One can debate whether the country is better off as a result of the slash and burn venture capitalism he helped pioneer or whether it has much relevance to being an effective President (it sure did not do much in creating jobs in Massachusetts), but Mitt Romney has accomplished a lot in his business career.  But his phoniness is so transparent it makes this blogger want to barf.  It also explains the tepid enthusiasm for him in an awful Republican field.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

The second was the patriarch of possibly the only obese family in North Korea.  Coming to power after the first dynastic succession in a Communist nation, Kim Jong-Il deepened the impoverishment and isolation of his unfortunate country.  Other than the brainwashed minions, few will mourn him.  Kim Jong-Il was widely reputed to be ailing and earlier this year named his inexperienced son Kim Jong-un as the heir to the crumbling hermit kingdom.  The youngest Kim will probably rule with the help of a regency council designated by his father until/if he ever takes over.

Kim Jong-il could to some extent feed off the mystique of his father Kim Il-sung.  However, by the end of his rule it has been difficult for North Korea to hide the extent of its backwardness and impoverishment from its own people.  Too many South Korean movies and television programs displaying their far healthier and prosperous brethren circulate in North Korea.  Too many North Koreans have crossed back and forth across the Yalu River into China for an information blackout to be absolute.  With little moral authority left it could be difficult for the regime to hang on.

And so a delicate diplomatic dance begins.  South Korea has placed its armies on high alert.  Seoul and Washington must evaluate the diplomatic language to use in responding to the news and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of expressing condolences.  The Chinese, the primary prop for this bankrupt regime, must evaluate whether they should play along with the succession or encourage Jong-un’s fatter brother to seize power.  In the short run it appears that a weaker regime in Pyongyang leans closer to becoming a Chinese satellite.

Yet even presumed Chinese satellites are uncomfortable with the close embrace of the dragon.  Fear of Chinese dominance has pushed an equally paranoid Burmese government to ease its isolation.  How far will the weak regime in Pyongyang resist Beijing’s diktats?  And does this regime have the strength to survive a glasnost?  The next few months will be interesting.

2011 has not been kind to dictators.  Long standing regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were toppled.  Syria and Yemen are tottering.  Bahrain has been shaken to its core.  Even the previously secure corporatist regime of Vladimir Putin has seen cracks appear in the foundation.  Even if the death of Kim Jong-il was not as gory as the video below:

he leaves a shaky regime in the hands of his inexperienced son.  Rot in hell Kim Jong-il.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

• pepper spray is essentially a food product, so presumably it is no problem to spray it into their face (though the bobble-heads acknowledge that some people ended up in the hospital)
• Davis is a liberal campus, so perhaps these students had it coming
• The police chief may be a scapegoat, even though video evidence suggests (even the bobble-heads acknowledge) that she may have lied about the level of threats in justifying the pepper spraying.  Personally, I believe Chancellor Katehi should be gone too.

Most egregious is the excuse trotted out in the past to justify torture, that we have no right to Monday Morning Quarterback the police.  It is a dangerous philosophy that can be used to justify any sort of government brutality.  Video below:

Even liberal blogs have acknowledged that a long term occupation of cities by a group that has not articulated concrete demands at some point brings diminishing results.  But that does not justify the wave of police gassing or clubbing citizens peacefully assembled in protest.  But then Faux News is primarily concerned about the tyranny of government health care and other conspiracy theories they peddle about the Obama administration.   Meanwhile Megyn Kelly’s latest idiocy has gone viral on twitter.  Check out the hashtag #FakeMegynKelly

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

This is the latest salvo in a campaign where a president who lowered taxes, oversaw a return of corporate profits to pre-recession levels, prevented a collapse of the Detroit auto-makers, passed a healthcare plan originally drafted by Republicans, ordered the raid that took out Osama deep in the heart of Pakistan and midwifed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi is somehow a befuddled America hating marxist/socialist naif.  Mitt Romney should know better, but then we already know that there is nothing he will not do to gain the Presidency.

Problem is, others can take Romney quotes out of context to lie as well (video below):

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

As Conor Friedersdorf  notes Newt Gingrich was outright scary on assassinating US citizens.   Friedersdorf reserves his praise for the two Republicans who understand why we do not torture, why it is counterproductive and how it militates against American values.  Neither of them will get the nomination, though Jon Huntsman could win the general election if nominated.  Ron Paul, while he has some kooky economic theories and is an isolationist, has always had the moral courage to stand up for what he believes in (like refusing to join the post 9/11 frenzy to rubber stamp the Patriot Act) – unlike most of the weasels in public life today.

