The events in Libya seem to be absolutely dominating the news, with everything except Hurricane Irene pushed off the front page. I did find it interesting that the ten myths about Libya by Juan Cole I posted yesterday have found their way to the front page of CNN.
Can anyone imagine a world in which Juan Cole, were he pushing ten myths about Libya that were AGAINST the intervention, would get such attention? When he is on the other side of issues, all it gets him is investigated by the CIA.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Bush probably investigated him for having the first name Juan. And he probably investigated him for being a former Republican that turned Democrat during the Terri Shaivo fiasco.
dm9871
Hey John, I know how committed you are to the presidency is powerless if teh Congress won’t pass bills thing, but here is a great example of the kind of thing the president can do without Congressional authorization that can transform tens of thousands of people’s lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/us/23immig.html?
The point is not that this particular measure is unique, but rather that there are 100s of agency level policy determinations just like this that the president could do that would make a real difference for people. Most of them require some creative thinking. You and I don’t know about them (unless they’re implemented) because it requires a certain expertise and knowledge of the law and federal bureaucracy and so they don’t ever make it to CNN or MSNBC or whatever – they exist under the radar.
The presidency is powerless stuff is just nonsense. And the focus on things that Congress has to approve is besides the point.
artem1s
the fight to suppress the vote in Cuyahoga County, Ohio is on. SS Husted has ordered the county to halt automatic mailing of absentee ballots to all registered voters. The new county exec told him to pound sand and is looking to see another county agency can legally do it.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/08/cuyahoga_county_board_of_elect_6.html
The issue would have a huge effect in Cuyahoga County, where 47 percent of the more than 416,000 people who voted in the 2010 general election cast absentee ballots.
Linda Featheringill
Apparently, Juan Cole is too good at what he does to be ignored. So he is doomed to being either praised or accused of being Disloyal to the Cause.
Excellence is not free.
Skepticat
Nothing’s pushing Irene off my front page. It looks as though she’s going to make a direct hit on my small home in the Bahamas as a category four, ten years and fifty weeks after Floyd blew a good chunk of it away. Then she’s taking aim at my rickety summer shack in New England just for good measure. What is it with hundred-year storms hitting every ten years? (Never mind, I know the answer to that question, even if the scientifically impaired don’t.) I’m in the midst of a huge financial mess, and now I’m facing the prospect of being mostly homeless. I must have been a very, very, very bad person in a past life. Thank goodness I have my cat to console me.
Mark S.
I was too busy to read Juan Cole’s piece yesterday, but a couple things stick out:
Ha!
How the fuck does that guy get elected?
gnomedad
Did anyone else notice Tom Coburn’s “defense” of Obama?
Symbolic Racism in Action: President Obama Wants to Make White Americans “Dependent” on the Government Just Like Black People Are
This. A thousand times this.
ETA: This would be racist directed against any Black politician, but Obama’s upbringing was anything but typical, and Coburn knows it.
cleek
@dm9871:
they do stuff like this all the time, though.
maybe. but it’s the way our country works. like it or not.
people focus on what Congress has to do vs what the President can do because other people are screaming that the President should do X, Y and Z where X, Y and Z are all clearly outside the President’s power. they’re not screaming about changing regulations.
freelancer (iPhone)
I’ve been putting this off until it was definite, but now I can finally say, the move is on. Omaha to Phoenix in 3-4 days. I’ll be tweeting updates every so often at http://twitter.com/xfreelancerx. Wish me luck!
lamh32
Actualy, IMHO, yes he would. On redstate, on CNN, on Politico, on Drudge, or FOXNews…etc.
Why because “event he liberal Juan Cole is against Obama’s War in Libya”?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@freelancer (iPhone): Talk about both literally and metaphorically out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Hill Dweller
Apparently that rocket scientist over at CBS News, Mark Knoller, did a hit piece blaming Obama for the deficit/debt yesterday. I suspect we’ll see more of this from our “liberal” media in the next 15 months.
Linda Featheringill
@Skepticat:
Irene:
She seems to be taking aim at a good part of the Eastern Seaboard. Be careful.
Listen to your cat, who knows better how good a person you are than most humans. :-)
And good luck.
ant
@artem1s:
thanks for that link. interesting.
Where i live, (fox river valley in Wisconsin) I had to go to the town hall and fill out an application for the auto mail absentee ballot program.
They send it to me now for every election, with return postage envelope included. If I miss one, I get booted from the list.
I really like this, and didn’t know about it till a volunteer of some obscure local election called me and told me about it.
gocart mozart
@Mark S.:
Re: Berlusconi/K’Daffy: The brotherhood of the pole dance aficionados. How does Silvio get elected? Fuck if I know.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
I dream of a world where Jaun is in charge of our Middle East policy, Kthug in charge of our economy, Greenwald in charge of our civil rights and me in charge of the death penalty – you know, a perfect world.
gocart mozart
@lamh32:
This.
