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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Utopian Conservatism, Miles Away

AMERICANS SUCKERED BY 'SMALL GOVERNMENT' LIES, MYTHOLOGY, AND WASILLA-WONDERS

While some continue to wish for a "return" of utopian conservatism, the so-called conservatives are falling over themselves to spend money, again, on their Rovian voting blocks (in the fine print, only, of course):

Democrats offered one proposal to cover a wide range of screenings and preventive health services for women. Republicans drafted an alternative, intended to outdo the Democrats.

Republicans offered a proposal to strike provisions of the bill that would save money in Medicare.


Add this to the party that took earmarks to new heights, almost an artform.

A War Surtax?

Absolutely right idea, from Congressman Obey. What better way to take control of the Republican brand than this? I simply do not understand reported Democratic opposition, except as a general proposition on raising taxes.

Yes, it's wrong timing, given the economic situation.

Still, for political purposes, it's not _wrong_. One could collect a tax, and still spend money...on other things. Now THAT would be a worthy political strategy, yes?

What's terrible is that Obey doesn't seem to have an penchant for positioning. This ought not to be a "surtax". He should call it a Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld recovery tax.

Make it small, the initial part of a promised series, if you must, to win support.

Claire McCaskill!

Critical of our Senators so often, sometimes I forget to be grateful for some of the Senate's newest additions. My favorite, Claire McCaskill, just did an out-of-the-ballpark job today, questioning Clinton, Gates, and Mullens.

600 positions for contract oversight unfilled. Go Claire! Hold their feet to the fire, or NO ONE will look out for our money.

Separately, this excellent addition to the Senate is being held back by the Catholic ghetto, to the extent they can, some of whom are trying to have her turned into a minion of Rome's Pope, who is a sinner (he wouldn't deny that and neither should we), by "enforcing" cannon 915.

See sad story of it, here.

Freakish quote/bias of the day

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the nation's biggest lender, will repay $45 billion of US government bailout funds, helping free the bank from curbs on executive pay that have hampered its search for a new leader

ROFLMAO.

Let's put the job up for bid. That'll keep costs down, and I'm sure there are qualified people who would do the job for a lot less than they think they need to pay ...

The idea that there is some small set of people competent to run BOA and they "need" to have copious largess to unlock their potential is so silly, except that bias of the received wisdom doesn't let us laugh at it aloud.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Math

Running the odds, Nate Silver, in May, on NY Marriage bill:


Still, based on the most recently available information, I would guess that their odds of securing 32 votes are not better than about one in three. -538

More on the Fallacy of One-Man and One-Woman

THE POPE IS A SINNER (AND HE WOULDN'T SAY OTHERWISE, SO NEITHER SHOULD WE)

Of all the messages pouring out of the dirigistes, this is the one that seems (to my ears) to be making headway, as a slogan that is somehow 'intuitive'.

"While the Catholic Church rejects unjust discrimination against homosexual men and women, there is no question that marriage by its nature is the union of one man and one woman,” Richard E. Barnes, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement.


Countering its imperfection is hard, because people look around and mostly see what? Non-gay marriages. It's self-reinforcing (and self-congratulating?).

There are a number of ideas, including that this one-man, one-woman "dogma" (?) is not scriptural, at least not fully suggestive of all the scriptures say.

Clearly, the fallacy is that one-man, one-woman is suitable for non-gays but not for gays. It's really that simple. All marriage is 'intrinsically good', to borrow their phrase, so long as it comes with certain social understandings. Marriage for gays is just another shelf in the same bookcase, that's all.

Of course, I've yet to distill all that into a slogan, which means I'm missing a key communication tool, still.

WHAT THE HOLY SEE CANNOT SEE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS NOSE

Offhand, here is a more provocative scriptural start for the CCers. On the death of Johnathan, David laments the event as "the beauty of Israel" slain. He goes on with this provocative statement:

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 2 Samuel 26


There is a love for men that surpasses marital love? That's got to be scripturally problematic, for the "activist acolytes" and apologists who believes gay love is sinful and that non-gay marriage is the epitome, right?

In any case, it refocuses the debate on the things that the Church would rather ignore, as it pursues misleading people. Nor is it anti-marriage. It just suggests that there is more in the scriptures than is dreamt of in their "philosophy", Horatio.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, the Sins of the Fallible Pope


One battered women and one loving, gay couple, with kids.


