The Commentariat -- February 26, 2012
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on the New York Times "corrections" process. It seems that sometimes when a story is inaccurate, The Times doesn't think a correction is warranted. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.
Jon Gertner in a New York Times op-ed on why Bell Labs really was innovative. Gertner contrasts the serious breakthroughs produced at Bell Labs with the small-bore "innovative" tech apps which are here today, gone tomorrow. CW: Read the op-ed and you'll wonder if we can do this today; I'd say the answer is "no"; not without government backing, unless we want to encourage monopolies. The small entrepreneurial garage operation is unlikely to produce much more than cool tech apps.
Frank Geary's much-maligned design for the Washington, D.C., Eisenhower Memorial.Ross Douthat likes Ike, but he can't seem to think of a single Eisenhower accomplishment.
Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Appealing to the force of tartan pride, the Scottish National Party won surprise control of the regional Parliament last year, which thrust the separatist fantasy of hearing 'Scots Wha Hae' on the bagpipes as the national anthem into the realm of distinct possibility. The British government, boxed into a precarious corner, has opened formal negotiations with the Scots to set a date for an independence referendum."
Right Wing World
A Founding Father Who Has No Place in Right Wing World. I hate polemical politics and polemical divinity. My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; on the hope of pardon for my offenses; upon contrition ... in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation of which I am but an infinitesimal part. -- John Adams
We're just trying to come up with the best possible lie. That's what this is all about. -- George Costanza, not a founding father, not even a real person, but a good imitation of Willard. See six more "Seinfeld" quotes that apply to Mitt Romney, courtesy of Dan Amira of New York magazine
"Crazed Reagan fixation?" Sorry, it appears the Reagans have left the circus. Thanks to a reader for the exclusive picture.Maureen Dowd: "The Republicans, with their crazed Reagan fixation, are a last-gasp party, living posthumously, fighting battles on sex, race, immigration and public education long ago won by the other side. They’re trying to roll back the clock, but time is passing them by." CW: Yet millions of Americans, whom time has passed by, will follow them into oblivion, possibly taking the rest of us with them. ...
... John Heilemann of New York magazine writes a long piece on the GOPocalypse: "That Mitt Romney finds himself so imperiled by Rick Santorum — Rick Santorum! — is just the latest in a series of jaw-dropping developments in what has been the most volatile, unpredictable, and just plain wackadoodle Republican-nomination contest ever.... The transfiguration of the GOP isn’t only about ideology.... It is also about demography and temperament, as the party has grown whiter, less well schooled, more blue-collar, and more hair-curlingly populist." A delightful read, till you get to the end, where Heilemann reminds us that the race for the presidency will be tight, whichever clown the GOP selects. ...
... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "This week in Michigan, a pair of campaign events revealed the deep — and opposite — flaws that have kept either of the front-runners from running away with the GOP nomination. Romney uses a grandiose campaign to deliver relatively modest ideas.... This instinct toward grand stagecraft backfired Friday, when Romney gave an economic speech at Detroit’s cavernous Ford Field. That venue outstripped even Romney’s impressive campaign machine.... Santorum, by contrast, uses a modest campaign to espouse deeply grandiose ideas. His premise is that only he — a man who lacks the logistical wherewithal to rustle up snacks — can manage to rebuild the nuclear family and save freedom itself. That has made him a surprise front-runner. But it has done little to reassure the practical-minded part of the GOP base."
Mike McIntire & Michael Luo of the New York Times: "When ’s presidential campaign needs advice on direct mail strategies for reaching voters, it looks to TargetPoint Consulting. And when the independent “super PAC” supporting him needs voter research, it, too, goes to TargetPoint.... The overlapping roles and relationships of the consultants ... offer a case study in the fluidity and ineffectual enforcement of rules intended to prevent candidates from coordinating their activities with outside groups."
Cynical Republican Politicians Follow Crazy White Bouncing Ball. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Election-year adjustments in a lawmaker’s voting pattern are common. But this election cycle is shaping up as unique. The pressure from the right flank of the Republican Party is intense, and unlike in 2010, party veterans this time around have had time to see it coming after the last primary season bumped off or nearly toppled so many of their colleagues.... The rightward tilt has consequences for Congress and the Obama administration as it has hollowed out the center in Congress.... For the Obama White House, once-obvious Republican targets for negotiations have dwindled at times to a single senator, Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, who, without a challenger on the right, is tacking to the center."
Mean Boys. Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney tried vigorously to undermine each other’s conservative bona fides Saturday in a bid to rally new supporters ahead of a crucial primary for the two leading Republican presidential candidates. Their fortunes shifting with three days until the high-stakes Michigan primary, the candidates leveled caustic, personal attacks against each other in dueling speeches before more than 1,000 tea party activists."
Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "... Mitt Romney ... has made organized labor enemy No. 1. He has railed against union 'stooges' and 'bosses,' arguing that their demands nearly killed the auto industry and gravely wounded America's competitiveness. Romney's message and his tone are popular talking points among Republican voters in most of the country, but they contrast sharply with the conciliatory statements he has made about labor in the past, particularly during his 2008 presidential campaign. His comments could haunt efforts by Romney and other Republicans to attract blue-collar workers and economically stressed voters in Michigan and nearby states."
Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Stepping up his assault on Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum delivered a slashing speech Saturday morning that portrayed the establishment favorite as an elitist and unreliable conservative." ...
