Best Single Op-Ed Page All Year: 1, 2, 3

Thu. May 31, 2012:

Reasonable Republicans & Democrats must be frustrated by:
Gun massacres -- over & over --  in U.S. life, NRA's policy toward such incidents is "No Comment";
Sexual abuse of children, and cover-ups -- over & over -- by Roman Catholic clergy;
Billions of dollars spent [wasted?] on 2012 political campaigns [instead of cutting national debt?].

Fed up?
One op-ed page [NYT p. A21 in Tues. May 29, 2012] has 3 uncommonly thought-provoking pieces:

1.  David Brooks, "The Role of Uncle Sam" -- federal government's role since Hamilton?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/opinion/brooks-the-role-of-uncle-sam.html

2.  Sanford Levinson, "Our Imbecilic Constitution" -- too much reverence for an outdated document?
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/our-imbecilic-constitution/

3.  Joe Nocera, "The Simplicity Solution" -- curbing Big Banks even better than Dodd-Frank?
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/our-imbecilic-constitution/

Forget Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle" . . .

Wed. May 30, 2012:

Just one required reading today, from Bloomberg News editors, led by Matthew Winkler [above, with bow-tie skewed to his right].
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-28/the-truth-about-uncertainty-is-that-it-s-mostly-untrue.html

Werner Heisenberg, the World War II-era German physicist, was probably most famous for his "Uncertainty Principle" -- if not Neils Bohr's wartime meeting with him.
But, in 2012 politics, Republicans have a more pertinent "Uncertainty Principle":  Federal regulations cause "uncertainty," which spooks businesses, which prevents economic growth & private-sector jobs.
Is this Uncertainty Principle valid, or not?





[For those with time for tiny appetizers,
see "Romney's Former Rivals Speak Out on Bain Attacks"
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/romney-backers-explain-past-criticism-of-him/

and a rare critique of NJ's red-hot superstar governor Chris Christie, entitled "Big Fiscal Phonies."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/opinion/krugman-fiscal-phonies.html]

The NRA 1871-1970's: Once A Mainstream Group

Tues. May 29, 2012:

A tiny minority know the benign, moderate history of the National Rifle Association, from its founding in 1871 to its radicalization about 1970.
This moderate history took a major ideological right turn in the 1970's.  Now, it may be the most feared lobby force on Capitol Hill.  Nearly everywhere:  To oppose the NRA is to lose your seat in Congress.

Will the 2070's look back on the NRA of post-1970 as a great step toward individual freedom, or as one of the deadliest mistakes in U.S. society?

Want to read the short version?  See Jill Lepore, "Battleground America:  One Nation, Under the Gun," in The New Yorker, April 23, 2012.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore

Excerpts:
In 1939, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "the 2nd Amendment is restricted to the keeping and bearing of arms by the people collectively for their common defense and security" and "is not one which may be utilized for private purposes but only one which exists where the arms are borne in the militia or some other military organization provided for by law and intended for the protection of the state."
"The NRA supported the 1968 Gun Control Act, with some qualms."
"In the 1970s, the NRA began advancing the argument that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual's right to carry a gun, rather than the people's right to form armed militias to provide for the common defense."

Want to read a longer version?  See Adam Winkler, Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America.

A Conservative Converts, In Disgust

Mon. May 28, 2012:

                                                           [Michael Fumento, War Veteran]


In honor of our men & women in uniform -- especially who paid with life-changing injuries or the last full measure of devotion:

Just one 20-minute reading on this Holiday, and it's a doozer.  Discovered by our Aristotle of Arrowsic.

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/my_break_with_the_extreme_right/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

For those without 20 minutes, 2 excerpts:
_________________

As a conservative, I disagree with the political opinions of liberals. But to me, a verbal assault indicates insecurity and weakness on the part of the assaulter, as in “Is that the best they can do?” This playground bullying – the name-calling, the screaming, the horrible accusations – all are intended to stifle debate, the very lifeblood of a democracy . . .


