Juan Cole
urges India's leaders, faced with the aftermath of an horrific terrorist act which some are referring to as
"India's 9/11," not to make the same egregious mistakes committed by Cheney and Bush after our own 9/11. Cole
lists the mistakes and their consequences. This post is well worth your time to read.
Longtime liberal activist Jerome Grossman... he's nearer my age than Obama's...
asks the question
few Obama supporters seem willing to touch at the moment:
...
Do the liberals have the abilities and experience to manage these bureaucracies, to furnish the necessary ideas?
For answers consult the Nobel Prize winners, the faculties of our finest universities, the managers of some of
our largest businesses. The liberals are there, in big numbers, but not on Obama's list.
Obama needs to answer important questions about his administration. Where are the liberals? Where are the
people who voted against the war? Where are the prescient who warned against financial deregulation? Where are
the advisors who will give Obama a full range of policy options to make him a better problem solver and
successful president?
(Emphasis mine.)
Those are the "really real" questions, aren't they? After all, Obama has been president for... um, well, he
isn't president yet. But he's already naming cabinet members and other high-level appointees, and by golly,
when he's president, those will be the questions. The answers will determine, to a large extent, the course
of the Obama presidency.
I am of two minds about this. Like most liberals, I cannot help being aware of the conspicuous, one might even
say pointed, absence of any hardcore liberals in the cabinet to this point. (No, Hillary Clinton most certainly
does not count, though I think she will be formidable at State.) On the other hand, Obama, faced with
the financial crisis and the likely consequences if it is not promptly ameliorated, may have no choice but to
name financial advisors that please Wall Street more than Main Street. But it's a lot more difficult to explain
his practice, as pointed out by Grossman, of appointing only people who supported the Iraq war. As one who stood
on those lines and marched in those protests even before the war started, I can only hope Obama is correct when
he says his own vision will drive policy in matters of war, and that this dog-awful war will be ended promptly.
He must lead, because if he leaves Iraq to his cabinet, we will stay there forever.
I am willing to give Obama some time... time after Jan. 20, time when he actually sits in the big chair... to
fulfil the promises he made that led liberals to support him. I understand that instant results are impossible.
I understand that he will be opposed by GOPers in Congress every inch of the way; that's who they are and how
they operate (the good of the nation be damned). But if Obama wants ongoing support from the liberal part of his
base, he must evidence at least a sincere effort to do those things he promised... end the Iraq war, establish
a sane healthcare policy in the face of our country's current privately run insanity, end torture under all
circumstances, bring every person imprisoned in the war on terror to trial promptly and fairly, etc. These
things are not optional, and if he neglects to address them, we liberals will not forget his negligence.
At present, I believe Obama will address many of these matters as reasonably soon as he is able. But I expect
evidence of good-faith efforts early in his administration. As the great Frederick Douglass wrote,
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Bipartisanship is well and good, but
the change for which we elected Obama will not happen without forthright confrontation as well. To
President-elect Obama, we say this: we're watching. Don't disappoint us.
Via Christy Hardin Smith of FDL,
we have two YouTube videos...
one original,
one with music...
of a cat riding a Roomba, a self-steering automated vacuum cleaner. Here's the original:
In the ABC News article, Bush's statement reads, "I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving
with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; ..."
Yeah, right. We all know what happened, and who got to whom. Still think you can trust ABC News?
For once, I agree with the preznit: he did indeed come to Washington with a set of values, and he's leaving
with that same set of values. Where we differ is on the fundamental matter of what those values are. If Bush is
willing to admit that his values can be accurately summarized, "Everything's for me an' my cronies, an' fuck
everyone else with a shovel," and "whatever ah say is true is true, an' whatever ah say is legal is legal," we
probably could actually have a discussion on the matter.
Damn/darn, it's a shame we'll never see that man rot in jail, or ABC News turn unprofitable...
Ever wonder why the day has acquired such a grim name?
Newsday
shows us an example:
Wal-Mart worker dies in Black Friday stampede
BY JOSEPH MALLIA and JOHN STARKEY | joseph.mallia@newsday.com
11:47 AM EST, November 28, 2008
A 34-year-old Wal-Mart worker died Friday morning after "a throng of shoppers... physically broke down the
doors" and knocked him to the ground as the crowd pushed its way into the store at a Valley Stream mall, Nassau
police said.
One police officer told Newsday the prelude to the death was "a mob scene." The man who died was a temporary,
part-time Wal-Mart worker, the officer said.
Shoppers who surged into the store were asked to leave by Wal-Mart workers, some of them crying and visibly
upset, said one shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, of Far Rockaway.
Though rumors circulated among the shoppers that someone had been badly injured, people ignored the Wal-Mart
workers' requests that they stop shopping, move to the front of the store and exit, Cribbs said.
