Robert Gates' Portrayal Of Obama Has Democrats Feeling Relieved from the Huffington Post
"All told, the picture of Obama painted by Gates isn’t the kindest one -- unless, apparently, the picture is being viewed by House Democrats. The Huffington Post asked several House lawmakers on Friday for their opinion on Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. While none had read the book in full, they all exclaimed that they liked the portrayal of Obama."
"... unless, apparently, the picture is being viewed by House Democrats." Or the vast majority of the American people. I have been struck by the extent to which Robert Gates's view (and the beltway neo-con lite perspective he represents) has shaped initial media coverage of the "revelations" from the Gates memoir (see Bob Woodward's critique for a perfect example). So Obama was skeptical of the Iraq surge and the general strategies pursued in both Iraq and Afghanistan. GOOD FOR HIM!! Not only was that what the voters voted for in 2008 and 2012, it is a skepticism all presidents should evince when facing a roomful of generals touting what the US can accomplish through war. Like Obama, I am someone who believes that war is sometimes appropriate and justified -- but the idea that somehow it's a good thing when the president suspends his/her skepticism when war (or its escalation) are contemplated is simply bogus. The historical record is pretty clear on this: presidents who were overtly skeptical of the claims of the military brass (Eisenhower, Kennedy [after the Bay of Pigs], Reagan (in his second term) and Obama) kept the US out of conflicts and (for the first three) historians have lauded them for their judiciousness. In contrast, presidents who consistently took Pentagon cluckings at face value (Truman, LBJ, and Bush 43) committed monumental errors that will forever diminish their administrations and America's reputation in the world. I am glad to see that Dem lawmakers and some pundits in the media are sounding off on the sheer wrong-headedness of these early pro-Gates assessments. Obama has done exactly and precisely what he said he was going to do!
Another dimension to the same problem:
The Misuse of American Might, and the Price it Pays (Andrew Bacevitch) from the Los Angeles Times
"The United States no longer knows how to win wars, but it continues to start them. ... By common consent, when it comes to skills and gadgets, U.S. forces are in a league of their own. Yet when it comes to finishing the job on schedule and on budget, their performance has been woeful. Indeed, these days the United States absolves itself of any responsibility to finish wars that it starts. When we've had enough, we simply leave, pretending that when U.S. forces exit the scene, the conflict is
officially over."
Robert Gates is in No Position to Criticize President Obama (Amitabh Pal) from The Progressive
"Melvin Goodman of the Center for International Policy, a former CIA analyst who worked with Gates for more than ten years (and eventually testified against him in Congress), says that Gates’s major motivation in life has been to please his superiors. “Gates has been a sycophant in all of his leadership positions,” Goodman states in an Institute for Public Accuracy press release. “For the most part, Gates has been a windsock when it came to policy decisions.” [...] Bob Gates is hardly in a position to throw stones at anyone."
Pope Francis Baptizes Baby of an Unmarried Couple in the Sistine Chapel during Baptism Of The Lord Mass at the Vatican from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Pope Francis was conducting Baptism Of The Lord mass today. He baptised 32 children, including one of unmarried parents. Francis has supported baptising the children of unmarried mothers."
Polarization We Can Live With. Partisan Warfare is the Problem (Sean Theriault) from the Washington Post
"...behaviors that differentiate ideological legislators from political warriors. The former make legitimate contributions to political discourse in the Congress; the latter don’t, and need to be called out for the havoc they wreak on our political system. "
ACORN’s Seeds Sprout Up Across the Country (David Freelander) from the Daily Beast
"The left-wing group crushed by the right is gone, but its members never stopped working. After four years of anonymity, the liberal veterans want conservatives to know they’re back."
How Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Tried To Win Republicans The White House from the Huffington Post
"How Ailes tried to get a Republican president elected in 2012 is revealed in The Loudest Voice In The Room, author Gabriel Sherman's sweeping biography of the television luminary, from his humble Warren, Ohio, roots to becoming the “most powerful opposition figure in the country.” The book will be on sale Tuesday."
