Rational Review » PND Commentary

The buck stops where?

Thomas L. Knapp — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:24:08 +0000

“This was a man who warned against nation building during the 2000 campaign, who said our foreign policy must be ‘humble,’ who seemed opposed to the Clinton administration’s interventionist foreign policy whether in partly humanitarian missions like Bosnia, or defensive strikes against Saddam Hussein in Iraq or Osama bin Laden in Sudan. Few people who voted for Bush thought he was gunning to be a war president, based on his campaign rhetoric, so it was an incredible bait-and-switch when he became one. In retrospect, though, it seems clear that he arrived in the White House surrounded by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other twisted neocons who were determined to topple Saddam Hussein given any excuse, or none at all.” (12/03/08)

Can Obama stay the course?

Steve Trinward — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:06:36 +0000

“I do so want to believe that Barack Obama is on the right track. His brain is big, his style fresh, his pronouncements both logical and compelling, and it does feel good to have a president-elect elicit universal respect rather than make the world cringe. Indeed, he’s downright inspiring when he defends constitutional restraint on the presidency and shuns torture. Bush is so yesterday, but imagine how panicked we would now be if John McCain and Sarah Palin were about to take a turn at the wheel. Yet, it all does hang on him. Yes, Obama. The superstar, and not that supporting cast of retreads from a failed past that have popped up in his administration in the making. Now that we have the list of his top economic and foreign policy picks … we’ve got to hope that it’s Obama who is using them, and not the other way around.” [editor’s note: If he hasn’t figured out by now how the tail wags the dog, as usual … Scheer is just not paying attention - SAT] (12/03/08)

A bigger shock may be coming

Steve Trinward — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:05:09 +0000

“It’s just two sentences, 30 words buried in the bowels of a police report. And now, national news. (The boy) told a CPS worker that when he reached one thousand spankings that would be his limit. (The boy) kept a tally of his spankings on a piece of paper. So wrote St. Johns police Sgt. Lucas Rodriguez, just a few days after a double-homicide that has brought national attention to a small town in the heart of the White Mountains. It’s not every day that an 8-year-old is accused of coming home from school and lying in wait to ambush his father and a second man. … But a bigger shock may be coming. If this kid did it, it may be the perfect crime. At worst, he’ll be locked up for nine years, until he turns 18. But it’s also possible that the boy could walk away — no jail time, no treatment. The problem: The criminal justice system is not designed to deal with 8-year-old killers. If, in fact, he is a killer.” (12/03/08)

With Detroit bailout, the Fed too invested to quit?

Steve Trinward — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:01:07 +0000

“I’m thinking of selling my shares of AIG. They’re just not performing the way the government promised when they purchased them on my behalf. Maybe I’ll get some shares of GM instead. Just as we taxpayers are the owners of some floundering financials, we may also soon own pieces of the Big Three car companies. The bailouts have been on everybody’s lips lately (perhaps second only to speculation about the Obama family dog). Whether for or against, both sides of the debate have been using slippery slope arguments to defend their view.” (12/04/08)

How will the media cover Obama?

Steve Trinward — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:56:37 +0000

“The morning after Election Day, like millions, I was filled with elation and hope. CNN let me feel that for about one hour. Then came its pundits. They warned of all the problems facing President-elect Barack Obama: the economy, threats from Pakistan, the desperate need for universal healthcare, global warming … all the things Bush ignored or denied for eight years. And they emphasized how Obama will have to … govern ‘from the center’ and not move ‘too far left’ the way Bill Clinton did. … Our deeply contradictory, image-over-substance, verbal food-fight-oriented news media.” [editor’s note: The reality of this is, when the GOP is in power, media “balance” comes from The Nation, The New Republic, Progressive, et alia; now the Dems have the throne, it will be interesting to see if Faux Snooze & Co. can regain their pre-Shrubbite critical faculties. (I learned this trick 20 years ago, while dating a confirmed socialist with a good bathroom-library!) - SAT] (12/02/08)

NAFTA critic selected for US trade rep

Steve Trinward — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:52:15 +0000

“Getting a U.S. Trade Representative who is on record against the NAFTA trade model and with votes against CAFTA and Oman is a huge change from both the Bush administration and the Clinton administration. And it’s not just a good pick because it’s a change from really bad Trade Representatives, the selection itself is good — and way, way, way better than what it could have been. The selection suggests Obama is serious about reforming our trade policies, and it should be applauded.” [editor’s note: Given the roster so far, he had to make a smart pick or two eventually - SAT] (12/02/08)

