Month: December 2010

Doug Mataconis counters Dave Weigel:

This is in many ways the same position the GOP was in after the 1994 elections. While there were many factions in the new Republican majority, they were united in opposition to President Clinton and in the goal of defeating him in 1996. It wasn’t until after the `96 election, and the disaster that was the Bob Dole campaign, that the fissures in the GOP began to reassert themselves. I suspect that this phenomenon will be even more pronounced this time around as opposition to Obama becomes the central theme of the conservative talking heads on Fox News Channel and talk radio, but there’s another factor in play that could end up setting off a Republican civil war sooner rather than later.

Unlike 1996 when Bob Dole was the clear heir apparent for the GOP nomination, the race for the 2012 Presidential nomination is as wide-open as the 2008 race was, perhaps even more so. The fight for the nomination, which in some sense has already begun in earnest, is likely to be long and potentially divisive, especially if a certain former Governor from a certain northern state throws her hat in the ring …

Joel Wing worries about the quality of Iraq's police force:

By at least 2020 the Iraqi government plans on transferring internal security of the country from the army and Defense Ministry to the Interior Ministry. That poses the question of whether the Iraqi police are up to the task. In October 2010 the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction (SIGIR) conducted an audit of the American police training effort. It found that the U.S. had always focused upon the number of officers it could produce rather than whether they were competent or not. The mission also lacked continuity, coordination, long-term planning, and effective measures of success. There’s no telling whether the police will be ready then by 2020.

From Adam Serwer, who vents:

Exactly 1 percent of terrorism-related cases end in acquittal. That's so low as to be genuinely disconcerting. Except for conservatives, who presumably think that number is far too high and proves we should be using military commissions.  

Douthat takes this insight on Wikileaks' grand strategy to its logical conclusion:

The hyperbole of certain Republicans notwithstanding, Assange is not a terrorist. But he has this much in common with al Qaeda: In response to what they perceive as the inherent injustice of the American empire, both the jihadis and the Australian anarchist are willing to take steps that they know will make the United States more imperial in the short term — in Al Qaeda’s case, acts of terrorism that inspire American military interventions in the Muslim world; in Assange’s case, information dumps that inspire ever-greater secrecy and centralization in the federal bureaucracy — in the hopes that the system will eventually collapse under its own weight and “more open forms of governance” (or, I suppose, a global caliphate) can take its place.

The problem, though, is that the American national security state is almost certainly more resilient than either Assange or Osama bin Laden seems to think. Which means that their efforts at sabotage have little chance (by design) of prompting any actual reforms in the system they despise, a vanishingly small chance of actually bringing the whole thing to its knees — and a substantial chance of just making life worse for everybody, inside and outside the United States government alike.

Ezra Klein calls out the GOP:

Republicans have … made their approach to bipartisanship clear: It's a useful tool in service of their agenda, not in service of compromise. They used meetings to delay action on the tax cuts and are now using the time they wasted as a reason to obstruct action on everything else. They have prioritized shows of power and partisanship over negotiations and governance. 

The DEA recently announced that is it going to ban cannabis substitutes like K2 and Spice. Scott Morgan doesn't think that this will stop use:

K2/Spice possesses one unique characteristic that ensures its survival: it will remain an effective option for getting high and still passing a drug test. Drug screening products allegedly capable of identifying the unique compounds contained in K2/Spice are beginning to enter the market, but an industry-wide overhaul incorporating new technology will be far too costly to implement in an organized or efficient manner. 

Morgan's larger point:

Once the ban takes effect, police will be confronted with a potent, odorless, and easily concealed substance that's suddenly commanding high prices in the pot market. As distribution is pushed underground, new and more dangerous forms will emerge and the familiar horrors of prohibition will be exhibited before our eyes yet again, as another drug that was never meant to exist establishes a permanent foothold in the illicit market. Whatever unpleasantness arises from all of this will owe its origins entirely to the mindless war on marijuana, and it's truly the height of irony that K2/Spice will soon be subjected to the same failed prohibition policy that made it popular in the first place.

(Photo: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

Steve Kornacki isn't ready to write Bloomberg off just yet:

[I]f, come early '12, the economy is still stuck in neutral and the GOP is poised to nominate a polarizing, Palin-ish nominee, there will be … room — at least initially — for a third-party candidate. In that environment, Bloomberg might fare better than 11 percent. When Perot's name first began circulating in late February and March of 1992, he barely cracked double-digits in national polls; but the idea of a third option quickly caught on, and by May he was leading Bush and Clinton in three-way polls. Bloomberg is more broadly known now than Perot was in early '92, but plenty of Americans haven't yet formed an opinion of him — so he does, at least potentially, have room to grow.

