Peggy Noonan is Shallow and Stupid

I read Peggy Noonan's piece today in the WSJ. For those of you not familiar, Peggy used to write speeches for Ronald Reagan, a politician on whom she seemed to have a rather embarrassing midlife crush. She likes to style herself as mature and in touch with the genius of the common man. She indulges in the shopworn canard that the Left/Progressives/Democrats etc are childlike and effete. That we just cannot grasp how the world works. We think too much etc. You know the schtick....

True to form, today she recommends that John Edwards cannot be president because he was caught primping his hair before a television appearance a few years back. According to Noonan, such a man cannot lead the country. (She makes no similar judgments regarding Rudy Giuliani's appearances in drag, John McCain's off color jokes about Chelsea Clinton or his musical ditties regarding the bombing of Iraq. Nor does she mention Mr.Reagan's extreme experiments in Bryl Cream. These are somehow the actions of mature and wise men.)

And thanks again to Salon.com for unearthing this little tidbit from Ms Maturity in 2004:

Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man. He's normal. He thinks in a sort of common-sense way. He speaks the language of business and sports and politics. You know him. He's not exotic. But if there's a fire on the block, he'll run out and help. He'll help direct the rig to the right house and count the kids coming out and say, "Where's Sally?"

He's responsible. He's not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world. And then when the fire comes they say, "I warned Joe about that furnace." And, "Does Joe have children?" And "I saw a fire once. It spreads like syrup. No, it spreads like explosive syrup. No, it's formidable and yet fleeting." When the fire comes they talk.

Bush ain't that guy. Republicans love the guy who ain't that guy. Americans love the guy who ain't that guy.

This is the type of BS that -- had she a conscience -- would make Ms. Noonan blush as only a mature woman can. It is very apparent that Mr. Bush is not "the guy" she imagined and likely never was. He is callow, faint of heart, short on compassion, and woefully short on common sense, a trait Ms. Noonan usually loves. Suggesting that he was anything else (particularly by 2004), and then besmirching Mr. Edwards as some sort of effete girly man is either delusion or hackery.

I Just Could Not Resist

Vacation Schmacation.

There is a great holiday book out on the series "24." It contains, lots of commentary and a collection of essays about the show, some previously published, some thoughtful, some fluffy. While I like to think of "24" as escapist TV, here is one excerpt from the book, that should give any sane person pause:

All the people who were actually conducting interrogations were privates or specialists who had no idea what they were doing “[The Bush Administration] said the Geneva Conventions don’t apply, so we had no idea what the rules were. They took away our rules and our training, so we really had nothing to fall back on, and the only role models we had were from TV and movies.” (Tony Lagouranis, a former U.S. Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib, ).

Looking for a New Year's resolution? Do what you can to 1) stop this war and 2) put an end to the mentality that drives it.

Year End Break

The Overpass will be taking a break until the first week of January '08. Happy holidays to all.

More Bad News from The Hill

It seems Congress did manage to fix the debacle known as the Alternative Minimun Tax, which had started to encraoch upon the middle class in ways its framers had not expected. Trouble is, the fix leaves a $50 billion hole in the budget. Congressional Democrats tried to fix it by closing some tax loopholes like the one that allows hedge fund managers to claim all their income as a capital gain. Republicans blocked that attempt and so we go into the holidays with a bigger budget defecit.

Remember when it was the Republicans who were always prating on a bout a balanced budget and paying as you go. That restraint went the way of all worldy things as the Party came under the influence of increasingly narrow financial interests. Its really a watershed moment for the GOP.

And Its A Record....

On Wednesday the Senate Republicans filibustered debate on an omnibus budget bill. In so doing they broke record for use of the filibuster in a single legislative session. Senate Republicans have filibustered on 62 different occassions and there is still 10 days to go. Will Senate Republicans succceed in their quest to conserve the status quo for the wealthy and privileged ... stay tuned.

And Now Its the House Dems...

Since House Democrats failed to override the President's veto of expanded SCHIP funding, the program -- designed to provide insurance to families caught between Medicare elegibility and being able to afford private insurance -- will not expand.

To their credit, the Seante was able to ovverride the veto and it was the House who turned out to be gutless chickens.

I cannot decide which is sadder, that we elected George W. Bush President, or that we elected a Congress without the cajones to defeat him. I mean -- at a certain point -- its like being the only team to get beat by the Dolphins. Its not because of what he does right, it because of what you did wrong.

