Permanent War Economy Electric Boogaloo

Beating swords into plowshares? Saxby Chambliss isn’t a fan:

An effort by Sen. Saxby Chambliss to force the Pentagon into buying more F-22 fighter jets is reviving tensions between the Georgia Republican and a stalwart in his own party, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

Chambliss won narrow approval at a closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee markup for his amendment authorizing $1.75 billion to purchase seven F-22 Raptors from Georgia-based Lockheed Martin — despite strong objections from McCain, the ranking Republican on the panel, and a veto threat from President Obama.

This is corporate welfare for the war economy in a nutshell. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is trying to force us to spend $1.75 billion -- that’s with a B folks -- on a program the Pentagon doesn’t even want!

The F-22 is obsolete:

It is a cold war relic, designed for defense against the Soviet Union. It has never flown in combat, much less in the wars this country is actually fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Republicans and a handful of breakaway Democrats in Congress want to stay on the F-22 gravy train :

During the closed markup, Chambliss got support from three other Democrats and one Independent: Sens. Edward Kennedy (Mass.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.) — both voting by proxy — Mark Begich (Alaska) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Lieberman supports it because although Lockheed Martin assembles the F-22 in Marietta, Ga., the engines are built by Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut. I’d guess the other Senators have similar jobs incentives for keeping an obsolete fighter jet the Pentagon doesn’t want in production. After all, that is the point: that is why companies like Lockheed Martin spread their production around the country, to maximize their influence in Congress.

And it’s not just jobs: some in Congress have their personal fortunes at stake, too. For example, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia, a vocal F-22 defender, owns stock in Boeing, Lockheed Martin’s partner in the F-22.

I’ve written about this issue before here. It would be nice if we could cut wasteful Pentagon programs that cost in the billions of dollars and transition that money to job-creating programs in the green energy sector, for example, or healthcare reform.

People need jobs. America needs to manufacture things. Would it be so hard to transition away from manufacturing an obsolete fighter jet to making solar panels and wind turbines? Heck, we transitioned from manufacturing consumer goods to manufacturing for war during World War II.

Of course, it doesn’t work that way anymore.

It’s not like the Pentagon has suddenly become all touchy-feely, we-are-the-worldy, everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya. They simply wish to cap the F-22 fleet at 187 planes, which should be sufficient. Sec. Gates wants to transition production to the F-35 instead, also made by Lockheed Martin. This isn’t a cut in Pentagon spending at all, it’s just changing to a different kind of fighting weapon. And its controversial because people like Saxby Chambliss want to preserve jobs in their states.

One of these days, maybe a few centuries from now, we’re going to look back on an America that built its economy on war toys at a time when the people needed healthcare and clean energy. And we’re going to wonder what the hell were we thinking?

But for now, the permanent war economy rolls on.

Huzzah.

Your Liberal Media

[UPDATE]:

Joe Klein on the “Real America”:

Sarah Palin's political future will be crippled by her inability to speak to that America, as will the Republican Party's, so long as it scorns diversity and "cosmopolitan" sensibilities--as Rudy Guiliani, of all people, did at the GOP Convention last summer. The attempts to plaster over this glaring deficiency by putting people like Michael Steele and Bobby Jindal front and center are, to coin a phrase, like putting lipstick on a pig.

Indeed. And cosmopolitan urban elites like Mika need to quite apologizing for who they are and where they come from, as if growing up in New York City and Washington D.C. is somehow not “real America.”

-------------------------

Apparently, “real Americans” are those people who agree with Sarah Palin and her “conservative views.”

Those who don’t support Sarah Palin are “elites” who live in liberal cities. Also, too, they are not “real Americans.” And such as.

If this nonsense came from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Bill O’Reilly it wouldn’t merit a post. But it didn’t.

It came from Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski, an expert on “real Americans” by virtue of being the daughter of former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski . Her mother is the grandniece of Czechoslovakian ex-president Edvard Beneš.

I think someone is feeling a little defensive about her pedigree, don't you?

Brzezinski , of course, is co-host of Morning Joe on the “liberal” cable news network MSNBC. And this is why I no longer watch cable news. I thought newsbots like Mika learned their lesson about "real America" during the election. Sadly, no.

Watch and weep:



(h/t, Atrios)

Then & Now

Several folks have asked how Zelda is doing since her mystery accident which left her paralyzed.


