Obama, Wen huddle in a side meeting at U.N.



By the CNN Wire Staff

September 24, 2010  

President Barack Obama urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to speed up the revaluation of his nation’s currency, telling him in a two-hour meeting Thursday that the slow pace of reforms was affecting both the global and U.S. economies, a top U.S. aide said.

The talks on the sidelines of this week’s U.N. General Assembly opening also covered security issues including Iran, Sudan and the dispute between China and Japan — a major U.S. ally — regarding the South China Seas, said Jeff Bader, Obama’s special assistant and senior director for Asian affairs.

America’s best fall color drives

Cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway or get close to color at Shenandoah National Park  

By Margie Goldsmith  

Crisp air, panoramic views, brilliantly colored ash and poplar trees: the exhilarating route to North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell State Park – the highest peak in the Eastern United States – is a destination in itself. The scenic 75-year-old Blue Ridge Parkway is just one of the country’s great autumn drives.  

The fall foliage season, when the changing palette of deciduous trees is in blazing bloom, is now starting. And the way to maximize your intake of color is to map out a driving route. In September, October, and – in some spots – even November, color seekers can visit 31 states and drive more than 3,000 miles of national scenic byways, plus thousands of other scenic roads.

USA

Hidden Under Tax-Exempt Cloak, Political Dollars Flow



By MIKE McINTIRE

Published: September 23, 2010  

Alaskans grew suspicious two years ago when a national organization called Americans for Job Security showed up and spent $1.6 million pushing a referendum to restrict development of a gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

It seemed an oddly parochial fight for a pro-business group based in the Washington suburbs that had spent tens of millions of dollars since the late 1990s roughing up Democrats with negative advertisements around election time.

5 years after Rita hit, some left out of recovery



CAMERON, Louisiana (AP)  

 First Baptist Church in this southwestern Louisiana town is finally celebrating its reopening, five years after the community was nearly obliterated by one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history: Hurricane Rita.

It took that long for the church’s members to raise money to repair the double dose of damage from Rita and then from Hurricane Ike in 2008. On Saturday, they will sing a theme song they adopted in Rita’s aftermath, “Standing on the Promises.”

Church treasurer Cyndi Sellers had noticed a hymn book opened to the old Baptist standard in the church’s muddy wreckage.

Europe

French trains grind to a halt as millions join pension strike



By John Lichfield in Paris Friday, 24 September 2010

Strikes crippled French transport and public services yesterday as around two million people took to the streets in the second mass protest this month against pension reform.

Despite the threat of more strikes next month, President Nicolas Sarkozy is convinced that mainstream French unions do not have the stomach for the kind of rolling protests that forced previous governments to scrap social reforms in 1995 and 2006.

Flemish leader riles French speakers with accusation of Nazi collaboration

 

ARTHUR BEESLEY, European Correspondent

BELGIUM’S POLITICAL crisis intensified after the hardline Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever riled the country’s French speakers by accusing them of blotting out collaboration with the Nazis in the second World War.

More than 100 days after the general election in which he took the spoils, De Wever’s démarche raised further questions over the prospects of a coalition deal between his New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party and French-speaking Socialists.

“When you’re courting a political partner, you don’t start by saying they stink,” said Richard Miller, an MP with the French-speaking Liberal party.

Middle East

Centrality of Middle East talks most striking aspect of speech

ANALYSIS:

LARA MARLOWE

The resumption of the talks is one of the few foreign policy successes Obama can point to

THE MOST noteworthy thing about Barack Obama’s address to the UN general assembly yesterday was the centrality of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The White House showed the importance it attaches to the talks by releasing only excerpts pertaining to them in advance of the speech. The resumption of the talks less than a month ago is one of the few foreign policy successes Obama can point to. As he stressed himself, success is far from assured. But he has demonstrated that contrary to the Bush administration’s feeble and tardy attempt at Annapolis, he is serious about brokering peace.

How SA company oiled Iran’s war machine



A company co-owned by a close aide to  former apartheid president PW Botha helped Iran evade American sanctions by sneaking a James Bond-style speedboat through South Africa last year.

GCINA NTSALUBA & STEFAANS BRüMMER | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Sep 24 2010  

Willem “Ters” Ehlers, a former navy officer and Botha’s private secretary, is no stranger to apartheid-era embargo-busting. Now his company has shipped the speedboat to Iran, where the elite Revolutionary Guard is mass-producing it as an attack craft armed with torpedoes and missiles.

The use of South Africa as an entrepôt, sidestepping American and British blocking attempts, puts the country in a conflicted diplomatic position. Although Iran may consider its tentative relationship with South Africa reaffirmed, Western states may believe that South Africa’s image as a responsible international citizen has been dented.

Asia

People of Rajanpur have nothing to drink but filthy water



In the worst hit Pakistani district, Patrick Cockburn finds flood survivors facing an even worse threat  

Friday, 24 September 2010

Ali Sher Khan stands precariously on a piece of broken road that once led to the land where he lived before it was torn apart by the flood. The road has been replaced by a deep lake. Mr Khan, a clan leader in Rajanpur District in south Punjab, points grimly to the other side of the water where we can just see ruins of 200 houses where he and other members of his clan used to live.

A few people are trying to return to their house by driving a motor scooter, piled high with clothes, along a narrow path which skirts the newly formed lake. Mr Khan said that he and his neighbours lost their livestock and their possessions when water 15ft high surged through their settlement of scattered houses.

Four Japanese citizens detained in China as dispute escalates  

China is investigating four Japanese citizens over claims that they “illegally” filmed sensitive military installations while on a business trip, in an apparent escalation of the growing two-week diplomatic row between Asia’s two largest economies.  

By Peter Foster in Beijing

Published: 4:25AM BST 24 Sep 2010

The move comes after weeks of growing tension between China and Japan over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain by the Japanese coastguard during a confrontation in disputed waters of the East China Sea.

In a short report, Xinhua, the state-run news agency said: “Four Japanese are being investigated for having entered a military zone without authorisation and illegally videotaped military targets in northern Heibei province.”

The investigation is likely to be seen as a tit-for-tat response by China to Japan’s arrest of its trawler captain who remains detained despite calls from China’s premier Wen Jiabao to “unconditionally” release him.

Africa

Ivory Coast starts paying former rebels for peace

Ivory Coast began paying former rebel soldiers on Wednesday who disarmed ahead of elections set for next month, bringing the West African nation a step closer to ending years of crisis.  

By Reuters



The New Forces rebels had long feared the government would renege on their promises to hand thousands of former rebel fighters payouts meant to help them adjust to civilian life, as agreed under a 2007 peace accord.

Karna Soro, head of the New Forces demobilisation programme, told Reuters 400 rebels had received payments on Wednesday of $100,00 CFA francs ($200) each  in Korogho town.

“There is a real feeling of joy for us,” Soro said. “As soon as they are demobilised and they received their money, allwill be calm.

Latin America

Top Farc rebel leader Mono Jojoy killed by Colombian army  

The No 2 leader and top military strategist of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) has been killed by the Colombian army, officials said on Thursday.  

