Political Theatre category archive

Mitt the Flip hasn’t changed his spots (but you can be certain that, if he could, he would).

Charter schools are the new seg academies.

French comedians mock Fox’s mythical French “No-Go” Zones.

Via C&L.

January 21, 2015 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Theatre | Bookmark this post

Michel Olszak doesn’t think much of Arizona’s recent law to require a “civics” test for high school graduation. He looks at how this law was rushed into being and observes:

Isn’t it good practice to give legislation time for analysis and assessment and to allow all interested parties a reasonable opportunity to weigh in? That’s one big reason for having two chambers in legislatures — to ensure a bill isn’t rushed through only to discover later something was missed.

So the irony is that Arizona students will be required to take a civics test imposed on them by politicians in desperate need of a civics lesson themselves.

But this measure isn’t about education, as you might suspect. It’s about politics and the power to push things through.

An example of good governance would be more valuable than this SNL skit of a legislative performance.

Full Disclosure:

When I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days when Martin Luther King, Jr., was being pilloried as a commie revolutionary subversive determined to destroy “Our Way of Life (TM),” my state required high school graduates to have passed a course on “government.” Passing the course in no way predicted how conscientious a citizen one would become.

Politicians love to talk up the “heroes”* in our military, to pontificate on Veterans Day, to pose on the parade grounds, until it comes time to care for soldiers and sailors and their progeny.

Then, all bets are off.

____________

In politician-speech, all soldiers and sailors are “heroes,” whether or not they have done something heroic. Calling them “heroes” beats giving them decent paychecks, funding the Veterans Administration, or giving a damn about them when they come home.

Jonathan Chait examines the history of Republicans’ frequent boouts with the vapors and finds historical precedent. He uses a New York Times op-ed by Karl Rove operative Peter Wehner as a springboard. Here’s a bit:

This apocalyptic strain has regularly infused conservative rhetoric. Milton Friedman compared John F. Kennedy’s program to fascism. Ronald Reagan warned that, if Medicare passed, the government would inevitably force doctors to live in cities where they did not want to, and future generations would no longer know “what it once was like in America when men were free.” (Conservatives continue to tout that speech today, as if it had proven prescient rather than deranged.)

Wehner proceeds to assert that conservatism “isn’t a rigid ideology, it leaves itself open to self-examination and self-correction. Authentic conservatism has a high regard for things empirical, for facts that can lead us to better apprehend the truth.” This is also pretty much the opposite of actual American conservatism.

In other news, Dick Polman reports on Chris Christie’s State of the (mis)State(ments).

Daniel Ruth handicaps the entrants. Here’s a bit:

As you know, the Republican primary field already is shaping up with all manner of has-beens, never-were’s, retreads, delusional wanna-bes, hucksters, demagogues, windbags, poseurs and tea party lackeys. And that’s just Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Then there’s the rest of the cast of “Mis-Taken.”

You have a pretty good idea the GOP field is more wobbly than a dreidel when Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s answer to Groundhog Day, has announced he is thinking about a comeback, which is a bit like eagerly waiting for Ashton Kutcher’s next film project.

Surveillance did not prevent the Charlie Hedbo attack, so, natch, the governments want more surveillance. China Hand comments:

. . . it’s not surprising that the kneejerk reaction to the Charlie Hebdo murders is not, “Hmmm, it is very difficult to stop small, ad hoc one-off terrorist attacks (now consecrated as the “lone wolf” menace) before they happen, so maybe we should concentrate on reducing the threat by improving relations with the Muslim world”; it’s “More intensive surveillance is needed.”

Trouble is, attacks keep happening, and the only solution they can propose is “We’ll find that needle by piling more hay on the stack.”

Much more at the link.

The Las Vegas Sun website currently has two articles expressing some reservations about the outpouring of support for Charlie Hebdo.

One expresses some reasoned and rational concerns. The other is by David Brooks fancy words in randomly arranged.

Dick Polman considers the rivalry of Mitt the Flip and Jeb “the Oh Please God Not Another” Bush:

Have you ever heard two alley cats fighting, because one strayed onto the other’s turf? Welcome to the Mitt and Jeb contest.

Just read it.

(Link fixed.)

Trevor Timm finds a contradiction. A nugget (emphasis added):

As politicians drape themselves in the flag of free speech and freedom of the press in response to the tragic murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, they’ve also quickly moved to stifle the same rights they claim to love. . . .

This is an entirely predictable response – as civil liberties advocates noted shortly after Wednesday’s tragic attack, the threat of terrorism has led to draconian laws all over the world over the last decade – but this time around, the speed and breadth by which politicians praised free speech out of one side of their mouths, while moving to curtail rights out of the other, has been quite breathtaking.

Trudy Rubin.

My local rag reports on the Navy’s effort to keep the fleet of unreliable, outdated “Sea Dragon” choppers in service because it’s all they got. It details the inertia of bureaucracy, one of the most powerful forces in organizational behavior, whether, mind you, the organization in question is public or private.

The most recent story tells of an officer who died in a crash at sea. Here’s a bit:

Not long after joining his Norfolk-based squadron in 2010, he began to question the decision. Something wasn’t right. Months later, after he took over as the division officer in charge of maintenance, he began to realize the depth of the problems. The aging helicopters weren’t getting the care they needed. Maintenance protocols were being skipped. Replacement parts were scarce, and when they were available, it was usually because they had been plucked from another Sea Dragon. At any given time, only a few of the squadron’s helicopters were ready to fly.

Whenever Wes tried to correct the problems, he felt as if he was bucking a chain of command that had grown accustomed to business as usual. He learned that a 20-something-year-old lieutenant has only so much power. Finally, a little more than a year ago, Wes told Nicole he was ready to get out. Maybe he could fly for the Coast Guard, he suggested.

Read the whole series, and, as you do, remember that the first response of any organization to criticism is to circle the wagons and protect their own. In this way, the Navy is no different from GM is no different from Sony is no different from Honda is no different from–well, you get the idea.

The impulse of any organization is always to protect its members, because, hey! they are our friends and coworkers and we know they didn’t mean anyone any harm, so any harm must have been an accident and stuff happens and we’re all good guys here because we know each other and play golf at the same clubs and are trying to do good jobs and don’t intentions count?

Aside:

My local rag may not be the best local rag and they are hurting like many other local rags (Damn you, Craig’s List), but they try. That’s one reason I pay for delivery; I could read it online, but I pay for print. If I could, I’d pay more papers for print, but I can’t. It’s up to you to support your own local rag.

I will not forget that they were the only newspaper in Virginia to oppose “Massive Resistance.”

Honest to Pete, you can’t make this stuff up.

And, natch, race has nothing to do with it.

Via Job’s Anger.

Werner Herzog’s Bear explains the hustle. A snippet:

Christie is a gregarious chap, the kind the media loves for being good for a quote. It’s in their interest to keep the Christie Show going, so their criticisms will always be muted by the hope that they don’t sink his political career. The thing is, Christie is not a straight shooter, as the press would have you believe, he’s a hustler.

Say what you want about the man, like most hustlers he’s not stupid.