"They kept shopping. It's not right. They're savages," said Cribbs.
...
No. They're Americans. Not all of us behave this way, but that's not for lack of instruction. Shopping is what
we do and who we are. Mindless violence is another American characteristic. It's how we're brought up, not by
our parents but by our culture. Remember Bush's instructions, right after 9/11/2001, of what Americans should do
to help? Right: go shopping. Will this incident change a single aspect of Americans' holiday shopping behavior?
What do you think?
I intend to stay home today. Stay safe, everybody.
Even the most considerate of cats (and Lotus is in the running for that title) must nonetheless firmly establish
every cat's right to keep doors open. Lotus does her part!
Frequent YDD commenter News Writer gives us a great rant,
Worse before it's better,
on the state of the economy and what we must do about it... not a pleasant thing to contemplate. Now News Writer
has gone on vacation for Thanksgiving, so this is a pre-vacation rant. (Do not confuse this with the tirades
coming out of the right-wing punditry and the decaying Bush administration; those are preVARIcation
rants...)
Happy Thanksgiving, all of you!
We're not going anywhere that I know of, but I'll probably take the rest of today and tomorrow off unless
something singular happens. I hope you all have a wonderful T-day, spent with people you love, consuming far too
much food.
I wish Ms. Coulter a speedy recovery... from her post-election depression, of course; what else? You don't
really think anyone wants that mouth back in action, do you?
Bush begins with 14 pardons, nobody outstandingly famous.
Christy
has a few details and some discussion of pardons past, present and possible. Anybody want to bet on Scooter
Libby on Jan. 19?
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American
taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system
since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest
response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset
Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before
the crisis.
When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to
disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling
for the Fed to be reined in.
...
Oh, yeah, now's a great time to be thinking about doing that. What happened to the $700 billion figure?
None of your business! Any help for homeowners in trouble? Unclear; apparently not. Where did all the money go?
Um, they ain't tellin'. Was Congress involved in this latest decision? Uh, apparently not. What kind of
government do we have now? Don't ask.
Look. The federal government will have to spend a ship-load of taxpayers' money to rescue, not just the
financial system, but every other huge corporate entity that is "too big to fail," and, one hopes, individuals
taken in by the corporate scam artists to a point where they are in danger of losing their homes. But this
must not be done in secret, and an expenditure a loan so vastly in excess of what Congress approved, to undisclosed
recipients, is truly frightening. I understand matters are desperate, but I see no reason for the secrecy and
the deliberate circumvention of our government's well-established processes. If it must be done, do it... but
do it right. After all, they're probably mortgaging your children's children's children's children's future...
President-elect Barack Obama has yet to attend church services since winning the White House earlier this month,
a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors.
On the three Sundays since his election, Obama has instead used his free time to get in workouts at a Chicago
gym.
Asked about the president-elect's decision to not attend church, a transition aide noted that the Obamas valued
their faith experience in Chicago but were concerned about the impact their large retinue may have on other
parishioners.
...
Why, it seems like just yesterday the right wing-nuts were stridently howling that Obama belonged to and
attended a church with a minister whose opinions the righties didn't approve of.
Back in my musicking days, I was occasionally hired around Christmastime to play recorder at the Houston church
that the elder Bushes attended when they were in town. Fortunately, I was never present when George H. W. Bush
and Babs were attending, but I heard descriptions from other musicians of the dire inconvenience they
experienced when His Majesty deigned to attend. That Obama aide wasn't kidding, or making idle excuses. When the
Prez attends your church, you're in for an experience, and not necessarily a pleasant one.
So the Obamas have presumably opted for quiet worship with the family, probably at a nonstandard time. I don't
personally know; you'll have to ask Mr. Martin and Ms. Lee, who seem to be stalking the President-elect's
every move, looking for something to damn.
Meanwhile, as far as the nut-cases are concerned, Obama can't attend church without their complaint, and can't
NOT attend church without their complaint. For Obama, it's "damned if you do..."
Saxby Chambliss (R)...
that's the last time you'll see his actual family name on this site... ran for and won a Senate seat in Georgia
in 2002. He ran against Max Cleland, a Vietnam vet who lost three limbs in service to our country.
Sen. Shameless, by contrast, had a 1-Y medical deferment that prevented his being sent to Vietnam. Shameless
campaigned against Cleland on... what issue? ... his alleged lack of dedication to fighting terrorism.
Shameless's campaign commercials had pictures of Osama bin Laden in them, along with Cleland, whose picture was
positioned so as to conceal his triple-amputee status from the viewer.
