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I say hello and it’s goodbye again

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by von I realize that the blog has been a bit sparse of late, post-wise.  We're working on it.  In a meantime, here are a couple of loosely-related rants that I've been keeping to myself for far too long: Rant One.  Based solely on this clip, I give 90-1 odds against M. Night Shyamalan's version of Avatar:  … Read more

It depends on the yardstick

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by von The CBO's numbers are out on the GOP's health care plan and they are …. well, not bad.  If you measure it by the right yardstick, that is.  Yes, this is gonna be one of those von posts that generates a little fire in the comments among our left-leaning commentators.  You're just gonna have … Read more

Three out of four ain’t bad

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by von Orin Kerr, tongue planted firmly in cheek, posts four "obvious lessons" from last night's near sweep by Republicans: 1. For Conservative Republicans: The America people reject Barack Obama and obviously want true conservative leadership. … 2. For Moderate Republicans: The American people obviously want old-fashioned economic conservatives who are moderate on social issues. … Read more

‘Eff off

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by von I stumbled across this post while perusing Jezebel.*  Apparently, it's the second in a series from Alison Samuels explaining why Angelina Jolie is guilty of something — racism? stupidity? poor fashion sense? – based on the look her daughter's hair.  I missed the first post, but here's the gist:  Jolie's daughter is from Ethiopia.  Jolie lets her daughter's hair grow … Read more

Open thread

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by von It seems like it's been a while since we had one.  To get us in the mood: I was bellied up to the bar at a favorite watering hole* when I caught this clip on the TV.  My exact words were (to no one in particular):  "Holy f-cking sh-t, that kid is nine years old." I'm still … Read more

Obama at his best

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by von I have to agree with Andrew Sullivan.  This is Obama at his best: What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  (Applause.) Another way of putting it is … Read more

I don’t have a proposal to solve everything, just this one thing

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by von Listen.  Just stop talking.  Stop promising.  Stop worrying.  Stop studying.  Stop triangulating.  Stop making speeches.  Just do this one thing, Mr. President:  Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." No one thinks that DADT is working.  No one is defending it.  No one likes it.  I don't like it. Your supporters don't like it.  Lots of Republicans don't … Read more

And this is the point …..

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…. Of calling the Democrats' stimulus package A Stimulus for Tomorrow (Part 11) by von Andrew Sullivan mentions a piece by Daniel Gross, which purportedly reminds "conservatives"* that it's too early to label the stimulus a failure because most of the money hasn't been spent yet. Here is my hand.  Here is my forehead.  Here is my … Read more

We only play the hits

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by von I agree with Publius: Pitchfork, after blowing past "trying to hard" and "embarrassing", has finally reached "useless." This has been a long time coming. In 2000, Pitchfork gave Pink Floyd's "Animals" a 10 out of 10. Make no mistake, Animals is a good album. Maybe even a classic. But among the best albums … Read more

Round Two

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(Also known as: A Stimulus for Tomorrow, Part 10) by von Everyone should have seen this coming …. well, everyone who reads these here Wings of Obsidian.  From Salon (citing Bloomberg and The New York Times): Call it the the stimulus that dare not be named. Bloomberg reports that the Obama administration is considering "a mix of spending … Read more

The Sound and the Fury

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by von In light of the increasingly frenetic calls to reject Gen. McChrystal's report and to bring the troops back home from Afghanistan, it's worth looking at what Gen. McChrystal actually said.  The unclassified version of McChrystal's report is here.  The striking part of McChrystal's report is how different the report is from its caricature in the press.  George Packer is … Read more

La Chute

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by von Since my flight got canceled this morning, I suppose that I have time to risk some questions to Publius' post:  "Afghanistan as Therapy".  Publius writes: [O]n the domestic front, the stimulus saved a lot of jobs — and helped stop the bleeding.  But the opposition was fueled by an ideological aversion to government.  … Read more

Unleash Senator Wyden

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by von Senator Wyden (D-Ore.) has a health care bill.  As I've written in the past, it's a pretty damn good bill.   I'm not alone in liking it:  lots of other folks on the left and right do as well.  Moreover, unlike all the other major health care bills out there, Wyden's bill is genuinely bipartisan:  it … Read more

Regarding that speech …..

