Whiskey Fire

The Check-Book Is Open

Just as a cheerful reminder: when it comes to the Greatest Big Government undertaking conceivable, War, nobody ever asks "What will it cost? HOW MUCH?"

Unlike every other possible thing the government can do, like making sure all Americans are fed and educated, when it comes to War, we can afford it.

So.

Syria.

Yep.

Come Dance with Rossy Stobling, Nonsensical Out-of-Sense

I am not well pleased with either Charles or Scott, as I would have otherwise missed this Ross Douthat emanation entirely.

Nertz. Nertz, I say. Nertz.

I'll only discuss the weird Irish shit in Douthat's column; the rest of it is likewise awful, but see those other two persons for that.

Then there is the specific case of Ireland, which has maintained a near-absolute abortion ban throughout its history. This ban does not mean that no Irish women obtain legal abortions: some go abroad for them, to Britain or Continental Europe. But that actually makes the comparison to Texas more apt — because even if abortion were somehow banned outright in Texas tomorrow, it would still be available to women with the resources to travel out of state.

This is stupid.

The "resources" needed for a woman to travel from pretty much anywhere in Ireland in order to obtain an abortion, to a place where that is permitted, namely Britain -- these are not remotely comparable to the "resources" needed for a woman anywhere in a zero-abortion Texas to obtain one in a place where such a procedure is permitted.

To confirm the validity of this analysis, I refer any interested parties to a widely available resource known as a "map."

Also. Even poor Irish women can get to England inexpensively, and there is a large and longstanding Irish community in every major English city. Every Irish person has relatives living in England. Poor Texas women are far less likely to go to Oklahoma and find a non-judgmental family networked place to crash.

Indeed, Irish opponents of their abortion "ban" have long pointed out this hypocrisy. Abortion is easily obtainable for Irish women. You just have to go next door. And everybody knows this. So why not maintain the abortion ban -- you're not going to impact any actual choices for any actual women! And you'll still be all angelic!

Of course sometimes that goes pear-shaped, but whatever.

So if liberal fears about the Texas legislation’s impact are correct, one would expect the Irish ban to have produced obvious, disastrous side effects. At the very least, one would expect Ireland to lag in female mortality, health and economic advancement.

Again: the Irish ban is from any statistical point of view meaningless, because Irish women can, and do, take a boat train.

Maternal health is indeed a fraught topic in Ireland. The abortion debate there has mostly revolved around how to interpret the “life of the mother” exception, and the high-profile case of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian immigrant who died unnecessarily during a miscarriage, recently prompted the Irish Parliament to widen that exception.

But there is little evidence that the Halappanavar tragedy reflects a larger trend. Ireland’s maternal health outcomes have long looked much better than those of its neighbors, and even a recent report that produced a higher estimate for maternal mortality still placed the country well within the European norm.

The reason "the Halappanavar tragedy" was so tragic was that it forced the Irish medical, cultural, and political establishments to finally confront their cowardly offshoring of the abortion question in all its complexity. A woman died because of Irish moral cowardice.

Meanwhile, international rankings offer few indications that Ireland’s abortion laws are holding Irish women back. The country ranks first for gender parity in health care in a recent European Union index. It was in the middle of the pack in The Economist’s recent “glass-ceiling index” for working women. It came in fifth out of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap” report. (The United States was 22nd.)

Again, that's not relevant -- actually, because Ireland has so effectively and easily offshored its abortion debate, maybe that's made it easier for Irish women to make progress, because that fight is effectively off the table? It's possible.

The short answer to Ross fucking Douthat is that Ireland's abortion laws have quite little to do with how Irish women view, and practice, abortion.

When You Add up the Numbers

One of the several curious facts regarding the Big Campaign Journalist grudge against Nate Silver is that what Silver was doing wasn't in essence Crazy Wizardry. He just looked at a lot of polls and averaged them, and then looked at historical trends. Yes yes yes it is all in the details (haughtily waves away... math, shudder) but the basic concept is something you should have picked up in middle school.

Better Than Ezra

Here's a Wonkblog post about the Administration's efforts to further screw the American worker:

How Congress might have already tied Obama’s hands in trade negotiations

Quoted in the post are:

James Bacchus, a former member of Congress who served as a judge at the World Trade Organization and now chairs Greenberg Traurig’s global trade practice.

Thomas Bollyky, a former negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative who’s now at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Stanford professor Judith Goldstein, who calls this emerging dynamic (foes of granting fast-track authority) a “Baptist-bootlegger coalition.”

Chris Wenk, the Chamber of Commerce’s point person on trade issues.

And just one opponent: Lori Wallach of Public Citizen. Even the caption "Obama needs leverage with the Europeans. Congress could help." is slanted in favor of granting fast track authority to get these trade deals done.

So here's Dean Baker:

Of course there is no reason the deals have to be complicated. If the trade deals focused on removing traditional trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, there would not be "a zillion different interests and moving parts." There would be some formulaic wording written into the agreement that specified the rate at which these restrictions would be pared back.

The reason there are a zillion moving parts is because the Obama administration went to the oil and gas industries to ask how they can use the trade agreement to get around environmental restrictions on drilling. It went to the food and agricultural industries to ask how they could get around food safety rules. It went to the pharmaceutical industry to ask it how it can use these deals to increase patent protections and jack up drug prices. It went to the entertainment industry and asked how it can use these deals to strengthen copyright enforcement and require Internet intermediaries to take responsibility (and incurr expenses) to help enforce copyrights.

Note: The Wonkblog post was written by Lydia DePillis, not Ezra Klein. However, I wanted an excuse to put up this youtuber.



NAFTA was begun by President G.H.W. Bush, and finished by Bill Clinton.

