Bookmarking Bacevich

Aside from trashing Matt Funiello, this blog exists to bookmark articles I want to save.

Consider the following claims, each of which in Washington circles has attained quasi-canonical status.

* The presence of U.S. forces in the Islamic world contributes to regional stability and enhances American influence.
* The Persian Gulf constitutes a vital U.S. national security interest.
* Egypt and Saudi Arabia are valued and valuable American allies.
* The interests of the United States and Israel align.
* Terrorism poses an existential threat that the United States must defeat.

For decades now, the first four of these assertions have formed the foundation of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The events of 9/11 added the fifth, without in any way prompting a reconsideration of the first four. On each of these matters, no senior U.S. official (or anyone aspiring to a position of influence) will dare say otherwise, at least not on the record.

Yet subjected to even casual scrutiny, none of the five will stand up.  To take them at face value is the equivalent of believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy — or that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell really, really hope that the Obama administration and the upcoming Republican-controlled Congress can find grounds to cooperate.

It's too long for a label, but this might fall under the heading of "shit Funiello and I might agree on." And hey, here's something the neocons will agree with Jimmy Carter on.

Regardless, the assumed energy dependence and “vital interests” that inspired Jimmy Carter to declare back in 1980 that the Gulf is worth fighting for no longer pertain.

I can see why they don't care for Bacevich, tho.

 Like crime and communicable diseases, terrorism will always be with us.  In the face of an outbreak of it, prompt, effective action to reduce the danger permits normal life to continue. Wisdom lies in striking a balance between the actually existing threat and exertions undertaken to deal with that threat. Grown-ups understand this. They don’t expect a crime rate of zero in American cities. They don’t expect all people to enjoy perfect health all of the time.  The standard they seek is “tolerable.”

Greens Against Oil

In the latest Chronicle. Matt Funiello of the neo-Amish Green Party gave his, or someone's, opinion on the Keystone Pipeline.Mark Frost makes it sound like Funiello wrote it, but in any case, here tis:

The Green Party of the United States is calling for the defeat of proposed tar-sands pipelines when the U.S. Senate votes on the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday and opposes alternative plans, including "Energy East," that would route Canadian oil into the U.S. by pipeline or tanker.

I really hope that Mark Frost is going to continue to run his missives. It would've been fun to see him interacting with the Right-wing loons in Congress. God knows. But, seeing him in the local media will suffice as a consolation prize. 

From what I can gather, the Greens want the oil to stay in  the ground in Canada. I'd dearly love to know what they want us to do for energy between now and the time we're running our houses and cars on wind and solar power. Hate to sound like a Republican (Matt'll tell you that Dems and Reps are the same, of course). Actually, I'm greener than the average bear. I went for over 4 years without a vehicle, walking a lot and riding GGFT. That said, I know that Americans still need fuckin' oil.

Just FYI, Matt drives a Ford pickup that I would guess gets 12 MPG. That's if it's tuned up real well and running efficiently. I'm guessing it's not corn powered.

And in bonus Matt-news:

The Green Party might field a candidate, said Matt Funiciello, the Green Party congressional candidate who placed second in Queensbury in this year’s congressional race.

“It is one of the races that Peter Lavenia (of the state Green Party Committee) is talking about,” Funiciello said.

That's because John Strough, the supervisor of Queensbury, is a tool of the corporations and no different than the unnamed Republican who will be running against him.

Queensbury Republican Chairman Bill VanNess said the Republican Party will field a candidate.

It's going to be a fun 2 years.

Stop Whining and Sue Him

Really wish the Republicans would. It would be a repeat of Fox News' lawsuit against Al Franken.

More than 100 immigration professors and scholars declared Tuesday that President Barack Obama's decision to make several million immigrants illegally in the United States eligible to be spared from deportation is constitutional and within his administrative powers.

And I wanted to bookmark this, as well. Love holiday miracles.

Uncle Mike started telling me about his rooftop solar panels. Solar panels! That clean energy-producing, climate change-reducing technology that Obama put on the roof of the White House, that I’ve written about repeatedly and enthusiastically; not only does Uncle Mike have a system of his own, he was willing to talk my ear off about all the benefits he’s getting out of it.

See, it's just like Matt Funiello sez, Obama and Uncle Mike are the same, both loving the solar panels. Fuckin' hippies!

I'll have them myself in 2015 or 16.

Tax Meat Now

This will be a plank in my platform when I make my run for Congress in 2016. Meat should absolutely be taxed. Can't believe I found this in Bloomberg.

