Beautiful Horizons

Historical Ignorance

What Greg Weeks said here. Every word, especially this portion:

The assumption that the United States can and should decide the fate of other countries is deeply ingrained in our collective psyches. It also has led to some of the most disastrous policy decisions of the last century.

Newt Gingrich claims to be an historian, but his comments show an appalling lack of basic historical facts, not the least of which is a portion of the agreement made by JFK to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis:

The US will make a statement in the framework of the Security Council in reference to Cuba as follows: it will declare that the United States of America will respect the inviolability of Cuban borders, its sovereignty, that it take the pledge not to interfere in internal affairs, not to intrude themselves and not to permit our territory to be used as a bridgehead for the invasion of Cuba, and will restrain those who would plan to carry an aggression against Cuba, either from US territory or from the territory of other countries neighboring to Cuba."

This is also not to mention such inconvenient facts in the past such as the Platt Amendment. One wonders if the letters PhD after Newt Gingrich's name stands for piled high and deep.

A Lesson Still Unlearned

One of the inexplicable characteristics of the right these days is the fetishizing of CEO's, especially as potential political leaders. It's patently absurd: there is no system of checks and balances in the business world. CEO's need not depend on congress to implement policies. They do not have to forge consensus and compromise if they do not wish to do so; they need merely decree in most instances.

If that is not sufficient to convince anyone, I have two words for you: Silvio Berlusconi.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Fidel Castro once said "All dissent is opposition; all opposition is counterrevolutionary."

Herman Cain believes that peaceful protestors are "Un-American."

They're two sides of the same coin.

OMG

Rick Perry: he's like Bush without the brains.

Steven Taylor explains exactly why this is such a wretchedly bad idea.

Mimi Swartz has some background on some homegrown antipathy towards Perry.

For Shame

Raising the Retirement Age? I Don't Think So!

Apologies for the long absence; my life had been intruding.

I consider myself to be pretty fit for someone in his mid-fifties. I hit the gym at less five times a week, can climb a number of stairs without feeling winded and am in generally good health.

Yesterday, Mércia and I had to move our old sofabed out of our second floor apartment, wedge it into the elevator, and bring it out to the curb, all while wrapped in plastic. We then had to bring in our new sofabed.

I was completely exhausted for a couple of hours. So the next time some right-wing economist/politician/think-tank "expert" -  who never has to lift anything heavier than a laptop or their own luggage on a regular basis - says that the retirement age should be raised to seventy to ease the social security "crisis", they should be forced to work as a stevedore, construction worker, gardener and/or furniture mover. They should be made to do so wearing impediments to give them the sensation that they are in their mid-sixties.

Then they should shut the hell up.

Wisconsin's Tea Party GOP hates America

This sinister scheme is amazing in it's openness and arrogance:

The Wisconsin legislature is finalizing a bill to close ten Department of Motor Vehicle centers located in Democratic districts within the state. The money saved will be used to extend operating hours at DMV centers in Republican districts. These cuts come on the heels of new voter ID laws that require voters to present a state-issued photo identification card at the poll booths.

Sometimes Understatement is the Best Response

I would call Sarah Palin a cretin, except actual cretins suffer from an ailment not of their own making and I don't think I want to let Palin off the hook. Cretins cannot help their condition; Palin could help herself by shutting up. Perhaps here would have been a good place to start:

 

All credit to Brooke Baldwin for the deadpan response.

Beltway Bi-Polar Disorder

"The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit..."

Matt Miller, WaPo

Mitt Romney makes the ladies at Mustang Ranch appear as paragons of integrity

As noted by Greg Sargent, Mitt Romney is becoming some sort of genius at soundbite pandering to the aggressive ignorance and resentments of the GOP base, in search of their affections. Here's Mittens latest on the President:

I believe that (Obama's Libya policy) flows from his fundamental disbelief in American exceptionalism. In the President’s world, all nations have ‘common interests,’ the lines between good and evil are blurred, America’s history merits apology. And without a compass to guide him in our increasingly turbulent world, he’s tentative, indecisive, timid and nuanced.”

Sargent  proceeds to nail it:

  Call it the Dingbat Doctrine: If you think the world is a complicated place; if you think that navigating the most powerful military in human history through treacherous and ever-shifting geopolitical cross-currents involves difficult moral choices; if you think America can gainanything at all by recognizing that we have common interests with other nations; well, then you’re too weak to be president...

 Romney’s intended audience here is the Republican primary electorate, and for some reason he appears to have concluded that GOP voters will view this as a liability and will respond well to his use of the word “nuanced” as an epithet.

Initially I was going to toss off some snark about how this shows that Romney really knows his Tea Party audience. But that’s not fair to these folks at all. What this really reveals is the low regard Romney himself has for them.

And, of course, what low regard Romney has for himself as he proceeds down this path.