The Media's Campaign

Has anyone else noticed that the press has seemingly decided that Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barak Obama are the only people running for the Democratic nomination? The amount of ink and film these two get is amazing considering the each only leads Sen. John Edwards by about 4% points in Iowa. Amazing considering national polls show Edwards winning in states neither of his opponents can really compete in against any Republican. In other words, Edwards will likely be a close third or second after the first contest,and there is evidence he is the most electable candidate in a few contested states -- yet he is rarely mentioned.

Explanations abound. Hillary v Barak is a good story of youth vs experience, old vs new etc. Hillary sees Barack as her number one nemesis ... etc. But I think the real reason he gets so little play is that Edwards campaign has positioned itself outside of the beltway accepted wisdom that Obama and Hillary rely upon. By adopting a more strident message about the influence of money in politics, Edwards has effectively cut himself off from the self congratulatory-bipartisan -seek consensus club that the press is part of and which keeps the range of political options in America pretty narrow. In a sense Edwards has made himself into the Ron Paul of his party. He has followers, money and no one will cover him.

Perhaps a second explanation is the stridency Edwards has adopted. He is really not beating around the bush much, nor is he falling back on feel good bromides like "negotiating around a big table" or "bipartisanship." He is very clear about his belief that there are forces in America who want to prevent his agenda from happening and that they will not give in lightly. This message is not a sunny as the other candidates' messages. They are at at pains not to offend. I suspect that makes it less attractive to journalists in the mainstream media. Let's face it, at the end of the day most of our mainstream media like to present stories in which right wins out, bad guys are punished, everyone pulls together, and optimism rules the day. Edwards may not give you as much of that as most would like.

And the Senate Caves...

Last night the Senate tacked billions of dollars on to a budget bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to avoid a threatened veto. Earlier the House -- showing some spine -- refused to fund any more of the Iraq war without a timeline for waithdrawal. (We'll see if the continue this tand when they reconcile their bill with the Senate's.)

Basically, the Senate is allowing Mr. Bush to go forward with his endless occupation devoid of any oversight. They were scared of a government shutdown, scared of being accused of "not supporting the troops." They are cowards and their lack of integrity on this issue goes far in explaining the Democratic party's devolution in the public mind.

Stand for something and you will eventually earn the respect of even those who disagree. Stand for nothing and that is exactly what you get.

The Huckster

I read the NYTs Magazine piece on Mike Huckabee this weekend. Many commentators see his rise as a distinctly evangelical phenomena and attribute his success to his fundamentalist religious beliefs and social conservatism. I think it goes farther than that. Huckabee has articulated a very cogent critique of the GOP's ties to big money interests on Wall Street, to defense contractors, and to oil companies. He spills a certain Main Street economics that are a powerful counterpoint to the Supply Side message the party has relied upon and that has left so many behind. I suspect Huckabee is not the only Republican who believes the GOP has left behind its middle class constituency and thus his appeal may go beyond evengelicals.

Mind you, there are many reasons Mike Huckabee should not be President, not the least of which is the fact that he believes the Bible to be the inerrant word of God, believes in creationism, speaks about foreign affairs in a scary and apocalyptical way and thinks homosexuals are inherently immoral. He is every bit the finger pointing blowhard moralist we have suffered so much and his faithiness implies a lack of intellectual heft. But I give the man credit for providing his party with a useful antidote to their supply side orthodoxy.

I also give credit to Huckabee for drawing a sharp contrast between his Christian beliefs and the GOP platform. You see, Christians are supposed to be about Christ and his message. Read that message and you will find little to support the wealth oriented, darwinian beliefs enshrined in the Republican program. Many Christians prefer to ignore this and thus the GOP has turned into exactly the gaggle of "business first" babbits the gospels had little use for. In contrast, Huckabee recognizes this tension and engages it. Thus, he is willing to call the pro business Club for Growth the "Club for Greed" and his record in Arkansas reflects the glimmer of a belief that government should better the lives of its citizens. If you do not think this is remarkable, try to name another GOP contender in the last twenty years who dared part ways with Uncle Milton, Laffer Curve, and the primacy of the market.

This Week In The News

This week, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujjimora was sentenced to six years in prison for directing the destruction of evidence in a corruption probe against him. Fujjimora still faces charges stemming from his alleged abuses of power during his campaign against left wing insurgents in 1990s. Asked for comment on the fate of the US' former ally, President Bush commented, "Lemme get this straight. 'Berto destroys some videotapes and orders the deaths of some insurgents? And now he is being tried as a criminal in a Peruvian Court? Tell you what... damn glad I'm an American. Unless it involves the sexy stuff, we generally skip all that accountability/rule of law claptrap."

