Politics Blog

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Category: Terrorism

Islamist terrorism: Still looking for answers

"...why is it that Islam has produced so many jihadists?"

-- Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the Wall Street Journal.

Good question. Christianity has pretty much gotten over arming troops in the name of Christianity. One force that might marginally qualify is the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. But Swiss halberds are no match for a Glock, or even a pellet gun. There's also the Knights of Columbus, but their swords are ceremonial. The knights haven't attacked any country, as far as I know.

Gerecht was commenting on Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. The federal 9/11 Commission Report declared "Islamist terrorism" as a significant threat. That was in 2004 and the West still doesn't seem to have a handle on it.

Here for mammograms: Don't worry women's pretty little heads.

And here for Gerecht.

Category: President Obama

Historical amnesia creates mythical "spending binge"

Inevitably, every time I point out that the enormous deficit President Obama is dealing with is largely the result of the obligations that the Bush administration left to him, our comment section lights up with accusations that I'm making stuff up. Folks, I don't pull these numbers out of thin air. Read the entire thing, including the linked source material, but allow me to quote from Eric Alterman's well researched piece where I got these numbers:

The Bush tax cuts: When the Bush tax cuts sunset at the end of 2010, the previous administration will have left the government holding the bag for well over $2 trillion in lost revenue. The extraordinary debt and deficits accrued during Bush's tenure have been compounded by the implosion of the financial system. ...

In 2004, Peter Orszag, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote extensively on the costs of the Bush tax cuts as a fellow at the Brookings Institution. He explained that the only way to make the tax cuts permanent and fill the budget gap would be to make enormous cuts in vital government services or to institute new regressive taxes.

Then there's the cost of the wars. As the article points out, "Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University and a former Army colonel, wrote in 2008, "Meanwhile, to fund the war, the Pentagon is burning through somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion per week." So I ask, where was the media and the conservatives who have suddenly re-discovered fiscal responsibility back when I was begging for support to end the occupations because they were going to bankrupt us? Keep in mind also, that the war costs were never included in the budget or the deficit projections back then. In the Bush era, those costs were kept off the books and put into a "special funding" category. The estimated costs of the Iraq War that most of you supported "are now in the trillions" which could have funded health care for every American and would have been contributing to our economy instead of a foreign country. And the reason the deficit looks so alarming now, is because Obama's administration stopped cooking the books and is reporting the true numbers.

Don't get me wrong, I want the occupations to end, the sooner the better, and I welcome conservatives new found support in ending them, but let's not lapse into historical amnesia and forget who is really to blame for getting us into this mess, before anyone starts blaming Obama for not getting us out of it, fast enough.

Lou Dobbs' campaign of hate

Lou Dobbs was not born in Texas and he wants to close the door to all the good people across the border. He has forgotten the doors opened for him. I heard Judge Demon Keith of Detroit, a man of great wisdom, say, "When you walk across floors you did not scrub and through doors you did not open, you must turn around and scrub some floors."

Lou Dobbs has a great voice and television appearance; he looks good and sounds good doing what he does. I think of the old anchors from the network days when I see and hear him, but he had become something less than a reporter of the facts in his desire to build a base for his third-party political movement.

I think we need a third party in this country to push the Democrats and Republicans into confronting some of the uncomfortable issues they would rather leave alone. But Mr. Dobbs should not build his movement on hate. He should embrace the homecoming of our friends south of the border. They were here first and they will be here last. It is best to learn the language and show them the way to be good citizens.

Category: The Economy

The Spoils of War

This story went pretty much unnoticed by the US media. They've having government hearings in Britain.

"Military commanders are expected to tell the inquiry into the Iraq war, which opens on Tuesday, that the invasion was ill-conceived and that preparations were sabotaged by Tony Blair's government's attempts to mislead the public."

The commanders are expected to offer proof that Blair was secretly making arrangements to support Bush's invasion of Baghdad for more than a year before he openly informed the UK's legislative body. Meaning of course, that Bush was also doing the same and all that talk about invading as a last resort really was a lie.

It was this deceit that led to an unneccessary occupation, and along with the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that don't expire until next year, is what ultimately led to the huge deficit spending we're forced into now. Let's not forget that, even if the media can't seem to remember that both those Bush era policies cost us trillions and the bills for them are still coming in today.

Category: Election 2010

Third Party Possibility

Regular readers know I don't put much value on polling but this new Denno-Noor poll showed some interesting results. There's no clear cut leader in either major party.

Lt. Gov. John Cherry (D) is leading the Democratic pack to replace Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), "but he's generating little enthusiasm among voters." Cherry leads with just 20%, followed by Andy Dillon (D) at 6% and George Perles (D) also at 6%.

The GOP race is also wide open with Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R) at 21%, followed by Mike Cox at 15% and Michael Bouchard (R) at 13%.

The really interesting stat though, is that "Fully 54% of voters surveyed said they were "likely" or "very likely" to consider an independent rather than a Republican or Democrat next year. Only 12% said they definitely would not." I've been predicting a third party surge since 2006. Maybe 2010 will be the year it finally comes true.

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Category: The Economy

Now for the really bad news...

Today's New York Times headline: Wave of debt payments facing U.S. government.

Key sentence: "Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today's low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages."

What a shock. If you borrow money, you're supposed to pay it back. Who knew?

