bustardblog

Postal Robbery

After more than thirty years here, I pretty much consider myself a New Yorker. Some months ago I moved into a new building - and am now on the 20th floor of a Manhattan high rise. Before this, I've lived in similar buildings in the city.  Every year at this time, I get a card in my mailbox. It bears no postage, nor any address on it. On its face is a cheerful wintry scene: snow covered trees lining a winding driveway that leads to a charming red house. Most prominent, at the foot of the drive, is a large mailbox, complete with cheerful bird astride it.

Printed on the back:

Season's Greetings
  And The Best of
Wishes for a Joyous
     New Year

  Your Mail Carrier

And then the name of a person, rubber stamped.

Since I am relatively new to the building, I have never seen the person bearing that name. Still, I dutifully put $25.00 into a Cheery Holiday Money envelope, and put it into my mailbox, with his name on its face.

It is of course illegal for me to tip a mailman, just as it is illegal for him to solicit, or accept, one.

(I'd rather leave a tip for memeorandum)

To K-Lo, Bhutto Was Just Another Way to Smear

K-Lo is someone upon whom you can depend. If you're looking for the most illogical, dishonest, smarmy use of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, K-Lo is where you go.

In a piece entitled "Not your Average Harvard Feminist", she, who so yearns for and aspires to 'average' -  fails to come close. She writes, and approvingly quotes:

"... Foster said [that] Bhutto called the common practice of gender selected abortions “tragic” and said it “still haunts a world we regard as modern and civilized.”

There’s also this from Foster, which Hillary Clinton might not like to remember:

"Bhutto challenged delegates attending the conference “…to chart a course that can create a climate where the girl child is as welcomed and valued as a boy child, that the girl child is considered as worthy as a boy child.”'

There is much to criticize about Hillary Clinton, but to suggest that she favors "gender selected abortions" or that she thinks a girl child should be less welcome than a boy child, is simply a lie.

K-Lo goes on to quote Bhutto as condemning the conclusion of an international conference who, according to Bhutto, resolved "'to impose adultery, sex education... and abortion' on all countries."

Yet throughout the primary season, K-Lo's condemnation of the ongoing adultery of Rudi and Judi Giuliani cannot be heard.

P.S. Although I am not a great admirer of William F. Buckley, he did think a bit of intellectual honesty desirable, and that words had meaning - I wonder if he ever reads Jonah Goldberg, K-Lo, Mark Levin et al.  It's as if they are dancing on his grave, without the decency of waiting until he enters it.

(memeorandum)

Rudy's Sickness

Rudy's health was taken care of this week. The guy who claims to be the most open politician  has of course told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, regarding his recent hospital stay. In addition to a lesson in honesty, I am sure that there is much to be learned about Rudy's views on Health Care in America.

On Dec 19, Rudy instructed his plane to do a U-Turn and return to St Louis, MO. He wasn't feeling well. The campaign first said he had "flu like symptoms," which was subsequently downgraded to a big headache.

After being thoroughly checked out Rudi said

"I got checked out up and down, inside and out,” he said, adding, “I think I might have ended up being more tired from the tests afterward than I was from the headache.”

When it comes to a national health care policy, Rudi relies almost exclusively on the free market to control health care costs. He is also a big proponent of people taking care of themselves, and taking responsibility for the choices they make:

If we can empower "Americans to ...go out and make these choices, you're going to have the free market accomplish the thing that only a free market can accomplish -- and that is, lower costs and better health care" -Rudi, in an interview with Sean Hannity, A Leading Fox News Journalist.

He also thinks the consumer has to be realistic:

"Health insurance should become like homeowners insurance or like car insurance: You don't cover everything in your homeowners policy. If you have a slight accident in your house, if you need to refill your oil in your car, you don't cover that with insurance. But that is covered in many of the insurance policies because they're government dominated and they're employer dominated."

Yet when Rudi himself got a headache, one which was brought on by his own activities on the campaign trail, he flew to a hospital. He didn't fly onwards to Tennessee or Kentucky where there are cheaper hospitals; instead he did a u-turn to get to the Barnes Jewish hospital in Saint Louis. At the hospital he got a commuted tomography scan of his brain, as well as magnetic resonance imaging, an ultrasound of the carotid arteries and a spinal fluid evaluation.  These tests are more often associated with a stroke, syphilis, and meningitis and multiple sclerosis than with a headache or flu. You don't cover a slight accident in the house, but you do cover, exorbitantly, a headache?

When he left the hospital and came back to N.Y., Rudi also had a trans esophageal echo cardiogram.

If nothing else, it was a relief to his current wife, Judi, who said:

"I spent most of the night on the telephone with the doctors and the wonderful nurses at Barnes Jewish Hospital and they assured me that Rudy is in very good health."

At what price did those "doctors and wonderful nurses" spend the midnight shift talking with Judi?

If Rudi needed half of the tests which he received, he is lying about the condition of his health.

It was a ridiculous waste of money, but at least Rudi proved that the principles of a free market and an educated consumer are entirely irrelevant when it comes to health care. Rudi has no real rationale for his Presidential run, which is why he is so desperately relying on the myths of 9/11 as Iowa approaches. Health Care is clearly not his issue.

memeorandum

 

An Ever Expanding Israel.

