Memo to Republicans: Huh?
February 26, 2009
Next verse, same as the first.
“Newsflash: McCain Lost the Election”
“he Republican Party has been using a grab-bag of strategies to counter Obama’s policies over the past month. They rail against the stimulus package for its (supposed) pork. They hammer home their points with gimmicky videos and props. They speak in warrior rhetoric and revel in heroic, fighting-man stunts. But if there is one strand running through all these strategies, it is that they evoke a discomfiting feeling of deja vu. We’ve seen this stuff before: The GOP is currently reliving John McCain’s presidential campaign. The return to the strategies of their fallen candidate may be the saddest illustration of the current state of the party.” Written by Eve Fairbanks.
from The New Republic
DB notes: When your leadership is fresh out of ideas…
***
Previously on Take 2: American Conservatism: Dead or Just Sleeping?
American Conservatism: Dead or Just Sleeping?
February 18, 2009
And we mean no.
“Throughout the fortnight-long Battle of the Stimulus Package—the Capitol Hill confrontation that culminates this week in a signing ceremony for a historically unprecedented piece of legislation that will inject more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars’ worth of adrenaline into America’s fluttering economic heart—one question preoccupied commentators and observers, especially those desperate for relief from the daunting substance of the matter: was President Obama being “bipartisan” enough?” By Hendrick Hertzberg.
from The New Yorker
DB notes: One message that Republican representatives sent to the electorate on the stimulus vote last week on the subject of relevancy is this: Not so much. Whether dead or just sleeping, 21st century American conservatism can certainly lay claim to being unified in the U.S. House of Representatives.
***
Next on Take 2: The Oscars.
Meanwhile, Iraq
February 16, 2009
Same as it ever was.
“Iraq from the Inside of an Armored BMW”
“In late 2006, roughly speaking, months before George W. Bush’s “surge” strategy sent 30,000 more American troops into Baghdad and surrounding areas, the U.S. began making down-payments on the cooperation of local al-Anbar tribal sheiks and started funding and arming the Sunni militias they were then organizing. As a result, the number of insurgent attacks quickly began to drop, and so the Americans widened the program to other provinces. It grew to include nearly 100,000 Sunni fighters, most of whom were paid $300 a month—a sizeable income in a devastated city like Fallujah with sky-high unemployment rates.” Written by Dahr Jamail.
from Mother Jones
DB notes: From my post on today’s Politico on the question of returning American coffins from Iraq and Afghanistan: “On a more serious note. Whether our military men and women return to the homeland to be paraded or memorialized, it’s our duty on the home front to fully participate in their ceremonies and traditions upon their return. Unquestionably, in a country this large, televised and still images provide many American with the only means for such intimacy and tribute. The Secretary of Defense supports a new policy, as do many members of Congress in both parties–and a majority of the public as well. We should have covered each and every one of the more than 5,000 soldiers coming home. Not covering their return to their families and to the nation they defended–as well as those to follow–is disrespectful and embarrassing. “
***
Next on Take 2: Neko Case is at the door.
Obama’s Seed Money
February 6, 2009
What’s in it for America’s farms?
How farm and food programs will—and won’t—benefit from the President’s $825 billion plan.
“As members of Congress struggle to get their arms around the $825 billion economic stimulus plan passed through the House last week and currently being debated in the Senate, a report from the Congressional Research Service sheds light on how farmers and rural communities might be “stimulated” by the first round of spending.” Written by Sam Hurst.
Plus: Chocolate recipes for Valentine’s Day
from Gourmet
DB notes: The manner in which American farms have been propped up by government spending, welfare, and subsidy is byzantine and capricious. That the first in the nation presidential caucus takes place in Iowa has been no help for the American farmer.
***
Next on Take 2: Kimsooja, Korean artist.
Franken v. Coleman: Will this thing ever end?
“Yet Another Coleman Witness Admits She Was Cherry-Picked”
“The Coleman legal team just went through another round of calling aggrieved voters to the witness stand, pleading that their absentee ballots were improperly rejected. And again, they’ve run into some problems. The Coleman campaign called Elissa Jackson, a sympathetic mother of a five-month old. During direct examination, Coleman lawyer James Langdon tried to be open about the fact that she found out about her uncounted vote because of a phone call from the Republican Party.” Written by Eric Kleefeld.
from Talking Points Memo
What the Franken camp says is happening
What the Coleman camp says is happening
____________________________________________________________________________________
DB Notes: Lyndon Johnson won his first Senate race in Texas in 1948 by 87 votes, earning him the infamous nickname “Landslide Lyndon” for the rest of his career.