The feds have been reckless for decades. Bush ran up the deficit. Obama joined the party. Both of them were mostly buying votes, playing to their constituencies. The official debt is $12 trillion, but it's many times that, thanks to uncounted obligations to Social Security, etc.

And now Congress, in its infinite wisdom, is near adding to the debt with health care reform that will almostly certainly run up the tab.

All this is not surprising. Officials in charge of the economy, including Treasury chief Timothy Geithner, were the guys who developed policies that contributed the real estate bubble and bust.

As Peter Schiff ("Crash Proof") points out, the big crash in the U.S. economy has yet to come. Best bet to conserve what you have: Buy foreign currencies or foreign stocks denominated in anything but U.S. dollars.

Here for how the Silverdome sucks, too.

And here for feds.

Category: Health care

A Thumbs Up for the Senate Reform Bill

While I've been pushing for major reform of our health care system, I admit that I don't know how well any of the proposals will work. The only point I'm certain of is that doing nothing is not an option. Our current process is simply inhumane and unsustainable. So I was greatly relieved by this review of the current Senate bill by Jonathan Gruber, a leading expert from MIT, who is reviewing it page by page and very much likes what he sees.

"I'm sort of a known skeptic on this stuff," Gruber told me. "My summary is it's really hard to figure out how to bend the cost curve, but I can't think of a thing to try that they didn't try. They really make the best effort anyone has ever made. Everything is in here....I can't think of anything I'd do that they are not doing in the bill. You couldn't have done better than they are doing."

This is the best reporting on the bill I've seen yet. It focuses solely on what the bill does without getting into the horserace politics of the process. It's a must read if you want to understand what this bill will do. I admit, I've been worried that the bill will make things worse. After reading this, I'm very encouraged that we're headed in the right direction for true reform that will improve our health care.

Detroit, the sign of things to come

The things you see in the city of Detroit will not stop at the city limits. The weeds and abandoned houses will be in the suburbs and all over the United States of America in the next 10 years. As the country continues to move away from making things, inner cities and outer suburbs will suffer.

America has decided to let the rest of the world mass produce everything from toys to cars. It was Detroit that taught the world how to mass-produce and pay workers enough money for doing so that it created a customer for the product. It was in Highland Park that Henry Ford led the world into mass production by making 9,000 Model Ts in a day.

Media talking heads put Detroit down and blame the riots and corrupt politicians for the fall of the great city. But the truth is it was the Republicans at their National Convention in Detroit in the early '80s that put in place plans to send manufacturing to foreign countries.

The Republicans, led by Ronald Regan's voodoo economic policies, started the end of decent pay and the middle class. The sad thing is it was meant to harm only the inner cities that were taken over by bold black men like Coleman A. Young in Detroit. Those union-busting ways broke not just the city, but also the country.

Obama must not change like Bill Clinton changed to be re-elected. Clinton won his second term by being more Republican than any Republican. He changed his mind on welfare reform and many other issues just to get re-elected. Obama came in on "Yes We Can" and he must stay the course, even as his popularity falls.

It is better to be a one-term president and save the nation than to get a second term and destroy the country his daughters will inherit.

Missing the mark

A group calling itself Project 21, a black leadership network, is upset with the Rev. Jesse Jackson about his remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation reception held in his honor. It has been 25 years since he was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency of the United States. He never ran for president, but he gave great courage to many young blacks.

At that meeting he called out Alabama Rep. Arthur Davis, D-Al., saying "You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man." The group called Jackson's statement divisive and likened it to the mental tactics of an antebellum slave owner.

Both sides miss the mark. The leaders of the Project 21 did not understand what Jackson meant by black and Jackson missed the mark by not understanding the post-Obama black man. It is a new day and every black person has to get used to it, from my generation and the young people in my son's and daughter's generation. They must give respect to the thinking that shaped blacks as a people over the last 40 years.

If they don't, society will become "White Only" again, but this time it will be at the University of Michigan and not just the lunch counter in Alabama.

Jesse Jackson and Arthur Davis are the same color on the outside, but their thinking has not been shaped by the same set of circumstances.

Category: Republicans

Stand Off in Standish

Liz Cheney's new political advocacy group, Keep America Safe, whose only purpose appears to be to attack President Obama's national-security policies, has posted a short video featuring a few citizens of Standish who are opposed to potentially housing some Gitmo detainees in their local prison. These people claim to be speaking for the majority of the town, but the City Manager says that's not true. In fact, the "Standish city council recently passed a unanimous resolution expressing support for bringing Gitmo detainees," as a way to bring much needed employment to the town. He accuses Cheney's group of fearmongering and says the people on the video represent a tiny minority of naysayers. The video is available at the link above.

To put this bit of propaganda into further context, a major funder of "Keep America Safe" is long time GOP operative Mel Sembler, who was awarded a couple of different ambassador positions during GOP administrations and was a co-founder of Straight, Inc., a controversial chain of drug-treatment centers that were shut down after numerous complaints of physical and psychological abuse of its clients, some of which was attributed to Sembler personally. Hard to believe this makes for a non-partisan organization.

In any event, these citizens of Standish should worry more about losing the opportunity to reactivate their prison than about who might be housed in it. They have some strong competition. Thomson, Illinois " is reportedly pushing hard for the administration to send Guantanamo prisoners there." If Standish goes broke, they may be sorry they weren't a bit more courageous.