Salaam Bombay, Cont'd

For those who still think that modern terrorism as we have witnessed under AQ is the work of global poverty and inequality, think again:

Among the callow recruits of the group known as the Indian Mujahideen, which made its regrettable debut this year, you'll find men like these: Mohammad Peerbhoy, a 31 year old principal software engineer for a Yahoo! subsidiary, who made Rs 1.9 million (around $40,000) a year; Mohammad Shakeel, a 24 year old enrolled in the final year of his Master's degree in economics; Abdus Subhan Qureshi, a 36 year old who worked for an IT company in Mumbai; and Usman Agarbattiwala, a 25 year old who holds, in the blackest of ironies, a post-graduate diploma in human rights.

Or, alternatively, just friggin' think. And, if not to protest the poverty of their middle-class deprivations, what was their point?

The terrorists’ global objective was clearly demonstrated in their targeting of a little-known Jewish outreach center in Mumbai. Before the terrorists burst into the Chabad Center located in an office and residential complex to take the rabbi, his wife, and assembled Jewish visitors hostage, most in Mumbai had no idea about their existence. Only six years earlier, a young Brooklyn rabbi and his wife set up the Chabad Center to quietly offer Jewish visitors kosher meals, Torah classes, and a place to stay. That anonymity was no protection from a group that wants to hurt the Jews as part of a global struggle. The attack on the Jewish community is particularly poignant, as over a thousand years ago, India offered the earliest shelter to persecuted Jews; the wall of an old synagogue in Kerala shows a mosaic image of their early arrival by boat.

About the Chabad center. Although I have never been to India, I did call on the Chabad center in Kobe, Japan in 2006, when I was on an oveseas business trip during Yom Kippur. It was a fantastic experience. The Rabbi and his family were incredibly trusting and gracious with the phalanx of stragers that came to enjoy the pre-fast meal, and was incredibly generous to put up whoever could not afford a hotel for the night. I also had numerous interactions with the Chabad center in Sydney when I lived there, all positive. (I still recall the cases of scotch they brought into the synagogue for Simchat Torah, and were stumped as to why there were bottles unopened. It was a Tuesday.)

My prayers go out to the Rabbi and his wife, as current reports still have them missing and possibly kidnapped and in the hands of the terrorist enemies.

Update: 5 hostages have died in the Jewish Center at the hands of the enemy. The reports are as of now unconfirmed. I will monitor the situation.

Update II: Confirmation that the Rabbi and Rebbitzen have been killed. Their 2-year-old son was apparently saved by a kitchen worker who escaped to safety.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621 by the settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts. George Washington was the first to issue a proclamation honoring Thanksgiving during his presidency. The only other president to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation was James Madison. It was Abraham Lincoln who issued a proclamation that made Thanksgiving Day a national annual event. Ironically, the first national observance of Thanksgiving under this proclamation came a week after the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg.

Be thankful for your life.
Be thankful for your family.
Be thankful for our blog.
Be thankful for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Salaam Bombay

Frank Foer digs this spine-tingling explanation behind the Mumbai attacks yesterday:

The targets are not obviously Hindu at all--they are the main tourist locations in the city, and they were after Americans, British and Israelis. They went after a building called Nariman House, where several Israeli and Jewish families live. It was international, not domestic considerations which seems to be have been driving them. Also they seem very well-resourced. Apparently they came into the city on boats, used hand grenades and automatic weapons. It suggest some sort of Al Qaeda connection. But the Indians have been pretty good at tracking them. So, it is puzzling.

The Nariman House is the home of the local Chabad. As of now, 101 people have been killed. 20 Israeli nationals are missing, as are the host family of the Chabad. They, and all those affected in this tragedy, are in our prayers.

The Times of India has the bigger picture:

In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 101 and sending hundreds of injured to hospital, according to latest reports.

It turns out that many of the dead are police. The terrorists were clearly interested in going after Western interests, and if the first quote is right, they had special interests in Jews. Al-Qaeda has attacked Jewish targets before (e.g., Djerba, Istanbul synagogues and Mombasa tourists) and Jews worldwide have been forced to step up security.

This sort of thing has me worried at many different levels. One is for civil liberties. This, if all reports are accurate, seem like "domestic" terrorists, with the help of AQ. The best way to beat folks like this is through surveillance techniques, and argumets have been made for warrantless wiretaps. Maybe such a thing is justified in a country with known domestic terrorists - this is not the first time Bombay has been attacked.

Then again, free market behavior in such a situation can also be scary. Some life insurance packages have a rider insisting that the coveree not go to Israel. Would businesses feel similarly justified in denying groups of Jewish tourists from gathering because of security concerns? So far, no, and let's hope never.

Jeffrey Goldberg on the Territories

From a 2004 New Yorker article:

A de-facto apartheid already exists in the West Bank. Inside the borders of Israel proper, Arabs and Jews are judged by the same set of laws in the same courtrooms; across the Green Line, Jews live under Israeli civil law as well, but their Arab neighbors—people who live, in some cases, just yards away—fall under a different, and substantially undemocratic, set of laws, administered by the Israeli Army. The system is neither as elaborate nor as pervasive as South African apartheid, and it is, officially, temporary. It is nevertheless a form of apartheid, because two different ethnic groups living in the same territory are judged by two separate sets of laws.

I guess that puts Jimmy Carter's book in perspective. Maybe he got the title from Goldberg, who knows.

My point is, the settlements need to be reigned in. This is doing the world Jewish community harm. Simply speaking, the settlers do not care a whiff for Israel or the world's Jews, just their own tight little group. Goldberg, and I, was especially incensed by this story:

During a confrontation that erupted at the place tonight, IDF and police forces were called to the scene to subdue the rioters, and settlers poured turpentine on one of the soldiers. The soldier sustained light injuries and was treated on site. Military vehicles and a police car were also damaged. [My emphasis]

Who is the next Israeli politician ready to be shot for doing the right thing?

Turkey

OK, so the post about Sarah Palin and her turkey slaughter got me wondering: how is a modern Thanksgiving made possible? Well, the joys of industrial turkey farming are explained by Nina Rastogi in Slate thusly:

How do turkeys breed? With a little help from their human friends. The vast majority of turkeys sold in the United States are of the white broad-breasted variety. These birds have been bred to produce as much white breast meat as possible, resulting in males so large and unwieldy that they can't properly mount the females. Toms therefore have to be manually stimulated and "milked" for their semen, which is then inserted into a hen using a syringe. Some have decried the assembly-line-like process as inhumane—at the very least, as chronicled in this not-entirely-safe-for-work clip from Discovery's Dirty Jobs, it is extremely messy. Farmers also use artificial lights to trick birds into thinking that it's spring—their natural breeding season—all year-round, thereby increasing their production.

