Fascism was quite respectable in the upper classes of American and British society during the 20s and 30s. Some even called it a natural evolution of Capitalism. Most agreed it was preferable to Communism. In the 30s all the big players were making deals with the Nazis. Standard Oil, IBM, Dow Chemical, Union Carbide, and Ford were just a few of the major manufacturers who counted the Nazis as friends. This changed after Pearl Harbor. We were at war.
The Germans were not stupid. They learned in WWI that any assets held in America could be seized in time of war. That's why the German cartel of I.G.Farben set up I.G.Suisse. It allowed them to protect all their holding in Allied countries by transferring them to a corporate entity in neutral Switzerland.
Now you know one reason why Switzerland was never invaded by the Nazis.
With that as background, you can see how truly amazing it would be if anyone had the balls to continue doing business out in the open with the Nazis after Pearl Harbor. Speaking of which, I think George has some big balls to start talking trash about Nazi appeasers. Apparently that runs in the family ...
Ima Notherhoare slipped into her Manolo Blahniks, looked in the mirror and smiled. Admiring herself in the mirror was the closest she got to self-reflection. Self-reflection was an occupational hazard in her line of work. That way led madness...
Domestically, we lament the death of political discourse and lose our bearings over sound bites. It could be worse. Instead of going to war over a lie, we could go to war over a phone system.
A private telephone network built by the Shiite Hezbollah organisation is at the centre of a political storm that has brought Lebanon perilously close to a new civil war.
I'm not making this up. I'm not that creative. Remember that Israeli assault on Lebanon a couple years ago? You know, the one that Israel basically lost. You know why they lost? You're not going to believe this...
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said about 10,000 workers joined the anti-war protest, in part because, the union argues, that big shipping companies are profiting from the war.
Don't expect to see that headline on Google, Yahoo, New York Times, or Washington Post. Never mind half of US waterborne trade ground to a halt. Nothing to see here... economy turning around...outrage dimming... candidate diary coming up.
I'll be honest. I'm embarrassed to learn there were at least 3 other postings about this here and all got hardly any notice. Is Olbermann right there is a "dimming of outrage" or have we finally become masters of Ars Oblivionalis, the Art of Forgetting?
Mark Antony: For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men-
-- Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II
The media manipulation painting David Petraeus as The Next Statesman/Warrior® is in full swing. You gotta admire the spinmeisters for their effort, if nothing else. Even Deepak Chopra has weighed in with an article on Huffington Post that features this jaw-dropping opening:
No one could fail to notice how honorable a soldier Gen. David Petraeus is, and that includes committed opponents of the Iraq War. What made his latest testimony on Capitol Hill so moving was its reminder that a warrior's best qualities -- valor, coolness under fire, loyalty, and patriotism -- are no small thing. In fact, they used to be the test of manhood.
Without any sense of irony, Chopra goes on to note that "War is where illusions go to die." Who knew Chopra, a licensed psychotherapist, would look so fetching in a Freudian slip? Now that he's let the cat out of the bag, let's examine this media-driven illusion of "honorable" David Petraeus...
Folks parsing the difference beteween 9% or 10% in PA simply miss the big picture.
By any metric you choose Clinton has already won more delgates,
more popular votes, and
more electoral votes.
It's not even close. This is testimony to Hillary's modesty she has not bragged about this more.
Here's the math: Counting all the popular votes to date, Obama has a mere 14,993,348 including Florida. By contrast, the total popular vote for Clinton is 44,909,806 + 13,916,781 for a total of more than 58 Million votes for Clinton! That doesn't include Florida, Michigan or any other state that voted for Clinton in 1996!
Call me a troll if you like, but I say Clinton earned those votes. They were fairly counted. No one contests them. Dare to argue and I will include the 1996 votes as well. Then I will savor the sweetness of your bitter tears!!!!
If frustrates me how often people buy into the Republican meme that Carter was the "worst President" in history. We know that is not true. It wasn't true then either. One can fault the man for micromanagement and other matters, but the truth is he injected Human Rights into the arena of international diplomacy in such a way that even Reagan and Bush have to at least pay lip service to the concept. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall Nixon, Ford, Johnson, or Kennedy making Human Rights a cornerstone of their foreign policy.
Nixon mentioned it in his acceptance of the Republican nomination in 1960, but he is really talking about what later became known as Civil Rights. Carter put it in his inaugural address:
Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.
People mocked Carter at the time for that decision. Kissinger was particularly disdainful. Recently, Carter was labeled a "traitor" by "supporters of Israel" for meeting with Hamas. Israelis should be glad he has thick skin...
When the Pope takes the time to sit down and personally deliver an encyclical explaining the purpose of a pending historic visit, you know he is picking his words carefully. Fortunately, we are blessed with modern technology that enables all of us to listen directly to what he is saying without depending on any self-appointed media clerics as intermediaries.
Prior to his departure, he delivered a Message to the United States. In his encyclical he explained the theme of his visit:
Together with your bishops, I have chosen as a theme of this journey three simple, but essential words...
Tonight President Obama NAILED IT. The man had the audacity to take over the On Notice Board and put DISTRACTIONS on top in place of gunshot victim James Brady, leaving a stunned yet jubilant Colbert no choice but to sign off:
Good Night Philadelphia! We've told you how to think; now go vote!
Speaking of guns, it would be great if they had a combat veteran endorse him. Oh wait... is that Congressman Murphy of Pennsylvania? Isn't he the only member of congress to serve in Iraq? Who's he supporting? Obama? Well check that off our "To Do" list.
