“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.
Op-Ed Contributor at the NYT, Kenzaburo Oe:
THE Futenma Marine Corps Air Station on Okinawa, one of the largest United States military bases in East Asia, is in the center of a crowded city. The American and Japanese governments acknowledge the dangers of this situation, and they agreed nearly 15 years ago that the base should be moved; however, no move has yet been made.
In 2009 a new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, tantalized Okinawans with the prospect of moving the despised base off the island, but he was recently forced to resign, in part because of his failure to keep that promise. Mr. Hatoyama’s successor, Naoto Kan, has made it clear that he intends to respect the United States-Japan security treaty – a position that, while not directly related to the issue of dialing down the United States military presence in Japan, may indicate which way the wind is blowing.
It was recently reported here that a government panel is about to submit a policy paper to Prime Minister Kan, suggesting that regarding Japan’s “three nonnuclear principles” – prohibiting the production, possession and introduction of nuclear weapons – it was not wise to “limit the helping hand of the United States,” and recommending that we allow the transport of nuclear arms through our territory to improve the so-called nuclear umbrella.
Kenzaburo Oe, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994, is the author, most recently, of “The Changeling.” This article was translated by Deborah Boehm from the Japanese.
Eugene Robinson: A judge’s mighty arguments for marriage equality
The 14th Amendment is a mighty sword, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used it Wednesday to slice and shred all the specious arguments — and I mean all of them — that are used to deny full marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Bigotry has suffered a grievous blow.
Paul Krugman: The Flimflam Man
One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans. But no: as long as someone on the right claims to have bold new proposals, he’s hailed as an innovative thinker. And nobody checks his arithmeti
Which brings me to the innovative thinker du jour: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Mr. Ryan has become the Republican Party’s poster child for new ideas thanks to his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” a plan for a major overhaul of federal spending and taxes. News media coverage has been overwhelmingly favorable; on Monday, The Washington Post put a glowing profile of Mr. Ryan on its front page, portraying him as the G.O.P.’s fiscal conscience. He’s often described with phrases like “intellectually audacious.”
But it’s the audacity of dopes. Mr. Ryan isn’t offering fresh food for thought; he’s serving up leftovers from the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce.
William D. Cohan: Still Paying for Lehman’s Demise
Nearly two years ago, in the middle of a financial crisis of historic proportions, a federal bankruptcy judge, James M. Peck, made the gutsy decision to approve the sale of the bulk of Lehman Brothers’ domestic investment-banking business to Barclays for between $1.3 and $1.7 billion, including the Lehman’s Seventh Avenue headquarters, which was worth nearly $1 billion. Judge Peck’s decision came four days after a deal to sell all of Lehman to Barclays fell apart at the 11th hour and Lehman filed the largest bankruptcy case ever.
Normally a sale of such magnitude from a bankrupt estate takes many months to stitch together, since forlorn creditors want to make sure that every potential bidder for an asset has had as much time as necessary to kick the tires and make the highest bid possible. But Judge Peck decided that the parts of Lehman Brothers were wasting away quickly and that he should move with all deliberate speed to try to preserve what he could of a firm where the assets walk out the door every night, and were doing just that. “Lehman Brothers became a victim,” he said when he approved the rushed sale. “In effect, the only true icon to fall in the tsunami that has befallen the credit markets. And it saddens me.”
Poor Charles Krauthammer, now the shoe is on the other foot, he becomes a WATB. not that he ever wasn’t in his criticism of the left. Now he is whining about “executive overreach”
Last week, a draft memo surfaced from the Department of Homeland Security suggesting ways to administratively circumvent existing law to allow several categories of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and, indeed, for some to be granted permanent residency. Most disturbing was the stated rationale. This was being proposed “in the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” In other words, because Congress refuses to do what these bureaucrats would like to see done, they will legislate it themselves.
Regardless of your feelings on the substance of the immigration issue, this is not how a constitutional democracy should operate. Administrators administer the law, they don’t change it. That’s the legislators’ job
John Dickerson: Divided Government Redux?
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s plan to turn Obama into Bill Clinton.
Who would have guessed that the Republican leader of the Senate would be calling for the return of Bill Clinton? That’s what Mitch McConnell of Kentucky did Thursday when talking about the political evolution he expects from Barack Obama. The midterm election is likely to shrink (and perhaps erase) the Democratic majorities in Congress. McConnell, who voted guilty on both of Clinton’s impeachment charges, held him up as a model for the way a president can come back after his party loses a congressional election. Clinton’s declaration after the 1994 GOP victory that “the era of big government is over,” said McConnell, “showed an incredible amount of flexibility.”
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Facebook FacebookDigg DiggReddit RedditStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSEA chastened president who works with an emboldened opposition: That’s just one of the post-election fantasies being shopped to voters. McConnell was pushing that narrative in response to another one in which he’s an unblinking fanatic. For months, Democrats have been trying to argue that the GOP is indistinguishable from the Tea Party. In a recent ad, McConnell is included in a collage with Rand Paul, the Tea Party favorite who hopes to become the other Kentucky senator.
And last but not least, and certainly for the laugh, Marc Thiessen: A final warning to WikiLeaks?
The Hill is reporting that the Pentagon has demanded WikiLeaks immediately hand over all the classified documents it illegally possesses, including those it has not yet published.
snip
Sounds like a final warning has been issued — and that the Obama administration intends to take action to stop WikiLeaks from disclosing any further life-threatening intelligence.
LOL. Like what? A drone attack? Kidnapping and rendition? Somebody want to tell Marc and the Pentagon it is way to late for that threat. The files are all over the Internet and the ones that haven’t been published, well, even I down loaded the encrypted file as “insurance” the Wikileaks and Mr. Assange stay safe.
So far none of what has been revealed in those files is “life threatening”, just damned embarrassing and incriminatory for the US. Sheesh
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