Month: July 2009

The New York Review of Books mostly defends blogging and praises the Dish (among others):

"Now, you stop and think about this: 183 times, six times a day, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was waterboarded. His lawyers never complained. He didn't complain to whatever civil rights organizations there were. And I'll tell you, the bottom — if somebody can be water-tortured six times a day, then it isn't torture," – April 20, 2009.

"I just slapped myself! *SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP* I'm torturing myself, right now! That's torture! *SLAP* According to these people," – April 17, 2009.

"For the longest time McCain said torture doesn't work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?" – April 17, 2009.

"[Abu Ghraib] is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?" – May 4, 2004.

"And there are people in this country, who are Americans, and have the same view of totalitarianism that all the worst regimes in the world have had. They just are a minority — or have been a minority. And they have to be stealth to get anywhere, because who's gonna vote for torture, who's gonna vote for tyranny, who's gonna vote for dictatorship? But we did. We did, and you see it slowly encroaching. And if they could move faster on this, they would." – July 26, 2009.

Robert J. Samuelson writes:

The notion that the uninsured get little or no care is a myth: They now receive about 50 to 70 percent as much health care as the insured. If they become insured, they would use more health care, possibly as much as today's insured. That would increase both government and private health spending, depending on how the insurance is provided.

Joe Klein is skeptical:

The 50-70% coverage–I love the numbing, economic nincompoopery of that stat–that they get takes place mostly in emergency rooms, the most expensive health care delivery system imaginable. If those same people had regular primary care physicians, they could nip those emergencies in the bud through preventive care, especially the use of drugs. […] In other words, the 30-50% of coverage that the uninsured are not getting might well lower the costs of the 50-70% of coverage that they are.

Duh. What Samuelson concedes that we already have socialized medicine in America.

Everyone gets treatment in emergencies and the uninsured get treatment the rest of us pay for in higher premiums. So the basic point remains: does this form of socialized medicine make more sense than socialized medicine which brings everyone into the system, and tries to find ways to lower costs? Which socialism do you want? As usual, the Reoublicans want big insolvent government, and the Democrats want big solvent government. Given that that's the actual choice (if not the rhetoric), I'm more inclined to listen to the Dems. Warily, of course. But the Republicans are a joke.

Fareed Zakaria urges patience on Iran:

What does this turmoil mean for Washington and the world's dealings with Iran? Obviously it makes negotiating with Tehran close to impossible right now. Any talks with Ahmadinejad would confer legitimacy on a regime that has lost it at home. And any gains agreed to in talks with a regime that is searching tactically for legitimacy might well prove to be temporary. The best strategy is to do nothing. Hillary Clinton implied as much when she put off the question of negotiating with Iran. In fact, the ball is in Tehran's court anyway. In April, the West presented Iran with an offer of talks that is serious and generous. Let Khamenei and Ahmadinejad figure out how to respond, as they keep claiming they will. The West faces constraints, but they face many more.

Let them stew and let the rest of us keep highlighting, encouraging and supporting the resistance.

(Hat tip: 3QD)

Iranians now chant "Death To China" but some Israelis now see America as their enemy.  The position of these far right Israelis is the same as Charles Krauthammer's and Bill Kristol's:

How long before some far right Israelis burn US flags?

Time's Robin Wright describes how the Iran uprising "has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign":

The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser." It includes calls to switch on every electric appliance in the house just before the evening TV news to trip up Tehran's grid. It features quickie "blitz" street demonstrations, lasting just long enough to chant "Death to the dictator!" several times but short enough to evade security forces. It involves identifying paramilitary Basij vigilantes linked to the crackdown and putting marks in green — the opposition color — or pictures of protest victims in front of their homes. It is scribbled antiregime slogans on money. And it is defiant drivers honking horns, flashing headlights and waving V signs at security forces.

Alex Knapp "defends" the birthers in a very detailed post. The conclusion:

While traditional adherence to quaint philosophic concepts might make it appear that the evidence overwhelmingly favors the conclusion that Barack Obama is a United States citizen, it is clear that this cannot be the case so long as we don’t pay any attention to the idea that there is an objective reality.

Cognitive Realism, the Law of Attraction, and Norse Mythology all provide plausible philosophic justification for ignoring evidence and logic. Accordingly, because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen. Thus, Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States.

It’s perfectly logical.

If you're a Republican, a lot of things are logical: the entire debt began the moment Obama took office; Bush and Cheney never tortured anyone, but Obama is about to; the WMDs really are in Iraq; the president has the constitutional power to send tanks into the streets to arrest any American without charges; deficits don't matter; Obama is a Kenyan Muslim impostor; and Sarah Palin was qualified to be president of the United States at a moment's notice.

Politics as magical realism.

Today Andrew returned from his blogging sabbatical just as Palin abandoned her post (and any trace of bipartisanship). He quickly caught up with the Gates scandal (addressed at length in his Sunday column) and recounted a brutal bashing in PTown. He also took stock of the situation in Afghanistan, scoffed at gestures by Democrats to nix DADT, and took a big swipe at WaPo and the Washington establishment over torture.

The Dish spent a lot of pixels today highlighting the rot of the far right; how Christianists have dug in; how pro-Israel allies have helped; how birthers like Inhofe and Bachmann are crazier than ever, and how Limbaugh is more cynical than ever, and how the GOP may have found its next JTP.

In foreign policy news, a floundering Ahmadi lost his deputy and most of his cabinet, Biden continued to embarrass himself, and the future of Iraq looked bleak.

But to add some color to the day, we posted two great videos of paint – here and here.

— C.B.

Lou Dobbs wins the latest round in the Birther cable wars. Klein's previous position is here.