Chris Hitchens never got any press all his years at the Nation until he went after Clinton and more so when he was for the Iraq war.
suzanne
@freelancer (iPhone): I welcome you to my fair city. :)
If you ever wanna grab a beer, let me know.
Emma
@dm9871: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, it’s too early in the fraking morning for this. John has never said the President is powerless. He (and I, and many others) have said that there are certain things a president CANNOT do without Congress.
In fact, the President has used his power over in the same fashion when the Justice department decided not to defend challenges to DOMA, or when he ordered that same sex partners of federal employees be treated as “family”. These are things he CAN do.
Ramming legislation through Congress without Congressional support he cannot. Get the difference?
Carnacki
Since this is an open thread, I present the best thing you’ll read today if you haven’t read it already. It is made of awesome. And nightmares.
suzanne
@Carnacki: I dunno about that. slate has a whole article on parasitic twins. AWESOME.
Samara Morgan
I wunner what Juan Cole thinks of Democratic Peace Theory.
Its pretty obvious what you think of it.
Danny
From my recollection, Libya’s been the war receiving the biggest amount of negative coverage from the outset in a looong time. So if the implication is supposed to be that the MSM is wired for warmongering, that may be true in the abstract – what do I know – but it certainly hasn’t been true for Libya.
Also, too. Juan Cole has been one of the most consistently reasonable voices on the middle east & maghreb and our policies there for a long time so It’s not exactly a problem that he’s getting wider exposure. Is his piece on the 10 myths of the Libyan war true? If it is, then it’s a good thing that it is on CNN.
gocart mozart
Warning: Don’t venture into the comment section at the CNN link. It’s a cesspool. A taste of one of the milder ones:
Most of the rest are “The rebels are Al’Qaeda” and/or “Obama is a big poopyhead!” God help us.
gocart mozart
@Samara Morgan:
Good morning Samara. Which one of the voices in your head do we have the pleasure of speaking with today?
Samara Morgan
@Danny:
a DISPROPORTIONATE amount of negative coverage.
Because its Obama’s war, like Iraq and A-stan never could be….and because Iraq and A-stan are our national shame and NO ONE wants to talk about them.
Samara Morgan
@gocart mozart: i dunno…you can talk to Cole, hes in my head today.
Did you know Cole endorses the Bush Doctrine?
Commish
Hey Balloon-Juice Fantastists….it’s the Commish here. Are we ready for some football???
This year I’ll only be running one Fantasy Football League for Ballon-Juice….the 4 conferences of last year were way too much for me to handle! With just one league I hope to be more engaged. Instead of open signups I’m inviting everyone who finished in the top 4 of last years’ conferences to a sort of “Champions” league. It’ll be different from last time – instead of total points, our fantasy teams will play games head-to-head each week.
I’ve set the draft for 9/7, the evening before Opening Thursday. So we have some time to work out the details and scoring rules….I’m open to your comments and suggestions.
Invitations are already out to those for whom I have contact info. Check the email you used for last year’s league! I’m also looking for the following managers from last year, who qualified for this year’s league but set their contact info to “hidden” which prevents me from sending an invitation:
Avian Waves – the Parrotlovers
GrooveSDC – Burkean Cowbells
“Steve” – his team was My Countertops
“Michael” – the Fuzzy Dunlops
Y’all drop me a line with your info and I’ll send the invitation! Spots that are still unclaimed Friday will go for open signup, with preference given to high finishers from last year.
I hope some other commissioners set up additional leagues for what I’m sure will be more players than can fit in mine….I’d be happy to coordinate with other managers; it’d be fun if we could set up standard rules for all B-J leagues.
Cheers,
MattT- “The Commish”
SFjaykey48 at yahoo dot com
Bob In Pacifica
If you’re not investigated by the CIA (or FBI) you’re not trying.
Samara Morgan
@Mark S.:
supermodels.
Samara Morgan
Democratic Peace Theory is a myth that should be debunked.
Are either of the Coles going to take that on?
slightly_peeved
@cleek:
In fact, when a bunch of new regulations get introduced to, for example, control how health insurance works, people dismiss it as useless. They instead scream about how he wasn’t able to force one aspect of the legislation through a non-filibuster-proof senate. (Note: reconciliation didn’t get through the whole PPACA, because of the Byrd rule. Some people have been forgetting that).
gocart mozart
@Samara Morgan:
That’s not actually what the “Bush Doctrine” is Samara.
boss bitch
Yes. I can. It would spread all over the liberal blogosphere with GG being the biggest pusher. It would then make it to MSNBC and at the height of push back against Obama’s intervention, it would make it to other networks.
gocart mozart
@Samara Morgan:
Actually, your link said it was a “hypothesis” not a theory and know one will “debunk” it because no one cares ‘cept you.
