Obama swats fly like Sensei

A fight’s a fight

You’ve probably heard all about Sonia Sotomayor by now. She’s the Bronx-rasied hispanic judge who Obama has nominated as his first appointee to the Supreme Court.

If like me you first read about her in The New York Times, you may also know that — from the comments posted there by liberal readers — the left aren’t particularly taken with her. The grassroots left, whose activism had propelled the young Chicagoan outsider to the presidency, were hoping for a nominee who would be guaranteed to further their cause (not to mention piss off the GOP).

Sotomayor isn’t an activist judge. She’s a champion of judicial process. To the polarised partisan her judgements might appear ambiguous (and so could be “shaped” to fit any desired narrative), but this is because they’re nuanced. A judge shouldn’t seek to push an agenda.

This doesn’t mean Sotomayor won’t be a liberal judge. No one is completely objective (even if, invariably, prejudiced myopia is a conservative trait). But it may mean that she will be a floating vote on close judgements. And surely, this is what we should really expect from Obama. He’s never claimed to be an activist liberal, he has always championed merit, fairness and common-sense.

To me Sotomayor is the perfect Obama choice. She has risen from humble origins to the brink of the highest court in The United States. She is smart — she graduated second in her Princeton class, and was an editor of the school’s law review. And Sotomayor appears to put reason and pragmatism ahead of culture-war politics.

Of course just because Sotomayor isn’t a rabid baby-eating liberal, it doesn’t mean that the Republicans will accept her with fair-minded acquiescence. In reality, the GOP is probably livid that they don’t have an activist judge they can easily paint as a “jackbooted feminazi”.

The Republican Party is in complete disarray. Rovian conservatism is built on the politicisation of religion. The GOP needs a Supreme Court fight to energise and unite its base — not to mention invigorate its fund-raising efforts.

The right thing for the Republicans to do would be to take the high-ground and embrace the new political atmosphere. Obama could have nominated a much more threatening judge (or Democrat politician) to the SCOTUS. He didn’t. But to a desperate GOP a fight’s a fight, and boy do they want a fight.

Rightwing nutjob Beck, advocates secession.

So you thought Fox News’ resident mentalist, Glenn Beck, couldn’t get more unhinged.

You were wrong. So very wrong.

You know the Republicans are going down the toilet faster than an aerodynamically sculptured turd, don’t you? Heh. Good.

Cui bono?

Further to this piece by Tom Griffin, over at LC, on the connections between the “decent left” (*spits*) and the Islamophobia movement, I read a piece in this week’s Time Europe, about the survival of NATO in spite of the collapse of the USSR. How it’s actually got stronger, despite all other alliances collapsing soon after mutual goals had been achieved.

Alliances die when they win. Take away the enemy, and you take away the glue that holds a coalition together.

[...]

Yet instead of taking its final bow, NATO expanded. In 1994, the alliance sent out invitations to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland; five years later, all three were in. Sixty years ago, NATO started out with 12 members; today it has 26. Not bad for an outfit that, according to theory, should have breathed its last once the Soviet Union had capitulated.

One wonders, when these characters are so committed to a continued American hegemony, if they haven’t got a vested interest in the continued threat of radical Islam?*

*rhetorical question

Craig Murray: I will accuse Jack Straw on Torture

From Craig’s blog ::

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has agreed to hear my evidence on torture on Tuesday 28 April at 1.45pm. Many thanks to everyone who helped lobby for this.

I am delighted, as I have been trying for over four years to lay the truth about British torture policy before Parliament. I will testify that as British Ambassador I was told there is a very definite policy to accept intelligence from torture abroad, and that the policy was instituted and approved by Jack Straw when Foreign Secretary. I will tell them that as Ambassador I protested formally three times in writing to Jack Straw, and that the Foreign Office told me in reply to my protests that this was perfectly legal.

I will prove my evidence with documentation….

Read more…

Hat-tip Jennie (email), who wonders whether the MSM will run with this significant story? We’ll see. If the blogosphere makes a big deal, then I would imagine The Guardian will pick it up.

The “united” left… seriously?

