I guess I picked the perfect week to go on vacation because it seems like the news cycle stood still. People are still talking about the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan. Who gives a shit? I’ve been around thousands of midwesterners in the last few days and I have not overheard one comment related to politics in that entire time. No one gives a shit about whatever it is that is being discussed online or on cable or inside the Beltway. But they really don’t care about what’s going on in Manhattan. Bloomberg and Obama said what had to be said, and the rest of it pure wankery. I have some advice for Howard Dean and Harry Reid and the rest of the buffoons. Go jump in a lake. Take a swim. Try some parasailing. Do something relaxing and tell your pollsters to take the rest of the summer off. Anything’s better than being caught in this stupid news cycle that doesn’t seem to want to end.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Between Maddow shilling for the military today (don’t we still have about 50k troops still there?) and Dean betraying his principles, we’re about as low as can be in this household. Just when you think you’re close to the bottom, you take another step down. Ba-a-a-ad day.
I saw the Dean thing, miserably calculating and political. Gotta coddle the bigots in an election season, eh?
What’s the Maddow thing?
What moved Dean to give an opinion on the matter?
I have no idea. But he hasn’t presented a coherent rationale or reason for moving the mosque, that I’ve read. It’s totally nonsensical, and I mean that literally. He said something about how it’s an ‘affront to people who died.’ What does that even mean?
But more pointedly, why/how is it an affront? Why is a mosque near Ground Zero an affront? It is only an affront if one equates all Muslims with the fanatics that attacked on 9/11. I’ve heard no other explanation of why it would be offensive to have a Muslims community center or house of worship there.
She was in Iraq celebrating the exit of all COMBAT troops, having non-interviews with military personnel about the glories of all their high tech equipment, etc. It was a sickening puff piece–but we were so annoyed we turned it off, so there may have been something of value and interest tucked into all the “aren’t we mighty and great” c—.
Pelosi also covered herself in FAIL with her statement today. Dear god why can’t Dems ever just fucking stand up for anything?
That said the unholy glee TPM is taking in Dean’s statement is nauseating. Howard Dean would have beaten Bush in 2004 but Josh and his TNR buddies have always hated and feared him. Everyone is wrong once in a while and this is the first time Dean has been wrong on an issue in at least 6 years of my following him.
Yes, that makes it all the more puzzling why Dean felt he needed to give his opinion on such an obviously trivial, ginned-up matter. Or does this have something do do with ‘belief’?
Do you want some idea? Then see MJ Rosenberg, Israel & The Anti-Muslim Blow-Up, August 18, 2010.
There’s a link today at Antiwar.com.
.
No surprise here, Israel and the right-wing Likudniks used the 9/11 attacks to equate Al-Qaeda terror to Palestinian terror. Bush used 9/11 to get rid of Saddam Hussein and 100,000 Iraqi civilians. Many local politicians use hatred of minorities to woe voters for personal gain.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Indeed.
Maybe wacky, trivial, nutty news cycles at this time of year are just going to be a regular feature of Obama’s presidency. 2008—Sarah Palin! 2009—death panels! 2010—Ground Zero Mosque! 2011—?
August. The Dog Days of summer. Always was the wacky trivial man-bites-dog news time. Wall Street honchos and politicians are on vacation. No real news (or Wall Street panics!) until September-October, but the chattering classes still need to chatter.
This trumped-up mosque controversy has irritated me so much that I’ve avoided all news AND related blog sites for a couple of days. Now I gather even Howard Dean has been sucked into embarrassing himself. Gah! I’m going back into avoidance mode… Teh Stupid it burns, it burns my brain!
Please, guys, last I heard it is not a mosque, it’s a community center located in a renovated Burlington Coat Factory (where I bought a very nice coat some years back). I may be wrong, as I am about many things.
ending our combat role in Iraq is a fucking joke. He’s replacing US troops with a highly paid private army – modern day Hessians. From the NYT:
I hope Rachel Maddow called attention to this but I didn’t hear it if she did.
She mentioned that the remaining troops would,among other things, protect workers at State and contractors.
You feel its a joke that 92,000 troops have left Iraq since 2009 because the NYT says 7000 private contractors will be sent? Really?
Amen.
The Park51 redevelopment of the Burlington Coat Factory is about to die as an issue. With Reid and Dean, the issue lacks its partisan edge. Watch for Fox and friends to do a 180 and start criticizing Reid and Dean for their intolerance.
The permits and zoning have been approved. In practical terms, the issue is moot.