It would be amazing if it did not happen so consistently.

• An attempt (albeit pathetic) is made to advance peace between Israel and Palestine.
• Israel increases its building activity in the occupied territories, thereby undermining the attempt.
• Advocates for Israel try to shift the spotlight from Israel's actual illegal behavior to that of an "evil" Arab state's mythical malfeasance, in this case on to Egypt's supposed inability to control its border with Gaza.

It would be hilarious if the neo-cons were not simultaneously arguing that our own borders cannot be controlled while insisting that the border between Gaza and Egypt is easily maintained. This, despite the fact, that Egypt, recognizing increased activity along the border, has asked for permission to increase the number of it's soldiers patrolling the  border corridor, and Israel refuses to allow them to do so.

The current government of Israel, like so many of its governments before, does not actually want a cessation of hostility.

(memeorandum)

Bartlett, Factually Challenged.

Why do Republicans have to lie? Constantly?

If Bruce Bartlett feels that it is now incorrect to label the GOP racist, then he should try to make that argument. Instead he chooses to rewrite history and distort obvious facts. It's a despicable way to undermine a Democracy.

Memeorandum led me to his asinine pile of dung in the Opinion Journal, in which he quotes Democrats, starting with Thomas Jefferson, who have made racist remarks. He fails to quote Lincoln from his fourth debate with Douglas:

I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause] ... I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people;

No sane Democrat denies that the party was the home for southern racists from the 1860's to the 1960's.  Quoting Calhoun on "Negroes" is not only a waste of time, it is an attempt to further ignorance and justify racism.

Bartlett's work is a toilet overflowing with lies and deceit - too full of crap to fit into the sewer. For exp ample he tries to disprove Paul Krugman's accurate accusation of Republican Racism by writing that

A key piece of evidence for Mr. Krugman is that Ronald Reagan gave his first speech after accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 near Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. In the course of this speech, Reagan said he supported "states' rights

Although Krugman's analysis of the event was completely accurate, Bartlett relies on a Regan biographer and David Brooks to prove otherwise. Except he even misrepresents these thoroughly unreliable sources - both of whom argued that Regan was not personally a racist, not that the Republican party was not using a racist strategy.  Even more importantly, the speech in Mississippi was not a "key piece" of evidence to Krugman's case. This is a blatant lie, and Bartlett counts of the laziness of his reader to not have read the book, in which more than ample evidence of the Republican "Southern Strategy" is presented.

Republican racism has been a fact in recent decades: why don't they change that, instead of trying to rewrite reality.

Romney's Line

So Mitt Romney lied about his father's marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As Silly Sully says, it is a reflection of Mitt's character. It was no mistake. The Romney campaign first  argued that it was true and accurate.  When that failed, it  tried to argue that he was using the tall tale in a figurative manner. If that were the case, it would have been the first explanation, not one proffered after the first one was proved untrue.

Mitt's habitual stretching of the truth is an important aspect of who he is, and is worthy of examination. In fact his father was active in promoting civil rights.  Mitt's own behavior is really where we should be focussed. From an article in the N.Y. Times

While eager to discuss national politics, he hung back from the ferment of the day, recoiling against the student unrest he saw in France and staying on the sidelines when protests broke out over Brigham Young’s all-white sports teams.

He went on to justify his lack of activism:

“I hoped that the time would come when the leaders of the church would receive the inspiration to change the policy,” Mr. Romney said...

But until then, he deferred to church leaders, he said. “The way things are achieved in my church, as I believe in other great faiths, is through inspiration from God and not through protests and letters to the editor.”

While Romney waited for God to speak to the church's leaders, he sent them 10% of his yearly income, and so supported their every action.

His donations directly paid for spreading the gospel of racism.

bbbustard, four years younger than Mitt Romney, was able to march behind Martin Luther King Jr and hear him proclaim his dream in Washington DC. Where was Mitt?

P.S. I refer above to Andrew Sullivan - who so carefully walks that most lucrative line in American Politics- the traitor to his tribe.  No one gets so much for doing so little as a gay conservative, an African American Republican or a Joe Klein liberal in love with a Joe Lieberman.  To gain recognition,a writer must follow the example of Silly Sully today: while calling Romney a liar, make it clear that the definition of a liar is a Clinton.

Sullivan characterizes Romney:

"He really is an almost fathomless bullshit artist."

And then clarifies just how evil the candidate is, by insulting a Democrat:

"Romney is at almost Clinton levels of deception."

And so the line is straddled.

(memeorandum)

 

 

The Definition of Blogger.

A blogger is the author of a blog. This seems to be a difficult concept for many on the right to understand. Johnson at the odious LGF selectively gets it. Those who make outrageous, hateful comments on his site are to be distinguished from the site itself. But the same rule does not apply to bloggers from the left - today he blames "leftist" blogs for some of the more paranoid comments made about the fire in Cheney's office, but quotes only commenters, not bloggers.