Sure, there are enough hate-and-anger mongers on the left to go around. Among the worst was Keith Olbermann, who once called Malkin a “mashed up bag of meat with lipstick on it.” Very edifying, Keith! But as the Christian Science Monitor reported, hisratings recently collapsed from an average of 354,000 viewers a night when he debuted on Current TV, to 58,000 viewers by the first quarter of 2012. He was recently fired. Again. Air America was intended to counter right-wing talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh. I was on Al Franken’s show while he made fun of a soldier from my first battle who is now permanently paralyzed. Touché, Al! But Air America also failed . . . 
___________________

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/my_break_with_the_extreme_right/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Starting Today: Short Must-Reads for the Busy

Fri. May 25, 2012:

Estimable Readers:  Your top priority, from a letter to the NYT editor:

Ann Romney is quoted as saying of running for president that the Romneys both “felt it was what God wanted them to do.”

That perception always reminds me of Susan B. Anthony’s comment: “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

CLAIRE CAFARO
Fort Collins, Colo., May 20, 2012

________________________________

Next best:

1.  Crucial to our financial future:  Why USA's big banks are not as necessary as they say they are.
Edouardo Porter, "Economic Scene:  The Modest Worth of Big Banks"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/business/big-banks-dont-need-to-be-so-big.html

2.  Both Dems & Repubs Miss the Point on Romney's Private Equity Firm "Bain Capital."
        A.  Steven Rattner, "Tall Tales About Private Equity"         http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/opinion/creating-jobs-wasnt-romneys-job.html
"Mr. Romney himself has been foolishly re-weaving history to claim . . . that he helped create 100,000 jobs during his time at Bain.  In fact, Bain Capital -- like other private equity firms -- was founded and managed for profit:  ideally, huge amounts of gain earned legally and legitimately.  Any job creation was a welcome but secondary byproduct."


        B.  Julie Creswell, "Political Ads Don't Tell Full Story on
              Private Equity"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/us/politics/political-ads-dont-tell-full-story-on-private-equity.html
"The industry has done a terrible job of explaining what it does, and now it has this bright spotlight being shown on it that no one really ever anticipated."

  

Even Republicans Grant USA's Greatness Herein

Thu. May 24, 2012: 

3532376714_cc9ce8cf80_b.jpg

Obama Campaign & Bad News: Crump or Triumph?

Tues. May 22, 2012:

Ecnomist Paul Krugman (above)




Obama campaign pessimists will find plenty to worry about so far this week.
But will they crump?  Or will they triumph?
Read 'em & Weep, or read 'em & Overcome?

First, here is the Overcome:

1.  Clever Republican ad-makers have hired actors & actresses to portray a family suffering under Obama policies, and the NYT says it could be dangerously effective.
But even these Republican ad-makers acknowledge the following:
"Middle-of-the-road voters who said they thought the country was on the wrong track were unmoved when they heard arguments that the president lacks integrity.  And they did not buy assertions that he is a rabid partisan with a radical liberal agenda that is wrecking America."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/us/politics/new-crossroads-gps-ad-takes-a-soft-shot-at-obama.html

2.  Paul Krugman really nails JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon, who minimized his superbank's recent $2 billion [and counting] mistake.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/opinion/dimons-deja-vu-debacle.html


Now, the Weep part:

A.  David Brooks, "How Change Happens," lambasts Obama for attack ads vs. Bain Capital:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/opinion/brooks-how-change-happens.html

B.  Democratic ally Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, called the Obama campaign's focus on Bain Capital a "nauseating" part of negative campaigning on both sides.  Republicans pounced, and started an "I Stand with Cory" petition, even though Booker reversed himself on Twitter and in a video.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/us/politics/obama-defends-attacks-on-romneys-record-at-bain.html

C.  Republican super PACs are quickly catching up -- and may surpass -- Obama's edge in fund-raising.  And if the guy/gal with the most money wins, Romney may be your new president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/us/politics/romney-narrows-obama-fund-raising-edge.html

D.  Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker piece criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts's partisan manipulations in the 2010 Citizens United decision gets challenged in the conservative National Review.  In the interest of equal time, here is the first half of the NR's contrary view:
http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/300027/jeffrey-toobin-s-money-unlimited-part-1-ed-whelan
For more than equal time, you can consult part 2 on your own.

