The Dish

A reporter in Rangoon, Burma examines the situation:

The Burmese Minister for Planning and Development read out a speech in which he said the government was in control of the situation, that aid relief and money from abroad were welcome but that it would only be distributed by the military.

So nothing had changed after all. That doesn’t surprise the Burmese lawyer whose flat at the edge of the city has turned into Rangoon’s true news center. Burmese journalists and regime critics meet here, as do a few Western journalists. They had already come here five months ago when thousands of monks demonstrated in Rangoon. The lawyer shows us photos from corpses in the delta taken by Burmese photographers. He’s forbidden to publish them.

He says the cyclone chose a good time to strike Burma. Now the world is looking at Burma, and not just Tibet. We have a chance too now, he says — what the Olympic Games are doing for Tibet, the failure of the junta after Nargis is doing for Burma, cynical though that may sound. We just have to seize the opportunity, he says. We ask him how. He shrugs his shoulders, and looks as exhausted as he did last October, shortly after the junta stopped the monks’ protests.

McCain’s new ad on climate change:

Ace Of Spades:

Boy, I am glad I live in NY and don’t have to feel bad about not voting for the guy, even against Obama.

Allahpundit:

Why on earth is he campaigning on this issue in the first place? His ad budget’s going to be tighter than Obama’s, needless to say, and this isn’t something voters care enough about vis-a-vis the economy and Iraq to warrant the expense. If anything, it’s going to lose him votes by alienating the base.

Kudlow:

Oh my gosh.

A reader writes:

At what point does the wingnut Republican base become so politically undesirable that the Republicans will do something about it?

 

When does the GOP make the deal that says, OK we’ll give you common sense drug laws, Civil Unions, non-hate-based immigration rhetoric, separation of Church and state, acknowledge climate change, show reasonable efforts at gun control, and make our case to America on limited government, balanced budgets and the Powell Doctrine?  Send the Falwell/militia wing packing to form their own party, and let the grownups try to suss out the real problems

 

How much of the "base" would desert?  Would social moderation and basic common sense turn enough independents to make it worthwhile for them? 

It will happen. But it may take a couple of election cycles.

I posted at length on the good news, especially the progress against Islamism. So it behooves me to link to this depressing tale as well.

Dave Weigel covers the announcement:

The press corps wanted to know two things: Could Barr be stumped on any policy questions? Did he explicitly want to spoil the election for McCain? The answers were no and no, although Barr’s "spoiler" answer wasn’t entirely credible. "The thought has never crossed my mind," he said. Well, sure it has. After the conference, Barr’s political adviser Russ Verney told me that Barr had tested the waters with an exploratory committee because he didn’t want to run if he couldn’t win. "There are substantial risks," Verney said. "We’re talking about alienating life-long friends. We’re talking about putting your credibility on the line." The main thing that would cause Barr to lose friends would be, of course, if he Nadered McCain.

Fallows watches state-controlled TV and reports. Interesting:

The coverage included a long segment of premier Wen Jiabao reading a speech about his deep concern for the people of Sichuan, from aboard an airplane en route to the disaster scene. Background: after the country was paralyzed by unexpected snow storms in February, the leadership was criticized for a Katrina-like slowness in dealing with the problem. Prominent coverage now of the main officials responding immediately to this disaster.

She’s ten years’ old now and today, walking in the park, she killed a squirrel. She and her younger sister have chased plenty of rodents in their time – and a few seagulls in the flats of the Cape – but they always seem to lose interest at the very end of the chase. Not this time. Dusty was on the extendable leash and quick as a flash, she darted behind a tree. Eddy was on the other side, body low and pointed. A bay went up. I saw Dusty’s head shake, grabbed the leash and pulled her toward me. The poor little thing fell out of Dusty’s mouth, twitched its front paws in the dank grass and gazed at me with its little currant eye for a few seconds before going stiff. I stopped, a little shaken, but both beagles were already sniffing elsewhere, as if the little rodent were a stuffed toy with the squeaker removed or a plastic bottle with the cap chewed off, abandoned once finished with. What should I do? Bury it? Move it? But what would be the point?

I walked on in the rain. Dusty, I hardly knew you, did I?

Will Hutton pushes back against declinism:

It is this strange cocktail of argument, of plural institutions that check and balance, of investing in knowledge and of a belief that no problem can’t be fixed that underpins American strength. China is the only country in the world with a similar continental-scale economy and bigger population that conceivably could mount a challenge, but it has none of these institutions and processes. Despite its size, it has only three universities in the top 100, not one brand in the top 100, not one company in the world top 50 ranked by R&D and it registers virtually no patents.

Yes we can. Everything that is wrong in America can be countered with what is right in America. And the emergence of Obama on the left and McCain on the right is a sign of that. What’s needed is more intelligent and discerning patriotism – the kind that notices problems, flaws, failings and wants to set them right.

Calm down, guys. Calm down.

An unfortunate marketing slogan for the GOP – but a good drug, I’m told. Hey, if I were a Republican, I’d need some anti-anxiety meds as well.