Here she is after her surgery. I was able to bring her home last Monday. She was paralyzed for several days, then slowly was able to sit up, move a paw, wag her tail. There have been quite a few accidents in the house, and I have the cleanest floors in the neighborhood because I was mopping them once or twice a day!

Meanwhile, I have some awesome arm and leg muscles from lifting a 40-lb dog and carrying her outside every hour and a half. Silver linings!

Here she is about five days ago, sitting up but not really ambulatory. Then at the end of last week it’s like her leg muscles suddenly remembered what they are supposed to do. She’s taken a few shaky steps outside, I’ve been able to entice her to try to walk with biscuits and other treats. She actually took about three steps today and stood, shakily. So I’m starting to think the doctor was right when he said she’d be recovered in two to three weeks.

I don’t want her to overdo it, and unfortunately we have hardwood floors in the house, which is hard for her. But we’ll try walking some more outside where the grass is soft and she can dig her claws into the soil and see what happens.

I’m frankly amazed. After seeing her completely paralyzed for so many days, I had little hope that she’d be able to walk, or if so, without some kind of cart or other assistance.

She is truly Zelda the Wonder Dog!

So Much For Country First

I just read the Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin. Nothing that liberal bloggers and news junkies didn’t already know, of course, save the part about the conservative cruise ship:

Palin had been on the national Republican radar for barely a year, after a cruise ship of conservative columnists, including The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, had stopped in Juneau in 2007 and had succumbed to her charms when she invited them to the governor’s house for a luncheon of halibut cheeks.

OH. So that’s what you did on your vacation. Hopped off the cruise ship in Juneau, picked up a few knick-knacks for the in-laws, some Inuit trinkets for the kids, and oh by the way, here’s your vice presidential running mate.

Glad to know conservatives take this shit seriously.

And really that’s what continues to surprise/offend me about the whole Sarah Palin narrative. I care less about the gossipy tidbits than the fact that everyone, the writer included, seems to treat Sarah Palin like she’s the star of a Hollywood blockbuster who's being difficult at Cannes. No one seems to realize that a person completely unsuitable for high national office (or even high state office, if you believe half of what’s in the article) was trying to be Vice President of the United States. You know, a heartbeat away from the presidency and all that. They knew she was all wrong, dangerously wrong, and they forged ahead anyway.

In a campaign titled “Country First,” no less. Irony is the first casualty of political ambition, I guess.

I have to wonder, amid all of the last minute scrambling and rescheduling as the seasoned politicos realized that Sarah Palin was not ready to campaign for vice president, did it dawn on anyone that she was not ready to be vice president?

As they toured the country under the slogan “Country First” with the woman they nicknamed “Little Shop of Horrors,” did no one stop to think about, you know, putting country first?

You have to read nearly to the end of the article to get that question answered:

In recent rounds of long conversations, most made it clear that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt: they can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be. They quietly ponder the nightmare they lived through.

Oh no, you don’t. You DO NOT ask for sympathy. For the love of all that is holy, do you people have any idea of what you were doing? Do you not have a scintilla of perspective?

Survivors guilt, my ass. You people should be on your knees begging America for forgiveness. You almost turned the keys to the White House over to the psychodoodle faction of the Republican Party. You folks in the McCain campaign knew that better than anyone.

This is America we’re talking about here! Country first, remember? Hello?

They all know that if their candidate—a 72-year-old cancer survivor—had won the presidency, the vice-presidency would be in the hands of a woman who lacked the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job. To ask why none of them dared to just walk away is to ask why Colin Powell did not resign in protest over the Bush administration’s foreign policy, or why none of Bill Clinton’s disillusioned aides resigned after he lied to them about Monica Lewinsky. The question cannot comprehend the intense bonds that the blood sport of modern politics produces.

No, no, no. Getting a blow job is not the same thing as working your butt off to elect someone wholly unsuitable to be president or vice president.

And that is ultimately what scares me about America. The riches of political victory have become so vast that people will tell themselves anything if it means their side will win.

Country First is, after all, just a slogan. Words used in a political pitch, like “good to the last drop” or “breakfast of champions.” Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

If Sarah Palin comes back with a 2012 run, there will be people who think she’s fabulous and there will be other people, insider people, who know she lacks “the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job,” but will work their tails off regardless because no one steps outside the bubble long enough or far enough to realize the implications of what they are doing. They all lack perspective.