E.  Believe it or not, TransCanada sends a letter to the NYT denying an editorial spelling out multiple risks of the company's proposed Keystone XL project aiming to bisect the USA from North Dakota to Texas.  "Safety is our No. 1 priority," says TransCanada.  [However:  It does not explicitly challenge a single claim of the editorial.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/opinion/keystone-safety-measures.html

Refusing Despair Despite 2012 Election Trends

Mon. May 21, 2012:

Important reading assignment, Dear Readers:

1.  George Packer, "Six More Months," in The New Yorker of May 14, 2012:  The election will be an interminably long slog, given the already uninspiring campaigns of Romney and Obama.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/05/14/120514taco_talk_packer

2.  Dan Balz, "The Missing Issue in the Presidential Campaign," in the Washington Post of May 19, 2012:  No matter who wins, can Washington govern?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-missing-issue-in-the-presidential-campaign/2012/05/19/gIQAcKIKbU_story.html

3.  Jeffrey Toobin, "Money Unlimited: How Chief Justice John Roberts Orchestrated the Citizens United Decision," in The New Yorker of May 21, 2012:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all

_________________________________________________________

Together, these may take you an hour -- maybe more.  But if you care about our U.S. of A.,
they are worth it.

The Mann/Ornstein Book: Sold Out in Bookstores

Fri. May 18, 2012:

A casual glance at newspaper headlines for the last two days requires Straight Talk beyond McCain's express:  The Republican party of 2012 is perversely cruel on issue after issue.  Maybe that's why Thomas Mann's & Norman Ornstein's It's Even Worse Than It Looks is sold out in many bookstores right now.

Wednesday's & Thursday's papers:
1.  House Speaker John Boehner has again announced that he & his Congressional Republicans will not agree to raise the debt ceiling without massive spending cuts and NO revenue increases from taxes.
2.  Climate Change Deniers:  "European scientists in the 15th century agreed that the earth was the center of the universe.  That didn't make it true."
3.  Texas has executed 482 people since it reinstated the death penalty in 1982.
4.  Alabama's anti-immigrant law:  Its architects are pushing it in other states, although it should be declared unconstitutional if the 5-4 Supreme Court ever makes a correct decision.
5.  JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon still claims that Volcker Rule regulations are not necessary -- despite the fact that such unregulated Wall Street gambling helped cause the suffering of innocent Main Street millions.
6.  Legalized handguns for neighborhood-watch.
7.  Stop-and-frisk police tactics.
8.  "Add fish and oceans to the long list of environmental issues that House Republicans do not much care about."
9.  Slashing school budgets, in the face of an unprecedentd new "majority," of nonwhite U.S. childbirths.
10.  On Romney-style teenage bullying:  "How come the thin-skinned kids nowadays can't handle the bullying that made us better, stronger adults?" one man twittered Nicholas D. Kristof.

Republicans = Machiavelli Reincarnate?

Thu. May 17, 2012:

Dear Readers,
Earlier posts have already laid out several reasons to despair for our country's (and planet's) future.
So, no need to rehearse them here.
Still, it is hard to see how either the USA or Planet Earth will improve, whether Obama or Romney win the 2012 presidential election.

But let's try optimism:
If the Romneys win despite Bain buyouts, flip-flopping, teen bullying, working moms with cadillacs & garage elevators, Machiavelli could see it as a Good Thing.
Machiavelli's prince needs to be rich, ruthless, sneakily efficient, offering no checkable details/promises.
His party certainly qualifies, if not Mitt himself.
Consider its success in proliferating terms like "Obamacare" and "Democrat" [not "Democratic"] majority in the Senate.
Consider state-level stealth campaigns to redistrict and to disenfranchise legal voters without IDs.
Consider its obstructionism in Congress [on annual deficit/debt bargains, gutting Affordable Care, gutting Dodd-Frank, ad infinitum], which seems to hurt Obama as much as House & Senate Republicans.
Consider Republicans' campaign finance windfall from its 5-4 Supreme Court majority Citizens United decision, and likely the impending "unconstitutionality" ruling on the Affordable Care Act.
Consider Republicans' sense of humor, as they outmaneuver Democrats over & over, at every level:
____________________________________________
Current Republican Joke:
{There are less than seven months until election day when the people will

decide who will be the next President of the United States . The person

elected will be the President of all Americans, not just the Democrats

or the Republicans. It's time that we all need to come together, Democrats

and Republicans alike, in a bi-partisan effort for America.

If you will support Mitt Romney, please drive with your headlights ON

during the day.

