Friday, January 30, 2009
Only In New York, Honey...
0 comments... Do you get to witness a billionaire firing someone making $30 grand a year, because of "some difficult times."
Mayor Bloomberg paints grim economic picture for New York City 2009 budget
The city as it stands has only 4 options left it:
- Tax the rich
- Tax the rich
- Tax the rich
- Michael Bloomberg fronts us a billion
Other than that, who knows?
posted by Gotham 3:54 PM
Why Rudy Was Such A Rotten Mayor
0 commentsGiuliani: Corporate plums help keep NYC afloat
A sad, and embarrassing truth.
Rudy Giuliani was a prime mover in establishing this arrangement. Upon becoming Mayor, he found a trend and turned it into a full-blown dependency, which we're still trying to recover from.
Rudy killed everything "small." Loved everything "big." Starved the independent arts scene in favor of the institutional arts world. Fostered the explosion of commercial rents so that small businesses died every day, opened the door to gigantic chains and mega-everything (based outside of the city) which ate up all the space, driving rents and prices through the roof for the mom-&-pop stores and the residents of the city. Large development, pushing billions of dollars through the corporate/financial system = good; any type of moderate-to-affordable plan for average folks in the city = bad.
Rudy cut the financial industry every break he could think of, and they contributed handsomely. He helped them turn a city awash in cash into a financial spa.
Thank you, Rudy.
Now, shut up and go away.
posted by Gotham 3:24 PM
When It Rains...
...It Erupts.0 commentsThings aren't tough enough for the country right now, right?
Redoubt's past points to likely eruption soon
Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano could erupt within weeks, days
One grace note, here. This will certainly give us a view into how competent or incompetent Sarah Palin is with basic crisis governance.
If her main flaw was experience (other than all those bat-shit crazy views), then here's some on-the-job-training.
posted by Gotham 2:21 PM
Some Good News Amid The Gloom...
President Barack Obama establishes a middle-class task force lead by VP Joe Biden.0 comments
Now, we're talkin'.
posted by Gotham 1:53 PM
Thursday, January 29, 2009
My Lord, Almighty...
Michael Bloomberg's gonna chop 23,000 heads tomorrow.0 comments
That's 23,000 jobs. Poof.
A great many NYC residents fervently hope that Mayor Wallet's name is at the top of that list.
Update:
We're here for you Mr. Mayor. So here are a couple of ideas. There are always one or two avenues available which you aren't mentioning.
The first is getting both the Mets and the Yankees to forego the bond issues they each just got, which we can't afford. Plus, ask them to return all the money the city plunked into those limestone and brick playgrounds, and pony up their own money or financing if they can find any. It's not like there will be NYers with any money left, who'll be willing go to the New Stadium or to Sub-Prime Field just to be gouged at every turn. MLB priced out the average baseball fan long before the economy tanked, so they really should be jake with this.
The other idea?
"That, which shall never be mentioned."
Taxes.
Big ones. For rich people. Starting with yourself. Mr. Mayor, as a billionaire who will easily drop $60 million to $100 million on your campaign to retain the use of Gracie Mansion, you obviously could pay taxes out the wazoo and still not see a dent in your daily lifestyle. At your wealth level? You'll never miss it. Nor will any of your Ultra-Mega-Stupid Rich friends and peers who will always call this city home.
That fireman who loses his job? He'll miss it. Along with the home he loses.
One thing is always true about New York City: There is always money to be had here. It may drop or rise considerably, but there will always be cash flowing through the streets here, and plenty of people who are here to rake it up, and stuff it in their pockets. This town is the world's center for Big Money. While thousands may soon start dying in the streets, there will still be plenty of folks both already here or heading here who are looking for that next big gala event, or new exclusive restaurant or shop, that next world-trotting getaway or exciting real estate venture. This town moves and shakes, so will always be THE magnet for movers and shakers.
That's great; that's as it should be. Now, tax them. Heavily. It's time they paid their fair share, anyway.
We're sure they'll want to do their fair share. Civic pride, and all that.
I know. Fat chance.
What makes one truly "elite" is the uncanny ability to whine until hoarse about their burdens being too heavy while dripping in privilege.
But you can do this, Mayor Wallet. They'll listen to you. You are best situated—as one of them, a peer, a mingler—to ease their transition into becoming fully paying members of society. Not Society; society. It'll be a whole new, fascinating world for them. Even better than Volunteering.
Do it for the city you profess to love and want to lead.
Start at the top. EEK! Close every loophole. Ouch! Then, a good 10% rise in income tax rates for every income over $1 million should get the ball rolling. Someone could even hold a Get The Ball Rolling Ball or Cotillion! Perhaps, a 5% bump would be appropriate for those of tighter means of only, say, over $500,000.
