Month: July 2009

Bound By Fundamentalism

Elizabeth Iskander at World Politics Review writes:

It seems that the majority of senior clerics support Moussavi's position. Some have taken part in the protests, and Ayatollah Montazeri has issued a fatwa condemning the violence used against protesters as anti-Islamic. However, to use the Assembly of Experts to remove Khamenei would destablize the regime to which the clerics are tied. As a result, though many might be unhappy with the recent developments, they stand to lose more than they gain by speaking out against them. That, as much as anything, illustrates the real danger of mixing religion and politics.

The Mother Of All Jobless Recoveries

The trade numbers were much better than expected. Brad DeLong predicts the future:

Now that we have the May trade figures, the modal forecast is (i) an economy that was flat in the second quarter relative to the first quarter, (ii) an economy that starts to grow relatively slowly in the third quarter, and (iii) an unemployment rate that keeps rising for another one and a half to two years–like it did in 1992 and 2002–as the old-fashioned business-cycle productivity-employment pattern is broken once again. Bob Hall's [National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)] committee is likely to proclaim that recovery began sometime in the second quarter, but it won't feel like a recovery to workers (as opposed to asset owners) for quite some time to come.

The Rise And Fall Of A Delusional Celebrity

PALINChipSomodevilla:Getty

Donald Craig Mitchell of the Alaska Dispatch offers a concise explanation of the microwave explosion of Sarah Palin's career:

After watching Sarah think for the past three years, my view it is that her big decision to quit was the logical result of several smaller decisions. Like a Slinky flopping methodically down a flight of stairs, each of those decisions flowed one after the other from Sarah's realization at the conclusion of the 2008 presidential campaign that she had transcended politics. That thanks to media like People Magazine and the National Enquirer, she now is playing way above the rim with cultural icons like Paris Hilton and the recently deceased Michael Jackson, rather than below it with common vote-grubbing politicians like Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney…

Once Sarah made the easy decision that she would not run for reelection in 2010 so that during the two years prior to the 2012 presidential election she can be a full-time celebrity, the decision to become one immediately, rather than waiting another year and a half for her term as Governor to expire, was a no-brainer.

First, because Sarah Palin's celebrity no longer is dependent on her status as Governor. And second, because from the moment she was sworn into office Sarah has demonstrated over and over and over and over again that she has no idea what she's doing. And when she's in over her head, Sarah's instinct is to find a face-saving way to make her way to the nearest door marked "Exit."

I keep thinking back to the first ever mention of Sarah Palin in the Anchorage Daily News in April 1996, before she had any public office:

Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist.

''We want to see Ivana,'' said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, ''because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.''

Glamour! Well, she has that now. Pity we had to risk the national security of the United States to get the smell of fish out of her clothes.

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty.)