.
Chris Cillizza, horse-race tout, is deeply impressed that “Leon Panetta boiled down Democrats’ criticism of Barack Obama to one sentence“:
… Panetta told [Andrea] Mitchell about his disagreement with Obama’s approach to politics. “Too often in my view the President relies on the logic of the law professor rather than the passion of a leader,” said Panetta….
Peter Baker, in the NYTimes, is quick to remind us that Both Sides!…:
Leon E. Panetta’s new memoir was out, and the president was livid. The president, it asserted, was “blind” to major problems and presided over a White House with a “lack of principles.” The president told aides the book was a “case study on how to screw the White House.”
The year was 1971, the president was Richard M. Nixon and the author, Mr. Panetta, had written his original memoir after serving as Nixon’s civil rights chief.
So if President Obama feels a little raw about Mr. Panetta’s latest memoir, “Worthy Fights,” published Tuesday amid a flurry of news media appearances, at least he has some company…
“The most important thing I learned from my experience,” said Matt Latimer, who wrote a memoir of his time as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, “was that people don’t really want an honest look at history in these memoirs. They want a partisan weapon.”…
Ed Kilgore, at the Washington Monthly, is far less generous:
So let’s say you’re a former congressman, CIA director and Secretary of Defense. You (and probably a ghost or two) have been noodling with a memoir for a long time. You’re finally out of office and want to make some dough and remind people you’re still a big deal. You know that in the heat of a midterm election that’s supposed to be a “referendum” on your former boss, and with much of the world focused on U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East, you can get a lot of attention and sell a lot of books by biting the hand that fed you and criticizing the president. Do you hold back for a while until said president is out of office, as Vice President Joe Biden suggested everyone should do? Or do you cash right in?
Well, we know Leon Panetta decided to cash right in…
Panetta (like Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton before him) probably thinks of his service to the current administration as just the capstone of a career that was in full flower when Barack Obama was still in middle school. As it happens, Panetta is treated like a living deity out here on the Central Coast, which he used to represent in Congress. But his current work revolves around the Leon Panetta Institute for Public Policy, which mainly hosts lectures and seminars featuring big-name has-been Beltway Movers and Shakers who engage in Bipartisan Discussions of the Issues of the Day. I suppose a little extra street cred from Republicans owing to book tour interviews that sadly dismiss Barack Obama as out of his league doesn’t hurt this post-political legacy-building.
I doubt I’ll actually read Panetta’s book, but those who do can perhaps check my impression that Leon went deeply native at the Pentagon and continued the deplorable tradition of Secretaries of Defense who just can’t stop rattling the cup for more money for the ravening beast…
Trollhattan
Watched as much of his J-Stew interview as I could stomach and gawd, is he ever a smarmy prick. At least he is when selling a book. Stewart did push back on several fronts but Panetta wouldn’t be pinned down so far as to, you know, agree.
In two weeks he’ll be last week’s news.
Who buys these books? I’ve never been tempted by a politician’s (or bidnezman’s) memoirs, at least not a living one.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Supertramp is a criminally underappreciated band. Not just the classics, like Crime of the Century or Breakfast in America, either. Famous Last Words, and Free As a Bird are great albums.
Mike J
Spain losing to Slovakia, 0-1 early in the second half.
Trollhattan
Newtmax humor in column 3: “NBC Poll: Most want ebola flight ban”
For sure–when viruses are allowed to operate airplanes we are well and truly screwed.
raven
Racket is the operative phrase in the Times headline.
kindness
Saw Panetta on Jon Stewart last night. To Stewart’s credit when they were discussing Leon’s (now) desire that we had left 5000 troops in Iraq, Jon said ‘well Iraq denied us immunity so no Status Of Force memo was able to be reached’. Leon mumbled saying well yes but Obama could have forced the issue at which point Jon pointed out that was bullshit. Leon smiled and mumbled some more.
Iowa Old Lady
@kindness: Good for John Stewart. It’s dismaying that the most accurate news coverage these days is coming from Comedy Central.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think it was Kevin Drum who pointed out that Panetta found Obama decisive and “presidential” during the first term, when it came to expanding drone warfare, surging in Afghanistan and killing Bin Laden. It was when Obama couldn’t force Maliki to accept US troops in Iraq that he lost faith. That’s what bugs me most about Panetta’s comments, he waves away SOFA the way Purity Liberals wave away the existence of Congress: Obama could have changed things if he really wanted to! See also John McCain.
My own impression at the time was that Obama did want to keep a residual force in Iraq, but for his own political reasons, Maliki wouldn’t /couldn’t budge on protecting US personnel from Iraqi law enforcement.
Hal
Ugh. Just check my work schedule from home and found out my boss scheduled me to work from 11pm to 3p.m. the next day to cover a co-workers day off. Small department that mandates people to cover holes in the shift, and I’m next on the list. I normally work the midnight shift Saturday night as well so she’s expecting me to come back at 11pm that same night. Sigh. I guess I’m going to have to start looking for a new job.
raven
And the longer people talk about this asshole the more books he’ll sell.
kindness
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think we’re all happy (except Leon, McCain and the usual Fox suspects) they weren’t able to agree and that we now have no troops there.
beth
I just saw the CNN person interview some retired Marine general who insisted that we must put troops in Syria to defeat ISIS. It took me about two minutes of googling to find out he’s on the board of directors of some company that makes military helicopters. Do you think CNN bothered to mention this at all? Why don’t they just save time and read press releases from the defense contractors?
