It's hot (back into the high 80s, with approximately the same humidity); I'm tired (I start teaching three classes on Monday). Thus, I'm cranky. Consider this a wrap-up of the things I have muttered to myself this past week. If I had been a good doobee, I'd have blogged. I didn't. Deal with it.
Yes, Rove leaving means the rats are deserting the ship.
No, the trapped miners won't make it out alive.
Yes, the big bomb that killed all those Yadizi will complicate the security situation (the US will now be forced to put troops where they didn't have them before).
No, the Yazidi are such a minority that this won't really contribute to the sectarian violence.
Yes, it looks like Maliki's government is crumbling. This isn't really a surprise.
No, Petraeus won't be writing his report by himself. The White House will "edit" it.
Yes, this means it won't really be accurate.No, it's not a good idea for the US to let domestic agencies use US spy satellites to fight "crime." Plus, its likely a violation of some part of the Constitution.
Yes, its a good thing we're not in Peru right now.
No, giving several tens of billions of dollars to various Gulf states (and several tens of billions more to Israel, and several tens of billions more to Egypt) will not make the Middle East more stable.
Yes, mortgages that allow you to put nothing down, but have variable rates that look very low when you got them were (in fact) too good to be true. PS: Thanks for crashing the market.
No, replacing Michael Anthony with pictures of Wolfgang "Wolfie" Van Halen on all the album covers to promote the "new" tour with original vocalist David Lee "Just 'til I Run Out Of Drugs" (Anthony isn't touring; "Wolfie" is) was not a particularly bright idea.
Yes, the Democrats folded like a house of card in a hurricane over the FISA re-authorization.
No, it wasn't a shewed move. Nor did it help my level of paranoia.
Yes, Rudy Guiliani's article in some foreign policy journal was laughable. The man is an idiot at foreign policy, and his streak of authoritarianism should make every single person in the US shudder.
No, Fred Thompson is not going to save the Republican party.
Yes, we should all begin to think about the (very real) possibility of a "President Hillary Clinton."
No, I'm not happy about that.
Yes, the Democrats are significantly outraising the Republicans in (just about) every form of fundraising there is. This is justified: the Republicans have completely screwed up this country, and people seem to be recognizing that.
No, a permanent Democratic majority is no better than a permanent Republican majority.
Yes, AT&T screwed up when the censored Eddie Vedder.
No, Eddie Vedder wasn't saying anything you wouldn't have expected him to say.
Yes, you should read that NYT story from last Sunday that explains why the US is losing in Afghanistan (hint: the answer is that all those forces in Iraq should have been rebuilding Afghanistan, but weren't).
No, there isn't a circle of hell deep enough for Donald Rumsfeld.
Yes, NPR remains useless.
No, Elvis isn't coming back.
Yes, Chris Matthews may be as bad (in a "falafel" kind of way) as Bill O'Reilly
No, Camile Paglia can't write for shit.
Yes, Alberto Gonzalez is (in fact) the absolute last person in the US who should be given more power to hasten the application of the death penalty convictions through the US court system. Really. The last. What the hell was Congress thinking?
No, Robert Kaplan's article on the B-2 "Spirit" (or whatever the hell they call it) Bomber was not a good example of journalism. It read more like something out of the 1980s Clancy novels. It was embarrassing, and an example of why I stopped subscribing to The Atlantic.
Yes, the Joshua Green article on Karl Rove was almost interesting enough to make me reconsider dropping my subscription.
That's about it. If anyone is desperate for links to any of these points, let me know and I'll see what I can find. I read about all of them somewhere in the last week or so. Trust me.
To sum up: Condi Rice may turn out to be a competent SecState, but she was the worst NSA ever. Rudi Guiliani is not competent to be a dog catcher, much less President of the United States, and the Democrats still have no competent foreign policy alternatives.
I'm still cranky.
Posted by baltar at August 16, 2007 07:40 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Hacktastic! | International Affairs | Iraq | PoliticsWhat does this mean - "the Democrats still have no competent foreign policy alternatives"?
And sure Green's not a bad writer at all - but then on top of Kaplan you've got Wittes and most (most most most most) egregiously Caitlin Flanagan ... there are definitely things I like in that magazine, but helping to pay her paycheck seems like something someone should be brought up on charges for. So ... I completely understand you dropping The Atlantic.
Well, I have found one way in which NPR is not completely useless:
And, if you don't share Baltar's taste in music (the above list) there are plenty more listed down the side of this page.
Posted by: binky at August 16, 2007 10:35 PM | PERMALINKOnce you understand that NPR isn't about news, but is about helping a certain class of people reaffirm their self-image and group identity, then it all makes sense.
I bagged my Atlantic subscription a few years ago. But James Fallows is still occasionally worth reading.
There's nothing about the Van Halen tour that falls into the "bright idea" category, as far as I can tell.
Yeah, Hillary. Sigh.
