Copyright © 2010 Frank Lynch.
Copyright © 2010 Frank Lynch.
Me: Frank Lynch Home These are my mundane daily ramblings.
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My chief regret about our invasion of Iraq is that we didn't continue on into Syria. Not really, of course, but remember those heady days? Such a great idea! 
Snarky faces. Tonight Ab and I watched Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story." The movie has been out for a long time, and I don't think I can add much about its broad themes and execution. But I do think I can add something substantial about one moment. There's a point where Moore interviews Bernie Sanders, Vermont's socialist Senator. This happens about 80% through the movie, after several tales of corporate greed, revolving doors, Wall Street's hands in Senate pockets, and so on. Sanders talks about how so much of America is underappreciated and underpaid - - the bedrock of teachers, etc. It reminded me of an off-site I attended when I worked at American Express; based on the location, I know it was pre-9/11. This was when I'd moved on from the market research department and had moved into a research-ish role in the internet marketing group. We had this circle time moment where we each had to identify someone in the company we admired. Reasonable enough. Some people mentioned a boss a few levels up, others mentioned Harvey Golub, others mentioned Ken Chenault. I said I admired the guy who ran us through the fire drills: it was always the same guy, he knew his stuff, and it was his job to make sure we knew what to do in an emergency. I hate to say "the youngsters," but I will: the youngsters snickered over my not picking out some golden calf. Again, this was pre-9/11. I'm sure there would have been less snark on Sep 13.
Businesses will love this. Joe Miller, candidate for Senate from Alaska, wants to cut the federal deficit by having all the responsibilities devolve to the states. Imagine the patchwork of regulations which businesses would have to cope with, as each state set up its own standards. (And of course, this is to say nothing about the additional taxpayer burden of the redundancies, with each state setting up its own systems. Unless, of course, Miller wants a taxpayer revolt which would lead to minimal regulation.) They think different up there. Murfreesboro, TN, is absolutely not Islamophobic. But somebody there decided to start a fire at the site of a planned mosque. I'm sure the site of the arson was randomly chosen. Right, Jonah? UPDATE: While we're talking about torching, let's remember how ugly it can get. The Miami Herald has an article this morning on a historian's efforts to tell the story of the Rosewood massacre. And with the reactions some people are having to mosques moving into their neighborhoods, it's clear that the evil that engulfed Rosewood still exists today. Then, it was false rape accusations; today it's false fears of terrorism camps.
Are we looking for that last "Honest Man" to lead Afghanistan? Apparently he won't be left standing. And when a graft fighting official (read that link) is fired for fighting graft - - a trait you might associate with patriotism - - well, you have to wonder what kind of nation we expect to leave when we finally leave. I'm not suggesting we leave later, I'm wondering why we didn't do that "a pox upon them all" finger and just leave sooner. The Taliban will be worse; but if we thought we could achieve something better, we didn't do it. This fired prosecutor deserves someting far better than we can't give. We're just not in a position to give him something akin to "Founding Father" status. That's up to the Afghans. His laudable "prophet in the wilderness" stance is falling on deaf ears, and will likely be relegated to the same shadows as Burke's impeachment of Hastings. Other things to talk about in the history books, move on. More on the Beck-o-rama. It's helpful to have his understanding of history:
Yeah, well, one of the reasons you didn't learn Glenn Beck's American history in school is because it didn't happen. And it would have been helpful if the Washington Post had interjected that instead of just relating an acolyte's quote. Beck thinks we bought Alaska in the 1950's for its oil (yes, the 1950's... Seward's Folly must have been some kind of musical revue). He's also come out against Fascism from one side of his mouth while praising Henry Ford from the other. I can find more if you want. Sarah Palin's imagined threats. Today at the Beck-o-rama:
So far as I know, no one has tried to. There's too many opportunities elsewhere. And I also have to ask: is there significance to having raised a "combat" vet? Is serving in a peaceful capacity something to denegrate? The NRA says "none of the above" for NV Senator. They won't endorse "Second Amendment Remedies" touter Sharron Angle, and object to Harry Reid. It's weird: Reid has had a number of gun-friendly votes, but his SCOTUS votes appear to have rankled them. So you would think they're applying a litmus test. But if so, why not endorse Angle? Do they think there will be no more Obama nominees to the court?
Home-grown terrorists. Not sure how this will shake out in the end, but some evidence a judge struck suggested an FBI agent was working to make sure his target broke the law. Not trying to suggest the accused are angels, but when the Feds are watering the plants...