Here is what is happening, around the world, while the Catholic Church is spending, spending to convince themselves they are right that, somehow, 'gay love' isn't Christlike enough to be ... 'objective fact' (?); the Pope's warriors are dangerously advancing beyond doctrine, and the ranks of the Church are shrinking, in America:

Violence against women in the family occurs in developed and developing countries alike. It has long been considered a private matter by bystanders -- including neighbours, the community and government. But such private matters have a tendency to become public tragedies.

In the United States, a woman is beaten every 18 minutes. Indeed, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury among women of reproductive age in the United States. Between 22 and 35 per cent of women who visit emergency rooms are there for that reason.

The highly publicized trial of O. J. Simpson, the retired United States football player acquitted of the murder of his former wife and a male friend of hers, helped focus international media attention on the issue of domestic violence and spousal abuse.

In Peru, 70 per cent of all crimes reported to the police involve women beaten by their husbands.

In Pakistan, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto strongly defended a 35-year-old mother of two who was severely burned by her husband in a domestic dispute.

"There is no excuse for such a behaviour", the Prime Minister declared after visiting the hospitalized victim. "My presence here is to send a message to all those who violate Islamic teachings and defy laws of the land with their inhuman treatment of women. This will not be tolerated."

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in the 400 cases of domestic violence reported in 1993 in the province of Punjab, nearly half ended with the death of the wife.

According to the Special Rapporteur's report, many Governments now recognize the importance of protecting victims of domestic abuse and taking action to punish perpetrators. The establishment of structures allowing officials to deal with cases of domestic violence and its consequences is a significant step towards the elimination of violence against women in the family.

The Special Rapporteur's report highlights the importance of adopting legislation that provides for prosecution of the offender. It also stresses the importance of specialized training for law enforcement authorities as well as medical and legal professionals, and of the establishment of community support services for victims, including access to information and shelters.



UN's report - yes, we pay to have this information to help set priorities, only so that the Religious-For-Votes crowd can narrowly focus on ... loving gay couples.

Operation Enduring Fre ... just enduring

HELLBENT FOR HELMAND!

Abu Muqawama, recently retired from daily blogging, has some interesting reminders on Eisenhower's decision process.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

18 months, 30,000 troops, 30 billion dollars

AN UNTIMELY CONFLICT

The long, twilight struggle will go on at least another $30 billion in direct costs (about twice the GDP of Afghanistan).

Apparently, after seven years of trying, there is a chance that counter-insurgency doctrine might work. You don't say - 18 months more is all that is needed to "set conditions".

Strangely, given how badly Rumsfeld and his generals prosecuted a resource-starved mission in Afghanistan, that might actually be true, all except the 18 months part. But, you don't just get to press 'reset', like a video game. There are costs, perhaps insurmountable ones, of those seven years of clear-no-hold-no-build...

$30 billion to do what Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld couldn't. The guy who was going to end conflict is, like Nixon, ordering the biggest step-up.

If it doesn't work, after a paltry 18 months, Obama has no political exit strategy, does he? He's not going to get rewarded for saying, "enough!", even less so if the CIA writes a reports that al-qaeda is undiminished in the region...

Moved backwards for several years

So, how is it possible for such a large, multi-lateral effort to slip backwards for years?

Just sayin'

The Whip-handle of Saving Souls

EXCEPT AS YOU DO TO THE LEAST OF THESE - GETTING IN THE SPIRIT

I'm sure there are some who still believe that, for instance, the Catholic Church's position on gays is theological, even primarily theological.

It is probably just as much a lesser of evils calculation: gays - visible gays - are believed by them to be bad for the Church's efforts to save non-gay souls.

It's hard to read the tea leaves, but this could be on display currently in Uganda.

Under a proposed legal revamp, gays are getting left over to what looks like a barbarous Sharia interpretation there, killed if "necessary", that is, so that the Catholic Church in Uganda can continue its grave quest to save the souls of ... non gays, unburdened and unhampered by any perceived teaching that runs up against apparently profound ignorance there.

'MARRIAGE IS UNDER ATTACK', OLD SCHOOL

After doing push-ups, the swells of the Manhattan Declaration announce their "orthodoxy". But life belies their art.

How?

Well, check out what the Catholic Church is defending in Uganda.

Uganda has a diverse society. The draft Marriage and Divorce Bill aims to consolidate laws pertaining to all forms of marriage recognized in Uganda: religious, civil and customary. The new law would ensure both partners fair access to matrimonial wealth during and after marriage, make marital rape illegal, and ban bride price, a practice that demands the husband pays the bride’s family to marry her.