The clip below highlights the stark contrast between the candidates of the soundbite (Cain and Bachmann) versus two men who have clearly given it some thought.

I don’t praise Republicans often in this blog, but today I will.  Thank you Mr. Paul and Mr. Huntsman for having the guts to stand up for American values and opposing a practice that has been illegal for over a century.

I wonder how loudly the rest of the candidates would howl in outrage if another country subjected captured Americans to “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

On its face terming a charismatic and successful CEO and former governor of the Kansas City Federal Reserve a Know Nothing would seem odd.  Alas, Herman Cain like most of the other Republican candidates not named Huntsman, Ron Paul or Romney (on non-foreign policy issues), is an empty shirt.  Rarely has a candidate at the top of the polls expressed such total lack of awareness of public policy (domestic or foreign).  This is compounded by bizarre leaps into bigoted Islamophobia, a seeming willingness to electrocute illegal immigrants at the border (which may or may not have been a joke, since Mr. Cain characterized his comments both ways depending on the audience), an ignorance on the constitutional limitations on restricting Congressional activities and the constitutional amendment process, a bizarre financial plan that may have been lifted from the Sim City game, departures into race baiting when it is convenient and finally a proud ignorance on any matters relating to foreign policy.  Then came a barrage of sexual harassment allegations dating back to the 1990s when he lead the National Restaurant Association.  The flailing response from the Cain campaign (even though they had 10 days to prepare for the story’s publication) demonstrated an operation not ready for prime-time.

Seeing the debacle, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Cain campaign for the presidency is a publicity seeking stunt gone awry.  The candidate did not help dispel such rumors last month by disappearing from the campaign trail for a book signing tour.  After all, a half-term quitter from Alaska has provided a blueprint on cashing political celebrity into millions of dollars.  The Clintons have demonstrated just how lucrative life post-presidency can be.

When challenged on his ignorance, Mr. Cain has a few stock answers.  His critics are wrong, he is right and trust him.

The ignorance on domestic policy is bad enough. (Video below):

Foreign policy is worse.  After repeated attacks on his foreign policy credentials he assured us that he is not as foreign policy dumb “as they think”.  Video below:

After making that bold assertion, Mr. Cain provided us the gem below.  This makes Governor Perry’s brain fart pale in comparison and highlights what happens when you get your rote learning jumbled up in your head.  For 5:16 Herman Cain struggles to answer a basic question on a war conducted and concluded in the past six months and to highlight why exactly he opposed Obama’s policy (other than the typical knee-jerk opposition to Obama):

To make it worse, his campaign trotted out the excuse (not for the first time) that the candidate was operating on 4 hours sleep.

This sleep deprived soul should not have his fingers on the nuclear trigger and has no business running for President.

The Herman Cain comedy hour may be coming to a close.  The new hope of the anti-Romney brigade appears to be a former speaker whose passionate patriotism drove him to adultery.  Somewhere Saturday Night Live writers are cheering.

If/when Romney does get the Republican nomination, I have his acceptance speech prepared for him. Video below:

Go for it Mitt…

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

So Mitt, since you are evidently willing to go to war to achieve this end please tell us how you manage this:

• Almost every military expert agrees that an aerial bombardment of the type Israel is itching to launch would at best delay the Iranian push for the device.  So are you going to send in ground troops?
• Where would such an invasion be launched from?
• How would we pay for this?
• What would be the impact on an overstretched military that is seeing light at the end of the tunnel of two long wars in the countries on the West and the East of Iran?
• What will be the impact in Iraq if Iran unleashes its Sadrite proxies or on Israel if Hezbollah gets involved?
• How will you handle the economic shock of an almost certain spike in oil prices (to go with the mess in Europe)?
• If this is a snatch and grab, how will we prevent Iran from restarting the program?
• How will you handle the fallout with Russia and China – or do you just not give a damn?
• Are you willing to consider a full fledged invasion?  If so, how will you handle an occupation?

The ugly reality is that there are few good options to prevent Iran from getting the Bomb.  Iran has wanted the Bomb since the days of the Shah.  The pursuit of the Bomb is incredibly popular even among the anti-cleric democratic movement.  The Obama administration has been incredibly successful in getting Russian and Chinese support for a practical containment policy.  But if Mittens has a silver bullet for Iran other than his usual foreign policy bluster, I am all ears.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Other examples of Romney’s extraordinary agility are very easy to find on YouTube:

This is the latest one

This is not a new charge.  The last election cycle provided some entertaining Whack-a-Mitt sessions as the rest of the field piled on the candidate they despised.

