Here’s a piece of mine from TomPaine.com on the weird delusions of politicians that they’re middle class. Among the most deluded? Joe Lieberman.
The day before the Connecticut primary, Joe Lieberman was getting down with the folks in a restaurant in Southington, a small town near Hartford. As the American Prospect reported, a longtime state employee named Paola Roy told Lieberman she felt the middle class has been forgotten by the federal government. Lieberman responded that he shared her concerns, and for good reason: “I came out of the middle class,” he said, “and, being a senator, I haven’t gone much beyond the middle class.”
Being a senator, I haven’t gone much beyond the middle class. Could anything better sum up the way American politicians seem to have relocated en masse to a new planet, and forgotten how things are back on Earth? In 2005, Lieberman and his wife Hadassah—a lobbyist at D.C. powerhouse Hill & Knowlton—together made $366,084. This places them securely in the top 1 percent of U.S. households. In fact, just the money they receive each year for supervising family trusts would likely put them in the middle quintile of American families. Moreover, they have financial assets —i.e., over and above their homes in Connecticut and Washington—worth somewhere between $465,000 and $1.9 million. The comparable amount for the average U.S. family is about $30,000.
The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war…
Welcome to the new “new Middle East” — a region where civil wars could follow one after another, like so many Cold War dominoes.
And unlike communism, these dominoes may actually fall.
In other news, we’re just weeks away from the 4th anniversary of the publication of Pollack’s book The Threatening Storm. I wonder how it’s holding up? Let’s read page 268:
Imagine how different the Middle East and the world would be if a new Iraqi state were stable, prosperous, and a force for progress in the region, not a source of violence and instability. Imagine if we could rebuild Iraq as a model of what a modern Arab state could be, showing the frustrated and disenfranchised of the Arab world what they should be trying to fashion. Imagine if there were a concrete symbol demonstrating that America seeks to help the Arab world rather than repress. Invading Iraq might not just be our least bad alternative, it potentially could be our best course of action.
Yes…just imagine!
By the way, this was Pollack’s explanation of why Saddam was so dangerous:
[Saddam’s] own determination to interpret geopolitical calculations to suit what he wants to believe anyway lead him to construct bizarre scenarios that he convinces himself are highly likely.
What Atrios said. The firing squad in Connecticut stopped being “circular” the day Lieberman lost the primary and left the Democratic party. Lieberman’s loyalty to the Democratic party is slightly better than Zell Miller’s at this point, so why shouldn’t bloggers and activists committed to helping Democrats take over the Senate be concentrating on this race? Joe Lieberman isn’t a Democrat anymore. He’s just another spoiler candidate like Ralph Nader. Joe’s got more money, better name recognition, the not-so-secret support of the entire Republican noise machine, and the bully-pulpit of incumbency. As long as Joe Lieberman is campaigning against the Democratic candidate in the race, he’s a threat to to the Democratic party’s chances of taking the House or Senate in November.
The 20 year-old son of Israeli writer David Grossman was killed in Lebanon just two days before the ceasefire. I’d never read his famous 1987 book The Yellow Wind about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. So I got it out of the library today. At one point Grossman writes this about the Israeli self-image:
I pondered then about how much one must be suspicious of people who testify about themselves morning and night that they are merciful.
Clearly he stole this from something I said 17 years later:
…when people get righteously worked up about how wonderful they are, and their enemy’s lack of gratitude, you really need to keep an eye on them.
Ooooh, I hope Karen Hughes gets some public diplomacy credit for this
Have you ever wondered who’s the new top Marine general at U.S. Central Command? And what kind of decisions he gets to make? And why things have gone so very, very well in Iraq?
I think you’ll be pleasantly horrified by the answer to all three questions, here.
A federal judge has ordered an immediate halt to the President’s NSA spying program. TPM Muckraker has some excerpts from the judge’s decision :
“The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.
We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all “inherent power” must derive from that Constitution.”
Upon hearing this decision, President Bush, whose great-grandfather was a close adviser to President Hoover, grandfather was a Senator, and father was President, said “I’m sorry, were you trying to tell me something?”
I just finished a cartoon about the differences between those who take terrorism “seriously” and those who don’t. Predictable wackiness ensues, but you’ll have to wait till next week to read it. For the time being, let me just direct your attention to someone who takes the war on terror very seriously: John Fund of the Wall Street Journal.
On MSNBC’s Hardball, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund falsely asserted that the United States has maintained “the same number of troops” in Saudi Arabia “that we had five years ago, about 16,000.” In fact, the State Department reported that the United States withdrew its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and a July report by the Congressional Research Service stated that about 300 U.S. military personnel remain there. Moreover, five years ago, there were reportedly about 5,000 troops in Saudi Arabia.
If you want to feel better about our often-benighted species, go visit the impressive Jonathan Edelstein and Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings. Both are offering to match donations up to a certain amount for the rebuilding of Lebanon and/or northern Israel. In addition to the matching funds, you will also receive an imaginary tote bag filled with real positive feelings about humanity.
As we enter a new round of general hysteria, we have the exciting tale of the disruptive passenger:
A woman passenger has been arrested after a flight from London to Washington was diverted to Boston because of an on-board disturbance.
Transport officials said the 59-year-old woman was held in connection with a confrontation with the flight crew.
She was carrying hand cream - a banned item - and matches on board the United Airlines flight.
The aircraft was escorted into Logan airport by two jet fighters.
The article goes on to note:
Reports that the woman was carrying a screwdriver and a note referring to al-Qaeda have been denied.
I heard one of those reports on CNN radio today, and before it disappears down the memory hole I would like to point out that not only was the woman supposedly carrying a note about al-Qaeda, but the note was supposedly written in Arabic!
1. This has been zipping about, but if you haven’t seen it already, don’t miss the take of Craig Murray, the former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, on the latest terror plot. (Murray was fired by the British Foreign Office for criticizing Uzbekistan’s routine torture, thereby mucking up England’s highly moral and extremely rational foreign policy.)
I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called bomb plot. Unlike the great herd of so-called security experts doing the media analysis, I have the advantage of having had the very highest security clearances myself, having done a huge amount of professional intelligence analysis, and having been inside the spin machine.
The boy and I were diving through a chlorinated waterfall running down a faux rock face when I surfaced and saw a Nazi tattoo on a big white arm. I couldn’t believe it. Open militarism is one thing, part of Americana, a disease you somewhat get used to; but an actual swastika is a deeper statement. The guy wearing it was large and muscular, looking like a bodyguard or bouncer, his head shaved, his goatee closely trimmed. The swastika was surrounded by two tiny American flags with an eagle atop…Check please!…
We moved through the parking lot choked with SUVs, Hummers, and pick-ups, many boasting “Support Our Troops,” “These Colors Never Run” and “USA Number 1″ bumperstickers. I couldn’t wait to get home, lock the door, and drain a stiff drink. But my son strolled along, oblivious to the raw nationalist sentiment on all those gas-guzzling symbols of our collective arrogance and greed, and thanked me for taking him to the park, saying “This is one of the best days ever. I had a blast, Dad!”
This filled me with happiness, love, and fear. Poor kid. Look at the world that awaits him.
