March, 2009 archive

Richard Blair at ASZ helps me count the ways.

There’s really nothing to add to what he said.

Via Skippy.

Noz:

pointing out that obama’s public pronouncements are better when he uses a teleprompter is like noting that a professional runner does better when he wears running shoes. it’s such an unremarkable observation it borders on ridiculous.

but what really seems to be going on here is that the right is trying to spread the idea that obama isn’t such a great communicator when he isn’t reading off a script. except that to most people that’s simply not true. . . .

(snip)

‘t get me wrong, i’m not saying that rightwingers are lying when they keep returning to this bad speaker idea. i just think that they can’t distinguish their own bullshit from other people’s reality anymore. no matter what obama actually does, they will see what they want to see. if you hate obama and keep telling yourself he’s a bad speaker without a teleprompter, every time you see him without one you will be able to convince yourself that he’s speaking terribly. but the real problem (for them) is not just that they have convinced themselves of their own reality, but also that they can’t seem to conceive that others see things completely differently.

Mad Kane has more.

Andrew Sullivan, here.

Among the things that have driven me away from television news, in addition to the inherent inanity of selecting “reporters” because they have good “anchor hair,” is the relentless emphasis on now, with no thought of yesterday (how we got here) or tomorrow (where we are headed). This perspective has also seeped into political coverage and political partisanship, which cares more for today’s poll results than for tomorrow’s solutions.

One can see it in the daily agonizing over a stuff that makes a Trivial Pursuit question seem like the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Ian Leslie in the Guardian.

If we tear ourselves away from the talkshows and the RSS feeds and look at what the administration has actually been doing in response to the economic crisis, we discover a series of initiatives that are designed to work together and push in one direction. Alongside the banking rescue plan, there’s the stimulus package, a housing plan, credit relief for small businesses and a budget proposal that addresses long-term problems for which solutions are vital to the nation’s future prosperity.

Obama seems to have retained at least some of his ability to keep his eye on the ball even when everyone in the crowd is screaming their lungs out. Not all of his plans will work, and the whole thing may yet end in disaster. It’s impossible to say. We can’t predict the future with any confidence at the moment. But we can – if we try – see beyond the present.

No, not out there in Andromeda.

Right there in Potomac River City. Read the whole thing:

The story behind why the DEA sought out the (three new surveillance planes–ed.) planes, only to become the second federal agency to give them up, illustrates the pitfalls of “black,” or classified, budgeting in which Congress approves tens of billions of dollars for intelligence agencies outside the public’s view.

(snip)

Black earmarks, however, receive almost no scrutiny. Even worse, there’s little accountability when the technology doesn’t work.

The lack of transparency has led to some staggering boondoggles. In 1991, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney canceled the troubled A-12 Avenger II after the secret aircraft program consumed nearly $3 billion of taxpayers’ money.

I have discussed mountaintop removal before. Mountaintop removal kills. It kils streams, towns, forests, and lives.

So this is good news.

The EPA announced on Tuesday that they were putting a hold on dozens of mountantop mining projects until the “projects’ impacts on streams and wetlands can be reviewed.”