Month: August 2010

by Eric Martin Megan McArdle, to her credit, makes a go at an updated mea culpa for her position on the Iraq war.  One of the reasons cited for her, admittedly, flawed decision to support the war seems a bit odd, however: I erroneously believed that I could interpret the actions of Saddam Hussein.  He seemed to be acting … Read more

by Eric Martin Edward E. Curtis IV has a useful summary of facts/myths surrounding mosques in the United States (via).  In one portion, he comments on Sharia law (a topic of some concern on this site in recent weeks): In Islam, sharia ("the Way" to God) theoretically governs every human act. But Muslims do not … Read more

by Eric Martin Yet another post-mortem of the housing bubble and subsequent bank meltdown that debunks the conservative theory that loans to poor minorities/Fannie and Freddie was the culprit in any meaningful way: The wave of housing price increases was kicked off by changes in private label securitization. These changes left Fannie and Freddie with a … Read more

by Eric Martin The New York Times has a piece highlighting one aspect of the pointlessness of our ongoing slog in Afghanistan: The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American officials. Mohammed Zia … Read more

by Eric Martin Now that the dust has settled regarding Jeffrey Goldberg's much anticipated, and much discussed, article on Israel's plans to launch a war with Iran (or, better yet, have the United States do the favor), I must say that despite the charges leveled against Goldberg – even from myself on occasion (propagandist, likudnik, … Read more

by Eric Martin This should come as no surprise, despite the heated rhetoric: the stimulus bill…stimulated the economy!  Alas, though it was not big enough, it was better than the alternative (as offered by the GOP, which was no stimulus, or a much smaller package consisting entirely of tax cuts): The oft-criticized stimulus plan boosted the … Read more

by Jacob Davies This letter from Berkeley professor Michael O’Hare to his students is so good I’m just going to include it in full here: Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, … Read more

by Eric Martin A few weeks back, Bret Stephens took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to issue the latest iteration of what is a recurring hawkish argument in favor of continuing the war du jour (in the present example, Stephens is arguing for prolonging the longest war in US history - the war in Afghanistan): The U.S. … Read more

by Jacob Davies There was a long and widely-discussed piece in the NY Times Magazine on Sunday about the increasing tendency of 20-somethings to move back in with their parents, to fail to find a solid job, and to delay getting married or having children. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s … Read more

by Eric Martin Nicholas Kristof is very good on the Park51 project, and the strategic, historical and cultural significance of the wider controversey: Is there any doubt about Osama bin Laden’s position on the not-at-ground-zero mosque? Osama abhors the vision of interfaith harmony that the proposed Islamic center represents. He fears Muslim clerics who can … Read more

by Jacob Davies This is why I read Matthew Yglesias, even though he was wrong about the Iraq war: I was 21 years old and kind of a jerk. Being for the war was a way to simultaneously be a free-thinking dissident in the context of a college campus and also be on the side … Read more

by Jacob Davies What was I saying about no crawling? Yeah, that didn’t last. Crawling, standing… nothing is safe any more. I’m not saying everyone should go have a baby right now… but I am saying this is the most fun I’ve ever had. Anyway, an open thread.

by Eric Martin Andrew Bacevich has an interesting piece on the the ways in which the military has asserted itself in recent decades, and become somewhat independent of civilian leadership, despite the illusion of civilian control maintained for popular consumption.  Along the way, he makes a good point about the selective outrage concerning leaks: …With President … Read more

by Eric Martin The more information that emerges about the Cordoba Initiative, and its leaders, the more absurd the opposition to the Park51 project, and the vitriol directed at Imam Faisal Adul Rauf becomes.  First, it was revealed that Rauf and his wife are dedicated to promoting women's rights, and melding modernity with Islam from an interfaith framework - … Read more

by Eric Martin Matt Yglesias, merciful soul that he is, looks past Howard Dean's disappointing statements on the Park51 project and, instead, praises Dean's courage and prescience during the run-up to the war in Iraq.  Quoting Dean: My question is, why not use our information to help the UN disarm Iraq without war? Secretary Powell’s recent presentation at … Read more

by Eric Martin Glenn Greenwald makes an interesting observation: The New York Times, in June, detailed that proposed mosques in multiple locales in New York City — far away from the Sacred, Hallowed Space of Ground Zero — are provoking similar backlashes.  Two weeks ago, Yahoo News reported on similar incidents from around the country.  These are the real … Read more