America is absolutely not Islamophobic. A South Florida candidate whose first name is "Elijah" being asked whether or not he's a Muslim has nothing to do with it. (Never mind that there's an Old Testament prophet with the same name, he was probably part of a BC sleeper cell.) The GOP's dilemma in Florida. Their nominee for governor ran a health care company convicted of medicare fraud (there are how many seniors in FL?); but they hate to see the state house go to the Democrat. The chickens are coming home to roost.
Laura Ingraham hates having her flip-flops pointed out to her. She was only agreeing to "assimilation," she said; but she knew full well where the community center was going to be built when she praised it last December. (That's the Manhattan Borough President, by the way, on the August 25 O'Reilly show.) Bloomberg's adherence to principles. Last night Bloomberg gave another speech in support of the "9/11 Mosque". Naturally, one group that's against the mosque was not pleased, and parrotted a NY Post headline. Oddly, they shed crocodile tears over a reference Bloomberg made to "Muslim Americans":
They're actually serious about that; they also didn't bother to search Google for "Jewish Americans" (232,000 hits), "Protestant Americans" (24,000), "Catholic Americans" (19,000), or "Buddhist Americans" (4,000). Perhaps it the use of the hyphen in the phrase "Muslim-Americans," as reported in the NY Post? Well, it's not in the speech text at nyc.gov. I'm sure the Muslims in America are glad they have stopthe911mosque.com looking out for their best interests.
Keeping the troops in line. I don't know how I'd cope with the character limit on Twitter: the disclaimer that your opinions don't represent your employer's adds up to a LOT of characters. Maybe the RNC's media director shouldn't have joked about Obama being a Muslim in a medium that doesn't have room for that disclaimer? The RNC is distancing itself. I hope they're also wondering about the qualifications of their hires? And in keeping with the Islamophobia mood, Jonah Goldberg questioned why people don't write about anti-Semitism in America instead of Islamophobia, when "incidents" (undefined) against Jews are six times as frequent as those against Muslims. (The lower incidence of available Muslims, about a third the percentage of Jews isn't enough to account for it.) But without knowing what he means by "incidents," two points worth noting... First, the presence or absence of a behavior doesn't mean that Islamophobia doesn't exist. Customer service execs know that complaints are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dissatisfaction. Second, statistics like "incidents" aren't usually "point in time," they're typically gathered over the course of a year, where as a statistic like that in the TIME/Abt SRBI poll (disclosure at the end of the post) that about half (46%) of Americans think "Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers" is a "point in time" estimate. It might decrease by year's end, it might increase; but right now, I'd say America is pretty Islamophobic. Not just from that poll, but from the protests across the country against new mosques; from the recent Pew poll results showing how many Americans wouldn't want a Muslim POTUS... I mean, whatever "incidents" Goldberg is talking about, when was the last time you saw an organized protest against a new synagogue? More from Glenn Greenwald, if you're in the mood. (DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Investors' appetites for risk lead to a decline in stock prices, says the NYT. No, it's not having any income to invest, says Atrios. I'll take the classic "I bet it's a combination of both" approach, and add in a third: my appetite for risk hasn't changed, but I don't think the markets (and financial advisors) knew how much risk was really involved, thus understating the risk in people's portfolios. That's certainly my own feeling. Read Yves Smith's ECONned, if you don't know what I'm talking about. It's the book your advisors don't want you to read. (Just my two cents.) Going backwards on healthcare is not a winner for the GOP. A new poll from CNN shows that more people oppose the health care law that was passed than favor it (56% to 40%). But of those who oppose it, enough think it wasn't liberal enough to suggest that a majority doesn't want something more conservative (13% oppose because it's not liberal enough). (Results, see page 2, questions 19 and 20.) 41% oppose because it's too liberal. Of course, this doesn't mean it's theoretically impossible for the GOP to offer an alternative that would maintain the appeal of those who favor while being attractive to those who think it's currently too liberal; those who approve probably have a band of acceptable tolerance. But seeing as how the GOP has invested so much in either "repeal the whole thing" or not crafting something that is a credible, workable plan, it's difficult to see how they could accomplish this. I just don't see how the GOP can make this a winning issue; while the Democrats can posture it as a good start, the best that could be done at the time, and so on. (DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Creepy actions around Julian Assange. Assange, the itinerant founder of WikiLeaks, sure had an interesting Saturday: the Swedish police wanted to arrest him for rape, and then changed their mind. The timing, of course, was very interesting, happening so soon after the Afghan war leaks and with another set of related releases in the works. I want to know who was behind the original charges: was it a wildly imaginative individual? some power embarrassed by Wikileaks release? It all sounded too familiar to how Scott Ritter was taken off the cable shows in 2003-2004, thanks (apparently) to the mysterious release of sealed indictments, thus making this dissenting Iraq WMD inspector radioactive. Bring on some patriot, instead!
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