“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Andrew Sullivan: Kerry Gaffes; The Russians Blink
In his latest stream of unpersuasive self-righteousness, John Kerry today threw out an idea. Instead of threatening an imminent military strike, Kerry actually got creative [..]
Wow. So we have the possibility of two things: that Russia might actually act decisively to rein Assad in, and also support the only viable policy to accomplish what Obama wants – protecting the world from these vile weapons. I have no idea whether this is a serious move by Lavrov – but it sure seems so, and it presents a fascinating non-binary option. It would manage to bring Russia in to solving this problem, without its having to acquiesce to what Putin regards as American grand-standing. And it would surely have some traction at the UN.
Sometimes, it seems, Kerry’s incompetence strikes gold. Here’s hoping.
Josh Levy: Sept. 9 Could Mark the Beginning of the End for Net Neutrality
Sept. 9 is the next front in the long-running battle over what we can do and say online.
That’s the day Verizon will face the Federal Communications Commission in court over the agency’s Net Neutrality protections, which the company wants to overturn. If Verizon gets its way, the FCC’s rules protecting Internet users from corporate abuse will disappear.
Net Neutrality isn’t a new concept: The principle paved the way for the online innovations – including the World Wide Web – we now take for granted. As Sir Tim Berners-Lee put it, “When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission.”
Net Neutrality means that ISPs like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon should be in the business of selling us Internet access, and not in the business of blocking, editing or discriminating against the information we send, the sites we visit or the applications we use. It requires ISPs to keep their hands off the content and focus on providing access to the network.
Much of the contemporary turmoil in the Middle East owes its origins to foreign powers drawing lines in the sand that were both arbitrary and consequential and guided more by their imperial standing than the interests of the region. The “red line” that president Barack Obama has set out as the trigger for US military intervention in Syria is no different. [..]
On 21 August there was a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government. That changed both Obama’s calculus and his memory. “I didn’t set a red line,” he claimed last week. I didn’t draw it, he insisted, everybody did. “The world set a red line”.
This was news to the world, which, over the weekend, sought to distance itself from his line, as the US president doubled-down on his double-speak.
Roger Cohen: Rouhani’s New Year
Is Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president, a game-changer? Initial indications leave open that possibility. Ignoring it would be foolish. [..]
There is every reason to be skeptical of Rouhani given past Iranian deception, the depth of mutual mistrust in U.S.-Iranian relations, and the decades-long investment in anti-American policy of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. But Rouhani’s opening should be tested rather than prejudiced through threats or the further sanctions Netanyahu is urging. Congress must hit “pause” on its restless urge to punish Iran.
Dean Baker: The Financial Crisis and the Second Great Depression Myth
All knowledgeable D.C. types know that the TARP and Fed bailout of Wall Street banks five years ago saved us from a second Great Depression. Like most things known by knowledgeable Washington types, this is not true. [..]
So the long and short is that we only need to have worried about a Second Great Depression if the bad guys got their way. And most of the people who warn about a Second Great Depression were on the list of bad guys. The prospect of a second Great Depression was not a warning, it was a threat.
Dennis J. Kucinich: How the White House and the CIA Are Marketing a War in the YouTube Era
Governments have always used fear and manipulation of emotion to get the public to support wars. The Bush administration did it in 2002 in Iraq and it is happening again in Obama’s push for war in Syria. [..]
Why are these videos suddenly news when they have been publicly circulating the web for weeks? Here’s why: The videos are meant to market the war, not to “prove” who committed the atrocities. (CBS News and others have reported that the White House case for war has been described as “largely circumstantial.”)
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