"First of all, because NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement." - Bill Clinton, September 14, 1993

"In a few moments, I will sign the North American free trade act into law. NAFTA will tear clown trade barriers between our three nations. It will create the world's largest trade zone and create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone. The environmental and labor side agreements negotiated by our administration will make this agreement a force for social progress as well as economic growth. Already the confidence we've displayed by ratifying NAFTA has begun to bear fruit. We are now making real progress toward a worldwide trade agreement so significant that it could make the material gains of NAFTA for our country look small by comparison." - Bill Clinton, December 8, 1993

So what happened? "As of 2010, U.S. trade deficits with Mexico totaling $97.2 billion had displaced 682,900 U.S. jobs. Of those jobs, 116,400 are likely economy-wide job losses because they were displaced between 2007 and 2010, when the U.S. labor market was severely depressed." - Robert E. Scott, Economic Policy Institute, May 3, 2011

Similarly, it was G.W. Bush who began Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. And neither the results of NAFTA nor five years of high unemployment due to the financial meltdown have dissuaded our President Hope and Change from pursuing "NAFTA on steroids" one iota. Serving "our" multinational corporations by screwing the American worker has been bipartisan ever since 3rd Way corporatists captured the Democratic party.

Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place.
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Your WaPo Headline of the Day

Headlines coming to the WaPo soon:

"No clear answers why Social Security hasn't been cut despite my demands" by Fred Hiatt

"No clear answers why Iran and Syria haven't been bombed back to the Stone Age despite our wildest dreams" by Hiatt, Diehl, Lane, Krauthammer, Gerson, Thiessen, and Rubin

P.S. Seen at Atrios' place:



From McClatchy: Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Chaitus Interruptus

Long ago, I experienced an awareness of Jonathan Chait expressing his opinions in public, during the Iraq War runup.

I thought then, and frequently said, that he was an absolute asshole.

In more recent years he's been right about a bunch of things, but holy toboggans he still sure can pucker up that backdoor muscle.

Franks didn't say the "rate" of pregnancy from rape is low. He said the "incidence" is low. He didn't say it's hard to get pregnant when you're raped. He said rape-induced pregnancy doesn't happen very often.

Is that claim, which is different than Akin's, true? Well, there are about 30,000 pregnancies from rape a year. I'd say that's a lot. I suppose that if you're comparing it to the total number of abortions, a figure that's 20 to 30 times larger, you could argue it isn't so many. From Franks's starting point, in which which abortion is murder, the United States allows massive murder of human beings on an unthinkable scale, next to which 30,000 annual pregnancies looms small. If (like me) you don't share his view of abortion, that 30,000 pregnancies looms large.

In any case, Franks was not relying on pseudoscientific nuttery about the lady-parts shutting down pregnancy in the case of rape. He was saying something different.

I'm incredibly tired -- as I said last post, grading AP lit exams in Louisville -- but holy smokes I saw this and it pissed me off.

Listen, Chait, you fucker. Nobody was disgusted by Akin because what he said was "pseudoscientific."

I myself was pissed off because what he said was obvious bullshit intended to hurt women.

The pseudoscience, as regards Akin, was the frosting. The CUPCAKE was the nasty policy repercussions.

The reason that what Franks said is disgusting and radical and outrageous is that HE DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT IF YOU GOT RAPED AND GOT PREGNANT HE WANTS TO FORCE YOU TO HAVE YOUR RAPIST'S BABY AND WHAT HE SAID OFFHANDEDLY IS VICIOUS AND CRUEL AND FUCKING SNOTTY.

Here, wait, hold on, I'm not sure if that was clear enough...

The reason that what Franks said is disgusting and radical and outrageous is that HE DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT IF YOU GOT RAPED AND GOT PREGNANT HE WANTS TO FORCE YOU TO HAVE YOUR RAPIST'S BABY AND WHAT HE SAID OFFHANDEDLY IS VICIOUS AND CRUEL AND FUCKING SNOTTY.

SO FUCK YOU JONATHAN CHAIT WITH YOUR "LET'S BE FAIR" HORSECRAP YOU FUCKER.

Do you suppose that was overly nuanced and the main point was lost? I do so worry ever so much about these trifles. Here, have a shotglass of arugula whiskey.

Pisses me off...

Send in the Clowns - Obama's Wanker Summit

Just to add to Thers' thought about this ("Much more booze please"), please note the distinguished punditogree of the group:

Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist and THE ONE TRUE WANKER OF THE DECADE

Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor of the Washington Post and WANKER OF THE DECADE - 1st Runner Up

Joe Klein, the Time Magazine columnist and WANKER OF THE DECADE - Runner Up #3

Poor Andy Sullivan...he used to wank with the big boys, now he's reduced to beaching about Glenn Greenwald.

P.S. Re: the comments: I'll fish what I can out of the spam filter, when I see them. Or you can post them at my place, which uses (free) blooger. Where is your Typepad God now, Therses?!?!

Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Moore Booze Please

Christ:

President Obama held a private meeting with top national security journalists on Thursday afternoon following his national security policy address at the National Defense University in Washington, POLITICO has learned.

Present at the meeting were Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist; Gerald Seib, the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau chief; Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor of the Washington Post; David Igantius, the Washington Post columnist; Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic correspondent and Bloomberg View columnist; and Joe Klein, the Time Magazine columnist.

Much more booze please.

 

 

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Joyful Spurts of Flavorful Yogurt Spurt Joyfully Everywhere

The gravest danger facing America is of course a deplorable lack of civility in our public discourse. Fortunately I have discovered a solution, via Facebook.

More yogurt!

Christ, I bet Bill Keller slurps down gallons of that shit, because damn does that man simply ooze Bipartisan Comity. Doesn't matter how long it's been out in the sun, either -- he guzzles it until his face is thoroughly splattered with its Healthy Goodness.

He is an inspiration.