So now Shameless is up for re-election, and neither he nor his opponent Jim Martin (D) received a majority in
the regular election. So there's a runoff. What is Shameless using as a campaign theme this time against Martin,
whose eight-year-old daughter was once kidnapped (and fortunately returned safe and sound)? Yep. Ads for
Shameless say Martin is soft on crime... specifically, soft on crime against children.
"Shameless" is too kind a description. And an overwhelming loss in the runoff is too kind an outcome for
Shameless... but I'll settle for that.
For the record, I had a 4-F medical deferment myself, and did not serve in Vietnam. But you may be sure that in
my family, I would never have dared to show any disrespect to those who did serve in Vietnam, especially as I
grieved for those I knew whose names are now on that Wall. There is simply no excuse for what Shameless did to
Cleland. And the fact that he is doing it again makes it clear exactly what kind of person he is.
... for a world with
no nukes,
or effectively no nukes. Is it possible? Possible or not, I believe it is necessary. Otherwise, sooner or later,
there will be someone like GeeDubya Bush, but without the sufficient restraints in place today that prevent him
from doing what Bush so desperately wants to do... nuke 'em all.
Jonathan Schell's
"The Fate of the Earth"
is an early source on how it might be done. It was my first encounter,
back in the late 1980s, with the notion of standing down America's entire nuclear arsenal but retaining the
capacity to build nukes, on the assertion that the deterrent threat of nuclear retaliation a few weeks later is
as effective as the threat of instant retaliation. Yes, I'd be more comfortable if the suckers were completely
disappeared from the face of the earth. But intermediate improvements in stability regarding nuclear weapons are
possible and valuable... and with the help of a number of old Cold Warriors (see the article; the list includes
Sam Nunn and Henry Kissinger), might actually be achieved.
It doesn't feel like comedy, but it's what has been on my mind lately, based on personal experience. With
apologies to
Rodgers and Hammerstein,
here's the medical insurance companies' version of a song from that famous musical, South Pathetic...
There is Nothing Like a Claim
We've got customers we've scammed,
We've got doctors we have bought,
We've got agents selling policies, at least until they're caught;
We've got hospitals and clinics whose admin's do not feel shames...
What don't we do? We don't pay claims!
No claims...
(recit.)
No case we're involved in, if we possibly can stay out...
No claim we receive that ever causes us to pay out... (a tempo)
There is nothing like a claim,
Nothing... in the... world;
There is no one you can blame,
If we never pay out a claim!
If only
this
were a surprise. The McCain campaign steals Jackson Browne's song Running on Empty; Browne sues;
McCain's lawyers respond:
...
"Given the political, non-commercial, public interest and transformative nature of the use of a long-ago
published song, the miniscule amount used and the lack of any effect on the market for the song (other than
perhaps to increase sales of the song)," [McCain's lawyers'] court papers read, "these claims are barred by the
fair use doctrine."
In this case, "miniscule amount" means 30 seconds, "long-ago published" means "classic rock", and "increase
sales" means "you owe Senator McCain a thank you".
...
Thirty seconds. Some of you may have an idea how long it takes to write, rehearse, record and produce
30 seconds of music. This is not "fair use": this is theft. And the damage done is far greater than that
inflicted by a teen on a file-swapping site. Put aside the political tension between McCain and Browne, and
recognize that McCain is a Dog-damned thief. But that isn't all:
Elsewhere in the two 20-page motions, Running On Empty is disparaged as an "acknowledged cliche" and McCain's
lawyers even ask the court to fine Browne, calling his lawsuit an attempt to "chill" free speech.
...
Insult to injury. Write and produce a song that becomes a classic; the GOP will not only steal the song from
you, they'll disparage the song as well.
I once saw a
greeting card
made to look like a movie poster for "Young Republicans in Love"; the theme song for
this hypothetical movie was "We Own the World." That is the GOP's message: You think you own something? Too
bad, sucker! All your copyright are belong to us!
(Amended immediately to add link to a Flickr photo of the greeting card, or rather, of the poster from which the
greeting card was made.)
The New York Times
editorializes about it. But some of us live it, every day of our lives. Rather than bore you with the details
of my personal experiences, let me simply point you to the editorial. Believe me, it isn't fun being sick in
America.
I cannot think of a time earlier in my life in which I would have chosen to be born any nationality other than
American. Now, facing old age and merely moderately bad health, I would choose exactly that. According to a
study quoted in the editorial, seven other nations treat their citizens better than America does when it
comes to chronic illnesses. I have three such ongoing problems... and right about now, as I face the imminent
loss of my medical insurance, I think it's a great pity I didn't grow up speaking French.
And I am far from alone in feeling that way. President-Elect Obama, Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi: are you
listening? Can you make us proud to be Americans again?
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est
laborum.
Jane Hamsher,
in a succinct post called "Lieberman: Suck On That, Liberals!", tells us how mere voters are viewed in
the Senate, where the Democratic caucus is about to give Lieberman everything, despite his betrayal in the last
election:
...