Wow, cool. Something tells me that I missed something not working at least a summer in a slaughterhouse. Seriously.

In my family, of course, we'll have a kosher turkey from Empire. At $1.99/lb, very expensive, but also a relative bargain. Here's the explanation:

While special machinery is used throughout the process, much of the work here is still done by hand. That's one of the reasons it takes three times as long to process an Empire Kosher bird and why it costs more. The hand processing includes extra steps, extra inspections. By the time a bird is packed, it has been looked over by hundreds of experienced eyes.

Which means half of hundreds of experienced people, unless the mashgiachs are cyborgs.

Of course, for some detailed instructions as to how to hand slaughter a turkey, this site looks second to none. Not for the squeamish:

If the bird has been properly starved, there won't be any feces in the intestine. Sometimes, there is just a bit on the inside of the vent, and you can see it in this photo. Either work quickly or wipe clean with a paper towel. Keep the bird over the edge of the table to avoid any fecal matter from dropping on the table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quote of the day

Look, it all comes down to this. I believed Obama was the candidate least likely to fly over an American city in the midst of destruction, and appear days later only to tell his point-man he'd done a great job.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

Video of the day

Bruce Lee playing ping-pong with nunchucks. Must be seen to be believed, and even then, I am not so sure. (If you whack me with a ping-pong paddle, ouch. If Bruce Lee whacks me with nunchucks, kiss my ass goodbye. How is he not just destroying the ball?!?)



(H/T John Derbyshire)

Missing Bush!

And people say I have no sense of Humor!

Hillary for Sec State

Marty Peretz hates the idea. Jeffrey Goldberg loves it. Me - my head is about to explode. The only thing I have to say is...very Machiavellian. I think.

Baby Mama?

California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez is pregnant. Ordinarily, this would not make headlines, except to the Sanchez family and maybe in a newsletter to the 39th Congressional District in southeast L.A. County, which just elected her to her fourth term. It's no big deal nowadays when members of Congress give birth. What makes Sanchez's pregnancy news is that she is not married to the baby's father.

I dug this from the LA Times. Amazingly enough not a word about Bristol Palin. Shocker isn't it. Well we wouldn't want to hold a Democrat to the same standard would we LA Times? When it's a Democrat, it's a sign of progress, if it's a Republican its a scarlet letter.

Newsbusters: Get a life

I know, a blogger like me, telling others to get a life. But seriously:

Yahoo News featured an interesting short report issued by Agence France-Presse on November 20. In it we discover that a consortium of French, German and Hungarian mathematicians are claiming to have proven that Einstein's famous equation, e=mc2, is correct. The report is all good except for one very small aspect. They call the effort of these mathematicians "heroic" in contradiction to the root meaning of the word. Mathematics isn't "heroic" and it is a degradation of true heroics to say it is.
Unfortunately, while a small thing too casually used in the AFP report, it proves a sort of degradation of our language. Not only that, but it further devalues real heroism, making the word mean less with each garbled usage.

Whatever. Of course, here's a definition of "heroic" according to the OED:

Having recourse to bold, daring, or extreme measures; boldly experimental; attempting great things.

Seems to fit in the usage of the quoted description just fine. And this wasn't a usage invented for the pure pleasure of liberal mathematicians at the expense of freedom-loving conservative, "real" Americans. This is a description that has been used for at least as long as I have been doing science, and likely as long as the word "heroic" has been in use. Again, the OED provides context:

1664 POWER Exp. Philos. 191 'Tis a Noble resolution to begin there where all the world has ended; and an Heroick attempt to solve those difficulties.

Yes, that's right. 1664. So, seriously, along with their dependence on the oogedy-boogedies, they need to stop with the psuedo-intellectualism if they want any more cred.

What God Wants

God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores - Roger Waters

Lots of discussion in the blogs about what happened to the GOP that they should be where they are now. Leading the charge is Kathleen Parker, conservative for whom suggesting that Sarah Palin was not up to the job led her to observe about her inbox:

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.

Anyhow, she wrote a rather searing column about the "oogedy boogedy" wing of Conservatism today, mainly the "Armband Religion" as she calls it.

Here's the deal, 'pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Religion is just one facet of the problem, IMHO. It's a culture that has refused to cede any part of any argument. Very religious folks tend to do that. Import that culture into a whole group, and you have a party that has been Left Behind.

And still so. So long as they court Palin and talk her up for '12, so long as they refuse to look in the mirror and learn from their debacle this year, then we will see an increasingly Democratic Congress. While I predict that one-party rule is unsustainable, I think that unless the GOP gets its head on straight, you will see two kinds of lawmakers: blue Dems and red Dems.

On our way to Amnesty with Janet Napolitano

Amazing. Simply Amazing. Just Another Non-Law Enforcement appointment to the most critical Law Enforcement Agency in the United States. This is almost reticent of Clinton's appointment of Janet Reno, except at least Janet Reno was the State Attorney of Miami-Dade County for more years than I care to remember. Another local interest here is former Sheriff Ken Jenne, another political attorney appointee indicted in disgrace. When are the powers to be going to wake up and not appoint attorney's to head police agencies? But that's not enough. She has vetoed laws in Arizona that would make it tougher for illegal aliens, while making it harder for businesses that help them.

Great Choice Obama. NOT!

Kentucky Fried Palin

You know, this whole time I've just been avoiding her media barrage, just because I can no longer stand her voice. But this...this...video, just totally made my day:



Seriously, the caption alone is worth it. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. Z and Mr. Z, or Talk Radio as a symptom

With the Democrats dominating the elections, many Republicans are diagnosing the problems that led to the electoral disaster (which may not yet be over). The story of one such Republican has become interesting web fodder and seems to me to be a symptom of why the Repubs are no longer in power.

The story begins, for me, with a story by Nate Silver on the now controversial pollster John Zogby engaging in some push-polling for a right-wing talk show host named John Ziegler, who is hosting a website called howobamagotelected.com and is putting out a book of a similar name. At the time, what Nate - and I - found interesting were the questions posed to Obama voters being polled:

• "Which of the four [candidates] said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot?"

One can see right through such loaded questions, right? For someone like Nate Silver, who spends his days analyzing the garbage in such polls, this is the sort of thing that drives him up a wall and causes him to drop a pollster's weighting to zero.

The story gets more interesting, as Silver wasn't done. Ziegler solicited Silver to interview him, and things got interesting right away. What Silver wanted to know was the business arrangement that Ziegler has with Zogby, and how that influenced the questions. Ziegler wasn't interested in that - and made it vulgarly clear - but it seems that Ziegler was interested in proving that Silver was just a hack.