From the GOP blog, RedState.Com on the party’s rudderless journey onto the rocks ::

Why do Republicans break out the pitch forks and light the torches every time there is perceived impurity around them in the party? Why do we enclave so well and why don’t we do “join” well? Even more to the point, why do Democrats seem to avoid this problem?

Really? The Democrats - you do mean the lefies, right? - are more unified and disciplined than the right?

The defining characteristics of left-wing politics are its gargantuan schisms. Personally I’d rather share a taxi with a moderate Tory, than I would many of the authoritarian lefty apologists who frequent some of the left’s more odious blogs.

Let’s be honest for a second. The GOP has been one of the most organised and “on-message” political organisations ever. For years it’s been standard practice for talking points to be filtered down from party mandarins to the foot soldiers. Not since Obama’s run for the DNC nomination have the American left seen such a savvy network.

The politicians. The rightwing media. The GOP activists and henchmen. They’re all in on it, and for a while, it worked.

4-years ago, the permanent Republican majority looked a real possibility, as the Republicans controlled the political agenda and set its tone.

Now, with the Rovian dream of conservative dynastical rule in tatters, a leadership vacuum has led to various warring factions vying control of the Republican Party.

Let’s hope it’s a bloody war of attrition.

Bill Hicks :: Rush Limbaugh is a scat-muncher

Seriously, NSFW.

Our managers must look beyond America…

Stefan Stern at the FT ::

“[The American Business Model] remains the working hypothesis of most business people and consultants,” [John] Kay writes. But, he argues, it is mistaken in its core belief that greed can be a benign and sustainable force. He cites the economists Ken Arrow and Frank Hahn, who asked in 1971: “What will an economy motivated by greed and controlled by a very large number of different agents look like?” The economists answered their own question: “There will be chaos.”

Read on…

The good times are over. Glutton is gone. Lean is back in vogue.

If there is one thing that will be our ultimate undoing, it will be our ignorance and our arrogance. Our business leaders love nothing more than criticising our governments, yet in reality, many of them are unaware of their own inadequacies and shortcomings (even if they do work incredibly hard).

We do have professional bodies that work to propagate best-practice, but they also enforce age-old Anglo-Saxon business techniques that in many cases have become outdated. If we are to return to a level of effectiveness that will equip us to compete in a tight global market, we have to open our eyes to techniques from other cultures.

The top-down, greed is always good ethos has been vanquished. Markets have not failed, we have failed them. And the fallout - the toxicity of American economic calamity - is poisoning global industry. We need to become more than what we have been.

It’s time for British managers to visit the world. Not as travelling titans, but as humble students. To share and learn.

We have some excellent companies and some brilliant managers, no doubt. But in the main, we suffer institutional stagnation in many of our businesses, a culture of unjustified remuneration for executives, and a chronic lack of appreciation for investing in training.

I have worked in industry for over a decade, within the much-derided manufacturing sector in fact. Contemporary management theory, in many cases, is non-existant and formal training is viewed as a waste of time and money (not only by senior managers, but by the junior-level managers themselves).

In a new post-crash global economy, skills and education will become more and more necessary as fat is trimmed - only the smartest businesses will survive. We need to start with our children, but we must not forget education when people leave formal education.

Blair once made a commitment to “Education. Education. Education.” Yet, despite over a decade in power, and “improving” exam results, our economy is still strangled by a lack of basic numeracy, literacy and the capacity of our young people to adapt to industry.

The reinvention of Labour - if it is to reinvent itself in this parliament - must be a commitment to lead the country in a national project to reform education and skills. We need not only investment, but a leadership with the charisma to inspire change.

If not, we must be prepared to rot on the vine, and say good-bye to any ideas of global economic leadership.

Some links…

Originally written for LC.

First, cabalamat predicts that Obama will win in 2012. His prediction is based mainly on the idea that Republicans are idiots, which seems fair enough to me.

Next, Jim pads up and goes out to bat for Socialist Unity.

Jennie’s in the know re. the latest Wikio stats.

No Right Turn wonders if you’re aware that it may soon be illegal to take a photo of a policeman in this country? Punishable by a fine and up to ten years in the clink. Think about it.