If you support Barack Obama, please drive with your headlights OFF at

night.

Together, we can make it happen.}

____________________________________________

Don't like gridlock?  Republican meanness toward the disenfranchised, the impoverished, and the voiceless could soon control the presidency AND both Houses of Congress AND the Supreme Court AND most governorships AND state-houses.
Then, the cruel Darwinian efficiency will replace gridlock.
Machiavelli:  For a prince to gain power & keep power, he must be both a lion & a fox in amassing scary power and cunning.

How close are we, to this Machiavelli scenario actually happening?
See David Brooks's daunting forecast:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/opinion/brooks-the-espn-man.html
And see an Obama-sympathetic NYT political analyst's whistle-in-graveyard assessment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/opinion/brooks-the-espn-man.html

A Gem from the Aristotle of Arrowsic

Tues. May 15, 2012:

Discerning readers will see the fingerprints of my muse -- the Arrowsic Aristotle -- in this offering:

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/romneys-weasel-problem/

4 Abject Apologies: Error, Error, Error, Error

Sat. May 12, 2012:

Four Apologies, dear readers:

1..  Until reading through the first 40 reactions to the following op-ed [in Bloomberg News] about Richard Lugar's primary defeat in Indiana, it had not occurred to me that bipartisanship can be a real negative.
Read this link, and draw your own conclusions:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-09/lugar-concession-speech-tells-all-about-polarization.html
Perhaps it is, in fact, a code word for "enabling" the status quo, of bloated deficits & a runaway national debt.  It is an error on my part, not to have conceded, before now, that this is a possibility.  Folks of a different bent might consider likewise conceding that man-made global warming is also a possibility.  In both cases, do we not agree that something should be done now, to hedge against a future catastrophe?

2.  It is also an error not to have balanced my last post's recommendation of David Brooks's centrist views with those of Paul Krugman's leftish views -- about the same crucial deficits/debt issue raised in #1 above.  This is the first time I've seen Krugman disagree so urgently -- the next day -- with his fellow columnist who writes for the same op-ed page.  It was as if Krugman was about to call out Brooks by name!
Again, decide for yourself:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/opinion/krugman-easy-useless-economics.html

3.  At times, this blog falls into the error of coloring The New York Times as a lapdog of President Obama.  As a form of correction, let me quote one sentence (the underscoring is mine) from yesterday's prime NYT editorial on Obama's personal support for same-sex marriage:
"This is a president and a White House that has not always been unwavering in taking positions of principle, including on this issue."  [Almost British, in its understating].

4.  And finally, the following is an error of partisan bad taste:
http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/05/11/my-school-days/

Four Valid Republican Points

Wed. May 9, 2012:

1.  Paul Ryan is coming to his senses -- if he doesn't reverse himself -- about basic banking:
THE EDITORS: Even Paul Ryan agrees: “Don’t let banks use their customers' money to do anything other than traditional banking.” Sounds like an endorsement of the Volcker rule in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

2.  Moderate Republican columnist David Brooks argues persuasively that both Democrats [including colleague Paul Krugman] and Republicans are debating the wrong question:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/opinion/brooks-the-structural-revolution.html

3.  Even NYT editors agree with Republicans that President Obama has been far too passive a leader
-- especially on health care reform.  "Even Democrats say the president has been too aloof in his first term, not bothering to make his case in the Capitol, not interested in the LBJ-style flesh-pressing or arm-twisting that can rescue a law out of the mortuary of bills . . . He never made the sale with the public on the [Affordable Care] law . . . rather than shy away, it is time to explain [the law] to the public in detail what that would mean and why it is important that he be there to fight for it."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/opinion/campaigning-beyond-inspiration.html

4.  A few Republicans who oppose gay marriage may not be as bigoted as opponents assume.
There are plenty of older folks, of both parties, who hold the following credible position:
All citizens -- including gays of both genders -- should enjoy absolute & total equal rights regarding marriage, BUT:  the word "marriage" itself does have a different history.
Exhibit A:  The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (NY, 1966) defines "marriage" as
"The social institution under which a man and a woman establish their decision to live as man and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc."
One does not have to be a "bigot" to feel jarred by, literally, a reversal of this definition.
Simple solution:  Coin a new word, for the new, full equality for a pair living together by legal commitments & religious ceremonies totally equivalent to "marriage."
Worthy readers, feel free to submit your candidate for the new word:
"Pairriage"?