The significance of the withdrawal of the last combat brigade from Iraq shows that despite Odierno’s carping, Obama will deliver on the Status of Forces agreement. This does a number of important international political things. (1) It puts pressure on the Iraqis to come to a political solution before the remainder of forces withdraw. (2) It lets the parties in Afghanistan know that a similar agreement there will be honored, making withdrawal from Afghanistan more likely. (3) It restores American policy to a footing in the rule of law (at least in terms of interventions). (4) It signals that this administration does not wish to dominate the Middle East. (5) It signals that improvements on the ground will accelerate US withdrawal rather than delay it. All of these are important. Symbolically it is indeed a BFD. And I think that letting Rachel Maddow break the story exclusively with NBC embedded reporting delivers a symbolic blow to Fox News.
The GOP is rapidly running out of phony issues, having already exhausted all its culture war wedge issues. And that is because the economy is in the toilet and they know that their policies will not help but cannot give them up without losing their base. There is a collapse of the GOP coming. Whether it happens before or after November is the critical question.
It will come when folks stop being angry at Democrats and ask themselves, “What exactly would Republicans do?” And the old Contract on America shell game won’t work again; the GOP are the most vulnerable to term limits this time. But this won’t happen until after Labor Day when folks begin to pay attention to the midterms. And Obama swings from governing mode back to campaign mode.
There is a news story out now that says that the development corporation has secured only $18,000 or so in financing. This might be moot for another reason; the developers might not be able to finance redevelopment.
If I were looking for a silver lining, I might want to think that Dean and/or Reid had chosen to defang the “issue” by making it “bipartisan”. Among the possible motives, that actually comes out as the least insane.
I continue to think you’re right about a coming turn away from the GOP as people hear more from the other side and start thinking more pragmatically. It would be gratifying to tell a pollster that I want my scummy neighbor’s house to burn down, or even that I’ve thought about making that happen. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to light the match.
There hasn’t been as stark a political contrast in this country in recent memory. Everything will depend on how well the Dems manage to communicate that. And whether folks of the Dean/Reid/Dodd logorrhea kind manage to STFU when stupid thoughts come into their heads.
I remember when the race between Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson was considered a stark political contrast.
Dodd is now irrelevant; he’s already a lame duck.
Rudi dah Mayor has now weighed in with the hallowed 9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 9-11 mantra. It has now jumped the shark or better said the shark attacks of 2010 are over. Reid and Dean defang the partisanship; Rudi rushes in to save the issue from going away. GOP desperation. And the development corporation might have the money to renovate the building.
I don’t think that Dean and Reid acted alone on this. So I don’t think it was a matter of stupid thoughts.
The communication effort by Democrats has not yet begun because unlike 2008 folks are not quite ready to listen. However, for most of the country the withdrawal of the last combat brigade from Iraq will trump the Burlington Coat Factory community center issue. You can’t read public opinion from the media’s obsessions and you can’t rely on public opinion polls. A lot of folks don’t answer the phone for polling organizations (Caller-ID works wonders).
Even Nate Silver is saying that this election is difficult to forecast.
And it will ride less on messaging and more on who can get people to the polls to actually cast their vote. The field campaign will likely be monumental this year. And might even overshadow the impact of the air war.
Yeah, but the ground game will depend on enthusiasm. The Dem’s not-so-bad record has done nothing for enthusiasm so far. I think that’s due in large part to their not communicating the contrast between what they’ve done vs what Bush/GOP has done and wants to do more of.
The ground game depends less on the record of generic Dems and more on the record of the candidate. In the case of Democratic challengers, the enthusiasm gap is not as much a problem unless they start emulating the Dem incumbents. (See Carnahan, Robin)
Elaine Marshall has built a lot of enthusiasm as has Billy Kennedy. Rob Simmons, running against Joe “You Lie” Wilson has built enthusiasm and a self-appointed squad that shows up at Wilson rallies with signs that say, “You Lie”. Tarryl Clark and Justin Coussoule shouldn’t lack for enthusiasm.
It’s easy to forget that in midterms politics is local. The way the blogs judge incumbents is not the way that their constituents judge them. Incumbents with super constituent services operations will be cut a lot of slack.
And the messaging has not yet begun although the folks who volunteered in 2008 should not be ignorant of the record of accomplishments, given all the email that OFA has sent out nationally and through its local affiliates.
Defang the issue by sending a message to Muslim Americans that their constitutional rights are expendable? What won’t white liberals say to defend and justify your own damn bigory, intolerance and compromosing on the rights of people of color because it doesn’t effect you?!
What they said was bad enough. Why are you trolling it, though? Neither denied that they have a right to build it, and would probably stand up for that right if asked directly. Their stupidity/whatever was in shooting off their mouths on something that was none of their business and undercutting Obama’s admirable statement.
Stop conflating Reid’s and Dean’s statement as being about rights. They were very careful to support the constitutional rights in this case. And as far as rights go, it is a moot point. The project has the necessary permits to proceed. There is no legal way opponents can stop it.
All Reid and Dean said was that in their personal opinion that a compromise site would be preferable. The developers are free to ignore Reid’s and Dean’s opinion.
