Month: November 2010

Today on the Dish, Andrew considered Beinart's assertion that Wikileaks might be the Starr Report of American foreign policy. Marc Lynch kept an eye on Al-Jazeera, and we tracked more reactions to the document dump here, and here. Andrew countered Goldberg's rejoinder on Israel's interest in attacking Iran, and wouldn't let him chalk it up to anti-Semitism. Fallows pwned Douthat along similar lines, Wikileaks revealed what Netanyahu wants, Ben Smith covered Israel's own version of Fox News, and the human element remained an important part of the peace process. And Andrew shook his fist at the spousal diaspora that only the U.S. perpetrates.

Palin was grateful on Thanksgiving for being able to drag her kids around on her book tour, but Bernstein still didn't think America was buying it. FrumForum wrote her Alaskan Cliff Notes so you don't have to watch, and Palin could have stopped Wikileaks since she almost stopped her own book leaks. Andrew weighed in on whether Republicans were sabotaging the economy, and was grateful for the Muslim fathers concerned about their extremist sons. Brian Curtis sounded the alarms on possible immigration subcommittee chair Steve King, and we got the Prop 8 update here. An education was expensive, but not as expensive as the exorbitant amount we spend on defense. Ending the marijuana prohibition could provide training wheels for legalization, states might be able to declare bankruptcy, and Medicare was moving quickly towards unsustainability.

The Simpsons jabbed Fox News again, Hitchens found time in his busy schedule to battle Tony Blair, and congressmen cited the bible on climate change. Andrew opted for his bicycle over the new Chevy volt, Kid Rock was the Monkees of today, and Alan Jacobs didn't want to be interrupted. Underdog brands win, internet stunts can only take you so far, some films are meant to be spoilers, and humans can't walk a straight line. Bono got his Shut Up day in the sun, and we had more entries here, MHB parody here, and a Hathos Alert entry here.

America in one photo here, slowest news day of the 20th century here, map of the day here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.

–Z.P.

A reader writes:

April 11, 1954 sounds like the most wonderful day in history. I think it's worthy of a holiday. A day where everyone tries really hard to not do anything newsworthy. And we all make a collective effort to ignore the MSM. One can dream …

And look out the window.

(Window view from earlier today.)

The latest Pew survey finds Americans favor lifting the ban on gays in the military by 2 -1. Support is about the same as it has been for the past few years in the Pew poll at around 60 percent. Opposition is at a historic low: 27 percent. Every religious group favors lifting the ban save one:

Nearly half (48%) of white evangelical Protestants oppose letting gays serve openly in the military, while just 34% support this proposal.

In some ways, much of American politics is about just how much of a veto this group can exert over the rest of the country, and how determined the majority is to resist them. The good news is: the Senate GOP isn't entirely controlled by this faction yet. There is still a chance that Murkowski, Ensign, Collins and Lugar will let the commander-in-chief, defense secretary and military leadership have their way. If you really want to make a difference and any of these men and women are your Senators, contact them.

Jonathan Bernstein expands on this thought:

Rovism is a horrible political strategy for lots of reasons, but fundamentally it just can’t work.  Oh, one can get elected anyway; political strategy isn’t important enough that it can sink all that many candidates.  But it is a reason, maybe the reason, that Republicans have been, for a long time, the natural minority party in the United States: they are willing to dismiss large chunks of the population — of American citizens — as not real Americans.  Not all Republicans, not all the time, but plenty of them, including their leaders, enough of the time. 

Sarah Palin is the candidate of those Republicans, the Republicans who either believe in “real America” or are willing to exploit those who do.

Can you imagine Sarah Palin ever saying that there is no red America and no blue America, but just America? Can you imagine her ever discussing her opponents without a sneer?

Airplane remains one of a handful of movies I would take with me on a desert island. But somehow this clip is one Nielsen himself might have been proudest of.

A South Korean soldier looks on after scheduled military exercises were cancelled due to inclement weather at Mallipo beach on November 29, 2010 in Taean, South Korea. South Korean and American military forces began war games exercises Sunday, as tensions between the two Koreas remain high following an artillery exchange on the disputed island of Yeonpyeong on November 24. By Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images.

Bmaz at Empty Wheel sizes up the judges who will hear the Prop 8 appeal:

The bottom line is, early odds are on a 2-1 decision upholding Judge Vaughn Walker’s fine decision in Perry. The one stumbling block, of course, is the issue of standing, and on that I still have some concern that [Judge Mike] Hawkins, who can be a stickler on procedural details, might align with [Judge N. Randy] Smith to hold that there is no standing on the appeal. So, while there are still problems with the standing issue and therefore there should be no premature wild celebrations today, it is nevertheless a very favorable panel the Perry appeal has drawn. For that, there should be some joy.

Bruce Bartlett continues to attack the theory. His bottom line:

Starve the beast is a crackpot theory, and its flip side that higher taxes invariably feed the beast is no better. They are just self-serving rationalizations for Republican budgetary irresponsibility.

A reader writes:

Of Disney's animated feature films, that list leaves out at least two:

Victory Through Air Power (1943)
Song of the South (1947)

Probably not an oversight.

Joe Posnanski describes a certain kind of Hollywood plot:

How many movies would you say you KNEW the ending before it happened? I'm not talking about you figuring out the ending of Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects or Memento or whatever (good for you, Nostradamus). No, I'm talking about movies that are essentially made with the premise that you will know the ending. You know the killer will die. You know the guy and girl will get together. You know the planet will be saved. You know the home team will win. You know George Clooney will end up in a tuxedo. You know the castaways will not get off the island.

You know because you are supposed to know, the director expects you to know, the producer expects you to know, the actors essentially act like you know … KNOWING is part of the experience. This is why sometimes you will hear people, when asked about a movie, say something like: "Oh, well, it was predictable, but it was still pretty good." There is in some of us a capacity to not only like a predictable movie, but like it BECAUSE it's predictable.