Meet the press

Thomas L. Knapp — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:35:11 +0000

“After holding four press conferences on four consecutive business days, Barack Obama took today off. (On the fifth day, as it is written, he rested. …) For those of us who dissect his every word, a day without a press conference poses a challenge. The solution is to turn our attention from figuring out what it means when he does speak to figuring out what it means when he does not. Since winning the election, Obama has sought the right balance between saying too much and too little. He’s saying, ‘Help is coming, we’re on our way.’ But since he can’t actually do anything yet, he’s quick to point out that ‘there is just one president at a time.’ This is good training for the balancing act he’ll face in office.” (12/02/08)

Obama’s first policy retreat?

Thomas L. Knapp — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:03:36 +0000

“Did Barack Obama just break his first campaign promise? On the campaign trail, Obama railed against big oil companies. He often criticized John McCain for backing tax cuts that would reward ExxonMobil and other top oil manufacturers. But now Obama’s proposal to apply a windfall tax on big oil has vanished … at least from his transition website. The President-elect’s transition team hasn’t explicitly announced it will drop the windfall tax plan, but a transition aide, commenting on the condition he not be identified, backed off the promise in an email. ‘President-elect Obama announced the [windfall profits tax] policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel,’ he said. ‘They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that.’” (12/02/08)

Total decarbonization: Our last shot to prevent runaway climate change

Thomas L. Knapp — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:38:42 +0000

“If it is now too late to prevent runaway climate change, the Bush team must carry much of the blame. His wilful trashing of the Middle Climate — the interlude of benign temperatures which allowed human civilisation to flourish — makes the mass murder he engineered in Iraq only the second of his crimes against humanity. Bush has waged his war on science with the same obtuse determination with which he has waged his war on terror. Is it too late? To say so is to make it true. To suggest that there is nothing that can now be done is to ensure that nothing is done. But even a resolute optimist like me finds hope ever harder to summon. A new summary of the science published since last year’s Intergovernmental Panel report suggests that — almost a century ahead of schedule — the critical climate processes might have begun.” (12/03/08)

The policies that ruined the auto industry

Steve Trinward — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:22:03 +0000

“A lot of people are angry at the Detroit Three automakers, including many members of Congress. And why not? GM, Ford and Chrysler seem still too bloated and old-fashioned, their workers too pampered. For too long the carmakers have failed to design and bring to market the smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles we now want to buy. Yet it is important to put the blame where it really belongs, not on management or labor, but on Congress. … The environment of law in which these companies had to operate in recent decades all but guaranteed their destruction. So many factors work against America’s manufacturers today — tax policies, monetary policy, the structure of metals markets — that it’s hard to figure out what to fix first.” (12/01/08)

With help from Congress, homeowners could rescue themselves

Steve Trinward — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:20:47 +0000

“The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve may need more than $700 billion to shore up bank balance sheets and restart the economy. So far, the ideas from Congress are doing nothing to improve the current dismal economic outlook. Instead of pouring capital into banks and trying to rescue homeowners who cannot meet their mortgage obligations, Congress can make a simple change to the tax code and let homeowners come to the rescue. … Homeowners held $11.2 trillion in mortgage debt at the end of June. They also held about $17 trillion in retirement assets … at the end of March. Unfortunately, these retirement assets are smaller now, but more unfortunate is that these assets cannot be used without penalty before reaching age 59-1/2, excepting hardship cases, first-time home buyers, and specific educational purposes. Congress should change these rules.” [editor’s note: As long as the “tax-code” persists, I’m for any change allowing people to control what’s theirs in the first place - SAT] (12/03/08)

Beyond the bailout state

Steve Trinward — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:18:45 +0000

“On a December day in 1932, with the country prostrate under the weight of the Great Depression, ex-president Calvin Coolidge — who had presided over the reckless stock market boom of the Jazz Age Twenties (and famously declaimed that ‘the business of America is business’) — confided to a friend: ‘We are in a new era to which I do not belong.’ He punctuated those words, a few weeks later, by dying. A similar premonition grips the popular imagination today. A new era beckons.” (12/01/08)

The unhealed wound of Kashmir

Steve Trinward — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:17:03 +0000

“If the twin towers of the World Trade Center seemed to symbolize New York, how much more does the storied Taj Mahal hotel, with its overwrought architecture and mock Mughal flourishes, symbolize the great, rambling city of Bombay, which the Indians now call Mumbai. When it was built in 1903 — the dream of Jamsetji Tata, who named it after India’s most enduring monument — it was the first building in Bombay to be lit by electric lights. Today the Tata Group is among India’s greatest industrial conglomerates with a worldwide reach, including Boston’s former Ritz.” (12/02/08)

