The American Parthenon

Guilt by association...

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Powerline (which can do much better than this) quotes at length one of Sen. McCain's top foreign policy advisers, one former CIA Director James Woolsey, on the supposed wrongheadedness of Sen. Obama's intention to return to a more law enforcement-centric method of combating terrorism. That the conservative blog favours McCain's position over Obama's ought to surprise nobody (the merits of both are certainly debatable, and there are plenty of 'experts' supporting each side) but Woolsey appears to be an extraordinarily disreputable source. He was on television the day after Sept. 11 suggesting Iraqi sponsorship of the attacks, and suggested in 2006 that the United States ought to unilaterally bomb Syria.

It ought to also come as no surprise that the Project for the New American Century member may also be a merchant of death, simultaneously supporting the invasion of Iraq (in fact serving on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq) while also profiting from its prosecution.

Here is Rightweb on Woolsey and his connections: "Former CIA Director James Woolsey is a principal in the Paladin Capital Group, a venture-capital firm that, like [Richard] Perle's Trireme Partners, is soliciting investment for homeland security firms. Woolsey joined consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton as vice president in July 2002. The company had contracts worth more than $680 million in 2002. Woolsey told the Wall Street Journal that he does no lobbying and that none of the companies he has ties to have been discussed during a Defense Policy Board meeting."

If the guilt-by-association standard is to be applied throughout this election - which I generally don't support - let it be done fairly, to both candidates.

Super-Earths discovered in Doradus and Pictor

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:25:00 +0000

And the roll call of extrasolar planets grows rather splendidly:

"European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.

They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common."

Ezra Klein, on the self-perpetuating cycle of discrimination

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:52:00 +0000

If anyone can think of a politically acceptable way to solve this, I may write in your name for president.

"The passive workplace discrimination and the passive shifting of personal responsibilities sadly work to reinforce each other. Guys in the workplace don't see why women can't do what they did, and guys at home justify their reduced housework by pointing to their demanding jobs. Conversely, women have more housework and childcare responsibilities, and thus less time to devote to the workplace and less of the scheduling flexibility that's currently required for advancement. So men advance professionally, and justify their personal habits on those grounds, and women pick up the slack, and thus don't advance as far professionally."

Alterman, on the Guantanamo decision

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Dr. Alterman 1, Wall Street Journal editorial board 0:

"It is their considered judgment, goes their reasoning insofar as it is intelligible to yours truly, that by insisting on the right to trial, habeas corpus, etc., the justices are treating the Constitution as if it were a suicide pact. And in fact, by allowing these people who have been held now for six or so years without charges the right to trial, the United States is, in fact, committing suicide.

That strikes me as a testable proposition."

Honda rolls out zero-emissions FCX Clarity

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:10:00 +0000

About as awesome as it gets. Maybe there's hope after all.

Al Franken wins DFL endorsement and is taken more seriously

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Via The Economist --

"AN IMPLAUSIBLE politician has just become somewhat less so. On June 7th Al Franken, a former comedian on “Saturday Night Live”, radio commentator and author of books such as “Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right”, won the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labour party (DFL) for the post of senator. "

I think he's going to win. I hope so, if only for the justice served of him taking over the seat of his late friend Paul Wellstone.

The undeserved 'Maverick' reputation

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000

So much has been written recently about how undeserved is Sen. McCain's reputation as an anti-partisan Maverick that it almost seems like beating a dead dog at this point. Indeed he is not conservative enough for the talk-radio circuit (although one wonders if anybody short of G. Gordon Liddy could be).

Here, though, is Factcheck (via Congressional Quarterly) with the actual numbers on 'Maverick-ism' or the lack thereof: McCain voted with the president's position 95 percent of the time in 2007, and in no year has voted with the president's position less than 77 percent of the time, as in 2005.

Sen. Obama voted with the president's position 40 percent of the time last year, and Sen. Reid of Nevada did so 39 percent of the time. Obama voted with the Democrats 97 percent of the time in 2007.

