Swiftboating McCain?

General Wesley Clark is taking a lot of heat for some very reasonable and respectful comments about John McCain.



Clsrk simply pointed out the obvious - that McCain's military service does not qualify him to be President because he has little or no executive experience during wartime. People are ignoring that Clark also called McCain a hero and expressed personal gratitude for McCain's patriotism during captivity. The really funny part of the interview is when Schieffer is shocked that Clark does not believe that being shot down in a fighter plane qualifies you to be President. Is that really such an outlandish claim?

Clark has said nothing to discount McCain's service, only its relevance to the presidency. Where was the outrage when Republicans actually did question Kerry's military service?

I completely agree with John Cole's observation that Clark is getting screwed. Cole later states: "If I were John Kerry, I would be breaking shit right now." Absolutely. Your "liberal media" at work.

Shame on the media for buying into this crap, and shame on Obama for throwing Clark under the bus.

As if the double standard between McCain and Kerry weren't already ridiculous enough, we actually have a former SwiftVet for Truth criticizing Clark's comments on behalf of the McCain campaign. He rejects any alleged similarity between Clark and the SwiftVets, saying that his attacks, which McCain himself once called "dishonest and dishonorable", were simply revelation of the truth. So we have a person who lied about Kerry's service now denouncing Clark's comments that honored McCain's service and included nothing untrue, claiming that the difference is that he was speaking the truth about Kerry. Unbelieveable!

Obama and Affirmative Action

Will Obama's success hurt affirmative action?

I don't agree that Obama's success is a refutation of affirmative action, if only because he has a very unique background. I agree that, while there are racial prejudices remaining in this country, those prejudices generally do not prevent an African American from reaching any goals he may set. However, the long history of discrimination continues to negatively impact African-Americans. The wealth, values, habits, skills, knowledge, and lucrative connections passed from one generation to the next for centuries among middle-class and upper-class whites are only now being developed in the African-American community. That is one of the reasons why Obama's commitment to equality in early childhood education is so important.

I am hoping that Obama will take a strong position during the campaign that affirmative action should remain, but should be shifted to emphasize socioeconomic background rather than race. African-Americans would still benefit greatly from a financial need based affirmative action, but it would have the benefit of seeming fairer to whites, not benefitting African-Americans from families that have already "made it" (Obama points out that colleges should see his children as privileged), and recognizing the reality that class is now a stronger factor in success than race.

Alcohol: The Cause of - and Solution to - All of Life's Problems

Bowling
Golf
Fishing
Sporting Events
Watching Live Music
Watching Fireworks
Cookouts
Boating (always use a DD)
Poker

Add living car-free to the list of activities that become more attactive when you realize you can drink while doing it.

Via Matthew Yglesias:


Now that's a convincing case for public transportation.

Examining the North Korea deal

A step in the right direction, but maybe not all it's cracked up to be. Fred Kaplan:

There was always one loophole in that document. The Bush administration, in summarizing the deal, said that it required the North Koreans, among other things, to list all their nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs. However, that wasn't quite accurate. The document said only that the North Koreans "will discuss" such a list. (Italics added.)

One lesson learned by those who negotiated the 1990s' Agreed Framework was this: The North Koreans will exploit every loophole, so nail the language down tight. That didn't happen this time—for understandable reasons, which we will soon discuss, but still.

The North Koreans did discuss a list. But, according to some knowledgeable sources, the 60-page list that they actually provided pertains only to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and to its nearby reprocessing plant. Now this is a big deal. Plutonium is the element that produces the largest number of nuclear bombs in the shortest span of time. But it's not quite the deal that the administration said, or perhaps thought, it was getting. The list was supposed to—or, minus that pesky "discuss" loophole, it looked like it was supposed to—cover "all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs," not just those dealing with plutonium. Other programs would include highly enriched-uranium facilities, high-explosive test sites, nuclear test sites, and storage facilities that might contain bombs and fissile materials. The list reportedly does not include any of that.

Kaplan began the article by clarifying that North Korea only destroyed the cooling tower at Yongbyon.

Supreme Court Appointments

I think it is possible that, given that liberals on the Supreme Court are more likely to retire in the next 4-8 years than conservatives, a vote for Obama is a vote for the status quo, while a vote for McCain is a vote for a much more conservative court. Washington Post:

A victory by the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, would probably mean preserving the uneasy but roughly balanced status quo, since the justices who are considered most likely to retire are liberal. A win for his Republican counterpart, John McCain, could mean a fundamental shift to a consistently conservative majority ready to take on past court rulings on abortion rights, affirmative action and other issues important to the right.

This is because the conservatives (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito) are relatively young and show no intention of retiring. The liberals (Souter, Breyer, Ginsberg, Stevens) and swing vote (Kennedy) are more advanced in age.

I do see a few sets of circumstances that could alter this course. Of course, all of the Justices are over 50 years old, so anything can happen. Also, a reliable conservative may retire during the McCain presidency in the hopes of being replaced by a conservative, only to be replaced by a Stevens or a Souter. That possibility is made more likely by the third potential intervening circumstances - a Democratic Senate.

However, if Obama can convince voters that Roe v. Wade is in real jeopardy and make McCain's interest in overturning Roe v. Wade an issue in the campaign, Obama stands to benefit tremendously.

Thank God for Condi Rice

In case you doubted that there are dangerously insane people involved in Bush's foreign policy, John Bolton strongly criticized the North Korea deal and Cheney tried to kill it.

I have not put Condi Rice on the pedestal that some have. Her background as an expert on Russia and Eastern Europe seemed ill-suited for a foreign policy that would have to deal with failed states and terrorists. I think this was evident in her failure to recognize the severity of the al Qaeda threat before 9/11. However, she articulates Bush's grand foreign policy strategy far better than anyone else in the Administration, including Bush himself. She and Petraeus seem to be the only grown-ups directly advising the President. For that service, I am deeply grateful.

This is the Coolest Thing I've Seen in Awhile

I've always wanted to go to Dubai; now I really want to go.

Unfortunately My Lovely Wife won't allow it.