Check The Diagonal

Punks jump up to get beat down

It’s interesting to watch a collective Republican response to the Christmas Day attack that is based purely on their fear and lack of faith in American fortitude.  This post from the White House is the exact way to handle the Dick Cheney Right these days.  They are the party of irrational hysteria and fear and should be spanked with impunity.

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President.

 

And

There are numerous other such public statements that explicitly state we are at war. The difference is this: President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and – unlike the last Administration – we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered.

The Chicago Way.  Watch and learn, Dick.

and that is all.

Joe Klein via Andrew:

"The denizens of the left blogosphere consider themselves the Democratic Party's base. But they are not. For Democrats, as opposed to Republicans, the wing is not the base; the legions of loyal African Americans, union members, Jews, women and Latinos are. In the end, the sillier left-village practitioners are stoking the same populist exaggeration—the idea that Washington is controlled by crooks and sellouts—that conservative strategists like Bill Kristol believe will bring the Republicans back to power. The perversity of this is beyond comprehension," -Joe Klein

What a difference one year makes...

At Plunderbund, the impact and meaning of the “Captain Underpants” attack and President Obama’s change we can believe in.

There is no fear.  No panic.  No alarmism.  Not coming from this White House, not from any authorities, not from the passengers (who seem almost thrilled to be the heroes) and as a result, not even in the media.  Republicans started whining from minute one, and got more whiny the less the White House used their preferred language of belligerence.

Al Qaeda seems almost miffed that we aren’tpanicking.  I can’t really recall Al Qaeda so loudly and immediately claiming credit for any attack, not even 9/11.  And yet, they’ve done so here, praising testicle toaster as a failed martyr, making him a banner headline, because the American response isn’t giving them enough ink.

Anyone else noticing how closely aligned the American Neoconservative and Islamic extremist interests and responses are becoming?  The more Obama takes away both groups’ power of fear and hate over the American people the more apparent it becomes. Look no further than Pat Buchannan calling for the torture of the spoiled rich kid, testicle-less, failed underwear bomber.  He was telling us everything he knows before he got off the plane.  What is the use of torture at this point?  We know information obtained through torture is flawed and generally useless.  What Pat is really advocating for here is punishment.  The Neocons aren't interested in actionable intelligence, only the illusion of its possibility, what they really want is to hurt people, bad.

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Of course this humiliation of Al Qaeda will cause them to try even harder in the future and we should remain vigilant and expectant of additional attacks on American soil, but what a difference one year makes.  We’ve lost so much after being governed and controlled by the politics of hate and fear for 8 long years.  One year later, I like the look of the politics of hope and change so much better.

MSM Fail con't

We can do this all day, every day.  CNN: completely useless.  Watch them rewrite our history if we let them.

  

Think Progress has responded with the truth.  Will CNN issue a correction?  Don't hold your breath:

In reality, the terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 — eight months into President Bush’s first term. Also, the 2001 recession technically began in March of 2001, well after Bush assumed office.

Let us not forget that Bush was warned well in advance of 9/11 about terrorist plans to use commercial airlines as weapons and did nothing.

MSM Fail con't

Part of the key to the utter failure of cable news this weekend is that half of our two party system of government is reading off of a cooked script aimed at destroying our President at any cost.  This is simply further proof that cable news is increasingly conservative and untrustworthy.  From Andrew:

“Conservatism's current priorities: using any terror attack to hurt the president? Check. Watching freedom-fighters risk their lives for regime change in the most critical country for US foreign policy in the Middle East? Zzzzz. Imagine what Reagan would have thought. And weep.”

A fact that becomes even more comical listening to Pete “My tweets are like an Iranian Revolutionary” Hoekstra (via Think Progress):

“It’s not surprising,” U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Holland Republican, said of the alleged terrorist attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit. … “People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” Hoekstra said. [...]

Hoekstra hadn’t yet been briefed on the incident but said he is already calling or the Obama administration to meet with Intelligence Committee members to fully inform them about the alleged terrorism attempt at the Detroit airport”

While Big Petey argues the semantics of an “attempted terrorist attack” and a terrorist attack in an effort to tarnish the Obama Administration he only acts to prove how completely misinformed or uninterested he is.   Make no mistake about it, the MSM and their cohorts on the Right are either lazy, sloppy and unqualified to inform and protect America or they are deliberately misleading the American people to further their own selfish political ambitions.

Video link from Democracy Now, 2 days before the Detroit attack that details President Obama's specific involvement, interest and attention in Yemen.