The Conventional Wisdom on the VP choice

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:13:00 +0000

The conventional wisdom of a brief poll of international bloggers seems to be that Sen. Obama will choose Sen. Clinton. Here is the Australian John Quiggin:

"My record tipping elections is not great, though I called the 2007 election for Labor ahead of most pundits. It remains to be seen whether I’ll get even a passing grade on my prediction, in January, of a relatively narrow win for an Obama-Clinton ticket over McCain-Lieberman for the Republicans. I’ve got the nominees right, and Hillary for VP seems like a no-brainer."

A Canadian Perspective on Obama's VP choice

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:05:00 +0000

The blogger Warren Kinsella:

"But she and Bill will be an even bigger handful if they are outside the tent. And the two of them give Obama - an Ivy League Yankee liberal - some much-needed Southland blue Democrat DNA. And her baggage is old news (whilst Obama's is still newsworthy, and is about to be wheeled out to the National Enquirer and Fox News, within days, just wait).

This insane war in Iraq needs to end, and the U.S. economy needs to get back to what it had been under Bill. America needs some hope again."

Iraq looks better, but is nowhere near secure

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Via The Economist:

"THOUGH still lacerated by the tragedy of the past five years, Iraq is at last getting better all round. The violence, albeit still ferocious in parts of the country, has subsided dramatically. The American military “surge” that began a year ago has worked better than even the optimists had hoped, helped by ceasefires with Shia militias, by accords with Sunni tribal leaders and by the fact that sectarian cleansing in many areas is sadly complete."

Hilarious

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:43:00 +0000

From the woman who also believes that the New Deal was a bad idea and that Joe McCarthy was a great American hero:

"I generally don't write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible [For the record: Ms. Coulter is talking about President Bush] for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents."

Here is a survey of hundreds of professional historians (as opposed to professional bloviators, like Ms. Coulter) who disagree:

"Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations."

Timothy John Russert jr.

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:20:00 +0000

I don't have much to add regarding the sudden death of the excellent journalist Tim Russert, except that his exceptional interviewing talents will be remembered by friend and foe. My first impulse when something like this happens - an apparently healthy person is just here one day, gone the next - is to really start appreciating the lives of myself and those around me. You never know - you could wake up one day at a surprise party in your honor on Alpha Centauri. And then that feeling of appreciation fades and I once again become one of the tightly wound fools that gets REALLY ANGRY when somebody cuts me off in traffic or the cat pees on one of my shirts.

Life is too short, you know? As the great Warren Zevon put it, enjoy every sandwich.

We ought to resist furiously those who would sully the memories of deceased political enemies, even if those sullyers happen to be political allies. Like any of us, he had dreams, joys, hopes, insecurities, fears, loves, loved ones, hobbies and faults. In short, he was a decent human being. The troglodytes leaving snotty comments on blogs ought to be put well and truly in their places.

Obama's international stature

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:42:00 +0000

It's safe to say that the Senator is more popular overseas than at home. Columnists all over the world, like Dr. Sylvester Odion-Akhaine (writing in The Guardian, printed in Lagos), are hanging an awful lot of symbolism on Sen. Obama's candidacy.

"It will applaud the Statue of Liberty and underline U.S. as the bastion of freedom and racial equality despite its abiding contradictions. This is the meaning of Obama's victory. It is left for Americans to choose between 'fear and faith' on one hand and freedom and equality on the other."

There are those, such as Instapundit, who believe that Sen. Obama's international popularity is somehow a sign that he should be unpopular at home. If I live to be a thousand I don't think I will understand that logic.

UPDATE - The link to the Nigerian's column is dead for some reason. I admit I'm something of a neophyte at this. If interested, just google his name along with 'the meaning of Obama's victory' and I'm sure the full story will come up.