____________________________________________________________________________________
First Ireland, then Steroids, now…Israel and Palestine?
February 3, 2009
George Mitchell and the art of the impossible.
“Mitchell Gets Earful from Mideast”
“Winding up his week-long tour of the region, President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, met Saudi officials here over the weekend for an exchange of ideas on ending the volatile Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Mitchell conferred with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Faisal Saturday night and met with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Sunday. Specifically, the talks were said to cover the Saudi-initiated Arab Peace Initiative – first offered to Israel in 2002 – as well as how to counter what many Arab states regard as an alarming development: The increased involvement of Iran in Palestinian affairs, through its partners, Syria and Hamas.” Written by Carole Murphy.
from the Christian Science Monitor
____________________________________________________________________________________
DB notes: Where is the Israeli Marshall Plan? Where is the Palestinian Ghandi?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Also, see George Mitchell at State Department announcement:
America: Rebooted
January 20, 2009
44.
Inauguration Day Special: David Biespiel’s post on Politico’s Arena
I write this as a Texan who grew up in a racially polarized South, and I write not as a Child of the Sixties but as a child during the 60s. Upon taking his oath, President Obama did more than break a vicious racial barrier in American history, he became the physical embodiment of the ideal of American unification.
Private racism is alive and thriving in our country, make no mistake. But if institutional racism can be depicted as a statue in a town square, that statue was pulled down and shattered once and for all today. Obama’s assumption of the presidency indicates not that we have mastered racism but that we have mastered some part of ourselves that has long desired to live wisely and true to our bonds of humanity.
President Obama’s special ability to link our present challenges with those of the past is at the heart of both his oratory and his faith in national unity. That’s where I felt the address crystallized. From the first syllables of the speech, his tone was business-like and he never let up: “For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.” When was the last time this nation was called to act upon such an honest note of self-reflection? The speech was admonitory, but refreshingly candid, too, at times inspiring in its boot-strap philosophy. The concluding conceit of the nation being at the frozen riverside like General Washington’s soldiers during the Revolution was self-defining, the message clear: Let’s cross the river and save our country again.
Obama’s dismissal of the Bush era was blunt. I was surprised–OK, a wee bit gratified–how starkly he took the Bush administration to the woodshed for its general malpractice over the last eight years. And yet, as a national scold, he didn’t leave out the citizenry either for “our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” Meanwhile, he indicated to the world that America’s role will now be remade. I didn’t take that stance to be naive though it could be. His admonition to divisive world leaders–”your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy”–struck me as a decisive goal to firmly address the more intractable conflicts in the world.
Finally, full confession: I don’t have a television. So I had to borrow one to watch the ceremony. I was at Bush I’s inaugural and Clinton’s first one, too, when I lived in Washington during those years. This time, out here in the West, when the Obamas arrived at the North Portico at 6 a.m. Pacific time I was still lying under the covers–with a mimosa at hand, at least. On television, one image caught my attention–well, two, because every time Senator Feinstein came to the podium she looked like she was in an MGM musical and about to break into song. But one image caught my attention right before the ceremony began: The Episcopal Bush family giving way to the African-American Obama family. On the one hand, there are the historic racial implications in that image. On the other hand, the generational shift is evident, too. The torch has been passed. A new generation of leaders has been elected to govern, a new generation of leaders who bring two finely-earned attitudes. One, frustration with the collapse of legislative democracy to forestall and reverse the multiple layers of physical and civic decline in our country. Two, a can-do spirit to start shoveling out of the hole.
That faith seemed evident, as well, in every close-up of the audience on the Mall. As I say, I’ve been in that crowd at other inaugurations, and from this corner of the country it seemed to me as if the entire country marched on Washington to start afresh.
from Politico
___________________________________________________________________________________
DB notes: Then conservative blogger Pejman Yousefzadeh disagreed. Here’s the link to the exchange for January 20th, at least. After the 20th, you’ll have to google it with something like “biespiel yousefzadeh obama politico arena” to see where it’s turned up on the Internet.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Iceland Is What…?
December 30, 2008
Can a nation declare bankruptcy?
“Iceland is, for many of us, the waist of the hourglass: the narrowest point in the flow of culture and commerce that buoys modern life, a place where the First World is winnowed and exposed. This is why we call its financial collapse a “crisis.” It’s the reason some of us with no clear stake are keen to learn what happened.” Written by Nathan Heller.
from Slate