This week, Secretary of of State Condelezza Rice announced that she intends to appoint Paul Wolfowitz to a government panel on nuclear proliferation. Wolfowitz, the former Undersecretary of Defense, was widely viewed as one architect of the Iraq Invasion. He recently lost his job as head of the World Bank amid a scandal involving pay raises given to his lover. Commenting on the appointment Rice's spokesperson said, "We are always trying to match skill sets with positions. Having triggered an unjustified and bloody war and then making a muck at the World Bank, we thought we needed to move Wolfie somewhere where he couldn't do any harm. Keep in mind, he will not actually handle nuclear weapons, just develop rationales for making more of them and deploying them all over the world."

This week, GOP candidates for the presidency will attend their last debate before the Iowa Caucuses, The candidates most important squabble seems to be about the legality of waterboarding. While the suit known as Romney, Duncan Hunter and Rudy Giuliani favor the practice, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ron Paul term it torture. Sensing that they have found a hot button issues, the candidates have expanded on the theme. Rep. Hunter now regularly castigates his rivals for being "Too afraid to skin a man alive if he crosses the border illegally." Gov. Romney now urges all the candidates to take a pledge to "Love America enough to strip its citizens of their liberty." Not to be outdone, Rudy Giuliani is pointing out that his rivals "are insufficiently patriotic to find a blowtorch and a pair of pliers and get medieval with the staff of the UN General Assembly." Noted one campaign aide, "Its a gamble, but we think irrationally punitive has at least one more season left in it. We can accessorize it and call it "telling it like it is."

This week, as the Iowa Caucuses approach, Democrat Hillary Clinton has found support for her bid in an uncommon forum. They call themselves "Hillarsexuals" or "Hags" and they are men, and a few women, with an uncommon sexual attraction to the junior Senator from New York. Many of them have pledged their time and money to have the focus of their sexual ardor elected President. A sampling of some traffic from the the chatroom, "DASH" (Dreaming About Sex with Hillary") confirms the wide sweep of the eros surrounding the former first lady:

"she wears her relentless competence like a a perfumed teddy'." -- Mike, from Poughkeepsie, NY
"the cankles mean she will just kick me harder and longer." -- Paula, from East Rutherford, NJ.
"the smile says Hanes Her Way, but her eyes say Victoria Secret" -- Candace from Des Moines, IA
"could you imagine pulling an all nighter in the West Wing talking farm subsidies, but then the fire sprinklers go off and we both get soaked and start laughing.... " Alex from Sioux Falls, SD.
"Let's just say my dreams include a fire in the fireplace, candles on the table, and black Nicole Miller pantsuit crumpled on the floor..." Sandra, from Whitefish Bay, WI.
"You can so tell Richardson is one of us. He is always pulling his bad boy Mexican routine around her..." Paul, from Santa Fe NM.
'I'll put a fake country club smile on her botox infected face..." J. Edwards, Chapel Hill, NC
"I always thought she was a bit of an automaton, but the light freckles in her modest cleavage intoxicate me." Mormonman, from Springfield, MA.
"To me nothing beats 1997. A woman scorned. Alone. Woefully undersexed and painfully under subpoena. I could have eaten her up with chocolate sauce. " Bubba, Massepequa, NY

This week, the CIA announced that it had destroyed a videotape of an interrogation with a suspected Muslim Jihadist. The tape allegedly contained evidence of torture and was ordered to be preserved by the US Congress. Ordered to give an explanation, CIA Director Porter Goss arived on Capital Hill wearing low slung baggy jeans, oversized Timberland boots a hoody and sporting agold tooth. Goss told the House Armed Services Commitee:

I'm an educated fool with money on my mind/
Got my 10 in my hand and the green in my eye/
Im a loced-out gangsta set-trippin banger/
And my homiez is down, so dont arouse my anger, fool/

Been spending most our lives living in the Gangsta's Paradise
Been spending most our lives living in the Gangsta's Paradise

A Little Advice... the Bills in the Mail...

I see that one of Sen. Clinton's advisors has been taken to task for making an issue of Sen. Obama's admitted drug use as a young man. Were I the Clinton Campaign, I would have absolutley nothing to say about the issue for two reasons. First, although she may not realize it, not everyone has led the kind of vanilla, always-please-the -teacher life that Hillary has. Not everyone has always had their eyes firmly on the next ribbon to hang on the wall. Some people have actaully lived as though experience leads to wisdom and abstinence is just a eunuch's virtue. There are more of those people than you think, and they can find HRC to be a little annoying sometimes.