MattF
Well, whatever. I understand that ‘politics aside’ isn’t the motto of this place, but for the record, Cole’s take on Libya, etc., is pretty interesting.
Added: I mean the Cole named ‘Juan.’
gocart mozart
@MattF:
You mean prof. J. Cole and not the other one right?
Samara Morgan
@gocart mozart: No?
explain it to me then.
it SOUNDS just like JC.
Cole is saying we should not support democracies that are not covalent with American interests, right?
define “worse”…worse for America or worse for the Libyan people?
democracy for me, but not for thee, unless its the “right” kind of democracy.
theres “good” democracies (aligned with American interests) and “bad” democracies (those that arent).
Iraq is a current and timely example. We spent a shit tonne of money there “ushering in democracy” and their interests are OTHOGONAL to America’s right now.
gocart mozart
@MattF:
Thanks for screwing up my joke Matt.
slightly_peeved
I would be kinda interested to hear what Tunched JC has to say _about_ the comments by Tunchless JC. They’re very good comments – myth 8’s basically what I harped on about the whole time – so I’m glad they’re linked. Just the presentation of a link without comment, especially considering the difference in viewpoint, seems a bit unusual.
Samara Morgan
@gocart mozart: its called different things, but it should be called FAIL.
Is America a “liberal democracy”?
But America is embroiled in three wars right now.
Praps we can just make a corrollary.
“liberal” democracies dont make war on each other, just on smaller weaker nations.
MattF
@gocart mozart:
In fact, I added that last line before your comment appeared. It’s a collision of time-lines.
gocart mozart
@Samara Morgan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine
I see what you did there.
mike
Most of Juan Cole’s “myths” are either straw men or not widely believed, but I’ll give him credit for betting the Libyan revolution would succeed. (Gotta see what he thinks of Syria, come to think of it.) Other than that, meh.
gocart mozart
@slightly_peeved:
The Tunch Doctrine is to torture an
mouseenemy combatant for fun and when you get bored bite its head off. In many respects its similar to the Bush Doctrine amirite Samara?Samara Morgan
@gocart mozart: im not saying Cole is covalent with pre-emptive war or Team America goin’ it alone cowboy style.
I simply dont see a nanowafer of separation between his position and the BD and COIN policy positions on promoting/standingup/installing/imposing/”ushering in” (his words) the “right kind” of democracy.
Samara Morgan
@gocart mozart: Tunch is a terrorist. i thot that was obvious.
askew
@dm9871:
The Obama administration has been using the agencies to push more progressive policy for years now. Many of which have been highlighted on BJ already. The EPA and HHS are the two agencies where the Obama admin has pushed the most progressive policy.
However, these agency level changes can’t fix all problems. We still need a more progressive Congress to pass better legislation to fix the economy, etc.
General Stuck
Meanwhile, back at the front, we get the news that old news is old
No shit sherlock. The Tastes Great, Less Filling supercongress, pretty much like the lesser not so super congress.
And Christ, would someone pat Cole on the head and tell him he is like, so right about Libya, it makes their teeth hurt, so maybe we can keep the intervention butthurt posts to a minimum today so my teeth won’t hurt.
edit – Also too, someone please turn off the Matako spam bot before I slit my wrists.
General Stuck
Jeebus, didn’t mean to kill this open thread with my cranky. So Go on, keep moving, act like your fighting. Action, roll.
Danny
@General Stuck:
No, no, we’re all in agreement that Juan Cole is a guy that should be on CNN more often I think. Nothing to see here, onwards to the next controversy!
gocart mozart
Sorry about switching on the spambot.
themann1086
@Commish: Hey Commish, this is Steve of MyCountertops; I’ll email you later tonight with my contact to get in. Looking forward to it!
Sentient Puddle
From The Guardian:
I’m going to go get lunch right now. I really hope this thing doesn’t come to an end while I’m not watching.
dww44
@Skepticat: Take heart. It’s early times yet. Irene’s path could change. She could track much further east. However, if the Gods are kind, she will take a westward/leftwards turn and come in to South Georgia and give us some real relief from the extreme drought virtually the whole state is experiencing. Historically, that’s how our droughts get defeated: by some earth drenching rains imbedded in a tropical system. Yeah, there’s a risk of damaging winds, but there’s lots of us (inland, I admit) who would gladly risk it.
dww44
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I had exactly the same thoughts on both points. heck, I’d love to get moved Northwards out of this relentless oppressive heat, although to be fair, today a dry front moved in with a breeze and one can at least get a long walk in in the a.m. without being soaking wet on the return home.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: WTF is wrong with you people? Don’t you understand empirical data?
John Cole and George Bush are isomorphic on Peaceful Democracy Theory.
But the PROBLEM with democracy is that in the Consent of teh Governed America’s “interests” don’t neccessarily get representation.
