Motley Moose – Archive

(Written by an American expat living in the European Union)

The GOP led class warfare after it’s bizarre twists and turns through the leadership of Gov. Scott Walker’s union busting antics seems to have taken yet another bizarre and shameful turn through the actions of the Tea Party’s favorite celebrity Glenn Beck. In preparation for the 2012 election Tea Party’s class warfare campaign in an attempt to embarrass and weaken the Obama administration and the Democrats, Glenn Beck mocked President Obama’s speech on the tragedy that has befallen Japan.

On March 17th, Glenn Beck with a set backdrop mirroring the Oval Office in the White House gave a speech regarding the tragedy in Japan that Beck believes President Obama should have given. As such on national television, Glenn Beck pretending to be President of the United States gave that speech to an American and international audience numbering in the millions. This diary invites you to watch that video and decide for yourself if Glenn Beck was exploiting the terrible tragedy that has befallen the Japanese people in order to score cheap political points with his Tea Party base. At which point shouldn’t we ask, is there anything that Fox News will not do in order to gain rating points as truly these people have no shame?!

I invite you to follow me below the fold to watch this shameless video.

One of the oldest cliches of political life is that we always end up fight the last war.  When it comes to the rare moment of the UN utilising its chapter VII provision last night and enforcing a No Fly Zone, with additional ultimatums for Gaddafi to withdraw his forces from the several heavily bombarded towns in Libya, it cannot be emphasised too much: this is not a ground invasion or regime change from above

Unlike Iraq, President Obama has insisted the US is providing support to the UN, but not proposing an invasion:

“I also want to be clear about what we not be do – the US is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya. And we are not going to use force beyond a defined goal, specifically: the protection of civilians in Libya.”

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Though I understand the reservations about military action in any field, I felt a deep sense of relief when the UN Security Council voted through resolution 1973 last night UK time.

Why? Because in all the mess of the wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan, I always feared one of the casualties of those debacles would be the careful constructed Responsibility to Protect principle established after the genocide in Rwanda, and near genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo.

To me this isn’t about the right to wage war, but the responsibility to prevent it

I recently wrote a post title: The Great Twitter/Facebook Revolution Fallacy. This post noted that:

For some strange reason, the American media has always been obsessed with Twitter and Facebook…

This applies to foreign affairs as well. In the context of the events   occurring in the Middle East, the Western media loves to argue that   Twitter and Facebook constitute catalysts for revolution in the modern   era. Indeed, some articles called the 2009 Iranian protests the “Twitter Revolution.”

It then went on to argue that, in fact, Twitter and Facebook played a  negligible role in the Arab revolutions, given the very very few  individuals in those countries who use Twitter or Facebook (let alone  have access to the Internet in the first place).

More below.

I’m watching the vote as the Republican majority votes on debate rules to defund National Public Radio. So far all Republicans are voting to cut the funds and all Democrats are voting to save the funding. If it keeps up like this, NPR has no chance.

C-SPAN is taking in phone calls during the vote, alternating between Democrats and Republicans, and the trend among callers of both parties is that NPR should keep its funding. Oh, there are a few who are supporting it because they claim it’s the government telling people what to watch (where they get that from, I don’t know.)

Not really a diary.  I just read on the BBC that the Red Cross is pulling out of Benghazi while pro-Qaddafi forces are advancing.  

Hear HRC from Tahrir Square on NPR on my drive home tonight.  People were begging her for the US to help the Libyans.  I’m not saying we should have sent in a division or anything.  But I really wish we had found more meaningful ways to support these people.  I mean, when the Arab League requests a no-fly zone over a member state…

It’s not over.  But things look very very scary, and I’m already very very sad.

The GOP wants to excuse this based on the prevailing opinion that we need to reduce the deficit, but the whole thing is ridiculous. There are stupid cuts all over the place, but let’s get down to the science.  

While Waxman may have accused Republicans of presiding over the “most anti-science” Congress in history, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tells Mother Jones that his colleague’s characterization doesn’t even go far enough: “This is the most anti-science body since the Catholic Church ostracized Galileo for determining that the earth revolves around the sun.”

Mother Jones, emphasis added

I wish it were possible to collect information about all the wrongdoing of the GOP into one diary, but even a series of books would probably find such an endeavor impossible. Even fully covering a specific topic is, realistically, far beyond the scope of any single diary. In trying to provide an aggregate summary of any currently relevant topic, the best I can give is a brief overview of the most recent and egregious Republican transgressions.

Today we address in brief (kind of) the GOP’s war on science.

By: Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Algeria’s World Cup soccer team is a strange thing. Most of the players weren’t actually born in Algeria, and many of them don’t speak Arabic. In fact, an astonishing 17 of the 23 players on the Algerian squad were born in France – children of Algerian immigrants, who chose to play for the country of their parents instead of the country of their birth.

France’s national team could use some help.

More below.