“Consider if you will, the rhetoric the left used against Reagan when he ran in 1980. I was twelve at the time, and our school was all about the election. . . . Back then, we all did the ‘Weekly Reader’ thing in school. They had us vote in their mock election, which, they had bragged, had never been wrong in predicting Presidential elections. I voted for Reagan, and made the apparent mistake of sharing that information. The result? The teacher said he would start a war. My classmates said he would start a war. Hell, even my mother said he would start a war. I would not have been surprised if a voice came over the PA, saying, ‘He’ll start a war, kid.’ Obviously, the left did manage to create the narrative that Reagan was a warmonger, and would trigger the apocalypse shortly after taking office. It was a knee jerk reaction from Democrats — almost like an old talking toy with a drawstring. You say ‘Reagan,’ and pull the string, and a Democrat says ‘warmonger.'”
— Matt Ross, Conservative Hideout
Herman Cain Attends Koch Brothers Meeting, Causes Left-Wing Freak-Out
Lee Fang at Think Progress sees a conspiracy afoot:
This weekend, David and Charles Koch, co-owners of the Koch Industries conglomerate of chemical, timber, oil and manufacturing interests, are hosting their twice annual meeting to coordinate strategy and raise funds for the conservative movement. . . .
Among those in attendance at the meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, is Herman Cain. Still a year to go until the Iowa caucuses, and he’s already got ’em shaking in their shoes.
‘Climb Back Into That Academic Vagina’
“Because if we were good at life, we wouldn’t need more school.”
(Via Snaggletoothie, who posted this video the day before he suffered a fatal seizure last week. R.I.P., Chris Monson.)
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! By the way, an earlier installment in this video series appears to have starred Ace of Spades.
A Reverse Piven Strategy?
by Smitty
Tyler Cowen’s little book, “The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better” is interesting, but I’m nonplussed by this notion:
Right-wing ideas, in their least viable forms, have become more popular in this political environment. From the American right, tax cuts are one way to raise incomes immediately, and so politicians market tax cuts to voters. Shortsighted voters usually favor tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts. So, in the short run, real incomes will be higher, but we’re just running up debt and postponing and indeed intensifying our dissatisfaction.
This is among the prime irritants of the Progressive Faith (not to accuse Prof. Cowen of adherence, mind you): a blind acceptance that the status quo is somehow proper, and a confinement of discussion to a small enough time frame to make it all seem ‘normal’.
The notion that tax cuts are merely a populist power ploy misses the point that the federal over-reach has been achieved by trampling the spirit of the Constitution in a systematic way over the last century. Sure, the ignorance of the people and the SCOTUS have been fig leaves for the problem. Also, one would be unsurprised to discover that the math involved in tax cutting has been dodgy. Fine. However, if intellectual (“It won’t work”)and historical (“We’re pissing on liberty”) appeals fail, then what should be done?
The tax cutting approach, possibly, will be viewed in retrospect as a “reverse Piven” strategy. Instead of establishing a guaranteed national income, break the input to the national income on the front end.
In the information age, liberty should abound, not be sacrificed to bureaucracy.
Education Bubble Reaches Egypt?
“I have to pay 150 pounds a day to bribe police officers to let me sell on this pavement. How can I be this educated and not find proper work?”
— Ramadan Mohamed, Law graduate selling sunglasses on Cairo street
Chris Matthews: ‘Blame Bush!’
Don’t try this at home, kids. It takes a special kind of stupid:
“Leading off tonight: Unrest in Egypt. Proving the Iraq war wasn`t needed, these protests in Egypt, as well as in Yemen and Tunisia, are all aimed at dictators supported by the U.S. The demonstrations have not yet turned anti-American, but they could. These are the events the Bush administration hoped to encourage by lying about weapons of mass destruction and invading Iraq.”
Noel Sheppard tries to make sense of Matthews’ idiocy, but it’s a waste of time trying.
UPDATE: Adjoran in the comments: “If it weren’t for conservatives monitoring his show to catch his gaffes, he would have no audience at all.”
Meanwhile, Matthews says the Panama Canal is in Egypt, and Instpundit is almost moved to pity: “It is, of course, the kind of mistake anyone can make on the air. But it’s true — if Palin made it, it would be proof of stupidity.”
FMJRA 2.0: Fresh Pond Parkway Edition
- PJ Tatler
- Conserrvative Wanderer
- The (Perhaps Slightly Less) Lonely Conservative
- Ed Driscoll
- The Rio Norte Line
- The Frugal Cafe
‘Whose Bright Idea Was It to Send Joe Biden Out to Talk About Egypt?’
- The (Perhaps Slightly Less) Lonely Conservative
- Instapundit
- Free To Assemble: Alice Bloggs
- Piece of Work in Progress
- Revolution Egypt
- Republican Redefined
Herman Cain Tops Santorum, Christie, Daniels, Pence, Huckabee in N.H.