And Sarah, well, she might like to think she’s some kind of “outsider” who’s a “maverick” who doesn’t do things the “Washington way” and that might be true to a certain extent, but honey you’re going through the same sausage factory as every other politician. Don’t delude yourself.

Play Her Off, Keyboard Cat

Wow, what a couple of weeks. First the Jon & Kate thing explodes all over the place and before I can process that we have Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson dying and then before we can catch our breath and enjoy a nice, long holiday weekend, Gov. Sarah Palin decides this would be the perfect week to announce she’s leaving office.

Talk about your Friday news dumps.

Bill Kristol, dean emeritus of the Conservative Clown College, hits the trifecta of stupidity by musing:

It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one.

After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues - and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska.

Uh, yeah. Okay honey, here’s a lolly, now go outside and play while the grownups talk.

Folks whose heads aren’t up their asses are following rumors that a criminal indictment is pending related to a scandal over a company called Spenard Building Supplies. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I got a good laugh over this “it’s always good news for Republicans” quote from Mary Matalin:

Ms. Matalin joked that despite her own initial inside-the-Beltway reaction of surprise, shoppers at her local WalMart in the Shenandoah would be whooping "hoo-rahs" because of Ms. Palin's continued popularity among conservative voters.

Uh yeah, conservatives love it when their Republican governors resign from office. Indeed, conservative voters in California and South Carolina eagerly anticipate the resignation of their states’ Republican governors. It’s how they show their love for their state! Now Mary, go outside and play with little Billy. The grown-ups have some talking to do.

There’s been a lot of silly parsing of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, reading between the lines and whatnot. Please. Sarah Palin is not deep, that’s what people like about her. What you see is what you get.

Her resignation speech was hastily thrown together and her delivery was shaky, not the polished performance we’re accustomed to seeing from her. Her voice shook, she stumbled over her words, and she was at times drowned out by quacking waterfowl (I at first thought it was bleating goats); perhaps a better location could not be secured at the last minute. And she even botched the "retreat" quote attribution. It wasn't Gen. MacArthur. It was Major General Oliver Prince Smith. I know, I've never heard of him either.

So despite her claim that “this decision has been in the works for awhile,” I ain’t buying it. The decision not to run for re-election may have been a foregone conclusion, but the decision to resign was clearly a last-minute one.

While some speculate she’s clearing her calendar for a 2012 run, I don’t know how you can hear this and not think something is up:

These Troops and their important missions – those are truly the worthy causes in this world and should be the public priority with time and resources and not this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport.

Sounds like one of her many ethics complaints is about to send everything crashing down around her to me. Sarah Palin is the patron saint of political victimhood, and of course she will write off any indictments to political vendettas and “bloodsport.” The poor thing, the evil liberals hate her, you see, and she’s done nothing wrong, just been a maverick, and beautiful, and a woman who winks.

Alrighty, then. Play her off, Keyboard Cat:

Ooops! Our Bad!

Did any major media outlets pull themselves away from feasting on the Michael Jackson/Mark Sanford corpses long enough to mention this?

The documents also confirm previous reports that Saddam falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - the main U.S. rationale behind the war - because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, the hostile neighbor he considered a bigger threat than the U.S.

Whoopsie daisy! Turns out we didn’t need to wage that war after all. Gosh I hate it when that happens! Oh well! Sorry for all the dead civilians and dead soldiers and, you know, trillions of dollars in debt!

You know, the public record is full to overflowing with Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, John Bolton and the rest of the neocons telling us why it was imperative we take out the threat that was Saddam Hussein. None of these assclowns have ever been held accountable for this disaster; instead, they are still getting columns in national newspapers and quoted as “experts” on cable news.

So, in honor of July Fourth, I ask the mainstream media to say: no more.

Please, for the good of the nation, for the love of all that is holy, let these people slink quietly away from the public stage and back into their holes. Unless, of course, you’re covering their trials.

Every single one of them lacks any shred of credibility. Therefore, any media outlet that quotes them, publishes their columns, or puts them on the air lacks credibility, too. This is an undeniable fact, and frankly I’m sick of the national media acting as if nothing happened. As if the corrupt neocon cabal didn’t lead us into a costly, immoral war that killed thousands of Americans and over a hundred thousand Iraqis. Move along, nothing to see here.

