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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020205042.html
The Great Will (TGW) adopts the rhetorical guise of reportage in his extended and seemingly unapologetic press release for candidate Rick Santorum: titled ‘Rick Santorum’s appeal to the GOP base’. The obvious question for a political cynic like me presents itself as: is TGW on the payroll? Given his history with Ronald Reagan as candidate and President that is a legitimate question. But here is the piece de resistance of this relentless hagiography:
‘Santorum does not ignore economic issues, but as a relentless ethicist, he recasts those as moral issues: "What is European socialism but modern-day monarchy that 'takes care' of the people?" He is, of course, correct that America's debt crisis is, at bottom, symptomatic of a failure of self-control, a fundamental moral failing.’
TGW, as one of the most prominent of America’s Fake Political Moralists, he cannot resist the political opportunity to lecture his vast audience on their ‘fallen state’, his perennial subject. Yet we cannot resist pointing at the many failings of Political Conservatism and its economic corollary ‘Free Market Economics’ as demonstrably vacuous, in terms of anything but a corrupt, self- promoting burlesque of the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer.
February 3, 2011 |
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In recent weeks, popular uprisings in the Arab world have led to the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the imminent end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, a new Jordanian government, and a pledge by Yemen’s longtime dictator to leave office at the end of his term. We speak to MIT Professor Noam Chomsky about what this means for the future of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region. When asked about President Obama’s remarks last night on Mubarak, Chomsky said: “Obama very carefully didn’t say anything… He’s doing what U.S. leaders regularly do. As I said, there is a playbook: whenever a favored dictator is in trouble, try to sustain him, hold on; if at some point it becomes impossible, switch sides.” We continued the interview with Chomsky for 50 minutes after the live show. Continue reading
America loves political reactionaries, so much so, that we like to import the most impressive of the breed to write for our newspapers and teach in our most prestigious universities. Here is Pretty Boy Reactionary (PBR) sowing the seeds of a useful political paranoia, useful to the Authoritarians in our midst: to be quoted as prescient political observation and a call to action, to ‘neutralize’ offending political aspirations at the borders of the Empire. The thoughts of PBR acts as a legitimizing force in the opinionating of his allies and confreres.
The power of the American Hegemon is waning and the supporters of that old order cling to their illusions of moral/political supremacy, as if it were a generation ago. The American Lekudniks and their political allies cannot admit their fear of the collapse of a modus vivendi that has lasted for over two generations, in terms of ‘Middle East Policy’: it now seems to have become a subject for concern and debate, as the Egyptian People decide their own collective political fate, without the paternal guidance of American policy makers. Mr. Reed questions Mr. ElBaradei’s veracity, credibility and suitability for the leadership position of a new Egyptian government, by casting aspersions on his person and his work as the head of the IAEA. Mr. Reed seems consciously oblivious of the facts of the non-presence of WMD’s in Iraq, as a fact of history, not as a point of political propaganda employed as if it were actual. And the ‘American Left’ plays a part here in the larger political melodrama, in Mr. Reed’s précis of a small bit of ‘History’ re-imagined without regard for any imperative except simple political opportunism.
Dean Rejects Gingrich’s ‘Radical Islam’ Fearmongering: ‘Radical Anything Is What’s Bad’
Later this month, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY), who has referred to American Muslims as the “enemy living amongst us,” will hold hearings to investigate the influence of radical Islam on America. King has said that he is focused on the U.S. Muslim community because “that’s where the radicalizing threat is coming from.” Continue reading
Home » Press Release » Mubarak Promises Not Enough, Obama Should Push for Real Change
CONTACT: Brenda Bowser Soder, Human Rights First
C: 646-897-6372, W: 202-370-3323 | bowsersoderb@humanrightsfirst.orgMubarak Promises Not Enough, Obama Should Push for Real Change
For Immediate Release: February 1, 2011
Washington, DC –Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has announced that he will not be a candidate for the Presidency in elections scheduled for September or October, but that he will remain in office to oversee the enactment of political reforms. Human Rights First does not believe that the opposition will see this announcement as a concession and that Mubarak’s speech is unlikely to bring the protests to an end.
Human Rights First’s Neil Hicks noted, “President Mubarak has promised political reforms before and has failed to act on his promises. There is no reason to believe that any commitments he makes now will result in the types of changes being demanded by protesters.”
The organization today said that in response to President Mubarak’s speech, the U.S. government should strengthen its message that real change is needed to meet the legitimate demands of the Egyptian people. That change will require President Mubarak to hand over power to an interim government that includes credible representatives of the opposition that will then oversee the necessary constitutional and legislative changes leading up to elections for a new parliament and a new president.
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