A catalyst for change

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:25:00 +0000

From The Economist, which correctly points out that high oil prices can have an upside --

"Right now motorists have no substitute for oil. But it is no coincidence that car companies are suddenly accelerating their plans to sell electric hybrids that are far cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars at these prices. The first two oil shocks banished oil from power generation. How fitting if the third finished the job and began to free transport from oil's century-long monopoly."

I'm dubious about windfall profits taxes

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:39:00 +0000

And so is Powerline. Here is John Hinderaker's excellent post on the Senate's blocking cloture vote of the WPT. Sens. Obama, Clinton and McCain were all absent.

"Our oil companies control tiny amounts of petroleum (relative to the world's big players) because they are shackled by Congress, which prohibits them by law from accessing America's abundant petroleum reserves. If you want gasoline prices to come down, write, call and email your Congressman and Senators and tell them to allow the oil companies to do what only they can do: bring us more oil."

You probably don't want to go there...

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:37:00 +0000

A video/audio recording of Sen. Obama has been making the rounds (not surprisingly - at all - Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ran with this non-story on the same day) recently purporting to reveal many 'gaffes' on the campaign trail, supposed to demonstrate something negative about the Senator, though I'm not sure what. He stutters a couple of times, incorrectly identifies a handful of cities, accidentally refers to an asthma inhaler a breathylizer, and loses his train of thought discussing the cost of a program.

The Senator is, of course, talking a great deal lately. And, as any human being would when asked to speak extemporaneously for several hours a day, he has missed a beat or two. Conservatives may not want to get into a discussion of silly-sounding politicians. Nor silly-sounding candidates.

All of these are non-issues. Obama knows what an inhaler is; Sen. McCain knows who Vladimir Putin is. Speech, unlike blogging, has no backspace button. Those hyping these events are trying to score lazy cheap shots.

A sensible 'war on terror.'

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:46:00 +0000

From the Los Angeles Times: food instead of bombs, undercutting the radicals' support instead of helping them recruit with every bomb dropped --

"In Gaza and the West Bank, for example, where the [United States Agency for International Development] spent $50 million in 2007, the agency ran a publicity campaign to draw attention to its efforts and then polled to assess the results. The percentage of Palestinians who knew the Arabic name for the agency rose from 32% to 52% in less than a year, the percentage of hard-core rejectionists who oppose accepting U.S. government assistance dropped from 47% to 43%, and the percentage who believed the agency was sincere about helping the Palestinian people rose to 67%. Such gains won't usher in Middle East peace tomorrow, but they do demonstrate that it is possible to change attitudes even among one of the world's most embittered populations in a relatively short time.

Polling by the nonprofit group Terror Free Tomorrow also indicates that direct humanitarian aid improves the perception of the United States even among Pakistani Muslims who express support for Al Qaeda. Skeptics say that the public opinion bounce from humanitarian aid is short-lived. But the data show the reverse: Nearly three years after the massive tsunami relief effort, almost 60% of Indonesians said the aid had made them favorable toward the U.S."

Annenberg Factcheck, on the Gas Tax holiday

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:31:00 +0000

A transfer of revenue essentially from the government to the oil companies.

Earmarks - overblown and overhyped

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Alterman has the numbers on earmarks, the latest government waste buzzword that amounts to really less than a drop in the bucket --

"For the record:

Total value of all earmarks for 2008 (good and wasteful), projected: $17 billion, or 0.5 percent of total federal spending

Contrast that cost with, for example, the war in Iraq:

Cost of Iraq war per month in 2008: $12 billion (For the year, that's 4.2 percent total spending.)"

Here is the government's database of earmarks, which regrettably doesn't separate them by individual congressional sponsor. And here are the Citizens Against Government Waste, who believe Earmarks are a Really Big Deal.

This just in...

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:47:00 +0000

Sen. McCain has crazy supporters (via Americablog, through Instaputz). So does Sen. Obama (via Powerline).

Does any of this have any bearing on anything? Are Powerline, Little Green Footballs and Instapundit* trying to score cheap political points with their already skittish readership?**

No. And yes.

