The Obama administration just had its best week ever, even better than the inaugural. Consider:
1. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is law. Not only that, in a bit of a stunning reversal, the context of its enactment may have helped the Democratic party and hurt the GOP. With "deem and pass" and faux-drama about Senate reconciliation rules, a week ago it looked like the Republicans were creating a winning issue about legislative process on the way down and riling up their base while doing so. That was always stunningly hypocritical given their own use of those exact same procedures, but that didn't mean it lacked political bite. Then Pelosi called an audible and the Democrats ditched "deem and pass," deftly handled the abortion issue (Mark Shields correctly points out that no male Speaker of the House would have had the credibility to pull that off), and it passed. The night of its passage, GOP members of the House described it as "totalitarian" and that it would lead to an "apocalypse." Anti-abortion stalwart Bart Stupak (D-MI) was called "baby killer!" from the gallery.
Some ugly behavior by right-wing protesters has shamed their cause. Before the vote, a man with Parkinson's disease demonstrating in favor of the bill in Columbus, OH, was mocked as "looking for a handout" by, among other insults, having people stand over him and throw dollar bills on his crippled body (one of those has since apologized). In DC, some wingnuts really came off the screw and called members of Congress "N_____" and "F__" as the walked past their rally at the Capitol. Other miscreants have vandalized lawmakers' offices in various cities around the country.
Back inside the capital, Republican Senators offered a series of frivolous amendments to the 2nd "fix-it" bill that came over from the House and Harry Reid kept the Senate in session until 2:30 a.m.!!! Harry, I didn't know you had it in you. The GOP folded the next day, realizing the political theater wasn't going like they had planned. They did rile up their base, but that in turn riled up the Democratic base. It also unified the Democrats in the Congress, who are set to bring up legislation on financial reform (which will be very popular), changing "No Child Left Behind" and immigration. In each case, if the GOP derails the bill, the Democrats have a winning issue, although I'm less sure about how immigration reform will play in a bad economy. It is entirely possible that 2 or 3 more major reform laws will be enacted this year. How's that hopey-changey thing goin for ya?
That in and of itself would be best week ever. But ALSO
2. A major nuclear arms treaty with Russia was finalized. Did Obama just earn that Peace Prize? It is said that Henry Kissinger and George Shultz (2 former GOP Secretaries of State from the Cold War) support this treaty, which will really help as Obama needs 67 votes to ratify it in the Senate. I think the treaty is in our interests and I hope this doesn't get overly political, but if it does, I think it will drive establishment Republicans out into open revolt against the neocons. I think Obama needs to sit down with both George Bushes on this one, because a unanimous group of ex-Presidents can defeat the militarists, even in the Senate. Should be interesting.
3. The student loan reform package is law (bundled onto the ACA). Liberal policy wonks are happy about this. This creates more money for Pell Grants while removing a moral hazard by nixing a bank subsidy. There is probably not much change from a student point of view insofar as the loans themselves are concerned: the costs derive from the credit market and the administration of the loans (the bureaucracy part) is being outsourced back to the existing banks as service providers, which lessens the impact on the existing job structure for them but means you'll be dealing with the same people on the same terms, more or less.
4. The final results of the recent election in Iraq are in and this election was encouraging. Yes, the results are being contested as the the apparent winner (with a plurality) was a surprise, turning out to be a secular Sunni party headed by Allawi, who served in a previous Iraqi administration born from the American occupation. Back then, the country was riven with sectarian conflicts between Shia, Sunni, and Kurd that led to a brief civil war. Now, several leading political parties are emphasizing Iraqi nationalism and they are being rewarded with election victories. This is good for the US because it seems that the Iraqis are making peace with each other, because they want US military forces to leave (and we want to come home), and because they are generally secular in orientation and opposed to al-Qaeda. Now, if al-Malaki doesn't concede eventually then it is a big mess, and even when he does, Allawi doesn't have a majority and will need to put together a coalition government. Nonetheless, with every passing election, democracy in Iraq becomes more normalized and more legitimate.
If it holds, it also means that Bush was right to proceed with "the surge" when plenty of people (myself including) were willing to throw in the towel and let the place burn. If it holds, it will also free up military assets for the Afghanistan theater, which is also heading in the right direction. This is the first time in a long time that both those conflicts are improving at the same time.
The news from the rest of the world is mixed. Relations with Israel are frosty as the balance of power within Israel has tilted to the religious right-wing, but apparently Obama holds a Seder.
The New York Times and Washington Post have published pieces that directly challenge the moral authority of the Pope. The revelations about child abuse in Germany and Ireland were alarming enough, but the story about the deaf boys from Wisconsin actually made me cry.
I believe that justice doesn't just happen when you die. There should be justice on earth, and this criminal pervert is just unforgivable. And it wasn't just the church hierarchy that failed to act in this shocking case. Civil authorities failed miserably in their duties, too.