Published: 12:35AM BST 24 Sep 2010  

The death of Jorge Briceno is a huge setback for Farc, which has been reeling from a decade of pressure by the US-backed military.

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said the attack is “the most crushing blow against the Farc in its entire history” – more important than the March 2008 bombing raid across the border with Ecuador that killed Farc foreign minister Raul Reyes or the bloodless rescue that July that freed former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US contractors and 11 other hostages without firing a shot.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The New York Daily News reports:

Teresa Lewis died by lethal injection on Thursday night, the first woman in Virginia to be executed in nearly a century.

Lewis was prounounced dead at 9:13 p.m. as a small crowd of supporters stood outside in protest.

Though lawyers for Lewis waged a public campaign for the Gov. of Virginia to intervene, there was no 11th hour reprieve for the 41-year-old woman, who was sentenced to death for plotting the 2002 murders of her husband and stepson.

Lewis reportedly spent her last day meeting with her immediate family, a spiritual adviser, and supporters at the prison where she was executed.

For her last supper, she requested a meal of fried chicken breasts, peas with butter, a slice of German cake or a piece of apple pie, and a Dr. Pepper, according to SkyNews.

And so a woman with the IQ of 72 is killed by Virginia, and those who actually fired the shots that resulted in the double murders received life sentences.

If this is justice, the law is an ass.

simulposted at The Dream Antilles and docuDharma and dailyKos

All premiers on broadcast, none worth mentioning.  Last night this week for Keith and Rachel all night and the Boys.

You can break a man’s skull, you can arrest him, you can throw him into a dungeon. But how do you control what’s up here? How do you fight an idea?

• AMC– Airplane & II x 2
• Bravo– Real Housewives D.C. (premier)
• Comedy– [Futurama ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama marathon
• ESPN– College Throwball, Miami @ Pittsburgh
• ESPN2– High School Throwball, from Florida South Lake @ Apopka
• Food– America’s Best (Alton), Ace of Cakes (premiers)
• FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League (premiers)
• History– The Universe (premier)
• Lifetime– Project Runway (last week’s and new)
• TBS– Rush Hour 3
• Turner Classic– Ben-Hur
• TLC– Sr. v. Jr. (last week’s and new), BBQ Pitmasters (premier)
• Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (100th episode repeat)

Later-

• Turner Classic– Samson and Delilah
• Toon– Delocated, American Dad x 2
• SciFi– WCG Ultimate Gamer (premier)
• USA– Undercovers, Outlaw (Series Premier repeats)

Dave hosts  James Franco, Sofia Vergara, and Shakira.  Jon has Abdullah II, Stephen Oscar Goodman.  Alton does Ginger.

But just remember, my name is ROGER MURDOCK. I’m an airline pilot.

I think you’re the greatest, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense.  And he says that lots of times, you don’t even run down court. And that you don’t really try… except during the playoffs.

The hell I don’t! LISTEN KID! I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.

Over Macho Grande?

No. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Delhi makes Games ‘progress’ as criticism pours in

by Neha Lall, AFP

1 hr 32 mins ago

2 India battles deepening Commonwealth Games crisis

by Kuldip Lal, AFP

Wed Sep 22, 3:55 pm ET

3 France protests pension reform

by Charles Onians, AFP

59 mins ago

4 Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

by Charlotte Raab, AFP

Thu Sep 23, 12:34 pm ET

5 In Milan, feminine wiles cede to Prada’s urban chic

by Gina Doggett, AFP

49 mins ago

6 UN summit ends with calls for tougher battle against poverty

AFP

Wed Sep 22, 6:48 pm ET

7 England win fifth ODI against Pakistan by 121 runs

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Wed Sep 22, 5:48 pm ET

8 Irish economic recovery fails in second quarter

by Andrew Bushe, AFP

Thu Sep 23, 12:39 pm ET

9 Japan’s vending machines sell cool bananas, read minds

by Miwa Suzuki, AFP

Thu Sep 23, 11:53 am ET

10 No hope for tax cut vote before election: Democrat

By Kim Dixon and Susan Cornwell, Reuters

53 mins ago

11 Obama asks Wen for more action on yuan

By Paul Eckert and Steve Holland, Reuters

58 mins ago

12 House Republicans draft campaign manifesto

By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan, Reuters

Thu Sep 23, 10:24 am ET

13 Summers’ successor to set tone on economic policy

By Caren Bohan, Reuters

Thu Sep 23, 10:21 am ET

14 GOP ‘Pledge’ vows cuts, repeal of health care law

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

6 mins ago

15 Double-digit hikes for some Medicare drug plans

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer

16 mins ago

16 Congress to send small business bill to Obama

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 16 mins ago

17 Va. woman, out of options, nears execution

By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer

36 mins ago

18 Lawyer: Other young men went on trips with pastor

By ERRIN HAINES and GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

35 mins ago

19 Pakistani given 86 years for firing at US troops

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 38 mins ago

20 Number of fat people in US to grow, report says

By GREG KELLER, Associated Press Writer

28 mins ago

21 Debt, changing media habits topple Blockbuster

By MAE ANDERSON, AP Retail Writer

Thu Sep 23, 12:17 pm ET

22 US restricts, EU bans controversial diabetes pill

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

1 hr 1 min ago

23 Initial claims for unemployment aid rise to 465K

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

Thu Sep 23, 2:19 pm ET

24 India scrambles to save Commonwealth Games

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 2:13 pm ET

25 AP-GfK Poll: Independents as upset as Republicans

By ALAN FRAM and JENNIFER AGIESTA, Associated Press Writers

Thu Sep 23, 10:54 am ET

26 First partial Afghan poll results released

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer   – Thu Sep 23, 9:25 am ET

27 Abortion an issue in Senate races

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Thu Sep 23, 6:41 am ET

28 Federal help boosts vulnerable Democrats

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 6:41 am ET

29 Afghan president calls for release of journalists

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 10:14 am ET

30 Obama faults himself for not selling health law

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

Wed Sep 22, 9:40 pm ET

31 Prosecutors: Corruption ingrained in Calif. city

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 4:16 am ET

32 Study backs new heart valve without cracking chest

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

Wed Sep 22, 11:01 pm ET

33 Groups demand explanation of ‘sexting’ DA inaction

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer

41 mins ago

34 5 years after Rita hit, some left out of recovery

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 2:11 pm ET

35 Obama praises US-China cooperation on economy

By MATTHEW LEE and FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writers

Thu Sep 23, 1:01 pm ET

36 UN chief urges tolerance to combat polarization

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

Thu Sep 23, 1:00 pm ET

37 AP Interview: Yanukovych seeks deeper US ties

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

Wed Sep 22, 5:29 pm ET

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

Christine O’Donnell is fast becoming the face of the Republican Party.  Her campaign slogan is — to put it in Marxist language — power to the people.  Or, something like that. To quote an oft-used phrase on the internet(s) and one used frequently on this blog, “Teh stoopid! It burns.”  

Time permitting, I will try to post Part II of this diary later on this week.  