This is about telling you that you mean nothing. That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten
the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.
No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.
Face it: New Dems and Blue Dog Dems want us liberals and Yellow Dog Dems only for our votes. After elections, we
can just fuck off until the next election.
UPDATE: around the time I was writing the above,
Democrats gave away the store.
And Reid talked about it like a real jackass, um, Democratic donkey. Why do we even bother?
Recently I've been asked two questions. First, Congress gave you the authorities you requested, and the economy has only gotten worse. What went wrong and why won't you use this authority for other industries? Second, if housing and mortgages are at the root of our economic difficulties, why aren't you addressing this?
The answer to the first is that the purpose of the financial rescue legislation was to stabilize our financial
system and to strengthen it. It is not a panacea for all our economic difficulties. ...
Speaking of volts (see below),
Digby
does the hard work, researching all the new kinds of Tasers and all the fun new uses for them. Be sure to
follow the link to the post on Kos and watch the Taser ad video; see how truly sick we are as a society.
But you know all the kids will want one for Christmas...
Jane Hamsher
writes about the ideologically driven advocates of the "let GM fail" school of thought. This long, serious post
points out that the demise of GM would come at the cost not only of $200 billion to the government, but also of
3 million jobs (union jobs) and... perhaps most significantly... of GM's Chevy Volt, one
of the few long-term and apparently effective research programs on new automobile technology that could help
lead us out of this mess.
Let's see what goals America could pursue through such advanced technology. Energy independence for America:
check. Jobs for America: check. Environmental improvements: check. Busting the UAW: oops, no. You would not be
able simultaneously to develop the Volt and bust the union. And that's the only thing the bastards care about. I
can't help thinking we are revisiting the late nineteenth century.
For two days now, I've had nothing new to contribute to the conversation. Be grateful I had the minimal decency
not to say something anyway! (Seriously: it was a very busy weekend. I'll post more in a day or two.)
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Some very recent posts may be included in their entirety.
Global Climate Change You Can Believe In
Scant apologies to Barack Obama, who is going to have to deal with this gradually approaching catastrophe, for
the use of his slogan in the post title. How gradually? Well, I probably won't live to experience it, but if
you are young, you will. How catastrophic? Bad enough.
What could be worse than Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)? How about Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) that have formed
over 13 megacities in Asia? These clouds, formed mostly from particles resulting from burning things, interact
in destructive ways with greenhouse gases, and have additional destructive behaviors of their own. The
interaction is understood well enough for U.N. scientists to have produced a
summary report
(.pdf, 1.5mb, 44pp). The report is well-written and has beautiful illustrations, but the conclusions are
sufficiently complex that they may be regrettably difficult to explain to the person on the street, and they
certainly will not fit in a sound bite. You might want to start by reading Juan Cole's post
"How Now Brown Cloud"
as an introduction.
The short version: GHGs warm the atmosphere and the surface; ABCs warm the atmosphere but cool the surface.
Indeed, ABCs are causing a dimming of available sunlight and a decrease in rainfall to such a degree that
agricultural yields will, with virtual certainty, decrease enough to create serious food shortages, starting in
several parts of Asia. On top of that, the particulates are themselves bad for human health. Within a half
century... yes, this half century... millions of people could die, and long-stable societies could disintegrate.
Here's how the summary report's Overall Findings phrase it:
The build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the resulting global warming pose major
environmental threats to Asia’s water and food security. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous
oxide, halocarbons and ozone in the lower atmosphere (below about 15 km) are the major gases
that are contributing to the increase in the greenhouse effect.
In a similar fashion, increasing amount of soot, sulphates and other aerosol components in
atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) are causing major threats to the water and food security of
Asia and have resulted in surface dimming, atmospheric solar heating and soot deposition in the
Hindu Kush-Himalayan-Tibetan (HKHT) glaciers and snow packs. These have given rise to major
areas of concern, some of the most critical being observed decreases in the Indian summer
monsoon rainfall, a north-south shift in rainfall patterns in eastern China, the accelerated retreat
of the HKHT glaciers and decrease in snow packs, and the increase in surface ozone. All these
have led to negative effects on water resources and crop yields. The emergence of the ABC
problem is expected to further aggravate the recent dramatic escalation of food prices and the
consequent challenge for survival among the world’s most vulnerable populations. Lastly, the
human fatalities from indoor and outdoor exposures to ABC-relevant pollutants have also become
a source of grave concern.
Scared yet? I think you should be. Have a nice day!
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives
in a spirit of charity than the constant omissions of a
government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
- FDR
I belong to the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party.
- Paul Wellstone
I am a Democrat without prefix, without suffix, and without apology.
- Sam Rayburn