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by von We all know that President Obama gives good speech, and I don't think that the fact that Obama gave a good speech last night is going to shift the health care debate in any meaningful way.  But the substance of Obama's speech was ….. well, interesting, at least to this skeptic of the … Read more

August Unemployment Data

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by von The August unemployment rate is up to 9.7%.  Geoff at Innocent Bystanders has produced a new chart (right).  The deviation between what Team Obama thought its policies would do to the unemployment rate and what those policies are actually doing is growing. Could Part 10 of the "Stimulus for Tomorrow" series be far behind?  (Parts 1, 2, Hilzoy's … Read more

The Real Slim Shady

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by von

Levi Johnston is in Vanity Fair, again dishing on the Palins.   Up to this point, Johnston — fish out of water, improbable gay icon — has been riding a modest wave of public sympathy.  But the public's sympathy always peters out.  So, right on cue, the backlash against against Johnston begins.  And, with it, the inevitable sympathy for Sarah Palin.  "Sarah Palin didn’t deserve to be vice president," writes Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, "but she didn’t deserve this either."

Oh, please.  Sarah Palin deserves exactly this.  She is perpetually on the attack against seemingly everyone who crosses her path.  The only reason why Sarah Palin is currently holding her fire against Johnston is that she's saving the bullets for her tell-all book.  Save your tears for someone else, lady.

The media wants to make this a story.  It's not.  Save for one innocent baby at the center, this is a case in which there are no good guys, no sympathetic figures, and no one to root for.  Johnston-Palin has no plot.  It has no themes save self-indulgence and self-pity.  It has no redeeming value.  Move on.

(Except for Tank Jones.  Dude, you're weird enough to be a story.  You can stay.)

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Eric Martin bait

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by von A brief update on Somalia, which is giving Afghanistan a run for its money as the land of perpetual war.  Ethiopian troops have again crossed the border in support of what remains of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG).  This isn't much of a suprise.  Also unsurprising — to me at least — is that … Read more

Music for Shoplifting

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by von

As much as I support Jim Jon Henke's attempt to convince the RNC to distance itself from the lunatics at WorldNetDaily – also supported by Megan McArdle — it isn't likely to work that way.  Unless and until WND does something epically idiotic, the RNC will only keep its distance.  It won't disown.  That's because a good portion of WND readers are Republican voters and a party can't afford to insult its supporters — no matter how insane they may be.  [UPDATE:  AARRGHHHH.  It's Jon Henke, not Jim Henke.  If it's any consolation, Jon, I've also called Publius by the wrong (first) name …. and he's my coblogger.]

I realize that's a tough pill to swallow, but a party accepting a degree of insanity in its supporters is sometimes rational.  Insanity is an issue-by-issue occurrence for most people.*  A birther may have quite reasonable views about, say, tax issues or the environment, even if they can't see (or think) straight about President Obama's birthplace.  It's not necessarily all crazy all the time. 

We saw this during the Bush years, when Democrats were down on their luck.  (Not quite a far down on their luck as Republicans are today, but pretty far down.)  For example, McArdle relates an exchange that she had with a liberal correspondent who seemed pretty reasonable …. until he/she revealed his/her fear that President Bush might become "El Presidente" via some (undescribed) coup.  Similarly, in one poll, nearly half of Democrats thought it very likely (22.6%) or somewhat likely (28.2%) that "[p]eople in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the [sic] United States to go to war in the Middle East."  These are all crazy beliefs, and yet the folks who held them probably didn't have equally crazy views about everything.  They were probably well within the Democratic mainstream on most issues — indeed, probably within the mainstream mainstream on most issue. 

None of this is to excuse WND.  It represents everything that I think is wrong with the modern Republican party.  None of this is to excuse the birthers.  They're wrong, and there is more than a whiff of racism emanating from too many of them.**   But I do think that Henke's most recent challenge is unrealistic.  Like the Democrats did with their crazies, the RNC will distance itself from its crazies — but it won't disown them.  (Yet.)

Still, I applaud Henke for keeping the pressure on. The next time WND says or does something nutty — which probably won't be long — he'll have more ammunition to get it out of the tent.  And that would be a good thing for both Republicans and the country.

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Advancing in a different direction

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by von On the heels of a deeply flawed election in Afghanistan — with a deeply flawed "victor," Mr. Karzai — it's not surprising that lots of folks in the US are questioning our mission there.  It's not even all that surprising that Publius ("Is Afghanistan Worth It?") would crawl into bed with George Will ("Time … Read more

Unpublished

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by von

I've retracted this entry because the first comment is correct.  McKinneyTexas says:

Many well meaning white people view themselves as being passed the race issue and project their own, often under-developed sense of maturity and enlightenment onto others, particularly minorities. Best just to avoid being cleverly edgy or worse, condescending. 