PLEASE READ THIS: There are another dozen or editorial cartoons in the comments section of this diary that I posted over at Daily Kos.  Take a look at them.

:: ::

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

::

INTRODUCTION

For well over a year, the Republican establishment refused to condemn the blatantly racist and bizarre behavior displayed by many in the Tea Party as they conjured up exotic theories about President Barack Obama.  Even one of their so-called “intellectuals” (Newtie Gingrich) has engaged in the kind of vitriol and rhetoric that probably hasn’t been heard in this country since the McCarthy era in the 1950’s.  

The Republicans have played this cynical game of ignoring insane people within their ranks for years and now it seems to have bitten them.  As they say in Texas football circles, “You dance with what brung ya.”

Are these the kinds of people we want in charge of our country?  I don’t think so.

A good article in Mother Jones magazine describes the problems the Teabaggers are creating for the GOP.  Are they secretly working in the Democratic Party’s best interests?  We don’t know for sure but, surely, Christine O’Donnell’s ascendancy in Delaware is a gift from the political gods

A Tea Partier Against O’Donnell?

The GOP candidate for Senate in Delaware seems to have the tea party movement behind her.  But are some activists having second thoughts?

(Jeff Danziger, Yahoo Comics/New York Times Syndicate, click link to enlarge cartoon)

Christine O’Donnell’s GOP Senate primary upset over Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware last week has the media buzzing about how the tea party movement is overthrowing the established order of things-at least for Republicans.  But while O’Donnell may be labeled as a “tea party” candidate, the movement is far from a monolith, and there are some in its ranks who aren’t all that thrilled to be associated with her.

Andrew Ian Dodge is the Maine state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest tea party umbrella groups.  TPP doesn’t endorse candidates, but that hasn’t stopped Dodge from expressing his own opinon about O’Donnell.  He thinks she’s a bit of a nutter.  “Everything I’ve seen about her has made me laugh my ass off.”…

Coming as she does from the front lines of the culture wars, where she fought abortion, homosexuality — and of course, wanking — O’Donnell doesn’t seem like Armey’s kind of candidate, tea party or not.  What Armey and FreedomWorks do about O’Donnell — now that she’s won the primary and become a tea party star — will be a telling indicator of whether the tea party and the religious right are entering a marriage of convenience.

:: ::

Randy Jones, inxart.com, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

Tea Party Elephant by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

One of the very best editorial cartoonists ever, Paul Conrad, passed away recently.  Cartoonist Daryl Cagle paid his tributes to this brilliant man who was the chief editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times from 1964 to 1993 and had been syndicated to hundreds of newspapers worldwide

Renowned Editorial Cartoonist, Paul Conrad dies at 86

Readers of our site will remember Paul Conrad, who appeared here for much of the past ten years.  He was a three time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist who drew for the Los Angeles Times for almost thirty years before he left the paper in a round of cost cutting, seemingly never to be printed in the LA Times again. Conservative cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, who was again cut and seemingly never reprinted in the Times, replaced Conrad.

Known for his stark, hard-hitting liberal cartoons, Conrad was often the center of controversy.  He was a colorful curmudgeon who took pride in being listed on President Nixon’s “enemies list.”  The Vietnam War and Watergate were artistic high points in Conrad’s long career.  He is one of the all-time greats of our profession and he will be missed.

Here’s an excellent column by Bill Boyarsky, a colleague of Conrad at the LA Times, about Conrad’s glory days and how the Times turned on Conrad and pushed him away.

Here’s a tribute cartoon from our own Bill Schorr, who worked opposite Paul Conrad for many years at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

See reader comments on Cagle’s blog

:: ::

Note: There are several more editorial cartoons by and about Paul Conrad towards the end of this diary.

There are about about 100 editorial cartoons in this diary.  I’ll try to post another 20-30 in the comments section on several other issues in the news.  Hope you enjoy this week’s offering.  

:: ::

1. Cartoons of the Week

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

Republican’t by Steve Greenberg, VCReporter (Ventura, CA), Buy this cartoon

Steve Kelley, Comics.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Burned by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

End Of Combat Operations by Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant, Buy this cartoon

Speaking of divine, It’s divine that President Obama cleaned up the mess W made in Iraq.  It’s unfortunate that he had to do it in the first place, but the completely inept Bush Administration botched the operation from it’s fraudulent start to it’s unfinished finish.  Obama will have to do the same with the economy, but that’s going to take more time to fix than the two wars, I bet.

The tragedy of the whole thing is if W absolutely insisted on invading Iraq because he wanted to defeat Saddam Hussein (“he tried to kill mah daddy”) the least he could’ve done is have some smart people run the war, as his daddy did in Operation Desert Storm.  Unfortunately, W’s people were as dumb as he is and we probably have twice the deaths and injuries among our fighting men and women we would have had if the war had been waged correctly.

Ah, it’s good to be bashing Republicans again.

— Englehart assigning blame for the unnecessary Iraq War where it belongs: with the inept, incompetent, and disaster of a regime that was the Bush Administration

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

Tax Cuts for Rich by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Stuart Carlson, Washington Post/Universal Press Syndicate and Tony Auth, Washington Post/Philadelphia Inquirer

(click links to enlarge cartoons)

Buying An Election by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri, Buy this cartoon

Jeff Stahler, Comics.com (Columbus Dispatch)

Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Buy this cartoon

Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)

The Collaborator by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon

Victorious Tea Party by Patrick Chappatte, International Herald Tribune, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

2. As the GOP Turns: You Reap What You Sow

Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see this excellent reader comment in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

:: ::

Lowe points out that were it not for the economic problems the country is facing, the Democratic Party would be doing a hell of a lot better in polls.  The alternative, he implies, is worse and their previous record in office proves it.  Also see this blog post about the death of compassionate conservatism — an oxymoronic term if ever there was one

None of this would be happening if we weren’t feeling economically insecure.  When people are fat and happy, they don’t care much about politics.  Why fix something if it ain’t broke?  As long as you are free to splurge on flat-screen TVs, iPads, SUVs and vacation getaways, then finance your sprees by taking out another mortgage on your house, you don’t sit around whining about having your constitutional liberties taken away.

If those halcyon days were still with us, Sarah Palin would be just a better-than-average-looking footnote in history, Glenn Beck would be calling high-school football games for a small-town radio station, and Barack Obama would be sailing toward reelection in 2012.

Our current national unrest is evocative of that experienced in the 1920s during the runaway inflation in Germany, when families brought their life savings to the market in a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of bread.  In those days, the anger and frustration reached such a boiling point that every political party had its own paramilitary wing composed of thugs who went out to crack heads in the streets. It was only a matter of time before the frantic and demoralized populace tired of their weak central government’s lack of ability to maintain civil order and provide them with a basic living. They ultimately turned to someone who promised deliverance.

The irony, of course, is that in so doing they sacrificed every personal liberty they ever had.  In other words, it’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs… a much more far-reaching sense than merely determining which party might win a by-election in November.

