Sunday Papers – November 9, 2008
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Foreign Policy, Iraq, Obama Transition, Sarah Palin, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy
New York Times Magazine
- After the Imperial Presidency– Jonathan Mahler
- Payday Lenders, Check Cashers – Redeemed?– Douglas McGray
- Deprogramming Jihadists– Katherine Zoepf
New York Times
- Obama team weighs what to take on first
- Harsh words about Obama? Never mind
- Citing workload public lawyers refuse new cases
- How Merrill fell
- Pelosi, Reid want aid for U.S. automakers
- Op-Ed, Frank Rich: It still felt good morning after
- Op-Ed, Al Gore: The climate for change
- Op-Ed, Thomas Friedman: Show me the money
- Op-Ed, Nicholas Kristof: Obama and the War on Brains
- Rice visits West Bank
- U.S. electricity project in Afghanistan
- Back home, Palin finds landscape changed
- After push for Obama, Unions seek new rules
Washington Post
- Preparing for the Obama era
- Reid, Pelosi urge Treasury to extend aid to automakers
- Self-sufficiency evades Iraqi security forces
- Obama positioned to reverse Bush actions
- Medvedev calls Obama; Kremlin describes call
- Congressional Democrats say economy first priority
- Op-Ed, Rich Lowry: The right needs to get centered
- Op-Ed, Joseph Stiglitz: More pain to come even if he’s perfect
- Op-Ed, Ron Suskind: U.S. has power – it could use authority
- Op-Ed, David Broder: Governors know best
- Op-Ed, George Will: Democratic ironies and Republican Afflictions
Los Angeles Times
- Democrats set sights on Texas
- Public works on the table once again
- Obama relies on a close-knit inner circle
- Op-Ed, Norman Ornstein: The GOP’s deep hole
- Op-Ed, James Rainey: Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger
- Political blogger be nimble, be quick
- Election leaves gay couple feeling isolated
Why I’m Voting for Obama – Reason 2 of 3 – Our Standing in the World
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Foreign Policy, Presidential Campaign 2008
Where you can blame about half of our economic woes on Congress and Clinton-era policies, there is no doubt that our poor standing within the family of nations lies squarely at the feet of Bush and Cheney. Around the world we are either derisively snickered at for being brutish or boorish, or, worse, feared or hated. The tragedy is that sometimes the fear and hate are born of events and rational analysis due to our seeming irrational actions in places like Iraq. Read more
News – Strickland, DHL, Palin in Lebanon, Obama in Ohio, ODOT, Brunner and ballots, Space, Husted, Kim Jong-Il Revered Glorious Leader, Hurricane Ike, Pakistan-Afghanistan, U.S. Budget Deficit
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Foreign Policy, Cuyahoga Corruption, Gov Strickland, Ohio Economy, Presidential Campaign 2008, Russian/Georgian Conflict, Sarah Palin, State of Ohio Govt
Ohio News
- Strickland administration says DHL job-cutting plan may be illegal – Columbus Dispatch
- Moonbats wild about Palin in Lebanon – Columbus Dispatch
- Obama wants to double funding for charter schools – Columbus Dispatch
Dear Politicians: Charter Schools are the easy way out. Fix public education.
- ODOT pays $2 million in overtime to workers who aren’t eligible – Columbus Dispatch
- Ohio Lawmakers Reluctantly back Bailout – Columbus Dispatch
- Absentee ballot policy under fire – Columbus Dispatch
- Space-Dailey Race – Columbus Dispatch
- Husted won’t say whether he’s SecState candidate – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- J. Kevin Kelley campaign contributors draw FBI scrutiny – Cleveland Plain Dealer
Hurricane Ike
- Across Haiti a Scene of Devastation – Washington Post
- Billions of damage in Cuba, Ike Sets Sites on Texas – Reuters
World News
- Glorious leader almost certainly ill – BBC
- Russians hail Georgia deal as big win – Christian Science Monitor
- U.S. still weighing stronger action against Russia – Los Angeles Times
- Zadari, Karzai pledge new era of cooperation – Washington Post
Has Zadari told the ISI?