Mr. President: Some Republicans Do Good

Tues. May 8, 2012:

Open Letter to President Barack Hussein Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Mr. President,

Readers of the bitesfromedwin blog can be forgiven for concluding that Republicans are all anathema.
But this is not so.  In fact, although I'm likely to vote for you in 2012, I'm also voting against the scorched-earth politics of what the Founders intended to be "Loyal Opposition."  Since Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2009, Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint announced the party's extreme-rightist-driven agenda:  Do whatever it takes to make Barack Obama a 1-term president.

But here is a list of good Republicanism, and it would sure be easier to vote for you in 2012 if you had not made the following mistakes:

1.  Openly embrace your own commission on the national debt & deficits -- Simpson/Bowles.  It included Republican & Democratic proposals that could help the country a whole lot.  Yet, not a word from you.

2.  Support 80-year-old Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator (R-Indiana), by speaking out against him, or in favor of his Tea Party opponent.  [Most Indianans hate Obama so much, that anything he recommends will be opposed in Indiana!]  Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, Lugar & his conservative Democratic colleague Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) have done more to secure loose nukes -- sometimes out of their own pockets! -- than anyone.
Yet today, with no word from you or any other bipartisan voice, a Tea Party candidate will unseat Richard Lugar in Indiana's Republican primary election.  We are watching a great nation self-destruct with such myopic extremist politics.  You could have led, here, via "Opposite Day."

3.  Be more pro-active, in ways that Paul Krugman suggests.  Yes, Republicans blocked everything, but earlier quiet steps by the White House could have headed off last fall's budget deficit debacle.
Instead, too often your White House team seemed paralyzed into inaction.
See Krugman's "Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity":
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/opinion/krugman-plutocracy-paralysis-perplexity.html
and
"Those Revolting Europeans":
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/opinion/krugman-those-revolting-europeans.html

4.  When Republicans are funny, make a big deal of giving them credit.  It will help you with independents, I promise you -- as would steps #1 & #2 above, if not #3.
Republicans CAN be funny:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/87be7156f5/republicans-get-in-my-vagina

Mr. President, as expert as your campaign advisors are, you need to trust your own decent instincts toward doing what the country needs.  Believe me, giving bipartisan credit is atop the list right now.

Sincerely,
bitesfromedwin

FINALLY! A Clarion Call About U.S. Politics 2012

Sat. May 5, 2012:

Desperate Readers:  Before you do another thing, drop everything & Praise the Lord.
At long last, there appears to be a "Hello Out There."
Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein, It's Even Worse Than You Thought [2012].
Aimed at us few millions who feel that both the Democrats and the Republicans are dangerously full of bullbleep, and we better fix the whole system.
Quick.

Too busy for a whole book?  Okay, but at least scroll all the way down for some reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Even-Worse-Than-Looks-ebook/dp/B007UPDFKA



Still skeptical?
For Exhibit A:
Contrast this partisan counter-attack ad, answering another partisan ad.
http://www.upworthy.com/this-is-how-you-kill-an-attack-ad

What This Blog Needs: See "ON THE SCREEN"

Thu. May 3, 2012:

In our 21st-century information-saturated world, what is immediately visible on screen becomes even more crucial.  Journalist Jackie Calmes's "Ad Watch" sheds light, in "Obama Spot Offers a Rebuttal and a Jab at Romney":

"ON THE SCREEN:  Whenever the narrator talks about Mr. Romney or big oil, the screen has a black background.  First, the ad shows a small, anti-Obama video clip, and alongside are the narrator's words, in white type, rebutting it.  Then the words "Big Oil's New Attack Ad" whip over the video clip, covering much of it.  The screen briefly turns a more pleasing light blue:  A color photo of a determined-looking Mr. Obama is next to a map of the United States under the words 'Jobs created by President Obama's clean energy initiatives.'  The map fills with circles denoting locations of job-creating projects.  Back to black, as the phrase 'What about Mitt Romney?' is followed by black-and-white photos of the candidate.  Beneath the phrase 'The Romney Record' are phrases about shipping jobs overseas (on a global map, Mexico and China suddenly pop out in red); outscourcing Massachusetts jobs (a photo of the Massachusetts State House switches to one of India's Taj Maal); and supporting tax breaks for outsourcing companies (a photo appears of an abandoned plant).  Throughout the ad, in small type are news media citations supporting its assertions."  [For the whole article, including the ad's script and accuracy, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/us/politics/ad-watch-obama-spot-offers-a-rebuttal-and-a-jab.html ]