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, Buy this cartoon

Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State (SC)

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Muslim Obama by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Hat tip: Growing Growing Gone

Christine O’Donnell Donor Form by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

3. Beck University Ain’t Exactly Harvard College!

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Speak by Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

:: ::

Editorial cartoonists too have a dream.  People like Lowe dream about the day when Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, and, yes, even Michele Bachmann can run for and get elected President of the United States.  If in the unlikely scenario that ever happens, what you’ll see is a quadrupling of efforts made by all cartoonists to draw their favorite people.

Will it happen?  Lowe acknowledges, sadly, it is only a dream

There has been some delirious chatter in the wake of Glenn Beck’s March to Reclaim America’s Honor about a “dream” ticket involving him and the nation’s favorite Mama Bear.  Professionally speaking, I’m all for it. I don’t care who’s at the top of the ticket. What a gift such a candidacy would be for any cartoonist…

Let’s hallucinate for a moment and imagine that a Palin/Beck or Beck/Palin combo actually won in the 2010 election.  I can visualize a scuffle on the inaugural dais while they try to rip the Bible out of each other’s hands to be sworn in as the chief, each citing constitutional chapter and verse in support of his or her own position…

Finally, let’s not forget other sizeable egos waiting in the wings.  Newt “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” Gingrich is prepared to assume the office he has always felt was due a man of his gargantuan intellect, and then there’s one who makes Glenn Beck look like a finely-tuned scientific balance scale by comparison.

Michele Bachmann for President. Talk about “I have a dream.”

… that’s mine.

by Clay Jones, Freelance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), Buy this cartoon

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Jim Morin, McLatchy Cartoons/Miami Herald

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Beck Has a Dream by Shlomo Cohen, Freelance Cartoonist (Israel), Buy this cartoon

Lee Judge, McLatchy Cartoons/Kansas City Star

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

The Theologian by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

4. Koran Burning: An Idea Born Out of Hateful Conservative Talk

9/11 Attack by Ed Stein, Comics.com (formerly of the Rocky Mountain News), see reader comments on Stein’s blog

:: ::

Stein cannot comprehend why an unknown preacher in Florida would have even considered such an act.  If this action (which thankfully was canceled) had proceeded as planned, it would have created problems far beyond the borders of this country

This is so wrong on so many levels it leaves me almost speechless.  It is, to put it bluntly, an act of evil.  The deliberate destruction of the sacred text of one of the world’s largest religions creates greater divisions in this country and around the world, and further jeopardizes our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are fighting not against Islam, but against Muslim extremists who have used a warped, fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran to justify their murderous acts.  The planned burning will do nothing but inflame them further, and deliver a handy recruiting tool to the Taliban and al Qaeda.  This reckless and foolish tantrum endangers us all.

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Quran Qartoon by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, mBuy this cartoon

Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC)

Religious Intolerance by Cam Cardow, Ottawa Citizen, Buy this cartoon

Stuart Carlson, Washington Post/Universal Press Syndicate

Jones Burns Quran by Patrick Corrigan, Toronto Star, Buy this cartoon

Terry Jones by Taylor Jones, El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), Buy this cartoon

:: ::

5. NYC Islamic Center/Mosque: Just Build it

Mosque May be Moved by Aislin, Montreal Gazette, Buy this cartoon

Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com (Philadelphia Daily News)

Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)

Jeff Danziger, Yahoo Comics/New York Times Syndicate

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Vista by Matt Davies, Comics.com, see reader comments in the New York Journal News

Lee Judge, McLatchy Cartoons/Kansas City Star

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Ground Zero Mosque by Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

6. The Aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

Mike Thompson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Detroit Free Press

:: ::

Thompson goes after his very favorite political targets: brain-dead economic conservatives whose capacity to think rationally is severely limited

Another Gulf Oil Rig Explosion

I’m chalking it up to one of those strange coincidences in life.  I do an enormous amount of reading for my job, and yesterday I found myself reading another column slamming alternative fuel vehicles on national news website.  A $7,500 tax credit (gasp!)… other government-funded boondoggle (gasp!)… u know, the usual criticisms.  Less than five minutes later, I found myself on my paper’s homepage clicking on breaking news alert about another oil platform exploding in the Gulf of Mexico.  Thankfully, this time we were spared another massive oil slick.

Funny how critics of alternative fuel vehicles never talk about the massive subsidies that fuel (pun intended) our addiction to gasoline-powered vehicles.  Such as the cost of keeping carrier battle groups steaming in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean to protecting the oil shipping lanes and guard oil reserves in the Middle East, the cost of the long and bloody wars we fight for oil, the cost of our alliances with despotic oil-producing regimes, the cost of keeping tens of thousands of troops deployed near oil fields around the globe, the national security costs associated with the fight against terror groups that have sprung up as a result of our meddling in the oil-rich Middle East, the cost of massive tax breaks given to oil companies, the human and economic cost of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels that have led to stronger hurricanes and massive flooding, the cost of cleaning up oil spills, and the cost of lost jobs, ruined businesses, devastated ecosystems and shattered dreams in the wake recent oil spills.

My guess is that if you were somehow able to factor in the cost of all these subsidies over the life of a gasoline-powered vehicle, they would make a $7,500 tax credit look like a pretty wise investment of tax dollars.

R.J. Matson, Roll Call, Buy this cartoon

Gulf Deja vu by J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register, Buy this cartoon

New BP Logo by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

BP Blame by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

BP Blame Spill by J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register, Buy this cartoon

There’s another BP spill.  This time it’s not oil.  It’s blame.  BP’s first report on what it believes went wrong with the oil rig explosion that caused this country’s worst oil spill disaster is careful not to use the words ‘fault’ or ‘blame’ in the same sentence as its company name.  And it has more finger-pointing than a bad Jerry Springer Show (sorry for the redundancy.)

Halliburton and Transocean are among the top recipients of BP’s finger. And, you know what?  Most likely, there’s lots of blame to go around.  When something goes as dramatically wrong as the Deepwater Horizon, it usually takes a perfect storm of mistakes to make it happen.

— Crowe wasn’t expecting any deep self-reflection from BP or to accept any blame for the environmental damage it caused.  Par for the course for big corporations.

:: ::

7. Out of Iraq and Into Afghanistan

Matt Bors, Comics.com, see reader comments on the Bors Blog

Afghanistan Update: Street Poll

The Muslims I met in Tajikastan, Afghanistan and Iran knew about the controversy over the (so called) Ground Zero Mosque and Obama’s religion and birthplace.  It’s embarrassing as a traveler to have to admit to these people that half of my countrymen simply despise them.

— Bors writing about his experience during a recent trip he took with other cartoonists to war-torn Afghanistan.  More on this in my next diary

Bye Bye Baghdad by Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps (Switzerland), Buy this cartoon

Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Rocky Road by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Not at War with Islam by Stephane Peray, The Nation (Bangkok, Thailand), Buy this cartoon

:: ::

8. The Economy: Do the Republicans Have a Better Plan for it?

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Conservatives don’t seem to have any plan whatsoever for the economy except keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich while they whine about deficits.