- U.S. federal budget deficit approaches $407 billion – Associated Press
Thanks, Shrub! We’re not only safer because you created terrorists over there in Iraq so you could talk about not having to fight them here … you’ve left us bankrupt! You Jackass.
Thursday A.M. Read – Sick Days, Dimora, Uninsured, Brunner, Marc Dann!, Russia v. Georgia, Rice, McCain, Energy Policy
Filed under: Bush Foreign Policy, Cuyahoga Corruption, Energy Policy, John McCain, Marc Dann, Ohio AG's Race 2008, Presidential Campaign 2008, Russian/Georgian Conflict, State of Ohio Govt, U.S. Congress
Ohio News
- Editorial: Sick Leave Fight May Require a Power Play by Strickland – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Number of uninsured in Ohio may be higher than report shows – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Political party leaders spar over election rule – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Prominent Dems want Dimora out – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- By 2042, minorities to be majority – Columbus Dispatch
- Anniversary: Largest blackout in US history – Columbus Dispatch
- Dann had rejected favorite for Academy – Columbus Dispatch
- GOP Fear: Voting too soon – Columbus Dispatch
- GOP pushes Cordray to return money – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: Full Accounting on Factory Farms – Columbus Dispatch
National/International News
- Russian forces begin pullout from Gori – VOA
- Rice says Russia faces isolation – BBC
- Bush squares up to Putin – Times of London
- Russia rejects West’s call to recognize Georgian sovereignty – The Guardian
- Op-Ed, John McCain: We are all Georgian – Wall Street Journal
- Now is the key time for energy in presidential race – NY Magazine
- Insurgency’s scars mar Afghan main road – New York Times
- GOP in House at risk in NE – New York Times
Sunday Night Last Look – More housing market trouble, Taliban, Malwebolence
Filed under: Bush Foreign Policy, Terrorism, U.S. Economy
From the New York Times
- Housing lenders fear bigger wave of loan defaults
- Ragtag Taliban show tenacity in Afghanistan
- The trolls among us
The Case Against Torture – Transcript: Bill Moyers inverview of Jane Mayer
Jane Mayer, a writer with the New Yorker and formerly of the Wall Street Journal has published her new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. She was interviewed Friday night on Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS. Moyers’ report on the Congressional hearings on Bush Administration-sanctioned torture and lengthy interview with Mayer was riveting television. It also made me feel like I’ve been tuned out of a debate that no American should ignore.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subcommittee which conducted the hearings on torture, detainee treatment, etc., did so over the course of around six weeks. They should have had these four hearings, back to back, four days in a row and gotten more of the public’s attention to this issue.
Philippe Sands, a University College of London law professor has also written a book detailing story behind the so-called torture memo signed by then SecDef Rumsfeld. Material from Sands’ book, Torture Team, became this article in Vanity Fair.
Now is the point in the post where I should write something about the rule of law, unintended consequences, and a presidency which tramples the Constitution, U.S. and international law. But, Sands said it best in his prepared testimony before the House Judiciary Committee:
From these conversations it became clear to me that the Administration has spun a narrative that is false, claiming that the impetus for the new interrogation techniques came from the bottom-up. That is not true: the abuse was a result of pressures and actions driven from the highest levels of government. The Administration claims that it simply followed the law. My investigation indicated that – driven by ideology – the Administration consciously sought legal advice to set aside international constraints on detainee interrogations. The Administration relied on a small number of political appointees, lawyers with no real background in military law, with extreme views on executive power, and with an abiding contempt for international rules like the Geneva Conventions. These are rules that the United States has done more to promote and put in place than maybe any other country. As result, under international law war crimes were committed: I have no doubt that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was violated, alongside provisions of the 1984 Convention prohibiting Torture. The spectre of war crimes was raised by US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the 2006 judgment in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. That judgment corrected the illegality of President Bush’s determination that none of the detainees at Guantanamo had any rights under Geneva.