Admittedly, Silver is a far better statistician than interviewer (his quizzing Ziegler about Senators at the end seemed pointless, and I would have had Ziegler's reaction to those questions). But, Silver did uncover something interesting:

JZ: [Laughs]. In your world, the question that I would ask you is what question [in the survey] is there any ambiguity as to what the answer is?
NS: Well, that Obama 'launched his career' at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground --
JZ: That happens to be one of the questions that Obama supporters did the best on! They did better on that question than on any other Obama-related answers! And here you’re telling me that it’s not true?
NS: What do you mean by "launched his career"?
JZ: The first campaign as told by the person whose position he took in the State Senate, as told by her admission, his first campaign event was in the home of Bill Ayers and his wife. [Laughs] Unless you live in the Obama kool-aid world! That is astonishing to me that you would not accept that! And by the way, when you're given four responses to that question, what else was the response going to be? Sarah Palin? [Empasis NS]

Silver goes on to observe:

There are a certain segment of conservatives who literally cannot believe that anybody would see the world differently than the way they do. They have not just forgotten how to persuade; they have forgotten about the necessity of persuasion. John Ziegler is a shining example of such a conservative. During my interview with him, Ziegler made absolutely no effort to persuade me about the veracity of any of his viewpoints. He simply asserted them -- and then became frustrated, paranoid, or vulgar when I rebutted them.

Andrew Sullivan has labeled the world in which such Republicans live as a "cocoon". Actually, no less than David Foster Wallace brought this home 3 years ago in The Atlantic, when he did a cover piece on Ziegler to illustrate the business of conservative talk radio:

How often a particular spot can run over and over before listeners just can't stand it anymore is something else no one will talk about, but the evidence suggests that KFI sees its audience as either very patient and tolerant or almost catatonically inattentive. Canned ads for local sponsors like Robbins Bros. Jewelers, Sit 'n Sleep Mattress, and the Power Auto Group play every couple hours, 24/7, until one knows every hitch and nuance. National saturation campaigns for products like Cortislim vary things somewhat by using both endorsements and canned spots. Pitches for caveat emptor—type nostrums like Avacor (for hair loss), Enzyte ("For natural male enhancement!"), and Altovis ("Helps fight daily fatigue!") often repeat once an hour through the night. As of spring '04, though, the most frequent and concussive ads on KFI are for mortgage and home-refi companies—Green Light Financial, HMS Capital, Home Field Financial, Benchmark Lending. Over and over. Pacific Home Financial, U.S. Mortgage Capital, Crestline Funding, Advantix Lending. Reverse mortgages, negative amortization, adjustable rates, APR, FICO … where did all these firms come from? What were these guys doing five years ago? Why is KFI's audience seen as so especially ripe and ready for refi? Betterloans.com, lendingtree.com, Union Bank of California, on and on and on. [Emphasis mine]

Remember, this piece was written 3 years ago. And Republicans are trying to hang the entire mortgage-based economic disaster on banks being forced to give loans to poor minorities. As DFW asks, where did all these firms come from? And, why are they so keen to advertise on conservative talk radio?

In any case, Ziegler was not too keen on DFW once the story came out - he believes it was part of why he was let go from KFI in LA. But, Ziegler goes on to show how classy he is in commenting on DFW's suicide earlier this year:

While I have absolutely no evidence to back up this assertion, I also think it is quite possible that he knew that killing himself in his “prime” and before he had been totally exposed as being a mere mortal in the literary realm would cement his status as a “genius” forever. After all, don’t tortured artists often kill themselves? Heck, based on the glowing and reverential reporting on his suicide, in some circles ending his on life may actually be seen as a badge of honor.

Nice, especially for someone who has been on anti-depressants himself. He goes on to mock DFW for succumbing to the depression. That, to me, is like mocking someone for succumbing to cancer. And I think this is what, ultimately, and with perfect irony, has been doing Republicans in: a failure to empathize. Ziegler is mad that DFW never granted him an interview, and seeks some sort of personal revenge. For conservatives, it is all personal. Which is why folks are amazed that Obama simply let Joe Lieberman walk: for Obama, it seems that keeping Lieberman had value, and he put his personal feelings aside. Professional Repubs need to learn how to do this, and also to learn to keep the emotions in check, if they're going to win seats back in 2010.

Pardon Me?

Do you remember the case of the Border Patrol Agents who shot a drug dealer in the butt carrying a million dollar marijuana load? Well, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the agents convictions for tampering with Evidence but left the Discharging of a Weapon in the Commission of a Crime intact. These carry 10 year minimum mandatory sentences. So the agents are petitioning President Bush for a commutation or Pardon in the waning last days of his administration. This case has been a black eye to the White House and Bush since the indictment against the two former agents in 2006. Incredibly enough, the drug dealer they shot, was given immunity and committed a new drug trafficking offense. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton who defends his actions should have been removed from office after this unfortunate incident.

According to CNN:

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized the 12- and 11-year prison sentences given to ex-agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, respectively. And they strongly questioned federal prosecutors' decision to charge the pair with using a weapon during the commission of a crime -- a 10-year penalty that most often is used against drug dealers and other criminals, not law enforcement officers obliged to carry guns as part of their jobs.

The senators bored in on some of the case's most nagging questions: Why the drug smuggler, who had been driving a van with a million-dollar payload of marijuana, was given immunity to testify against Ramos and Compean; why the trafficker was given unfettered permission to cross into the United States after the agents were charged; and whether he used that border-crossing privilege to bring in another million-dollar marijuana haul just months after the February 2005 incident near El Paso.

"The public sees two Border Patrol agents serving long prison sentences while an admitted drug smuggler goes free," Cornyn said, adding that he has "serious concerns about the judgment calls made during the prosecution of this case."

So, the question remains, should Bush Pardon them, Commute their sentences or leave them in Jail? Well faithful readers, I believe they should get a full pardon and have those felonies expunged from their lives. If Bush does not do this before he leaves office, I would be very surprised. If he does not I would pray that President Obama will Pardon them quickly.

Please help fund my private jet

So, let's say you are an executive of a large company that needs, say, $25B from the gummint. You need to go to DC to plead your case. How should you NOT travel to get there?

If you said "private jet", you are correct!

If you said "private jet and then a company hybrid from the airport to show that I really am fuel conscious", you are even more correct.

Did Bill Kristol give these guys advice for their public image?

Olmert on Israel's future

The New York Review of Books provides a translation of an interview in Yediot Ahranot with Ehud Olmert, the outgoing PM.