Re mortgages... offering stupid products to stupid people is a time-honored American tradition. What's different this time is the supposedly Very Smart people running hedge funds who assumed that buying packages of these things using leverage (aka way overextended credit) was a sure-fire strategy. (Speaking of teh stoopid on Wall Street, this is a brilliant piece. Go read.)
Where are you teaching? Your alma mater? Or your local place?
Posted by: jacflash at August 17, 2007 08:26 AM | PERMALINKArmand, the democrats are clearly riding a wave of dissatisfaction with Bush, but (in my opinion) haven't really offered any actual credible alternative plans to Bush's "stay the course/surge" thingy. Richardson offers a "get out quickly" idea which is the closest thing to a plan; the rest argue we need to leave, but (according to a NYT article I read last week) haven't really offered actual detailed plans about how to get out, who to leave in charge when we do, how fast to get out, what sort of forces we should leave behind (quick reaction? training? based where?). So, I'm left agreeing that Bush is wrong, but I don't see anyone who is right.
I'm happy to discover that NPR has stuff I might actually listen to. However, they have no Slayer, so that's a knock against them.
I like the idea that NPR represents a "class-consciousness" rather than an actual news-based radio station. That makes sense. That being said, I have two additional problems: (1) That leaves me with nothing else to listen to in the car (the rest of the radio waves in Mo-town are pretty much a vast wasteland - Rush Limbaugh and Clear-Channel-programmed-to-death AOR and top-40), and (2) I've listened to NPR in other places (Chapel Hill, for example) and found it to be something I can actually enjoy. Thus, my frustration.
Fallows has a blog, which means I can now ignore the magazine.
Yeah, Hillary. Sigh. That about sums it up for me.
I'm teaching at my local place. Interesting stuff (intro to IR, research design, asymmetrical warfare), but lots of it. Won't be bad, just not looking forward to next week. The kids are back, and clogging the roads.
Oh, and Armand: the boathouse was as awful as you predicted. Blech.
Posted by: baltar at August 17, 2007 08:59 AM | PERMALINKa propos rove, and little else . . .
and i too think the observation about NPR is astute, and as i've said in this place before, steve inskeep gives me heartburn (so let me get this straight -- unceremoniously can bob edwards in an effort to make the show more appealing to young people, and install in his place a guy who cracks the same horrible drunk uncle level puns that make young people cringe and look for the door when stuck at family functions), but if you think the ever-so-much-more-major metropolis of pittsburgh has significantly better quality local public radio from a news standpoint you've got another thing coming (although i do have a crush on the one local public radio correspondent i had occasion to work with last year, which lends the afternoon broadcast a little bit of a frisson effect for me).
Posted by: moon at August 17, 2007 03:10 PM | PERMALINKI guess my thing with the Democrats in general is that while they might not have specific plans, they seem to at least understand what the problems we face are - something that the Giulianis and Romneys seem unable to do, and if the Republicans can't even do that ... well the Democrats are one step ahead. Plus some of them have top-notch advisors, and I don't think it's that much of a knock against them if they don't have detailed Iraq plans right now as the Iraq they (may) inherit in 17 months might look quite different from the Iraq we see right now.
As to NPR, my thoughts are well known (it's often awful) - and as to the Boathouse Bistro ... yeah, it's about as appealing as NPR.
Posted by: Armand at August 17, 2007 03:39 PM | PERMALINKIf someone stole all the salt from the kitchen at the Boathouse Bistro, they would no doubt be paralyzed. I'm not afraid of salt, but wow, unidimensional. Morgantown really needs a restaurant on the waterfront that doesn't suck. Well, it only was fifty bucks down the toilet to figure out I'll never go there again.
Posted by: binky at August 17, 2007 04:23 PM | PERMALINKArmand: I'll agree with that basic analysis. I do think the Democrats are showing a greater appreciation of the nuances of how things work in the world than the Republicans. Yes, this will likely translate to a better foreign policy (and, baring something really strange, my vote will go that way). That doesn't mean that I like that the Democrats aren't really putting any effort into developing an actual plan at this point (btw: a plan for anything: NPT, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, terrorism, Pakistan, North Korea - the Dems lack a plan for any of these things).
Posted by: baltar at August 17, 2007 05:15 PM | PERMALINKOnly $50 at the Bistro? What's up with that - did you dine on saltines and soda water?
Posted by: Armand at August 17, 2007 05:43 PM | PERMALINKWine and apps. A bottle of prosecco (which the bartender poured straight down into the stright up glass from a height> Baltar had to school her. For food it was an order of the Jamaican jerk "eggroll" and an order of the "Kung Pao" calamari. Neither were remotely spicy, both were incredibly salty, and the Kung Pao was a) sweet and b) didn't taste like peanuts. The calamari were spongy. Really, they both tasted like something I could have microwaved from the frozen food aisle.
Plus, I felt really bad for the staff who have to wear those horrific and very cheap looking uniforms.
Posted by: binky at August 17, 2007 05:56 PM | PERMALINK