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Politics

Freedom Watch’s next target: Iran.

By Amanda Terkel on Sep 29, 2007 at 10:06 pm

The New York Times reports that next month, the White House-front group Freedom’s Watch “will sponsor a private forum of 20 experts on radical Islam that is expected to make the case that Iran poses a direct threat to the security of the United States”:

Although the group declined to identify the experts, several were invited from the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington research group with close ties to the White House. Some institute scholars have advocated a more confrontational policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, including keeping military action as an option. [...]

“If Hitler’s warnings were heeded when he wrote ‘Mein Kampf,’ he could have been stopped,” said Bradley Blakeman, 49, the president of Freedom’s Watch and a former deputy assistant to Mr. Bush. “Ahmadinejad is giving all the same kind of warning signs to us, and the region — he wants the destruction of the United States and the destruction of Israel.”

Politics

AP falsely spins Limbaugh’s ‘phony soldiers’ line.

By Matt Corley on Sep 29, 2007 at 8:46 pm

In the Associated Press’ write up of Rush Limbaugh’s controversial “phony soldiers” comment, the wire service misrepresents the context of the Limbaugh’s gaffe in such a way that it falsifies the meaning of his comments. Greg Sargent explains:

In the AP’s telling, Limbaugh first mentioned the specific phony soldier, and then “followed” with a reference to “phony soldiers.” This description, of course, makes Limbaugh’s pushback sound completely reasonable: Limbaugh established the specific context — a discussion of MacBeth — before using the controversial phrase.

But this is not what Limbaugh’s transcript says at all, of course. Indeed, not even Limbaugh himself is arguing this. Rather, Limbaugh’s transcript shows that the mention of MacBeth came long after his initial reference to phony soldiers. He hadn’t established this context first at all. This is just a pathetic error.

Yglesias

Retreat and Defeat

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 6:15 pm

It was back in October 2006 when I first started hearing knowledgeable western analysts suggest that cutting a deal with the Taliban might be the only way to stabilize Afghanistan. Naturally, such talk was not in favor in political circles in the US, but now it looks as if Hamid Karzai himself is thinking along those lines.

Yglesias

Freedom’s Just Another Word for Let’s Bomb Iran

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 6:03 pm

Last week, Daniel Drezner and I were wondering what ever happened to the PR rollout for bombing Iran. Don Van Natta reports for The New York Times on Freedom’s Watch, who’s Iraq-related ads have already made a stir: “the nonprofit group is set apart from most advocacy groups by the immense wealth of its core group of benefactors, its intention to far outspend its rivals and its ambition to pursue a wide-ranging agenda. Its next target: Iran policy.” Sounds fun.

This, incidentally, seems to be one of the main reasons why widespread predictions of Republican disaffection with the Iraq War haven’t come true. A bit contrary to what most people thought, a significant segment of the Republican donor class seems to be composed of big-time war enthusiasts. Many of the GOP members of congress who made some gestures toward distancing themselves from the war are now facing primary challenges, and with outfits like Freedom’s Watch springing up everyone knows money could be made available for more.

Yglesias

Delahunt v. Bush

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 4:24 pm

Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) returns from a visit to the UN and cosigns a letter with several House colleagues:

In order to achieve a comprehensive international climate regime that includes all major emitting countries after 2012, there is an urgent need to make significant progress in negotiations at the Conference of Parties to the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) being held this December in Indonesia. You have invited representatives from the world’s leading emitting countries to Washington, DC on September 27th and 28th under the auspices of advancing these negotiations.

We are concerned that in announcing the Major Emitters Meeting, and then again in the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Sydney Declaration, you have focused on reaching long-term “aspirational” goals. Given the latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which provide clear evidence of global warming impacts on all continents and most of the oceans, we need actual reductions in global warming pollution, not aspirational goals.

Indeed. Full text below the fold:

Read more

Culture

What Ails the Music Industry?

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 3:07 pm

Tyler Cowen recycles some insights from his highly recommended Good and Plenty:

In the past most people didn’t much like or listen to most of the music they bought, or in any case most of the value came from their very favorites. A relatively small percentage of our music purchases accounted for most of our listening pleasure. So if people can sample music in advance, and know in advance what they will like, music sales will plummet. This will be a sign of market efficiency, not market failure.

Right. Obviously, from the point of view of a record company executive, a “healthy music business” is one which maximizes his profits. From a more reasonable point of view, the relevant metric is consumption of music. On the one hand, you have declining sales. On the other hand, you have the basic truth that people now have easier access to a wider array of music than ever before, along with better devices on which to listen to it, and much more convenient ways to store it.

Yglesias

Orphaned Trusts

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 2:31 pm

The New York Times takes a look at a problem I’d never considered. The moral of the story, however, is clear: any wealthy readers considering dying without heirs should leave their money to me rather than establishing one of these trusts and ending up posthumously screwed over.

Politics

Fox analyst: ‘generals are betraying our soldiers.’

By Matt Corley on Sep 29, 2007 at 2:00 pm

In an opinion column posted on Foxnews.com, Fox News analyst Col. David Hunt, a frequent guest on The O’Reilly Factor, declares that “Our generals are betraying our soldiers … again.” Hunt claims that “our generals put their careers over their men’s lives” and that “we should be putting these generals on trial.” Glenn Greenwald wonders if Hunt’s “attack on the honesty and integrity…of members of the United States Armed Forces” will be denounced on the Senate floor.

Yglesias

Baby Bonds

By ThinkProgress on Sep 29, 2007 at 1:42 pm

Hillary Clinton comes out in favor of a “baby bond” scheme. I like these kind of plans and think the general subject of asset-building is unduly neglected. Achieving a more equitable distribution of capital ownership is going to be key to combatting inequality under 21st century conditions.

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