The life-and-death cost of gun control

Mary Lou Seymour — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:35:30 +0000

“Banning guns is in the news. India practically bans guns, but that didn’t stop the horrific Muslim terrorist attacks this last week. A football player concerned for his safety violates New York City’s tough gun control regulations by carrying a concealed handgun, and people call for everything from banning NFL players from carrying guns to demanding that the athlete serve many years in jail. ‘When police can’t promise to protect law-abiding citizens such Plaxico Burress or the victims in India, why don’t we allow people the right to protect themselves?’ … In India, victims watched as armed police cowered and didn’t fire back at the terrorists.” (12/02/08)

Barack Obama’s kettle of hawks

Mary Lou Seymour — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:28:53 +0000

“When announcing his foreign policy team on Monday, Obama said: ‘I didn’t go around checking their voter registration.’ That is a bit hard to believe, given the 63-question application to work in his White House. But Obama clearly did check their credentials, and the disturbing truth is that he liked what he saw. The assembly of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Susan Rice and Joe Biden is a kettle of hawks with a proven track record of support for the Iraq war, militaristic interventionism, neoliberal economic policies and a worldview consistent with the foreign policy arch that stretches from George HW Bush’s time in office to the present. Obama has dismissed suggestions that the public records of his appointees bear much relevance to future policy. ‘Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost,’ Obama said. ‘It comes from me. That’s my job, to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing.’ It is a line the president-elect’s defenders echo often. The reality, though, is that their records do matter.” (12/02/08)

The Bush years: A look back

Thomas L. Knapp — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:15:35 +0000

Cartoon. (12/02/08)

Afghanistan, another untold story

Mary Lou Seymour — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:55:23 +0000

“Barack Obama is on record as advocating a military escalation in Afghanistan. Before sinking any deeper into that quagmire, we might do well to learn something about recent Afghani history and the role played by the United States. Less than a month after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, US leaders began an all-out aerial assault upon Afghanistan, the country purportedly harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist organization. More than twenty years earlier, in 1980, the United States intervened to stop a Soviet ‘invasion’ of that country. Even some leading progressive writers, who normally take a more critical view of US policy abroad, treated the US intervention against the Soviet-supported government as ‘a good thing.’ The actual story is not such a good thing.” (12/02/08)

A letter to Senator Kerry

Thomas L. Knapp — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:42:39 +0000

“Dear Senator Kerry, I was aghast to read your response to my email on the subject of requiring people to get Federal government approval to work. It is the sort of totalitarian policy I would expect from some right wing fascist dictatorship. I am especially stunned see a former nominee of the Democrat party send out a letter under his name defending such illiberal policies. Let us ignore the obvious peril of permitting someone like a Bush appointee telling employers whom they may or may not hire. Let us pretend that people will never be victimized by enemies withing the government. Instead, let us pretend that this law will not be abused. First, let us examine what you call an ‘illegal worker.’ I assume that you are not implying that people are somehow illegal. That notion hopefully died with the victory of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. I am sure that what you meant was that rather some people are working illegally, i.e. without your permission.” (12/02/08)

The uncampaign

Thomas L. Knapp — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:29:05 +0000

“Barack Obama’s first job as president-elect: to make people forget the campaign. More specifically, to make people forget all the mean things he said about his soon-to-be colleagues. More specifically still, to make people forget some, but not all, of the things he said. And to make sure people understand the context of the things they do remember.” (12/01/08)

Follow the money deep underground

Thomas L. Knapp — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:49:07 +0000

“The morning after a prayer vigil at Elouise Brown’s desert camp, I was awakened by the shaking of my tent. ‘Get up,’ one of her supporters whispered. ‘They’re blasting again.’ Goat stew bubbled by the campfire as billowy grey clouds rose from a dynamited pit at a nearby surface mine. Trucks roared past the camp, disappearing down a road dividing the desolate landscape. Groggy activists hopped in a pickup and followed. Their report back: Multinational company Sithe Global Power was drilling again to test for water sources deep beneath Navajo land, on a site where they hope to erect a controversial ‘clean coal’ power plant, called Desert Rock. ‘Clean coal’ sounds promising, but to Brown, a 46-year-old Navajo woman some call ‘El Gore,’ there’s no such thing,” (12/02/08)