Another Holocene Human
I can’t think of a single positive thing that I could associate with the name Leon Panetta in my entire lifetime.
Belafon
Maybe srv can come in and explain how Obama could have kept troops in Iraq.
raven
@Belafon: He was just nominated to the rock and roll hall of fame!
KG
@Trollhattan: i have a handful of political memoirs and biographies. most were gifts. i’ve read some, most weren’t very good. GW Bush’s was absolutely terrible, as in didn’t even finish it.
Another Holocene Human
@beth: That would be nice, like pop-up video. Also nice, having a notice that your doctor took a free meal from GlaxoSmithKline at their latest prof development dinner.
But in our libertarian paradise it’s YOUR fault for being a
prolebad consumer and not being able to find out these things.Hal
One thing that irritating me in Carter and Panetta’s comments are how little challenge they get from the press. Where’s the journalists? Jimmy Carter says blah blah blah but no questions to him to have him give some in depth summary of why his suggestions would have worked. Same with Panetta.
Petorado
“In my view the President relies on the logic of the law professor rather than the passion of a leader,” said Panetta
It seems the right-wing vision of a leader being a complete a-hole who runs around yelling, “It’s my way or the highway” and being the decider of who gets screwed and who get favoritism is now the going definition of leadership. Panetta tips his hand that cool wisdom is no longer a leadership trait valued in the Beltway, but hot-headed “passion” is.
JPL
Well for those among us, who’d rather read about the Palin’s TPM has a link to the police report from the birthday party fight.
It appears that no one wants to press charges. The only question that I had was why they didn’t ticket Willow for underage drinking?
Kathleen
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I agree. I really like that band.
Mike in NC
Panetta was constantly whining that he needed more, more, more the entire time he was at both the Pentagon and CIA. Just a whore for the National Security state. The memoir is just sour grapes, it would appear.
Trollhattan
@KG:
GWBush having a memoir isn’t just supreme irony, it’s a crime against trees.
OTOH am presently reading U.S. Grant’s autobiography and having a fine time with it.
Mike J
@Trollhattan:
Yeah, but everything Mark Twain wrote was great.
Another Holocene Human
@KG: Like he was going to write/dictate/whatever a book about what he was really thinking during his reign of error. You keep the rubes paying, it’s the long con, you don’t tell them why you really did what you did and the profound contempt you have for the “base”.
Iowa Old Lady
Speaking of drunken brawls, in September Modern Family’s editor live tweeted a drunken meltdown on a plane that should send shivers through everyone who flies.
http://lockerdome.com/happygilmore/6170048381332289/7022375749289489
How did I miss this when it happened?
FlipYrWhig
@Petorado: it’s a stupid argument anyway. He doesn’t want “the passion of a leader” if that leader would lead in a way he didn’t like. He’d call it “bullying” or “bluster” or “arrogance” or something. He wants passion _and_ agreement with Leon Panetta. Trust me, Panetta isn’t about to give Obama a bunch of credit for passionate DISagreement with Leon Panetta.
catclub
@Iowa Old Lady:
and it has been that way for years,
and that the margin is getting larger, even though Stewart is getting much worse.
Colbert and John Oliver are much better.
catclub
@Hal:
I think the subject matter affects them. Put Jimmy Carter, Israel, and Apartheid together and they turn into the hulk.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
The all important Lichtenstein/Montenegro match is still scoreless in the 82nd minute.
Turgidson
Using logic in making decisions??? How dare he! Impeach!
Good fucking grief I can’t stand politics in this country anymore.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This, this, this.
And Obama had no interest in a knock down dragout battle over it. And neither did the rest of the US, at the time.
Mike J
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Spain had equalized, but Slovakia took the lead again.
Mike in NC
@Petorado:
“Passion” is something that cranky old guy who appears on all the Sunday TV talk shows has in abundance. If I could just remember his name…
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: Drinking is not the crime, it’s either possession or providing to a minor. But usually parents are allowed to provide alcohol to their own children. So no crime. ETA: Note, IANAL and I don’t know Alaska law.
They could probably charge them with disorderly conduct or one of your typical bullshit catchall charges but it’s probably not worth it to the PO when you’re dealing with people who are going to go to court to beat the rap.
Another Holocene Human
@Trollhattan: Read Obama’s memoir before he ran for Senate because it looked interesting (and it was). Also read Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot before Franken ran for office but I didn’t find it very funny and didn’t even try to read another book by him until years later. Franken totally killed me with his chops on the campaign trail, he’s a really smart, quick-witted guy who has a gift for explaining stuff to people. He bored me on Air America and most of his entertainment oeuvre. You never can tell, I guess.
Why the fuck is my cold coming back several days later? &$%@!
Iowa Old Lady
@Another Holocene Human: “Cold” you say? We know what you have. The illegals gave it to you and now we’re all gonna die. Also Benghazi.
Another Holocene Human
Wit and Wisdom of John XXIII was a pretty awesome book, too. Most coffee table books by politicians and CEOs are a) dictated and b) suck. But a lot of what’s published in non-fiction (har har) these days sucks. It’s amazing to get a book that doesn’t suck. It’s like it should be sold in a different book store from the crap.