Second, Sen. Obama shot from the hip. He told the truth. He was authentic. Given that authenticity is not one of HRC's strong suits, she may want to let Sen. Obama dance with Mary Jane while she goes and gets some punch.

Huckabee's Redneck Bona Fides

Here is Mike Huckabee on homosexuality and AIDS:

If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague. . . . It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.

....

In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified. An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor (,) Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research.

....
I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.

Yeah, he is just the guy we need to bring this country together.....

Your Federal Dollars at Work

Dana Perino is the President's Press Secretary. That is a big job. She answers all the questions from the press corp and basically relays the thinking of the United States government to the rest of he world. The other day, Russian President Valdimir Putin said that the US' plans to put a missile defense shield in Europe was a lot like the situation that triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Someone asked Dana Perino what she thought of that anlalogy. She balked, stammered and evaded.

Later she admitted: "I really know nothing about the Cuban missile crisis ... It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure." Perino said she went home that night and asked her husband, "Wasn't that, like, the Bay of Pigs thing?"

Aren't Republicans usually the ones making fun of the stupidity of federal empoloyees? I don't know what is worse, being ignorant and in the West Wing, or somehow thinking that ignorance in the West Wing is something to laugh at.

A Few Random Thoughts

In his big speech on his faith, Mitt Romney said that "faith is necessary for freedom and freedom necessary for faith." What tripe. Even the most cursory view of the modern landscape reveals this to be not true. Faith, especially the organized and churchified kind, has little to do with freedom. Everywhere you look, from the Middle East, to our own brand of stateside Christiainity, the people of faith seek to restrict our freedom, to create a world in their own idiosyncratic image. Moreover, where individual people of faith have -- at various times -- been important voices for freedom, institutions of faith have been important voices for tyranny and the status quo. (Think of the Roman Church in Pinochet's Chile,or Hitler's Germany. Think of just about any Muslim tyranny.Think of the modern evangelical movement in general. Do any of them resemble freedom fighters?) The oppossing end of Mr. Romney's cute phrase is equally silly. One could find innumerable examples where religious faith has blossomed in the face of tyranny: Christianity under he Romans, Jadaism under just about everyone including the Nazis, Islam under the Shah, all faiths under Stalinism.

TV host Oprah Winfrey has hit the trail for Barack Obama and drew huge crowds in South Carolina and Iowa over the weekend. Putting aside my own views on Oprah's brand of softheaded, self -realized blather, she seems to have an impact. This morning NPR interviewed a woman who traveled all the way from Florida to Iowa to hear Winfrey. She describerd herself as a Republican who plans to support Obama. That's right -- a Republican for Obama. I am not sure if this speaks to the magnetism of Winfrey's star or just the pathetic stupidity and fecklessness of the young lady interviewed. Probably both. Celebrity breeds stupidity and fecklessness.

Starting to Look Like th Middle Ages

Within one week two very interesting things happened. First, the Catholic Church announced it will once again be issuing indulgences to commemorate the vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. While the Church did not officially say they will be selling the indulgences, anyone who has ever applied for an annullment will tell you that a certain 'tribute" can move your application along.

Second, the Catholic League began a campaign against the fantasy movie" The Golden Compass" because it supposedly espouses atheism, or doesn't espouse religion, or something that makes the League unhappy.

Does the Vatican seriously wonder why the West is turning its back on the Roman faith? Now all we need is a book on how to spot witches ....

Rush' Freudian Slip is Showing

Today Rush Limbaugh declared that when dealing with Hillary Clinton, "you better be wearing a protective cup between your legs." Rush is a little too smart for this to be a true Freudian slip. I suspect he is trying to drive home the message among the faithful: "a chick is running for president and if she succeeds all our wanks are a bit smaller."

I have me reservations about HRC, but one of the unintended benefits of her ascent is getting to watch men of Rush's generation knash their teeth over the fact that we may have a woman president and the last bastion of the white man's club is being toppled -- at least symbolically. The Boomers saw this coming, but the GI Generation and the Silents feel it on a visceral level.

Wait for the predictable retort, "Its not women we have a problem with, just this particular woman....and Nancy Pelosi ... and Jennifer Granholm ... and Barabara Boxer and .... Olympia Dukakis and...."

So Much For Sabre Rattling

The latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) issued today states that Iran likely abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003, is keeping to door open toward weapon development but has no nuclear weapon. This after months of sabre rattling by the Administration. The President didn't listen to theintelligence community on WMD, so I doubt he will on this either. It might get in the way of his bluster and swagger.