— Bors stating what the entire country has now known for years: Republicans are all talk and no meaningful action

End of Recession by Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon

Republican Jackhammer by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

Chris Britt, Comics.com (State Journal-Register, Springfield, IL)

Employment Worries by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

:: ::

9. Sports Talk

Gary Markstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

If you are not familiar with the story depicted in the above cartoon, please refer to this in Yahoo! Sports.  It was widely discussed and dissected all over sports television channels and radio talk shows over the past couple of weeks.

Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)

Reggie Bush Heisman Trophy John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Clemens and Tall Tales by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Football Season by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

10. RIP Paul Conrad, 1924-2010

Paul Conrad by Bob Englehart, see reader comments in the Hartford Courant, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

If you missed it, please read this recent diary by Leo Zooson — Great Editorial Cartoonist Paul Conrad Dead At 86.  You’ll learn more about this wonderful man and his innovative work.  I mentioned in that diary that I’d try to find some of his original cartoons and tributes to him by his colleagues since his death.

Englehart remembered Conrad on his blog

Paul Conrad, one the greatest editorial cartoonists to have ever sent an angry politician to the phone to yell at a publisher has died of natural causes.  He was 86 years old.  I found out about it Tuesday but had already drawn my cartoon for the next day’s publication.  Conrad was a major influence on me, not so much how he drew, but how he kicked ass.  His ideas were right on, sometimes brutal.  His liberal cartoons were not compatible with the very conservative Los Angeles Times editorial page, so they published his work on the Op-ed page.

I spent an afternoon with Conrad at his house in Rancho Palos Verde, California once.  A group of us cartoonists went to dinner with Conrad and his wife Kay at a Los Angeles restaurant.  It was the first time I’d ever been to LA and the first time I had sushi and sashimi, which was new to America.  Most of us were in town for a cartoonist’s convention. He invited me to come over to his house the next day…

I don’t remember exactly what was said that afternoon.  I was in awe and self conscious about being in the presence of one of the giants of the craft and part of it was, I’m sure, because he was so tall, well over six feet.  I met him again in New Orleans at another cartoonist’s convention where he talked of his pride in being on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.

Read the complete tribute

Paul Conrad, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Paul Conrad, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Paul Conrad by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

Matt Wuerker, Politico

(click link to enlarge cartoon

in Wuerker’s September archives)

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

:: ::

11. Final Thoughts

Jen Sorensen, Slowpoke, Buy this cartoon

You ever wonder what the real arguments are for extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich? Well, wonder no more.  These are as persuasive a set of reasons that I’ve ever seen anyone make on behalf of the GOP.

Don’t let the rich starve, Mr. President!

:: ::

A Note About the Diary Poll

Stein points out that money has always had a major influence on domestic politics but a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision had made it even easier for rich wingnuts to influence elections.

As our Community Director Meteor Blades has asked us of late, what are you doing to prevent such an outcome in November?

You Don’t Need to Know

Thanks to a combination of the Supreme Court’s overreach in the Citizen’s United case, which opened the floodgates to corporate campaign cash, and the GOP’s successful blockage of the DISCLOSE Act, this election features an unprecedented tide of secret money attempting to sway voters.  This unholy combination is a blow to the democratic process, allowing wealthy individuals and corporations with their own agendas to influence the political process, with no transparency or accountability.

We’ve already seen how the Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch have surreptitiously funded the Tea Party, and how the same Koch family is attempting to derail environmental regulation in California.  We only know because enterprising journalists have doggedly followed the money trail, not because those running for election have willingly revealed their sponsors.  How many more ad campaigns are secretly underwritten by folks with narrow business or personal economic interests in the outcome?  We don’t know, and we won’t if Republicans are successful tomorrow in blocking the next vote to require politicians to disclose the sources of their funding.

Remember to take the diary poll.

:: ::

Complaint Department: in a tip of the hat to Haole in Hawaii, I introduce you to “Que” Guevara, Chief Inspector of Complaints.  Que has led an interesting life, including this memorable role on BBC Television.  He is multilingual, empathetic, and will respond promptly to you, even though he is from Barcelona.  Que is the long-lost first cousin of Cuban revolutionary, the late Che Guevara.

Que Guevara, Chief Inspector of Complaints (left) and Che Guevara, famous Cuban revolutionary leader

:: ::

:: ::

 Loading ...

Fear Factor enthusiasm

I must admit I share Gregg Levine’s frustration–

In 1976, the Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, WI, was the number two beer maker in the United States, its roughly $600 million in sales almost equal to that of industry leader Anheuser-Busch. But trouble loomed. The growing popularity of name-brand light beers, increased availability of niche and foreign brews, and a change in Schlitz’s brewing process, done to make its namesake beer cheaper to mass-produce, all were taking a toll on the market share of “the most carefully brewed beer in the world.”

So, in the Summer of 1977, an new CEO at Schlitz abandoned their heretofore successful “Go for the Gusto” slogan, and turned to the ad men of Leo Burnett to craft a message that would help increase the brewer’s short-term profits (the time between investment and payback was apparently too long for new management). What the boys from Burnett produced was a campaign that will live in infamy:

At the screening of the new commercials, the Burnett people watched as the boxer told a disembodied voice that he was going to knock him “…down for the count” for even suggesting a switch from the Schlitz label. The outdoorsman in one of the following commercials told his pet mountain lion to calm down after his choice of Schlitz beer was also challenged and snarled back to the animal, “Just a minute, babe. I’ll handle this.” . . . . The reactions to the commercials once they went public were almost immediate; people hated them. Burnett officials were appalled at the reaction. . . . . Ten weeks after the commercials first began to air, Schlitz management ordered them pulled. Soon after, the Leo Burnett ad agency was fired by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The short-lived run of commercials would go down in advertising history as “The Drink Schlitz or I’ll Kill You” ad campaign.

…

In 1976, there were fresh choices for beer drinkers, and Schlitz’s reaction was to abandon their core identity as well as their winning formula. They chose to eschew long-term investment for short-term profit, and when threatened by fast-weakening consumer enthusiasm, they decided to threaten their consumers right back. Threatening consumers did not work for Schlitz, and that was in a category where people pretty much understand the immediate benefits of their choices.

For Democratic leaders, threatening unenthusiastic voters with vague pictures of doom and gloom, when much of what the voters see right now is already pretty gloomy, is not going to “wake up” very many of the rank and file. Promising little else in terms of benefits if Democrats stay in power-little beyond “there’s more to do”-does not provide enough positive motivation to engender enthusiasm.

You see, I can’t find the lyrics to that song either.

“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.

Gail Collins: Don’t Ask, Don’t Debate

The legislative process is almost never uplifting. But if you watch the United States Senate in action these days, you come away convinced that the nation has jumped the shark.

On Tuesday, the Senate failed to override a Republican filibuster of a defense authorization bill. This is a new record for dysfunction. Until now, even when politics was at its worst, Congress did manage to vote to pay the Army.