Weigel differs:

Insofar as Americans want a third party candidate, they want one who will tackle issues that both parties are, in Washington, to their left on — immigration, spending cuts. And Bloomberg is to the left of Congress on those issues. So why support him?

We've never done this before in our decade of existence, although we've been asked many times by readers. But on our tenth anniversary, we decided we'd try and put together some t-shirts for Dish readers to wear with pride. The reason we kept putting this off is because we didn't want the usual CafePress-style (no offense) online merch. We wanted something that would be a much higher quality, would last much longer, and would be subtle and cool. We wanted something, in other words, worthy of our readers – not crude personal advertizing, but subtle, beautiful and fun to wear for anyone, Dish-addict or non-Dish-addict. So we asked the fashion company, Rogues Gallery, to come up with some designs. And they did.

We think they're awesome. Check them out for yourself.

RG t-shirts are vintage shirts, hand-printed, repurposed and redesigned. They last for ever, are extremely comfortable and easy to wear, and look, well, they even make me look well turned out. The main reason I love them so much – they don't shrink. That Atlantic t-shirt I was wearing for Big Think? RG classic. I've bought many over the years and it's a thrill to have three custom-designed for us. They're more expensive than most t-shirts, but once you wear one, you realize why. Always comfortable, always cool, wearable anywhere, hand-printed in Rogues' Gallery's Portland, Maine, workshop, they're classics.

To see them up close, go here. They're a limited edition, sales were brisk today and we have no idea what the demand will be, so don't delay if you want the first ever Dish merchandise in time for the holidays.

The designs themselves are really subtle and retro and stylish. Two will only resonate with other Dish readers (a kind of beagle whistle to one another if you see them in public) – but if you share the basic philosophy of being "of no party or clique," they work as as a general t-shirt design anyway. I'm particularly fond of the middle one with the howling hound. Beagles are our patron canine, after all.

Wear them with pride as Dish readers; or if one of your friends or family-members is a Dish fanatic, buy them one as a gift for the holidays. Better still, buy all your Dish friends a t-shirt.

And a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Blessed Kwanzaa, and Super Holidays from all of us here.

[Re-posted from earlier today.]

Today on the Dish, Andrew raged against the dickishness of the GOP and the prospect of a failed DADT repeal. Andrew skewered Douthat on the idea that during W's reign the right showed anything like the integrity of the left under Obama. And in another round with Goldberg, Andrew cited a recent poll on what Arab countries really think of a nuclear Iran, to demonstrate that these countries aren't really aligning with Israel.

On Wikileaks, Andrew argued Julian Assange is a red herring for a new era in internet culture, and that it has helped expose torture by the U.S. government. Aaron Bady pointed to the real damage done by Wikileaks, by hindering the government's own internal ability to communicate. Karim Sadjadpour pondered a democratic Iran, Kristol wanted to whack Wikileaks, and Matt Welch called him "flippantly authoritarian." Drum simmered down the partisan sniping, and Robert Gates shrugged.

Andrew was moved by Palin on Trig's future adult life, and wondered about the whereabouts of the anti-Palin brigade. Frum would settle for a Romney-Huckabee ticket, and Allahpundit insisted Palin wins the Huckabee followers if he doesn't run. The Fiscal Commission released their final proposal, and the next leak was aimed at a big bank. Bernstein defended why deficits don't matter politically, but Andrew wouldn't totally excuse it. We parsed Mike Pence's speech on economics, the housing bubble was still popping, and AGs waged ideological warfare. Andrew sang his own tribute to World AIDS Day, and it wasn't his offer to "die digitally." Gregory Johnsen didn't think killing Al-Awlaki was going to solve the problem of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Dish readers divulged their own spousal diaspora tragedies, and defended Lennon's "Imagine." Ryan Avent pined for an American version of the British pub, and movie spoilers are as old as Greek tragedies.

Cool ad watch here, fails of November here, MHB here, Malkin award here, 2010 in photography here, Yglesias award here, VFYW here, FOTD here, and your Dish Christmas guide here.

–Z.P.

Allahpundit wonders:

Palin’s the big winner. She takes 34 percent of [Mike Huckabee's] supporters as a second choice compared to just 19 percent for Gingrich and 17 percent for Romney. That’s a considerable spread, to the point where I wonder if there aren’t some establishment anti-Palin Republicans out there suddenly getting very nervous at the thought that Huck might not run and that social conservatives will unite behind Palin. They’re going to need a stalking horse to bleed some of those votes away from her. But who, if not Huck?