And if in fact their statements defang the issue, exactly how is that justifying bigotry or compromising rights.
And just because I analyze what is happening does not mean I agree with it. My own opinion is that the Democrats should have called bullshit on the issue and pointed out that it is the usual August recess GOP crapfest. But that would have allowed the media to keep recycling it based on conflict. Take away the conflict angle of the story and it slowly dies. I don’t like it. That is not what I would have done in their places. But the folks who deserve the charge of bigotry are the folks who cooked this up in the first place — Pam Geller and Liz Cheney.
But that’s the point. It is as if the anti-mosque group were say, it is not wise for Muslims to build there, BUT they have a right to do so. Or better, EVEN THOUGH they have a right to do so.
At present, it is rather very wise for the Muslim group to build there if only to remind Americans that we live in a constitutional democracy, and majority opinions may not nullify it.
why do you call it a mosque?
“And I think that letting Rachel Maddow break the story exclusively with NBC embedded reporting delivers a symbolic blow to Fox News.”
I was more than a little shocked last night to see that Fox totally (by my viewing) ignored the withdrawal. Every time I checked they were talking about a congressional race in Washington or blathering about the mosque (“we only want them to reveal where the money is coming from…really, we like Muslims, just not terrorists”)
I actually teared watch the gate at the Kuwait border close behind the last Stryker. This war has gone on for most of my kids lifetimes. I feel so good for them. I recall as a kid watching the end of the Vietnam War and thinking that the war started earlier than my memory went back. It had gnawed at me (and my family) all my life. My older brother (and me) were increasingly worried about the draft. My father had several times looked into job in Canada to move the family. But all that was over.
Fox has a policy of blackouts of good news about Obama. I remember that they cut away to other programming when Obama was schooling the Republican House members in his Question and Answer session.
Amen!
A prominent Democratic leader like Howard Dean should know better.
Leave the Islamophobia to the Republicans. It spoils my view of Democrats when I see them taking the wrong side of an obviously prejudicial issue. We are the party of the Kennedy-Johnson Civil Rights Act of 1964. Shouldn’t Muslims be able to build a mosque anywhere that a church or synogogue is welcome.
Dean as well as Harry Reid earlier are party disappointments.
Who gives a shit is right. I’m more concerned that an 1870s cast iron front building is being torn down to do this, rather than being reused for this purpose.
With you on that – also, Burlington Coat Factory is a great place, hate to see any close.
Amen, brother. Isn’t it beautiful in Michigan today? Is that where you are at in your travels.
What’s this “mosque thing” everyone is talking about? 🙂
Well, according to Time Mag poll, 61% of Americans oppose the construction. So somebody out there seems to be giving a shit. Of course the phrasing of the question made it kind of meaningless: “Do you favor or oppose” sets up a false dichotomy that’s hard to answer. I don’t particularly favor the project (or oppose it), so it would be hard to answer “favor”, but of course you don’t get to explain your answer. I have to wonder what responses the right question would have gotten: “Do you believe the Muslim group has a right to build an Islamic community center near the 9/11 site?” That’s really the issue. The question as asked is just gossip about a question that’s nobody’s business.
I’m terribly disappointed in Dean and Reid. For no good reason they’ve chosen to align with the GOP/teabagger neo-fascist line. Interesting lineup: Reid and Dean and the GOP on one side, Franken, Rangel, Bloomberg, Obama on the other. Strange alliances for crazy times.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I dislike the idea of “supporting” the building of it in the first place. I mean, what does that even mean? Do I think they should move? No. Do I think they should build it? Well, being as I don’t really like religion at all, my opinion would be no lol. However, I would like it if less religious things were erected altogether, not just this. So really it’s a stupid question. “Do you support them building it or don’t you?” Frankly, I don’t care. It’s their property, they’ve made their choice, so that means that I do support their building it; and I’m not going to be terrorized with stupid right-wing ploys, lies, and racial/religious bigotry.
This is just so fucking stupid, and it pisses me off that it reaches the national scene because of some far-right fascist named Pam who is paged regularly by Murdoch and Roger Ailes for their next controversy and ginned up “scare white people” story.
Hey, guys, unemployment is like 9.5% and it’s the Republicans’ fault; hey, guys, Pakistan is underwater, why isn’t there as large of a response as there was to Haiti (which probably still hasn’t gotten even 10% of the promised donations); hey, guys, Moscow is burning and people are literally being evacuated due to the smog. All of these issues, and we’re talking about a god damned mosque in NY City.
In fact there were two good questions polled.
Do muslims have a legal right to build a mosque near the WTC?
and
Do muslims have a Constitutional right to build a mosque near the WTC?
Intriguingly, a majority said they had a legal right but not a Constitutional right.
Explain that one.
“Who gives a shit?”
White folks.
This has been another episode of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.