T.J. Kersey of Eatonton, Georgia looks for friends after the Mud Pit Bellyflop contest during the 13th Annual Summer Redneck Games July 11, 2009 in East Dublin, Georgia. Started in 1996 as a spoof for the summer Olympics held in Atlanta, the games feature bobbing for pigs feet, hub cap hurling and the mud pit belly flop contest for trophies. By Stephen Morton/Getty Images.
Minxin Pei puts Asia's economic rise in context:
Asia
is nowhere near closing its economic and military gap with the West. The region produces roughly 30 percent of global economic output, but because of its huge population, its per capita gdp is only $5,800, compared with $48,000 in the United States. Asian countries are furiously upgrading their militaries, but their combined military spending in 2008 was still only a third that of the United States. Even at current torrid rates of growth, it will take the average Asian 77 years to reach the income of the average American. The Chinese need 47 years. For Indians, the figure is 123
years. And Asia's combined military budget won't equal that of the
United States for 72 years.
Fallows and Niall Ferguson debate China. Fallows follows up:
My argument…is that China and the United States will continue to disagree over countless issues but are too thoroughly connected to be pushed by the current world economic crisis toward what Ferguson declares a "divorce." If a real separation occurs, it would probably be over Taiwan or some other non-routine-economic issue.
Cris Saknussemm has spent twenty years studying fetishes and lists his ten most favorite ones. This is relevant to the Dish:
It's Bear Week in Ptown!
And Michelle Bachmann:
Glenn Greenwald needs a neck brace, and I can't say I blame him. First the news seems to be that the attorney general really is going to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the illegal Bush-Cheney torture program; then it appears that it's going to be restricted solely to abuses on top of the baseline torture techniques approved by Yoo and Cheney. I agree with Glenn and Tim F. that the latter would be worse than nothing at all. A further round of scapegoating in order to protect the real architects of the program would be deeply damaging to the rule of law and the line of command. It would implicitly bless the torture that it did not prosecute. And as Cheney conceded, these were presidential-level decisions on presidential policy grounds. You don't take the United States into the ranks of countries that torture prisoners at the behest of a low-level functionary or an excessively aggressive torturer. Someone higher up ordered these barbaric practices that were found systematically in identical fashion across every theater of combat. The investigation into legal responsibility for the commission of these crimes as defined in international and domestic law should go wherever the evidence leads – as far up the line of command as it goes. That's what the Department of Justice means. And justice is not subject to Rahm Emanuel's politicking.
Scott's scoop is here; Glenn's reaction – updated thrice – is here. The resistance to bringing the torture architects to justice seems to be coming from political sources, but they may have over-played their hand:
In the days after Obama’s speech at the CIA, both Axelrod and Emanuel insisted that the White House had made the decision that there would be no prosecutions. According to reliable sources, that incensed Holder, who felt that the remarks had compromised the integrity both of the White House and Justice Department by suggesting that political advisers made the call on who would or would not be criminally investigated.
After Axelrod and Emanuel made their statements, Holder realized, a source said, that the Justice Department might have to appoint a special prosecutor to uphold its reputation for independence. Observers caution that even if a special prosecutor is appointed, actual indictments would still be far off. The Bush torture policy was implemented with the advice of lawyers well skilled in the ways of Washington bureaucracy. Any prosecutor would face considerable legal obstacles in bringing charges. A review of the torture memoranda themselves shows that a consuming concern was thwarting the possible bringing of charges by a future prosecutor. Now, perhaps, the defenses they devised may be put to the test.
Michael Schaffer is struck by how vindictive the Robert McNamara obits have been:
To watch straight-news obits disagree over major events and see editorialists stomp all over McNamara’s still-warm body is an oddly anachonistic feeling–a trip back to the divisions of the Vietnam era, of course, but also too a time when fat and happy media outlets worried less about pissing off partisans. In these circulation-panicked days, it’s harder to imagine any major paper running, say, a cartoon of a just-deceased Dick Cheney arriving in Hell or a columnist proudly declaring enduring hatred for the late Donald Rumsfeld. Of course, now we have the Internet to do that for us. Establishment-media squeamishness notwithstanding, I have a feeling the future will actually be rather bright for the obit hit-piece.
Robbie Cooper describes a show:
(Photo from David Zwirner).
Procrastinating with Post-it notes:
Jeff Jarvis takes on journalistic narcissism:
Oh, I know, this is all a big set-up for your punchline: A blogger is talking about narcissism? Heh. Isn’t blogging the ultimate narcissism? But who called it that, who made that judgment? Journalists, as far as I’ve seen. When they talk, it’s important. When we talk, it’s narcissism. What we say can’t be important – can it? – because we’re not paid and printed. But I don’t want to replay the blog culture war, which I keep hoping is over. I want to question assumptions, to find the cause and effect of myths.
And that’s what [Dave] Winer is trying to do when he reminds us that the important people in news are the sources and witnesses, who can now publish and broadcast what they know. The question journalists must ask, again, is how they add value to that. Of course, journalists can add much: reporting, curating, vetting, correcting, illustrating, giving context, writing narrative. And, of course, I’m all in favor of having journalists; I’m teaching them. But what’s hard to face is that the news can go on without them. They’re the ones who need to figure out how to make themselves needed.
Jeff, in my view, is rarely wrong about these things. It was great to catch up with him and Nick Denton at Aspen.
The economic history of the world. Press play after you click through.
(Hat tip: NPR)
The Dish 