The bill did contain a lot of controversial pieces. It eliminated the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule for gays serving openly in the military. And the majority leader, Harry Reid, tacked on a provision that would allow undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children to win a path to citizenship if they serve in the military or go to college.

So the debate was about … parliamentary procedure.

Nicholas D. Kristof: Boast, Build and Sell

World leaders have flown in first class to the United Nations this week to discuss global poverty over cocktails at the Waldorf Astoria.

The U.N. set eight landmark antipoverty objectives in 2000, so this year’s General Assembly is reviewing how we’re doing after a decade. We’re off-track on most of these Millennium Development Goals, so let me offer three suggestions for how the humanitarian world might do better in framing the fight against poverty:

First, boast more.

Humanitarians have tended to guilt-trip people and governments into generosity by peddling emaciated children with flies on their eyes. But relentless negativity leaves the inaccurate impression that Africa is an abyss of failure and hopelessness. And who wants to invest in a failure?

In fact, here’s the record: antipoverty work saves around 32,000 children’s lives each day. That’s my calculation based on the number of children who died in 1960 (about 20 million) and the number dying now (about 8 million a year).

Twelve million lives saved annually – roughly one every three seconds – is a reminder that global poverty needn’t be a depressing topic but can be a hopeful one. Ancient scourges like Guinea worm, river blindness and polio are on their way out. Modern contraception is more common than a generation ago. The average Indian woman has 2.6 children now, compared with 5.5 in 1970.

Joan Walsh: Privatize Social Security? Hell no!

Cocky Republicans are beginning to spell out their real agenda, and that’s great news for Democrats

I’m excited now that Republicans are starting to reveal their agenda for the midterm elections in November. I enjoy the whole Club for Growth push: “Privatize Social Security? Hell, yeah.” I love it when right-wingers semi-swear, it seems so manly.

Tonight MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out that Wall Street charges five times as much as the federal government does to manage retirement funds. Besides, President Bush went on a road show to push privatization in 2005 and, well, nobody really showed up at his shows. He went away. I remain stunned by the willingness of mainstream Republicans to tamper with Social Security and Medicare,  as the Tea Party gathers strength around just those issues.

But is the Tea Party really gathering strength? A Quinnipiac poll Wednesday found that Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino is only 6 points behind Democrat Andrew Cuomo, but I don’t see that as a harbinger of a Tea Party surge or Democratic weakness. First, the poll may have oversampled Republican voters, and it didn’t include former GOP candidate Rick Lazio, now running on the Conservative Party line, who could take votes from Paladino if he continues to run. I’m also sure Paladino got a bump from upsetting Lazio; everybody loves an underdog, and nobody was excited about a guy last seen on the national political stage losing decisively to Hillary Clinton 10 years ago. Besides, Paladino’s a great story: Can a guy who’s sent racist and pornographic email really become New York governor? Is this a great country, or what? I’m excited to learn the answer to that, even though I’m pretty sure that it’s “Hell, no!”

Joe Conason Imagining Mideast peace with Bill Clinton

At a “special sesssion” of the Clinton Global Initiative, he and his guests conjure the vision of a brighter future

By now the overarching themes of the Clinton Global Initiative  are familiar, from empowering women and girls to strengthening market-based answers to the problems of climate change, healthcare and poverty. Addressing those issues are hundreds of world leaders, corporate chieftains, nonprofit executives and celebrities (including appearances today by Lance Armstrong, Sanjay Gupta and Jim Carrey), with everyone required to make a formal “commitment” to action. By Thursday evening’s closing ceremony, the CGI staff expects the value of new commitments to exceed $6 billion.

Apart from the ongoing conversations, speeches and announcements, this year’s CGI features a significant subplot: the revived peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. With nearly 70 current and former heads of state on hand, Bill Clinton knows how to use the unique forum he has created to serve a very specific purpose, like promoting a sense of optimism and urgency about the Mideast peace negotiations currently overseen by his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jane Hamsher If Democrats Want to Inspire Voters, They Should Take Their Cues From Candidate Obama

Jonathan Martin has a very interesting article in Politico this morning about Democrats who are freaked out about the liberal interest groups that aren’t showing up for them:    

Twice in the past week, House Democrats used closed-door meetings with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver an urgent message: They’re being crushed on the airwaves by outside groups, and they need her to do something about it.

   In the meetings, according to people present, Democrats cited the nearly unmatched advantage Republicans are enjoying from conservative, third-party organizations. A sympathetic Pelosi vowed to pressure liberal groups to do more — and quickly.

Democrats are reportedly “fuming about the lack of financial support they’re receiving after their members have cast a series of tough votes”:  

These officials are particulary angered by the relative absence of support from the environmental and pro-health care groups that were so aggressive in lobbying House Democrats to support energy and health care reform legislation.

What are they, f&#@ing r#%^*ed? That was all corporate lobbying money laundered through foundations and funneled through front groups. Those people are writing checks to Karl Rove now.

Robert Sheer: So Long, Summers

Finally! The announced departure of Lawrence Summers as the president’s top economic adviser is welcome news. Harvard’s loss in taking back its $586,996-a-year professor and “president emeritus,” who is also paid millions by Wall Street on the side, is the nation’s gain. Maybe now Barack Obama, who hopefully will also push out Summers’ protégé, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, will begin to provide an authentic populist alternative to those tea party Republicans who totally absolve Wall Street of responsibility for the economic collapse. But the early signs are not fully reassuring.

As I stated in my column last week, for the umpteenth time urging Summers’ dismissal, I expected the president to have kind words for a man who deserved none if he were to be fired. But Obama’s effusive praise on Tuesday went well beyond the requirements of professional pink-slip courtesy and suggests that he is still in denial over the role of key Democrats like Summers in getting us into this mess:

“I will always be grateful that at a time of great peril for our country, a man of Larry’s brilliance, experience and judgment was willing to answer the call and lead our economic team.”

Arianna uffington: Dear Angry American, Joining the Tea Party Is NOT Your Only Option

The Tea Party is angry! Really, really angry. So we are told again and again by the media. According to the conventional wisdom, it’s the story of the election, and likely the next one: those opposed to Obama are angry and have coalesced around the Tea Party. But like much conventional wisdom, it’s wrong.

There’s no doubt the Tea Partiers are angry. But what’s missing from this narrative is the fact that everybody is angry.

As I discovered when I spoke at the Teamsters Women’s Conference on Saturday, even people who love the president, and who would not dream of voting for anyone other than a Democrat, are angry.

Velma Hart, the African-American woman who was the first questioner at Monday’s town hall meeting on CNBC, gave powerful expression to this anger. After identifying herself as a chief financial officer, a mother, a wife, and a military veteran, said:

   

I’m one of your middle class Americans. And quite frankly, I’m exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. And deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I have been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting sir, I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet…. My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives, but, quite frankly, it’s starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we’re headed again, and, quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly. Is this my new reality?

It’s a question tens of millions of Americans are asking themselves right now. And when they do, a mixture of dread and anger rises inside them.

