisanship Past

Karen Tumulty rounds up Republicans whto are supporting or semi-supporting health care reform (Arnold is the latest addition). As Karen notes, none of the Republicans she lists are currently in the house or senate. Ezra Klein has seen this move before:

This is reminiscent of the strategy the Obama campaign employed in the closing weeks of the presidential election. Obama had run as the herald of a new, less polarized type of politics, but he didn't have much support from prominent Republicans. So the campaign began to roll out, or emphasize, retired Republicans: Colin Powell, Jim Leach, and Lincoln Chafee among them. Obama's advisers figured that if the current political situation was too polarized to permit bipartisanship, then they could reach backward, or maybe outward, to find Republicans who weren't subject to its pressures. Then they used the presence of those retired, moderate Republicans to imply that more Republicans would be signing on if not for partisan pressure from the party leadership. Looks like they're readying to run the same play on health care, and they're helped by the fact that it's probably correct on the merits.

07 Oct 2009 08:00 am

The Year Of The Angry White Senior

Reihan pulls out some choice quotes from a Ron Brownstein article.

07 Oct 2009 07:58 am

A Woman And Her Beagle

Since we're on the subject ...

07 Oct 2009 07:20 am

Yglesias Award Nominee

"The widespread support for Polanski shows the liberal cultural elite at its preening, fatuous worst. They may make great movies, write great books, and design beautiful things, they may have lots of noble humanitarian ideas and care, in the abstract, about all the right principles: equality under the law, for example. But in this case, they're just the white culture-class counterpart of hip-hop fans who stood by R. Kelly and Chris Brown and of sports fans who automatically support their favorite athletes when they're accused of beating their wives and raping hotel workers. No wonder Middle America hates them," - Katha Pollitt.

The Dish regrets missing this gem at the time it was written.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

06 Oct 2009 10:44 pm

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish we saw conservatives in America bemoan equality while conservatives in Britain embraced it. The Christian right ran a disgusting ad against marriage, Hannity made a gross implication, and Cheney's cowardice deepened.  Also, a reader pwned HRC.

In other news, Andrew knocked Obama for his Olympics ploy, Massie gawked at the administration's blind eye towards Iranians, Radley Balko exposed the police crackdown in Pittsburgh, and Suzy Khimm exposed the coming crackdown in Rio.

Friedersdorf critiqued Breitbart for bad journalism, and soon Breitbart returned the favor. Greenwald exposed a WaPo press release, a blogger fact-checked George Will, and Michelle Cottle portrayed McCaughey as Palin.

We addressed the healing power of pot here and here. Andrew talked religion and Oakeshotte here and here, and blew up on atheists here. He also chatted with TNC again, and finally walked back on his statements against Kristol.

-- C.B.

06 Oct 2009 10:09 pm

Was McChrystal Out Of Line?

Some sanity and good judgment from Fred Kaplan. What I wonder is whether McChrystal ever questioned the unlawful command to torture prisoners of war in Iraq. He sure presided over some of the worst war crimes under Cheney and was never held accountable - just promoted.

06 Oct 2009 09:44 pm

Fact-Checking George Will

I think Obama's trip to Copenhagen was dumb, but I didn't think it was narcissistic. George Will complained that the president used the word "I" too much and thereby deemed him a narcissist. Here's Will:

In the 41 sentences of her remarks, Michelle Obama used some form of the personal pronouns "I" or "me" 44 times. Her husband was, comparatively, a shrinking violet, using those pronouns only 26 times in 48 sentences. Still, 70 times in 89 sentences conveyed the message that somehow their fascinating selves were what made, or should have made, Chicago's case compelling.

When you read the speech, it doesn't seem narcissistic in the way Will implies. But I guess that's a subjective judgment. There is, however, an objective way of judging this - comparing Obama's remarks with those of his predecessors in identical contexts. We don't have Olympic pitches to compare, so try press conferences. Mark Liberman runs the numbers on Obama, Bush and Clinton and tries to measure narcissism by the same metric Will does. You know what's coming:

Continue reading "Fact-Checking George Will" »

06 Oct 2009 09:31 pm

Mary Cheney Is Expecting Her Second Child

At least that's what True/Slant's Kate Klonick is reporting. Congrats to Mary and Heather. What Cheney's party will say about this latest "assault on the family" I cannot know. I do know that in Virginia, the GOP regards Mary as a threat to civilization and will deny her two kids any legal security with their two moms. But, hey, that's the price you pay for being a gay Republican. And you know full well that her father will not do anything to prevent his own party's war on his own family.

06 Oct 2009 08:56 pm

Why Not Bomb Iran?

Goldblog explains:

A nuclear Iran is not in the long-term best interests of the United States, of course, but we have short-term interests, as well, and they conflict with what some see as Israel's interest. Second, I've moved to the belief that the Iranian government is not so much a messianic apocalyptic cult, as Netanyahu described it to me, but an oppressive military regime with a superficially Shi'a agenda. Its real agenda, it seems, is self-preservation, and people interested in staying alive, as individuals or as a collective, don't launch nuclear-armed missiles at a nuclear state with a second-strike capability.

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06 Oct 2009 08:43 pm

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

The heads of state of all four nations that were in consideration to host the 2016 Olympics went to Copenhagen: the President of Brazil, the Prime Minister of Japan, the entire Royal Family of Spain, and the President of the United States. The trip may indeed have been a mistake on Obama's part. But do you honestly believe that, if Obama had not gone, the same people who celebrated Chicago's loss and branded Obama with the failure would not instead be bemoaning Chicago's loss and branding Obama with the failure to promote America's interests abroad?

06 Oct 2009 08:18 pm

Dealing With Gloomy Skies

The British Psychological Society's Research Digest asked "some of the world's leading psychologists to look inwards and share, in 150 words, one nagging thing they still don't understand about themselves." Here is Norbert Schwarz:

One nagging thing I don’t understand about myself is why I’m still fooled by incidental feelings. Some 25 years ago Jerry Clore and I studied how gloomy weather makes one’s whole life look bad -- unless one becomes aware of the weather and attributes one’s gloomy mood to the gloomy sky, which eliminates the influence. You’d think I learned that lesson and now know how to deal with gloomy skies. I don’t, they still get me. The same is true for other subjective experiences, like the processing fluency resulting from print fonts – I still fall prey to their influence. Why does insight into how such influences work not help us notice them when they occur? What makes the immediate experience so powerful that I fail to apply my own theorizing until some blogger asks a question that brings it to mind?

And here is David Buss:

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06 Oct 2009 08:11 pm

Fighting The Cops With Cow Udders

The NYT runs an incredible photo.