June 23, 2008
SPEAKING OF NEEDING MAVERICK MORE THAN HE NEEDS YOU....:
Dobson to Attack Obama Tuesday for Distorting the Bible, Having a "Fruitcake" Interpretation of the Constitution (Jake Tapper, June 23, 2008, ABC News: Political Punch)
Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family -- who has stayed unusually quiet in this election cycle likely due to his loathing of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- will tomorrow attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on Tuesday for a speech the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered in 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal.The AP was given an advance copy of Dobson's 18-minute radio segment, which has already been taped, and will air Tuesday.
In it, Dobson hammers Obama's views of religion, and says the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," and calls Obama's views "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.
Good boy.
BEING A DECENT PEOPLE... (via Brian McKim and Glenn Dryfoos):
Everything seemingly is spinning out of control (ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN, 6/21/08, Associated Press)
Is everything spinning out of control?Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.
Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.
The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance. [...]
American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes that the U.S. has endured comparable periods and worse, including the economic stagflation (stagnant growth combined with inflation) and Iran hostage crisis of 1980; the dawn of the Cold War, the Korean War and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s; and the Depression of the 1930s.
"All those periods were followed by much more optimistic periods in which the American people had their confidence restored," he said.
Life Is Good, So Why Do We Feel So Bad? (GREGG EASTERBROOK, June 13, 2008, Wall Street Journal)
Unemployment is 5.5%, low by historical standards; income is rising slightly ahead of inflation; housing prices are down, but the typical house is still worth a third more than in 2000; 94% of Americans do not have threatened mortgages, and of those who do, most will keep their homes.Inflation was up in 2007, but this stands out because the 16 previous years were close to inflation-free; living standards are the highest they have ever been, including living standards for the middle class and for the poor.
All forms of pollution other than greenhouse gases are in decline; cancer, heart disease and stroke incidence are declining; crime is in a long-term cycle of significant decline; education levels are at all-time highs.
Sure, gas prices are up, the dollar is weak and credit is tight – but these are complaints at the margin of a mainly healthy society. [...]
Campaigning in Pennsylvania in April, Hillary Clinton said "We need to go back to the prosperity of the 1990s," a comment that drew loud, enthusiastic applause. Converted to today's dollars, per-capita income in the Keystone State is 23% higher than in 1990. People may think Pennsylvania was more prosperous in the past, but the state is better off today. The same can be said for most (needless to say, not all) parts of the country and most demographics. Most are, right now, the best-off they have ever been. [...]
The relentlessly negative impressions of American life presented by the media, including the entertainment media, explain something otherwise puzzling that shows up in psychological data. When asked about the country's economy, schools, health care or community spirit, Americans tell pollsters the situation is dreadful. But when asked about their own jobs, schools, doctors and communities, people tell pollsters the situation is good. Our impressions of ourselves and our neighbors come from personal experience. Our impressions of the nation as a whole come from the media and from political blather, which both exaggerate the negative.
...we worry about our fellow Americans. Those worries are just misplaced.
GOT MINE; GET YOURS:
Foreshadowing 2008 (SETH LIPSKY, June 23, 2008, NY Sun)
One of the memorable moments in my career was a lunch with Isaac Bashevis Singer. It took place in July 1984 at the home of Simon Weber, who was then editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. Weber lived on the top floor of an apartment block overlooking Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. I've often told the story. When lunch commenced, I reported that the Wall Street Journal, for which I was then working, had just come out in favor, at least in principle, of open borders. "Oy," said the Nobel laureate, without looking up from the bagels and smoked fish, "all those Mexicans."
Funny how the nativists aren't folks great-grandpa considered native.
THE SEAL SLEEPS WITH THE FISHES:
A No "Seal" Zone, Starting..... (Marc Ambinder, 23 Jun 2008, Atlantic Blog)
I've had my fun with the Obama campaign's seal, and now that fun ends. I'm told that Obama recognizes that it was a silly mistake, that the universal reaction at Wacker and Michigan was, "Boy, was that dumb," and that they don't think the seal staging will matter to actual voters.Does the press think Obama is arrogant? Yes. Does the seal represent arrogance? Only tangentially, actually. The worry for Obama's image managers is that it gives the press a pretext to call Obama arrogant, an example for them to add to a list of arrogant moments, and a way to distract them from what Obama is saying.
Believing your own hype is never a good idea.
