Sic Semper Tyrannis

"I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger"- Andreas Scholl with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

 
A new post by my sister, Maureen on "The Athenaeum. "  pl  

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/07/i-am-a-poor-wayfaring-stranger-andreas-scholl-with-the-orpheus-chamber-orchestra.html

The Tea Fragger Party by Kathleen Parker

 
"If the nation defaults on its financial obligations, the blame belongs to the Tea Party Republicans who fragged their own leader, John Boehner. They had victory in their hands and couldn’t bring themselves to support his debt-ceiling plan, which, if not perfect, was more than anyone could have imagined just a few months ago."  Parker

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Parker lays it out clearly.  The Tea Party has destroyed Boehner as Speaker of the House, and is working on destroying the GOP.  Dana Milbank says the same thing.  Boehner may survive for a while but having been defied as leader of his party in the House of Representative he is essentially "toast."  Eric Cantor waits in the wings like the XO on a Klingon battle cruiser waiting to sit in the dead man's chair.

IMO the Tea Party people and their representatives in Congress are not Republicans, or if they are, then the "original" Republicans are not. 

We have a poor record in demonstrating an ability to form new major political parties in the US.  We have not created a major party since the rise of the Republicans in the 1850s.

Nevertheless, the logic of the emergence of the Tea Party calls for such a major re-alignment.  The alternative to such a shift will be stasis in the federal legislature.  The present impasse will be repeated endlessly if there is not a politiccal change.  pl

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-tea-fragger-party/2011/07/29/gIQA23pAiI_story.html

Foxman on Anti-Muslim Agitation

 
"Growing numbers of people in Europe and the United States subscribe to this belief system; in some instances it borders on hysteria. Adherents of this ideological Islamophobia view Islam as an existential threat to the world, especially to the “West.”

Moreover, they believe that leaders and governments in the Western world are consciously or unconsciously collaborating to allow Islam to “infiltrate” and eventually conquer democratic societies."  Abraham Foxman

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Abe Foxman is the head of the Anti-Defamation League.   He has this right.  As I have written before, there is a campaign underway to establish in the public mind the notion of the innate danger that Islam and Muslims pose for the West and its peoples. 

The general condemnation of any group of people is inherently a bad idea.  In the case of Muslims it is a particularly bad idea since Islam in spite of its self-image of unity is not one thing.  It is many things. 

Foxman points to the pro-Israel bias of many of those seeking to demonize Muslims as Catholics and Jews were once demonized.  He is an intelligent man and must understand that the Israeli government is probably involved in this political warfare against Muslims.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/norwegian-attacks-stem-from-a-new-ideological-hate/2011/07/28/gIQAhxy8hI_story.html

Wesley Clark and Waco, no, the US Army and Waco

 
The Clinton Administration involved the US Army whether the Regulars or the National Guard in the massacre of civilians at Waco?  The leadership and senior officers of the Army accepted that?  Can that be?  Can it be?

If it is, then IMO there is little that the self absorbed, half educated baboons who dominated the leadership of the US Army then and later would not stoop to in the service of self and their ambition.

I understand that the component elements of USSOCOM would prefer to separate from the Army, marines, USAF and Navy,  Well, if Schoomaker and Boykin were critical in the atrocity at Waco, then there is a good argument for that.  Soldiers should not want to have murderers in their company.

Unfortunately, that does not deal with the role that people like Clark may have played in this disgrace.

Let the CT people form a new service, secure in their belief that this kind of thuggery is the stuff of future warfare. Then, let us see if history justifies their belief that their honor is loyalty.  pl

http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=6559

Admiral Olson and the Terrorists

 
"Olson agreed with the White House's newly announced policy to strike terrorists through focused action rather than full-scale invasion, preferably by training and working with the host country's forces. He cautioned against thinking raids would solve all U.S. foreign policy problems."  AP

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Admiral Olson is the commander of Special Operations Command, the multi service major command that runs all the military counterterrorist (CT) commando units and their associated intelligence activities.

The CIA has its own "thing" in this field, much smaller, but obviously better.  Just ask them or their flacks in the media.  They will be glad to tell you all about it.

Olson is not in the COIN business.  The COIN cult calls for wresting control of whole populations away from insurgents through a variety of positive and negative enducements.

Olson is in the business of killing terrorists and destroying their ability to launch raids against "point" target in the US and/or against friendly countries.  He wages an undeclared war aganst those who some group of people in the executive branch of the US government believe to be dangerous enemies.

It appears that Admiral Olson sees his mission as bounded only by executive decision as to who is a terrorist.