Then, create wealth and asset taxes for those who are just so friggin' rich that they haven't had to work in two or more generations—just so we don't miss anybody. Once this thing starts, none of these folks will want to be left behind. It'll obviously become the next "Thing"!
Anyone who bitches about any of this, of course, can simply forego using any city services, period, you can argue. That should prove a huge savings to the city, not having to offer police protection or fire response to those who are too rich to pay taxes. They most likely have friendly relations with Blackwater, in any event, so should be covered. We wouldn't have to pick up their garbage, either. Or fix the pothole in front of their townhouse. Or provide any other city service.
This is looking like a clear Win/Win here for all of us, Mr. Mayor.
You're welcome, sir; no problem. Every NYer wants to do their part.
posted by Gotham 9:55 PM
A Dick Is A Dick Is A Dick...
Dick Armey was Tom DeLay before there was a Tom DeLay.0 comments
The fact that Armey lost his head yet again, and shot his sizeable mouth off against Joan Walsh of Salon on Chris Matthew's Hardball show last night should come as no great shock. Tweety, of course, rolled right along and tried to ignore it. It's his show; it was his job to blunt Armey's crap.
The fact that The New York Times' Bob Herbert stopped a later segment to call Armey on the carpet for his sexist and condescending crap is to be applauded. That it took Herbert's overt action to embarrass Tweety into finally admitting that the Armey rant was out of line was shameful.
It's a good thing that Matthews tossed aside that pipe dream of his of running for Senate in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure where he would have found any woman who would vote for him.
posted by Gotham 9:19 PM
Rice 'Angry' Over Bush Race Charge
1 commentsMan, this woman knows how to stoke a grudge. It's only taken her 3 1/2 years to get around to doing what she couldn't believe no one was doing.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told hosts of ABC's The View Thursday that she was angry with critics who charged that President [George W.] Bush didn't help victims of [Hurricane] Katrina because they were black.
"What really did make me angry was the implication that some people made that somehow President Bush allowed this to happen because these people were black," Rice said. "And for somebody to say that about the President of the United States, a President of the United States who I know well and a President of the United States who is my friend, I was appalled and I couldn't believe people didn't challenge it."
"Well, that was probably wrong," The View's Joy Behar responded.
Rice said, "Oh, absolutely."
OK. Agreed.
Sorry.
It was because they were poor.
posted by Gotham 8:40 PM
It's A Start...
0 commentsBut Mr. President,
if you want to wear the cape,
earn the cape!
Obama blasts "shameful" Wall Street bonusesPresident Barack Obama furiously slammed Wall Street titans who took multi-billion dollar bonuses while taxpayers bailed out their industry as "shameful" and guilty of acute "irresponsibility."
How about "theft"?Obama, anger rippling his usually calm countenance, said bosses of big finance firms must sacrifice along with other Americans, as the country tries to dig itself out of a deep economic hole.
OK..., but how about putting your Justice Department where your mouth is, Mr. President?The president's ire was sparked when he read a newspaper article detailing the 18.4 billion dollars in bonuses racked up by Wall Street firms last year, even as stock markets plunged and the economy slumped towards a recession.
You're a little late to the party, Mr. President, but welcome, we'll certainly take it.
posted by Gotham 8:08 PM
Yoo Is Just Too Stupid...
... To Breathe.1 commentsEgad.
I do believe that war criminal John Yoo must have read The Lord Of The Flies in his youth, and thought it was a field manual. He comes so close to being exactly the animal he would have us all descend to in a new screed that was published today.
It's astonishing that this man is a) still free of incarceration / institutionalization, and b) still teaching in the law school at UC Berkeley!
Nice overview article in The Raw Story on Yoo's self-serving piece in today's The Wall Street Journal.
I know that you're not shocked that only Rupert Murdoch would see fit to waste both ink and computer bytes to print claptrap like Yoo's snooze.
Raw Story: Yoo: Bush okayed torture to outwit defense lawyers
Man, have you noticed how much time George W. Bush is spending under the bus this week?
Yesterday, it was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:While unpopular former President George W. Bush may have hurt Republicans in recent elections, voters have not rejected Republican policies, McConnell said.
Today, it's Yoo driving over the former Oval Office Big Chair sitter:the civilian law-enforcement system cannot prevent terrorist attacks. What is needed are the tools to gain vital intelligence, which is why, under President George W. Bush, the CIA could hold and interrogate high-value al Qaeda leaders. On the advice of his intelligence advisers, the president could have authorized coercive interrogation methods like those used by Israel and Great Britain in their antiterrorism campaigns. (He could even authorize waterboarding, which he did three times in the years after 9/11.)
