"Read His Lips ..."

No doubt about it: Barack Obama's a versatile man. Besides his masterful channeling of George W. Slow-puppy, he also does a great Richard Nixon:

President Obama's top political adviser declined yesterday to rule out the possibility that the White House would agree to a tax hike on health insurance plans that would hit middle-income Americans.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," David Axelrod declined to repeat Obama's "firm pledge" during the campaign that families making under $250,000 would not see "any form of tax increase, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Instead, Axelrod said the president has no interest in "drawing lines in the sand" on the issue of how to pay for the costly health reform plan making its way through Congress.

"One of the problems we've had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking to each other. And you don't get anything done," Axelrod said. "That's not the way the president approaches this."

What was it Tricky Dick's press secretary said, during the Watergate scandal, back in the days when there was some semblance of an adversary, watchdog relationship between the press and the gummint? After some lie or other came to light, press secretary Ron Nessen said, "That statement is no longer operative." Now Mr. Axelrod has a new one: to keep one's word is "drawing a line in the sand," and that's very bad because "you don't get anything done." Well, there's another couple of folks who look very good up against the wall, wearing blindfolds, in my "After the Revo" fantasy.

G. W. Obama on Torture

President Change We Can Believe In™ has delivered himself of some no-doubt-ghostwritten remarks in dishonor of "United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Victims:"

Twenty-five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention Against Torture, and twenty-two years ago this very day, the Convention entered into force. The United States’ leading role in the negotiation of the Convention and its subsequent ratification and implementation enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Today, we join the international community in reaffirming unequivocally the principles behind that Convention, including the core principle that torture is never justified.

Torture violates United States and international law as well as human dignity. Torture is contrary to the founding documents of our country, and the fundamental values of our people. It diminishes the security of those who carry it out, and surrenders the moral authority that must form the basis for just leadership. That is why the United States must never engage in torture, and must stand against torture wherever it takes place.

My administration is committed to taking concrete actions against torture and to address the needs of its victims. On my third day in office, I issued an executive order that prohibits torture by the United States. My budget request for fiscal year 2010 includes continued support for international and domestic groups working to rehabilitate torture victims.

The United States will continue to cooperate with governments and civil society organizations throughout the international community in the fight to end torture. To this end, I have requested today that the Department of State solicit information from all of our diplomatic missions around the world about effective policies and programs for stopping torture and assisting its victims so that we and our civil society partners can learn from what others have done. I applaud the courage, compassion and commitment of the many people and organizations doing this vitally important work.

So what's David Frum up to? From the way the above reads, I have to think Rainbow Brite has simply retained at least one of Dubya's speechwriters. The remarks are incomplete, though. I shall do my duty as a good citizen and assist Da Prez, gratis:

The United States will also continue to spare no effort in covering up its recent history of torture, and to make certain that no torturers are investigated, prosecuted, or even fired. And, however difficult it may be, I will absolutely stifle my giggles when issuing this annual boilerplate denunciation of torture. I'm the Chosen One, and I will meet the challenge.

(Thanks to James Bovard for linking to the Obama statement.)

Counterproductive

Imperial America is Kim Jong-il's indispensable ally:

North Korean media said the North would never give up its “nuclear deterrent” but instead would strengthen it because of what the media called an American plot to invade the North. Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper, said that the United States’ recent pledge to defend South Korea was tantamount to “asking for the calamitous situation of having a fire shower of nuclear retaliation all over South Korea.”

International sanctions could further isolate the already impoverished North. But the government appears to be using them to stoke anti-American anger and consolidate its power at home at a time when the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, is seeking to bequeath his power to one of his sons, according to officials and private analysts in South Korea.

Mr. Kim, 67, reportedly had a stroke last August.

No, I don't think there's going to be an American invasion of North Korea -- surely, God-Emperor Obama's not that stupid -- although I'm sure there are many American "plots to invade North Korea," which our tech-speaking warmasters would call "contingency plans." Given our history, though, how is anyone, even the Dear Editors of Rodong Sinmun, going to sound too silly by referring to such invasion plots? I mean, name a place we haven't invaded, and it either has nukes, or we just haven't gotten around to it yet: be patient, Lower Slobbovians, your turn's coming. But an interventionist, world-managing, overbearing, condemning, sanctions-dispensing, self-parodying U.S. has to be a great boon to a little tin-plated maniac like Dear Leader Kim, as he seeks to perpetuate his misrule even after his overdue death. If our supervisors: (1) had any brains; and (2) actually wanted to hurt the NoKo regime, they'd get the U.S. armed forces out of Korea instantly, and they'd then proceed to studiously ignore North Korea: do nothing, and say nothing. But our supervisors are malevolent pinheads. So it goes.

Blasphemy Here

Madonna is wrong, twice:

Tributes from stars and fans have been pouring in for singer Michael Jackson, who has died aged 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home.

Pop star Madonna said: "The world has lost one of its greats, but his music will live on forever."

No, it hasn't; and no, it won't.

GOP Turnaround?

All five or six of you who read this blog now and then know me, and the three or four things I have to say, all too well. You know I think there's only one "party" ruling this huge, poor, decaying, used-to-be republic: the Corporate/War Party, with two major caucuses, elephas maximus and equus africanus asinus, plus a minor caucus or so that don't merit mention. But while the two big caucuses are, I claim, functionally and morally equivalent (zero equals zero), they still have their own individual foibles and tendencies. And, in recent years, the nominal males of the pachyderm caucus have displayed a remarkable tendency to "think" with the wrong head, so to speak; and, increasingly, to do so with folk of their own sex. Playing hide-the-sausage with the other boys, that is to say.

Well, you know, these GOPpers, along with their jackass "opponents," have already demonstrated their moral bankruptcy many times over, in ways that range from military mass murder to wholesale robbery on an astronomical scale to frank, out-and-out tyranny. And I'm pretty well numb and resigned to the idea that sociopaths with innumerable superbly-armed minions hold the power of life and death over me. So, when it comes to their sexual mischief, either sodomaniacal or heteromaniacal, I can't get too exercised; it's not killing the innocent, and it gives the rest of us a tiny little bit of amusement: some (very) low comedy, and a great opportunity to give 'em the old horselaugh.

But the last two 'Pubbies have copped to adultery with women, not men, or teenage boys. I have to wonder: has the Party of Lincoln™ hit bottom, morally speaking, and begun the slightest hint of a rebound?

[Warning: if you're a Lincoln idolator, or are simply offended by vile material, don't watch the below. I include it only because it's hilarious, and I'm completely irresponsible.]



Or will it turn out that there's still another shoe to drop in the strange saga of Guv Sanford? Will we find out, in the next couple of days, that his dark-eyed, smoldering senorita is really a senor? I certainly have no track record for predicting such things. No doubt, another news cycle or so will tell.

The Word for Wednesday, June 24 Edition

Isaiah looks ahead (chapter 24):

Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases.
They do not drink wine with song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that none may enter.
There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.
Desolation is left in the city,
And the gate is battered to ruins.
For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.
They raise their voices, they shout for joy.
They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the Lord.
Therefore glorify the Lord in the east,
The name of the Lord, the God of Israel
In the coastlands of the sea.
From the ends of the earth, we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One,"
But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously."
Terror and pit and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit,
And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.
The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard,
And it totters like a shack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again.
So it will happen in that day,
That the Lord will punish the host of heaven, on high,
And the kings of the earth, on earth.
And they will be gathered together
Like the prisoners in the dungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will be punished.
Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.

Well. That is nothing if not comprehensive, it seems to me. I wonder: does this mean I don't have to cut my grass this week?

I didn't think so.

Click here for more Words for Wednesday.