Mandalay
@Mike J: It’s over! Slovakia 2 Spain 1
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I still can’t believe that in all the drunken brawls at all the drunken house parties in all this crazy, mixed up world, the Palins get in to the one drunken brawl where no one, at least no one who likes money more than they like the Palins, manages to get a video.
JPL
@Another Holocene Human: Thanks. The report didn’t add much than what had been reported but the reading the report was a nice diversion.
Professor
If only President Obama had appointed a Democrat to be Secretary of Defence rather than a Republican, this betrayal would never have happened. Serves you right. Next time, a Democratic President should appoint a Democrat as Defence Secretary.
Another Holocene Human
@Iowa Old Lady: There are no illegal people. Also, I work in government, so plenty of blah people who were born in furrin places but nobody with questionable US work authorization. Maybe one of the contractors but right now they’re a mix of fat, dishonest crackers and exploited Black folks with long roots right here. Oh, too bad, you don’t get living wage, it says it right here in our “be shitty” clause in the Living Wage Ordnance that if you work for an asshole who turns in the lowest bid it means you get to be paid Florida minimum wage and no benefits even though you’re rifling through government property on a daily basis, cleaning up vomit by transients whom Rick Scott refused to provide appropriate medical care to, and getting about 4hrs sleeps/night in a futile attempt to pay bills and not get evicted.
Oh shit I started ranting again. Btw, not profiling crackers, they come in all sizes and all degrees of integrity, just like real people, but the guy with the contract happens to be five kinds of cheat and let’s just say well fed and so is his son, so great that he can learn how to cheat people right at daddy’s knee.
ETA: sorry, not clear that the cracker dude has a separate contract from the janitorial contract, okay, so he doesn’t have employees/minions except mini-me. Cracker is an ethnonym in North Central Florida and some of the surrounding regions into SE GA, in other parts of the country they might be called “scots-irish” but it’s a little more complicated than that
catclub
ha! speak of the devil.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-oliver-investigative-journalism
Another Holocene Human
I look like a Cracker but I was *ahem* raised in the wrong religion.
Turgidson
@FlipYrWhig:
That, and the President isn’t, and shouldn’t be, acting like fucking George S. Patton in any event. Which is the imagery “passion of a leader” evokes, for me at least. If a commander on the ground wants to employ “passion” in rallying his troops to carry out their orders (which were hopefully given by a calm, logical CinC), so be it. But that kind of thing is best left out of the situation room, IMO.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
I saw this today for the first time (on George Takei’s FB page, which — say what you will — is terrific at turning memes into Things).
Another Holocene Human
@catclub: Samantha Bee’s reporting was good this week. She actually referred to it as reporting or journalism, which it was. She is also hilarious.
SB: Roll the clip
JJ: I’m supposed to say that–
SB: Fuck you! Roll the clip.
Another Holocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: I love that George Takei has come out in his old age as a comedian.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Holocene Human:
Barnes & Noble has turned almost entirely into:
1. Teen fantasy fiction
2. Christian inspirational
3. Games, puzzles, and mass-produced crap
Another Holocene Human
@Turgidson: What the fuck, I guess they’re wanking to Elizabeth I on her white horse before the Spanish Armada got smashed up by bad weather. Anyway, I thought that’s what that address to the nation a month ago was about.
These people are basically giving TMI about their psychosexual neuroses and fantasies. They want that war rush. Fuck them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Holocene Human:
A comedian, and also a passionate activist. He comes across as a very happy person. We need more of those.
Mnemosyne
@Hal:
What state are you in? Depending on which one it is, it could be illegal for you to only have 8 hours off between shifts.
Redshift
Cillizza is such an ass. That’s a standard Republican criticism; I’ve never heard it from a Democrat.
But since no one in the media seems to pay attention to what actual Democrats say, I shouldn’t be surprised when they just listen to Republicans and assume Democrats are saying the same things.
Another Holocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: I can’t even go in those places any more.
I had to give away a LOT of books because of a combination of Florida humidity and my allergies. But even used books are getting kinda rich for my blood and I haven’t gotten into ebooks. And a lot of those are frigging pricey too. I don’t understand why even with shitty exchange rates books were better printing (and setting) quality and much cheaper in France than US, oh yeah, I know why, because publishing was subjected to a bust-out in the late 80s early 90s and the MOTUs want a 20% profit margin.
Nothing worse than paying for a book and finding out it’s full of typos. I mean wow.
Turgidson
@Redshift:
Well, they do seek out Democrats who WILL say what the Republicans are saying – and there are more than enough of those Democrats right now, to be honest. Then the media twits can tut-tut about how even Democrats are saying Obama is [insert the week’s trending pejorative here], and continue on their merry way with their cherished “Obama is a bad leader and/or his presidency is sinking” narrative, which the Village nitwits decided would be their story as soon as the 2nd inaugural speech had wrapped up and won’t give up until after he’s gone.
And it all has a whiff of junior high school “mean girls” type drama being played out. Obama is cooler than they are, they know it, he knows it, he has utter contempt for them (which he occasionally lets show), but they’ll show him, oh yes, they’ll show him!!!
I’m not sure Obama realized how delicate their fee fees and egos were early in his presidency, but it is what it is at this point.
Calouste
Man, Panetta already had enough experience in a high up position in government to have a book out in 1971, 43 fucking years ago?
One of the reasons that the US is 2-3 decades behind the civilized world on a lot of things is because it’s a gerontocracy and a lot of its leaders are 2-3 decades behind the times.