The only thing left would be to close the show with a giant visual of Barack Obama looming over Colbert and grinning. Oh wait.... they did!
On Notice and Nailed! That's a two-fer! What do they say about the best? Oh yeah...save the best for last!
Say "Good Night" Gracie. Good Night? Are you kidding? GREAT NIGHT!
As Passover approaches, some of you may hear references to "why is this [ fill in the blank ] different from all other.....? " type questions. It's a (usually humorous) reference to the 4 Questions asked at Passover Seders. Tradition has it the youngest child(ren) at the table have to answer them. It's a way of transmitting the oral tradition. The 4 Questions actually answer the Big Question: "Why is this night different from all other nights?"
This brings me to Jimmy Carter and his recent trip to Israel. Why is this trip different from all other trips? For starters, the only Israeli official who would meet with him was Shimon Peres. But the real corker was the Shin Bet, Israel's General Security Service, refused to protect him. That's a big difference from Bush's recent visit which featured 10,000 police officers deployed across Jerusalem in addition to the usual snipers, etc.
I'm no fan of the death penalty. However, some people are. For example, George Bush signed 152 death warrants while he was governor of Texas. This gives him the distinction of signing more death warrants than any other governor in US history. No extenuating circumstances stayed his hand.
Bush leaves no doubt he unreservedly supports the death penalty as meted out by the courts. In his book A Charge to Keep, he explained his 152 death warrants by saying, "I dont believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own." His unambiguous stance in support of executing convicted felons suggests he would support the Supreme Court extending the range of crimes punishable by death.
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will be asked to decide whether it's ok to execute someone for raping a child. Should they rule this a capital crime, it will set a precedent of particular interest in some quarters. After all, we know what happened in "Abooga Rape." Impeachment will be a slap on the wrist compared to the punishment waiting for Bush and the "NSC Principals" should they find themselves on the recieving end of these rulings.
Messer Leonardo da Vinci ... duly considering the certainty of death and the uncertainty of its time, has acknowledged and declared ... his testament and the declaration of his last will, as follows...
-- The Last Will and Testament of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1566
I have always admired the poetry of that line in Leonardo's Will. It certainly captures the situation of most mortals.
But what if the uncertainty was gone? What would you do if you knew you had six months to live? Would you run off to the Caribbean? Would you collapse into a never-ending pity party? Would you indulge yourself in the realm of the senses? Would it be all about you? In our current society that is how most folks would react. Fortunately for us, Randy Pausch is not like most folks.
There's a lot of speculation (with no supporting evidence) that Clinton's fall-back strategy is to savage Obama so badly that McCain wins. The justifying assumption being McCain will likely be a one-term president -- because of his age. I think he's got a bigger problem. Remember, how he needed a special life insurance policy to get the campaign loan because the lenders were concerned he might not survive the campaign?
We all know that folks talking politics occasionally let their emotions get the better of their judgment, but bankers talking about lines of credit have no use for emotions. They are only interested in actuarial tables and risk assessments. Looking at recent photos, I think they were less worried about his age than his cancer. Recent stories seek to downplay this possibility. However, I came across this interesting comment about his medical records...
Something about the media's myopic focus on the aftermath irks me. It's as if that was all there was to it -- rage and blind stupidity. The dour iconography of an eternally pensive Martin and representations of Coretta as perpetually mourning leave me frustrated as well. It's as if they were devoid of joy and laughter. How sad, to deny them that freedom. The freedom to smile and sing and dance and celebrate life. It's insult to injury. I never gave up on the dream; I'll be damned if I'll surrender the memories, either.
That is why it's particularly important to me on days like today, when we realize he's been gone longer than he was with us, that we remember it wasn't always tears...
Vehement [adj.] marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently;
synonyms: fierce, angry, violent
Fierce [adj.] marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently
synonyms: vehement, angry, violent
To the untrained eye, the two words certainly appear to mean the same thing. If you believe that, then you are obviously not qualified to parse the deeper meanings of our nuanced language. For that you need a journalist. Consider this latest dispatchfrom the NATO summit...
A recent diary by "jbou" painted Obama as old wine in new bottles. That isn't the first time someone has made that charge. LC Johnson was even more biting last month in his diary. Unlike Johnson's rant, jbou's diary got me thinking. If Obama really does lean left and he is savvy about the net... why hasn't he posted here? After all, at least ten percent of senators post here:
Dodd (3 times),
Schumer (4 times),
Edwards (4 times),
Durbin (7 times),
Webb (9 times),
Harken (10 times),
Boxer (10 times),
Kennedy (12 times),
Tester (16 times),
Kerry (24 times),
and
Feingold (28 times)
to name a few...
Heck, even former president Jimmy Carter (4 times) has posted here. Clinton, of course, has been conspicuous by her absence, but that is not surprising given the way things have played out this season.
So what about Obama? You may be surprised to learn he has posted here ...
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part the Second
I've started and stopped this essay several times. It's painful to write, and reading some of the comments, clearly painful to read. I'm sorry, but I keep coming back to it because something profoundly disturbing has happened. I'm talking about "stolen valor." Maybe "valor theft" is a better description. I'm not sure. Either way, those are fighting words among fighting men and women. They are also corrosive words that will burn and leave a mark long after the media spotlight moves on to the next shiny object. Here's why...