HE'S THE REPUBLICAN STANDARD BEARER...:
The evolution of John McCain : As a maverick Senator, he took pride in just saying no to everyone's wish list. But as a presidential contender, he's become a tax cutter and defender of home mortgages. The inside story of how the candidate is shaping his plan to fix the economy. (David Whitford, June 23, 2008, Fortune Magazine)
Perhaps no issue has tested McCain over the years more than taxes. Four years ago, before he launched his second campaign for President, McCain was the keynote Republican speaker at a bipartisan conference on the budget titled "Restoring Fiscal Sanity - While We Still Can." The event was sponsored by a half-dozen think tanks representing all points on the political spectrum. "I'm a proud Republican," McCain said then, by way of introduction. "I'm a Barry Goldwater Republican. I revere Ronald Reagan and his party of limited government. Sadly, that party is no longer." He went on to sharply criticize colleagues on both sides of the aisle for runaway "pork-barrel spending" and "expanding entitlements," but he didn't quit there. He also talked about taxes. "And why do we have to have tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans when the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the poorest Americans is growing?" he wondered. Later he added, "We're at war. Tell me one time in the history of this country when this nation was at war when we've enacted tax cuts, especially for the wealthiest."McCain tried valiantly to hold the line. Twice he voted against Bush's tax cuts, in 2001 and 2003, angering many in his own party. But that was then. Now, first step, McCain wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent; then he wants to keep going. He would repeal the alternative minimum tax, slash the corporate tax, increase the tax exemption for children, and, at least temporarily, allow businesses to write off the full cost of capital investments in one year. It'll be expensive - the independent Tax Policy Center estimates, optimistically, that McCain's plan would add $4.5 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years, compared with $3.3 trillion for Obama's plan - but McCain insists that he can balance the budget in four years with promised savings from running a tighter ship and increased tax revenues as the economy expands.
Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), who has sharply criticized McCain in the past, says now, "I'm happy." Norquist still can't get McCain to sign ATR's no-new-taxes pledge, but he has the next best thing: video of the candidate promising as much on national television, three times. "With the campaign's approval," says Norquist, "we took those three YouTube videos and sent them to everybody and their brother on the planet." Now when Norquist convenes his weekly Wednesday strategy meeting at ATR headquarters in Washington, there's always a McCain campaign representative at the table. Apparently all is forgiven. "He was just voting against Bush in general" is how Norquist explains McCain's reversal. "I think it was pique."
...which explains his position on taxes and the activists flocking to him.
DUDE CAN'T EVEN BOWL:
Rove: Obama's the Guy at the Country Club Holding a Martini Making Snide Comments About Everyone Else (Jake Tapper, June 23, 2008, ABC NEWS: Political Punch)
ABC News' Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as "coolly arrogant.""Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said, per Christianne Klein. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."
Rove said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., "needs to come right at him."
Senator Obama thinks he can hide behind his race, but it's not being black that distances him from most Americans--it's his liberal elitism. Strip away the identity politics and he's John Kerry.
THE LONELINESS OF THE AMERICAN BRIGHT:
92% of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit, Pew survey finds (Duke Helfand, 6/23/08, Los Angeles Times)
Americans overwhelmingly believe in God and consider religion an important part of their lives, even as many shun weekly worship services, according to a national survey released today that also found great diversity in religious beliefs and practices.Ninety-two percent of those interviewed for the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey said they believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, and 58% said they pray privately every day.
And you wonder why the atheists/Darwinists are so hysterical nowadays? The bleeding was supposed to be staunched at Kansas
THE WEIMAR PHASE:
Worst of times for Iran (Spengler, 6/24/08, Asia Times)
Iran has shown in the most vivid fashion that it cannot solve its internal problems. It is therefore likely to seek an external solution.What happened to the US$35 billion of oil revenues that Iran's Shabab News, in a now notorious account, claims disappeared from official accounting during the year through March 2008? Half the country's oil revenues disappeared from the books. A great deal of it left the country for banks in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere; capital flight already was running at a $15 billion annual rate last year, by my estimate.
During the past year, though, conspicuous consumption in the form of a luxury housing boom has absorbed even more of Iran's oil windfall. Luxury apartments in Tehran's better neighborhoods now sell for $15,000 per square meter, Agence France Presse reported May 26, equal to the best neighborhoods in Paris or New York. A 200-square-meter apartment in northern Tehran sells for about $1 million. Real estate prices in outlying suburbs and some provincial cities have doubled over the past year.
Corruption has metastasized, that is to say, for the scale of the property boom implies that tens of thousands of Iranians are taking six-to-seven figure bites out of the oil budget. Rather than a handful of officials siphoning state funds into bank accounts in Dubai, an entire class of hangers-on of the Islamic revolution is spending sums beyond the dreams of the average Iranian, and in brazen public view.
