Month: June 2011

This is a classic:

So with the Palin-Trump summit meeting, we got an indication of who she is — and, I hasten to add, it’s not only a negative indication, even for those of us who are unimpressed with Trump. Sure, on the negative side, she’s saying, I’m impressed with Donald Trump. Not a good sign in a potential president. But, on the positive side, she’s saying, Yeah, I’m impressed with Donald Trump — you got a problem with that, Mr. East Coast MSM Intellectual? And that, I think, shows a level of comfort with herself that we would like a president to have.

On balance, the fact that she likes Trump makes me less likely to support her. But she’s being true to herself, and helpful to the electorate, by being straightforward about who she is and where she’s coming from. And in politics, that’s no small thing.

So all is forgiven as long as she is telling "Mr East Coast MSM Intellectual" where to get off. That presumably includes George Will and Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg and Ross Douthat and anyone with a brain and a conservative political disposition. This is not a politics. It's an attitude. And there is a distinction between an intellectual who grasps some core elements of the conservative disposition and those who really do think their solutions are always preferable to others less educated than they are. Palin is undoing the legacy of Buckley. While NRO finds specious reasons not to oppose her with the tenacity and clarity the magazine once mustered against charlatans and populists of her ilk. The best you'll get is Jonah.

My Visual Diary from joehollier on Vimeo.

(Hat tip: Maria Popova)

In the latest poll, the public is almost two-to-one against turning Medicare into a voucher system for private health insurance designed to provide less than the cost of healthcare. One senses a political tectonic shift toward the Dems, and, even more worrying for the right, a split right down the middle of the GOP:

"A majority of all demographic groups don't favor the GOP Medicare proposals," Holland adds. "That includes conservatives – 54 percent of them don't like the plan. As a result, rank-and-file Republicans are split right down the middle, with 48 percent favoring the GOP plan and 50 percent opposed."

Good news for the Democrats. But until the Dems propose a serious alternative to rein in Medicare's costs, bad news for the country.

Alex Massie calls her the "most effective political troll of our time":

[A]ssuming that celebrity is now an important part of Palin Inc, running carries a risk too. What if she loses? (When she loses, that is.) Defeated primary candidates are washed-up every four years and most of them are almost never heard from again. Palin may belong in a different category but her appeal, to some extent at least, rests on the myth that she and all she stands for were betrayed by John McCain and his dastardly advisors.

A writer at the New Yorker, who is "in Syria and is remaining anonymous for security reasons," reports on the situation in the country:

[W]hen it was dark, the government’s artillery barrage came. Not all of parts of Homs were hit, but the sound kept everyone in the city awake. We heard shooting and explosions through the night; we were sick and worried, with the same, single thought: Hama all over again! (Bashar Assad’s father killed thousands there, thirty years ago.) I had already heard from friends who had been arrested since the protests began, who told me about how they had been shot with electricity, hit severely, stripped naked, and deprived of sleep.

When the morning came, we realized that the actual damage was not as bad as it had sounded, even though there were painful losses (fifteen were killed in Homs that day, and many wounded). This seemed deliberate: the government had, for the moment, kept the casualties in Homs, as in other parts of the country that protested, below the level that might push other countries to intervene, while also making as much terrifying noise as possible. I had little doubt that even those who kept to their homes and never protested would be haunted by the sounds they heard for a long time. The goal was to restore a state of fear.

The homicide rate in America per 100,000 people:

Alex Tabarrok finds similar numbers for Europe. He zooms out:

The bottom line is that there has been a big and welcome decrease in homicide rates in Europe and America over the past several centuries. To put these numbers in perspective, however, note that the homicide rate in New Orleans today is 52 per 100,000 and in Detroit it’s 40 per 100,000 so even with a lower average there is lots of variation.

Brazil today is around 22 per 100,000 not too far from America in the 19th century. The homicide rate in El Salvador is 71 per 100,000, in Jamaica (!) 60 per 100,000 and in Honduras 67 per 100,000 — all higher than fifteenth century Europe. Thus, the past was a more violent place but not so violent as to be unknown to the present.