The Fracking of Act 13: How The PA Supreme Court Torpedoed Marcellus Law from the WESA program, Essential Pittsburgh
"... most surprising to many court-watchers, an until-now obscure bit of legislation from the early days of the environmental movement gave the court ordnance enough to not only oppose Act 13, but potentially tilt other environment-industry legal battles in the favor of greens."
State Ignored Plan for Tougher Chemical Oversight from the Charleston Gazette [of West Virginia]
"Three years ago this month, a team of federal experts urged the state of West Virginia to help the Kanawha Valley create a new program to prevent hazardous chemical accidents. Since then, the proposal has gone nowhere. ... Now, with more than 300,000 residents across the Kanawha Valley without usable water following a chemical accident at Freedom Industries on the Elk River, some local officials say it's time for action."
I have to confess that I have not been posting anything on the terrible chemical spill in West Virginia. I am deeply resigned that environmental protections will improve in most deep red states [which is what WV has become] no matter how bad this spill gets. The citizens of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and, yes, West Virginia have through their voting put lawmakers in place who have given their states over to chemical, mining, and fracking companies who have, in turn, eviscerated state environmental regs and created hot houses for the most irresponsible corporations out there. Part of the problem for many of these states is that they have become (or are becoming) one-party monopolies. See this item from Sunday's New York Times. So long as the citizens of West Virginia (and other deep red states) choose resource exploitation over their own environment, episodes like this will be, for them, the cost of doing business. Case in point: the people of West Virginia have been drinking deeply the "blame Obama" kool aid concerning the EPA's small-ball efforts to impose regs on the mining industry in WV.
New Jersey Lawmakers Create Special Investigatory Committee Into Bridgegate from the Huffington Post
"The committee, which will have subpoena power and a special counsel, will be led by Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D), who also chairs the chamber's transportation committee. Wisniewski has been leading the effort to figure out why New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration closed access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., in September."
Christie Apologists Hit Rock Bottom: Why the Right’s Lame, New Defense is Doomed to Fail (Brian Buetler) from Salon
"The right is predictably invoking Benghazi and the IRS to protect Chris Christie. Here's why it'll never work."
CNN Exclusive: Feds Investigating Christie's Use of Sandy Relief Funds from CNN
"CNN has learned that federal officials are investigating whether Christie improperly used those relief funds to produce tourism ads that starred him and his family."
The blood's in the water now!
Chris Christie’s Conservative Problem (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"If Christie has a base, it consists of Wall Street donors, a media fascinated by his persona and relative moderation, and some but by no means all members of the non-tea-party-wing of the Republican Party. He does not have the committed ideological core that Ronald Reagan could rely on to overcome Iran-Contra."
Christie's Troubles Are a Big Gift to the Right from the Huffington Post
"... even before bridgegate, Christie had a huge problem. ... Put bluntly, a lot of Republicans don't like Christie. More than a few have not been shy in publicly lambasting him. They also took great delight in the governor's political woes, and like Clinton could be the big beneficiaries of a Christie plummet."
The Tragic Pathos of Frank Luntz (Dante Atkins) from Daily Kos
We showcased the Luntz interview last week!
"Luntz and Beutler agree on one thing: we've moved past the time, if it ever existed, when there was give-and-take between supposedly liberal ideas and supposedly conservative ideas. We're now in a period where the electorate is primed and ready for something completely different, and conservatives will use every nasty term in the book to try to preserve the current untenable system just a little while longer."
David Atkins has an equally biting response to the Luntz interview:
Sometimes Reality Intrudes in Spite of the Bullshit (David Atkins) from Hullabaloo
"Politics is all a manipulative game to him. Yes, public opinion can be shaped to a certain degree, but you can't change reality itself. So Luntz is descending deeper into the madness of pure ideology, upset over even the idea of a safety net, while portraying President Obama as some sort of Occupy Wall Street Svengali who out-manipulated him and beat him at his game. Sadly, much as I would like to believe that brilliant progressive wordsmithing defeated him, it didn't. Reality finally did."
CAT PHOTO NUGGET!!
17 Cats Who Are All Like, 'Can I Help You?' from the Huffington Post
"Don't ever look at your cat like you want something. The only response you'll get is pure sass."
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