‘Civility,’ Unless It’s Sarah Palin
The Decline and Fall of Lizardopolis
‘Man Was Born Free, And He Is Everywhere In Chains. . .’
Democrat Attacked After Vitriolic Rhetoric From Sarah Palin … No? Never Mind.
In Which Charles Johnson Belatedly Discovers We Can Fact Check Your A$$
VIDEO: British Girl, 13, Says Rape Threats Are ‘Happening to Lots of Girls’ at School
Media Shocked — Shocked! — To Discover That Ann Marie Buerkle Is Pro-Life
Court to Rahm Emanuel: ‘F*** You!’
Glenn Beck Wants You to Threaten Violence Against Harmless Academics
Complete Guide to Tucson Shootings
Chris Matthews: ‘Balloonhead!’
Labor Department Blames Snow for Increase in Weekly Unemployment
8-Year-Old Girl Raped by Illegal Alien
Get Pawlenty’s ‘Courage to Stand: An American Story’
In Desperation Move, Egyptian Regime Shuts Down Access to Iowahawk
Palin Derangement Syndrome Prevents Bristol’s Appearance at University
Egyptian Uprising: Latest Updates
An Associated Press video report on Saturday’s developments:
As street battles between protesters and the security police flared for a fifth day, Mr. Mubarak named a new government filled with military figures, signaling the pivotal role the military might play in shaping the outcome of the unrest. He appointed Omar Suleiman, his right-hand man and the country’s intelligence chief, as vice president and a retired general as prime minister.
Reuters thumbnail biography of Suleiman:
* He has been the director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (EGIS) since 1993, a role in which he has played a prominent public role in diplomacy, including in Egypt’s relations with Israel and with key aid donor the United States.
* He was born on July 2, 1936 in Qena, in southern Egypt. He later enrolled in Egypt’s premier Military Academy in 1954, after which he received additional military training in the then Soviet Union at Moscow’s Frunze Military Academy.
* He also studied political science at Cairo University and Ain Shams University. In 1992 he headed the General Operations Authority in the Armed Forces and then became the director of the military intelligence unit before taking over EGIS.
* Suleiman took part in the war in Yemen in 1962 and the 1967 and 1973 wars against Israel.
* As Egypt’s intelligence chief, Suleiman was in charge of the country’s most important political security files, and was the mastermind behind the fragmentation of Islamist groups who led the uprising against the state in the 1990s.
Obama met Saturday afternoon with his top advisers and issued a statement repeating what he said Friday about “opposing violence and calling for restraint, supporting universal rights,” et cetera.
Protesters outside the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C.:
Allapundit compiled a massive aggregation today, his latest update being a report that a “senior administration official” says the U.S. wants “managed change.” Don’t expect that to pacify the protesters.
UPDATE: Stanley Kurtz sees tribalism asserting itself in the streets of Cairo. On a more encouraging note — indeed, the only encouraging thing about Egypt I’ve seen all day — John Guardiano of the American Spectator predicts the Egyptian army will prevent an Islamic revolution:
[W]hile Islamist elements may well try to take advantage of the Egyptian revolution, they face one almost insurmountable obstacle: the Egyptian military, a professional force and a nationally respected institution which views itself as the guardians of greater Egypt.
Indeed, the Egyptian military is not dominated by Islamists; and it will not allow Egypt to descend into total anarchy.
In fact, the Egyptian military will play a major role in Egypt’s next government, just as it has ever since the Mamluks of the Middle Ages. . . .
UPDATE II: Ed Driscoll rounds up the optimists-vs.-pessimists debate among conservative pundits, with Max Boot in a mood of neocon triumphalism and Stanley Kurtz the realpolitik pessimist. Of course, I lean toward pessimism, if only because optimism is an invitation to disappointment. I can’t help but wonder if Kurtz’s pessimism is a tribute to his literary namesake: “Exterminate all the brutes!”
UPDATE III: The European powers call for “free and fair elections”:
“It is essential that the further political, economic and social reforms President Mubarak has promised are implemented fully and quickly, and meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” said a joint statement issued by British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“The Egyptian people have … a longing for a just and better future,” the statement continued. “We urge President Mubarak to embark on a process of transformation, which should be reflected in a broad-based government and in free and fair elections.”
UPDATE IV: Donald Douglas is clearly in the neocon optimist camp and cites a Wall Street Journal editorial that I’m not sure makes his point:
Our stake in Egypt is not in any one ruler but in a transition from dictatorship to a more stable representative government that can better meet the aspirations of Egyptians.
See, my concern is that the “aspirations of Egyptians” might include such agenda items as “Death to the Zionist entity!” and “Down with the Great Satan!” Perhaps I remember 1979 too well.
PREVIOUSLY:
- 1/29: Egypt: ‘Attaboy, Mubarak’?
- 1/28: ‘Whose Bright Idea Was It to Send Joe Biden Out to Talk About Egypt?’
- 1/27: Egyptian Regime Unraveling?