Thump-thump. "Owwww." See ya, George...
So, in some perverse two-fer, Yoo is both blaming it all on Bush, since he, of course, is pure as the driven snow, and tarring Barack Obama for not following his, Yoo's, letters—to the letter?Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001.
Actually, no, John, that was the correct way to go, all along. It is a police action. Just as attacking any conspiracy, like the Mafia or the Bush administration, is a police and judicial action. Turn off 24, John. Start watching Law And Order: Find the perps, catch the perps, try the perps, jail the perps = safe neighborhood.
Since there is no "War On Terror," and never was, this is the proper course of action. You have a few radical leaders who have gathered and armed their small-to-large followings. You track down the leaders, decapitate the group, then round up the followers. That's how this works. And that is actually how Bill Clinton's administration was handling it, to reasonably good success. They knew this process stands more akin to Gen. Jack Pershing's chasing through Mexico after Pancho Villa than any full military "war" mobilization—as is proved by the abject failure of the Bushies to gain any type of military advantage anywhere they've been and the extreme animosity gathered around the globe by their anvil-handed attack of problems, rather than the flyswatter approach that's routinely called for.
Actually, as you read the Yoo piece you find yourself punctuating every sentence with, "Uhh, no. That's not true."
Which makes it a really good way to make sure all your systems are fully functioning. Especially if you're sitting in one of his classes at Boalt Hall at Berkeley.
But here's the greatest head-smacking quote from Yoo's piece:The question Mr. Obama should have asked right after the inaugural parade was: What will happen after we capture the next Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Abu Zubaydah? Instead, he took action without a meeting of his full national security staff, and without a legal review of all the policy options available to meet the threats facing our country.
And without the blessing and advice of every crackpot Neo-Con war criminal working today.
Brother, that John!
Man, Yoo so crazy!
posted by Gotham 7:12 PM
More Of Your Bush Tax Dollars At Work
0 commentsNope. Sorry.
There is no "we're looking forward, not backwards" possible for the Barack Obama administration when there is such extreme levels of filth, and moral, legal and political depravity still festering like open sewers from the George W. Bush era.
Watch ABC's video report, then hold your tongue—or your stomach—if you can.
ABC News: CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes[Andrew Warren,] the CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
With gay and straight GOP gropings and pawings so rampant throughout our government over the last eight years, Hey! Why not throw in a little date rape among our CIA station chiefs? "Ya horny? Dude! This is a "slam dunk!"
Was there ANYONE—up and down the governmental food chain during the Bush 43 reign—who did NOT abuse the power of their office? Now, that is a needle in the haystack.
Remember, if you and I do not demand that the Obama forces and this Democratically held Congress investigate and prosecute every known case of lawbreaking among the Bushies, then you and I personally condone those acts.
There's just no getting around it.
We get no Gestapo defense.
We are what we do. Not what we say we are.
Update:According to the affidavit, the two women "reported the allegations in this affidavit independently of each other."The affidavit says the first victim says she was raped by Warren in Sept. 2007 after being invited to a party at Warren's residence by U.S. embassy employees.
She told a State Department investigator that after Warren prepared a mixed drink of cola and whiskey, she felt a "violent onset of nausea" and Warren said she should spend the night at his home.
When she woke up the next morning, according to the affidavit, "she was lying on a bed, completely nude, with no memory of how she had been undressed." She said she realized "she recently had engaged in sexual intercourse, though she had no memory of having intercourse."
According to the affidavit, a second alleged victim told a similar story, saying Warren met her at the U.S. embassy and invited her for a "tour of his home" where she said he prepared an apple martini for her "out of her sight."
The second victim said she suddenly felt faint and went to the bathroom where "V2 [victim 2] could see and hear, but she could not move," the affidavit says.
She told investigators Warren "was attempting to remove V2's her pants." The affidavit states, "Warren continued to undress V2, and told her she would feel better after a bath."
Alleged Rape Victims Tell Their Stories to Investigators
The alleged victim said she remembers being in Warren's bed and asking him to stop, but that "Warren made a statement to the effect of 'nobody stays in my expensive sheets with clothes on.'" She told investigators "as she slipped in and out of consciousness she had conscious images of Warren penetrating her vagina repeatedly with his penis."
The second victim told investigators she sent Warren a text message accusing him of abusing her and he replied, "I am sorry," the affidavit says.
According to the affidavit, when Warren was interviewed by Diplomatic Security investigators, he claimed he had "engaged in consensual sexual intercourse" and admitted there were photographs of the two women on his personal laptop. He would not consent to a search or seizure of the computer, leading investigators to seek the warrant.