The truth of the matter is that things could hardly be worse.  For one thing, corruption is so rampant that U.S. forces have practically given up on enforcement.  This is due structurally to the fact that the regular Afghan economy is dwarfed by U.S. military transfer payments and Opium.  Things are so bad that the central bank has failed because of corrupt real estate speculation in Dubai (among other places and Dubai is not in such great shape itself having recently been bailed out by the UAE).

Of course the Karzai family is heavily implicated in all of this and we’ve just had a Parliamentary election that was if anything even more fraudulent than last year’s disputed Presidential one.  There are credible reports of double and triple voting (seems that Iraqi ink isn’t quite so indelible after all) and thousands of forged ballots were intercepted being smuggled in from Pakistan.

Speaking of Pakistan it’s now clear that a substantial fraction of their Military/Intelligence establishment, perhaps even a majority of it, support the Taliban and are providing them with Safe Havens and logistics support; and that the Pakistani civilian government is either unwilling or unable to prevent this.

Despite the Troop surge our military situation has not improved.  We’re unable to exert control over the countryside except in limited areas for short periods of time and to prevent co-ordinated attacks against our bases by Company and Platoon size units, even the big ones near Kabul.

But only amateurs talk about tactics, Generals talk about logistics.  It is technically impossible to support any more Troops in Afghanistan than we currently have in the field.  Anything that can’t be airlifted in, which includes almost all the Bullets, Beans, and Gasoline, has to go through about half a dozen choke points that are mostly Taliban controlled.  The only way we are able to get through at all is by bribing the Taliban with “security” contracts.

Now this may seem counter intuitive to you.  Why should they allow us to supply our Troops the means to kill them?

Because we’re doing a lousy job at it and they hardly notice the pain.

Not only that, but once inside Afghanistan supplies are distributed over a road system that is naturally impassible during certain seasons and easily sabotaged.  All you have to do is block a culvert and wait for the snow melt to wash out the road, you don’t even have to use explosives.  And there are hundreds of thousands of vulnerable points, too many to constantly guard or even check on a regular basis.

Comparisons with Vietnam are inappropriate.  Afghanistan is much, much worse.

Now despite our lack of progress, any prospect of progress, indeed even a definition of progress, and 9 years of futility, The Man Called Petraeus, our new Westmoreland, is making statements like this–

This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.

“I can see light at the end of the tunnel.”- General William Westmoreland

“I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party.”- President Barack Obama

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 99 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1964, the Paris Opera, Palais Garnier, unveils a stunning new ceiling painted as a gift by Belorussian-born artist Marc Chagall, who spent much of his life in France. The ceiling was typical of Chagall’s masterpieces–childlike in its apparent simplicity yet luminous with color and evocative of the world of dreams and the subconscious. . . .

. . . . Andre Malraux, the French minister of culture, commissioned him to design a new ceiling for the Paris Opera after seeing Chagall’s work in Daphnis et Chloe. Working with a surface of 560 square meters, Chagall divided the ceiling into color zones that he filled with landscapes and figures representing the luminaries of opera and ballet. The ceiling was unveiled on September 23, 1964, during a performance of the same Daphnis et Chloe. As usual, a few detractors condemned Chagall’s work as overly primitive, but this criticism was drowned out in the general acclaim for the work. In 1966, as a gift to the city that had sheltered him during World War II, he painted two vast murals for New York’s Metropolitan Opera House (1966).

In 1977, France honored Chagall with a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. He continued to work vigorously until his death in 1985 at the age of 97.

The unveiling of the ceiling coincided with the publication of “The Phantom of the Opera“ (“Le Fantôme de l’Opéra”) by Gaston Leroux.

It was first published as a serialization in “Le Gaulois” from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910. Initially, the story sold very poorly upon publication in book form and was even out of print several times during the twentieth century, despite the success of its various film and stage adaptations. The most notable of these were the 1925 film depiction and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical. The Phantom of the Opera musical is now the longest running Broadway show in history, and one of the most lucrative entertainment enterprises of all time.

 1122 – Concordat of Worms.

1409 – Battle of Kherlen, the second significant victory over Ming China by the Mongols since 1368.

1459 – Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.

1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion USD, is lost at sea off Land’s End.

1642 – First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.

1779 – American Revolution: a squadron commanded by John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head, off the coast of England, against two British warships.

1780 – American Revolution: British Major John Andre is arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold’s change of sides.

1803 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.

1806 – Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1821 – Tripolitsa, Greece, falls and 30,000 Turks are massacred.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846 – Neptune is discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; the discovery is verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

1857 – The Russian warship Lefort capsized and sank during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.

1868 – Grito de Lares (“Lares Revolt”) occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule

1889 – Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1905 – Norway and Sweden sign the “Karlstad treaty”, peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1908 – University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, is founded.

1909 – The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1922 – In Washington D. C., Charles Evans Hughes signs the Hughes-Peynado agreement, that ends the occupation of Dominican Republic by the United States.

1922 – Gdynia Seaport Construction Act is passed by the Polish parliament.

1932 – The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1938 – Mobilization of the Czechoslovak army in response to the Munich Crisis.

1941 – World War II: The first gas chamber experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.

1942 – World War II: First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.

1943 – World War II: The so-called Salò Republic is born.

1952 – Richard Nixon makes his “Checkers speech”.

1959 – Iowa farmer Roswell Garst hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

1959 – The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait.

1962 – The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the completion of the first building, the Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) home of the New York Philharmonic.

1969 – The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.

1972 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announces over television and radio the implementation of martial law.

1973 – Juan Peron returns to power in Argentina.

1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.

1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.

1986 – Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1988 – Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first member of the 40-40 club.

1992 – A large Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb destroys the forensic laboratories in Belfast.

1999 – NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

1999 – Qantas Flight 1 overruns the runway in Bangkok during a storm. While some passengers only receive minor injuries, it is still the worst crash in Qantas’s history since 1960.

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1”) is released.

2004 – Hurricane Jeanne: At least 1,070 in Haiti are reported killed by floods.

2008 – Kauhajoki school shooting: Matti Saari kills 10 people before committing suicide.

Mexico prepares plan to protect journalists

Violence against reporters surges after crackdown on drug traffickers

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderon announced a plan Wednesday to protect journalists in Mexico, where violence against reporters has surged since the government launched a crackdown on drug traffickers nearly four years ago.

The plan includes an early warning system in which reporters would have immediate access to authorities when threatened, the creation of a council to identify the causes behind attacks on reporters, legal reforms, and a package of “best practices” in journalism, according to a statement from Calderon’s office.

Fossils of new species of horned dinos found in Utah

Scientists have unearthed two new species of giant plant-eating horned dinosaurs in southern Utah, US.

By Katia Moskvitch

Science reporter, BBC News

The creatures lived on the “lost continent” of Laramidia in the Late Cretaceous period, some 68 to 99 million years ago.

Laramidia was formed when a shallow sea flooded part of what is now North America and separated the eastern from the western parts.

The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The newly found dinos lived in the subtropical swampy environment about 100km from the seaway that split the ancient continent in two.