I didn't find these remarks in any other publication, but I may be behind the 8-ball here. I found the interview remarkable for the candor. Given the scandal and some of the stuff I read about it, I kind of view Olmert similarly to the way I view Bush: someone who has mislead me. I was excited for his tenure, but his lack of competence at the national level seemed to be jarring. (This is in contrast to his tenure as Mayor of Jerusalem, where he did a great job.)

Here's a snippet of the interview:

Were a regional war to break out in the next year or two and were we to enter into a military confrontation with Syria, I have no doubt that we'd defeat them soundly. We are stronger than they. Israel is the strongest country in the Middle East. We could contend with any of our enemies or against all of our enemies combined and win. The question that I ask myself is, what happens when we win? First of all, we'd have to pay a painful price.
And after we paid the price, what would we say to them? "Let's talk." And what would the Syrians say to us? "Let's talk about the Golan Heights."
So, I ask: Why enter a war with the Syrians, full of losses and destruction, in order to achieve what might be achieved without paying such a heavy price?

This is clearly a man who has been taught no end of a lesson by his experience in running a war. He is suggesting that his predecessor be prepared to give up Shebaa Farms and the Golan in order to neutralize Hizb'allah:

Who seriously thinks that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred
meters, this will make a difference for Israel's basic security?

Interesting. Read the whole thing.

Whither Capitalism

More ranting about GM from me, so my apologies. But I can't help it. Jon Cohn at The New Republic, a proud Michiganer and a liberal's liberal, defends the proposed bailout of GM et al. :

[W]hat's missing in the tsk-tsk editorials is any recognition that the culture of Detroit has been changing, however belatedly, starting with its labor relations. Ford led the way years ago by reaching site-specific "competitive operating agreements" with locals at different plants, rather than sticking to one national agreement, thereby enabling it loosen work rules and engage in the sort of collaborative quality management on which industry leader Toyota made its reputation. Then, last year, the UAW reached a breakthrough agreement in which it granted the companies similar flexibility, agreed to a two-tier wage structure for new hires, and set up a separate trust fund to finance future retiree health benefits. The companies would provide the initial money for this trust, but, henceforth, the unions would manage it--thereby taking off the companies' books a tremendous burden that had, on its own, accounted for about half the gap in compensation between unionized workers for the Big Three and non-unionized workers for foreign-owned automakers. "I think they've shown unprecedented ability to change and transform the union," says Kristin Dziczek, who directs CAR's Automotive Labor and Education program. "They understand what is at stake."

He goes on to argue that this change is already producing positive results, including the Chevy Volt to be introduced in 2010.

With apologies to Jon, who is an excellent thinker, I disagree in the strongest way. Of course, Jon is not being inconsistent in his thinking: he is a storng advocate for using gummint resources to bail out all sorts of folk. But he is viewing his beloved industry with rose-colored goggles. For instance, here is a recent article about the chances of success for the Volt:

Producing a high-end statement car for trendsetters, as Tesla is doing, would have been pretty safe, but positioning the Volt as affordable family transportation—Chevy’s bread and butter—is an order of magnitude harder. It implies selling not thousands but hundreds of thousands of cars, and at Chevrolet rather than Cadillac prices. The battery alone is likely to cost something in the high four figures. At Chevy prices, GM can expect to lose money on every Volt it sells, at least in the early going, and possibly for years.
Outflanking Toyota makes good sense strategically, but GM’s market capitalization is less than a tenth of Toyota’s. Unless battery costs fall as quickly as GM hopes, the car could break the bank by succeeding.

And this was before the floor fell out from below the economy. As usual, Jim Manzi is able to introduce ice-cold sense in to the whole bleeding thing:

This story – look, we now see how foolish we’ve been, and finally have our act together; with just a little more time we’ll be world-beaters again – has been sold by Detroit to journalists many times over the past 20 years. Here’s the New York Times in 1992, making almost the exact same argument as Cohn makes: “Ford and Chrysler have increased the efficiency of their factories and workers so much in recent years that their basic cost of producing a car is now less than that of their Japanese rivals, according to a study published today.” Here’s Fortune in that same year saying that “For the first time in a decade, the U.S. auto industry has a genuine chance to grasp the lead from its Japanese competition. Ford and Chrysler are operating at worldclass efficiency, and General Motors has taken on a new sense of urgency with seismic shakeups at the top.” How’d that work out? This kind of coverage continued almost into the current crisis – here’s Fortune as recently as 2004 saying “GM Gets Its Act Together. Finally. How America’s No. 1 car company changed its ways and started looking like … Toyota.”

I watched Michigan Sen. Carl Levin on MTP this morning, and it nearly made me sick how intensely he was shilling for GM. I understand this is his state, and he is doing his job. But please. With this proposed bailout, I really feel like we are making a decision on the nature of capitalism and personal responsibility in this country. And I feel that all the lessons I have learned as I absorbed cuts of my own are really just a bunch of bullshit.

Welcome to the oligarchy. Maybe Sen. Levin can go to Japan and throw up all over their ministers for trade.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Amazingly, Goldman Sachs 7 top executives asked their board to forgo their bonuses this year. Lat year Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein received $68.5 million as his bonus.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Goldman had taken "an important step in the right direction." as as "This gesture by Goldman Sachs is appropriate and prudent and hopefully will help bring Wall Street to its senses..."

According to Goldman spokesman “Our senior officers decided on this course of action because they believe it to be the right thing to do."

Was it that, or was it that Goldman Sachs is scheduled to receive Troubled Asset Relief Program funds and it could be perceived as "an appearance of an impropriety?"

Hillary for Secretary of State?

Speculation abounds. Will Obama really ask Hillary to be his Secretary of State? I would think and hope not. The Clinton's hatred for Obama was more than evident during the primaries. Hillary's contempt for Obama can not be contained, and should she actually take the position, she will surely work hard to undermine Obama's Presidency and foreign standing. One of my favorite bloggers, Dick Morris, wrote a compelling article about just this subject HERE. He likens picking Hilary to Harry S. Truman selecting Jimmy Byrnes to be his Secretary of State and how he forgot he was not President and failed to keep Truman up on negotiations. This got him the sack after a year. Those of you familiar with Dick, know he was part of the Clinton advisory team and then Bill's campaign manager in 1986.

According to Fox News, Democratic officials say Obama met with Clinton in his Chicago office on Thursday and is seriously considering the New York senator for his top Cabinet post. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has told an Indian audience that Senator Hillary Clinton would make "an outstanding appointment" as America's top diplomat. The elder statesman, who served in Republican administrations, says if President-elect Obama chooses Mrs. Clinton it would show "great courage" on his part.

