Author: Andrew Sullivan

Yglesias thinks it makes sense to cut money from Medicare rather than slashing Social Security:

What’s more, if we’re going to cut spending on retirement programs then such cuts should be broadly shared and not exclusively inflicted on younger people. Such moves are both fairer and more credible. Last, if you want to cut Social Security benefits you should just cut Social Security benefits.

But the retirement age has in no way caught up with life expectancy in America. I agree that Medicare is the more urgent target. I just don't see why we can't cut Medicare and raise the retirement age, as well as reduce the more utopian elements of the Bush-Cheney extension of empire in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two days, two sectarian bombings that killed close to 60 people and wounded hundreds of others. If this had happened in any other country, it would be dominating the news cycle. There is still no post-sectarian government in Iraq and no sign of one either.

Gail Collins notes the creepiness of the joint statements by the parents of Tripp Johnston:

Johnston also told People that he hoped that the Palins would “forgive my youthful indiscretion.” This does not really sound like something that would come from a high-school dropout who gave his son the middle name of Easton because that is his favorite hockey equipment company … Bristol responded to her ex-boyfriend’s statement with one of her own, saying that “part of co-parenting is creating healthy and honest relationships between the parents.” Also not the kind of word choice you normally hear from a 19-year-old.

It sure was a fun video. But a little context makes it less so. The street in Hebron they were dancing on is restricted to Jewish settlers, who make up just one percent of the town's population. The Palestinians who live on the street cannot leave their homes through the front doors because the Israeli occupiers welded their doors shut in 2000. Here's a video from B-Tselem showing how one woman has to clamber across a rooftop just to leave her house. She also claims she is the object of relentless harassment by the settlers, subsidized by you and me.

A pollster dust-up.

Andy Bacevich pulls no punches:

Obama’s supporters were counting on him to bring to the White House an enlightened moral sensibility: He would govern differently not only because he was smarter than his predecessor but because he responded to a different—and truer—inner compass. Events have demolished such expectations. Today, when they look at Washington, Americans see a cool, dispassionate, calculating president whose administration lacks a moral core.

The case for pragmatism, especially after the ideology-drenched years of Bush and Cheney, is a powerful one. On issues like the bank bailout (wildly successful) or health insurance reform (a messy but important advance) or balancing short term demand with long term austerity, we need pragmatism. But there are some areas where that instinct can come to seem unwise.

Sending young men to risk their lives is one of them; refusing to live up to core Geneva Conventions requirements – like investigating and, if appropriate, prosecuting those guilty of war crimes is another; ditto civil rights, where pragmatic politics is never enough. I have no reason to believe that the decision to elevate the Afghanistan war into the biggest gamble in nation-building and permanent occupation wasn't made in good faith. But the case for a face-saver like the failed "surge" in Iraq is far more persuasive in terms of domestic politics than it is in terms of strategic and military sense. And now Petraeus is in control, the war has total backing from the Washington establishment.

Which means young Americans will be dying in Afghanistan well into Obama's second term, if he has one.

A entirely content-free, argument-free, slogan-dominated, identity-politics-driven movement is afoot. Palin is leading it, as her new web ad demonstrates, even as Washington continues to deny that she has any larger political ambitions:

She has now neutralized the main threat to her, Levi. She has already neutralized the terrified press corps, who cannot and will not withstand far right bullying to expose the fraudulence and danger of this populist just-make-shit-up maven. In fact, they're more eager than ever to placate the far right.

When you combine a long, jobless recession, spiraling debt, and a world where all of American military power can no longer defeat even 500 Jihadists … you can see the appeal of this fantasy. At least I can. The nomination is hers to lose.

Will the price go down?

Froomkin was fired for opposing torture a little too passionately; Weigel was forced out because his private emails revealed he was not acceptable to the partisan right; Frum is cut off from conservative blogads funding; Moulitsas is barred from MSNBC for criticizing Joe Scarborough; and Octavia Nasr is fired for offending the pro-Israel lobby over a tweet expressing sadness at the death of a Hezbollah leader. Nasr subsequently elaborated on her tweet in a nuanced piece that ran on CNN.com. It reads like an honest piece of journalism to me. Money quote:

I used the words "respect" and "sad" because to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman's rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of "honor killing." He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.

That was still not enough; and she is let go after twenty years of work for CNN.

Notice a pattern here? We're all on notice, I guess. I'm extremely fortunate to work at a place where open exchange of views and ideas is valued, not penalized.