Mitt's
long-form birth certificate (issued on the planet Kolob) lists his religion as
Jewish.
(And I thought he was Muslim...)
***
Contemporary
"conservative" rhetoric achieves maximum effect by attacking
"the opposition" precisely at its point of greatest strength.
This technique was brought to
fever pitch by Karl Rove. http://www.chrisweigant.com/2012/07/16/team-obama-should-thank-karl-rove/
The "Swift-Boating" of John
Kerry's is the most egregious example of this technique.
A "close second"
goes to "extraterrestrial" conservative attacks on Barack HUSSEIN
Obama.
***
"Swift Boat" Fact
Check: http://www.factcheck.org/republican-funded_group_attacks_kerrys_war_record.html
Excerpt: "Sen.
John McCain -- who has publicly endorsed Bush and even appealed
for donations to the President's campaign -- came to Kerry's defense on
this. McCain didn't witness the events in question, of course. But
he told the Associated Press in an August 5 interview:
McCain :
I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is none of these
individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crewmates have
testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably
in Vietnam."
***
Conservative Obama Slagging -
A Summary: Barack
HUSSEIN Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim socialist, anti-American, job-killing
quisling, whose Anti-Christ goal is to strip Americans of guns as prelude to
surrendering the United States to a One World Government headed
by Arab sheiks.
***
But don't take it from me.
In the following article, Charles Krauthammer pretends that lunacy
is mental health using frank falsehood in the service of blind (and
blinding) ideology.
Tell me.
After reading Krauthammer's article, who - in possession of his faculties - would argue that "Romney's Trip Was Excellent?"
Romney's trip was risible.
After reading Krauthammer's article, who - in possession of his faculties - would argue that "Romney's Trip Was Excellent?"
Romney's trip was risible.
- Charles Krauthammer
- Opinion Writer
Romney’s excellent trip
At
the outset of his recent foreign trip, Mitt Romney committed a gaffe. In answer to a question about the
Olympics, he expressed skepticism about London’s preparations. The
response confounded and exasperated Romney supporters because it was such an
unforced error. The question invited a simple paean to Olympic spirit and
British grit, not the critical analysis of a former Olympic organizer.
Soon
that initial stumble was transmuted into a metaphor for everything that
followed. The mainstream media decided with
near-unanimity that the rest of the trip amounted to a gaffe-prone disaster.
Comments
Especially
little from the Obama administration, which unilaterally canceled a
Bush(43)-era missile-defense agreement with Poland to appease Russia. Without
any overt criticism of the current president, Romney set out a foreign policy
of radically greater appreciation of and fidelity to American allies.
Yet
all we hear about Warsaw is the “gaffe”: two phrases uttered by an aide,
both best described as microscopically rude. At the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, a pack of reporters hurled questions of such journalistic
sophistication as, “What about your gaffes?” To which Rick Gorka suggested that
the reporters kiss his posterior, a rather charming invitation that would have
made a superb photo op. (Alan here... American conservatives are notably
unfunny but nevertheless obliged to use "comedy" as distraction from the unrelenting
foolishness of a political party that's been kidnapped by Tea Bags and sundry chauvinists whose foremost aspiration is to nudge the nation from gridlock to failed statehood. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/nc-republican-senators-vote-to-strike.html)
The
other offense against human decency was Gorka’s correlative directive to “shove
it.”
The
horror! On the eve of the 2004 Democratic Convention, Teresa Heinz Kerry
offered precisely that anatomically risky suggestion to an insistent Pittsburgh
journalist. Not only did she later express no regret, but Hillary Clinton
reacted with: “Good for you, you go girl.”
So
where’s the Romney gaffe? Is what’s good for the Heinz not good for the Gorka? (Alan again... Any coarsening of broadcast discourse is detrimental to The Body Politic.)
And
at his previous stop, Jerusalem, Romney’s speech was
a masterpiece of nuance and restraint. Without directly criticizing Obama,
Romney drew pointed distinctions deftly expressed in the code words and
curlicued diction of Middle East diplomacy.
He
declared flatly that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. (Alan... Deliberately inflammatory "positions" appeal to the "uncompromising" nature of the modern "conservative" psyche. However, such positions are not helpful to political process unless the end of politics is to contrive polarity whose outcome is routinely armed conflict. Contemporary "conservatives" are more invested in visceral feelings of Absolute Righteousness than real world solutions, based on compromise. And so, "out of the gate," they do everything possible to prevent compromise/solution in favor of gridlock-morphing-toward-violence.) The official Obama position
is that Israel’s capital is to be determined in negotiations with the
Palestinians. On Iran, Romney asserted that Israel has the right to defend
itself. Obama says this as boilerplate. Romney made clear he means it — that if
Israel has to attack, the United States won’t flash the red light before nor
punish Israel afterward. (Alan... In the wake of Smirk and Snarl's normalization of preventive war -- and the disastrous outcome of same -- the definition of "defense" becomes all important. Generally speaking, American conservatives have never seen a war they didn't like: since World War II most wars have been neither "just" nor beneficial, serving chiefly to degrade America's position in the world and to establish a lethal milieu of "Perpetual Warfare.")