A Mature Debate on the Wars

No comment.

Is she a joke?

My sparring partner has linked to a blogger named Debbie Schlussel. I guess I heard her once on Howard Stern. I had no idea. Here she is responding to a hateful email:

But that's just mere pretext for Ms. Thang, Caroline, Obama supporter extraordinaire, to unleash her simmering anti-Semitism, representative of many of her fellow Obamaniacal voters. [Emphasis mine]

Maybe 77% of her fellow MOTs were not "obamaniacal", but they did vote for Obama. Now, I have already pointed out Ms. Schlussel's tendency toward extreme rhetoric, and how that makes me take her less seriously. But, when you juxtapose a picture of Obama and a swastika, I guess I know where you're coming from.

Anyway, Ms. Schlussel has an article about how Obama has faked his Selective Service documentation. She then points to the hotness of her scoop: 9 - nine! - blogs have picked up the story!!!! However, take a look at what that means: at least one has ridiculed, several are just comments on mainstream blogs by unhinged readers, the rest are right-wing blogs I've never heard of. So I guess now she has 10 - ten! - blogs that have picked up her story. Then again, I never heard of Ms. Schlussel's, and, well, she's just so...awesome!

Attorney, Columnist, and Hip, Conservative Info-Babe Commentator, Debbie Schlussel is the VRWC's latest and greatest sexy, blonde, and beautiful commentator. With a law degree, MBA, long blonde tresses, and sports acumen to boot, she's a red-blooded American guy's dream. If you are into Debbie Schlussel's appearances on FOX News Channel, ESPN, FOX Sports Radio, CNN, ABC's "Politically Incorrect," and Howard Stern, and her Townhall.com and PoliticalUSA.com "Debbie Does Politics" columns, then this is the place for you--her unofficial fan club. If you've heard Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern talk about her on their national radio shows or seen her speak at the NRA convention, Debbie is proof positive that "Dumb Blonde" is an oxymoron--her beauty and brains are a lethal combination, the reason Ms. Magazine declared Debbie its #1 enemy. To paraphrase "Wayne's World's" Wayne and Garth, if she were President, Debbie Schlussel would be Babe-raham Lincoln.

Whether one of her fans wrote this or she did...just, scary. Seriously, "Babe-raham Lincoln"? How lame can you get?

Anyway, my point is, I don't know enough about Selective Service docs to judge Ms. Schlussel's accusations. But given her rhetoric, let's just say I'm a skeptic.

And, apparently, I am far from alone.

Well, even we have a blog, so...

...yep, you guessed it:

Joe the Plumber has a blog.

I never saw that coming.

Silver Linings

Marty Peretz points out that crude oil stands at $55 today. Yes, this portends to less demand in a sour economy, but...I recall Chavez complaining when the price fell below $60, so that can only mean good news.

This, combined with an Obama administration that will call the Iranian regime on its bluff to meet, sure looks interesting:

"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.

"The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Taeb said.

For Iran's leaders, the only state of affairs worse than poor relations with the United States may be improved relations. The Shiite Muslim clerics who rule the country came to power after ousting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a U.S.-backed autocrat, in their 1979 Islamic revolution. Opposition to the United States, long vilified as the "great Satan" here in Friday sermons, remains one of the main pillars of Iranian politics.

So maybe the Iranians will get really hostile when their lifeline of high oil prices dries up. The world will see them, however, as a regime more interested in destroying Israel than feeding its own people. Unmasked, and vulnerable. Then maybe they can turn on their Supreme Leader, and everyone will be better off.

Hopefully this means a compromised Hizb'allah and HAMAS as well. Allah be praised.

Dan Savage v. Tony Perkins

To get a good feel for what is at stake in the post-Prop 8 fight, this is worth watching:



I wouldn't say that Savage skewers Perkins, a clearly skilled debater. But Perkins has a hard time not looking like the bad guy here. (Warning, 9 minutes long, but worth it.)

Stevens about to lose his seat

Heh. Still doesn't vindicate Alaska. This guy should've gotten creamed.

Prop 8 and "McCarthyism"

At what point is getting a person with whom you disagree "politically" fired OK in this country? (I'll explain the scare quotes around politically later.) The response most everyone (I hope) would instantly give is "never". Yet, this is what happened in Sacramento, and for once, I am not so disturbed by it - in fact, it is validation of an American market economy at work.

As is well-known now, CA Proposition 8 - which amended the CA State Constitution so as to redefine "marriage" between a man and a woman - passed 52 to 48. Many people who voted for this did not see this as taking away anybody's rights, but as a way to draw a box around something they thought they knew. Others, like myself, see it as a way to make sure gay couples know they are second class. I can only imagine how gay couples feel.

This story begins, however, with the finding that the director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento - an outfit that employs, patronizes, and uses as suppliers untold numbers of gay people - donated $1,000 to Yes on Prop 8. Once this broke, gay people in the business immediately called for a boycott of the theater.

He has since resigned and released the following statement:

I understand that my choice of supporting Proposition 8 has been the cause of many hurt feelings, maybe even betrayal. It was not my intent. I honestly had no idea that this would be the reaction. I chose to act upon my belief that the traditional definition of marriage should be preserved. I support each individual to have rights and access and I understood that in California domestic partnerships come with the same rights that come with marriage. My sister is a lesbian and in a committed domestic partnership relationship. I am loving and supportive of her and her family, and she is loving and supportive of me and my family. I definitely do not support any message or treatment of others that is hateful or instills fear. This is a highly emotional issue and the accusations that have been made against me are simply not true. I have now had many conversations with friends and colleagues,and I am deeply saddened that my personal beliefs and convictions have offended others. My choice to support the Proposition was personal, and does not represent the views and opinions of California Musical Theatre or the many people associated with the organization. I was required by law to identify my employer and occupation at the time of my donation.

I feel for this guy, I do. But only to a point. His feelings aside, he works with a lot of people for whom his vision of the world directly harms their idea of their family. Their inclusion in the American dream. It was an idiotic, brazen move, and if he did not see how hurt people would get, then people are simply not listening. So, I feel that folks did have the right to choose to not work with, or patronize, the place where he works. This is America, and that is a valid protest.

A comparison with McCarthyism is unfair - McCarthy had the full weight of the Federal gummint to root out leftists and ruin their lives. This guy's job propects - he ruined them himself.

BTW Why is it that a guy who works this closely with the gays who he feels are ruining his idea of marriage is only talking to them now?