For the complete transcript of Bob Moyers’ interview of Jane Mayer Read more
Tuesday A.M. – National City, State Board of Education, Bernanke, Madrassas, General Motors, Offshore Drilling
Filed under: Ohio Economy, State of Ohio Govt, Terrorism, U.S. Economy
- Economy will stay sluggish: Bernanke – New York Times
- How sound is National City? – Columbus Dispatch
- State Education Board unveils vision – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: Confusing the Issue – Columbus Dispatch
- Trudy Rubin: Pakistan’s madrassas are troubling – Columbus Dispatch
- GM ends dividend, takes cash-saving steps – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: Regulators’ new rules … finally – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Ohio unemployment fund needs help – Dayton Daily News
- Editorial: Cost of gas could slow sprawl – Dayton Daily News
- Raise taxes, freeze benefits to shore up unemployment fund – Columbus Business First
- Taliban breached U.S. base – New York Times
- Editorial: Drilling’s Lure – New York Times
Monday Evening – More Fannie, More Freddie; Afghan War; Useless Drilling; Mountain Lion
- Fannie, Freddie and You – New York Times
Clear- headed column by Paul Krugman points out that Fannie and Freddie operate under federal regulations that forbid them from buying subprime loans. So, how did we get to this point, Krugman writes in part:
Part of the answer is the sheer scale of the housing bubble, and the size of the price declines taking place now that the bubble has burst. In Los Angeles, Miami and other places, anyone who borrowed to buy a house at the peak of the market probably has negative equity at this point, even if he or she originally put 20 percent down. The result is a rising rate of delinquency even on loans that meet Fannie-Freddie guidelines.
Also, Fannie and Freddie, while tightly regulated in terms of their lending, haven’t been required to put up enough capital — that is, money raised by selling stock rather than borrowing. This means that even a small decline in the value of their assets can leave them underwater, owing more than they own.
- Barack Obama: My Plan for Iraq – New York Times
- Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling – Washington Post
Any oil production from new offshore drilling will come online and the oil into the market in about 10 years. This is a cynical, political ploy. The combined estimated production of U.S. offshore drilling and drilling in ANWR would barely dent our dependence on foreign oil or add enough oil to general supplies to make more than a minor dent in consumer prices. It’s past time to realize that we’re on the downward slope of the oil economy. Politicians who support this sort of drilling are either bought and paid for by the petroleum industry or offering false hope in order to get votes or create the appearance they are doing something.
- Militants breached U.S. base – BBC
- Tracker hunts Palo Alto mountain lion after attack – San Francisco Chronicle
Heading for 2001 All Over Again?
On Sunday 11 people, mostly police officers were killed by a suicide bomber in Islamabad, Pakistan. Today, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 41 people were killed by a car bomb outside the gates of the Indian embassy. Also on Monday, six small explosions wounded 37 in Karachi, Pakistan. Nearly seven years after 9/11 and Al Qaeda’s brand of militant Islam is stronger than ever.
The Kabul bombing is being reported as the largest such attack since U.S. and allied forces toppled the Taliban from power in 2001. That 2001 campaign showed the American intelligence community and military at its best. The problem is, the war in Iraq sucked all the oxygen out of the Afghani room for too long. The Taliban is resurgent. Along with the remnants of Al Qaeda, the Taliban reconstituted itself just across the border in Pakistan. The New York Times reported on June 30 that among other things terrorist training camps – albeit smaller – have also been rebuilt in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions.
That article, which you can read here, also outlines several other disturbing trends in Bush administration foreign policy which seem to mirror the mistakes made by the Clinton and Bush administrations leading up to 9/11.
The New York Times documents several instances of bureaucratic infighting among the intelligence and military arms in the U.S. war on terrorism. Although the Clinton administration’s problem was with White House approval for the trigger to be pulled on Bin Laden or other terrorist targets, the problem this time seems to be more internecine. The Times’ story recounts conflict between the CIA’s own field operations in Kabul and Islamabad. At other times the Pentagon has stood in the way of Special Forces operations planned for inside the Pakistani tribal areas. After all this time and money, the U.S. government still cannot operate efficiently or make crucial decisions at the right moment as it regards the military and intelligence communities, covert operations, and the proper use of military power.
This state of affairs is not what we were promised after 9/11 or after the release of the 9/11 Commission Report in July of 2004.
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