Saturday, March 28, 2009

Come Saturday Morning: Ponies Edition

Come Saturday Morning



That song always makes me think of the coming-of-age film The Sterile Cuckoo, which appeared as I was coming of age. Which rather dates me, doesn't it.

Toles - Small Enough to Fail

by Chris in Paris on 3/28/2009 04:15:00 AM

Tom Toles of the Washington Post. What part of this does AIG not understand? Do they really want to have a public debate about morals? Really?


I know I sound like a broken record, but this Maddow segment and the following one with Juan Cole (really the entire show last night) is terrific. Strategy vs. Strategery March 27: President Obama unveiled his new plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan, which will send thousands more troops to the region. Is this plan a step in the right direction? Rachel Maddow is joined by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The drone wars March 27: During President Obama's speech Friday about his plan in Afghanistan, Pakistan was mentioned, too. Should Pakistan be treated like a war with no ground troops? Rachel Maddow is joined by author Juan Cole.


Sully sees A Reckoning?

A reader writes:

One of the most powerful lessons of history was certainly played out in the 43 year period between the end of Word War II and 1988. By the end of that time, it was completely obvious that people living under communism were not doing as well as most people living under some form of capitalism (at least in Europe). This became well known to the folks living in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and contributed greatly to the downfall of communism, among other factors.

For the last 21 years, we have been following a similar social experiment between different styles of capitalism: more regulated and less regulated. Several western countries including Ireland and Iceland, as well as some of the Baltic countries, got rid of many regulations, particularly regulations regarding finance. For a while, their economies were shining stars, but now they are a mess. The US and Britain, the least regulated large economies, are now suffering greatly as well from the financial bubble. While Old Europe (to steal a phrase from Don Rumsfeld) is not nearly as affected by the recent debacle.

Are we beginning to learn another one of history’s lessons?


On the repuglican budget follies, Hilzoy says:

Maybe next week they'll present their budget using interpretive dance or little animated jelly beans."



Daily Kos' BarbinMD: About That GOP Budget?

This story just gets better and better - from The Washington Independent:

While reporters hooted at the comically simplistic charts and lack of details in the House Republican leadership’s budget plan, the green eyeshade types at Citizen’s for Tax Justice crunched the numbers (PDF). They conclude that a quarter of all households, most of them poor, would pay more taxes under the GOP plan, while the richest one percent would pay $100,000 less.

See the CTJ report here (pdf) - but be warned: there are numbers in it.


Tim F. piles on:

... Naturally I couldn’t resist piling on. Then I found out that my entry looks a lot like this one at Fark (scroll about 2/3 down the page), which proves that someone else grew up at about the same time that I did*.





Strangely, after I looked at it for a while I realized that my plan beats theirs on every possible level. This is not even a concern troll comment. The GOP would honestly be better off if they listened to my inane plan instead of theirs. My plan even contains a practical plan of action.

In other words in five minutes, inspired by one of the greatest embarrassments to either white people or hip hop, I came up with a superior strategy document. So did some dude at Fark. The scary thing is this might well be the very best they can do.


Republican Budget:

i.zdnet.com

Daily Kos' Hunter on the Republican World Peace Plan

Fresh off the heels of their successful super-awesome mega budget rollout, we've now gotten a look at the Senate Republican's new foreign policy plan:

Not bad, not bad at all. Sure, it's no "we will be greeted as liberators," but it's at least three times as complex as the last Republican president's foreign policy agenda. And this one has ponies!


Think Progress: Rep. Issa pushing to limit first lady’s power to ‘protect’ her ‘historic role.’

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his conservative allies are pushing for legislation that would limit the first lady’s ability to do substantive policy work. Issa had originally proposed the bill last year, in fear of Bill Clinton moving back in to the White House. But he insists the bill is only about ensuring “transparency” for the work of first ladies, adding, “We are trying actually to protect the historic role of the first lady.” Or, as Gawker summed up Issa’s proposal in its headline, “Congressman Wants Michelle Obama To Shut Up And Look Pretty.”

Packer: More Paranoia

A few days ago, I wrote that the “paranoid style” has been a continual temptation and danger for modern conservatives (whom Hofstadter called “pseudo-conservatives,” owing to their radicalism in wanting to overturn existing laws and institutions). Several readers expressed disbelief that I didn’t mention their left-wing counterparts, and Jonah Goldberg criticized me on The Corner for the same reason. Goldberg accurately brings up various recent left-wing conspiracy theorists, from Naomi Klein to Spike Lee (he might have mentioned Michael Moore as well), and concludes, “By all means, dust off your dog-eared copies of “The Paranoid Style.” But spare me the lectures if you can only find things to worry about to your right.”

There’s plenty of criticism of Klein, Moore, Nicholson Baker, and other paranoid stylists of the left in my book on Iraq, “The Assassins’ Gate.” I didn’t mention them in discussing Hofstadter and the current reaction to Obama for this reason: Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck have far more power in the Republican Party (it sometimes seems to include veto power) than Klein, Lee, and Moore have in the Democratic Party. The views of right-wing commentators in the grip of the paranoid style (Obama is a stealth radical, the Democrats are imposing socialism) are much closer to mainstream conservative and Republican belief than the views of their counterparts on the left (the levees in New Orleans were blown up by the government, the White House had something to do with 9/11) are to mainstream liberal and Democratic belief. The reasons are complex, but I would list these: the evangelical and occasionally messianic fervor that animates a part of the Republican base; the atmosphere of siege and the self-identification of conservatives as insurgents even when they monopolized political power; the influence of ideology over movement conservatives, and their deep hostility to compromise; the fact that modern conservatism has been a movement, which modern liberalism has not.

This is not to say that the more destructive forms of populism and outright paranoia can’t appear on the left. They have, they do, and they will, especially in times of extreme distress like these. It’s only to say that the infection has been more organic to the modern right.

Goldberg would have even more basis for his complaint if I were the author of a book called “Conservative Fascism” and he were not the author of a book called “Liberal Fascism.”


Speaking of the paranoid style, Sully notes that Michelle Bachmann Is Insane: It's official now, along with Glenn Beck's derangement. Is no one on the right prepared to take this stuff on?

Josh, Big PhARMA: Larry Sabato suggests Rep. Michele Bachmann bone up on what Marxism actually is or maybe just take a tranquilizer.




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