A large segment of readers is sick of all the Palin coverage, but dozens of readers are openly speculating about her candidacy. I guess we are typical of America. One writes:

I think Palin is going to continue this media circus, play coy about running, and build her branding as the voice of white working-class resentment right up to the GOP Convention in 2012. Then Romney/Pawlenty/Guiliani (whoever does the actual work of primaries and caucuses) will have no choice but to hold their nose and put her on the ticket. She gets an historic "title" and all the attention, but cunningly gets to avoid traditional debates, interviews, and policy speeches during the primary season. She wants to solidify the belief among the Republican Elites that she – and only she – can deliver this necessary segment of the base.

Another writes:

As I understand it, SarahPAC is funding this bus tour, which technically means it is a political adventure – no matter her protestations that it's just a lively family American historical tour. I don't believe political action committees are legally able to fund private family vacations. So the proof, so to speak, is in the pudding.

My point is it would be nice for journos of any standing to address the obvious. The bus tour is political theater paid for by a political action committee intended to solicit and rally political support for a candidate. Period. Palin is running already.

Another:

It just dawned on me: she's running for the Tea Party nomination, which, given TP antipathy to Romney, she'll probably get. And maybe even keep her gig on Fox, claiming (in court, if necessary) she needs it to compete with the major party nominees.  If she wins, Fox would be able to run its own candidates for office.  If she loses, she rides a wave of Tea Party resentment to blockbuster ratings and more millions.

Another:

Needless to say, I'm not a fan. But you know what? If she's the one who's gutsy enough to buck the GOP and run on a 3rd party (Tea Party or whatever) ticket, then more power to her. I hope that she up-ends the hell out of things.  Just because the Dems and GOP who maneuvered themselves into a position where they have a stranglehold on electoral politics doesn't mean that arrangement has to continue unabated forever.

Another:

In Ancient Greek, "palin" means "again," or "once more." Maybe she just doesn't have a choice here.

Michael J. Totten visits Israeli settlers surrounded by Palestinians in Hebron, in the West Bank:

What the Israeli military calls the “sterile zone” was once a vibrant ancient city. Today, it looks like a ghost town, as though everyone had been driven out by a violent catastrophe, which is pretty close to what happened. These streets are in Hebron’s old city, a part of town that would overflow with thousands of tourists and pilgrims from all over the world if it weren’t a slum made hideous by hatred and war. …

Because Hebron, historian Yaacov Lozowick wrote, “is what happens when Israelis and Palestinians agree to divide a city, but can’t agree to live together in peace. The blame for lack of peace is irrelevant: each side will doubtlessly say it’s all the fault of the other, but the result won’t be any nicer thereby. The myriads of observers, pundits, politicians, dreamers, visionaries and true believers who all know for a certainty that dividing Jerusalem is the key to peace in the Middle East need urgently to visit Hebron.”

Really? Is Lozowick equating the ancient religious mix in Jerusalem with the results of the settlement policy? Hebron's liveliness was killed not because it was divided but because the settlers decided it was theirs' and had the might of the Israeli government to turn the place into a war-zone/ghost town. To say assigning blame is irrelevant is in this case bizarre. And in the context of a comprehensive agreement, partition can surely work better. Because partition is the only way to resolve this.

But partition, as we now know, is not even among the worst options for the current Israeli government. They are adamantly, passionately for Greater Israel for ever. And the US Congress is foursquare behind them.

Will Davies fears for the future:

These are men of focus groups, Clinton-esque handshakes, drinks parties and interviews on sofas. But they then discover that they control submarines, bombs, and warships. … For a young Tony Blair or David Cameron to discover the military must be like moving into a trendy new condo appartment, and discovering that someone has left a ouija board in one of the cupboards. At first, you shut the door in horror. But eventually you’re going to become curious about what it might do for you.

This is the danger of discovering death, destruction and killing only after one becomes Prime Minister.