FlipYrWhig
@Turgidson: To be fair(?), the media liked Obama a lot initially, and I kind of think that was what led to their willingness to be so soft on Republican intransigence: they didn’t want it to look like they were protecting the guy because they liked him, so they erred on the side of amplifying dumb criticisms from the other side. But then when opposition to Obama got energetic enough, _that_ became a juicy story, so they started chasing that, and never really gave up.
Turgidson
@Calouste:
I’ve long wondered if Panetta got put up for the jobs he had in the Obama administration (CIA, SecDef) mostly because he’d be an easy confirmation (particularly when he went to SecDef, at the ebb of Obama’s 1st term popularity) and presumably was competent to keep the agencies running, if not a dynamic or forward-thinking leader. I mean, I had honestly forgotten Panetta existed, much less was a Democrat, during the Bush years. He had that Robert Gates-esque “solid public servant, acceptable to both parties” blandness to him. Well, now they’ve both stabbed Obama in the back after stepping down. Sweet.
FlipYrWhig
@Calouste: Very true. There are some Democrats for whom it has always been 1972, and then there are even more for whom it’s never stopped being 1992. In 2028 I imagine there will be lousy strategists still trying to trot out 2008 tactics.
Turgidson
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah, I agree. And that fits into the junior high drama in its own way. When Obama first became a contender for the nomination, he was the new cool kid and they were awestruck and they wanted him to like them. But he didn’t act like he needed them or want their approval, and saw them for the phony, shallow dipshits they were. When they realized this, they got the knives out. And for the most part, they’ve been out ever since.
…and the old, familiar “no no, we really aren’t “the liberal media” defensive crouch played its part too.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Holocene Human:
I haven’t done a good job of culling my books. At peak, I probably owned around 15,000. I’ve managed to get rid of some of them, but I really need to do a major purge.
Problem is, I am addicted to books. I’ve mentioned this before (probably way too frequently!) but my grandfather founded a bookstore in the 1930s. It was his dream, and he passed it (the dream and the store) along to my mother who ran the store for three decades after Granther died. I grew up expecting to take over the bookstore from my mom, but life got in the way and it never happened, and we sold it shortly after my mom died in 1975.
All this is preamble to my claim that I come by my book-addiction honestly. I’m uncomfortable in places where there aren’t wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcases. And I really do read, often re-read (or consult) the books I own.
But at age 72, I don’t want to move hundreds of cartons of books to a new place. And I’m reluctant to leave them for a sibling or cousin to have to deal with. I finally (after years of screaming No no no, you can’t make me, I won’t!) have transitioned to an e-reader, which is great because (a) a shelf of pixels and electrons weighs lots less than a couple of bookcases of hardbacks, and (b) it’s fucking miraculous to be able to change the type size to suit ambient light conditions and the tiredness of my aging eyes.
And to your point, I absolutely hated what the Florida climate did to my books during the six years I lived there. The mildew smell followed me for decades.
Carolinus
@Professor:
Panetta is a Dem, and has been since ’71. He served in the Clinton white house as OBM director and chief of staff. In his book, he apparently stays loyal to his old boss, talking him up in comparison to Obama, while also having only kind things to say about Hillary as SoS.
He’s not a particularly loyal Dem though, as he put promoting his own ego and book above his party’s fortunes in a crucial midterm (vs just waiting a few weeks if he felt desperately compelled to interfere in ongoing Foreign Policy crises).
SiubhanDuinne
Wow. I wonder what I said in my long response to Another Holocene Human’s #55 that put me in moderation. No links except the reply link, and I don’t think I used any bad words.
Hobbes
Has Mr Panetta had been asked what he did to ensure that US troops could be left in Iraq? I’m sure that with his certainty that the troop withdrawal was a mistake, he would have used his passionate, bold leadership to actually do something to prevent it. The answer must be in his book. Anyone read that far yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Turgidson: Well, now they’ve both stabbed Obama in the back after stepping down. Sweet.
Not having read either book, my recollection is that Gates’ take was a lot more nuanced, had some praise to counter the criticism. At least as far as the media coverage is concerned, and much more concerned with the terror-du-jour, Panetta’s take seems much more negative than Gates. And Gates IIRC seemed to hate Biden beyond all reason.
Another Holocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: The ways of FYWP are not for us mortals to ponder, my friend.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ah…. I’ve been wondering if there was a Clintonite angle to all this.
pat
@Another Holocene Human:
Libraries have LOTS of books and you can read as many as you want for FREE. I recommend them.
Violet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Isn’t there always a Clintonite angle?
Baud
No, Mike. No, you won’t.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Found it! I used a word referring to light or noise conditions in one’s general vicinity, the first six letters of which are the proprietary name of a farmisootikle.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
That comment is like a crossword puzzle clue.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I have to wonder… Does anybody ever read these books? And if so, why? What the fuck could somebody like Leon Panetta have to say that would be worth setting aside the time to wade through a slew of self congratulatory blather for? Or Hillary Clinton’s book. We’ve pretty much been with her for the last 20 years. What on earth could she have to say that would make it worth it to read these things? Robert Gates? Mitt Romney? Any of these guys? I can’t begin to fathom shelling out $30 for a sleeping pill like this…
Baud
@Violet:
If there wasn’t, we’d have to invent one.