USA

G.O.P. Cites Tax Cuts and Health Care as Main Focus



By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: September 22, 2010

WASHINGTON – House Republicans on Thursday will issue a legislative blueprint called “A Pledge to America” that they hope will catapult them to a majority in the November elections. Its goals include a permanent extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts, repeal of the newly enacted health care law, a cap on discretionary federal spending and an end to government control of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

With control of the House, the Republicans said they would seek to immediately cancel any unspent money from last year’s $787 billion economic stimulus program, to freeze the size of the “nonsecurity” federal work force, and to quickly cut $100 billion in discretionary spending. But the blueprint, with echoes of the 1994 Contract With America, does not specify how the spending reductions would be carried out.

Two of Obama’s closest advisers among those likely to leave in White House shuffle



By Anne E. Kornblut and Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, September 23, 2010; 2:36 AM

In his nearly two years in office, President Obama has relied on a very small clique of advisers that serves as his most trusted sounding board on politics and policy.

Members of his staff describe Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant to widen his inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, the president “doesn’t like new people.”

Europe

Women take control of Swiss government



By Tony Paterson in Berlin  Thursday, 23 September 2010

Women gained a majority in Switzerland’s cabinet for the first time yesterday – less than 40 years after the country became one of the last in Europe to allow them to vote in national elections.

The era of male-dominated politics was ended by Simonetta Sommaruga, a popular Social Democrat, who was elected the fourth woman in the republic’s seven-seat federal council.

Mrs Sommaruga, 50, a financial adviser and consumer protection expert, defeated her nearest rival, Jean-François Rime, of the rightwing and xenophobic Swiss People’s Party (SPP), in the contest for the post after securing a lead of 78 votes in parliament.

France braces for day of strikes over retirement age  

French unions are staging another day of protests and strikes today, aiming to bring more than two million people on to the streets to defy President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.  

Published: 7:00AM BST 23 Sep 2010

Mr Sarkozy, already under attack from the European Union for deporting Roma and from the media over a lingering financial scandal, is facing fierce opposition to his pension reform plans, but says he will press on regardless.

The issue is central to both his reform programme and his personal political survival strategy, with less than two years to go before he seeks re-election.

Between one and three million French workers took to the streets two weeks ago to fight the reforms and now unions are hoping for an even bigger day of demonstrations to keep the right to retire at the age of 60.

Middle East

Israel used ‘incredible violence’ against Gaza aid flotilla, says UN Human Rights Council

Israeli troops broke international law by storming an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, according to a UN inquiry, which found that the killings of activists on-board were comparable to “summary executions”.

By Jon Swaine in New York and Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem

Published: 1:37AM BST 23 Sep 2010

The sharply critical report found there was “clear evidence to support prosecutions” against Israel for “wilful killing” and torture committed in the raid on the flotilla on May 31. Nine activists on a Turkish ship were killed as they attempted to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.

However, Israel brushed aside the findings of the UN Human Rights Council, which it has consistently denounced as biased against the Jewish state.

A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry accused the body of having a “politicised and extremist approach,” adding: “The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after.”

World powers seek talks with Iran

US and other world powers announce diplomatic overture to come to “early negotiated solution” on nuclear issue

Last Modified: 23 Sep 2010

The US and five other world powers have said they are seeking an “early negotiated solution” to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and her counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany announced the new diplomatic overture to Iran on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

Iran has indicated a new willingness to engage the international community over its nuclear programme. But so far it has failed to meet the terms for talks, and its defiance triggered new UN Security Council sanctions in June.

“We agreed to sanctions in June … Now is the time for Iran to engage in real negotiation, in actual constructive dialogue, about its whole nuclear programme,” William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said.

Asia

 New Zealand adds to India’s Commonwealth Games woes

Pressure is growing on India to deal with urgent concerns over security and poor facilities ahead of its hosting of the Commonwealth Games next month.

The BBC 23 September 2010  

New Zealand is the latest country, after Canada and Scotland, to delay the arrival of its athletes in Delhi for the event which begins on 3 October.

Canadian officials said India had been “indifferent bordering on intransigent” in tackling the issues.

Games chief Michael Fennell is due in Delhi for emergency talks.

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

Q&A: India’s Commonwealth Games crisis

British teams raise Delhi doubts

England to stick with Games plans

India insists the Games will be one of the most successful.

Several participating countries have delegates in the capital urgently checking the facilities and the arrangements for security.

Afghanistan election investigators face threats, bribes

Corruption pressures test the integrity of rag-tag provincial committees as they sift through Afghanistan election complaints.

By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer / September 22, 2010

Pana Khail, Afghanistan

Seated around a room are an investigator, a legal scholar, and three judges. Their mission: Decide how to handle election complaints in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, and therefore help determine the outcome of the Afghanistan-wide parliamentary elections that took place over the weekend.

So far, the group has disqualified three candidates, some backed by powerful people, because the candidates lied about resigning from their government jobs. Now they are digging into investigating fraud attempts during Saturday’s parliamentary elections, including accusations of police interference in the vote and poll workers lobbying for candidates.

Africa

Exiled journalist’s return to Zimbabwe

The crew were told to prepare for landing. My heart was pounding. How would I be received in the country I fled in a blaze of death threats nine years ago?

By Basildon Peta Thursday, 23 September 2010

Even dead, they would get me, the man from Mugabe’s spy agency, the CIO, had warned. My corpse would be shred into “mince meat” even if I returned to Zimbabwe in a coffin for burial, he told me when our paths crossed in Johannesburg.

I had been branded a “sell out”, and an enemy of the state for my reports in the foreign media on how the ruling party and its supporters waged their land war against white farmers and then tortured and murdered hundreds of black opposition supporters.

An Al Qaeda affiliate getting rich in Niger

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb says it kidnapped five Frenchmen and two Africans from a Niger uranium mine. The group appears to be cultivating revenue streams.

By Drew Hinshaw, Correspondent / September 22, 2010

Dakar, Senegal

The Saharan chapter of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility Tuesday for the abduction of five Frenchmen and two of their African colleagues working at a Uranium mine in remote Niger.

Analysts say the announcement likely means the hostages have been transferred from local mercenaries to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a flourishing militant group that evolved from an earlier movement in Algeria. Analysts expect a ransom demand will be made.

The kidnappings are just the latest crime associated with Al Qaeda affiliates in the region. In July, a French aid worker seized by AQIM in Niger was murdered during a French rescue attempt. The rescue attempt was set up with feigned ransom negotiations.

Latin America

Juarez editorial ignites a beleaguered Mexico

 

KATHERINE CORCORAN AP foreign, Thursday September 23 2010

A newspaper’s stunning, front-page editorial of seeming surrender to drug capos has set off a national debate from the presidential palace to Mexico’s equivalent of the water cooler – its ubiquitous town squares.

“What do you want from us?” El Diario de Juarez asked the cartels whose war for control of the border city across from El Paso, Texas, has killed nearly 5,000 people – including two El Diario journalists – in less than two years. “You are currently the de facto authorities in this city … Tell us what you expect from us as a newspaper?”

Ignoring Asia A Blog