"Central Issue of Our Time" - McSame

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 11:41 AM PDT

2008/09/28 · 11:41

We seem to come full circle again. Senator Obama still doesn’t quite understand — or doesn’t get it — that if we fail in Iraq, it encourages Al Qaida. They would establish a base in Iraq.

...

That is the central issue of our time. And I think Americans will judge very seriously as to whether that’s the right path or the wrong path and who should be the next president of the United States.

Reading the post-debate analysis, I have been amazed that this closing point by McCain has not been more analyzed. As Obama correctly pointed out this narrow view through the prism of Iraq denies the amazing other set of crises that we face. In addition this more than any other issue represents how McCain is simply more of the same. This was a foreign policy debate and if McCain’s Foreign Policy remains that Iraq is the "Central Front of the War on Terror", than everything else that he says is meaningless.

benb

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Thursday March 20, 2008 · 6:22 PM PDT

2008/03/20 · 18:22

As I sit here watching March Madness, I see the future of politics. Do I see politics as a game? Perhaps, but that is not the future, that is the nature of politics. No, the key is that I am not watching on television. I am watching on my computer. I have watched the debates online before. But what is remarkable is that I can watch any game at anytime. This was available last year, but it worked sporadically, this year it will be my standard way to watch.

But instead of watching Kansas St. and USC (good game by the way), I imagine that I am watching a Senate debate. Instead of watching Duke and Belmont (is Duke going to lose), I imagine that I am watching a cabinet debate (man am I junkie). The MSM has not even begun to deal with blogs, imagine when every debate, every second of the government is open to every citizen. Barack Obama understands the change that this will make on politics.

benb

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Monday February 11, 2008 · 7:33 PM PST

2008/02/11 · 19:33

Paul Krugman has a new hit piece out on Obama at the NY Times. More below the fold ...

benb

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Friday January 18, 2008 · 9:27 AM PST

2008/01/18 · 09:27

Too often when discussions are held on DailyKos someone will refer to an argument as a right-wing talking point or a political view as coming from the right. Since often when we are talking about the "right wing", we are basically discussing an established group of people rather than an ideology it is easy to be dismissive of everything "they" say. It gets very confusing as what is considered to the right and what is considered to the left. I fear that we are dismissive of ideas that may have merit, even if those who are articulating them may have nefarious motives.

My view is that arguments from the right are those that provide freedom through individual rights with the far-right basically being a state of nature where anyone is allowed to do anything without any government intervention and ideas from the left being those that impose rules on interaction to support the common good (with far-left being a paternalistic state). Given that individuals can reduce each others rights without rules, these rules can often enhance freedom between individuals even if there is some reduction in freedom because of the rules (a simple example of this is the financial markets where the rules allow system to work and therefore give everyone the freedom to trade).

benb

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Thursday December 20, 2007 · 9:03 AM PST

2007/12/20 · 09:03

A few days ago Artios posted the following description of the candidates:

Obama: The system sucks, but I'm so awesome that it'll melt away before me.

Edwards: The system sucks, and we're gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it.

Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.

Similiarly, Krugman has slowly been hammering at Obama with multiple articles against him and then this interview and article which explicitly calls him an "anti-change candidate":

Which brings me to a big worry about Mr. Obama: in an important sense, he has in effect become the anti-change candidate.

Krugman and Atrios (and for that matter Jerome Armstrong) seem to be intentionally misunderstanding what Barack stands for ... (more)

benb

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Monday September 10, 2007 · 9:26 PM PDT

2007/09/10 · 21:26

He has no ability to look past the next year in Iraq. I am frustrated listening to the debate of whether the surge has worked or not. It reminds me of the debate over WMD's. We have allowed the question in the debate to be framed by the Administration. Who cares what Petraeus says. He has not said that the troops will be out of Iraq in the next year. What happens by focusing on his testimony and the report is that the question of "should we stay in Iraq" is tied to the question of "has the surged worked", even when these are independent questions. This is the same mistake we made with WMD's when the question of "does Saddam have WMD's" got tied to "should we go to war".

Update:

Ok, I edited the title. And the poll is supposed to read, "Hypothetically, if the surge had been a success, should we leave Iraq?"

Poll

30 votes Show Results

Hypothetically, if the surge has been a

30 votes Vote Now!

Hypothetically, if the surge has been a

Yes

15 votes

My letter to Senator Durbin

benb

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Saturday September 01, 2007 · 11:16 AM PDT

2007/09/01 · 11:16

Dear Senator Durbin,

As a resident of Illinois, I was disappointed recently to see your remarks concerning the extra 50 billion dollars that the Administration is looking to include in its supplemental this September.