* Instaputz is of course not scoring cheap political points, since TS mentions the insanity of both candidates' supporters, via a link to Instapundit.

**They must be counting on their readers to spread the word, since nobody who had any intention whatsoever of voting for Sen. Obama would ever read any of those blogs for information.

The Real Numbers on Missed Votes

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:57:00 +0000

The top three vote-missing Senators for this session, and their corresponding percentages of votes missed out of the total, are as follows - Sen. John McCain, 60.4%; Sen. Tim Johnson (The South Dakota Senator who suffered a stroke in 2007), 53.3%; Sen. Barack Obama, 42%.

Oddly enough, the workaholics - those who haven't missed a single vote - are not generally household names: John Barrasso, Bob Casey, Susan Collins, Russ Feingold, Charles Grassley, Herb Kohl, Mark Pryor, Kenneth Salazar, and Olympia Snowe.

Comparison of Financial Transparency

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:41:00 +0000

According to www.opensecrets.org, Sen. Obama has disclosed 94 percent of his funding sources, while Sen. McCain has disclosed 87 percent.

Who ought to be lecturing who about funding sources?

And from the Jerusalem Post...

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Ministers of the Knesset (MK's) weigh in on Sen. Obama's clinching of the nomination. The Likud Party, not suprisingly, is the most upset, while the other parties' representatives all say, essentially, that 'both will be good but McCain will be better.'

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'Following US Sen. Barack Obama's victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton early Wednesday morning, MKs from across the political spectrum warned not to discount the newly-crowned Democratic candidate as a potential supporter of Israel.

"We must remember that no American president will act in the way that we fear the most - no matter which candidate, Israel is important to American non-Jews," said MK Benny Elon (NU/NRP), the leader of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus.

"It is dangerous, incorrect and unhealthy to begin to get into all kinds of unproductive comments against Obama or to preemptively launch an anti-Obama campaign," he added. "I think it's a great mistake to begin to make him into Muhammad or to talk about him being photographed as an Arab. It is incorrect hysteria."

Elon did, however, acknowledge that so far, Republican candidate John McCain's voting record was solidly more "positive."'

Obama and Change in the U.S., from the Jakarta Post

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:42:00 +0000

By M. Taufiqurrahman, an Indonesian grad student who lives in Illinois but writes for his home country's paper --

'In his ode to America, America Is Not the World, British pop singer Morrissey forlornly sung that the U.S. is indeed the land of the free, yet it never has had a president who is female, black or gay. The upcoming presidential election, however, will likely address that lack.

Even if Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, loses to John McCain in the November election --and the smart money is against that happening -- what has transpired this primary election season has shown how much America has changed.'

The Kenyan Daily Nation on Sen. Obama

noreply@blogger.com (The American Parthenon) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:33:00 +0000

'The best we can expect from Obama,' by Philip Ochieng --

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'Exactly what do we mean when we say that Barack Obama has made history? For the professional historian — because he has studied so many cases — the answer is double-edged and scary.

For it is clear that, whatever the history-maker has done, he has done it in opposition to a solid status quo which — precisely because of the breakthrough — is redoubling its effort to roll back the wheels of history.

Barack Obama has done what no other black American has ever done. Yet this is historic merely because, despite amazing futuristic techno-scientific achievements, his country’s mind remains enslaved by the most primitive tribal ideas about colour, gender and religion. '

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Also, 'Barack Obama is Africa's Talisman,' by the Nation's editorial board --

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Kenyans are celebrating Senator Barack Obama’s success in the US Democratic Party nomination, not because they expect goodies from him if he becomes the most powerful leader in the world; they know there won’t be any.

At one level they are doing so because of a sense of kinship. His father was Kenyan, after all.

But the bigger reason is that he is a role model for almost a billion black people in the world today who are used to coming last in everything important. The black race is the poorest, least powerful, most unhealthy, least hopeful of them all.

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