More important is when someone with big "Think Tank" credentials distorts what blogs are and how they function. David Frum is despicably deceptive in his analysis of the blogosphere today

It's no surprise that Frum, from the American Enterprise Institute Tink Thank, would throw a defensive hizzy-fit on behalf of neo-conservatism -  A.E.I. is neo-con-central, and the organization that enables Frum to pay his mortgage, for now.  But it is surprising how sleazily and sloppily he does it.

Like Charles Johnson, above, and before, him, Frum cannot seem to distinguish bloggers from commenters.  He refers to an argument between Glenn Greenwald and Michael O'Hanlon, and quotes O'Hanlon being rude and dismissive towards Greenwald in order to show how nasty bloggers can be. It's not O'Hanlon's rudeness that is being criticized by Frum, but the nastiness of commenters who supported Greenwald.

"The put-down [by O'Hanlon] was featured on the left leaning website Crooks and Liars and provoked 71 responses, including this one.....

and this one....

and this one....

Frum dishonestly confuses the blogger with the commenter as if he did not understand that many bloggers allow anyone to comment.  At one point in his post he wrote of his work on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. Does he believe that the Journal is responsible for every letter to the editor it receives?

While condemning the harsh smear of the left wing blogosphere, Frum does not hesitate to smear others, stating that

the high-toned Professors Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer [are] reinterpreting the role formerly played by William Knowland and Senator McCarthy.

What evidence does he offer to compare Mearsheimer to McCarthy? None; not one word.

He implies that blogs approve of "self-promotion", relish "discourtesy", and dislike a "modulated tone." He demonstrates his superior values by mocking the age of Hillary Clinton's advisors, including Albright (born 1937) and contrasts her with the youthfulness of Obama's team which includes Zbigniew Brezinski (born 1928).

Compared to Obama’s, Hillary Clinton’s foreign-policy team looks a little like a gala performance in Branson, Missouri: all the names you remember from decades ago. (“Madeleine Albright is still fabulous!”)
[emphasis is Frum's]

Frum's piece is an object lesson in hypocrisy in action.  Read it if you need reminding of what intellectual dishonesty is all about.  Or if you want to learn how to smear others, while acting Saintly.

memeorandum

Virtually No Politics

The approach of Christmas, and the possession of a personal life gone off the tracks, meant that I was walking in the fifties and sixties on Manhattan's west side this mid-day. The first present I wanted to buy brought me to the bookstore at the Metropolitan Opera where Anna Netrebko was signing cd's. I had never heard of her.  Hundreds of people were in line ahead of me when I arrived half an hour before the signing was to begin. Hundreds more were behind me before the line started to move. When I actually got into the bookstore itself, there were a series of  employees making sure that I had opened the cd that I wanted signed, to advise me that she had no time to do anything but affix her signature, and to ensure I had done all I could so the process would be as quick as possible. When I approached the table, I was asked by an assistant  where I wanted her to have her sign so he could tell her which color pen to have in hand. She was most gracious, and was laughing with the approximately 10 people who seemed to make up her entourage. This number includes neither the two photographers nor the two uniformed guards.

If, after her signing, she had walked two blocks in any direction from the opera house, not one New Yorker in a hundred would have had a clue as to who she was. But to those who did know, she was a goddess.

Walking downtown myself, I stopped at a Sabrettes stand at 51st and 6th. The guy had lots of chestnuts roasting, but what I needed was one of the large soft pretzels stacked next to the fire. When he asked for $3.00 for a pretzel, I politely told him that he could keep it.  I'm just happy that we have had virtually no inflation in the Bush era.

Virtue is Trumped

Sorry that this sorry excuse for a blog has gotten even sorrier of late, but...... sometimes, life sucks.

The current issue of Harpers has a bit by Lewis H. Lapham, of whom I am quite fond, in which he laments our current political situation. He quotes Plato, who so accurately described where we now are:

"[Plato] distilled the concept [of oligarchy] into two sentences: 'When wealth and the wealthy are valued in the city, virtue and good are less valued. What is valued is practiced, what is not valued is not practiced.'"

Please allow me to introduce you to Wendy Murdoch, Judi Nathan Giuliani, and Donald Trump - who are no doubt offering lectures on values at The Learning Annex.

As the World Spins

In today's New York Times Helene Cooper writes with approval of Bush's reversal of his longstanding and irrational policy of refusing to speak with leaders of countries that he doesn't like.

"The morphing of the White House from imperial protector of American presidential exclusivity to sending Christmastime greetings to North Korean dictators will leave the next president, whoever he or she is, with a lot more legroom to decide whether to talk to America’s foes, foreign policy experts say."

This is no act of beneficence on Bush's part, merely a pre-emptive attempt to polish what will be one of the most tarnished legacies ever left by an American President.  I can hear the mantra that Karl Rove instructed the boy King to repeat:

Who changed the face of the Middle East? I did.

Nixon may have gone to China, but I sent a Christmas Card to Kim Jong Il.

A'm just crazy about Ahmadinejad, I love the way he ran I ran.

Bush promises to continue distorting reality even after he leaves office from his perch at his Presidential Library - but he'll fail at trying to spin the world.

(memeorandum)