Gaddafi Is Dead, Tarhouni Is Doing Well

The Libyan revolution moves forward as Moammar Gadhafi has met his end. It's an event of some importance, since it leaves loyalists of the old regime with no hope that the dictator will return.

Obviously, what's more important is the progress of the new government. I've been using former University of Washington economics professor Ali Tarhouni as my guide to how well things are going in Libya. Longtime readers will remember him as the guy who cancelled class to become Oil and Finance minister for the rebels. My thought was that if the smart liberal former student dissident who got great teaching evaluations at UW is doing well, things probably aren't taking some kind of dictatorial turn. And things are looking good, as Tarhouni is now either Oil and Finance Minister or Deputy Prime Minister (news accounts vary, which is weird, but in any case things are going well). Here's an article about him resolving an oil worker strike last week by agreeing to get rid of the Gaddafi-linked chairman of the oil company whom the workers didn't like.

Rachel Maddow

I appreciated this post by Jon Cohn criticizing the New Republic, where he blogs, for calling Rachel Maddow overrated. His description of Maddow's work to prevent Uganda from instituting the death penalty for homosexuality is especially powerful.

It was hard not to smile when reading the New Republic editors' criticisms: "She knows the answers even before she has the questions. The truth about everything is completely obvious to her. She seems utterly incapable of doubt or complication." I guess the problem is that she's clearly right about things that annoy centrists like TNR editors. (By the way, is 'The Editors' really just Marty Peretz? If so, that'd explain a lot.)

I don't watch a lot of TV, because I find a lot of it overstimulating and dumb, even when it's presenting views I agree with. And anyway, I can take in news ten times as fast through text as I can by having some newsperson read it to me. But Rachel Maddow is one of the few people I can watch, because she just keeps saying smart things and doesn't treat viewers like morons.

Primaries Should Be About Big Issues, Not Stopping Nonexistent Plots

I'm quite proud of the way that the 2008 Democratic presidential primary went. My guy didn't win (thank goodness?) but the whole party got into a debate about lots of important issues of policy and strategy, most importantly how to set up health care reform. Democratic candidates were pushed to come out with serious proposals, and engaged activists educated themselves about the issues. I'm still impressed that so many people spent so much time learning and arguing about the wonky issue of mandates. A party consensus developed around a health care plan that eventually became law, minus one or two parts that we had to break off to fit it through the Senate. Overall, it was a triumph of democratic engagement and public deliberation.

Things obviously aren't going so well in this year's GOP primary. I liked Jonathan Bernstein's comments on the way that candidates spend a lot of time running against proposals that Democrats aren't actually making (Obama's going to take away your guns and fly around the world apologizing to all leaders for America being evil, etc):

Strawman attacks on the other party are seriously unhealthy during the nomination fight, at least if they dominate to the extent that policy fights are all about who is best able to stop nonexistent plots. After all, nomination fights are when parties really have a chance to determine what they want to do. Republicans have some serious questions they could be fighting over, beginning with whether they want to return to George W. Bush's first term foreign policy, and what they actually believe should be done about the economy in the short and long term. If they don't deal with those things now, they're going to wind up (should they win) with someone in the White House who won't really be constrained by actual party preferences on the issues

I'd seriously like to hear Republicans talk about general approaches to foreign policy, and argue amongst themselves about those issues more. There isn't a whole lot of enthusiasm in the party for continuing the war in Iraq. This would be a good time for that to become part of the overall GOP approach to foreign policy. But if they spend all their time arguing against nonexistent plots and coming up with insane proposals like a twenty foot electric border fence to kill immigrants, the opportunity will be wasted.

White House Cites Lincoln's Depression as a Disability

I often wonder what importance I should attach to politicians' efforts to make symbolic gestures towards this or that interest group. Does a Presidential Proclamation honoring the contributions of Native Americans to our nation's social fabric really earn any votes? Does anyone care whether the audience standing behind the President is sufficiently "demographically correct" that their particular race/gender/regionality is represented?

With that said, here's an excerpt from a recent White House blog entry on disability hiring (emphasis mine):

The Tony Coelho Award recognizes commitment and action to employ people with disabilities– in every available position. I was honored to accept this year’s award on behalf of OPM this past Wednesday. It reflects our work towards OPM’s simple goal: Hire the best.

At least two of our presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, lived with disabilities. First-hand accounts tell us that President Lincoln experienced depression. From his wheelchair, President Roosevelt led America through a Great Depression and a World War.

I'm not really interested in going into details, and I still don't know how many votes this sort of thing moves, but I guess today I learned that symbolic gestures have at least a little importance.

Friday Obama Caption Contest and Kitsch Cover

Original caption: "President Barack Obama participates in a high level meeting on Libya at the United Nations in New York, N.Y., Sept. 20, 2011. Pictured with the President, from left, are: Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France"

Here's Alex Parks' cove of "Mad World", originally by Tears for Fears but popularized in the movie Donnie Darko by that guy who sounds like Neil Young, and in the commercials for Gears of War:



Leave your captions and nominations for future Kitsch Covers in the comments