Philosopher’s Tree on why we should ban those evil cluster-bombs. He’s right. We should.

Btw. The utterly glorious Sadie never fails to make me giggle.

Mark Pack has news that Labour MSP Charlie Gordon is alleged to have fiddled his expenses. This isn’t the first time Gordon has been in the shit. Iain Dale would like you throw a hissy-fit. But Dale’s not holding his breath, so I don’t see why you’d bother.

Speaking of Dale, watch this. Via. teh Monkey. Heh.

Hagley Road to Ladywood has some linky-love for those covering the “Wild-Cat” strikes, including our Unity, who as always, is shining a light into the darkness and finding rats!

Finally, Fancy winning a trip to Washington? Me too.

Genius

Stephen Fry sums up exactly why getting Britain out of its apathetic political morass will be more difficult than people think ::

(scroll forward to 4-mins for the line about “Only in America”)

The problem when ideology is ill-informed

From Dizzy “Thinks” ::

From former Spanish PM José María Aznar López on whether the current economic crisis signifies a failure of the free market.

It is certainly not a failure of the free market, but a failure of the current mechanism of state regulation and intervention in a sector which is already highly regulated, the banking system. It is the same with politics - democracy is not discredited merely because a bad government has been elected.

Spot on.

Spot on? You sure?

A lack of regulations in the CDS market, meant that when one institution collapsed (Lehman Brothers - or taking it further back and looking at another unstable financial instrument, Bear Sterns), the others lost confidence in each other as they had no idea as to each other’s level of exposure to the crisis.

The day-to-day borrowings between financial institutions seized up, and businesses in the real economy couldn’t secure short-term lending to continue operating (I used to arrange this borrowing myself when I worked in finance). This sparked the inevitable market correction that many of us had been predicting for years.

It was absolutely a lack of regulation of the these complicated financial markets that meant there was no transparency, and credit traders couldn’t calculate risk with any level of confidence. Fear spread quickly, and governments - rightly or wrongly - decided they had no option but to step in and try to grease the system, to prevent many companies having to cease trading because capital they relied on had dried up.

(History: The Republican legislature and Clinton White House took a pass on regulating this emerging economy, who along with our own European governments, share responsibility for the initial collapse.)

I don’t like regulations per se, but they’re often a necessary evil to ensure the stability of a system we all rely on. Good governments write good laws and set sensible, lean and robust rules.

Maybe some of the existing regulations in the banking system are crap, but you’d be a fool to suggest that it was regulation that caused the initial collapse, when it’s the exact opposite that’s true (in the specific cases of CDSs, CDOs, and short-selling).

It’s no use taking an ideological laissez-faire attitude, if you don’t understand the fundamentals of the system, and how a lack of transparency (see rules) can lead to massive ’systematic risk’.

Miliband: the re-invention

You have to give some credit to David Miliband for his sheer bloody cheek. He’s spent the last 5+ years toeing the party line over Iraq and the wider war on terror, only to abandon the policy the moment a more sane administration begins measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.

It’s a shame that Labour had to shed so many supporters, commentators and activists in the process.

I mean, was it all really worth it?

Was watching Mr. Blair accept his medal from W really worth all the blood and the tears? I think probably not.

Indeed this paragraph really got my goat ::

The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battle lines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common. Terrorist groups need to be tackled at root, interdicting flows of weapons and finance, exposing the shallowness of their claims, channelling their followers into democratic politics.

I’m sorry, but isn’t this just what the intelligent people have been saying ever since 9/11? Isn’t this the same line the New Labour cabinet has been rejecting week-in week-out on Question Time?

Does this mean that they’re going to stop grandstanding on terrorism to push through illiberal policies and that they’re about to abort ridiculous projects such as ID cards? Or is Miliband just, as Alisdair Cameron has suggested, merely positioning himself cleverly with a leadership bid in mind?

Or maybe Brown is behind this: is the PM, ever the pathetic weakling, adjusting British foreign policy to continue its conjoined (yet always subservient) relationship with Washington? Something Tim Almond has wisely referred to as “a shocking bit of 51st statism”. No change there then.