PS  If, dear readers, anyone doubts David Brooks's sad truth of yesterday's post -- about USA bringing itself down with self-destructive polarizing -- here is a little more:

1.  Turns out the Paul Ryan Budget architect himself -- one Henry Aaron [no relation] --  says "it won't work."  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/henry-aaron-paul-ryan-medicare_n_1466826.html

2.  Remember yesterday's Texas story, about a federal district judge prohibited a Texas law from banning Planned Parenthood clinics from participating in a health care program for low-income women?  Well, "hours" afterwards, a federal appeals judge reverses,  allowing Texas to do so.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/us/texas-judge-stays-order-on-health-care-program.html?_r=1

3.  Did you hear the one about Romney's openly gay foreign policy spokesman quitting?
The head of Log Cabin Republicans said that the Romney advisor Richard Grenell "was essentially hounded by the far right and far left."
Quod Erat Demonstratum.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/us/politics/romneys-foreign-policy-spokesman-quits.html

"We Have Met The Enemy, And They Are Us"

Wed. May 2, 2012:

Today's title originated with Walt Kelly, creator of the mid-20th-century comic strip Pogo.

In that vein, worthy readers, your text for today is bipartisan David Brooks, "Warfare or Courtship In 2012?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/opinion/brooks-warfare-or-courtship-in-2012.html


Will history prove Brooks correct?
In 2112, will any surviving humans remember the cause of USA's self-destruction?
Our absolute political dysfunction is suspect #1.  Republicans in 2012 have decided that, to beat President Obama [AND win both the House & Senate], they will take every weakness of candidate Mitt Romney, they will claim that Obama has an even worse form of the same weakness.  Prior to 2012, Republican strategy has been more bludgeon-like -- "just say no" to every single Obama idea, and then blame him for the resulting inaction.

Peruse yesterday's news, and you will see it everywhere:

1.  "Global warming" is an indisputable fact  backed by bipartisan science -- right?  Wrong!
An MIT professor of meteorology, Richard S. Lindzen, has made a career out of claiming that clouds will save planet earth from global warming.  Though he represents only 3% of all the science on the question, he has become a hero of the rightist deniers, and gets at least 50% of air time about global warming.  "If I'm wrong," asserts Lindzen, we'll know it in 50 years and can do something."
How can a Lindzen gain as much credence as 97% of the science opposing him?
[See Steve Coll's new book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, which includes chapter & verse about Exxon's deliberate campaign of sewing confusion & obfuscation against the 97% of scientists who read the evidence of global warming as urgently real.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/science/earth/clouds-effect-on-climate-change-is-last-bastion-for-dissenters.html

2.  Obama prefers sanctions -- not yet another Middle East war -- to end Iran's nuclear weapons program.  No brainer -- right?  Wrong!  Republicans say he is selling out our crucial ally Israel.

3.  Obama made the brave decision to approve the Navy Seals' mission vs. Bin Laden.  Bipartisan joy and relief -- right?  And, Senate Committee on Intelligence vows that secret evidence shows we found Bin Laden without evidence gleaned from torture -- right?  Wrong!  "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," disparaged Romney [even though back in 2007 Romney had said that "It's not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person].  The very water-boarding that Obama condemned enabled the CIA to glean the crucial information that found Bin Laden, claims former CIA agent & head of its "clandestine service" wing & Republican sympathizer Jose A. Rodgriguez Jr. on CBS's 60 Minutes.

4.  The use of armed drones to take out impending terrorist plotters, in places like Pakistan & Yemen, has sharply reduced the cost & risk of warfare to its operators -- right?  Wrong!
This time, however, the opposition comes not from kill-baby-kill & pro-torture Republicans, but from more sober futurists, who express "growing concern" about a "future in which other countries also acquire drones."