Ahmadinejad's patronage system generates payoffs to the political class that have set in motion uncontrolled inflation - officially 25% per year but certainly much higher - and a rush into real assets. A side effect is that the average Iranian urban household, which spends $316 a month, is gradually being priced out of the rental market.
Not only rents but foodstuffs, fuel and other essentials have registered double- or triple-digit price increases during recent months, according to fragmentary reports trickling out of the country. The government's 25% inflation figure cannot be correct. The German Suddeutsche Zeitung's Tehran correspondent wrote on June 17, "Price increases follow one another in batches. After the prices of rice and detergent suddenly jumped by a multiple, tea prices have their turn. In just a few days different types of tea have become 300% to 700% more expensive." It is too early to speak of hyperinflation, but the the Iranian bazaar already presents with symptoms of incipient hyperinflation. How do households survive?
Mahmoud has certainly shown he can't solve--in fact, doesn't understand--the internal problems. But the coming election, in which he'll likely be replaced by an ally of Ayatollah Khamenei, who's been pushing economic reform, suggests that there are internal solutions.
NOW HE'LL HAVE A GREAT VIEW:
Cult US comedian George Carlin dies at 71 (Times of London, 6/23/08)
He was a cynic with a gloomy view of mankind. “The world is a big theatre-in-the-round as far as I’m concerned, and I’d love to watch it spin itself into oblivion,” he said. “Tune in and watch the human adventure.” [...]His comedy revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species. “I don’t have any beliefs or allegiances. I don’t believe in this country, I don’t believe in religion, or a god, and I don’t believe in all these man-made institutional ideas,” he said.
The sublime thing about his humor is that it requires standards of decency -- human institutions -- in order to be funny being indecent.
THE CHARACTER FLAWS ARE A BONUS...:
St. Barack Was a Mirage: The senator is losing what made him seem special and inspiring. (Peter Wehner, 6/23/08, National Review)
Obama announced on Thursday that he will opt out of public financing for his presidential run. Offering a breathtakingly jaded and calculating explanation (the Republicans made him do it), Obama betrayed what we were told was the closest thing the candidate had to a high and inviolate principle: political and campaign finance reform. When that principle collided with his political self-interest, Obama invoked the same method that he used, for instance, with Jeremiah “I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother” Wright: He disposed of that which is not politically expedient.Obama has become what Jennifer Rubin at Contentions refers to as the “never mind” candidate. “Never mind” what he said about the Reverend Wright, flag pins, NAFTA, the importance of not losing in Iraq (in 2004-2005), the threat of Iran, meeting with Ahmadinejad, Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, and so on.
The problem for Obama is that his core appeal has been largely aesthetic; he positioned himself as St. Barack, flying high and high-mindedly above the “old” politics of distractions, divisions, and cynicism. He wouldn’t play the “Washington game.” Obama has been sold to us as post-everything (post-partisan, post-ideological, post-racial, and post-label). If that appeal is stripped away, then Obama will be seen as a deeply and reflexively liberal one-term senator — and as something of a fraud. That combination may be enough to defeat him in a year that should overwhelmingly favor Democrats.
...Northern liberal is enough to defeat him.
JUST LIKE THE GREAT DEPRESSION...:
Despite Economic Dip, Giving Rose in 2007: Donations Passed $300 Billion for 1st Time (Philip Rucker, 6/23/08, Washington Post)
Americans donated $306 billion to charities in 2007, as U.S. philanthropic giving rose to a record level despite a downturn in the national economy, a survey being released today has found.Charitable giving increased 1 percent last year, when inflation is taken into account, and surpassed $300 billion for the first time, according to the Giving USA survey.
...except that the folks on street corners are handing out apples....
IT'S BECOMING KNOWN THAT IMPLODES THEIR CAMPAIGNS:
Now that he's known, Obama positions his image (Christina Bellantoni, June 23, 2008, Washington Times)
Sen. Barack Obama's team once worried that the presidential hopeful was widely unknown, but now he faces a challenge in making sure voters know the right things about the presumptive Democratic nominee. [...]The problem is, many don't know much about his background or where he stands on the issues, and Republicans and groups working for his defeat in November are working to define him on their terms.
Every four years--except when they nominate a Southern Evangelical governor--we go through the same process. Voters find out that the Democrats nominated a stock Northern liberal and decide to vote for the Southwestern conservative instead.