Maybe, just maybe, New Labour could have shown a bit of courage and stood up to Bush back when Tony left the stage. As Iain Martin points out in the Telegraph, Miliband’s timing is evidence of colossal cowardliness.

I’ll leave you with Miliband’s most hypocritical paragraph, just to see if you manage to finish it without grinding your teeth into powdery white enamel dust ::

We must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it, for it is the cornerstone of the democratic society. We must uphold our commitments to human rights and civil liberties at home and abroad. That is surely the lesson of Guantánamo and it is why we welcome President-elect Obama’s commitment to close it.

Amen (at last).

This Gaza mess

I wasn’t going to comment on this, but at the same time it’s foolish to just pretend it’s not happening.

Both sides, as ever, are in the wrong.

Hamas was moronic to continue to fire rockets at Israel. You don’t poke a government in the ribs prior to an election - especially when it’s vulnerable to its right flank.

The ambitious Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, failed to put together a coalition that would have made her the Prime Minister of the Jewish State. As de facto head of the majority party, she called for elections to legitimise her position.

That Livni and Kadima have responded to Hamas rocket attacks with overwhelming force is unsurprising. They have effectively created a tempest that many among the electorate will see, not only as justice, but as an unresolved situation that needs to be sorted.

Wars are often the last refuge of a spent administration.*

Israel is torn between its hard-right Zionist founders (and its indoctrinated progeny) and a more moderate and modern urban population - who know that only engaging and compromising with its neighbours will seed peace.

The far-right of Israel’s political spectrum represents a fanatical band of racist imperialists, who no-more respect the territorial integrity of their neighbours than they do the international organisation that censure them.

For decades Tel Aviv refused to co-operate with Fatah (a political, largely secular organisation), only to be rewarded with increasing violence and the eventual electoral success of Hamas.

American coalescence to the status-quo in the region (meaning the continued apartheid and imperial suppression of the Palestinians) has helped ferment this situation. Only America, with its tentacles reaching throughout the region - and its unwavering financial and political support for Israel, could possibly hope to broker a new solution.

President Bush’s approach to Israel - which amounted to little more than playing its slavish apologist, has emboldened Israel and led to even greater international outrage over the Israeli response.

The predictable rightwing response has been to excuse civilian bloodshed by lumping all responsibility on Hamas’ shoulders. Yet when you read about a family of seven killed (inc. at least 4 children) by an Israeli bomb, you can safely assume that Israel’s retaliation is hardly that of a responsible and compassionate government.

The whole region is a complete clusterfuck.

Hamas offers the Palestinian people no real future if it’s going to continue to act with religiously-spiked aggression towards Israel. And unless the Israeli people can elect a genuinely progressive government, committed to compromise and peace with its neighbours and a workable and self- determining Palestinian state, then they too have no future beyond hostility and mutual bloodshed.

It’s a fitting conclusion to the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, that Palestine should implode as he boxes up his belongings and prepares to leave Pennsylvania Avenue.

That the greatest and most powerful nation on the planet could twice elect a lifelong loser and known fuckwit, proves two things: the first is that the wisdom of crowds is loony pseudo-intellectual claptrap, and the second is that dynastical monarchy is alive and well in the American Republic.

Early signs suggest that Barack Obama will not be vastly different from previous American presidents, but at least he’s not a complete incompetent.

*Apologies to Samuel Johnson

*sighs*

The American republic is now so toxic, Presidents are mired in scandal even before they take office.

Those wonderful Saudis

Those Saudis are a lovely friendly bunch, aren’t they?

They’re the ones with all that oil and money who are so lovely that they’re apparently above the law. And so friendly that we often have them around for tea and nibbles, just so we can tell them how great they are. Yeah, we know that they finance those Wahabbist madrassahs that indoctrinate so many angry little jihads, but what’s a few civilian casualties between friends?

The Saudis are so great. I love the Saudis.

From The Guardian ::

An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.

Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl’s divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. “The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty,” lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.

You gotta love’em too, huh?