5.  Environmental Protection Agency, created under Republican Nixon, wants to stop polluters in Texas & elsewhere.  No one wants pollution -- right?  Wrong!  Republicans had a hissy-fit and then hounded to resignation an anti-polluter EPA official, because he did use a stupid "crucify" metaphor to try explaining EPA's need to make examples of bad polluters.

6.  Minnesota governor Mark Dayton [D] is trying to expand health insurance coverage and remake Minnesota's insurance market toward major savings for all Minnesotans.  He has meticulously detailed advice from consmer groups, labor unions, doctors & hospitals, emplyers, insurance companies, agents & brokers, and American Indian tribes.  Huge positive step -- right?  Wrong!  "For reasons of ideology and politics," extreme right-wingers "want to bash our effort to establish an exchange, rather than join it."  Republican legislators declined an invitation even to participate in a task force to study the plan.

7.  During the Watergate Scandal of 1972-1974, reporter Bob Woodward met "Deep Throat" many times in a garage, and by 2005 Mark Felt confirmed this as he unmasked himself -- right?  Wrong!
Jeff Himmelman [Republican apologist for Nixon?] claimed Woodward's boss Ben Bradlee had doubts, in his new biography of Bradlee.  In the quote of the day, Woodward said:
"This is a classic case of manufactured controversy, as best I can tell."

8.  Conservative Supreme Court justices always proudly protect free speech, as they did with their Citizens United ruling [which has drowned the 2012 presidential campaign in superPAC billions] -- right?  Wrong!  The High Court seems to be squeamish about some forms of free speech.  Back in 1971, the Court had ruled that the 1st Amendment would not tolerate the punishment of Paul Cohen, who was arrested in 1968 for wearing a jacket in a los Angeles courthouse that bore a 3-word phrase concerning his attitude toward the draft.
[Cohen's lawyer characterized the phrase this way: "Mr. Cohen was not actually advocating sexual intercourse with the Selective Service."]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/us/a-word-heard-everywhere-except-the-supreme-court.html?ref=adamliptak


IF U.S.A DISINTEGRATES, WALT KELLY'S OBSERVATION WILL LOOM LARGE:
"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, AND THEY ARE US."

Colbert's Republican Humor; and 5 Unfunnies

Tues. May 1, 2012:


"The Colbert Report" & Guns & N.R.A.
http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-april-30-2012-diane-keaton


THEN,

                                       

1.  Inspiring obituary:  George Vujnovich, 96; Led 1944 Rescue of 500 Airmen Behind German Lines
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/nyregion/george-vujnovich-96-led-rescue-of-airmen-in-world-war-ii.html?_r=1

2.  Republican state legislatures have quietly undermined new voters' right to vote in 30 states since the last presidential election.  For example, in Florida:  "a new requirement that voter registration signatures be handed in to state officials within 48 hours after they are collected."  In Ohio:  "new laws that discourage precinct workers from telling voters where to go if they show up at the wrong precinct."
Republicans clearly don't want new voters to vote -- they are trying to roll back the historic trend of democratizing our republic ever since ratifying our 1787 Constitution.
Watch Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus [who famously likened women to caterpillars] twist this stealthy Republican state-by-state practice -- into the Democrats' fault:
"for anyone to politicize the issue reeks of desperation and represents the worst in modern politics."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/nyregion/george-vujnovich-96-led-rescue-of-airmen-in-world-war-ii.html?_r=1

3.  NYT profile of Paul Ryan, 42, Republican from Wisconsin, chair of House Budget Committee [& author of the notorious Ryan budget that would slash federal aid to the needy but cut taxes for the wealthy].  Includes grudging admiration from a Democratic colleague from Wisconsin:  "I'm stunned by how oblivious he is to the pain his policies would cause people . . . What amazes me is that someone that nice personally has such a cold, almost academic view of what the impact of his policies would be on people."

4.  The "Romney touch" again, this time to a college audience last week:  First he denounces President Obama's "divisiveness," and then he tells the kids:  "Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents [emphasis mine], start a business."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/us/politics/paul-ryans-kinetic-rise-in-gop.html?pagewanted=all

5.  Bill Keller's new profile of North Korea -- "miserable, totalitarian, nuclear and erratic.  It is the hermit kingdom, the dark side of the moon."  But "the really scary thing about North Korea," says Keller, is "The Day After" its collapse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/opinion/keller-the-day-after.html