(Continued…)

Andrew Bacevich, working with Tom Englehardt and the American Empire Project, has an absolutely absorbing essay on the AEP website.  Worth your time.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, great powers had vied with one another to create new, or more effective, instruments of coercion.  Military innovation assumed many forms.  Most obviously, there were the weapons: dreadnoughts and aircraft carriers, rockets and missiles, poison gas, and atomic bombs — the list is a long one.  In their effort to gain an edge, however, nations devoted equal attention to other factors: doctrine and organization, training systems and mobilization schemes, intelligence collection and war plans.

All of this furious activity, whether undertaken by France or Great Britain, Russia or Germany, Japan or the United States, derived from a common belief in the plausibility of victory.  Expressed in simplest terms, the Western military tradition could be reduced to this proposition: war remains a viable instrument of statecraft, the accoutrements of modernity serving, if anything, to enhance its utility.

Grand Illusions

That was theory.  Reality, above all the two world wars of the last century, told a decidedly different story.  Armed conflict in the industrial age reached new heights of lethality and destructiveness.  Once begun, wars devoured everything, inflicting staggering material, psychological, and moral damage.  Pain vastly exceeded gain.  In that regard, the war of 1914-1918 became emblematic: even the winners ended up losers.  When fighting eventually stopped, the victors were left not to celebrate but to mourn.  As a consequence, well before Fukuyama penned his essay, faith in war’s problem-solving capacity had begun to erode.  As early as 1945, among several great powers — thanks to war, now great in name only — that faith disappeared altogether.

Among nations classified as liberal democracies, only two resisted this trend.  One was the United States, the sole major belligerent to emerge from the Second World War stronger, richer, and more confident.  The second was Israel, created as a direct consequence of the horrors unleashed by that cataclysm.  By the 1950s, both countries subscribed to this common conviction: national security (and, arguably, national survival) demanded unambiguous military superiority.  In the lexicon of American and Israeli politics, “peace” was a codeword.  The essential prerequisite for peace was for any and all adversaries, real or potential, to accept a condition of permanent inferiority.  In this regard, the two nations — not yet intimate allies — stood apart from the rest of the Western world.

So even as they professed their devotion to peace, civilian and military elites in the United States and Israel prepared obsessively for war.  They saw no contradiction between rhetoric and reality.

Read all at American Empire Project

A fight that has been going on for over 100 years  — to ban the public slaughter of bulls in the name of art and sport– has finally been won in part of Spain.   Though citizens of most political stripes have attended bull fights for centuries, opposition to them has been part of  liberal beliefs since at least the 1870s Regeneristas, the liberal reformers of the time.  During the years of the Second Republic, 1931-1939, opposition to bull fighting again found a home in the progressive left.  With the end of the Republic and the rise of Francoism, bull fighting was promoted by the state as the essence of the Spanish character, resonating with the romance of death (Viva la muerte / Long Live Death) among the Spanish right.

Wednesday, after an emotional session of the Catalan Parliament, seated in Barcelona, packed with spectators, activists and reporters from everywhere the Deputies voted 68 to 55 to ban the practice in Catalonia.  There were tears from the victors and from the losers.

“It means the politicians here actually get it. Bullfighting has no place in the 21st Century. I could not hold back my tears,” he [Jordi Casamitjana] said.

He was not the only one. As the result was announced, those supporting the ban leapt and shouted for joy. Alongside them, some of the losers cried too – in frustration.

But activists collected 180,000 signatures in order to get this initiative off the ground and into parliament – and they were determined to enjoy the moment.

“I’m over the moon!” enthused Deborah Parris, who worked with the campaign group Prou (Enough, in Catalan), to ban the corrida, as the bullfight is known.

“There is incredible suffering in a bullfight. Six bulls are killed each time, not one, and they are tortured for 20 minutes,” she said. “It’s not right to pay money to go and watch that kind of cruelty.” [BBC]

Catalans are only about 16% of the Spanish population, but Barcelona is the second largest city and an economic and cultural power house. Fear that this vote, and the popular energy which gave rise to it, will lead to further bannings, in southern France and elsewhere is rising. Those parsing the meaning of the vote also see some of the support behind it as another good stick to poke in the national eye — a means to further distinguish Catalonia as a unique and separate part of Spain.  Others watch for popular protests against the vote, and in favor of lifting the ban, to hit the streets.

As someone whose soul popped through a time warp and landed me in America as an infant instead of Spain my bleeding liberal heart sent out a hearty thump on hearing the news. It can be no accident that fascination with cruelty to species not our own breeds cruelty to our own as well.

Progress, like earthquakes, comes with many small tremors, and occasional big explosions.  Today in Spain a vote against public animal killing spectacles; today in China a government campaign to stop public shaming of petty criminals,dragging them through the streets with ropes and chains to be mocked and targeted with mud and offal. Take a minute to praise progress and acknowledge it happens, though minute to minute we often seem to be sliding backwards.

“Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity” is NASA climate change scientist Dr. James Hansen’s first book. Dr. Hansen is arguably the most visible and well-respected climate change scientist in the world, and has headed the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City since 1981. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Dr. Hansen greatly raised awareness of the threat of global warming during his Congressional testimony during the record hot summer of 1988, and issued one of the first-ever climate model predictions of global warming (see an analysis here to see how his 1988 prediction did.) In 2009, Dr. Hansen was awarded the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Meteorological Society, for his “outstanding contributions to climate modeling, understanding climate change forcings and sensitivity, and for clear communication of climate science in the public arena.”

Storms of My Grandchildren focuses on the key concepts of the science of climate change, told through Hansen’s personal experiences as a key player in field’s scientific advancements and political dramas over the past 40 years..

more from Jeff Masters at Wunderblog

Shirley Sherrod is the only one to come out of her firing from the Agricultural Department showing dignity, good sense and strength of character.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack  behaved like a man caught with his pants around his knees as he ran, terrified when a known slimebag shouted Boo!  His summary firing of Sherrod, like a blunderbuss of old, exploded in his own face.

The NAACP, of all groups, condemned Sherrod before they even looked at their own records.

I don’t know when President Obama weighed into the matter.  That it even crosses our minds that Rahm Emmanuel, the President’s Chief of Staff, might have called Vilsack and demanded the firing shows the doubts we have about the political courage in the administration.  That Obama didn’t defend Sherrod immediately, or hasn’t laced into the sources of the false accusation since, only heightens those doubts.  The speed of the firing points,  at a minimum,  to a grotesque fear of any right-wing noise, however well known the source is.

The lowest  position of course belongs to Andrew Breitbart the infamous shock blogger who posted two clips of Sherrod to buttress his claim that she and the NAACP were racists — quite unlike the Tea Party he is proudly associated with.  FOX news hosts, rolling over in bed, picked up the posts for wider distribution and invited Breitbart on to further misrepresent the truth.  Even after the full tape of Sherrod’s comments was released, proving decisively how she had been slimmed, Breitbart continued his appearances.  Other cable news outlets, not too far removed from the bedside themselves, decided to get into the slime sling. Almost without exception attention and outrage were focused on Sherrod and not on Breitbart.

Through it all Sherrod stood straight, spoke straight and maintained her equilibrium.

This may be because she has a record to be proud of – organizing with others and fighting for the little guy  against institutional power and injustice.

In the 1960s Shirley and Charles Sherrod joined with other black farmers in an association called New Communities.  At 6,000 acres it was the largest black-owned acreage in the United States.  In 1969 the Office of Economic Opportunity gave New Communities a planning grant and suggested that more funds would be available for development.  The Governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox, prohibited any more funds for the group to come into the state.

“Nevertheless, New Communities built up farming operations to help retain the land.  They had highway frontage where they had a farmers market to sell their crops.  They raised hogs and sold the processed meat in a smokehouse they built on the highway.  Their sugar cane mill on the highway also attracted customers.  New Communities was ahead of the times in raising eight acres of Muscatine grapes, which are now widely grown in the area.  They also farmed 1,500 acres of row crops, including corn, peanuts and soybeans.

Over the years, USDA refused to provide loans for farming or irrigation and would not allow New Communities to restructure its loans.  Gradually, the group had to fight just to hold on to the land and finally had to wind down operations.”

On Shirley Sherrod

When the land was lost, Sherrod entered the Rural Development Leadership Network.  She earned a master’s degree in development and became Vice Chair of RDLN’s board of directors. She chaired the board of the Farmers Legal Action Group, which joined New Communities and other minority farmers in legal action against funding discrimination by federal agencies.

Just days before Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack appointed Sherrod as the Georgia Director of Rural Development, [July 25, 2009] it was announced that a law suit on behalf of New Communities, Pigford v Vilsack, had been settled.  The complainants were awarded $13 million dollars. Since then, several other suits have been settled by the Department of Agriculture, whose Office of Civil Rights was eliminated in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan. [For a summary of the reasons for the suits and some that have been filed see this 2004 report by the Environmental Working Group, and this policy paper by the Congressional Research Service.]

This is just the kind of woman we need in high office.  Give her back her job in Georgia, or better yet: Shirley Sherrod for Secretary of Agriculture!

*

For a rundown of responses to the affair, try some of these”

Bob Herbert — furious at the President:

The Shirley Sherrod story tells us so much about ourselves, and none of it is pretty. The most obvious and shameful fact is that the Obama administration, which runs from race issues the way thoroughbreds bolt from the starting gate, did not offer this woman anything resembling fair or respectful treatment before firing and publicly humiliating her.

William Saletan – Slate:

Breitbart lied about Shirley Sherrod. Now he’s lying about the NAACP.