Huckabee vs. Romney

Romney does come with strong business credentials (though his business experience often seems to have resulted in acquiring companies, sucking out their assets and bankrupting them).  While he was a pragmatic governor, his job creation record was at best mediocre. On foreign policy he resorts to the same fluff and platitudes that the rest of the Republican field not named Jon Huntsman or Ron Paul resort too.  But ultimately he is a pragmatic candidate who has some appeal to the center.  He was a competent and pragmatic governor.  He probably will be an adequate President (more than can be said for any of his opponents other than Huntsman).  But where in the political spectrum a President Romney will govern from remains a mystery.  The Weather Vane is probably still monitoring the winds. To take a DNC quiz on where Romney has stood on issues to date – click here (includes videos).

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

And then the hunt for the deposed tyrant began.  The end was pathetic.  As his hometown of Sirte finally fell to his enemies the wounded Gaddafi was dragged from his hiding place (a drain pipe).  As the fallen dictator pleaded for mercy he met his end soon after in murky circumstances.  Cell phone videos of a bleeding Gaddafi are available for anybody willing to conduct a Google search.

The rest of the Gaddafi clan is either captured, dead or has fled (warning gruesome pictures in link).

Apart from one expected quarter, Gaddafi goes to his grave unmourned.  His legacy is broken, factitious oil rich tribal mish-mash bunched under a new/old national flag.   Libya faces an uncertain future once the euphoria over the lynching in Sirte fades.

Also uncertain is the future of NATO.  The French and the British wanted this operation, but soon discovered that they could not sustain a campaign against a fourth rate military without access to the American arsenal.  Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates departed with a well timed salvo at Europe questioning the worth of an alliance where only one country carries the weight.  The solution from Congressional hawks appears to be to bankrupt the United States by continuing to sustain 40% of global military spending alone.  A reappraisal of American military commitments and spending is long overdue.

With the specter of their crazy leader gone, the people of Libya sleep easier tonight.  So do perhaps diplomats in a land of cheese, chocolates and banks.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

As expected, the fall was dramatic. Just last week the squabbling rebel alliance cut off the dictator’s supply lines. Today they entered Tripoli to cheering crowds. Some of Gaddafi’s sons appear to be in custody. Gaddafi’s fate is yet unknown.

It remains to be seen whether the tribes united by the Libyan flag can create a national state. Hopefully a revenge bloodbath can be avoided.

This also turns the spotlight uncomfortably on Bashar Assad. The fears of unraveling Syria’s ethnic quilt kept many Western states quiet. Last week it became clear patience was running out. While NATO bombardment is unlikely, the younger Assad is finding it hard to emulate his father in suppressing dissent with an iron fist.

The bufoonish Gaddafi falls largely unmourned, except perhaps in Caracas, Havana, Harare and some African capitals.

The bloody Arab summer has harvested its first tyrant.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

There are legitimate privacy concerns about a Google Group using facial recognition software to identify the looters.  Hopefully they turn their sights on these scumbags.

And now a word of derision for the bumbling response of Prime Minister David Cameron’s inept government.  The spark for the riot may have been a suspicious police killing.  There is deep unrest in Britain about the depth of cuts imposed by the current government.  But it was clear early enough that the outrage was hijacked by criminals indulging in looting and burning.

Yet incredibly Home Secretary Theresa May responded to calls to crush the rioters with this nonsense:

The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.”

Small wonder that the riots spread beyond London and have tarnished Britain’s reputation around the globe.  It took three days for 16,000 police to descend on London.  I am not a huge fan of scapegoats, but I am willing to make an exception for Ms. May.  There were concerns about Rio’s ability to host a safe Olympics.  It appears that London’s competence must also now be questioned.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

I wish Senator Franken has the opportunity to similarly debunk on video some of the bullshit being spewed by some Republicans that the United States should default by not raising the debt ceiling, particularly the two nuts from his home state running for president.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Meanwhile, Palin like many other celebrities before her has got the Downfall treatment.  Video below:

Inside Palin Campaign HQ – Launch of ‘The Undefeated’ Fails from Moosehelmet Films on Vimeo.

I still have a hard time seeing Palin launch a credible campaign for President.  Her fellow loony tunes seeking the Presidency have not had a great couple of weeks either.  In a week where large chunks of the Republican party embraced insanity by welcoming an American default, the fringe candidates added their mite too.

• Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann jumped at the opportunity to sign a controversial family values pledge.
• Bachmann’s husband drew attention for his controversial counselling to cure homosexuality and now she may have to answer questions about her health.
• Herman Cain took his anti-Islam bufoonery to new levels.  Video below:

• Mitt Romney who should be able to brand himself as the adult of this bunch draws so little enthusiasm that a large section of the Republican party is still seeking a white knight (whose spouse will permit a presidential run).  With Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie not running, Rick Perry is up next.  It remains to be seen whether Perry’s accounting gimmicks that have created a fiscal disaster in Texas and other skeletons in his closet will hold up under the scrutiny of the national media.

It is a pity Jon Huntsman is gathering no traction in the menagerie running for the Republican nomination. Heck, Romney has no principles but I will take him (or Huntsman) over the rest of this lot.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Lukashenko has survived so far due to the tacit support of Moscow, which likes pliant states in its “near abroad.”  Yet last year Vladimir Putin sent out signals that the Kremlin’s patience for Lukashenko was not unlimited.  Russia’s favorite foreign policy bludgeon - cutting of gas supplies – was used to bring Belarus to heel.  Going forward Russia has denied Lukashenko’s bankrupt regime needed loans, focusing instead on (in competition with China – another regime used to dealing with nasty despots) buying up Belarusian assets at cut rate prices.

It is hard to see a clean solution to this crisis.  Lukashenko is unlikely to go without a fight.  Putin’s Russia is terrified of the “color revolutions” in its neighborhood planting subversive thoughts in the heads of its serfs…I mean citizens.  Russia can be counted on to sabotage any independent minded popular government that emerges from any such revolution (see Ukraine).

Unfortunately for Belarus, its past probably gives some hint of its future.  The frustration of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine has already shown Little Russia how hard it is to escape the suffocating embrace of Great Russia.  Poor White Russia which spent most of the last 800 years shuttling from the imperial domination of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Empire of the Czar of All the Russias is well on its way to repeating history.  Impoverished, with no functioning government structures or tradition of democratic rule and fatally dependent of the Kremlin for gas and oil, Belarus will likely end up in tighter Russian thralldom.  The West will probably lose interest after Lukashenko leaves, and in any case will not pick a fight with Russia over Belarus.

Yet another example of the perils of being a midget in a giant’s backyard.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

The pledge also calls for an unconstitutional blanket ban on pornography and a “[r]ejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.”   The oddly phrased reference to Sharia Islam (which is not a particular school of Islam but appears to be a blanket rejection of the entire religion itself) is the latest islamophobic attack for the non-existent Sharia Law threat ginned up by the right.

It is a pity that these wannabe theocrats don’t take a closer book at what their own holy books have to say about “intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous” and for that matter women’s rights in the institution.

Via Andrew Sullivan quoting an earlier Bruce Bawer post on marriage in the Bible:

“Lamech [Noah’s father] married two women, one named Adah, the other Zillah.” (Genesis 4)

“Sarai brought her slave-girl, Hagar the Egyptian, to her husband and gave her to Abram as a a wife.” (Genesis 16)

“When [Rachel] gave [her husband Jacob] her slave-girl Bilhah as a wife, Jacob lay with her, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Genesis 30)

“Esau took Canaanite women in marriage: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite and Oholibamah daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Horite, and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.”  (Genesis 26)

“When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder, then, when the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he must not treat the sons of the loved wife as his firstborn in preference to his true firstborn, the son of the unloved wife.” (Deuteronomy 21)

“If, on the other hand, the accusation [by a newlywed man that his bride is not a virgin] turns out to be true…then they must bring her out to the door of her father’s house and the men of her town will stone her to death.” (Deuteronomy 22)

“When a virgin is pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the town and lies with her, bring both of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death; the girl because, although she was in the town, she did not cry out for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife: you must rid yourself of this wickedness.” (Deuteronomy 22)

“When brothers live together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow is not to marry outside the family.  Her husband’s brother is to have intercourse with her; he should take her in marriage and do his duty by her as her husband’s brother.” (Deuteronomy 25)

“David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel, were among the captives.” (1 Samuel 30)

“Sons were born to David at Hebron.  His eldest was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel; his second Cileab, whose mother was Abigail widow of Nabal from Carmel; the third Absalom, whose mother was Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth Adonihah, whose mother was Haggith; the fifth Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital; and the sixth Ithream, whose mother was David’s wife Eglah.”  (2 Samuel 3)

And that’s just a scattering of items from the first quarter of the Bible; we haven’t even gotten around to Bathsheba yet, or to King Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines….