UPDATE: Katherine Mangu-Ward has a post, contra mine, and makes a good point: campaign finance laws are really responsible for the outing of this guy. True true. And I imagine if the situations were reversed, would I be angling for the rights of the conservatives in this case? And, yes, this guy is clearly not a homophobe (how could he be??). That said, those who stick up for causes must face the consequences. Campaign finance laws are in effect, and this guy should have known that. His stance did hurt the feelings of those with whom he worked, and he paid. Maybe the campaign finance laws are a travesty (I'm not so sure), but there they are.

"No Amnesty, No Welfare for Illegal Aliens"

The latest thing to worry about is whether Obama will allow immigrants to get amnesty. This would have the effect of a meteor smashing into the earth. The NY Times would hope that all people would be given immediate citizenship to increase their dwindling readership.

I will defer to my esteemed Congressman Ron Paul for my thoughts on this: "No Amnesty, No Welfare for Illegal Aliens".

Obama has promised to address this in his first 100 days in office to Hispanic groups. This should be interesting as Mark Krikorian from the National Review says, "The first opportunity is his illegal-alien Auntie Zeituni living in Boston. Make that his visa-overstaying, fugitive illegal-alien aunt living on welfare in Boston. At least she was in Boston until the London Times found out about her, using such unfamiliar techniques as reading Obama's memoir and doing a Google search; she fled to relatives in Cleveland since. "

Although John McCain was for amnesty, most Republicans were and are not. Saying we will enforce the laws in the future is not very nurturing to the public. Where is Ron Paul when we need him most?

Nothing personal

Then:

I'd never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful. It's reprehensible.

- John McCain on the campaign ads used by Saxby Chambliss against Sen. Max Cleland in the 2002 GA U.S. Senate race

Now: McCain is going to campaign for Chambliss in the runoff for his re-election.

Politics is a funny business.

While we're at it, let's save Rochester, too.

In an incredible, must-read post, The Atlantic's Megan McArdle skewers the thinking in (mainly) Democratic circles that Detroit must be saved, or else the towns in the Rust Belt that depend on jobs from the automakers will die a horrid death. Which is true, but...I'll let Megan say it:

But it doesn't matter. These vital towns, where generations of people lived happy lives and raised fat, burbling babies to a middle-class adulthood, are all dying. Should the government save these places too? Shall we support Eastman Kodak indefinitely, whether or not it can produce a product anyone wants to buy? And Xerox, and Carrier, and a thousand companies you've never heard of? Shall we make it illegal to make a better product than American corporations? Why not just ban new products that make old ones unprofitable?

To do that, we'll have to take the money from other people, in other cities. Other businesses will not get the capital that we give to dying firms, so they won't expand. Some other families, not yours, will lose their homes because their business failed, or have to move away from home in order to get jobs because their area is in the doldrums. Meanwhile, everyone in the country will be slightly worse off, because we've shifted limited economic resources towards products they demonstrably do not want.

This hits me particularly hard, because I went to graduate school at the University of Rochester, and lived in that wonderful city for 3 years, visited at least once a year until last year, and still have many friends there. When I started at the U of R in 1992, Kodak was suppporting much of the University, especially my beloved Optics Dept. Many graduate students were supported by Kodak, and still more went on to cushy research or engineering jobs in Kodak upon graduation. Kodak was the primary concern of Rochesterians, with its quarterly earnings the front-page news, the first item on the nightly local newscast.

That's all changed. During my tenure in Rochester, Kodak cut back its support dramatically. I still had friends go to work there, but none remain. Kodak has been in a long downward spiral, a slow death.

This is a trend over 11 years. Pretty bad. I'm not sure if anything can save Kodak from going belly-up, or Rochester from, well, decaying. Unless the gummint wants to infuse cash to "save" Rochester.

I don't think this is a bright idea - it would only prolong the inevitable. Resources need to go where they are contributing to the welfare of the most possible people. Which is why I agree with Megan: this "bailout" of GM, Ford, and Chrysler is a fool's errand, a reward to failed capitalists. Those conservatives that decried a Marxist becoming President, but do not say anything about this travesty, be prepared to be labeled a hypocrite.

Don't mess with a man's guns!

The Latest headlines read "Gun Owners Stockpiling Over Fear of Democratic Weapon Bans". Tell me it ain't true. Many gun enthusiasts seem to believe that the Obama Administration is going to restrict ones Second Amendment right to own a firearm. Obama clearly said during his campaign that he support Second Amendment rights and not infringe.

A spokesman for Obama's transition team said, in a written statement that Obama "respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms," and that he will "protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns." Was he telling the truth? Well, in a post election November 7, 2008 memorandum, he now says "They (Obama & Biden) support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent..."

It's no secret that Obama supported gun bans as a State Legislator. In the 1990's when asked about handguns, he simply responded that “I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns.”

Will the real Obama please stand up?

On friendships across the divide

Spencer Ackerman, too liberal even for The New Republic, on his friendship with Eli Lake:

Politics is important. But so is friendship, and to take that a step further, you should want to have friends who disagree with you, and sometimes disagree with you deeply. Check each other's excesses, fill each other's blindspots, strengthen your own arguments and then light the peace pipe and make Steely Dan references. It's a better way to live.

Well, maybe not Steely Dan. But although I've never met Jeff in person, I think if we were neighbors, we'd be sucking back the whiskey and smokes, whilst arguing away, while our wives bonded over complaining about our obsessive behavior.

Panic in Detroit

At the meeting of the minds in the White House yesterday, PE (President-Elect) Obama urged P Bush to accept a Democratic-backed automaker bailout plan; Bush siad he would do this if the Dems accept a Free Trade proviso with Colombia. The Dems are not inclined to take this bait, as there are many union-busting activities in the Colombian labor market.

I think most thinking adults agree that the major problems with the American auto industry of late are as follows:

• Uncompetitveness with other carmakers due to health benefits
• Same due to retiree benefits
• Same due to lackluster product

On the first point, clearly this is a national problem, tying health care to employment. I don;t understand why people who want the status quo complain about the premium incurred in the cost of every American car due to health benefits. McCain did strike one correct chord with his health plan, but it would have been a disaster for many Americans to be thrown out to the general market. Unfortunately, some form of national health insurance, unwieldy as it is, seems to be the only cure here to make American companies competitive with foreign competitors whose workers enjoy such benefits.

On the second, this is where the unions have become outdated. This is a real pickle, because Obama did seek and get union support. Maybe the unions will see reason at this point, likely not if they allowed their industry to get so uncompetitive. But PE Obama will not seek to piss of the unions.