JPL
uhoh… GA football star Todd Gurley, suspended indefinitely.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
The first letter is A and the last letter is T, and in between are M, B, I, E, and N.
Violet
@SiubhanDuinne: Ohhh…it’s a m b i e n c e, isn’t it?
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is probably Franken’s best book, FWIW. He had actual researchers and includes a picture of them at the back.
Carolinus
@Hobbes:
From the published excerpts he wanted Obama to arm-twist Malaki into unilaterally signing over immunity for US troop deployments. Malaki was insisting that Iraqi parliament vote on it, and the vote was doomed to fail because the electorate was heavily opposed. Panetta suggests Obama could have threaten to renege on already promised aid and reconstruction money if Maliki didn’t do what we wanted. I really doubt that would have worked, and it would have been a really bad look for the US, essentially blackmailing away Iraqi sovereignty on the question of foreign troop deployments inside their country.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you. I would have been up all night trying to figure that out.
max
@Another Holocene Human: I can’t think of a single positive thing that I could associate with the name Leon Panetta in my entire lifetime.
I have a hard time thinking of anything he’s done at all for good or ill.
max
[‘Time-serving hack.’]
Hal
@Mnemosyne: New York. I’ve been looking at labor laws and we are unionized, so ill have to make some calls. Haven’t found anything yet.
Hal
@Baud: Saw that headline and had a good chuckle. Where else is the huckster going to go?
max
@max:
‘On the left: the Cheshire cat. On the right: a boojum. Our question tonite: Does Leon Panetta actually exist?!’
max
[‘Next on Crossfire!’]
Violet
@Hal: He and Sarah Palin can form their own party.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Santorum Gulch? Schlafly Holler? Bachmans’ Gap?
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet: Very, very close. The adjective, not the noun.
Mnemosyne
@Hal:
Here in California, we had a high-profile incident where a cameraman (?) fell asleep at the wheel and died in a car crash after a too-short break between shifts, so the entertainment unions were able to get together and get our law passed.
Violet
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I can’t imagine who reads these political books. I guess reporter types read them–or at least skim them–because someone goes through them and finds the good parts. Or maybe it’s just the PR folks that release the good parts and the reporters just publish those excerpts without reading the book.
If SiubhanDuinne’s a m b i e n doesn’t work, you can’t always read one of these books.
Violet
@SiubhanDuinne: Ah…so close! If it was a real crossword clue we would have known how many letters.
SiubhanDuinne
My #62 is still awaiting moderation.
? Oh Annie Laurieeeee ??
Cacti
So the essence of Panetta’s gripes are that Obama isn’t enough of a reflexive warmonger.
Once again, very glad to have voted for the guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet:
I should have said.
Raven
Todd Gurley suspended http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/100914aad.html
Anne Laurie
@SiubhanDuinne: To be fair, I now rely on B&N’s magazine section as my “newstand”. There’s lots of magazines I want to read on an occasional basis but don’t dare subscribe to, since I’m a borderline hoarder.
Trollhattan
Would be wrong to focus on Panetta and miss Kristen Schaal’s TDS piece last night.
She has slayed me ever since “Flight of the Concords.” Do give it a look.
Botsplainer
@Cacti:
The very essence of American Exceptionalism is to recklessly pound any potential perceived aggressor with a level of force excess to that which would be required to achieve a military solution before thinking of a diplomatic resolution and assembling an international coalition. This includes, by necessity, the willingness to inflict an excessive amount of collateral damage on the local populace is a symbol of the steely, tough resolve that is emblematic of that exceptionalism.
Fuck yeah!
SiubhanDuinne
@Anne Laurie:
(1) Thank you for releasing me from moderation prison, and [B] I agree, the magazine section at B&N is one of their finest features.
JPL
@Raven: You okay? Should have sold those tickets.
JPL
@JPL: also.. This is on NBC sports
The Macon Telegraph reported the suspension stems from Gurley allegedly receiving compensation for his autograph.
“A source said the investigation involved whether Gurley received money in exchange for his autograph or use of his likeness,” Emerson wrote.
Misterpuff
@SiubhanDuinne: I was in one yesterday (needed a real book for some air travel) and they didn’t have Catch-22 in the Literature stacks. I was looking for Something Happened, which I felt like rereading 35 years later. No Heller whatsoever.
Non fiction was also a mess. Was debating some hagiography about Disney or Steve Jobs, but ended up picking Nixonland, so I’ll be in a good mood when I get to my destination.
Can highly recommend Command And Control by Eric Slosser. Engrossing and scary. And all those nukes just sit there today….And when I think of those who have sat at the top of the C&C structure, its amazing we are still here today. (Not to mention a similar book could be written about the Russian side of things)
MCA1
@Another Holocene Human: “I can’t think of a single positive thing that I could associate with the name Leon Panetta in my entire lifetime.”
How about seeing the name James Gandolfini next to it in the closing credits for Zero Dark Thirty?”
That’s the only positive association I can think of, though, too.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: When I moved, I didn’t want to have to pay additional for a larger storage space, so I gave up my books. It takes a long time to adapt.
I do love my Nook though.
Howard Beale IV
@Kathleen: They also had top-notch sound engineering, too-none of this Loudness-fucking-war engineering shit.
ruemara
Since it’s an open thread:; I can’t even http://io9.com/nickelodeon-expert-says-the-channel-has-become-too-div-1644523546
People fucking suck.
