- I am sure that it could be arranged: Muamar Qaddafi indicates that the only way he will give up power is to go out feet first. I hope someone obliges him. My sense - and it is only that -- is that the Libyan state, such as it is, is extraordinarily brittle and that the dictator's days are numbered. Incidentally, for those who think the U.S.'s penchant for cozying up with dictators is a unique phenomenon, check out Italy's shameful dealings with the Libyan despot.
- I just noticed this at the supermarket counter this morning: Why on earth would Newsweek run a cover story of an opinion piece by the increasingly reprehensible neo-imperialist Nial Ferguson entitled: "Egypt: How Obama Blew It." One of the inside tag lines to the story describes "Obama's Egypt debacle" -- a really strange characterization to a story that hasn't even begun to see a resolution. In the article, Ferguson continues his reflexive Islam bashing -- really a persuasive point of view to present to 1.5 billion of the world's people, while lamenting Obama's lack of a grand foreign policy strategy. It seems to me that one of the best aspects of Obama's foreign policy is the absence of any grandiose doctrine bearing his name. He appears to react to actual facts on the ground, approaches things cautiously, tries not to overstate, overreact, or over commit and seems to understand that events in other countries are not first and foremost about the United States. It's refreshing really -- approaching foreign policy with modesty, wariness, and prudence.
- The assault on reproductive rights continues on too many fronts to count. One thing for sure though, as this excellent Post Op-Ed piece points out (I don't know that I've ever written those words), is that there is nothing fiscally conservative about cutting funding for Title X family planning funds generally or funds for Planned Parenthood specifically.
- The one silver lining I see in the relentless attacks being launched by Republicans in both Washington and in the states in which they've achieved power is that they are making clear, for all to see, what they are all about. Crushing unions, depriving women of their fundamental autonomy, giving the back of the hand to the poor and the unemployed -- these are the priorities of a pathological party at a time of maximum vulnerability for so many. It's a sick, sad agenda -- but one that is actually forcing the Democrats to draw stark lines -- hence the desperate actions by the Democrats in both the Wisconsin Senate and the Indiana House to stave off union busting legislation. It is my hope that the rallying effect that this causes in 2012 will result in a strong repudiation of the Republicans in many places. But it is crucial that it happen in the next election cycle -- electoral failure that allows these moves to be institutionalized is going to be extremely harmful to progressive causes in the near term.
- Showing their Work: Have any of the pundits who proclaim that public employee unions are inherently different than those in the private sector since their political allies cannot say no to them, actually produced evidence to back that assertion. Not to argue by anecdote, but my sister, who is a unionized public school teacher in Democratic dominated Massachusetts, noted that her cumulatively pay increases over the last five years total a whopping 1%. (That figure is not annualized.) I have seen no data at all that suggests that public employee unions have been winning pay increases in recent years that are better than those received by private sector employees. The only thing I've seen is like many private sector unionized employees, many public employees have tried to preserve their benefits, often at the expense of receiving pay increases.
- Has any major media figure actually tried to pin a Republican official down on how it is that their actions are supposed to help unemployment? Since Republicans dominate the Sunday talk shows, you would think that there might be some probing on the most pressing problem facing the nation -- if it has happened, so far I've yet to hear it.
What's on your minds?