Facts are stubborn things Pete.

Poem for Sunday

And for the people of Iran.

Patriotism
Breathes there the man with soul so dead,   Who never to himself hath said,     'This is my own, my native land!'   Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd   As home his footsteps he hath turn'd   From wandering on a foreign strand?   If such there breathe, go, mark him well;   For him no Minstrel raptures swell;   High though his titles, proud his name,   Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf,   The wretch, concentred all in self,   Living, shall forfeit fair renown,   And, doubly dying, shall go down   To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

Sir Walter Scott

MSM Fail.

 
  
  

This picture and others from today can be found at Tehran 24.

I stopped watching cable news as a source of information months ago but if there was ever a day that marked the end of the useful life of the MSM today was it.  CNN, MSNBC and FOX all missed the protests in Iran today during the holy day of Ashura.  Instead it is the blogosphere that has become our main source of real news.  No wonder so many people believe in death panels and fake birth certificates and the ghosts of the -isms.

Enduring America, Revolutionary Road, and Andrew have live blogged today beautifully and anyone interested should click through these links to get up on today’s happenings.

The regime’s responses to these protests are becoming increasingly more violent and more desperate.  We should all pray for the people of Iran as they continue to resist the government sponsored brutality and callous disregard for human life and suffering that I have seen in the videos and pictures from today’s protests.  All of this is driving to a hard point that cannot be sustained much longer.  What I hope and pray is that we are watching the death throes of the Iranian dictatorship. 

Letting go.

The picture is of Billy Graham, one of a select group of people who stepped up to be my village, when I needed it most, and raised the child. 

“Up to a point a man's life is

shaped by environment,

heredity and movement and

changes in the world about him;

then there comes a time when it

lies within his grasp to shape the

clay of his life into the sort of

thing he wishes to be.

Only the weak blame parents,

their race, their times, lack of

good fortune, or the quirks of

fate.

Everyone has it within his

power to say this I am today,

that I shall be tomorrow. The

wish, however, must be

implemented by deeds.”

Louis L’Amour

Billy was the only cowboy I ever knew and Louis L’Amour was his favorite writer.

 

  

Reap what you sow.

Tea-Baggers gone wild. 

Update:  It may have been a prank call.  Funny nonetheless.

Southern Strategy

Ta-Nehisi Coates makes a great point regarding the latest batch of southern racism by Lindsey Graham which is that poor white people should be offended by these comments too.  Frankly, I am usually too busy being offended as a minority parent to see a story like this from a white perspective (but yes, I check the white box).

“The charitable interpretation rests on the invisibility of white suffering. It rests on the erasure of Clay County. It rests on the notion that the white poor are not merely the white poor, but white trash. It's a formula makes an anchor of black America, straps it to a larger population of poor white Americans and then drops them in the Mississippi. It's a con that asks large swaths of white folks to suffer poverty in shame and silence.”

Having lived in the South these past 3 years I can recognize Lindsey Graham’s motivation for wanting to intentional promote segregation of race, for wanting to make Medicare a black thing versus a poor American thing.  But don’t call it anything except blatant racism based on the same old Southern Strategy that has made Republicans the Southern Regional Party. 

 

For all intent and purpose the South is still very much segregated.  It’s self-segregated; we see it at the mall, at our children’s schools, and out in the street.  Mentality here is such that segregated is a way of life for most.  There are very few interracial couples (like me and my wife) and even social clicks at the movies or out on the town are very much cut along racial lines.  Poor black and white still bow their head and move to the side when rich white folk pass and the poorer the person, the more yessir and yes maam you will hear, its inbred subservience when deep down, its Chris Rock’s janitor hiding his true feelings.  Graham’s comments and the sentiments that drive them is the thing that allows poor whites in the South to feel better than poor blacks.  It’s their one rung above on the ladder.  It’s their cling to the false idea of the shiftless Negro sitting on the couch waiting for the next check to come while the poor white family is struggling to make ends meet.  It’s their excuse for their unhappiness and lot in life.  Truth doesn’t matter down here.  That’s why birthers and deathers and teabagers are mostly poor southern whites and those splinters are mostly about racism.  They should be publicly offended and outraged by Graham but to do so would force them to admit too much and so they remain happy in their ignorance. 

Death to the Dictator

With the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri the Iranian people have added another powerful martyr to their cause.  He was Iran’s most senior cleric and an outspoken anti-government voice who promoted the idea of normalized relations with the United States and that dismissed the reelection of Ahmadinejad and the Khamenei government as corrupt and illegitimate in support of the current Green Movement.

A few short months ago the favorite chant of the Iranian people was “Death to America.” That has been irreparably replaced by “Death to the Dictator.”  The government in Iran has beaten, raped and murdered their own people in a fight to keep the same tyrannical control they fought to be rid of in the 70s and the Iranian people are paying attention.

The Iranian government is hopelessly trying to downplay the significance of his death in the state controlled newspaper Kayhan via Enduring America:

"there were “a maximum of about 5000” in the crowd at the Montazeri ceremonies, as reformists “completely failed to create “a popular gathering”

As you can see in the video linked by Andrew Sullivan below the crowds were of course much larger. 

 

What we are witnessing first hand is a government unable and unwilling to adapt to the changing times.  A John McCain Presidency would have signaled a welcome continuation of Bush/Cheney policies for Iran.  America would be very near to or already at war with Iran and imposing strict sanctions that would harm the Iranian people directly giving the illegitimate government of Iran the distractions they so desperately need, in the form of a very familiar American devil, in order to slow the progress of the Green Movement.   

Instead we have President Obama who has inspired the great segments of the Middle East to move towards more mutual understanding and cohabitation, and who seems quite content with letting the Iran government rattle their sabers if it likes, without reaction.   The Iranian government does not know how to respond to this outreach and so it is behaving the same way it did, with great success, during the Bush/Cheney years.  They have test fired missiles, refused to curtail or have their nuclear program inspected, provoked Israel, and in the process of cementing their illegitimacy, committed hellacious human rights violations on its own people.  They are begging for a straw man.  Thankfully the Obama Administration so far has refused to give it to them.

Facts are stubborn things...

A very good Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island…

I agree with this.  Liars need to have very good memories and in this internet age the Republican Party will be made to remember and answer for every single word. 

We know the Republican machine has been lying to the American people, this is a fact. What happens to their party when the general public, who was lied to in order to create false opposition to this bill, realize it.

60 Votes in the Senate

Overall my net is that I'm happy with the HCR bill taking under consideration the true definition of hard.  I am also pretty disappointed and discouraged by Progressive understanding of the same. There is a monumentally huge difference between what is ideal and best, and what can get passed in the current political environment, and by that I mean the one party system we currently live in.  

I sometimes feel Progressives lose sight of reality and what can get passed and signed into law because they so firmly understand would be ideal. I do think our country would much better off if more of our Representatives look like Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold and Al Franken.  And I do think Single Payer is the best possible HC system for Americans.  We just don’t live in that world.  The public option was the single most popular aspect of HCR with the American people, and when it came time count to 60, that meant jack.  Understanding what is just and right and more ideal is not the key to victory; working and understanding the system is.  You cannot win at anything if you don't know the rules of the game.  Progressives like Howard Dean would have us forfeit based on a dream that would never become reality. 

Just call the 60 votes on the Manager’s Amendment this weekend a win for the home team at any cost and move on. 

I know it’s a moot point at this stage but we Democrats didn't have 60 when President Obama was elected. Reconciliation would have been the only way to pass anything HC related and that would have meant no insurance reform which there is plenty of in the current bill.

Poem for Sunday

Birthday of but a single pang

 

Birthday of but a single pang
That there are less to come --
Afflictive is the Adjective
But affluent the doom --

 

Emily Dickinson

More Al Franken Please

When John McCain starts denouncing birthers and deathers and lying obstructionists in his own party maybe I’d give a shit about his position on comity in the Senate.

UPDATE:  I'm not the least bit surprised that John McCain is a hypocrite on this too.  Not only has he seen this type of thing before, he has done it.  Here's the story at Think Progress.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator’s time has expired.

Mr. DAYTON. I ask for unanimous consent that I have 30 seconds more to finish my remarks.

Mr. McCAIN. I object.

The lost credibility of Meet the Press

Remember this?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNBC Financial Advice
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

He’s the new Meet the Press financial expert.  Can anyone take this show seriously anymore?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jim Cramer is only interested in Jim Cramer's interest and the portfolio of trades he sells on The Street.com, and he just used Meet the Press to plug and hype the companies he is either holding or selling that are currently investing heavily in Russia, China and Brazil.

and on paying attention

This is exactly what I’m talking about regarding paying attention.  If we don’t, we will be fed misinformation and untruths by people and organizations not concerned for our best interests, the public welfare or the greater good.

Every Republican lie and vague misinformation should be attacked in the very same way.

 

Thought Al Franken was a comedian?  Think again, he’s got game.

On Hope

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.”   -Reinhold Niebuhr

 

 

I take a lot of heat for my unwavering support of President Obama. But you’ve got to understand my perspective before we go there.

I grew up in a time and place where the greatest limits we faced as children were the ones we created in our own mind.  The public schools we attended were halfway houses filled with stillborn brilliance and parental guidance was most often a shining beacon of exactly what not to do.  Hope was a luxury reserved for other, more fortunate children growing up somewhere else.  Instead our wishes were all ones of instant gratification filled with band-aids for our future which looked more dismal than our present. That’s why welfare children in the ghetto are the best dressed, it’s why our sneakers were our prize possession, and why the lure of the live for today life on the street was so strong.  These things allowed me to forget that there was very little to be hopeful for.  Instead we learned to survive a day at a time. And that’s the tragedy of a hopeless existence; living day by day and check to check forces us to live in the NOW, hope becomes tomorrow’s unaffordable luxury.  Fuck a dollar and a dream, ya heard?

Perhaps I do resemble a fan when it comes to Obama.  I can find no wrong in his consistent effort to change our conversations and outlook and direction in positive and substantive ways.  Conversely I find nothing at all redeeming about an opposition refusing to play out of spite.  What matters is that we pay attention. Progressives who are angered about the Afghanistan escalation and Hawks who were pleased with the Nobel Speech clearly have not been paying attention to Obama these past few years.  Those positions are old and he is exactly who he said he was.  If we are going to allow others to spoon feed their opinions to us, pawned off as our own, we are going to be disappointed and misled.  

I have plenty of policy and tactical disagreements with the President.  He has been slow on GITMO and DODT and DOMA and weak on equal rights for same sex partners.  I think there should be top level war crime prosecutions for the torture administration and I think Joe Liebermann and Republican obstructionism should be publically unveiled for what it is and punished.  But I didn’t vote for Obama to carry my water to the White House and enact policy the way I think he should.  I voted for him because of his character and his intellect and his willingness to try hard.  Hope is not a strategy and it’s not blind optimism either, but what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve and President Obama has given that power back to me and others in this country and for that he has my support.   

 

“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” 

-Barack Obama

 

 

I'm yours

School is done for the year and work tends to be slower around XMAS so I'll be able to spend some time reading and writing for pleasure.  I've got a small stack of books, some thoughts on Obama's Nobel speech and what the difference is between paying attention and being a "fanboy."  But, before I get to all that, I'm taking the weekend off with the kids and the PIXAR BluRay collection, because with everything else going on their time gets cut short too....

Until then...

I'm feeling all WTF today....

With work and school and life and the holidays I am way too busy to be here right now but I'm just so disgusted with the left's reaction to the Obama speech on Tuesday I had to drop a link and a few quick thoughts. 

Republican wingnuts and tea baggers are absolutely bat shit crazy, this is a fact.  If the past 8 years taught us anything its that Republicans have NO business governing a majority when their ideals and ideas are skewed to satisfy such a ridiculous and insane minority.  The Democrats on the other hand have no business having a majority they don't know what to do with.  They lack the balls and political instinct to move any agenda forward.  On health care, military and foreign policy, spending, taxes, stimulus, you name it, President Obama's worst enemies reside on HIS side of the aisle.  I'm exasperated by the uselessness of the left.  In 3 years Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney are going to be the legitimate Republican Presidential nominees...getting a picture of the alternative yet.

Jamelle Bouie sums it up nicely here:

This isn't a one time thing either; throughout the speech Obama calls for more troops and more resources to be directed towards the war in Afghanistan. The simple fact here is that Obama has done exactly what he said he would, and it's ridiculous for liberals to claim that they've been "betrayed." No, they just haven't been paying attention.

Yes, Barack Obama's decision to double-down in Afghanistan will cost us thousands of American and Afghan lives, but frankly, that pales in comparison to the destruction we know right-wing foreign and domestic policy will cause. In a mere eight years, the right-wing was responsible for two invasions (and hundreds of thousands of lost lives), the destruction of a major American city, torture, illegal spying on American citizens, indefinite detention, and the near-total collapse of the global economy. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to be pissed at Obama -- lord knows I am -- but threatening to inflict that on the the world again is irresponsible verging on criminal.