Does this bother anyone here other than me?  pl

http://news.yahoo.com/spec-ops-chief-warns-al-qaida-2-0-051439458.html

COIN CLASSIC, NEW COIN, POST-MODERN COIN - by Michael Brenner

 
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is a growth industry.  It employs hundreds of thousands – theorists, analysts, field researchers and operators. They serve in think tanks, foundations, universities, military academies, command staffs and – not least – in the galaxy of consultancies whose financial rewards are grossly disproportionate to  the value  they add.  This grandiose American enterprise has partners, off-shoots and emulators elsewhere in the world. The COIN acronym itself has a brand recognition factor in policy circles that is envied by many a purveyor of commercial goods.

The Unintended Consequences of Posting About Extremist Violence

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

One of the unintended consequences of my two most recent posts have been the discussion as to exactly what extremism is (J's question) and a heated discussion as to what the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is (discussion between J and MarkfromIreland).  I wanted to take a minute or two and try to get to both.

In the former I use the term extremist or extremist movement for any identity based group (religious, kinship and/or linguistic, political/ideological, social, economic, nationalist, etc) that is both espousing a set of beliefs that are towards the fringes of the larger societies, groups, movements, and/or subcultures that they are part of and whose beliefs are either directly used to justify violence by those that are objectively identified with such a group or subjectively identify with the beliefs of the group even if they have never formally joined anything.  In the former case we are talking about activity by known members of a group like the IRA or the UFF in Northern Ireland.  In the latter we are looking at activity by Timothy McVeigh (please remember that McVeigh never formally belonged to any white supremacist, militia, patriot, and/or Christian Identity group, which is why he was not trackable by those who monitor those networks).  In all these examples we are dealing with people who are white and Christian (members of the IRA being Catholic, the UFF being Protestant, and McVeigh seemed to be loosely involved with Christian Identity towards the end with his connections to Elohim City and his use of Willian Pierce/Ian MacDonald's "The Turner Diaries" as the blueprint for his attack).  I could just have as easily used Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and other examples but these will do as no society, community, group, or religion is immune to extremism.  So J, I'm not using the term willy nilly, nor am I just bandying it about with impunity.  Contrary to those whose own works were cited as justification by the Norway shooter/bomber, I recognize that words have not only meaning, but consequences and we should strive to be as precise as possible so as not to provide anyone with a loaded gun; even if it is just a conceptual one.

Assassins win again in Kandahar

 
"The death of Hamidi will raise further concerns about whether military gains by the US military in the Kandahar region, particularly in districts adjoining the city, will be undermined by the remorseless killing of top public figures.

The death comes weeks after the killing in their homes of two powerful politicians in the south: Ahmed Wali Karzai and Jan Mohammad Khan, an ally of the Karzai family and a key figure in neighbouring Uruzgan province. In April, Kandahar's police chief was killed by a suicide bomber who entered police headquarters."  Guardian

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Well, pilgrim, how many is that in the last weeks?  First there was the chief of police.  Then, there was Ahmad Wali Karzai, then a tribal leader allied with the government, now this man, an Afghan-American accountant.

The NATO led coalition is trying to take Kandahar Province away from the Taliban coalition.

Are we there yet?  pl

PS How are things in Marja? 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/27/kandahar-mayor-killed-explosives-turban

 

A Reply to Sidney Smith on Holbrooke’s Death by Richard Sale

    
(After Richard Holbrooke’s death in December, Sidney Smith, a man whose intelligence I very much admire, protested about my comparing Tolstoy with Flannery O’Conner.  Somehow, the post was mislaid, so I am forwarding it now). 

     Sidney Smith’s comments about my posts are always courteous thoughtful and extremely well-expressed, and I would not offend him for anything. Yet in his conviction that I had tendered a slight to Flannery O’Connor by comparing her to Tolstoy, I believe he was not only “off topic” as he concedes, he was, in my view, off the point as well.  

     I think it was Bagehot who once classified readers as voracious, subtle, stupid or otherwise.

Obama prepares for surrender

 
"“The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a different approach, a cuts-only approach — an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all,” Mr. Obama said in his address. “And because nothing is asked of those at the top of the income scales, such an approach would close the deficit only with more severe cuts to programs we all care about — cuts that place a greater burden on working families.”"  NY Times

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I have thought for some time that the present struggle in Washington would end in defeat for the president.  Now, I am certain that is true.  His speech on 25 July was merely an attempt to cover himself in anticipation of that defeat.  He hopes that "sound bites" from that address can be played back to a citzenry enraged by the triumph of moneyed interests.

His defeat was inevitable in a situation in which the Tea Party types have enough votes in the House to block any deal that they won't accept.  The constitution is clear.  Money bills must originate in the House and that is where the Tea Party is strong enough to make its will prevail.

Obama is the proprietor of the Executive Branch of the government.  That is where the money is disbursed and services are provided.  Without money he cannot do either.  Some debt service would be possible and some minimal services could be possible with ongoing revenues but the net result would not be government as Americans have come to know it.

Obama has to run the parts of the government that "do things."  It is clear now that the only way he will get the money to do his job is to surrender.  He might as well get on with it.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/politics/26fiscal.html?_r=1&ref=us