;)
Sunday
Sep082013
The Commentariat -- Sept. 9, 2013
NEW. Steven Myers, et al., of the New York Times: "A seemingly offhand suggestion by Secretary of State John Kerry that Syria could avert an American attack by relinquishing all of its chemical weapons received a widespread, almost immediate welcome from Syria, Russia, the United Nations, a key American ally and even some Republicans on Monday as a possible way to avoid a major international military showdown in the Syria crisis." ...
... Will Englund, et al., of the Washington Post: "The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said it welcomed a Russian proposal to avert U.S. military strikes by having Damascus turn over control of its chemical weapons to international monitors." ...
... CW: since we made a similar proposal here more than a week ago, I'm surprised it has taken so long for the parties to accidentally come up with this idea. Don't these people read Reality Chex? ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Obama's approach to Syria is likely to create an important precedent in the murky legal question of when presidents or nations may lawfully use military force." ...
... Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Asked if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, [Secretary of State John] Kerry said: 'Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week -- turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.' Mr. Kerry's remarks, which were made at a joint news conference with William Hague, the British foreign secretary, were the latest in a war of words between the Syrian leader and the Obama administration.... 'But he isn't about to do it, and it can't be done,' Mr. Kerry said." ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state and potential 2016 presidential candidate, is planning to make remarks about the intensifying situation in Syria during a visit to the White House on Monday." ...
... Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: "The appalling suffering in Syria 'cries out for international action,' Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday in a speech in Geneva.... [But ] Ms. Pillay warned that 'a military response or the continued supply of arms risk igniting a regional conflagration, possibly resulting in many more deaths and even more widespread misery.'" ...
... Stephen Yellow-Cake Hadley, Dubya's National Security Advisor, in a Washington Post op-ed, "urge[s] Congress to grant President Obama authority to use military force against the Assad regime in Syria." Somehow, this will force Iran to end its nuclear weapons program. Not sure how helpful this is to Obama's case, as Hadley is way short on credibility. ...
... Maybe Hadley, not to mention the Obama administration, should listen to Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, before they make this dubious claim. Jay Newton-Small of Time reports on Rouhani's moderate tone. ...
... Mark Thomson of Time produces more leaks from the Pentagon, where sources don't like the "squishy" objectives of the Obama plan. Thompson belongs to the school that claims, if Obama is convincing in his speech tomorrow night, "and wins congressional backing, he'll get a chance to launch a military attack, with all the perils that entails. If he fails -- regardless of what he does following such a defeat -- his Administration will be wounded, perhaps mortally, for the rest of his presidency." ...
... Brian Beutler: "Political reporters have a weakness for narratives, and the narrative of a weakened president is irresistible. Moreover, members of Congress will feed that narrative.... If the Syria vote goes down, the gloom and doom tales of Obama's losing gamble will be false. To the extent that Congress has the will to do anything other than vote on an authorization to strike Syria, the outcome of that vote is disconnected from those other issues.... Syria won't derail Obama's second term -- Republicans will. As New York magazine's Dan Amira put it, 'After losing Syria vote, Obama's chances of passing agenda through Congress would go from about 0% to approximately 0%. #hugesetback.'" ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The White House chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough..., appeared on all five major Sunday morning news shows to make the administration's case that Congress should authorize an airstrike against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Mr. Assad, for his part, said in an interview with Charlie Rose of CBS News that his government was not behind a chemical attack that killed hundreds of civilians and injured many more. In the interview, to be broadcast on Monday, Mr. Assad also said that Syria might retaliate if attacked." ...
... Philip Elliott of the AP: "The White House asserted Sunday that a 'common-sense test' dictates the Syrian government is responsible for a chemical weapons attack that President Barack Obama says demands a U.S. military response. But Obama's top aide [Denis McDonough] says the administration lacks 'irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence' that skeptical Americans, including lawmakers who will start voting on military action this week, are seeking." ...
... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a key liberal Democrat, is urging President Barack Obama to withdraw his request for congressional authorization for a military strike on Syria. 'I don't think the support is there,' McGovern said on CNN's 'State of the Union...."
... Here's the Washington Post's update on where members of Congress stand on a vote to authorize the use of force in Syria. ...
... David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "Syria's top leaders amassed one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a handful of American companies, according to American diplomatic cables and declassified intelligence records." ...
... Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Investigators trying to track the flow of weapons to Syria's civil war are focusing on mysterious activity near a Cold War-era military port on the Black Sea.... A new study by independent conflict researchers describes a heavy volume of traffic in the past two years from Ukraine's Oktyabrsk port, just up the Black Sea coast from Odessa, to Syria's main ports on the Mediterranean. The dozens of ships making the journey ranged from smaller Syrian- and Lebanese-flagged vessels to tanker-size behemoths with a long history of hauling weapons cargos."
... Byron Tau of Politico: "White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough says he's outraged by comments from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that members of the U.S. military would be essentially helping Al Qaeda in Syria. 'I am outraged for somebody to suggest that our people would be serving as allies to Al Qaeda,' McDonough said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week.'" ...
... MEANWHILE. One of the problems with all of this focus on Syria is its missing the ball from what we should be focused on, which is the grave threat from radical Islamic terrorism. This is the one-year anniversary of the attack on Benghazi. In Benghazi, four Americans were killed - including the first ambassador since 1979. When it happened, the president promised to hunt the wrongdoers down, and yet a few months later, the issue has disappeared. You don't hear the president mention Benghazi. Now it's a phony scandal. -- Sen. Ted Cruz (RTP-Texas), on "This Week"
No, Ted, it was always a phony scandal. BTW, it is possible for agents to continue the Benghazi investigation while other officials do other stuff. It's a big government, as you like to remind us. Besides, it was not the President who always 'mentioned Benghazi.' It was you & your craven conspiracy theorist friends. -- Constant Weader
Marcel Rosenbach, et al., of Der Spiegel: "The ... NSA has been taking advantage of the smartphone boom. It has developed the ability to hack into iPhones, android devices and even the BlackBerry, previously believed to be particularly secure.... For an agency like the NSA, the data storage units are a goldmine, combining in a single device almost all the information that would interest an intelligence agency: social contacts, details about the user's behavior and location, interests (through search terms, for example), photos and sometimes credit card numbers and passwords." ...
... Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency's use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans' communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material. In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years -- and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court." ...
... Matt Buchanan of the New Yorker: "In response to the latest revelations re: the NSA's "cracking the code," Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey has introduced a bill, the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which would, among other things, bar the N.S.A. from installing such backdoors into encryption software. While a statement from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper -- published after the reports by the Times and the Guardian -- said that the fact that the N.S.A. works to crack encrypted data was 'not news,' Holt said, correctly, that 'if in the process they degrade the security of the encryption we all use, it's a net national disservice.'" Buchanan cites a number of experts, most of whom claim the NSA is something of a rogue agency.
Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "A meat inspection program that the Agriculture Department plans to roll out in pork plants nationwide has repeatedly failed to stop the production of contaminated meat at American and foreign plants that have already adopted the approach, documents and interviews show. The program allows meat producers to increase the speed of processing lines by as much as 20 percent and cuts the number of USDA safety inspectors at each plant in half, replacing them with private inspectors employed by meat companies. The approach has been used for more than a decade by five American hog plants under a pilot program. But three of these plants were among the 10 worst offenders in the country for health and safety violations, with serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from meat...." CW: So the plan is, "Eat shit, people." I don't think the USDA understands its purpose, which is to protect consumers. But then maybe that's because a good chunk of Congress doesn't understand this, either.
Ben Protess & Susanne Craig of the New York Times dig into why the S.E.C. never brought criminal charges against Lehman Brothers executives, even when the chair of the agency, Mary Schapiro, urged investigators to do so. Why not sue for civil violations? Oh, yeah, Lehman was bankrupt. ...
... Banking Like It's 2008. Robert Reich, in Salon: "... the gambling addiction of Wall Street's biggest banks is more dangerous than ever. Five years ago this September, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and the Street hurtled toward the worst financial crisis in eighty years. Yet the biggest Wall Street banks are far larger now than they were then. And the Dodd-Frank rules designed to stop them from betting with the insured deposits of ordinary savers are still on the drawing boards -- courtesy of the banks' lobbying prowess. The so-called Volcker Rule has yet to see the light of day."
** Paul Krugman: Modern conservativism is a cult of conspiracy theorists & know-nothings. "Unfortunately..., this runaway cult controls the House, which gives it immense destructive power.... And it's disturbing to realize that this power rests in the hands of men who, thanks to the wonk gap, quite literally have no idea what they're doing."