According to the affidavit, a search of Warren's residence in Algiers turned up Valium and Xanax and a handbook on the investigation of sexual assaults.
The affidavit says toxicologists at the FBI laboratory say Xanax and Valium are among the drugs "commonly used to facilitate sexual assault."
"I am sorry."?!
From someone of authority, who actually researched "investigation of sexual assaults"?
Scum.
Is this what we've been reduced to as a nation?
posted by Gotham 12:25 PM
Just Trying To Help...
Here's some Cheap Stimulus we might try. Americans should like that.0 comments
And it's "Trickle Down," too, so we'd even get quick GOP buy-in.
If they simply indicted every political appointment from the George Bush years (either Bush era is OK, it's mostly the same people, anyway)—en masse—and forced them to "lawyer up," the ripple effect from all those law firms having to hire so many more staff to cope, thereby stimulating purchases for all those luxury items and new homes, creating all that new manufacturing, boosting employment, etc., etc. You can see the benefits here...
Hell, we'd fix the economy, and keep the Preserve The Constitution forces happy at the same time.According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, the Interior Department ignored scientific findings when deciding to limit water flows in the Grand Canyon in order to optimize generation of electric power.
That's OK. It's what Bushies do; it's in their DNA. In GOPer World, cash flow ALWAYS trumps water flow.
Here's where it gets interesting. If our new administration of Barack Obama were to send clear messages to the personnel of every agency, saying, in effect, "the coast is clear," they'd need to set up ropes and barriers around the Justice Department building to handle the crush from the crowd of whistleblowers.A memo written by the superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park [Steve Martin [sic]] suggests that the department produced a flawed environmental assessment in order to defend itself in a lawsuit from an environmental group. The reduced flow of water was harmful for endangered fish species and risked eroding the canyon's beaches.
Yes, Superintendent Martin is charging his bosses, the Interior Department folks, with falsifying evidence and obstruction of justice in federal court. That would be a good day's work for your typical Bush agency types. How they found the time for all that falsifying during days filled with sex with oil company employees and bribe-taking from Jack Abramoff is simply stunning. That's true workflow management.
My.
Sometimes, it seems your core Republican type breaks three laws before he or she even gets up in the morning.
It seems new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is going to be a mighty busy boy.
And that IM link between Salazar and Attorney General Eric Holder may simply crash from overuse.
posted by Gotham 11:43 AM
Another GOPer Flips...
TPMMuckraker: Another Member of Team Abramoff Charged0 comments
And it looks like he's in the process of cutting a deal. I believe you can hear this lad clearing his throat, and getting ready to start in with the ol' do-re-mi.
Hmmm, what's that they say about no honor among thieves?
posted by Gotham 10:00 AM
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Fredo Factor
2 commentsIt's good when the perps buttress one's argument about the need to de-perp-ify the place.
NYTimes: Alberto Gonzales, the Sequel
Alberto Gonzales, long referred to as "Fredo Corleone" to George W. Bush's "Michael Corleone," has again proven the exact argument made here in Gotham yesterday. While Barack Obama, furthering the aims of the power elite, urges us all to "move forward" and sweep the last eight years under the rug, Gonzales pops up to clearly prove why our nation faces such peril in Obama's mythical "forward" time.
Just as with every zombie/vampire movie, these creatures WILL NEVER go away. They only bide their time until they grab the reins again, mess up the landscape, dispatch our loved ones and take everything they can. As any horror film fan knows, there is never an end, only a pause. Before the closing credits roll, you know the sequel is in the works. Fright fans will tell you that these foul creatures can only be stopped with something extreme—stakes through hearts, bullets in the brain, cutting off their heads, etc. Otherwise, like the single-minded minions of the GOP power elite, up they pop, refreshed and hungry, to re-tool their marketing strategy, wipe their feet on the rule of law and take back what they believe to be rightfully theirs. Again and again. Into infinity.Where does the cycle end? Did this crowd not show us clearly during Watergate in the '70s exactly what lengths they would go to? But, we let it slide. Big mistake. Did these same players not prove to us again during Iran-Contra in the '80s that they were out for theirs, and theirs alone, and the rest of us be damned? Again, we let it slide. Again, a big mistake. When 2000 arrived, did we actually think that this exact same team had repented and had totally rehabilitated itself? The hundreds of thousands of souls who have rudely perished since January 20, 2001 and the greatest Treasury of the known world that has been totally and systematically plundered prove differently.