... The First Amendment Is for Sissies and Infidels. Real Men Retch. To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up. What kind of country do we live in where only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up. And that should make every American [throw up]. I don't believe in an America where the separation between church and state is absolute," he said. -- Rick Santorum, speaking on ABC News' "This Week with Whoever" of John F. Kennedy's speech assuring religious leaders he believed religion should be separate from politics. (Kennedy made the speech in September 1960, when he was running for president, not in 1963 as the linked Politico report states. You can read a transcript of Kennedy's speech here.)
... "Senator Santorum's Planet." James Woods of the New Yorker: "... he may well believe that man cannot actually destroy the earth through such violence as global warming, for the perfectly orthodox theological reason that the earth will come to an end (or be renewed) only when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead.... This is Santorum’s 'theology,' phony or otherwise."
News Ledes
The New York Times has an Oscar page with all kinds of stuff on it. So does the Los Angeles Times, of course.
New York Times: "A grenade thrown by Afghan protesters wounded at least six American service members in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, as new details emerged in the investigation of the shooting death of two American officers within the Interior Ministry building the day before."
New York Times: In the shooting of two American officials in Kabul, "On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that it had identified a suspect who had fled and was 'believed to be an employee of one of the departments of the Interior Ministry.' President Hamid Karzai called for calm during a televised news conference Sunday from the presidential palace.”
New York Times: "Fourteen defendants appeared Sunday afternoon in the metal cage that serves as docket at the opening of the politically charged criminal trial of 43 people, including 16 Americans, accused of running unauthorized and foreign-funded nonprofit groups in a case that threatens to upend Washington’s 30-year alliance with Egypt. None of the Americans appeared Sunday. Only seven of the Americans remain in the country, including one who is the son of the secretary of transportation in the Obama administration. Egyptian authorities have barred the seven from leaving and they have taken refuge in the United States Embassy for fear of arrest. After a change of venue and a chaotic start, the trial was adjourned until late April, according to media reports."
Reuters: "The world's leading economies worked on Sunday to line up a deal in April on a second global rescue package worth nearly $2 trillion to stop the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis from spreading and putting at risk the tentative recovery."
Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Sunday after a keyhole abdominal examination showed there was nothing seriously wrong with the 93-year-old anti-apartheid leader, the government said."
AFP: "Syrians were called to the polls on Sunday to vote on a new constitution in the face of opposition calls for a boycott and deadly violence that Washington said made the exercise 'laughable.' The new text ends the legal basis for the five-decade stranglehold on power of the ruling Baath party but leaves huge powers in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad. The opposition says the changes are cosmetic and that only Assad's ouster will suffice after 11 months of repression by his security forces that human rights groups say have left more than 7,600 people dead."
AP: "Afghan officials say at least two demonstrators have been killed in northern Afghanistan as protests over last week's burning of Qurans turned violent. It marked the sixth day of deadly protests over the burning of Qurans and other religious materials at a U.S. base."
Reuters: "Thousands of Russians joined hands to form a human chain around Moscow city centre on Sunday in protest against Vladimir Putin's likely return as president in an election next week."
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Reader Comments (5)
How dumb is Douthat? Does the man never read?
Getting a ranking of 12 is quite respectable, IMHO.
The man orchestrated D-Day.
Eisenhower pushed for the very Interstate road system we have in this country. That he stole the idea from Hitler is beside the point.
No extrmarital dalliance?
There is the Kay Somersby innuendo, still out there.
Mae Finch
The war on the poor has many skirmishes. The Wing Nut support of the Bishops is one of those. Six hundred Catholic hospitals and two hundred and forty Catholic colleges and universities probably employ close to one hundred thousand women. Many of these women, probably a majority, are in low paying jobs like cafeteria help, cleaning help, nurses aids and bed makers, and office clerks. These are the jobs that are held by women with problems of low family income and by many single mothers. These are the members of our society that need help the most. These are the members of our society most likely to need an abortion in response to an unwanted pregnancy. When discussing insurance for birth control we should be aware of those we are impacting.
The Bishops and Wing Nuts position has little impact on the middle class but can devistate poor working women and their families.
Probably not your intent but the photo only goes to show that the Reagans were people who were ahead of their times. ;-)
@ Mae Finch. Douthat gets around the Summersby story by saying there were not sex scandals during Ike's administration. There were other scandals, tho. I learned what a vicuna was, for one thing. I thought the Summersby story was unrefuted, but I looked up the Wiki entry, & for every piece of evidence, nonbelievers have come up with a rationale that so-and-so was lying, made it up, blah-blah. I think Ike had an affair with Summersby, and so what? Why do people have to knock themselves out making excuses for why it could not possibly be true?
@ Carlyle. Thanks for coming up with a number on the female employees. I made a quick stab at it yesterday & couldn't find anything. In addition to the employees are students at Catholic universities. Especially in grad school, the religious affiliation of students is diverse; people choose grad schools based on which schools are best in their fields. They should not have to rule out Georgetown or Notre Dame because the schools won't cover them for birth control.
Although the ACA will (or does) allow parents to keep their children on their policies thru their school years, I expect the university policies will usually be cheaper because they are insuring mostly young people. Also, policies do not cover birth control are costlier than those that do, because covering a pregnancy, no matter how it ends, is always more expensive than covering birth control methods. So this is an economic issue, too.