... AND David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times, in a news report, might just as well have typed, "Tea Party Republicans are dangerous ignoramuses." Instead, he writes, "Two months after the military ousted Egypt's first elected president and began a bloody crackdown on his supporters, a delegation of House Republicans visited Cairo over the weekend to tell the new government to keep up the good work.” Read the whole report. Kirkpatrick refutes all of the MOCs' claims & lets an expert on Egypt compare the Bachmann-Gohmert-Steve King expedition to "a 'Saturday Night Live' skit -- unbelievable, ludicrous, almost comic if it wasn't so painful." It really is refreshing to see a Times reporter call out these yahoos.
Sara Sorcher of the National Journal: "The sexual-assault epidemic plaguing the Armed Forces is rooted in a hypermasculine ethos that fosters predation."
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has a long piece on President Obama & the Keystone XL pipeline.
Local News
Bill DeBlasio & his family answer New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's charge that De Blasio is running a "racist" campaign because DeBlasio's family campaigns with/for him....
...CW: Bloomberg's claim was extraordinarily stupid; if politicians followed Bloomberg's Rule, no family members could campaign for their relatives because everyone, after all, is a member of some "groups." Lady Ann Romney, ferinstance, is a (1) rich, (2) white, (3) Mormon (4) female (5) horsewoman who (6) suffers from MS. Maybe Bloomberg just resents candidates who have, um, spouses. ...
... Chris Smith of New York assesses Michael Bloomberg's mayoralty.
Presidential Race 2016
Dan Friedman of the New York Daily News: " Rep. Peter King won't be the best known Republican presidential candidate in 2016, but he is the first. King, making his second of four scheduled visits to [New Hampshire] in the summer and fall, told a New Hampshire radio station Friday that he's there 'because right now I'm running for President.'" CW: King added that he was having trouble getting bookings on the teevee shows lately, and this seemed like a good way to boost his face time.
News Ledes
Orlando Sentinel: "George Zimmerman's wife called 911 on Monday afternoon to report that her husband was threatening her family with a gun, but she later would not press charges.... In the 911 call, Shellie Zimmerman tells a dispatcher that her husband had 'his hand on his gun and he keeps saying step closer.' 'Step closer and what?' a dispatcher asks. 'And he's going to shoot us,' Shellie Zimmerman replies." ...
...AP, via the New York Times: "The sobbing wife of George Zimmerman called 911 Monday to report that her estranged husband was threatening her with a gun and had punched her father in the nose, but hours later decided not to press charges...." CW: Remember, this guy is a hero of the right. Maybe now that George is threatening white people, authorities will take away his guns. ...
... Tape of Shellie Zimmerman's 911 call is here. A commenter on Gawker asks, "Where's the neighborhood watchman when you need him?"
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Reader Comments (20)
Re: What's in a name. When the West comes to understand that the group known as "Al Qaeda" are the "have-nots" of the Middle East we might make better decisions on how to respond to the situations that face the international community. Until the "have-nots" are in someway satisfied in a economic justice there will be no peace.
@Kate on a much more pleasant subject. Womens tennis doesn't have the same level of quality players that men's tennis does. Ms. Williams is the best of her times, perhaps of all times but she doesn't face the opponents that Rafa does. Rafa in four.
The USDA's decision to expand a failing pilot program to protect consumers conjures up a vision; made men smoking big cigars amongst the hanging hog carcasses while exchanging fat envelopes of cash. Probably the same outcome, but its not so colorful. Now it happens not amongst blood splattered surroundings but in pristine offices.
Speaking of nostalgia, the Bee reported that Cal-Neva, Sinatra's old casino, which has been shuttered for awhile, is getting a redo and re-opening in 12/14. They're preserving the tunnels (for gangster movement) and the cabins, one of which was occupied by Marilyn Monroe during the week before her demise in LA.
'nother interesting note.....King Abdullah II of Jordan who has absorbed at least 1/2 million Syrian refuges met with Pope Francis for the purpose of talking up negotiations rather than intervention. Abdullah is well aware of Assad's ignorance, so I doubt its a loyalty move toward Assad. The King is running out of both room and funds to support Syrian refuges. I'm pretty sure Jordanians are not happy about the $'s spent on Syrian refuges either not to mention the potential for wider Mid East blow-ups as a result of intervention.
