Category: The Dish

The American Conservative is now attacking Petraeus as a "sycophant." I presume the Congress must rise to condemn them, no? Money quote from Andy Bacevich:

David Petraeus is a political general. Yet in presenting his recent assessment of the Iraq War and in describing the "way forward," Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes.

A reader writes:

What people may not realize is that the brutality of the Burmese military regime extends back not merely to 1988, but to 1962.  That was the year General Ne Win seized power, after which troops stormed the Rangoon University Student Union–a center of anti-colonial struggles in the 1930s and 1940s and a center for protests against the military coup–dynamited the building, and massacred between 100 and 150 students.

I should mention that I am taking all this quite personally.  My great-grandfather emigrated to Burma (from India) around 1910, and his descendants lived in Rangoon for 50 years–even during the Japanese occupation.  My father and all of his siblings were born there.  Being "foreigners," however, they were all kicked out when Ne Win took power.  So we have been nursing a decades-long grudge.  I suppose I should thank the Burmese military–I would not have been born in the US without them.

Although I despise Bush, I have to confess admiration for his unequivocal statements against the junta and in support of the protesters.  It’s more than can be said for Russia, China, and India.  One should expect this kind of thing from Russia and China I suppose, but India, the nation which invented modern civil disobedience, should know better.

Here’s a useful primer on Burmese history. The Dish’s most recent coverage of the Saffron Revolution can be found here and here. Check this Burmese blogger for the latest.

Two words:

Thirsty autos. The more I write about biofuels the more I am convinced that there is an elephant in the room that no one is acknowledging. The elephant is automotive fuel economy.

There is no point using expensive grain to make a gasoline extender if its just going to poured into inefficient autos and burnt. Robert Rapier said at the end of last year fuel ethanol is boondoggle.

That doesn’t apply to all biofuels, but when you look at the potential gains in green house gas reduction, compared to the savings that could be made by making cars a little more efficient, you have to wonder where people’s priorities are.

Vanity Fair and David Margolick present a historical, photographic web-essay on the integration of Little Rock.

Marc Ambinder parses John Edwards’ decision to accept public financing.

A protesting Buddhist monk sheds tears for other monks arrested by police in downtown Rangoon, 26 September 2007. Police in junta-ruled Burma fired tear gas on about 1,000 protesters led by Buddhist monks as they started a march from a landmark Rangoon pagoda 26 September, witnesses said. AFP/Getty. The latest from Burma here, here and here.

A reader writes:

I just saw Barack Obama speak in Washington Square – and I was underwhelmed.

Obama spouted cliches at the crowd: Hope, Optimism, A Better America. You could tell that people wanted to like him, but he wasn’t giving people a reason to connect with him.

What Obama is missing is what Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton knew — or actually, what they were: they saw issues not as abstract ideas or slogans, but as people. The high point of Obama’s speech was an anecdote about a day he spent shadowing an SEIU health care worker. He talked about her pride and her pain, her fears and her dreams. He made "hope" concrete – not an idea, but a person.

Obama can only win if he makes this connection with people, empathizing with their hopes, and telling the stories that show what kind of a person he is. His biggest strength is his personality. Nobody actually likes Hillary — they may think she’s strong or effective, but she isn’t winning on empathy. The media has succeeded in killing off Edwards’s chances, too: whenever he tries to empathize, they call him a hypocrite. Obama’s the only one who can embody ordinary America like Reagan did, like Clinton did, like FDR did…and someone needs to tell him, quick.

Pinker-bait: are memories formed in early childhood "lost," or is it that we don’t have the words to express them?

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act may be unraveling in the Congress because of the inclusion of transgendered people in its protections.

A screed against restroom hand-dryers. My feelings entirely. Larry Craig may feel differently. They’re great white noise.