by Jacob Davies I’m looking at this Cordoba House business and I really cannot endorse the United States as guarantor of global freedom* if we’re going to run things this way. Aren’t there some aliens that can step in or something? This is the stupidest thing since Terri Schiavo, and that was really, really stupid. … Read more

by Eric Martin Ah, remember the days when Jake Tapper, Ruth Marcus and a host of others rushed to the aid of poor little Fox News when the White House suggested that the network served more as a GOP surrogate than a, well, fair and balanced news organization?  Well, Fox News has put its money where its mouth is: With Republicans … Read more

by Eric Martin As with Ireland's attempt to tighten their belts out of a recession, so, too, does Greece suffer the fate of Hoovernomics: The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent … Read more

by Eric Martin Atrios: Perhaps I was right to be a bit skeptical about claims from Republicans and conservatives that they wanted to liberate Muslims from tyranny. Indeed. After all, if all Muslims are the same as al-Qaeda (even Muslim Americans that were employed by the Bush administration to serve as goodwill ambassadors!) such that … Read more

by Eric Martin Shorter Harry Reid: This woman who lost her son in Iraq is less American than you and me because she is a Muslim.  And so was her son. Shameful and craven. Everyone involved in this despicable anti-Muslim hate fest should be deeply ashamed of themselves.  To the core.  This is not only un-American … Read more

by Eric Martin There are many flaws in the rationale employed by liberal hawks in supporting the use of military force for the putative benefit of the underlying populations of various military targets – from Iraq and Iran, to Burma.  For one, military force is a blunt weapon, and military intervention inevitably kills many of … Read more

by Jacob Davies I think we’re all glad that the US federal government passed on the opportunity to bail out the US automobile industry in 2008. After all, that moribund industry stood no chance of making a decent recovery, and getting on with the process of adjustment as early as possible was really the only … Read more

by Eric Martin According to the ignorant, and reckless, anti-Muslim demagoguery being aggressively pursued by leading Republican and conservative voices in connection with the expansion of the Muslim cultural center blocks away from the WTC site, the Cordoba Initiative's leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a dangerous radical with ties to terrorism. Of course, that caricature … Read more

–by Sebastian I've been trying to make sense of why in debates over economic stimulus, the cleave between  tax cuts and  stimulus funded by deficit spending attracts so much heat.  They are effectively the same thing from a deficit point of view.  They are largely the same thing from a stimulus point of view (the … Read more

by Jacob Davies Paul Krugman takes on some of the issues with the effects of higher marginal taxation that I talked about in an earlier post. He hits some of the same points and comes to roughly the same conclusion: So the way I see it, even quite high marginal tax rates on high earners … Read more

by Eric Martin Yet another episode of, "What Adam Serwer said…": The New York Times has a new piece up on Faisal Rauf and Daisy Khan, the couple behind the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero that has brought rank Islamophobia into the Republican mainstream: Daisy Khan, who immigrated, also as a teenager, to … Read more

by Eric Martin McClatchy provides a summary of the annual State Department Country Reports on Terrorism (more below). Something to keep in mind as the most recent PR campaign to extend the war in Afghanistan (to enter its second decade shortly) is underway.  That would be a war that we "must" extend at a cost of hundreds … Read more

by Jacob Davies Smells like … snow job: The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide. The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and … Read more

by Jacob Davies Two stories on net neutrality today; the first that Google & Verizon have been in talks over priority tiers for traffic, and the second that (thankfully) the FCC chairman Julius Genachowski opposes any such deal. The Google story is quite strange. Google has been one of the largest names pressing for net … Read more

by Jacob Davies I’m in Milwaukee visiting in-laws, and we took a trip to the Wisconsin State Fair today. Among the crowds and bustle, the hawkers of food and drink and strange plastic balloon animals, the lowing (okay mostly sleeping) cows and all the rest of the pastoral scene, and also the Miller Lite tent, … Read more

by Eric Martin Many prominent conservatives are making the argument that Judge Walker is gay and, therefore, his decision regarding Prop 8 might have been unduly influenced by his sexual orientation. It's not that I would suggest that his sexual orientation (if he is gay) has no influence on his jurisprudence, but here's the thing, if … Read more

by Eric Martin More evidence that Ronald Reagan would not be welcome in today's Republican Party (in addition to his now heterodox stances on raising taxes, pursuing nuclear arms control and engaging adversarial regimes such as the then-Soviet Union): In fact, Judge Walker was first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, at … Read more

by Eric Martin Score one for civil rights, human decency and a celebration of life and those that live it: In a major victory for gay rights advocates, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriage. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the voter-approved ban, known as Proposition … Read more