The blank, drooling ignorance of congressional teabaggers is not only a symptom of conservative politics, it's the direct result of decades of fear-mongering, conspiracy theory inculcation, and suspicion of anything and anybody not wrapped in an American flag and who can string together at least two polysyllabic words.
This is the kind of cynical Republican strategy for "winning" that began with Reagan and gave us the debacle of George W. Bush, truly the most ignorant man ever to darken the White House linens, two neo-con wars, total insanity about foreign affairs, teabaggers, wingnuttery, and an aggressive approach to learning about and understanding the world and people who do not wave Old Glory at rodeos, tractor pulls, and Baptist conventions that is not just anti-intellectual, it is positively anti-intelligence. Period.
Not long ago I was eating in a restaurant in my blood red state, sitting at the bar to watch a ball game. Next to me were a few magazines and a couple of books. One of my books was a "History of the Arab Peoples" by Albert Hourani. Several people came up to me with a look of astonishment to chastise me for reading such a thing. One guy wanted to know whether or not I loved America. I told him that of course I did. In fact, I loved it enough to not want us to make poorly informed decisions which is almost a guarantee when we're making stuff up out of whole cloth instead of relying on factual information about other countries and cultures. He grunted and went back to his beer. I'm sure not everyone there would subscribe to this kind of institutionalized xenophobia and de rigueur ignorance, but there is enough of it out there to ensure that the Louie Gohmerts and Steve Kings stay in office long enough to do real damage, as Krugman points out today.
I don't for a second believe that Bush, to this day, knows the difference between Shiites and Sunnis, never mind Sufis, Wahhabists, or Alawites. It didn't matter. They were brown, they didn't salute the flag or praise Jesus, and they threatened his pals in the oil industry. They had to die.
Now when I hear Liz Cheney and Rumsfeld lecturing the president on foreign adventurism, I want to shock and awe their asses back into whatever Cave of Stupidity they crawled out of.
The current brand of stupidity unleashed on the country by the GOP and their Teabagger Frankensteins can hold nothing but bad things for us and for the rest of the world.
Big sports fan, so I'll add my two cents to what JJG said. I have to disagree, respectfully.
The quality of tennis being played today, among both men and women, is vastly superior to what it was 30 or 40 years ago. The women are bigger, faster, and stronger than ever before. Look at films of Chris Evert, who was the best of her era. Then watch today's players. Azarenka, Radwanska, Bartoli, Stephens, Lisicki.......They all would have mopped the court with Evert. Physically they are just too much for the players of earlier eras.
As a result the women's game is simply much better, and extremely competitive. Anyone in the top 15 or so is perfectly capable of winning a major tournament. Personally, I think that speaks to there being a lot more quality play, rather than less.
Not so in the men's game, where only three players (Murray, Nadal, and Djokovic) are left who have any realistic chance of winning a major (Roger Federer, alas, has seen his best days). And, much as I love David Ferrer, Del Potro, and Tsonga, I know that they will all be gone before the finals of any big tournament. As a result, the men's side of any tournament is devoid of the suspense the women's game has.
And even when two of the big three men make the final, there is often no suspense. Nadal will always win in Paris. And I think you're right about today in NYC, too, JJG. Nadal in straight sets.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when I wondered why we were jumping up and down about the situation in Syria when nobody seemed to give a slimy rodent's butt for the genocidal atrocities in Rwanda, the Congo, Cambodia, etc?
Well, I was wrong.
Somebody did care, dang it. And that person was good 'ol Pat Robertson, the old faith healer 'n scam artist. You remember ol' Pat, right? The guy who once called non far-right Christians "termites" who needed to be exterminated, that nice man who described feminism as an evil cult that hypnotized women into leaving their families, murdering their children and becoming lesbians, the preacher who declared that because homosexuals were allowed to walk American streets, as opposed to being locked up and electrocuted, that god would send hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and maybe a meteor or two to punish us, that Man 'O God who spews out fire and brimstone moralizing to everyone else but whose first son was born out of wedlock?
Yeah, that guy.