There is such a thing as being too clever — by which I mean too in love with one's own perceived cleverness; or, to adopt McKinney's great turn of phrase, too in love with one's own "often under-developed sense of maturity and enlightenment."   I am neither mature nor enlightened, but that doesn't mean that I can't write something stupid on occasion, even when my ultimate point is (I think) right on target.  You can be right and still do it wrong, after all. 

Retraction does not mean deletion, however.  The original text — in all its original retracted goodness – is below the fold.

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At any moment

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by von Michael Gerson has a sensible take on current Democratic efforts to reform health care — by which I mean, of course, that Gerson has written something that I largely agree with.  President Obama's health care reform is not dying because of persistent nonsense regarding death panels.  Death panels are a favorite bete noir of some Democratic supporters, but, in … Read more

For the weekend

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by von Chihuahua With Earrings Stolen At Gay BarPolice Seek Man With Britney Spears Tattoo Someone had fun writing that headline.  (H/T Slog.) This is an open thread.

Fair use?

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by von Gird thy loins for some light law blogging.  (Why your loins?  Because that's where the law strikes!  Ba-da-bing!  I'm here all week folks! Be sure to tip your gender-left-unspecified service people.) So here is today's issue:  What should be the limits on fair use?  It's a question that comes up from time to time, and it … Read more

I have a dog named Bingo

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by von Matt Yglesias writes perceptively on why Democratic health care reform is failing, but –  perhaps understandably — doesn't see his own role:  A disheartened Ezra Klein looks at a WSJ/NBC poll showing that people have lots of false beliefs about the president’s health care agenda and offers the following chart: My first thought … Read more

Health Care: The Wyden-Bennett Plan

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by von Among the articles of faith circulating in the liberal blogosphere is that killing the House Democrats' health care package (HR 3200) amounts to killing health care reform.*  The argument goes that HR 3200 is the only way to get traction in the debate and must be supported, warts and all, because there's nothing else out there.  Pass HR 3200, … Read more

You can almost always judge a book by its cover, except when you can’t

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by von Confirmation bias probably plays a role here, but:  now that we have the actual transcript, it seems clearer than ever that Officer Sergeant Crowley was out of line in arresting Professor Gates.  As Andrew Sullivan notes, you can't reconcile Crowley's report with either the tape or the witnesses.  Crowley seems to have arrested Gates for being annoying rather … Read more

Booze, Cigarettes and Coffee: The Three-Part Healthcare Test

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by von There are three essential components to health care reform — or else it's not worth doing. Coverage.  Obviously, the reform has to cover folks who are currently uninsured.  Personal.  Everyone should have access to good health care; good health care shouldn't depend on a person having a job.  Health care is a personal good.  Aside … Read more

A Stimulus for Tomorrow, Part 9

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by von I am a bit surprised by the lesson offered in Publius' post, The Fool's Errand of Political Cover.  Contrary to Publius, the lesson from the debates over the Democratic stimulus package is not that it's pointless to try to cooperate with the other side (i.e., folks like me). Rather, the lesson may well be that y'all need … Read more

“So at the end of the conversation … with Sergeant Crowley, there was discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House. We don’t know if that’s scheduled yet …”

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by von I disagree with President Obama on a whole host of issues. And I'm now twice on the record that Sergeant Jim Crowley did, indeed, act stupidly in arresting Professor Gates. Still, President Obama's comments today regarding Gatesgate were not only politically brilliant, but also the right thing to do. UPDATE:  A commentator asks a good question, which is how … Read more

Crotchety

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by von I now have a better understanding of a comment that my father made to me, probably around 1992: "You know, your music really sucks.  It just doesn't compare to the music when I was growing up."*   In that spirit:  Damn you freakin' Millenials!  So you think that "Buying [your] first Discman was huge …. [it was] like … Read more

It ain’t helping

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by von Oh for crap's sake …. Yglesias is right.  There is absolutely nothing offensive about President Obama calling the Cambridge police department "stupid[]" for arresting Professor Gates.  If a cop slapped the bracelets on K-Lo under similar circumstances, I'm pretty sure that The Corner would be calling the move stupid and William Kristol wouldn't be … Read more