In an interview with National Public Radio this week, Mr. Gonzales attacked President Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric Holder, for saying that waterboarding is torture. To hear Mr. Gonzales tell it, Mr. Holder was in the wrong—not the lawyers like Mr. Gonzales who tortured the law to justify torture, or the former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who approved its use, or the interrogators who actually subjected detainees to waterboarding and other inhumane and illegal interrogation techniques.
Making a “blanket pronouncement like that,” Mr. Gonzales warned, might affect “the morale and dedication” of intelligence officials. He said agents at the Central Intelligence Agency “no longer have any interest in doing anything controversial.”
What a terrifying statement. Again, it's not even that he feels he is getting away with anything. It becomes horrifyingly clear that this is how Mr. Gonzales and most of his associates think, and what they believe. There is your Monstrosity.
If Fredo, who has every reason to save his own skin, is taking an early and complete jump into the black waters of the Revisionist History pool, what hope can we ever have that the skilled pros in that outfit would ever turn over new leaves?
Know that their leaders are not upset or embarrassed about anything Gonzales is saying—it's the Party line, and keeps their version of events in the media and in America's living rooms. This way, they can simply call a press conference, refresh the sound bite and be back in business within the hour. They'd certainly pull the plug on Fredo, if they wished to.As for reports that the illegal eavesdropping program had prompted threats of a mass resignation by top Justice officials, Mr. Gonzales dismissed that with an airy “lawyers often disagree about important legal issues.”
Mr. Gonzales said he was not worried about being prosecuted for his actions because he was “acting in good faith” and—yes—following orders. [GN emphasis]
That smug self-assurance should be another powerful reminder to the White House of the need for an unsparing review of all of Mr. Bush’s policies on torture, wiretapping and executive power. Only by learning the details of those disastrous decisions can the nation hope to undo the damage and make sure these mistakes are not repeated.
So, you see they're fully prepared to assault us with the Gestapo Defense. As necessary, at least until the rise of the next Reich.
It's seemed that MSNBC has been the only media source keeping this story alive, other than the blogosphere, but now that The New York Times is on it, other media outposts may pick up this issue, adding to the groundswell, forcing Obama to act.
We can only pray.
posted by Gotham 12:57 PM
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Obama Crossroads: Saint or Sinner?
1 comments
We've reached an early demarcation line in the sandy ground sitting beneath the Obama era. And surprisingly quickly, too, I believe.
Jonathan Turley, a Constitutional scholar often seen on MSNBC, clearly states that Barack Obama is in jeopardy of legally becoming an "accessory" to war crimes if no one from the George W. Bush years faces prosecution. At the same time, officials in the UN are making serious noises about the need for the Obama administration to hold the criminal behavior of the Bush administration to account. This is an issue that is growing very fast.
The concept of holding an American administration to account for the murderous or fully unconstitutional machinations of its members is unprecedented in the annals of U.S. history. But, as much as most of Institutional America wants to sweep these horrors perpetrated in our name under the rug, events and the will of the American people may not allow that to happen. This issue is gaining momentum almost daily. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was against Impeachment, but oddly seems to think prosecution is just fine. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seemed to sign on this weekend.
Forcing Obama directly into a position he apparently seems to want to avoid at all costs. Except he can't. He keeps urging the country to "look forward" to some shining city of "Hope" on a hill, but the American public seemingly can't get enough of both Bush and Dick Cheney and everyone connected to them. Aside from wingnut blogger Michele Malkin and her kind, Americans seem hellbent on seeing this through to the final conclusion.
And, yes. This is a very Big Thing.
The entire Obama legacy may well be determined by his actions on this one issue in his first month in office.
No pressure, mind you...
The question we must soberly begin to consider as he sets to cleaning up the premises after the eight-year-long Bush frat party (complete with murderous hazing on a global scale), is this:
"How Status Is Our Quo?"
We can safely assume the Obama team will clean up the Bush mess: clean out the pool, pulling the toupees out of the filters and bras out of the drains; repair the holes in the walls; throw out all the empties (as in, banks); and pull the Lexus out of the front hallway where someone drove it a few years back and most likely cut off Rush Limbaugh's oxycontin supply. Sure, Obama'll fix the economy kinda-sorta, he'll develop counseling programs for all those underage boys and girls pawed and groped by GOP officials locally and in DC and re-order the mechanisms of government back to their purpose of actually governing, and return to the nation all of the basic and cosmetic functioning of daily federal life.But what of the larger issue? The seismic, core financial demographic shift that has plagued our nation for decades now: The jetstream funneling all wealth upwards, fueling the return of John Edwards' Two Americas—not so much "rich and poor" this time, but rather "nobles and serfs." What really will we be watching happen these next four years? Who will Barack Obama be answering to in the next four years?