Patrick
My God how soon these people forget! Bush had the passion of a leader. Guess what, his war on Iraq that he cheered us into turned into a huge disaster that we will be paying for for years.
And regarding Panetta’s interview on Stewart last night; Panetta wanted to leave 5000 troops in Iraq, eventhough Iraq had denied us immunity. Panetta then claimed that Obama could have forced the issue blah blah. When Bush attacked Iraq, the mantra from pro-war people was “liberate Iraq”. And now that they have been “liberated”, people like Panetta are acting like they are our little puppet state. It makes you wonder what the war was really about (OIL), doesn’t it?
Villago Delenda Est
Noisemax keeps providing the lulz:
Huckabee: I’ll Leave GOP Over Gay Marriage
And where, pray tell, fuckhead, will you go?
Savage: Only GOP Senate Can Stop Civil War
How does this twit figure this? I would guess that a GOP Senate would spark a civil war, not prevent it.
If so, bring it on. It’s time to take out the trash.
SiubhanDuinne
@Misterpuff:
No Heller?? That’s just wrong. (You could probably have had your pick of Ayn Rand novels, though.)
I just finished Perlstein’s Before the Storm, and after a brief fiction palate-cleanser will tackle Nixonland again.
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara:
That is sad and disgusting and infuriating.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Uhhh … “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” wasn’t animated. It’s apples to oranges. WTF?
Along those same lines, the weird complaint I’ve been seeing about Big Hero 6 is that it’s been “whitewashed” because three of the characters are now African-American, Latina, and white instead of being Japanese (the original comic book took place in Japan and was about Japanese characters, while the film takes place in the US). Either I’m super naive about this or I’m not quite sure the people making the complaint understand what “whitewashing” is.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: blacks and Latinas are reverse racism to whites that are washed in bleach. Or something arglebargle. I hate people.
Mike J
@ruemara: I wonder if he bothered to ask the writers if they thought there was any problem writing for Sanjay. My guess is they don’t have any problem with it, or they’d be on a different show.
RaflW
So I just popped over to Panetta’s vanity corporate grift mill, er um, eponymous institute, and guess who the CEO is? Sylvia M. Panetta. Yep, the missus. Grift + nepotism. Fabulous.
Howard Beale IV
@Villago Delenda Est: He’ll save money ‘cuz he won’t have to pay his GOP membership fees-he’s already getting his grifting monies from FOX, so there’s that. Hell, he could start his own ministry and really rake in the dough.
Calouste
@Carolinus:
So Panetta is of the “democracy means you do what the US upper class tells you” type. Not surprising for an ex-Republican.
cckids
@ruemara: Holy shit, what an ass! He says “Dora the Explorer was somewhat of a success”. Really, dude? My kids were 10 years too old for it, and I still know about Dora, & the fox, and Diego, etc. It is a f-ing juggernaut.
The person writing that is not terribly informed about the entertainment world.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I skimmed that at a party last year, it was pretty good from what I could tell.
Re: libraries, I totally do the library thing but it has its issues, kind of a pain if you read in spurts and don’t finish in time, also my local library tries to keep up with non-fic but their new book section is just a crapheap, and any sort of really fun reading they’ll have like 1, 3, 4, and 7 so you’re missing a bunch because somebody’s kid took it out and then lost it on the bus.
I’m supposed to be able to read some of their collection online but I haven’t because reading stuff on a PC just kind of … I can barely get through a long-form essay on the computer.
JPL
@ruemara: You have to wonder if he thinks the AP history course talks about slavery to much. The problem is that those with far right ideas are treated with respect on 24/7 news rather than mocked.
delk
RIP Jan Hooks
clang, clang, clang…
Howard Beale IV
@ruemara: Karma was served: NYCC canceled his appearance.
ruemara
@Mike J: Or, the fact that there are multiple generations resident Indian-Americans who act just like this and love to have their basic American life reflected in a cartoon is, you know, kinda cool. I’m gonna go burn off some fury and frustration at the gym. I can’t even get approvals to do my job with the new team. I write recommends, but they… are still wondering what we actually sell. I’m not joking.
Another Holocene Human
@ruemara: Well, it’s part of an entire discourse about the erasure of Asian and Native American characters, look at what happened with The Last Airbender (originally very good and popular US Saturday morning cartoon with all Asian characters, but Shyamalan decided to cast white people and Indians (South Asians? Original Fire People were kind of like Han Chinese … anyway, casting basically Inuit people with white actors who couldn’t even act was pretty insulting) or what happened with the THANKFULLY KILLED AGAIN Akira live action movie disaster. There was even a website about it, racebending.com. Somehow, oddly, East Asians can never appear in movies even about East Asian cultural themes because “Americans” won’t relate or something argle bargle. See: every American ninja movie ever. (Cue bitchin’ guitar lick.)
RaflW
@Baud:
Just go ahead and f*king move to Uganda. That’s about the level of false Christian ‘compassion’ you’d fit with, you miserable creature.
Except, of course, the gay people in Uganda do not deserve your bile and venom. So stay, so we can point and laugh at your tiny, useless bluster.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jan Hooks, eh? That’s a shame. I always thought she was one of their most underrated players
Howard Beale IV
@Mnemosyne: Trying to Disney-fi a Marvel franchise? Hmmm…..(scratches his beard……)
Baud
@ruemara:
I remember when conservatives were colorblind and hated quotas.
