Chronicles of False Equivalence, Chapter 2,817 - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

Chronicles of False Equivalence, Chapter 2,817 - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic: "To make it clear: requiring 60 votes for everything is new, and it is overwhelmingly a Republican tactic"

'via Blog this'

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout

This essay by recently retired Republican congressional staffer Mike Lofgren (h/t James Fallows) is impressive for its critique of both Democrats and Republicans. You can't judge it by its leads or headlines or by selective quotes. It's better than any of those would suggest. READ the whole thing. - GWC

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout: "Barbara Stanwyck: "We're both rotten!"

Fred MacMurray: "Yeah - only you're a little more rotten." -"Double Indemnity" (1944)

Those lines of dialogue from a classic film noir sum up the state of the two political parties in contemporary America. Both parties are rotten - how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election?"

'via Blog this'

On Rules and Norms: Four Reasons to Regret This Moment - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

On Rules and Norms: Four Reasons to Regret This Moment - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic: ">>It's not the rules, it's the norms. That is, the GOP, led first by Gingrich and then by Bush Jr., blew through norms and broke taboos that had greased our democratic machinery for decades prior to the early 90s. These include, 'you shall not filibuster every pending bill or block every opposition appointment' as well as 'you shall not torture detainees or politicize Justice Department hiring.' On the other hand: with the old norms broken, we need some new rules to create new norms.<<" - David Frum, Republican commentator, columnist, bloger

James Fallows - It's true - the Republican Party is mainly to blame

James Fallows - Authors - The Atlantic:

"Still, anyone who thinks I am mainly blaming the Republicans for the needless debt-ceiling fracas, especially the Tea Party-era House Republicans arrayed behind Rep. Eric Cantor (and Rep. Jim Jordan), is correct. To put the reasons in one place, as things go down to the wire, here they are:

1) The debt-ceiling showdown represents hostage-taking, plain and simple. This is a 'crisis' that need never have happened, regardless of which party controlled the White House."

James Fallows: Tribal knowledge v. actual knowledge

James Fallows on why he thinks Republicans will continue to doubt that Obama was born in the U.S.

Tribal knowledge vs actual knowledge front: Yesterday, about half of all Republicans thought Obama was foreign born, and therefore an illegal occupant of the White House. How many Republicans will think the same thing one week from now? My guess is: about half. We've reached that stage on just about everything. It's probably been true of human beings throughout time, but is more obviously significant in politics now, that generally people don't act like scientific investigators, or judges in moot-court competitions, when parsing the logic and evidence behind competing arguments to come up with political views. They go on loyalty, and tradition, and hope, and fear, and self-interest, and generosity, and all the rest -- as the second half of my recent article on the new media discussed. 
Here we have a wonderful real-world test: if "actual knowledge" mattered, the number of people who thought Obama was foreign-born would approach zero by next week -- with exceptions for illiterates, the mentally disabled, paranoid schizophrenics, etc. My guess is that the figures will barely change.

Warren Christopher, 1925-2011 - James Fallows - National - The Atlantic

I was one of those for whom listening to Warren Christopher was like watching paint dry.  The always reliable James Fallows has this remembrance which describes him as a  "a good, modest, wryly humorous, public-spirited and public-minded man, who should be remembered...


Warren Christopher, 1925-2011 - James Fallows - National - The Atlantic

Yellow peril in conservative attack ad

James Fallows thinks that `the Chinese are coming!' TV spot below is non-chauvinistic, legitimate electoral play (a two minute
Gibbons-esque agit prop piece) - even though the facts it asserts are completely wrong.  The Chinese government in fact put construction of high speed inter-city rail at the heart of their anti-recession strategy.  

Chinese bullet trains - Wuhan to Guanzhou in 3 hours at 380 kmh

As Fallows notes "The ad has the Chinese official saying that America collapsed because, in the midst of a recession, it relied on (a) government stimulus spending, (b) big changes in its health care systems, and (c) public intervention in major industries -- all of which of course, have been crucial parts of China's (successful) anti-recession policy." 

James Fallows: Bloomberg & Mosque

Thanks to James Fallows for highlighting Mayor Michael Bloomberg's principled stand in the face of the nativist opportunists who find intolerable a mosque in downtown Manhatan.

This Is Not My Normal Beat (Bloomberg & Mosque Dept) ... - Politics - The Atlantic

The Mayor's statement as excerpted by Fallows:

"We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11.... Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish....

"The World Trade Center Site will forever hold a special place in our City, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves - and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans - if we said 'no' to a mosque in Lower Manhattan.

"Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values - and play into our enemies' hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that."