The first clear signal of where Obama will be going on this now stands upon this issue which rests upon the bedrock of this nation—its laws and judical system.
Simply put: Are we a nation of laws, or are we not?
That's very clear and unambiguous. Obama even taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago for a bit, so he can't "misunderestimate." He knows. Laws were broken. People died. Money was stolen. All on a grand, theatrical scale.
In The United States of America, perpetrators are brought to the bar, assumed to be innocent, then prosecuted. If convicted (and I'm not exactly sure who a jury of the former president's "peers" would be in this scenario—John Howard? Hugo Chavez?), logically, they would then face sentence—perhaps, even a harsh one. Perhaps, a capital one.
As with any community, if you do not stand up to crime and extinguish it by punishment, it comes back. Often, more deadly than before. Vermin always return—unless they know it's safer if they don't.
The Powers That Be want this all to go away. Obama wants to "move forward." The American people just want their country back.
Which way will Obama go?
And when he decides, what will We The People do?
The entire future of the Obama administration rests squarely on what course he follows on the issue of both war crime and federal statute criminal prosecutions. There's certainly plenty of both. Certainly, he can always sweat the small stuff, or not. But he can't run away from this big one. As they say, the jury is still out.
At what point does America's shout of "Yes, We can!" turn into "Yes, You'd better!"
Buckle up, folks, we're in for a bumpy ride.
posted by Gotham 5:06 PM
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Peter Beinart Gets Paid??
2 comments
Wow.
I just read the stupidest article I've seen in many years. And that's saying something.
Peter Beinart - Admit It: The Surge Worked - washingtonpost.com"It's no longer a close call: President Bush was right about the surge."
No, he was not, Peter.
Not even close.
What we've all needed, obviously, is a immature, establishment weiner making crap up about how Shrub is supposed to be given props for "The Surge," while he's in the process of being kicked to the curb. Because somehow "the Surge worked"?
Well, no it didn't, Petey. One, the mission of the "surge" was never military. So, no military victory was possible. It was a political gambit. It was to quell the violence in Bahgdad just long enough for the Iraqi government to cut whatever political deals it had to cut with its various internal components in order to establish itself as a long-term, forward-looking, consensus-driven and, mostly, effective governmental entity.
Ummm, sorry. Alas, the thoroughly corrupt Iraqi government is a shambles of back-biting, self-interest and tribal bickering, threatening to blow apart at any moment. If anything, it's in worse shape than before "the surge."
So, there's "Surge Failure" No. 1.
The increased military presence did not, by all reports, account for the decrease in violence that you, the Neo-cons and hawks on the Right and the right wing of the Democratic party point to in knee-jerk fashion. That honor would go to the combination of Moqtada al-Sadr placing his Shiite troops under wraps for the time being (which Peter mentions) with the OK from Iran, and mostly the Good Ol' U.S. Treasury paying vast sums to the Sunnis, formerly known as Insurgents, to be on our side while the checks keep coming (which Peter does NOT mention). While the Sunnis were taken out of play, Bush's favorite, "Al Qaida in Iraq," an impromptu local group having nothing to do with the "Al Qaida" we know (Shrub just really likes the name), had support and its flow of oxygen taken away.
So things calmed down.
Just like with any Band-Aid over a profusely bleeding wound, which "the surge" truly is, as soon as we take the pressure off for a second, BOOM! Blood everywhere...
So, to hold that up as a beacon of Shrub's military savvy is just plain dumb.Politically, Bush took the path of most resistance. He endured an avalanche of scorn, and now he has been vindicated. He was not only right; he was courageous.
Bush had the entire country on his ass to end the war. His party had just been pummeled in the off-year election. Americans were angry. It was a gambit. It didn't work. Not as intended, or sold. But it bought Bush time; it gave him another focus to talk about instead of that mob outside his house with torches and pitchforks. Yes, on those terms it was successful. But for the war itself? Not so much.It's time for Democrats to say so.
Oh, really? I love being pontificated to by an Establishment snot.
Here's some icing for the proverbial rhetorical cake:Older liberals remember the Persian Gulf War, which most congressional Democrats opposed and most congressional Republicans supported—and the Republicans were proven right.
How's that, bub? You mean the time we attacked Iraq after George H.W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein (one of Dad's thousand points of light, perhaps?) the green light to attack Kuwait, followed by the massacre of hundreds of fleeing Iraqi soldiers hauling ass in terror across barren land—to the point where conscience-striken U.S. pilots were refusing to fly anymore because they just couldn't kill that many human beings and stay sane? THAT Persian Gulf War?
Again, as usual, we on the Left were right on that one, Petey.They also remember the welfare reform debate of the mid-1990s, when prominent liberals predicted disaster, and disaster didn't happen.
Where do you get this crap, Peter? No, no one predicted disaster—that's just Elitist Urban Legend. What we did correctly predict was individual suffering and hardship—the type I assume you'd never know about, Peter—as women and their children were summarily bounced Republican-style, into the streets without any assistance, with no training and no available jobs. What the liberals you taint were saying at the time, was that this measure was Draconian without any new supply of jobs that offered a decent working wage waiting for them, either immediately or after a short period of training. No one said there'd be disaster—just a lot of innocent women and children forced to endure deprivation and hardship as they slowly came up to speed with low paying jobs—just so that A) rich Republicans could feel good about themselves, and B) so Bill Clinton could co-opt a core GOP issue and take full credit for it, just to piss off the Newt Gingrich-led majority. On that count, it worked splendidly.Younger liberals, by contrast, have had no such chastening experiences.
It burns...it burns...Watching the Bush administration flit from disaster to disaster, they have grown increasingly dismissive of conservatives in the process. They consume partisan media, where Republican malevolence is taken for granted. They laugh along with the "Colbert Report," the whole premise of which is that conservatives are bombastic, chauvinistic and dumb.
Ummm, they are bombastic, chauvinistic and dumb, Peter.They have never had the ideologically humbling experience of watching the people whose politics they loathe be proven right.
I gotta tell ya, Peter. I keep looking, and I keep looking, and I just can't seem to find any times since the late '60s when what you refer to as "conservatives" have been proven right about anything.
I look and I look, and, nope, just can't find it.
But your close contains perhaps the silliest sentence of the 21st Century, again, no mean feat.Being proven right too many times is dangerous. It breeds intellectual arrogance and complacency.
If you merely claim to be right and have the power to back it up, as the Bush administration has done for eight years, yes, you'd slam right into that wall of arrogance and complacency. "Intellectual" has never entered into things with this group.
However, if you've been PROVEN right repeatedly, you know by definition that you are on the correct path, because you've overcome challenges to your thesis, and should continue. To do otherwise is sheer folly.
Man oh man.
Really, Peter, you get PAID for this stuff?
posted by Gotham 7:15 PM
Bush Throws Fundies A Bone; Screws Most Americans
This is truly one of the most vile things the crazies in the radical Right got Shrub to shove through on his way out the door.2 comments
Lawsuits Filed Over Rule That Lets Health Workers Deny Care
Extremely Stupid Quote Dept.:"The regulation is important, because we increasingly are seeing discrimination against health-care personnel who hold religious beliefs having to do with abortion and contraception," said David Stevens, chief executive of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. "Unless these conscience rights are protected, people are going to be driven out of health care."
No shit, Sherlock! As well they should be.
Just as the military isn't jake with members who cannot ethically agree to kill people—forgive me, but that's the job! If you can't do the job, get out. Do something else. No one will think less of you. Just leave. Everyone here needs to be on the same page. Neither of these professions can allow people to freelance and cherry pick what they will and will not do. These are professions where you take whatever comes at you, because you're needed. The job is the job. As long as it remains legal.
But that doesn't suit the anti-American fundie Right. The entire house must be redesigned and totally rebuilt to accommodate their wanting to shift their chair a tad at the table.
Each person retains their right to choose if they wish to follow the dictates of that profession. But no one has the right to re-mold their profession to suit their individualistic moral compass.
If you don't like kids, don't go into day care. If you're terrified of flying, don't become a pilot. If you can't swim, don't apply for a scuba job.
Simple.
If you can't handle all aspects of legal healthcare, don't go into healthcare. Sounds like the clergy or motivational speaking is more your line, in that case. If you've had nursing training but oppose abortion, fine. That's your right. But don't take a nursing job. You can still use your skills as a midwife, or conservative anti-abortion counselor.
You can always take a job as a nurse in a building that's clearly marked as a "Right-Wing Loon Anti-Abortion Hospital." That, at least, would be clear. But if it simply says, "Hospital," we're going to be coming to your for our abortions. That's the law.
As soon as you hang up a shingle as a healthcare provider or pharmacist, you're bound to provide healthcare and/or all legal drugs. Even if you can avoid participating, at the very least refer the patient to someone who can assist them. Health's first creed: Do no harm.
Otherwise, get out and find another line of work.
Period.
posted by Gotham 5:20 PM
Everybody Hates George
Bush's Final Approval Rating: 22 Percent—Lowest Final Approval Rating Ever0 comments
Georgie Porgie...[George W.] Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent.
Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.
Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago.
23% thumbs up; 73% thumbs down. My oh my.