What
about the alleged gaffe that dominated reporting from Israel? Romney averred
that Israeli and Palestinian economic development might be related to culture.
A Palestinian Authority spokesman obligingly jumped forth to accuse Romney of
racism, among other thought crimes.
The
American media bought it whole, despite the fact that Romney’s assertion was a direct
echo of the United Nations’
Arab Human Development Report, written by Arab intellectuals and
commissioned by the U.N. It unambiguously asserted that “culture and values are
the soul of development.” And went on to report how existing cultural norms —
“including traditional Arab culture and values” — are among the major
impediments to Arab economic progress.
The
report deplores the rampant corruption, repressive governance and lack of
women’s (and human) rights as major contributors to backwardness in the Arab
world. (In the Palestinian case, it faults Israeli “occupation,” but a U.N.
document that doesn’t blame Israel for every Palestinian sorrow, if not the world’s,
has yet to be written. Moreover, that excuse doesn’t work for today’s
occupation-free, Palestinian-run Gaza.) (Alan... The role of culture is important. However, the outcome of "culture" is not as easily judged as we learn in Fareed Zakaria's counter-intuitive review of common cultural assumptions.
Is
there any question about Romney’s assertion? PLO/P.A. corruption is legend.
Palestinians are repelled by it. Why do you think, when finally given the
chance, they voted against the P.A. in 2006?
Romney’s
point about “culture” was to highlight the improbable emergence of Israel from
resourceless semi-desert to First World “start-up nation,” a tribute to its
freedom and openness, just as free-market Chile stands out from state-dominated
Ecuador. (Alan... Krauthammer does not point out that Chile's GDP trails Argentina's although Argentina is a conservative whipping boy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpcNYhenSNU /// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita /// http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/dont-cry-for-argentina/)
Look
at how Romney was received. In Israel, its popular prime minister lavished on
him a welcome so warm as to be a near-endorsement. In Poland, Romney received
an actual endorsement from Lech Walesa,
former dissident, former president, Cold War giant, Polish hero.
Two
staunch U.S. allies salute a man they would like to see lead the free world.
Yet the headlines were “shove it” and “culture.”
Scorecard?
Romney’s trip was a major substantive success: one gaffe (Britain), two
triumphs (Israel and Poland) and a fine demonstration of foreign-policy fluency
and command — wrapped, however, in a media narrative of surpassing triviality.
***
Distracted by the minutiae of individual "trees," Krauthammer - like most conservatives - never makes quantum leap to meta-level analysis where the entire "forest" is seen for what it is.
Thus distracting himself with individual "trees" -- and little bits of lichen on the leeward side of their trunks -- Krauthammer ignores "the obvious." Posing as Alpha Dog only exacerbates global tensions that would be better resolved by diplomacy. (Almost always.)
Notably, the planet's last "big league" Alpha Dogs were George Bush and Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden is dead and Bush utterly disgraced - even in the eyes of Republicans. (One wonders if Dubyah has decided to bypass the Republican National Convention for fear of being booed.)
Thus distracting himself with individual "trees" -- and little bits of lichen on the leeward side of their trunks -- Krauthammer ignores "the obvious." Posing as Alpha Dog only exacerbates global tensions that would be better resolved by diplomacy. (Almost always.)
Notably, the planet's last "big league" Alpha Dogs were George Bush and Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden is dead and Bush utterly disgraced - even in the eyes of Republicans. (One wonders if Dubyah has decided to bypass the Republican National Convention for fear of being booed.)
Typically, Alpha Dogs are wimps rying to disguise their cowardice with bravado.
It's time for Etch-a-Sketch to get a backbone.
It's time for Etch-a-Sketch to get a backbone.
"Mitt Romney's Biggest Flip Flops"
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/mitt-romneys-biggest-flip-flops-20120801
Even if we accept pro-Romney arguments today, what will they mean tomorrow?
***
***
Don’t Cry For Argentina
Paul Krugman
OK, I guess I don’t quite see how Argentina’s default, of all examples, can be viewed as a cautionary tale for Greece:
Argentina suffered terribly from 1998 through 2001, as it tried to be orthodox and do the right thing. After it defaulted at the end of 2001, it went through a brief severe downturn, but soon began a rapid recovery that continued for a long time. Surely the Argentine example suggests that default is a great idea; the case against Greek default must be that this country is different (which, to be fair, is arguable).
I was really struck by the person who said that Argentina is no longer considered a serious country; shouldn’t that be a Serious country? And in Argentina, as elsewhere, being Serious was a disaster.
