Things falling apart

We're used to seeing civil wars down there, but national wars, not so much:

Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said the nation is breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia.

The move comes after the Organization of American States passed a resolution Wednesday in hopes of easing tensions stemming from an attack by Colombian military on a rebel camp in neighboring Ecuador on Saturday.

Since that attack, Ecuador has broken off relations with Colombia, and Venezuela says it has moved troops to its border with Colombia.

Where is the U.S. in all this? Who is minding the Washington store? These countries are separated from us by what, a thousand miles?

No comment about the comments

Many of the comments in this thread are winceworthy. But I still don't believe the Bush people are so stupid and crazy as to attack Iran: we just don't have the capability to do it now. I have no idea what the game is but it can't be that.

I really don't care who wins between Obama and Hillary at this point. I like Obama because he's black -- at least I admit it -- and because there's a small chance he'll take a different tack on foreign policy. I dislike Obama because he's done his best to foul up chances for meaningful health care reform, and because I despise -- absolutely fucking hate -- the insane gang of yahoos who have made his campaign into a religious crusade. I hated them in Dean's campaign, I hated them in Brown's campaign, and I hate them now. Fuck those punks. I like Hillary because I admire her courage and ambition: many people would have fallen apart in the face of all the crap she's endured from the media for 16 years; she's managed not only to press on, but to make meaningful contributions to society. I also like her campaign for the opportunity to stick it to the press, particularly the loathsome creeps at MSNBC, and because a Hillary campaign in the general might -- might -- force the media people to engage in some desperately needed self-examination. I dislike Hillary because her presidency would probably be very tactical and reactive, and her foreign policy is guaranteed to be a cravenly surrender to the status quo. Both candidates are smart and will probably be efficient managers, although Hillary is probably more ready now, while Obama has better potential for growth. Of the two, Hillary is a more "sure thing," while Obama's presidency could turn out great, and could turn out to be a bomb -- he's a highly talented guy, but he's never been tested. Really, they are two fine candidates, and I don't understand how anyone could hate either one, but a lot of the yahoos have somehow managed to convince themselves Hillary deserves their hatred. When I look at her life I actually see a lot to admire, and nothing at all to hate, so I don't get it.

*Add: After reading around the usual media suspects just now, I get the sense Obama's rough ride with the press is over, that he's about to become a fair haired boy again, albeit nowhere near as fair-haired as McCain. And if Obama is having problems with Hillary over his lack of experience now, what in the world is he going to do against warhero20termsenatorsaintjohnmccain?

And since it's late and I need someplace to stick this so I can come back to it later,

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/business/04cash.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/casholdings.pdf

If Hillary doesn't win the nomination, it will be yet another major Dem who is just a lousy campaigner. We had Gore, and then Kerry, and then Hillary, all "fatally flawed". Dems sure are a bunch of dumbasses for nominating, or even considering nominating, candidates like these. Republicans lose elections; Democrats reveal they are "fatally flawed," and run horrible campaigns.

And how the media people love that term! It must make them feel so superior, to think that they can look into the soul of an accomplished, talented person and be able to proclaim him or her "fatally flawed".

Is it me, or has stuff like this become more prevalent lately?

To Fenkel-

Typical jew response to monetary policy, I wonder what effect reckless monetary policy will have on his gold accounts.

The anti-Catholic stuff is being discussed now, which is a good thing, but the anti-Mormon stuff on Romney never really got properly addressed. There's been some Jew, black, and hispanic stuff going on in the Obama-Clinton race, anti-Arab and Muslim attitudes are so taken for granted that nobody even notices their own bigotry. In general, it just seems like fewer people are trying to hide their ugly sides, that as a nation we're pulling apart some, not just on the conservative-liberal axis, but along the lines of bad old-fashioned tribalism and bigotry.

*Add on: how could I possibly forget all the anti-women stuff over Hillary's campaign, much of it coming from women themselves?

Hide the women! Cover the children's eyes!

The Wapo engages in social analysis. I wish I could say I'm surprised an editor waved it into print, but it's probably just a transcription of what they say to each other in the newsroom, so nobody was able to see anything wrong.

Of particular interest are the posters in the comments section trying to defend it as parody, when it very clearly is not. You don't support parody with the sort of extensive qualifications and attempts at "evenhandedness" ("Men are dumb, too!") that she does here. The other thing that interests me about the comments is how few people really get what's going on here. It's a slam on both Obama and Clinton, disguised as social commentary. She's throwing the script they follow -- Obama leads a cult! Hillary's a dumb bitch! -- out there for public consumption, and people don't seem to realize it's actually a script.

Earthquake!

The earth moves under Saint John's feet:



The issue itself is trivial, and will soon be forgotten by most voters. The relevant thing here is that McCain is being held to the same standard as the Democrats, and that will not do. The entirety of his electoral hopes rests on keeping Bush's tired voting bloc intact, while attracting enough independents to carry enough swing states to win the whole thing. In order to do that, with a stumbling economy and the burden of being from the two-term incumbent party, and a very unpopular party fronted by a very unpopular president, at that, he needs every break he can get. He's never been all that great a politician to begin with -- his unsure answer captured in the video is actually quite typical of the man when he isn't surrounded by fawning sycophants -- but the media have always been happy to prop him up. Without that propping he'd be in trouble anyway; with the other problems he has he's doomed. He needs a media double standard, and he isn't getting it so far. To be sure, Obama has a similar problem -- he's never been confronted with anything but a coddling press corps, and is going to have to learn to fight for himself. But Obama is smarter than McCain, a better, smoother public speaker, and the electoral winds are at his back. I think an Obama candidacy is still the Republicans' best hope to win this year, but it's starting to look like not much of a hope.