I don’t ever want to see another column by any one of these idiots in any newspaper. And yes that means you, Washington Post, not exactly a bastion of credibility yourself these days: no more op-eds from John Bolton telling us we need to attack Iran or ZOMG we’re all gonna dieeee!! Clearly he’s a crackpot. Please quit giving him ink. It’s like trotting the crazy uncle out to the town square so everyone can laugh and point. It’s really not a very nice thing to do.

No more Dick Cheney on the TV, please. Again, another psychodoodle crackpot, who profited handsomely from the war he forced on the country that was completely unnecessary. He should not be regarded as an expert in anything save unspeakable evil. Time was, we put people like that in jail. Nowadays it’s all, “bygones!”

Wolf Blitzer and the rest of you idiots at CNN, when will you learn that Paul Wolfowitz is not a credible source? I don’t see you calling up people like Cindy Sheehan and asking her opinion on the situation in Iran. Why would you ask Wolfowitz? He has been wrong about everything! Why are voices for war so much more compelling to you than voices for peace? You are as complicit in the war machine as the neocon shills.

Is this some massive mainstream media CYA-ing in an effort to cover for the way they helped march America into an unnecessary war? You think we don't notice these things?

And yet you have the nerve to wonder why your circulation is faltering, your ratings are dropping, your listenership is down. You think the internet is the problem? Er, no. Not even close.

It is absolutely inconceivable to me that the architects of the Iraq war will never have their accountability moment. It’s like everyone hopes we can just move on. Well, no. That just won’t work. We can't pretend this didn't happen. It is immoral to pretend it didn't happen. America needs her accountability moment. America needs reconciliation, and this will not happen without confession. If, as the right wingers always tell us, we are a "Christian nation" then we should confess our sins.

Something for you tea baggers to think about.

God bless America? Not until we first ask God to forgive America.

WaPo Hilarity Ensues

You wacky kids and your ethernets. You sure are fast:

All A Newspaper Has Is Its Reputation

The Washington Post selling access to administration officials and editorial staff? Say it ain’t so:

Washington Post Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors. 

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

This sounds exactly like the kind of bone-headed idea a publisher with dollar-signs in her eyes would cook up without checking with anyone, least of all the editorial staff.

Oh yes. Trust me on this.

It’s also the kind of thing one sees when the publisher comes, not from the editorial ranks, but from the sales or marketing departments. Sure enough, according to Wiki, Katharine Weymouth is an attorney by education who worked in the Post’s general counsel's office before being named its advertising director and then publisher.

Oh lordie, I hate it when I’m right. I know about these things because once upon a time I worked in a newsroom for a publisher who unfortuantely came up through the marketing department. She would cook up just such bone-headed ideas, and never seemed to understand why the editorial department would constantly shoot her down. The idea of editorial integrity seems completely lost on people who spend the day with a nose buried in ledger books.

Publishers who come through the editorial ranks seem to understand instinctively the price-beyond-rubies that is a news organization’s editorial integrity. We used to have long, knock-down, drag-out fights about whether it was appropriate for reporters to accept junkets--trips paid for by someone who is inviting positive news coverage.

That sounds so quaint now. Our mainstream news media snapped up the ultimate junket back in 2003: the “embedding” of reporters with U.S. military forces during the Iraq invasion. To say the embeds didn’t compromise their coverage based on these circumstances suspends disbelief.

Newspapers continued to cross that line over the years with controversies like conservative columnist Armonstrong Williams, paid $240,000 in taxpayer money to promote President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act in his columns.

Alas, the golden age of for-profit journalism has all come crashing down around us, because the information people need to make informed opinions about their lives, their government and their world has deteriorated into a saleable commodity. That means you get weeks of coverage about Michael Jackson, which affects no one outside his immediate family, and little of substance about the healthcare debate in Washington, which affects everyone. Instead of real election coverage where the candidates’ policy approaches are examined thoroughly, we get silly coverage about what kind of recreational activity they engage in, where they vacation, what kind of food they eat.

Little wonder that people have turned to the internet for the red meat they crave; the fact that it's largely free has made it all the better. Sorry, MSM, you just weren't paying attention. You're like GM and Ford and Chrysler, churning out gas-guzzlng SUVs when what we really want are fuel-efficient hybrids. All the while you're telling us "you want this gas slupring monster truck! You do! You really really do!"

So no, you can't save newspapers by banning hyperlinks. That's not the problem.

I can’t quote this Ralph Gleason column from the 1972 Rolling Stone often enough:

Newspapers, as A.J. Liebling explained in The Press, are neither public servants nor custodians of the Holy Grail.