According to statistics from the Uganda Law and Reform Commission, 78 per cent of women have experienced some form of domestic abuse


What is the 'orthodox' response, the one that shows what type of marriage really, really, really is scriptural?

The Catholic Church in Uganda condemns the bill as decreasing the role of religion in marriage, giving more importance to material wealth and land.


I'll bet Robert P. George doesn't even blush at that condemnation. But that's not the softer, marriage definition he's pushing, because wails for "religious freedom" that included a marriage exemplar like Uganda's would just be too much to for Americans and wouldn't serve a modus of pushing the gays under the carpet to save souls...

BTW, one can check out the elites' concept of marriage, apparently not to be shared with those in the pews, for a cool $395.04 at Amazon.com:



At $395, are they trying to persuade or to preach?

Update: Robert George is just a fish in a fishy pond. It's all about the bigotry, "item #22": Defense of marriage groups will not support a ban-on-divorce amendment proposed for California.

Monday, November 30, 2009

The Case for Precipitous Withdrawal, Revisited

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

A year after this, Andrew Sullivan comes closer to my view, with this:

You do not want empire? Then leave.


I'll stay, if someone else pays. If there is civil war in Iraq, Iran will be dragged in and that will be time to deal with the Persian tyrant. At that time, our oil friends will gladly pay the bill for re-engagement.

During a liquidity trap, we don't "have the money" for a plus-up in Afghanistan. "Emergency Supplemental" debt is not an option, unless team Obama want to look exactly like the fiscal pie-in-the-sky leadership of Bush-Cheney.

All options are no good.

We are fast entering the winter of discontent, and one can only hope that Paul Krugman is wrong. But, the Taylor rule, so far as I know, has not been repealed, so he can't be off by that much. Health care reform hangs on a thread. The list goes on.

The only bright spot is that the mideast peace process is in shambles. Accordingly, there is no reason for Netanyahu to bomb Iran. (What, too cynical?).

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Time to Stop Reading the Internet Today

Quote of the day, from Andrew Sullivan:

Legalizing medical marijuana is spreading globally as fast as marriage equality.

It's too soon.

Gays took a distant second to drugs in Maine, remember?

Not that I'm despondent. Gay marriage polled higher than ferrets in California, afterall.

G Oppose P

TO THE WHIPPING POST, ALL

From the people who brought America the do-nothing 109th Congress, six of ten GOP "principles" include the word "oppose".

Once again, the Libertarians, who tent with the Republicans, seem oddly silent on this proclamation. Victory by military means only is outlined. Containment by direct intervention is unchallenged.

By the way, what does "oppose" mean? Abuse of cloture?

New Jersey Voters Support Marriage

A kiss is just a kiss...the world will remember lovers, as time goes by, not you Maggie...
ANTIGAY "FEAR AND LOATHING CAMPAIGN" TO START IN NEW JERSEY

Extending civil marriage to gay couples is favored by NJ voters, in a poll done just this month (pdf).

Nevertheless, deep-pocketed organizations continue to spend, in an effort to frighten just enough people. On the heels of radio spots last month, the NOM announced they will spend a cool $500K.

In NJ, lawmakers will have to face whatever last-minute fears that are raised.

Sadly, some Democratic Senators in NJ appear to have longstanding worries not yet allayed by the tedious, but necessary, groundwork laid by gay hopefuls in NJ, who can provide lawmakers with the rebuttals and basic political courage/calculation to face what is perceived as a controversial vote in the next few weeks, if the marriage bill comes out of committee. Started in 2004, Garden State Equality is just five years old.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Troubadour of the Lower Fifth

Those who believe that American politics is at all rational do not understand how the Prescott-Bushes, on the heels of Reagan, have empowered a whole group of non-enlightenment citizens to believe.

All this seems on the verge of a critical mass, at the time when the press, as we knew it, is at a nadir; and a new press paradigm of private-pay and company-owned "truth" is likely on the horizon, repeating periods of the same in our history.

To be sure, no party has a cornerstone on the easily led (or misled); but here is democracy at its weakest:

ABC, sadly not 1-2-3

SEXY IS AS SEXY DOES


The Spice Girls can parade male dancers on leashes as dogs on tour, with impunity, in front of screaming teenagers.

Apparently, ABC cannot stomach that Adam Lambert does a crotch grind with a dancer and a kiss with a very kissable keyboardist at the 2009 AMA...: