Category: Politics

Juan Cole discusses the “Surge” and Bob Woodward’s new book about Bush at war:

[T]he Surge was not just 30,000 extra troops building blast walls.

The Surge was a dirty war. It was a vast effort at identifying, finding and assassinating the leaders of the Sunni Arab resistance. […]

That is, US officers in Baghdad were playing Col Mathieu in a rerun of the Battle of Algiers, tracking down and killing the members of the Sunni resistance cells with ever increasing efficiency.

Crowing about the success of Surge wouldn’t look so pretty if you were actually celebrating an assassination campaign.

Not so pretty? Perhaps, but in a society that can glorify fictional torture in “24”, and has a war criminal for a president, “pretty” doesn’t seem to matter.

Every time McCain or his staff says something about Palin, another
blooper pops up.

Tom at The Inverse Square Blog rips into Palin. Money quote:

I said that Miss Palin is being used.  The passive voice is a deceiver.  Sarah Palin is using her daughter as cynically as I have ever witnessed anyone turn their children to their own ends.  John McCain is taking advantage as best he can of a pregnant teenager to advance his ambition.  The McCain campaign and the leaders of the Republican Party are asking — demanding, as far as anyone can tell — that Bristol Palin suspend whatever hope for privacy she may have in order to provide her mother with the cover she needs.

I do not have words to describe how I feel about women and men that would so put themselves and their ambitions, their lust for power before that of a young woman — a girl — who had done nothing, not one thing, to place herself in the way of such a train wreck.

Here’s James Fallows’ assessment of this aspect of the Palin speech:

Nothing off limits. Barack Obama has used his family as a prop from time to time — most recently, bringing the charming girls onto the stage at the end of his convention speech. That’s life in politics; everybody does it to some degree.Very few politicians do it as all-out as Sarah Palin just did, from citing the disabilities of her youngest child as part of her resume to including the shotgun groom of her elder daughter. I can’t recall any spectacle comparable to Baby Trig being passed from Cindy McCain, to Trig’s 7-year-old sister, to Palin herself when she ended the speech. Her husband looks charming, I have to say. From this point on it will be hard for her to declare anything about her personal or famiy life out-of-bounds.

For those of you who labour under the delusion that the US Presidential election might be about national security, or “The Economy, stupid”, or budget deficits, or Social Security, or stuff like that, let John McCain’s main man put you straight.

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain’s presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.

“This election is not about issues,” said Davis. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

Got that?
(From the Washington Post.)

Guess who was a member of the…

Alaskan Independence party (AIP) before becoming an elected Republican official, and recorded a video message for the AIP convention this year. The party’s chief goal is securing Alaska a vote on seceding from the US, a goal that AIP leaders believe the state was denied before it became part of the US almost 50 years ago.

(From guardian.co.uk.)

The kind of headline I’d rather not see:

Dutch withdraw spy from Iran because of “impending US attack”

The Dutch intelligence service has pulled an agent out of an "ultra-secret operation" spying on Iran's military industry because spymasters in Netherlands believe a United States air attack was imminent.

I’m irresistibly reminded of Sir Humphrey in “Yes, Prime Minister”: “‘controversial’ will lose you votes; ‘courageous’ will lose you the election”. McCain’s choice was quintessentially courageous….

From a comment by Ripper McCord at TPM:

Appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in July, John McCain was reminded that [he] often tells his audiences the vice president has only two duties: Breaking tie votes in the Senate and inquiring daily about the health of the president.
“That job will be very, very important in my case,” replied McCain, who turned 72 today.

And this was the most qualified candidate he could come up with…?
UPDATE: Tom at The Inverse Square Blog runs the numbers…

Here’s the new “American Prayer” video by Dave Stewart and a crowd of celebrities endorsing Obama. It’s pretty good, and I make no apologies for being part of the viral network….

Read more about the project here:

As an Englishman, I’m not an expert in all the intricate details of American politics. But as an artist, I understand how rare it is to inspire a connection to a bigger idea or purpose. This video isn’t so much an endorsement of Barack Obama as much as it is a celebration of all those who have picked up a sign, who have registered to vote and are working to make the world a better place.

Who kidnapped Deepak Chopra, and where have they hidden him?
Normally, Deepak Chopra’s contributions to HuffPo and other forums have been unadulterated woo; pure mystical New Age claptrap. But today he nailed Rick Warren’s fatuous Saddleback forum in uncompromisingly blunt language..

For McCain, it’s all as simple as what Reaganism carved out almost thirty years ago: Gay marriage is bad, abortion is bad, activist judges are bad. Winning in Iraq is good, getting Osama bin Laden is good, offshore oil drilling is good, and freedom is great. Obama talked about the hard work and sacrifices we need to make in order to overcome energy dependence and academic mediocrity, also the respect we need to accord others on the abortion issue–not quite as stirring as reactionary platitudes.
In short, McCain appealed to our escapist magical morality, Obama appealed to reason and practicalities. That has been the story throughout the campaign. Everyone concedes that Obama’s way is more mature, realistic, and ultimately right. But I doubt that’s enough to cure a case of sweaty palms.