Pretty fair-handed assessment of Obama's actual accomplishments as a community organizer at NRO:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWMxNGUxZWJjYzg1NjA0MTlmZDZmMjUwZGU3ZjAwNmU=&w=Mg==
@193,
Terry, I saw your explication, but not Patrick's, which was my concern as his phrasing was less than felicitous to my ears.
@206
Jörg, I took no offense; I was merely trying to lighten things up by mocking the pompous bastards making speeches on CSPAN by transliterating their pronunciation.
#200
Paula, 1) You raise a good question about the FBI's handling of the 9/11 hijackers before 9/11 and I'd really like to see some serious evidence as to how that was handled, but since I doubt that said orders were committed to paper I don't think we'll ever know the full truth of the matter. But the old saying "Never ascribe to a conspiracy what can more plausibly be caused by any combination of stupidity and incompetence" may well apply. Both the CIA and the FBI have had their share of arrogant incompetents over the last few decades.
2 and 3) Our policymakers failed to plan for the occupation and administration of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Arrogant incompetence, IMO, certainly, but it's a bit more understandable in Afghanistan because they wanted to get out as quickly and with as little cost as possible to focus on Iraq. They sure as hell didn't want to try and occupy the country, which would have united the country against us, so they set up the Loya Jurga, which basically divided the country between the various warlords, invited NATO in to help out with security and left fairly minimal forces behind to keep Karzai in power and to fight the Taliban. And they've been keeping Afghanistan on a shoestring while Iraq has absorbed most of the attention and resources. Oh, and by the way, troops were not pulled out of Afghanistan to go to Iraq; they went home, while Iraq was invaded by an entirely different set of troops. But the focus and the resources were certainly diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq, which is probably your fundamental point.
Fighting those warlords directly would certainly turn us into occupiers, something we've been very careful to avoid lest it turn into a replay of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. And we all know how well that went for them. Far preferable, to my mind, is strengthening the authority of the central government so that it can take on the warlords itself, with some assistance for us. But there are a boatload of obstacles in the way for even that approach to work easily.
I really, really don't want to see American proconsuls in Afghanistan or Iraq, even if that would be a significant improvement over the current native governments.
4) It ain't treason as defined in Article 3 of the Constitution. See Terry's comment in @202.
@180
Terry,I'm with Nancy in @181. Other than through a felony conviction I think depriving anyone of the franchise is an extremely dangerous tool that can be turned against you just as easily as you use it against your opponents.
#178
Lee, driven from public life could well be interpreted as deprived of the franchise or even driven into hiding like that Dutch legislator who's been threatened by Islamic fundamentalists. Not merely losing an election.
#177
Andrew, I'm not sure what you mean. Explain, please, perhaps I'm being thick today.
#176
Paula, treason is a word lightly thrown around by Bush's opponents. Please explain how Bush and his government have given aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States as fits the definition in Article 3.
And election fraud, even at the presidental level, has a long and dishonorable history in these Yewnited States. Do we need to summon the ghosts of Joe Kennedy or Rutherford B. Hayes to testify? I do not think the hands of either party are clean in this regard, even within the last decade.
"No more mercy. These people need to be more than defeated. They need to be driven from our public life."
Is anyone else perturbed by Patrick's quote?
So much for free speech and all that jazz.
#139
One thing I've become very conscious of ever since I watched the first 5 seasons of the Sopranos, one per week, is how the pacing of broadcast TV shows is so much different than it is for non-commercial TV. This was greatly emphasized by watching a few seasons of Buffy, Firefly and NYPD Blue where there isn't any commercials. So you really notice all the mini-climaxes, which now seem to have no real purpose. I've come to greatly prefer the uninterrupted block of TV as the pacing seems much more natural. Now I'm wondering how something like Buffy or Firefly could have been improved if they'd have been able to use the same format. (Not that there really can ever be an answer in this sector of the Multi-verse). But still.
Lori,
Valerie Plame wasn't covert, fer Chrissakes, she was only an analyst. And I don't know about what happened to the division she worked for. But treasonous, by the Constitutional definition, not by any means.
Bush lied? About what? WMDs? Unfortunately pretty much everybody else, like the British, French and German intelligence services, agreed with the Administration's belief that the Iraqis had WMDs. So I'll have to pass on that particular lie.
I'm far more concerned about the mismanaged conduct of the war than anything else. The total failure to plan for stability operations is scarier to me than all the other BS that the KOSsacks are up in arms about because that process isn't supposed to be political. Such incompetence in our professional military is frightening.
Lori,
You seem to have missed my point entirely. These sorts of maimings happen in war, every war. For causes good, bad and indifferent. Does that make a difference?
As for the current affair, I can accept debacle, although my definition is likely different than yours, but treasonous? Not by any definition.
I feel for the guy, but I'm really glad that his fiancée was still willing to marry him.
And as for the awfullness of war, what else is new? We've spent the last few thousands of years learing how to better kill and maim our fellow humans.
Such injuries were suffered trying to liberate the death camps of Nazi Germany. Does that make it any better than the current fracas? Did that end justify these sorts of prices?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 4 |
Total: 11 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Jason:
Show all comments by Jason.