Media Matters:

Breitbart’s Sherrod Narrative Unravels

Howard Dean:

Fox News “Absolutely Racist” in handling of Sherrod Controversy

Joseph Palermo — Huffington Post:

Robert Gibbs blew White House handling of Sherrod Saga

Digby at Hullaballoo:

[Linking to Slate, above] Breitbart is a liar. And, as they do in this article, it’s easily provable.

Dalai Lama Renaissance Film Update – Murder, Forgiveness, Music, Facebook and Twitter

Dalai Lama Renaissance film (narrated by Harrison Ford) continues to reach across the world

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your continued kind support of the ‘Dalai Lama Renaissance’ documentary film (narrated by Harrison Ford -http://www.dalailamafilm.com/ ), and for letting your friends know about it. (Continued…)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I wish I were as optimistic as Frank Rich, that the Culture Wars are fading into history. Even if not, he has a great review of its major players, some auspicious deaths and the inglorious career of Mr. Gibson.

It’s been a week of smelly cannon smoke coming out of the Tea Party. Mark Williams,  the nominal leader of one of the groups making up the national federation let loose with a racist rant disguised as satire.   He thought himself very clever to pen a letter to President Abraham Lincoln:

“We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!”  [Full letter]

Then David Webb, another leader  –of the leaderless movement– appeared on Sunday talk shows to say that not only Williams but his whole “Tea Party Express” had been expelled from the Federation.

Williams replied by “saying that there is no Tea Party leadership. No one could expel him, or police the organizations due to their widely different views and structures. He went on to add that this was a publicity stunt by the leaders of the United Tea Party Federation to try to gain legitimacy as a national organization.”

And in fact this looks like a case of the tail trying to wag the dog.  The Tea Party Express, with Williams, a notorious right wing talk show host in the celebrity limelight, is the biggest of the various self-constituted groups.  It has raised the most money and attracted high value endorsements from Palin and others.   Here’s a little summary of the TPers.

It’s such fun to see a bunch of loose cannons firing away at each other. We can hardly wait for the next round — with all the D.C. media circling round to make it into something much more than it is.   We hope those genuinely interested in the welfare of the country can see through the acrid smoke, hear through the thunder and get on board with folks doing real and necessary work.

Nick Kristoff departs his usual beat to remind us once again (not yet enough it appears) of the effects of climate change — high mountain glacier melt.

[David] Breashears first reached the top of Everest in 1983, and in many subsequent trips to the region he noticed the topography changing, the glaciers shrinking. So he dug out archive photos from early Himalayan expeditions, and then journeyed across ridges and crevasses to photograph from the exact same spots.

The pairs of matched photographs, old and new, are staggering. Time and again, the same glaciers have shrunk drastically in every direction, often losing hundreds of feet in height.

“I was just incredulous,” he told me. “We took measurements with laser rangefinders to measure the loss of height of the glaciers. The drop was often the equivalent of a 35- or 40-story building.”

See particularly the comparison photos of the Kyetrak glacier in Tibet.  As Kristoff says:

We Americans have been galvanized by the oil spill on our gulf coast, because we see tar balls and dead sea birds as visceral reminders of our hubris in deep sea drilling. The melting glaciers should be a similar warning of our hubris — and of the consequences that the earth will face for centuries unless we address carbon emissions today.

See the Asia Society show he refers to.

From Climate Progress

Last month I warned that Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) was demagoguing a sand barrier ’solution’ that probably won’t help, will take many months, use up valuable resources, vanish in the first storm — and many scientists think will make things worse.  As one Coastal geologist explained: “I have yet to speak to a scientist who thinks the project will be effective.”

So I know you will be shocked, shocked that Jindal’s “obvious” response to the BP oil disaster is already failing.  Brad Johnson has the story:

Since the beginning of May, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has pushed a crash effort to build artificial “barrier islands” from dredged sand to prevent BP’s toxic oil from reaching Louisiana’s fragile coastline. He and other Louisiana politicians excoriated the federal government for waiting until June 3 to authorize the $360 million project, even though “categorically, across the board, every coastal scientist” questioned its wisdom. In mid-May, Jindal justified the barrier-island construction by saying it was the “obvious” thing to do:

It makes so much sense. It’s so obvious. We gotta do it.

“We know it works, we have seen it work, but if they need to see it work, they need to do that quickly,” argued Jindal. On May 27, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) attacked President Barack Obama, calling his administration’s caution “absolutely outrageous“:

Here the president doesn’t seem to have a clue. His decision on the emergency dredging barrier island plan is a thinly veiled ‘no.’ Approving two percent of the request and kicking the rest months down the road is outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

In fact, the first artificial island project is already showing serious signs of erosion, with heavy equipment sinking into the ocean. Photographs released by Louisiana scientist Leonard Bahr and the US Army Corps of Engineers show that the artificial island E-4, intended to reach an 18-mile length, is struggling to survive at 1,100 feet:

It’s hard to stomach the Teabagger swill.  This is especially nauseating, not to mention astoundingly ignorant.. (Continued…)