Democracy is what the teabaggers are protesting against and why Anders Breivik slaughtered those kids.
Because democratic electorates in western nations (those wunnerful “liberal” democracies) are being colonized by immigrants and the children of immigrants.
Its demographic evolution amplified by social media.
And you cant stop evolution, and you cant put the social media djinni back in the bottle.
And its happening all over the world.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: jaysus h keeyrist inna handcart, Stuck, we are seeing the abject collapse of Pax Americana and the empirical destruction of Peaceful Democracy Theory (in Iraq especially) and the complete and utter fail of global free market capitalism, and you still have your head stuck so far up your ass that you can lick your tonsils.
General Stuck
@Samara Morgan:
I could use the break from your incessant and neverending stream of unmitigated bullshit.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: what im saying is TRUE.
and im gunna rub your dimwitted cudlip noses in it until the next banning/timeout.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: and im not a bullshytt-talker.
like YOU.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck:
so refute me, bulshytt talker. tell me how Pax Americana still stands, tell me the Iraqis secretly love America, tell me about the Glorious Innovation of the Market making jobs and wages and social justice.
/taps foot impatiently
General Stuck
@Samara Morgan:
All my bullshit is true. go ahead, ask me
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: i did.
cowboy up, extramuros ‘sline.
Yutsano
@General Stuck: The child is NEVER wrong. Haven’t you learned that by now?
General Stuck
@Yutsano:
Sort of like a mad little energizer bunny banging out the gospel of random nonsense.
Samara Morgan
@Yutsano: replay
well im right about this.
John Cole and George Bush are isomorphic on Peaceful Democracy Theory and the Bush Doctrine.
im also right that the Deobandi are Sufis and the Taliban are deobandis.
aren’t i yut?
you dont liek me because i made asiangirlman look skanky and stupid, right?
SiubhanDuinne
@dww44: If I remember correctly, Hurricane Ivan did exactly that in 2004. We could definitely use a good soaking, and if it cooled things of by 10-15 degrees I wouldn’t complain.
Skepticat
@dww44: It would be nice to see you and everyone else who’s suffered from this brutal summer get a silver lining from these clouds. We actually could use a good soaking too, but good is the operative word there. I’d much prefer nice torrential downpours from a tropical storm rather than this nasty creature. I do hope the track moves and/or that she continues to move fast rather than sitting over the island and churning us to bits as Floyd did. However, she really does look like Floyd Redux. Guess I’d better get to battening down this place to take my nervous mind off things over which I have less than no control.
Marc McKenzie
@askew:
“However, these agency level changes can’t fix all problems. We still need a more progressive Congress to pass better legislation to fix the economy, etc.”
Yup. And we sure as s^@! won’t get that if a “I’m sitting out 2012 to send a message/get revenge on Obama for not standing on one toe and giving me my pony!!” mentality prevails.
slightly-peeved
I love that urdnot von cloudstrife misses that her constant references to jargon from the novel anathem and repetition of memes not understood by a large portion of her audience actually render her own posts as bullshytt, according to that definition up there.
But then, this is the person who said that Americans shouldn’t lecture the British about hunting, then in the next paragraph proceeded to lecture a Briton who disagreed with her about hunting. There is no point arguing with someone exhibiting such bad faith; if it were possible through the internet she should really be cuffed, as one would a brigand, and then left alone.
suzanne
@Samara Morgan:
I have a sincere, honest, not-rhetorical question: Why do you spend so much time in the (digital) company of others who dislike you so much and disagree with you so vehemently? In all seriousness, what do you hope to gain, O Scientist? I mean, you’re presumably a rational actor.
suzanne
@slightly-peeved:
LMAO. I’ve been thinking of her as Bellatrix Lestrange. Because she is le strange.
Samara Morgan
@suzanne: LOL
BJ is a field lab for Assangian information theory and SBH.
idc if the c-57 BL/6s and balb/c’s doan liek meh.
your hatred of me is just stimulus/response.
more and more i think BJ is the leftside mirror of FOXnews.
Samara Morgan
@suzanne: and i’ll clarify that jus’ a little.
originally i naively came to this site because i thought i could learn something from Cole.
We were both once conservative.
But Cole is still a crypto-conservative, as least as far as western culture (Christendom) chauvinism eumenes go.
Im gobsmacked by his colonialist Peaceful Democracy Bush Doctrine position on Libya.
this site is just a community of people preening their ideological peer plummage on the internet.
but i did learn something from Cole.
you can bury your heart at wounded knee, or bury your uterus at Waco, but you can’t get Americans to apologize…or even to change their behavior.
evah.
Samara Morgan
and you should all be grateful to me.
at least i kept the glibertarians from gettin’ a toehold here, inspite of Cole and DougJ’s credulous koombayah hand holding.
All variants of libertarians are basically evil, and they are going to fuck America up domestically as long as you let them.