Chinese hip hop - it's time to learn Chinese

My hero James Fallows  is knowledgeable and skillful about so many things: he writes (1981 American Book Award for The National Defense), he flies, he talks politics with Guy Raz every Saturday on NPR, and blogs for The Atlantic about all of the above,  plus software (he designed for Microsoft) , rhetoric (he wrote speeches for Jimmy Carter), China and Chinese language study. [He likes eChineselearning.com, I like Jenny Zhu, John, Ken, Connie, Lilliana  and the crew at ChinesePod.com).


Today Fallows  posted this wonderful Chinese hip hop video Zhong Guo Hua 中国话 (Chinese language)。  It celebrates the fact that so many people are learning Chinese (see text below the video).  The director must have spent a lot of time at the Times Square subway station to pick up all these hip hop dance and gymnastics moves and rhythms.  You would look a long time to find Americans who could mimic and spoof so well any Chinese cultural quirks.




ɡè   zhǒnɡ   yán   sè   de   pí   fū   ɡè   zhǒnɡ   yán   sè   de   tóu   fɑ 
各 种 颜 色 的 皮 肤 各 种 颜 色 的 头 发 （People with skin of all colours, people with hair of all colours）


zuǐ   lǐ   niàn   de   shuō   de   kāi   shǐ   liú   xínɡ   zhōnɡ   ɡuó   huà 
嘴 里 念 的 说 的 开 始 流 行 中 国 话 （They speak the increasingly popular Chinese language. ） 


duō   shǎo   nián   wǒ   men   kǔ   liàn   yīnɡ   wén   fā   yīn   hé   wén   fǎ 
多 少 年 我 们 苦 练 英 文 发 音 和 文 法 （For how many years have we slaved away at English pronunciation and grammar） 


zhè   jǐ   nián   huàn   tā   men   juǎn   zhe   shé   tou   xué   pínɡ   shànɡ   qù   rù   de   biàn   huà 
这 几 年 换 他 们 卷 着 舌 头 学 平 上 去 入 的 变 化 （These few years, it's their turn to learn how to roll their tongues and learn the different intonations.） ...


hǎo   cōnɡ   mínɡ   de   zhōnɡ   ɡuó   rén   hǎo   yōu   měi   de   zhōnɡ   ɡuó   huà
好 聪 明 的 中 国 人 好 优 美 的 中 国 话 （The Chinese are such smart people, and the Chinese language is so beautiful）
扁 担 想 绑 在 板 凳 上

Health Care Reform: Why this moment matters

Speaker Nancy Pelosi:  


Tonight we join those who passed Social Security and civil rights.  Now tonight health care for all Americans.  We would not be here without the extraordinary vision and leadership of President Barack Obama.


Rather than offer my own take, I will just provide a link to National Book Award winner James Fallows HERE.

Rhetoric: James Fallows annotates the SOTU address

James Fallows
James Fallows, the prolific journalist and National Book Award winner (for National Defense - 1981) is an acute student of  Presidential rhetoric.  He was Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter - at the age of 26 - like Jon Favreau, the Holy Cross grad who is Barack Obama's chief speechwriter.


Fallows has published his annotated version of President Barack Obama's 2010 State of the Union address.  The full annotated text is HERE.  An excerpt follows:

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted -- immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.  

But the devastation remains. One in 10 Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. And for those who'd already known poverty, life has become that much harder.

TNR: Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time.

The New Republic

And the Rest Is Just Noise

Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time.

At some level, it is possible to understand the roots of liberal frustration. The machinery of Congress has ground away at the health care bill, as it does to almost any bill. But at a broader level, the liberal mood is insane. What has emerged from that machinery is not merely “better than nothing” or “a good start.” It is the most significant American legislative triumph in at least four decades. Why can so few people see that?

- Jonathan Chait

For his full reasoning click HERE.

Thanks for the tip to James Fallows. Embarrassing to admit, but James Fallows only grabbed my attention about a year ago. Better late than never. It was his analysis of the Democratic primary debates in The Atlantic that got my attention. Then I found his blog - and his observations during the last of this three years in China and I was hooked. No regrets.

A privileged minority - the Senate super-majority rule

A minority is blocking the expansion of Medicare, and the government run health insurance company that a large majority of Americans support. The Senate super majority vote rule that sustained segregation now empowers Sen. Ben Nelson to defeat a majority on the issue of government-enabled abortion. It enables Joseph Lieberman to hold out for...what is it that Lieberman wants, really?

James Fallows discusses the filibuster - the now profligately employed ability to prolong debate that has been the nemesis of President Obama, and of Nancy Pelosi, whose majority has beeen rendered nearly irrelevant by the Senate's anti-majoritarian rule.

Would it have been too much even for James Madison, architect of separation of powers? Or is it all that protected us from the Bush-Cheney steamroller?