HE cared about Rwanda. Boy, did he ever. In fact, he cared about it enough to use human suffering as an opportunity to enrich himself and his political allies. Robertson has made hundreds of millions by piggybacking a scam onto war and genocide:
Hypocrisy and cynicism on a Satanic scale
An extensive article in the Guardian outlines an incredible scam to fatten his bank offshore bank accounts and bolster a diamond mining operation wholly owned by good 'ol Pat, hisself.
He used pictures and video of Doctors Without Borders, claiming that it was his operation, to raise (and continue to raise) hundreds of millions of dollars. His real operation? Seven guys, a pup tent, and some Tylenol. Tylenol to battle cholera. I bet that worked. The whole thing was a front for a diamond mine and to gull the rubes.
Can these people get anymore fucking despicable? Makes me almost wish some kind of biblical demon would appear in a cloud of phosphorous, pitchfork this prick and barbecue his criminal-Christian ass.
Well done, please, Mr. Scratch. We'd like plenty of char.
Excellent essay from Charles Pearce this AM.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/casual-cruelties-090913
@Akhilleus: I guess we can no longer pretend we live in an "advanced" country when people walk up to strangers to assert that ignorance is patriotic.
And since when is reading about Arab heritage not about reading about Americans? I wonder if that guy would have said the same thing if you'd been reading a book about British history. I'm sure he would have if you'd been reading a French history book -- especially if it contained a lot of French, i.e., "foreign" words!
Marie
@JJG and Noodge-
Loved your comments. I agree with Noodge that the men's and women's games have reached levels not seen even a decade ago. Not just new, state of the art rackets, but rigorous training and conditioning are the order of the day for most of the players.
The Djoker has a retinue of at least 10 people who travel everywhere with him when he is playing (possibly even when he is not?). This includes a massage therapist, nutritionist, a stringer specialized coaches for each aspect of his game, at least one personal trainer--and more. That made all the difference in his win against Wawrinka in the Open semi-finals.
Since Nadal is as well conditioned as Djoker, that advantage does not exist. However, Nadal does not travel with a team of "helpers"--only Uncle Tony or his B team, and often his family. Less often his lovely girlfriend. Psychologically, I think The Djoker has become part of the "establishment," and loves all the media attention and endorsements he gets. He lives in Monte Carlo, where the guvnmint will not touch his millions. Nadal, as John McEnroe often says, is the nicest, most genuine person on the men's tour. He is not a grandstander and is not one of the "entitled," although he has a buncha titles. He is the only player who spoke up for and supported Richard Gasquet in 2009 (when he was suspended from the tour for having trace elements of cocaine in his drug test). Gasquet says he will be forever grateful.
Vamos Rafa--I hope in straight sets. But five will also suffice.
Sean Sullivan on WaPo re: Elizabeth Warren
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/09/09/elizabeth-warren-gives-liberals-the-speech-theyve-been-waiting-for-video/
Re: See Dick read; Ak; Trying to clear things up; How did the boys in the bar know what the title of the book was; just askin'?
Ignorance; don't leave home without it.
JJG,
You know, that's a very good question. This guy probably wasn't reading the title because I couldn't see his lips moving. It might have been the cover design. A picture of a mosque and guys in beards and turbans riding camels. I wasn't wearing my "Northern Liberal Traitor" t-shirt that day so I'm not sure how he thought to question my patriotism. Maybe I just have a generally treasonous air about me. I probably should have taken Marie's suggestion and answered him in French. That would have clinched it.
"Zut alors! Les Arabes sont magnifique! Et regardez les chameaux! Hoo-eee"
@Ak: If it hadn't been for the French, there probably wouldn't be a United States. Successful revolutions require outside help, for us: France. Money, weapons, troops, ships. When a reporter brought this up to Rumsfeld, he snorted "They helped a little bit." The French Navy and infantry certainly made the difference at Yorktown. Did Historian Rumsfeld mean that Yorktown wasn't a Decisive major victory? I love it when these guys are expert in Everything.
I suppose Colonel Stanton on July 4, 1917 said "Nous voila, Lafayette!" just to hear his head rattle. These neocons aren't as smart as they think. Most Southern states have a town named Fayetteville or Lafayette (or both). Named after a FRENCHMAN!