Baud
@RaflW:
If you didn’t like my joke, you could have just said so. Jeez.
RaflW
@Baud: Sorry. Your joke was fine.
I feel clear that Huck is the problem.
Howard Beale IV
@Baud: I remember when conservatives had functioning reasoning brains and appeared on Dean Martin Comedy Roasts.
Baud
@RaflW:
He certainly is. ;-)
Mike J
@delk: I understand that she’s going to be buried in the basement at the Alamo.
Howard Beale IV
PSA: Don’t (1) be on an airplane; (2) sneeze; (3) state you came from Africa.
Howard Beale IV
@Mike J: Good one.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I get what “whitewashing” is when you make non-white characters into white characters. The worst offender of the past 10 years was probably 21, which took a non-fiction book about Asian-American and Arab-American mathematicians and made them all WASPs. I’m not getting why turning a Japanese character into an African-American character counts as “whitewashing.”
@Howard Beale IV:
The original series was only 6 comic books, so I think it’s overstating to call it a “franchise.” And if you don’t like Marvel properties being Disney-fied, you probably should have complained at Iron Man. ;-)
MomSense
I’ve always been more of a Spock than a Kirk gal so I guess I’m fine with the professorial Obama. The only thing that might make me suffer through a Panetta memoir would be confirmation that Obama raises one eyebrow and says “fascinating” after being briefed by his Sec Def.
Howard Beale IV
@Another Holocene Human: Supposively there’s been a “Ghost In The Shell” movie in the pipeline, with Rupert sanders as the director. Spielberg and DreamWorks bough live action rights in 2008.
raven
Howard Beale IV
@Mnemosyne: So sorry, but Iron Man was released in 2008, before Disney acquired Marvel in 2009.
JPL
@raven: Maybe Gurley can plead the Manziel defense.
Mike J
@raven: If they would just pay players in
the farm leaguescollege we wouldn’t have any of this nonsense to worry about.I have nothing against the idea of college football, but we should stop pretending they’re amateurs.
raven
@JPL: Not with Saint Mark and this douchebag AD (who was at Florida for years). I blieve we is fucked.
Frankensteinbeck
@Patrick:
Ego. If we wanted the oil, we did a crappy job of getting it. If the point was to make George Bush feel like an awesome war president with a big codpiece and launch Cheney’s dream that conquering one Middle Eastern nation would make the whole world bow to how cool America is – yeah, the Iraq War we got is exactly how it would go.
Howard Beale IV
@Mnemosyne: I much prefer the term ‘racewashing’, because that is exactly what is happening.
Botsplainer
The Palin police report is out making the rounds, and it’s a doozy from a family lawyer’s perspective. Lots of substance enhanced dysfunction of the sort usually seen in trailer parks and lower middle class neighborhoods.
If this were a black family interacting with police, the event would have turned out differently.
Thanks a fuckload, McCain.
The Other Chuck
That’s fine, you and your ilk left the human race long ago. Or maybe as you like to put it, they left you. Good riddance either way, you jowl-wagging shitstain.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
Hollywood is extremely racist. In fact, they’re ‘My Best Friend Is Black’ racist. I know a couple of people making a TV show pitch. At a pitch meeting, they got all the attention and people saying they were excited about the project… before they’d said anything about the project at all. Just because they themselves are unusual minorities. I watched an interesting video of a Hispanic comedian talking about the way Nickelodeon casting crews tied themselves into knots not to say out loud that they hired him to play a Wacky Mexican, and they wanted him to be more ethnic. Hollywood loves stereotypes of all kinds, and sometimes tries to be friendly about it.
Think ‘Stephen Colbert’.
Howard Beale IV
@Botsplainer: Indeed-it may have actually rid us of that unholy menace. Fuck.
Eric U.
@The Other Chuck: I’m sure the GOP will continue to pretend to fight Gay Marriage forever because there are a few shitheads that love that sort of outrage. Although, I am not sure anyone is even going to care in 10 years
tybee
@Another Holocene Human:
a bit more complicated indeed.
Mnemosyne
@Howard Beale IV:
So you think it’s more acceptable for American audiences for a character to be black than for him/her to be Asian? Do we live in the same America?
And let’s be clear for a minute here: the original “Big Hero 6” is an American product, written in the US by American writers about Japanese characters in Japan. I’m still not getting what the horrible cultural appropriation was in moving the story from Japan to the US and changing two of the Japanese characters to being African-American and Latina when it was written for an American audience by American writers in the first place.
Yep, read that article closely — in the original comics, Fred Zilla is an Ainu, which means he’s not Japanese. So you can really only complain that two of the six characters were “racewashed” away from the original.
gogol's wife
@delk:
That’s sad. She was very funny.
On another topic — the audio autoplay ads seem to be back.
tybee
@SiubhanDuinne:
we might be related.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t deny that Hollywood in general is racist. But I don’t think that they moved the story from Japan to the US and made two characters black and Latina instead of Japanese primarily because of racism. Do you?
Now, if you want to argue that the story was moved from Japan to the US because American audiences would be more comfortable with a story about American characters (regardless of race), then I think that’s a different argument.
SiubhanDuinne
I am tired of ISIS/ISIL.
I am bored with Ebola porn.
I am sick of people like Chris Hayes waxing hysterical about “open warfare between the White House and the Secret Service.”
