Month: September 2010

Jason Mazzone wonders if the Obama administration will appeal the DADT ruling:

The November elections are 53 days away. Under Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the government has 60 days after the entry of final judgment to file a notice of appeal. The Administration can wait until after the elections to decide whether or not to appeal. It can take the position now that government lawyers are reviewing options. The Administration can then see where things stand after the November elections. If Republicans make significant gains in Congress (thereby making repeal of DADT less likely), the Administration can decline to appeal, thereby leaving Judge Phillips's ruling in place, with the hope that the failure to appeal won't get much political traction in 2012.

Weigel examines how Republicans have carved out the meaning of 9/11 for themselves:

Between the Palin/Beck event in Alaska, the launch of a new war-on-terror documentary (America At Risk: The War With No Name) produced by Newt Gingrich in Washington, a rally against the Park51 Community Center in New York City, and the made-for-cable idiocy in Florida, there is something new about the way the 9/11 anniversary is being played in 2010. … [Rick Lazio's] commercial on the topic is as subtle as a bazooka, with imagery of the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center as the background for his plea that "New Yorkers have been through enough." He's not dropping it as the holiday approaches, and he is one of many politicians holding events and fundraisers tomorrow—as if Sept. 11, 2010, were just another Saturday. If there's been a backlash, no one's noticed it.

How did we get from 9/11 as sacred day-of-no-politics to this? With a lot of hard work. For nine years, supporters of an aggressive approach to terrorism as a response to 9/11 worked to make sure that they owned the anniversary.

No party or faction or clique should own this anniversary – or exploit it crassly for political means. One reason this small government conservative cannot identify with the GOP is this kind of disgusting, dangerous, despicable demagoguery.

A reader writes:

I work for a multinational information and technology company in an office in the Midwest. We were originally a small local company serving local needs, and came to where we are today through a series of acquisitions by ever-larger corporations.

Last November, the company announced that our office would be closed at the end of this year. The news was a surprise to everyone. I don’t think anyone thought we would last forever, but I also don’t think anyone expected the end to come so soon. The company didn’t make this decision because our work wasn’t good enough. We were a solid business center making good money for them. Indeed, the company has gone out of its way to emphasize that this decision wasn’t a reflection on the people who worked here or the work they did. It was purely a matter of business. Of the roughly 150 people who worked here, about 130 are being let go. Most of their work is being sent overseas to India and the Philippines.

A few of us, including myself, have been lucky and landed jobs in other offices. Some will have to relocate to other cities, while others will telecommute. For those relocating, that means they have to sell their house in a depressed market in one of the most economically troubled regions in the country.

Over the course of the last year we’ve been training people in other offices and overseas to do our jobs. It has been very difficult watching as another group of people leaves each month and the office empties out.

Today there are probably about 40 people left. By the end of this month it’ll be half that. Once this office was noisy and bustling with activity. Today it’s dead silent, except for the sound of a few tapping keyboards. I could throw a football the length of our office and not even hit anyone. I just wish the whole process would have been faster. Dragging it out like this only compounds the misery.

I feel tremendously sad about all of this. It isn’t just that I have friends here. There are people I don’t particularly care for. But I know a lot about all of people I work with. I know who the smart ones are, and who the not-so-smart ones are. I know who the hard workers are and who the lazy ones are. I know which ones work well with other people and which ones don’t. I know people who are older, who have health problems, who have debt problems, who’ve worked here for decades and literally have no other marketable skills. I worry and wonder what they will do.

I never thought of my job as a sinecure, and I understand the company’s point of view. We live in a world where nothing matters more than keeping the stockholders happy. Cheap labor is good for business. The company has offered those people it’s letting go decent severance packages and outplacement services. That’s more than a lot of people get. So I can’t say that I feel particularly bitter.

You might as well be angry at the rain for falling down.

Ackerman reports on a new – and humane – interrogation technique.

"When you're sent to an image consultant and said that you look like a stripper and talk bad and you're hurting the campaign when, you know, there's a pregnant teen there, it does a little bit to your self-esteem," – Meghan McCain.

TNR warns about the greater implications of a loss for DC's incumbent mayor next week:

A Fenty defeat, which would really be a Rhee defeat, would deal an especially noxious blow to the national fate of education reform. That’s because we’ve arrived at a curious moment. Thanks to Barack Obama, the Democratic policy establishment and a handful of high-profile politicians have turned against what Steven Brill calls “the base of the base” of the party, the teachers’ unions. With the Race to the Top program, Obama has inspired a wave of unprecedented legislation in the states intended to hold teachers accountable for their classroom performance. Unions have understood the new political environment. Since they have assumed the inevitability of reform, they have largely acceded to the change and resigned themselves to merely shaping it at the margins. If Fenty loses, however, it would send the signal that reform is hardly inevitable.

The latest polling doesn't look good for the mayor, and he is desperately seeking Obama's endorsement. Max Fisher has more on the issue at the center of the race.

“These days… we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies,” – Livy.

The president today:

One of the things that I most admired about President Bush was after 9/11, him being crystal-clear about the fact that we were not at war with Islam.  We were at war with terrorists and murderers who had perverted Islam, had stolen its banner to carry out their outrageous acts.  And I was so proud of the country rallying around that idea, that notion that we are not going to be divided by religion; we’re not going to be divided by ethnicity.  We are all Americans.  We stand together against those who would try to do us harm. 

And that’s what we’ve done over the last nine years.  And we should take great pride in that.  And I think it is absolutely important now for the overwhelming majority of the American people to hang on to that thing that is best in us, a belief in religious tolerance, clarity about who our enemies are — our enemies are al Qaeda and their allies who are trying to kill us, but have killed more Muslims than just about anybody on Earth.  We have to make sure that we don't start turning on each other.

And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.  And as somebody who relies heavily on my Christian faith in my job, I understand the passions that religious faith can raise.  But I’m also respectful that people of different faiths can practice their religion, even if they don't subscribe to the exact same notions that I do, and that they are still good people, and they are my neighbors and they are my friends, and they are fighting alongside us in our battles.

"Over Anchorage, AK. Looking everywhere but can't see Russia from here. Will keep you updated as search continues," – Arnold Schwarzenegger.