THERE'S AN EXCELLENT CASE TO BE MADE...:
The case for keeping the Bush tax cuts (DR. MARTIN REGALIA, 6/23/08, Politico)
[A]ny honest discussion on taxes must begin with an honest examination of who pays. For 2005, the most recent year for which information is available, IRS data indicate that taxpayers with an adjusted gross income in the top 25 percent of the population bore 86 percent of the federal income tax burden. If you expand it to the top 50 percent, the number jumps to 97 percent. In other words, the bottom half of the country pays a paltry 3 percent of the country's taxes. This proves, in part, the steep progressivity of the income tax system.But what about the Bush tax cuts? They only favor the wealthy, right? Again, let’s go to the facts. Since 2000, when President Bush entered office, the share of federal tax liabilities borne by the lowest and middle quintiles has decreased, while the share borne by the highest quintile has increased. In 2000, the lowest quintile bore 1.1 percent of total federal tax liabilities compared with 0.9 percent in 2004, the year that all of the Bush tax cuts were in effect. Thus, the federal tax liability of the lowest quintile dropped 18 percent. However, the highest quintile paid 67.2 percent of these liabilities in 2004, an increase of 1 percent in their liability since 2000, when they paid 66.6 percent. Far from favoring the wealthy, these numbers suggest that the wealthy are bearing more of the tax burden
The Department of the Treasury recently released a paper studying the impact of letting tax relief expire: “A four-person, one-earner family with wage income each year of $40,000 in 2007 dollars would see a tax increase of $2,345; a four-person, one-earner family with wage income each year of $80,000 in 2007 dollars would see a tax increase of $2,000; a three-person, one-earner family with wage income each year of $40,000 in 2007 dollars would see a tax increase of $1,655; and a head of household with two children and wage income each year of $30,000 in 2007 dollars would see a tax increase of $1,615.”
More than 116 million Americans would see their taxes go up. And small businesses that pay their taxes based on individual rates (which is most of them) could see their effective rate rise to more than 44 percent.
...for making the lower classes pay for the government services they demand. Senator Obama ain't making it.
THERE IS NO BOLIVIA:
Bolivia region 'chooses autonomy' (BBC, 6/23/08)
Bolivia's gas-rich Tarija province has voted overwhelmingly in favour of greater autonomy, exit polls suggest.About 80% of the voters in the eastern province backed the measure in a referendum, several pollsters said.
The result is seen as a rejection of left-wing President Evo Morales' drive to redistribute wealth in South America's poorest nation.
Tarija is the fourth province to back greater autonomy.
Nor is there a Europe, A chance for Europe to face the New Truth (John Vinocur, June 23, 2008, IHT)
And now, since the Irish voted no in a referendum on a plan to reorganize the EU, and the EU's leaders held a flailing, ineffectual summit meeting to talk about what has been called a body blow to the community's integrated future, Europe is asking how to heal itself.This is intriguing for three reasons:
a) It involves Europe articulating more home truths - although far from all of them - about the EU than it usually dares.
b) Those divisive truths, as the rest of the world is noting, suggest Europe is not going to be a unified global power anytime soon.
c) Yet the remedies being offered up for knitting the community together don't deal with the most excruciating realities.
The New Truth discussion acknowledges that Europe is not an affair of the heart that is welding self-sacrifice, resolve and patriotism into a common goal as a world player.
And yet, folks pretend it's either important or possible to hold together such patently artificial constructs as The Lebanon and Iraq.
BECAUSE BEING A LIBERAL REQUIRES...:
"Bonnie And Clyde Was The Most Important Text Of The New Left" (Ed Driscoll, June 23, 2008, EdDriscoll.com)
Making the rounds to promote his new book Nixonland, Rick Perlstein tells Reason:reason: You like to mix cultural history with political history. Bonnie and Clyde is one of the central texts in the book.
Perlstein: My theory is that Bonnie and Clyde was the most important text of the New Left, much more important than anything written by Paul Goodman or C. Wright Mills or Regis Debray. It made an argument about vitality and virtue vs. staidness and morality that was completely new, that resonated with young people in a way that made no sense to old people. Just the idea that the outlaws were the good guys and the bourgeois householders were the bad guys—you cannot underestimate how strange and fresh that was.
The 1967 release of the movie certainly coincides with the period where traditional liberalism and the far left began to merge; not coincidentally, this was also the period where traditional morality began to break down. The next year would be 1968, a year the left is alternately trying to recreate, or is permanently trapped in, or both. Mick Jagger's lyrics to the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" called the philosophy of the day "heads is tails", and whereas liberals once worshiped science and progress, they soon found themselves admiring the Black Panthers and William Ayers' Weatherman group, and tossing both modernism and hope for the future under the bus.
...that you both disavow the concept of morality and believe the moral to be evil.