It's been funny over the years, listening to apologists from the Right, who claimed that Dems or lefties "simply hated" Bush. They were "haters." Bush was good, and golden, and pure.
Right. Ummm, no, that makes them feel better, of course, but that's not true.
Here at Gotham Notes, we pride ourselves on being basically Blue On Blue, about as far to the Left as most folks go. But even with that, we still initially gave Shrub the benefit of the doubt that he wouldn't be as bad as his father or other greedy, corporate Republicans, etc. He hadn't been on the national scene at all, so he had no commonly known track record by which to wish him ill. Seemed like a decent enough man. Basically, we believed the bullshit. Warily, but we believed it.
Then we saw the folks he was surrounding himself with during the 2000 primary season, and became frightened. Sure enough, upon being handed the Oval Office he jumped into the arms of the Neo-Cons like they were a mosh pit at a concert. Then, off he and they went to wage a campaign of terror, murder, corruption, malfeasance, greed, illegality and destruction of the Constitution and the American Way of Life, unseen in the annals of U.S. History.
To which he receives a rating number of 23% as a parting gift. Which, of course, is waaaaaay better than the gallows, where he may still eventually wind up.
So, to the apologists we say,
"We never did hate George Bush because we 'just hated George Bush.' No, George Bush taught us to hate George Bush through every action he took and those he did not take while president. This was never a reflex action.
George W. Bush made us hate George W. Bush."
posted by Gotham 10:59 AM
Just Too Dopey...
Inflation slows to half-century low in 2008: Reuters0 comments
Ummmm, deflation will do that to you.
posted by Gotham 2:05 AM
Last GOP Warriors Refuse to Leave Their Caves
These are the last.0 comments
Bush-appointed U.S. attorneys refuse to leave Justice Dept.
The real crazies. They refuse to admit that the war is over. They can't admit that the GOP failed in its attempt to rule the world. These are the true believers.
And just as with the last of the Japanese soldiers in the caves of Iwo Jima in WWII, we may be forced to get the flamethrowers and simply burn them out.
These two women are doggedly hanging on to their missions to wipe Democrats off of the face of the earth. And to that end they are more than prepared to force Barack Obama or Jeffrey Holder to fire them, since they refuse to join their politically appointed comrades and simply resign, which is the decades-long protocol. They're fully prepared to attempt to seize the "Victim" low ground and whine for every TV camera that they can grab onto about how shabbily they've been treated by the Obama government. And how he doesn't care about "Due Process," etc., etc.
Ms. Buchanan may simply be dogged and misguided. But Ms. Martin had best bring some of those law books home with her, because she's going down hard. She has been a major player, along with Karl Rove and others, in the shoddy misappropriation of justice in the conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
When this hits a legitimate court, she's toast.
Burned toast.
posted by Gotham 2:00 AM
It's What We Do
0 commentsNTSB investigators on scene to probe Hudson River plane crash, speak to hero pilot Chesley Sullenber
Someone from the Left Coast wrote me this morning, saying we must be very proud of our city today.
The quick answer is Yes. And not really. You see, it's what we do. The larger answer is that we are always proud of the people of New York, because this is what we expect from our fellow Gothamites.
Here's what I wrote to the Angeleno:"Again, as I say, thank god that it happened in NYC, if it had to happen at all. No matter the emergency, this is how we as a people here tend to act. There is no better place to be on earth, when you're in trouble.
As one ferry company manager is quoted, referring to his heroic crews, 'We don't think—we do.' That pretty much sums up NYers, overall. We deal. Then we figure it all out.
One bit that may not be clear to folks around the country: the plane landed somewhere between 44th-48th Sts. But the cops didn't drag it down to the Battery, as some picture captions claim. The tide was really strong, and it carried the plane and the boats further downtown, even while the rescue was underway—so they all had to deal with the strong tides as well. That part was really scary. There was one video I saw that had a static location, looking past a building, and you could see the plane and all the boats flying past the building from right to left (down river) at a rapid speed. Actually, they were lucky to grab the plane securely before it floated right out into the harbor towards the ocean."
Plus, it was 20 degrees. And the water was MAYBE 40 degrees.
Good luck finding those engines.
In the many years we've called Gotham home, we been in all manner of accidents and difficult scenarios.
One constant has always been—whether we were the ones in trouble or among the passersby who jumped in to help—we've never seen a moment where someone, or a train, or the city itself was in trouble, where complete strangers didn't just jump right in. When you're in a place where my building alone houses more people than live in many towns in America, you realize quickly that we, indeed, are all in this together. We live or sink as one.
It's what makes New York, New York.
Broadway, the museums and the Mets? Those are all just gravy.
posted by Gotham 12:53 AM