Meat has always been part of the human diet. Few dishes are as wonderful as a bolognese sauce made with a combination of pork, lamb, and beef. But taxing pigs, sheep, and cows is essential to contain the spiraling costs associated with massive meat eating.

Excessive consumption of meat is harmful to human health and the health of the planet. I'll be eating some turkey on Thursday and I consume it several times a month on non-holidays. It's necessary that the costs associated with its consumption are raised in order to discourage it. 

Paul Krugman Judges Obama

Paul Krugman writes about the president here in Rolling Stone.

Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn't deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it's working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it's much more effective than you'd think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.

I'm really just putting this up here to bookmark it, a primary use of my blog. But, here is a bit for Matt Funiello.

It's worth pointing out that some criticisms of Obamacare from the left are also looking foolish. Obamacare is a system partly run through private insurance companies (although expansion of Medicaid is also a very important piece). And some on the left were outraged, arguing that the program would do more to raise profits in the medical-industrial complex than it would to protect American families.

You can still argue that single-payer would have covered more people at lower cost – in fact, I would. But that option wasn't on the table; only a system that appeased insurers and reassured the public that not too much would change was politically feasible. And it's working reasonably well: Competition among insurers who can no longer deny insurance to those who need it most is turning out to be pretty effective. This isn't the health care system you would have designed from scratch, or if you could ignore special-interest politics, but it's doing the job.

Yes, the politics of reality.

Marion Barry Memorium Monday Edition

RIP Mayor Barry. It's a shame he'll be remembered only for being set up in a crack bust and not for the good he did.

Former Harvard professor and civil rights leader Cornell West said on CNN on Sunday that Barry "had his flaws" but was a "great freedom fighter" for the poor and disenfranchised.

The Washington Post noted that he "plowed hundreds of millions of tax dollars into job training and employment programs, senior centers and social-welfare endeavors. Rank-and-file workers were hired by the thousands to serve under Mr. Barry's newly-appointed supervisory corps of African American middle and top level managers."

He ardently promoted African-American-owned enterprises.

In happier news, Americans are good with Emperor O and the flooding of the country with illegals.

By a 39-point margin--67 percent compared with 28 percent--likely 2016 voters view favorably the plan Obama announced last week, according to a Hart Executive Research Associates survey conducted for Americans United for Change, a pro-Democratic group.  

And some news on a guy looking to be our next emperor, Rand Paul, on dealing with ISIS.

The Kentucky senator, seeking to define himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of 2016, will introduce a measure in the Senate next month declaring war on the terror group. 

That doesn't sound very Libertarian-like. Like this did:

In an interview with The Daily Beast in September, Paul said he was against the idea of U.S. forces on Middle East soil. “I don’t think there needs to be any American soldiers over there on the ground,” he said.

It's not a flip-flop, it's apparently just Libertarian-lite. Don't know how that's gonna play with his dad's followers, though.

Doug Stafford, a senior aide to Paul, said the senator has not flip-flopped: “He doesn’t believe we should send a bunch of troops in to start a ground war. But he has always said we have an obligation to defend people in the region. The declaration is tailored to allow for this.”

And good news on the Benghazi front. It's apparently gone on hiatus until Hillary Clinton announces her candidacy. We can be pretty sure how she feels about troops to fight ISIS. 

A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.

Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation of the politically charged incident determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

That is the version you will see them present, with helpful highlighting by Tbogg. 

Alright, Let's Hear It For Civil Wars

Here's a great clip to watch anytime you're feeling blue because you think Ebola is coming to wipe us all out, and if it doesn't ISIS will finish off the survivors.

And I should point out to Matt Funiello that corporations are much kinder than those cruel colonialists. Took the advice of the great people at Patreon who made this and looked up King Leopold II. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more evil person in charge of a country today. As bad as you want to make out your least liked, most hated world leader to be, he is not in a league with this guy. 

Leopold’s actual work in the Congo was enslaving the population and using its labor to cart off resources. He lined his pockets with the profits and financed Belgian public works, bought real estate, built a fabulous villa in the south of France, and achieved what he regarded as greatness.
His regime forced Africans, at gunpoint, to work brutally hard at the tasks of empire: collecting ivory, tapping rubber, mining copper, building railroads, and carrying raw materials on their backs along narrow paths for miles. People who tried to avoid slavery were whipped, starved, and shot. Families were held hostage. People were raped and held as sex slaves. Crops were burned. Villages were leveled.

That's just a small sample. I implore you to read it all.