Obama, The Man Sans Plan

The WaPo editors deplore Obama's "half measures" in Iraq:

Obama’s authorization of Iraq airstrikes isn’t connected to a coherent strategy

And even the NY Times editors, while applauding Obama's prudence and restraint, are looking for more:

The United States, Turkey and other allies should move quickly to meet the Kurds’ needs for ammunition and weapons as well as advice on more effectively deploying the pesh merga and integrating Kurdish operations with Iraqi security forces. Under pressure from the United States, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq finally agreed this week to cooperate with the Kurds and to provide air support, and should continue to do so.

That will still leave Mr. Obama with the task of framing a broader strategy that involves Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the United Nations, just to start.

Yeah, a unified strategy. Why that is urgent now as opposed to two months ago remains a Frequently Unasked Question.

THEY WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED: The US is implicitly partnering up with Shiite Iran against Sunni ISIS. Politics, bedfellows.

Comments

[Gus]

Stephanie, that Muzzztard threat language, is what ISRAEL has lived with for years.

[DrJ]

Gus,

I know we pay different music forms, but sometimes I sit down at the piano and look at the music and have no idea how I should play what is on the page from the printed notes. To those who can do this, I say good for them.

The piano, btw, is a 1920 6'3" Baltimore Knabe. Wonderful instrument, though it should be rebuilt one of these days.

Now trumpet is a different deal. On that one I was very good. Principal symphony chair, but jazz, blues, and rock too, as far as that goes. Piano? Not so much talent. Still a wonderful instrument.

[(A)Nuther Bub]

Abercrombie dumped. Big time.

[DrJ]

I suppose I ought to post the original Tannhäuser for which Liszt wrote the transcription. Here's Solti with Chicago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QbEusFcxfc

[Gus]

DrJ, that is wonderful stuff for fodder. I'm a novice at Piano, but I'm not saying that I suck or that I am not good. I'm self taught. And I'm self taught at guitar, and I will NEVER be modest about those/or/ that skill set. I love music, and I love the stuff you interjected tonight!!

[Beasts of England]

The optics of King Putt cruising off to a two-week vacation on the Vineyard are surreal. Isn't there a ranch somewhere that needs some underbrush cleared? Doesn't he own a home in Chicago he could go visit? Did Hawai'i ask him not to return?

Must be nice to be a dim. The world churns and burns and he gets to vacation in the land of income inequality. Hope they didn't forget the dog this time - helicopter hours ain't cheap...

[DrJ]

You OK, A(B)? Did Manoa valley flood? :)

[Eric in Boise]

FWIW, a "Peanuts" strip I remember:

Schroeder sits at his little piano, and plays a single note.

He runs excitedly in to talk to his friend, Charlie Brown, who is sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey, Charlie Brown, I've got perfect pitch!"

Charlie Brown, uninterested, says "You mean A perfect pitch. Besides, who cares? The baseball season is already over."

The last panel has Schroeder walking away dejectedly, thinking "I think I'll put in for a transfer to another comic strip".

Anyone else remember that one?

[(A)Nuther Bub]

OK enough to vote today, Dr.J -- thanks for asking. And I saved our wine from the hurricane(s). Yay! Didn't take a lot of courage though, I must confess. On Oahu, big fizzle, although Big Island and Maui had some troubles.

[DrJ]

(A)B,

I'm pleased that Oahu was spared. If Maui was hit, I suppose Lanai was too. How did Kawai fare? Usually they get the brunt of the rainfall.

[DrJ]

*ahem* Kauai.

[glasater]

Great news that Abercrombie got dumped (A)Nuther Bub :-)

[Jane on Ipad]

Incredible Pieces today.

[James D.]

I'll second Jane - amazing Pieces, Clarice!

[James D.]

Serious question: putting Obama aside, taking our political leadership as a whole, R's and D's both, are they truly worse than what we've had in the past?

Or are the same caliber we've always had, but we just see them more clearly now thanks to 24/7 news and social media, etc? And are their policies and decisions really worse, or are the negative consequences just coming faster and harder due to technology making the world smaller, faster and more interconnected?

[JiB (on the road again)]

JamesD,

Better goggles.

Great Pieces, Clarice.

We are getting ready to pull out of Southampton this morning for Florida via Annapolis and Charleston. School starts Wednesday. Hard to believe Frederick is now a 6th grader. Time does fly but in a perfect orbit.

See you in Annapolis.

[Extraneus]

Nice Piece, Clarice.

Obama obviously wanted the AUMF repealed because he was starting to feel the pressure to do something in Iraq and wanted an excuse not to.

[anonamom]

Catching up.
FTW Gus, one something-or-other:

Any single Member of ISIS could beat Obama's ASS into hamburger at the drop of a hat.

Jane--posting at 4:07 on a Sunday?? Even I managed to sleep until 6:30 today.

Beasts---does posting in the early hours mean good things or bad things re: your date? No details--generalities will do.

For anybody wanting to follow Ebola via twitter:
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/7/5974963/ebola-outbreak-virus-twitter-accounts-list-follow-symptoms-who-news-facts

[Miss Marple]

Good morning, all.

I see Abercrombie fell to the Obama curse, since Obama recorded phone messages and prominently endorsed him.

He's like that guy in the old Li'l Abner comic strip who used to go around with a rain cloud over his head.

[Captain Hate]

I've got the perfect solution for King Roger in dealing with those Minnesota idiots who are trying to bend the league over for the privilege of playing in their trash stadium: Either stop the extortion demands against the Redskins or play all their games on the road. End of problem.

Will Goodell do that? NFW.