To help matters Boston Bravery came up with a helpful graphical representation of marriage in the Bible:

The reality is that most religious texts say things that look ridiculous or even offensive to today’s social mores.  Yet the people Andrew Sullivan refers to as Christianists want it both ways.   They pick on other religions (notably Islam) by highlighting offensive or misogynistic lines in their holy books yet blithely ignore similar language in their own texts.  They also ignore that the reason we do not groan under the type of theocratic tyranny of Iran and Saudi Arabia is the secularization of Western Society after the “Age of Enlightenment” in the 18th century.  As late as the late 17th century, Catholics in England and Protestants in France were not permitted to freely practice their faith.

Unlike the world view of the Taliban (or for that matter originalist readers of the Constitution), our society has evolved and is more tolerant of minorities (racial, religious, sexual) and other points of view.  Yet our wannabe theocrats cling to their version of the Bible, except when as quoted above it does not suit them.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Not so surprisingly, the Faux News bobble head does not challenge the absurdity of Paul’s position but moves right on to their pet cause of profiling brown people by race or religion.  Of course it may not have not have flagged the Nigerian born underpants bomber or the half white-half Jamaican shoe bomber Richard Reid.  Right-wing conservatives and Faux News keep on parroting how stupid it is to search 95 year old grandmas or young kids.  Unfortunately, this tragic story from Afghanistan demonstrates how the sadistic bastards we are fighting will work around racist profiling of the sort advocated by Paul.  The Taliban thugs in the article linked above tricked an 8 year old girl into becoming a suicide bomber.

Paul also willfully misstates current policy.  Nothing at present prevents the TSA from searching a “suspicious person.”  Also, as brown-skinned passengers will be happy to inform you racial profiling is still alive and going strong, in violation of current rules.   Personally, I am not surprised that a congressman who stated he would have voted against the Civil Rights Act has a cavalier attitude to discrimination against people who don’t look like him.

I will reluctantly give Paul credit for one item in his diatribe.  The pre-9/11 policy of passengers not resisting was in retrospect a mistake.  It was based on the assumption of sane hijackers who would negotiate.  This mistake was first rectified by the brave passengers of UA Flight 93 and helped stop the shoe bomber and the underpants bomber.  It still does not justify the idiocy of guns on planes.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Otto with Kaiser Franz Josef

Franz Josef witnessed the loss of his dynastic holdings in Italy during Italian unification and the loss of Austrian paramountcy in Germany to Prussia.  His private life was even more calamitous.His brother Maximilian chasing the ephemeral Mexican imperial crown was executed in 1867, his only son Rudolph committed suicide in a bizarre murder-suicide pact in 1889, his beautiful temperamental and estranged wife Elizabeth was assassinated in 1898 by an Italian anarchist who just “wanted to kill a royal” and in 1914 his nephew and heir Franz Ferdinand was assassinated ushering in the First World War.

King Charles IV of Hungary, with Zita and Crown Prince Otto. Coronation portrait Budapest, 1916

Emperor Karl was ill-equipped to sustain the creaky Hapsburg state which splintered in 1918.  Failing in two attempts to return to the Hungarian throne, Karl died in exile on the island of Madiera in 1922 leaving the 9 year old Otto at the head of his family.  Prohibited from returning to his native Austria, the young Otto still played a role in the interwar years.  Unlike most of the similarly dispossessed German princelings (Bavaria being an exception), Otto was always an opponent of his fellow Austrian Hitler (the Nazi plan for the invasion of Austria was code named “Otto”).  World War II forced the large Habsburg clan into even remoter exile to avoid closer acquaintance with Gestapo prisons.

It is somewhat fitting that the man once the heir to a creaky pan-European dynastic edifice would morph into a European statesman, serving in the European parliament and working to bring former eastern-bloc countries into the European union.  It is also a reminder how different the political map of Europe looked a century ago.  In 1914 France, Switzerland and Portugal (since 1910) were the only Republics in Europe.  The monarchies of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey collapsed in World War I.  The monarchies of Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania & Bulgaria (the last monarchs of the last two are still alive and Symeon II of Bulgaria managed to get elected prime minister a few years ago) were swept away in World War II.  After spending large portions of the previous decades on “vacation” the King of the Hellenes was packed off to his London exile in the 1970s.  Spain is the only oddity to have actually restored its monarchy in the post world-war period.

Royalty survives only on the fringes – Scandinavia, the UK, Spain and the Low Countries – and in memory through the hordes of tourists who flock to Versailles, Neuschwanstein and the Hofburg each year.  So here is a nod to the heir of a bygone Europe who spent his life helping create the new Europe and boldly opposed the Nazis and the Communists.

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email

Subscribe to Rashtrakut by Email