Jul
6
Headless in Berlin
by Stephan Tawney | 8:03 am
Apparently there may still be one or two sour feelings towards Hitler in Germany. Who knew?
Jul
6
Poll: A Third of Clinton Supporters Will Stay Home
by Stephan Tawney | 6:51 am
Some people hold grudges. Hillary Clinton supporters, on the other hand, hold GRUDGES.
In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey completed in early June before the New York senator ended her White House bid, 60 percent of Clinton backers polled said they planned on voting for Obama. In the latest poll, that number has dropped to 54 percent.
In early June, 22 percent of Clinton supporters polled said they would not vote at all if Obama were the party’s nominee, now close to a third say they will stay home.
In another sign the wounds of the heated primary race have yet to heal, 43 percent of registered Democrats polled still say they would prefer Clinton to be the party’s presidential nominee.
For comparison purposes, only 35% of Democrats wanted Clinton to be the nominee just last month. One analyst thinks time will heal the wounds and some supporters are waiting to see if he’ll pick her as his nominee. Ed Morrissey responds:
That doesn’t explain why the situation has gotten worse, though. Obama’s long string of policy reversals over the last few weeks have made the Clintons look like the Rock of Gibraltar on the issues. Flip-flops on NAFTA, FISA reform, and public financing not only make Obama look dishonest, but a political disaster waiting to happen on the scale of a Walter Mondale or a George McGovern. It’s increasingly clear that the only principle to which Obama will cling is his own benefit, and everyone and everything else can easily go under the bus as long as it benefits Obama.
Ed makes another important point: Don’t expect the Clintons to begin working day and night to get Obama elected. The Clintons do what’s best for the Clintons, and that may very well be an Obama defeat come November. Such a defeat would clear the way for the Glacier to do a “told ‘ya so” and run again in 2012.
Jul
6
More Old Crap I’m Just Getting To…
by Stephan Tawney | 6:36 am
It would appear that our liberal friend Matthew Yglesias expressed “mixed feelings” over America’s birthday the other day. He says the U.S. is “awesome” but only wishes we could’ve held the empire together with Britain.
My sense every July 4 is that I could get more jazzed up about independence if it were more plausible for Americans to work ourselves up into a fury of anti-British sentiment. In the real world, however, America’s two closest allies are the former colonial power and the segments of British North America that didn’t join in our rebellion. Ultimately, I think the United States is a pretty awesome country but it very plausibly would have been even awesomer had English and American political leaders in the late 18th century been farsighted enough to find compromises that would have held the empire together.
What am I missing here? He sees the Fourth of July as a Britain-bashing day and wishes the U.S. could’ve remained part of the British empire? It’s a great country but would’ve been, in his words, “awesomer” if it hadn’t become an independent country?
Several commenters make excellent points, such as this, er, profanity-laced one:
Um, no, not plausible at all. We’d still be a fucking colony, like DC.
If the colonies and Britain had remained one, the colonies would have become the crazy, infantile Id and Britain would have remained the legalistic, monarchical Ego that it was in the eighteenth century.
By separating, both societies became more balanced: the US was forced to grow up and in process created those most beautiful of documents, the Declaration and the Constitution.
Conversely, Britain was forced to loosen up, and the result was the Romantic movement: Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, and the rest.
To take that a step further, what would’ve been of France and other nations that looked towards the Declaration of Independence when crafting their future? I’m not following Yglesias’ logic, but that’s not exactly a new development, is it?
Jul
6
Iran: Seriously, We’re Not Stopping Uranium Enrichment
by Stephan Tawney | 6:28 am
As a reminder of just how successful diplomatic efforts and peaceful sanctions have been against the Islamic Republic, here’s a story by the AP on how Iran vows it will not stop its uranium enrichment now or ever. Obviously this situation calls for a bigger tea party.
Iran’s nuclear program remains unchanged, a government spokesman Saturday, indicating that Tehran has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium.
Gholam Hossein Elham’s insistence that Iran would not change the central part of its controversial program came a day after Iran sent the European Union its response to an international proposal to curb its program in exchange for economic incentives. The content of the response has not been made public.
“Iran’s stand regarding its peaceful nuclear program has not changed,” Mr. Elham told reporters.
The EU is talking with other world powers to decide where to go from here. What should we expect? More soon-to-be-failed sanctions that will have no effect except biding Iran more time to finish its weapons program unhindered.
No matter how many economic, technological and political incentives we’ve offered the regime, it continues its steady chug (with help from Russia) towards nuclear status. Don’t expect that to change today, tomorrow, or anywhere in the foreseeable future. Iran knows the world community lacks the political will to use force against it, so why stop?
Jul
6
Good News: U.S. Removes Yellowcake From Iraq
by Stephan Tawney | 2:37 am
For some reason, the notoriously-right wing Associated Press is reporting that the United States has removed yellowcake from Iraq, calling it the remainder of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program.
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
As the Associated Press notes, yellowcake can be used in nuclear weapons if enriched far enough. The news agency calls this the “last major” stockphile of the nuclear material left over from Saddam’s regime.
Genghis is confused, too.
Now just wait one damn minute here! We know that this can’t be possible. Bush lied, of course, and the Niger yellowcake documents were forgeries. Saddam had no intention of building nuclear weapons. It was all a bluff to deter the American war machine and placate his unruly generals who wished to usurp his peaceful and benevolent rule.
The shipment totaled about 550 metric tons.
Update: Tekka writes:
Those of you who say yellow cake isn’t a WMD are right. You are also missing the point. Saddam did not have 550 tons of it because he was building uranium sand-castles.
Jul
4
Quote Set #1
by Stephan Tawney | 8:50 am
“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”
-John Adams, 1787
***
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. ”
-Thomas Paine
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“If we desire to insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”
-George Washington