"Though he said he is likely to approve the increased request -- it would accompany a pending request for an additional $147 billion in war funding -- Durbin said he would work to attach conditions to it that would require troops to begin coming home in the spring." - Chicago Tribune

During that period, I have voted for Democrats. I have volunteered for the party and contributed to our candidates. And yet I find it difficult to reconcile the quotes below with your recent comments. It is time to leave Iraq. It is time to stop funding this war. The President has the funding he needs to bring the troops home.

I have received numerous emails asking for support from you. Here are some quotes from those emails: ...

benb

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Friday August 24, 2007 · 12:41 PM PDT

2007/08/24 · 12:41

And the Iraqi government is allied with Iran. The statement calling the Iranian Army terrorists opened our eyes to the fact that we are not "going" to war with Iran, but already are in a war with Iran. The war in Iraq is a proxy war with Iran.

Military from Iraq, say openly, "the real problem is Iran". Does this suggest that perhaps the Administration is right, that we should bomb Iran? No. Our proxy war in no way benefits America and we enter a war with Iran with no exit strategy, an incredibly weakened army and dependent on an Iranian ally, the Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki. The August 19th edition of the Chicago Tribune Alireza Jafarzadeh writes, in this article

On the surface, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Tehran on Aug. 8 to talk with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was another effort to enlist Iran's help in bringing security to Iraq. The real purpose, however, was quite different. Al-Maliki's trip helped smooth the way for the Iranian clerics to install a sister Islamic republic in Iraq.

benb

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Wednesday July 18, 2007 · 8:05 AM PDT

2007/07/18 · 08:05

In today's Chicago Tribune there is an article about the difficult logistical challenge that leaving Iraq will be. I think this is an important article. While I understand that the Tribune is doing this article, to support the administration's position that leaving Iraq will be fraught with danger, I believe there is more than a grain of truth when they say:

When it comes, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and the dismantling of the vast American presence here promises to be as risky and unpredictable as the past four years of war.

Poll

80 votes Show Results

How should we withdraw from Iraq?

80 votes Vote Now!

How should we withdraw from Iraq?

Force this administration to withdraw

24 votes

Impeach and then let a Pelosi administration withdraw

43 votes

Pass legislation to protect the troops as much as possible and withdraw with the next administration

13 votes

Life is not fair, God damn it

benb

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Friday June 29, 2007 · 3:09 PM PDT

2007/06/29 · 15:09

My parents have always said I have an over-developed sense of justice. My mother would often knock down this notion with the statement, "Life is not fair". And yet, deep down in my bones I want it to be. To me, the statement "all men are created equal", is a basic conception of fairness. And this is my basic issue with the conservative mentality. In Slate's "A Supreme Court Conversation – 10" Dahlia Lithwick searches for this concept in describing the Supreme Court

But is there a name for this thing we liberals want to see more of on the court? Something that isn't merely the opposite of "mean"?

More below the fold ...

benb

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Tuesday January 23, 2007 · 6:06 PM PST

2007/01/23 · 18:06

INTERACTIVE EXERCISE - Developing a competency model

As we watch the SOTU tonight, we know we are watching a bad president (ok, understatement). But how do we define a good president? Is it simply a matter of them agreeing with us on the issues? Or is there more to it?

In HR terms the way to evaluate a position is develop a competency model. A competency is generally defined as the knowledge (e.g. economics, skills (e.g. good speaker), and dispositions (e.g. empathetic) to do a particular position. Since competency models are heirarchial and so are blogs, I thought we could work together to create a competency model for a president. Below I have started the competency model with the hierarchy of the competency, and indicator (a way to determine if someone has the competency). If you think the competency is important for a president, recommend it. If you have other competencies that you want to add, make a comment as your competency. Later we can evaluate the candidates against the model.

Is Obama Black Enough? Or too Black?

benb

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Sunday January 21, 2007 · 1:11 PM PST

2007/01/21 · 13:11

As I have read the reaction to Obama’s presidential aspirations the one I have found most striking is the reaction to his race. From what I have seen this falls into two categories "Is he black enough?" and "Is America ready to vote for a black President?". While questions of health care and security will be central to the campaign, these questions resonate in the soul of the American story. It strikes at the deepest questions about our individual selves and our communal identity. The question of race in America is the first question of America, how could the country that’s first utterance is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" have slavery until 1865 and segregation till 1964?

And yet, till I saw these questions in print I had not reflected on their true meaning. The conflict inherent in voting for a black President who may not be black enough, I think means that it will be possible for Barack to be President and for him to be so in an inspirational manner (in spite of ourselves). If the road to hell is often paved with good intentions, I think this may be a case where the road to heaven is paved with misguided intentions.

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"Central Issue of Our Time" - McSame

March Madness and Barack Obama

Paul Krugman's loss of credibility

Right wing talking points

The system sucks, we can change it

Petraeus is right

My letter to Senator Durbin

We are at war with Iran

We cannot withdraw from Iraq [Poll]

Life is not fair, God damn it

INTERACTIVE EXERCISE - Defining a good president

Is Obama Black Enough? Or too Black?