On the third point, I am continually amazed at the inroads that foreign car companies have made over the past decade+. Toyota leads the pack, by a long shot, in hybrid cars. GM and Ford have hybrid models, but as add-ons for their behemoths, and the gas savings is not all that great. (The Commonwealth of MA has purchased/leased a whole fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids, which my brother-in-law, an America-only car consumer, called the least fun vehicle he has ever driven.) Maybe the GM Volt will lead the pack someday, I hope so. But right now, where is the excitement?

Here's what I think should happen: bailout money should go to supporting the retirees and current employees. F the companies, for whom a bailout is a mere bandaid covering a bayonet strike. From the ashes of the companies' IP and manufacturing equipment should emerge a host of smaller, nimble companies, not weighed down by unions, etc., that can produce the cleaner technology needed for us to drive in the 21st century. Meanwhile, bailout money would be used to retrain workers and provide VC funds to startups that wish to harness the gains made in clean car tech and produce winning cars for the future, and keep American manufacturing alive and well.

More Norm Bashing

Oopsie, looks like I forgot to mention the lawsuit filed against Norm's friend and outfitter, Nasser Kazeminy, for forcing a third party to steer $75,000 to Coleman and/or his wife Laurie via an insurance company for whom Laurie works.

In response, Coleman put on an ad that has to be seen to be believed:



Pulls at the ol' heartstrings, don't it? But seriously, my motivation in saying this is not to create a filibuster-proof Senate for the Dems, but to rid ourselves of a hapless, corrupt Senator. Of course, voting's over, and odds are that Coleman will be back. But I guarantee that his term will be compromised by ethics problems.

At least the Daily Show will have something to laugh at, short term.

Shutting Gitmo

Well the latest news from the Obama camp is disheartening indeed. His current plans for shutting down Gitmo and transferring the enemy combatants to Federal Court is foolhardy. Why indeed would the president elect even entertain releasing 250 enemies to U.S. Soil since no other countries want them? I certainly hope they are released into a certain Chicago Suburb instead of the usual Miami dump job.

"President-elect Obama, with a stroke of your presidential pen, on Day One of your administration, you can ensure that our government will be faithful to the Constitution and to the principles upon which America was founded," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a full-page ad in the New York Times.

Under the plan being crafted inside Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials. This would include 5 September 11 terrorists. Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises many problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

Obama's other solution is to create a whole new Court system to try the detainees instead of the tribunals we have now. Looks like a very merry Christmas for the detainee's, likely in South Florida.

The Coleman-Franken Senate Race, or Why Nate Silver is The Man

You may have heard that the MN Senate race has gone into recount. Currently, wardrobe-assisted incumbent Norm Coleman leads Democratic challenger (and alter ego of Stuart Smalley) Al Franken by a whopping 221 206 votes out of over 2.8 million. By MN law, Franken has a right to a recount. (Coleman, of course, thought that Franken should just concede for the sake of the greater good. This is rich, coming from a dude who, among other things, accepted expensive suits from a wealthy contributor. But never mind.)

The question is, in the abstract, is it really a good idea to blow $86,000 on such a recount? Nate Silver, of course, has the goods. The short answer is, of course it is. The long answer is far more interesting, especially to a geek like me.

There are 3 parameters mainly at work here. The first is the difference between Coleman and Franken. Silver computes that the recent pre-recount reduction of the difference to 221 votes was crucial; had it been at the original 700 votes, then the probability of a change would be too small for the recount to make any difference.

The second parameter is what Silver calls the Correctable Error Rate (CER); says Silver: "This is the percentage of ballots that were not counted originally, but which will be counted given a hand recount."

The third parameter is Percentage of Ballot Errors favoring a particular candidate (we'll say Franken). Silver, again:

There is substantial evidence that undervotes and overvotes are significantly more common among what we might call vulnerable voters -- in particular, minorities, elderly voters, low-income and low-education voters, and first-time voters. A 2001 study for the House Committee on Government Reform, found that undervoted ballots were more than twice as common in minority-heavy, low-income precincts than in predominately white, upper-income precincts -- even when using the relatively reliable, precinct-based optical scanning system that Minnesota uses. (The discrepancies are significantly higher when using less reliable technologies like punch cards.)

Assuming that the difference stands at 221 votes at recount time, Silver produces the following matrix:

The yellows represent what Silver feels are the most likely ranges. As you can see, the darkest yellow has ranges from "no chance" to "of course". Another way of saying anything an happen. Silver points out that the average of the dark yellow is 44.3%, but that's not the point.

The point is that Coleman has no business in telling Franken to abandon his campaign at this point. Game remains on.

What exactly are Obama’s plans for this "civilian national security force"?

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." (emphasis added)

Does this scare you?

"In his entire life, Senator Obama has never managed an organization larger than a Senate staff, or that of a law school publication. And, he's never operated a for-profit business or been responsible for any profit center within one. So, while words matter to Senator Obama, it's not clear if math means anything to him at all."

Never Again?

What?!?

In her post commemorating 70 years since Kristallnacht, Debbie Schlussel wonders why the majority of her fellow tribe have become so stupid:

It was a loud disruption to the cocooned view of German Jews that they were cultured and mostly assimilated and, many of them, wealthy, and that their
fellow Germans would never harm them. On that night, they finally realized
that, in fact, they were not the equals in society they'd believed for
centuries that they were. As many of my readers and friends have noted this
week, these German Jews have their contemporaries in the liberal Jews who
voted for Barack Obama and the party dominated by anti-Semitism and
anti-Israel sentiment, the Democrats.

So, let me get this straight. The Democrats are dominated by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment? Really? Can someone explain this to me? Because if true, then, you know, I'd feel kinda...stupid. Taken. Of course, voting Republican, according to Ms. Schlussel, is no guarantee of safety:

I, myself, have endured the death, rape, and torture threats from four
American residents--ALL of them Muslim. Today's Nazis don't wear the swastika,
they wear the crescent. And they find their most vocal supporters on the left
and in the party of the left and its new President-elect. And, yes, they have
far too many PC-types who are also yes-men--though to a much lesser extent--in
the Republican Party.

Clearly Ms. Schlussel feels she has good reason for her paranoia: she has not forgotten. Neither have I: my grandparents, by sheer luck, emigrated to this country from Vilna in 1931. Most of their remaining family was wiped out, save for my grandmother Liza's half-sister Sonia, who escaped to Palestine and who husband Lipa joined the Irgun.

Yes, there are scary people out there, OK, mainly Islamists, who are out to destroy Jews. I do not hide from it. I thank G-d I am in a country in which our enemies are also the enemies of the country at large. But I do not for a second look around and see nothing but enemies all around. Sometimes, we have to move on with our lives and soften the rhetoric. And recognize that just because someone would rather explore other options besides wiping an opponent off the face of the planet, doesn't make them anti-Semitic.

