Month: July 2009

Dealing With Iran

Crowley thinks it's all for show:

The big question now: How long is Obama willing to give the Iranians to demonstrate a good-faith negotiating posture before he starts turning the sanctions screws on them? I think we're probably still a few months and some complex maneuvering away. Even if Obama is skeptical about the prospects for talks (and I suspect he is), his team believes it's critical that the international community perceive the US to have made a good-faith negotiating effort of its own. Even if Khameinei and Ahmadinejad are giving America the finger, an important kabuki dance remains.

And who will really be running Iran this fall, with what limitations, is still being negotiated. A little benign neglect right now is what is needed.

Chilling, Ctd

A reader writes:

Maybe if the cat had been mauled or something terrible. Otherwise, I think you meant Chillin'.

Another writes:

At first I misread the meaning of the entry title, "Chilling," and didn't interpret it to mean "taking it easy, sitting around, hanging out."  Instead, I was prepared to see something "frightening, disturbing, blood-curdling."  I was not disappointed.  (I hate cats.)

I take the Beyonce line on gerunds: if you like it, you should put an ing on it.

(With apologies to Varla Jean Merman.)

“Politically, If I Die, I Die”

Palin used that formulation before in her introduction of Michael Reagan:

Let me ask you why is it considering how fast the world is spinning and world changing events that go on all over the globe that do affect our lives, world changing events, thousands of them every day, why do you suppose that it’s the same big three supposedly competing networks that have the same news content every night and virtually the same exact viewpoint being spewed night after night after night.  We’ve gotta ask those questions.  So I join you in speaking up and asking the questions and taking action, and here at home in my beloved Alaska I just  say, politically speaking, if I die, I die.

Oookaay. Mudflats notes:

Ironic that ABC News, one of those “supposedly competing” networks that “spew” the same viewpoint night after night, according to Palin, is the one she invited to come pick fish with her.

Any tool will do.

Abjeez, Ctd

A reader passes along this music video and writes:

As a Swedish expat Iranian, I cannot let this go unnoticed. Abjeez is based in Sweden – in östersund to be exact! Your post on their song Demokracy listed them as based in London. Btw, thank you for your unyielding posting on the events in iran, I hope it doesn't stop. I understand you have a lot of events to cover, and a lot of topics to tackle, but I've come to understand that your mind is essential to this struggle, and to a lot of expats like me, and others who don't have a platform like you (or Nico for that matter). You, quite strangely, are the best channels out there right now presenting the plight of the Iranian people. Again thank you. Omidvaram hamisheh khosh bashi (I hope you always keep smiling)!

Economic Spat Of The Day

Tyler Cowen is not a fan of a second stimulus:

We've just seen what special interest groups have done to legislation on health care reform and climate change and neither has even reached the Senate yet.  Round one of the stimulus represented the high water mark of the influence of the technocrats in the Obama administration.  What do you think round two of the stimulus would look like?

I'll also note this: even if you think the pro-stimulus forces are correct, they are losing the rhetorical battle rapidly.  American voters do not in fact have the patience for a lot of good ideas.

Word Abuse

Ezra Klein pulls apart Kristol's column from yesterday:

"Palin may not even run," [Kristol] writes. "But the panic among mainstream media commentators and the GOP establishment suggests real worry that if she does, she might pull off an upset." I really feel for the role "suggests" is playing in that sentence. That's a lot of work for one word to do all on its lonesome.