They are private enterprises in a capitalist economy whose primary function is to make money. Just like a department store or a gas station.

They are not in the business of truth and honesty and the public good unless the owner of the paper sees that as a way to making money.

Katharine Weymouth thought selling access to her editorial staff and Administration officials was a good way to make money. As the uproar the revelation of this scheme has created proves, Weymouth was horribly, embarassingly wrong.

Your Modern GOP

[UPDATE]: From commenter Pat Naughtin I learn that Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington actively promoted the use of decimal numbers for both currency and measurements.

-------------------------------

John Feehery, a former staffer for Dennis Hastert and conservative lobbyist, warns in this CNN commentary that the Democrats will use their new filibuster-proof majority to foist silly French ideas like the metric system on Americans.

Yes, fearmongering about the metric system is about what the GOP has been reduced to these days. Even then, he can't get his facts right. He writes:

In 1975, the newly dominant Democratic Congress sent President Gerald Ford a bill that declared that America was going to be metric, which he signed. When Jimmy Carter became president two years later, he signed a law that told Americans that they couldn't drive faster than 55 mph.

These measures made perfect sense to the liberal sensibilities of the time. But they didn't make sense to the American people, and are symbols of a philosophy that was out of touch with the people in the 1970s and is still out of touch with the lives of most Americans today.

Most Americans still don't use the metric system, and most certainly don't stick to the 55 mile an hour speed limit on the highways of America. And while they may still like Barack Obama and still laugh at jokes written by Al Franken, they will eventually grow weary of the newly dominant liberals who now run Washington.

Ha. What a maroon. First of all, there has been a metrication movement in the U.S. since the 19th century. The very first metrication bill was signed into law in 1866 by President Andrew Johnson.

The 1975 bill which Feehery blames on a Democratic congress was amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (would someone remind me who was president in 1988? I seem to have forgotten ...). This actually established a United States Metric Board (cue scary big-government music) to implement the conversion. Then in 1991 President George H.W. Bush signed yet another metric conversion act into law.

Hmmm. The metric system! It’s not just for Democrats anymore. Never has been.

While the average American may not use metric units, it is certainly widely used in certain industries--science, for example--as well as the U.S. military. In fact, the failure to use one consistent unit of measurement is what caused NASA to lose a $125 million Mars orbiter in 1999.

As for the National Maximum Speed Law, it was signed into law in 1974 by Richard Nixon (someone remind me what political party he belonged to? I forget ...). It was an emergency energy saving measure enacted in response to the 1973 oil crisis.

The reason most Americans “certainly” don’t stick to the 55 mph speed limit is that the law was repealed in 1995 (would someone remind me who was president in 1995? I forget...).

Used to be, you could count on the Republicans for some solid fearmongering. Sadly, even that trick seems to have failed them.

What We’re Fighting For

A reminder of something I blogged about last week: we are fighting for healthcare not health insurance.

The New York Times reminds us why:

Many With Insurance Still Bankrupted by Health Crises

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system.

Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity.

One of them is Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year-old computer security specialist. Although the brochure on his Aetna policy seemed to indicate it covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the treatment he received at an Austin, Tex., hospital.

He and his wife, Claire, filed for bankruptcy last December, as his unpaid medical bills approached $200,000.

This is especially pertinent in Tennessee, where 3 out of 5 people struggle with medical debt.

This is not healthcare or even health insurance, this is a legal Ponzi scheme, a highly organized and orchestrated theft from American families to insurance company profit ledgers. There should be a law against the “fine print” that excludes the treatment one needs when they get sick. People pay their monthly premiums in good faith, expecting to get coverage when they need it. Health insurance companies spend thousands of dollars trying to make sure you can’t collect your benefits.

Who wants more of that?

As I mentioned yesterday, private health insurance is for healthy people. Under our current system, sick people die.

The healthcare debate we’re having now is: do we have private healthcare with a public option? But really what we should be talking about is, do we have public healthcare with a private option. We’ve never really tried public healthcare in this country outside the VA; state and federal programs all involve insurance of some kind--Tennessee’s is provided by BlueCross/BlueShield.

We’ve seen the problems with health insurance. As our Congress Critters move forward in trying to develop a plan to reform healthcare, I want them to consider all of the options. If private health insurance needs to be part of the mix, then you’re going to have to explain to me why. “That’s how we’ve always done it” is not a good enough answer.