Good news that Assad and his BFF Putin are willing to collaborate to rid Syria of chemical weapons. Perhaps Obama played this just right. He went to Congress, satisfying domestic concerns, but maintained his commitment to intervention on his own. I like to think Putin and Assad blinked. For all their bellicose sabre rattling, they have to know US bombing of Syria could inflict a real butt hurt on Assad, not to mention ignite the entire Middle East. Then what would Russia do? Start a war? The idiots populating Congress now have no idea of playing a global long game. I think Obama has shown he is not unwilling to take a risk or use force - please see Bin Laden. I sincerely hope this plays out without intervention, because I believe with or without approval, Obama will drop the bombs if Assad doesn't back down.
Our boy George Zimmerman: http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-questioned-wifes-gun-allegation/t/story?id=20203329
Just for fun: Assuming Syria disarms its chemical arsenal to the satisfaction of all major players, and everyone gets to step back from the self-emposed brink, what are the T-Trogs going to be outraged about?
Djokovic just served out the second set.
No need to wait for the rest of the match for me to admit, JJG, you're a better man (woman? prognosticator?) than I.
In any event, these guys are phenomenal. I wish I could achieve the same level of excellence in my field.
The interview Charlie Rose had with that prick with no chin who trained as an ophthalmologist (something Assad has in common with our curly headed friend in Congress) was stunning. There is something erie about a leader of a country whose people in the hundreds of thousands have left to seek refuge in other countries whose affect is one of quiet reserve. This refugee problem should be of the greatest concern because Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey (who has closed its borders finally because it is bursting at the seams) and now Iraq are struggling to maintain refuge for all these poor souls. Something has to give. Yet there Assad sat, talking as though a catastrophe like this was some one else's problem.
The piece about the Three Stooges shooting off their mouths in Egypt is deplorable. Please SNL, do us proud!
And Diane–-you may be right, that Obama has played this just right. I'd like to think so.
Barbarossa,
Excellent points.
If it weren't for the French blockade, that asshole Cornwallis would have had no problem decamping Yorktown and evading the ignominious surrender forced upon him by the cooperation of French-American forces.
Merci, Monsieur le Marquis! Vive le France, et vive Les États-Unis, et allez va t'en, Cornwallis. Mange de la merde, salaud.
Rumsfeld is a cretinous moron. And he's probably one of the better informed imbeciles. Can you imagine the absolute historical stupidity of the vast majority of teabagging dicks in congress?
We need to start an Anti-Parkman award for total lack of historical knowledge and acuity.
The list of possible recipients would be legion.
PD and Diane,
I'd very much like to think that this was a grandmaster chess move by Obama. I'm not sure that's the case, but if it is, hats off to the guy. It's pretty fucking impressive.
Nonetheless, whether Obama's middle game strategy was intentional or not, it's possible that Putin has decided to give his Syrian BFF an endgame escape, because if his hand was forced (Putin's), what the fuck does he do then? All out war with the US? He may be a homo-hating, bare-chested, AK carrying, macho-man KGB dickhead, but I doubt he's stupid enough to really want to end up an Air Force piñata. After all, the Russians are still flying Korean war era MIGs.
I remember reading an interview with Dean Rusk about the Cuban missile crisis in which he declared (apologies to Elmore Leonard) that one of the most useful guidelines adopted by the Kennedy people was an old street fighting strategy: before pulling out guns and knives, offer your opponent a way to walk his shit back gracefully and save face. In the absence of an absolute need or desire to disembowel your foe, everyone goes home standing up and no one needs to blow up the world to prove the size of their balls.
Whatever. This might allow Obama, with or without approval from congressional howler monkeys, to put a little English on the ball and escape the list of war criminal miscreants, because no "symbolism" involving bombs is without loss of innocent lives.
The more I think about this, the more I wonder about the content of Obama's conversation with Putin during the G20. Perhaps Obama looked Putin in the eye and Putin saw his soul as it were. I suspect Putin saw Obama's resolve to drop bombs in Syria. Even the pundits who are notoriously behind the curve, are already figuring out that Obama now is in a much stronger position. Obama has asserted some smart muscle. If Assad thinks this will be a way to slow play, I believe he will be sadly mistaken. Assad loyals are also peeling away and his country has serious internal troubles. The borders are closing in Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Russia is also in an unenviable spot if they can't make this chemical weapons round-up happen.
Domestically, the view of Obama is skewed and diminished by the opposition idiots. The global perspective is much different. What's Obama's famous statement "I've got this." and yeah, I hope I'm not being overly enthusiastic.