Seriously, I want to stay informed, but these days I don’t know even how to do that without being poisoned by the crazy. Maybe I need to re-think that whole “want to stay informed” thing from jump.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: You could be a Dawg fan and slit your wrists with me.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anne Laurie:
I do not know this “borderline” of which you speak.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Yeh, I guess that’s the next despairing step.
Howard Beale IV
@Mnemosyne: It goes without saying that Disney, like any other studio, is taking liberties with the original story. Whether it will work or not, we’ll have to see. For purists, yeah, it’s an issue. Am I going to see it? Probably not. I haven’t seen the last Iron Man/Thor/Avengers movies and there’s a shitpot full of anime I haven’t seen and I got 9 TB of video on my home server I have yet to watch.
To each his own.
mainmata
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Hey, they are one of my most favorite bands. Of course, Roger Hodgson was born one week before I was so that may be related. Bu “Logical Song” among many others is fantastic.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Carolinus: So how is this a US problem? Iraq now has ISIS running amok because they wouldn’t accommodate the US on this. Panetta complaint is back to the old US is the only actor in the world and everyone else is our pawns or victims.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Frankensteinbeck:
I honestly think it was because turdblossom knew a war would give Bush a boost in the polls and the NeoCons just want war without end.
drkrick
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
And the Decidererer wanted to measure up to Daddy for once in his life. That turned out the way it usually did, of course. Not measuring up to THAT father is really, really sad.
Elie
@Howard Beale IV:
that was when they thought that white people would run things without comment from anyone else forever. Not that the n—r is in the WHITEhouse and all kinds of browns, blacks and yellows are gaining in numbers and influence, there is no interest in calm reasoned communication. Its all my stick is bigger than yours and I am going to try to beat you with it. Its only gonna get worse over the “white parity in population numbers’ event horizon. These folks REALLY may want to blow things up rather than be in a system where they are not the rulers but just like everybody else. Nope — democracy is just not what they have any interest in living under in those circumstances.
gian
@ruemara:
Check out doc mcsuffins on Disney jr.
If disney can do it. ..
Frankensteinbeck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I tend to think that Cheney actually meant the paper he partially wrote about how if we just flexed our muscles and beat up one Middle Eastern country everyone else would beg for us to beat them up, too. Sure, it’s deranged, but people believe deranged things all the time. If you add that to Bush being a rich brat with daddy issues, you get a much better predictor of events in the GWB administration than mere greed. They were greedy and corrupt, sure, but also Righteous Warriors For Assholism.
EDIT – @Elie:
Sadly, I think you are 100% on the money. They were happy to be beneficial stewards. They lose their shit at the thought of equality.
Elie
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yeah, that is my new awareness. I thought before that they (white people) would just get used to it — and maybe eventually that is true but the period of transition will be lengthy and ugly. Just hope that this system makes it through that period without a civil war or other breakdown. And we have guns up to our eyeballs with decreasing attention to civility. This thing with the cops has been growning and is an indirect marker of a society that doesnt have clear democratic values that it will assert on the police — bad sign
Gravenstone
@Howard Beale IV: Well, aside from that whole thing of Disney owning Marvel now …
ruemara
@gian: I love that show. It’s a bright light in the darkness.@Mnemosyne: funny how so many fans don’t understand who writes the comic.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Pretty much every well-meaning white person who wants to write for movies or TV asks themselves at some point, How do I put some diversity into this? Sometimes the answer is good (let’s make Doc McStuffins a black girl but not make a big deal out of it) and sometimes the answer is … embarrassing.
I do think (but don’t actually know) that part of the conversation once the decision was made to set Big Hero 6 in the US instead of Japan was, Should all of the characters still be Japanese? And given that we’re talking about something that’s mostly a kids’ movie, I think they made the right decision by opening it up a little. You could probably say that those characters are tokens but, frankly, it’s mostly the story of a boy and his robot, so the other four team members are already tokens. Since that’s the case, why not have a diverse cast of tokens rather than an all-white (or all-anything) cast of tokens?
Mnemosyne
And, yes, obviously I have a dog in this fight, but I think I would be defending the movie no matter who signed my paycheck.
Hairy baby!
GregB
Former CIA Director and closest thing to a human Muppet, Leon Panetta.
Chris
@Baud:
LOLOLOL.
I still remember James Dobson saying he wouldn’t endorse a McCain candidacy as a matter of principle (back when his reputation as a moderate was taken seriously), then meekly endorsing him anyway when he won the nomination three years later.
Maroons, the lot of them.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t think it’s either/or. IMHO, the Iraq War was a nice fit for several agendas. Republican politicians got a nice big campaign commercial, neoconservative intellectuals got a chance to remake the world, defense contractors and other connected parasites got lucrative deals.
Clearly, oil wasn’t the only factor but I’d find it hard to believe that it wasn’t among them. How many no bid contracts did Halliburton get for Iraqi oil fields thanks to their CEO turned Vice President?
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
I may have groaned out loud at X-Men’s “black man dies first” moment. For fuck’s sake, it’s become such a cliche there’s no way they didn’t see it.
Mnemosyne
@Chris:
It’s kind of a stupid movie, but I thought This Is The End managed to do a funny twist on the “black man dies first” cliche.
Fred
@Botsplainer: You’ve got it all wrong. We owe a load of thanks to dear Sarah. If it wasn’t for her over the top idiocy John McCain could have been elected president.
I thank God for Sarah Palin. And she never stops making us all laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and…….