Memo to Debbie Schlussel: your attention to our enemies is appreciated, but your tone makes you ridiculous.

The final electoral map,FWIW

Courtesy of 538.com:



By the way, kudos to Nate Silver, who used his formidable knowledge of stats to properly aggregate the existing poll data. His predictions were pretty much dead on.

70 years since Kristallnacht

I ran across the headline in today's Globe, and as with most things Shoah-related, it made me think a little. For example, why is this still relevant in an age where we've stood helplessly by while watching disasters like Rwanda and Darfur? I can think of a couple of reasons, actually:

• The Shoah is a seminal event in modern history, and our way of thinking about current events is forever affected. Kristallnacht is seen as one of the major events along the road to the destruction of European Jewry.
• Kristallnacht, as an attack on Jewish businesses, makes clear that the Shoah was economic in its origins. The success of the Jewish minorities was one of the levers used by the Nazis to mobilize the hatred of the masses against Jews. This sort of thing goes on without end when any minority is seen to be more successful than members of the majority as a whole. The U.S. is unique in this aspect, in which such success is actually celebrated.

Appointment of Pres.-Elect Obama's Chief of Staff

Congratulations to President-Elect Obama and for jumping on forming his transition team. This is a wise move since clearances and Senate approval can take some time.

His first move was to appoint his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. It is interesting that the numerous anti-Semitic comments that preceded Obama's election to the highest office in the land, wound up having him pick not only a Jew, but an Israeli Jew. At first glance this seems like a smart move, as he was also Clinton's Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. But it seems in around 2000, his greed began to rear it's ugly head.

If I may quote: "Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton in 2000. His position paid him $31,060 in 2000 and $231,655 in 2001. During the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for congress."

So it is not a far jump to say that Freddie Mac's current state of affairs was potentially predicated on Emmanuel's term on the Board Of Directors. After he left Freddie Mac he then became an investment banker. Despite having little experience or education in finance, Mr. Emanuel became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office in 1999, helping to bring in business and seal deals. According to a 2003 article in The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Emanuel was brought in by one of the firm’s founders, Bruce Wasserstein, who was one of President Clinton’s most active fund-raisers on Wall Street. In his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, Mr. Emanuel — who once once trained as a ballet dancer and was a civilian volunteer in the Israeli army — made $16.2 million, according to Congressional disclosures.

Thank the stars Obama rushed this Clinton cronie into the White House. Change is coming alright, this reflects a return to the past - not a look to the future. On the other hand, I think it shows that he will not be controlled by Islamists.

The statewide contest

I have been railing about the lack of Republicans in the MA state house, and how it has been harmful to democracy for the Commonwealth. Most people I know agree with me.


So, here is the ballot I was given for our statewide reps:

See a pattern? Where are the Republicans?

The Boston Phoenix, way back when, commented on this grim situation, and Mitt Romney's responsibility as the GOP standard bearer to do something about it:

Romney, then, must do something no other Republican governor in recent memory has been able to do: he must work aggressively to build up the moribund state Republican Party. Since 1990, Republicans have had a hammerlock on the governor’s office, but they have failed miserably at building their party organization. The 13 percent of the state's electorate that registers as Republican is about what it was 13 years ago, when William Weld was elected. Aside from the high-profile positions of governor and lieutenant governor, Republican statewide officeholders are nonexistent, and that’s partly the fault of the party itself. The state Republican Party, for example, failed to run a candidate against Attorney General Tom Reilly. It presented no challenger to Senator John Kerry, whom it should have countered, if only to force him to spend money he can now use in his run against President George W. Bush. The best the party could do against Democratic incumbent secretary of state William Galvin was Jack E. Robinson, a farcical figure who took the stage at the Republican convention in Lowell last April to the theme from Rocky. The party even failed to run a candidate for the seat formerly held by Senate president Tom Birmingham, which now belongs to Senator Jarrett Barrios of Cambridge — a race that, while uphill, could have raised the visibility of an up-and-coming Republican.

At least partly as a result of such lackluster efforts, all 10 members of the Bay State’s US congressional delegation are Democrats. And, most serious for Romney, he has only six fellow Republicans in the state Senate (a body of 40) and 23 in the House (a body of 160) — far less than the one-third (14 in the Senate, 54 in the House) he needs to uphold his vetoes. Without the key executive power to veto legislation, Romney will not be able to sustain himself as a strong governor.

Romney, of course, failed. Some would say that such failure led him to denigrate his own state in front of his potential southern constituency when he was running in the presidential primary last year. I would, with an admitted lack of any evidence right now, assert that it was such an attitude that led to his halfhearted efforts and the situation we faced in this election cycle.

Post-election schadenfraude

First of all, a shout out to Jeff for creating this blog, which I am confident will have a happy and interesting life, given our start in Facebook over the election season. Jeff is a terrific sparring partner, and we should have a lot of fun.

I am going to begin substantive discussions with some relatively old news: the appointment of Pres.-Elect Obama's Chief of Staff. Well, let me take a few steps back to this very revealing exchange involving one of my favorite defenders of our faith, Michael Goldfarb:



Ah yes, such words of wisdom, I am so glad that Mr. Goldfarb was there warning us about the anti-semites with whom Obama would be consorting come his (gasp) election. And, wouldn't you know it, Pres.-Elect Obama, first thing he does, is go out and pick noted Jew-hater Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff:

Rahm Israel Emanuel (Hebrew: רם ישראל עמנואל‎) was born in Chicago, Illinois. His first name, Rahm, means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew,[ while his last name, Emanuel, means "God is with us." According to his father, his son is the namesake of Rahamim, a Lehi paramilitary group combatant who was killed. Rahm’s surname was adopted by his family in 1933, after Rahm’s paternal uncle, Emanuel Auerbach, was killed in a skirmish with Arabs in Jerusalem...

Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation is quoted as saying: "It's a very involved Jewish family"; "Amy was one of the teachers for a class for children during the High Holidays two years ago." Emanuel has said of his Judaism: "I am proud of my heritage and treasure the values it has taught me." Emanuel's family lives on the North Side of Chicago, in the North Center neighborhood...

According to The Nation, Emanuel is "seen as a strong Israel partisan.” In June 2007, Emanuel condemned an outbreak of Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip and criticized Arab countries for not applying the same kind of pressure on the Palestinians as they have on Israel. At a 2003 pro-Israel rally in Chicago, Emanuel told the marchers Israel was ready for peace but would not get there until Palestinians "turn away from the path of terror."

OK, you see, Goldfarb had it nailed. Wicked nasty anti-Semites already clogging the Obama administration. I will be looking to Michael for more stunning wisdom in the weeks and months to come.