As much as I criticize the state of journalism, American newspapers have played a part in bringing truth to power here. The Boston Globe broke the story in Massachusetts in 2002. Since then, it has spread all over the world. This is a very sad situation, and I believe the church will come to regret its recent defensiveness. Blaming the liberal media isn't going to cut it.
It's been a big news week. Buried in all this was news that the Social Security trust fund has hit the tipping point 6 years ahead of expectations and that the United States is going to start selling off some major assets acquired as part of a prior bailout, notably Citigroup. The Fed made a point of confirming their commitment to a low Fed Funds rate, which makes me think this asset sale more about properly re-privatizing these firms for the sake of doing so and for the revenue it will raise than as a shift in monetary policy. But another piece of news was that a recent original auction for Government Bonds didn't sell well -- the bond market may well tire of US debt and extract a higher premium.
Bow down to the bond market, slaves.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
First off, the shameful behavior by right-wing protesters has been widely publicized and I think it will help the Democrats greatly. Also, the new agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear arms even more is a great step for Obama. However, I understand the Republicans insistence that what we have left must be kept up to date. With less missiles deployed as deterrents, we also need to improve missile interception capabilities.
The articles about the Pope and the Catholic Church made me wonder why those perverts are still out there, and why they haven't been locked up yet. Furthermore, the fact that the Pope issued a message that basically told all those involved in inappropriate sexual activities to keep silent makes me wonder how he got to become the Pope...corruption has been a part of the Church's history for so many years and it makes me wonder why people still follow them. I have many opinions on the Catholic Church, but I'll keep my mouth shut lest I insult someone and have to deal with the long angry messages.
Victor H
I really don't know why people are always "shocked" when the Catholic Church demonstrates its lack of moral authority. It never had any. It's the most corrupt, perverse institution that has ever existed.
Throughout history it has had to be dragged by the ear into having the tolerance that it claims to have a monopoly on.
It is responsible for many, many wars (The Crusades). It is these wars, not World War II, which contained the first mass Jew killings. It is also very much responsible for the anti-Jew discrimination that made the Jews such an excellent scapegoat for Hitler.
Several hundred years ago it was still common for indulgences to be sold. That's right; you could buy God's forgiveness and go to heaven, if your pockets are deep enough.
Bishops and Priests were able to purchase their positions. Have enough money? Become a priest! The clergy, while it preached morality, had virtually none.
Today:
The current Pope has spread the lie that condoms spread HIV/AIDS.
The Church is an enormous force of homophobia, which is odd considering that the few lines that are anti-gay in the Bible are in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament says that if a man has a wet dream, he has to leave the town for the day. Also, being gay is biological; this is no longer debatable.
The Church has become famous in modern times for the molestation of innocent school boys.
Now let’s look at its Philosophical Contributions:
(a) Saint Augustine: Believed that we are all sinners that deserve to burn in Hell eternally because we inherited Original Sin from Adam and Eve. Hell shows God's divine justice and Heaven shows God's divine mercy. We all deserve to burn; the fact that some of us don't only emphasizes God's goodness. Oh, and he wrote a book called "Confessions" in which he spends 4 chapters crying about how he's a sinner that deserves to burn because, when he was eight, he stole pears from his neighbors pear tree.
(b) Saint Aquinas: He was actually somewhat reasonable, and at the very least tried to solve some of the paradoxes surrounding God (he did, for example, impose limits on God's omnipotence so that God couldn't uncreate himself). While he was certainly talented philosophically, he managed to ensure that Aristotle would be misinterpreted for several hundred years. He was a poor logician, as he decided upon conclusions and then set out to prove them, which is stupid.
(c) The Roman Empire and the Catholic Church managed to ensure that logic would remain flawed until the time of Bertrand Russell. It discouraged original thought, so when Aristotle was demonstrated to be inadequate, the philosopher would assume he was wrong, and adhere to Aristotle as the authority (this happened to Leibniz). Aristotle would have contributed far more to philosophy as an intermediate had the Catholic Church not arrived on the scene and decided he was an absolute authority.
(d) The Church effectively retarded the rise of science. For example, Copernicus' Heliocentric Theory was not original to him, but had been discovered by people living in modern day Italy before the rise of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church rejected this view, and that of all others who used any empirical evidence to demonstrate that the Bible was wrong. The Church felt that these people should be tortured into recanting their views, and that Copernicus' book explaining his Heliocentric Theory ought to be on the banned books list, so that whoever read it could be tortured to death by the Spanish Inquisition.
(e) Many people have told me that the modern science was brought to light by Catholicism and Christianity. This is wrong. Modern Science has been brought around by original thinkers who somehow managed to avoid persecution by superstitious organizations. These people were forward thinkers, and while many were certainly religious, this was common.
That concludes my brief history of the Catholic Church. So can we all stop being surprised when it commits moral atrocities that are actually common to it? More common, in fact, than any of the goods it provides? It is and always has been a superstitious, power hungry, stupid, intolerant, genocidal, morally impaired organization. Let us not pretend otherwise.
Post a Comment