[Extraneus]

Ex-Clinton official Robert Reich delivers lecture on greed while earning $240G to teach one class

Reich, who served in the Clinton White House and is now a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, took on the topic of “Work and Worth” in an Aug. 2 post on his blog. In it, he lamented that there is “little or no relationship” between what someone is paid and their actual worth to society, and he wrapped up his post by calling for student loans to be forgiven for graduates in fields like social work, nursing and teaching.

"The moral crisis of our age has nothing to do with gay marriage or abortion; it’s insider trading, obscene CEO pay, wage theft from ordinary workers, Wall Street’s continued gambling addiction, corporate payoffs to friendly politicians, and the billionaire takeover of our democracy," Reich wrote in a separate Facebook post.

But a professor who earns a one-percenter's income for a relatively easy workload has a tough time complaining about how unfair the economy is, according to some critics.

[Miss Marple]

How to reform the student loan system:

1. No loans for "living expenses" except for residence in a dorm. Costs of getting nails done, trips to Acapulco on spring break, fancy apartments with pools, etc. are NOT ALLOWED.

2. All loans will be based on the cost/benefit analysis based on average starting salary of the major and employment rate of same. (This means that people who want to go into teaching will not be given $100,000 loans to get a Harvard degree. They can go to Ball State.)

3. Lifetime cap on amount borrowed.

[Captain Hate]

he wrapped up his post by calling for student loans to be forgiven for graduates in fields like social work, nursing and teaching.

I don't have any problem with the kollidges taking a bath for the worthless degrees they provide, but that's not what Stumpy is suggesting, is it?

[Ignatz]

--He's like that guy in the old Li'l Abner comic strip who used to go around with a rain cloud over his head.--

Unfortunately, for our friends around the world, he's more like Fearless Fosdick.

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate, No, it isn't. The colleges already have their money. It is the taxpayers who will be funding it if loans are forgiven.

[Captain Hate]

Yes, Iggy, complete with a hole in the head claiming "Don't worry, folks, it's only a flesh wound".

[Miss Marple]

Iggy, I forgot about Fearless Fosdick! That is absolutely a perfect comparison!

[Ignatz]

True Cap, but I was thinking more along the lines of everyone gets shot except the bad guys. :)

[peter]

I believe that currently the correct term is absolute pitch, not perfect pitch. It is an interesting ability. I once read that most persons with absolute pitch are more accurate when they hear the pitch played on the instrument they learned on.
As a kid, my parents always obtained free, used pianos. As a result the piano tuners for fear of breaking strings, tuned them flat by about a half tone.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Awwww....

Since I put up a couple of posts on my blog yesterday with those photoshops, I checked in on the comments - and hers and the last one left is one by Bad's daughter.

A nice reminder to check in with her, so I sent her an email.

I got a reply overnight and it absolutely made my morning.

She's doing great, she's engaged to be married next spring. Her older brother is engaged and will be married next summer.

She said her family went to see Bad's mom and siblings last weekend. Everyone cried at how much Katie looks like Bad.

Such a sweet note.

[Old Lurker]

Easier solutions to college loans, MM:

Keep the government out of it and leave it to the families and their banks.

or

Require that all loans be made only by the endowments of the college who will absorb 100% of all losses.

[Miss Marple]

OL, Works for me.

I am just aggravated that colleges lure kids into these worthless majors, and that they are allowed to borrow for living expenses which they use for frivolous stuff.

Many of these kids are first-generation college students, their parents have bought into the "get a degree and you will get a big salary" line, and they don't know beans about what their total monthly loan cost will be nor how much they will be making.

Then when they end up owing $80,000 and can't get something better than a barrista at Starbucks, they blame the banks, rather than the schools, the government, and their own stupid choice.

[AliceH]

I agree w/ OL.

The problems directly and indirectly caused by the current student-loan environment won't be fixed by changing the rules on the amounts or uses by grantees, but by moving responsibility for nonpayment back to the private lenders (whether a bank or a university, doesn't matter). It's amazing how thorough lenders can be in investigating risk/credit-worthiness when they pay the penalty for bad decisions.

[AliceH]

... I do have one idea of a requirement I think should be added to every student loan: the student applying for the loan must submit a short (paragraph or 2) statement in their own words outlining their plan on how and when they will pay off said loan.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"How to reform the student loan system:"

Agree that the government should get out of it, but in the short term, as I've said before, just require the colleges to cosign the loans. Then watch them squirm when the kid with $100K in loans wants to major in Comp Lit or Gender Studies.

[AliceH]

Lawyer humor.

Ken White @ Popehat issues a belated apology:

http://www.popehat.com/2014/07/20/sorry-melissa/#comments

[Pagar]

Clarice, great Pieces again!

Hit, that is wonderful news from Bad's daughter.

IMO, the colleges co-signing all loans would end a lot of problems real fast.

[Old Lurker]

The drawback of having the college (just) co-sign is that it will absolve the bank from bad underwriting as long as the college has any credit. Now, sharing the loss might make sense, but my plan to have the college lend it all is attractive in that it will not only force an ROI sensibility on the college, it will force a "teach responsibility" on them too. And it will sure cut down on the flagrant abuse of AA admissions and free passes.

[Pagar]

"Law enforcement is holding off labeling the attack a hate crime"

The penalty for murder is less than the penalty for a hate crime?

Unbelievable !

http://weaselzippers.us/195976-two-young-black-males-fatally-shoot-orthodox-rabbi-in-north-miami/

[clarice]

Thanks!

[cindyk]

Hit: Thanks for being the "glue" that sticks us together. Nice to hear great update from Bad's daughter. A part of Bad will be with us forever.