Nima: Actually, I immediately thought of Billmon, who had a similar take from a different point of view when reading about Webb’s history of Scoth-Irish. Not that I would suspect Billmon of actually being Webb, mind you.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Nov 16 2006 8:19 utc | 4

the best hope would be for progressives like Webb & others to line up, frame and drive a common agenda behind Pelosi’s leadership.
Except for those of us who understand that America cannot be a healthy just or prosperous country until all our factories are brought back – not to mention that national security & energy imperatives require it.
But then when anyone calls themselves a “progressive” when the collapse of the myth of progess is obvious even to the most obtuse, the failure of comprehension is so total that it’s not surprising they would call an ardent reactionary woman-hater like Webb a “progressive”.
Lest you think I’m understating the Urgent National Security aspect of bringing the factories back now, use whatever imagination you might have to imagine a Cold War w/the Soviet Union w/all our factories there.
The US need not be destroyed or suffer a collapse as did the Soviet Union in order to lose its top global position. It could well come about with a sufficient and permanent loss of US global political, economic and military leverage (the ability on the ground on an ongoing basis to successfully seduce and/or otherwise compel the world’s players either to align with or else refrain from opposing US interests and goals), as the reader will see in the analysis that follows.
…
It isn’t yet fashionable to speak openly of a world subdividing itself again into two camps – those aligned with the US and those aligned with the Russia-China axis at the core of a new rising, multifarious yet coherent pole of the East – with the dividing line between the two camps consisting of the contest for control over global strategic resources.
Despite all the relevant signs pointing precisely in that direction:
The deepening accord in all key spheres between Russia, China, India, the other rising powers of the East and the key resource-rich regimes of the world.
Steadily rising East-West tensions, the ever-more divergent interests between East and West.
The increasingly incompatible approaches to global issues and problems resulting in an ever-widening chasm between East and West.
…
Why are the clear developments signifying the building beneath the surface of a neo-Cold War and what will be proven here to be the grave and impending threat posed by the rising East to the current US global position still being widely overlooked, at least publicly, at this advanced juncture in global developments? PREPARING FOR A NEW COLD WAR, Part 1

Posted by: jj | Nov 16 2006 9:00 utc | 6

CL :
Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Nov 16 2006 9:07 utc | 8

I just read billmons post from 2003 on the Scotch-Irish.
Very fascinating.
The anthropoligical polarization in Ulster between Catholic & Scotch-Irish starting back from even before the 17’th century seems to compare quite well to the “old South/West” (between Whites & Blacks/Native-Americans). And it is clear that all parties in these conflicts suffered severe trauma. And the pychological legacies of these conflicts are still with us in large measure.
Still it would be very unfair on the Scotch-Irish to suggest that but for them, racism, manifest-destiny, American exceptionalism or eurocentric moral superioriy would not exist (or be such a big deal) in the USA.
And taking billmons piece a little further, the relationship between the Scotch Irish and the Yankees seems in some ways to mirror that of the Boers & the English who settled in South Africa.
this information is further proof that certain features of a belief system can pass through from generation to generation – for a very long time.
I have said on this board before that the brutal history of the South & West seriously damaged all the parties involved. And the solution has to be addressed to the inner psychological souls of all parties involved. This has never been done or even attempted.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Nov 16 2006 12:57 utc | 10

My recollection is that people who were against the Vietnam War and Really Really Cared about stuff other than just themselves, are probably Democrats, or better, today.
The ones hanging around just for fun, are either likely to be Republicans or otherwise barely participating at all.
I don’t know if maybe Jim Webb has looked around the White House and seen the same thing…

Posted by: bcf | Nov 16 2006 14:45 utc | 12

I thought it interesting that the one subject that is almost always avoided by the MSM and the pols when discussing what to do in Iraq, and when and how much to withdraw, that is the future of the permanent military bases, was directly addressed by Webb on CNN a day or two after the election. He talked about disowning the bases and getting the region involved in a solution as the Americans get out. Pretty bloody obvious, but it was still nice to hear it on CNN from a soon to be American senator. That rarely happens.

Posted by: b. | Nov 16 2006 16:32 utc | 14

“He talked about disowning the bases and getting the region involved in a solution as the Americans get out. Pretty bloody obvious, but it was still nice to hear it on CNN from a soon to be American senator. That rarely happens.”
Posted by: b. | Nov 16, 2006 11:32:20 AM | 14
It isn’t enough. Jim Webb needs to have a publicly expressed epiphany. He needs to express a “born again” confessional to admit his former beliefs were wrong and he needs to show contrition for having them. He needs to give “testimony” for his newfound clarity of vision and his willingness to ‘make right’ former mistakes. Otherwise he will not be trusted and will be ragged mercilessly as a ‘mole’.

Posted by: pb | Nov 16 2006 17:49 utc | 16

wayne madsen writes:

House sources report that Nancy Pelosi’s new Committee on Organization and Review of the Rules may target the House’s seniority system, with long-serving members of the Congressional Black Caucus being in the crosshairs. In order to prevent any outcry from the Black Caucus, Pelosi has cleverly named South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, an African American and prospective Majority Whip, as the chairman of the new committee. The gambit is clearly an attempt by the Democratic Leadership Council and their congressional allies to bypass seniority to place their own people in key committee chairs.

Posted by: b real | Nov 16 2006 19:11 utc | 18

Even Rush Limbaugh came out after the election disaster and said that he was not going to carry water any more for people who didn’t deserve it; he was only doing so out of solidarity for the conservative cause.
I don’t know if he meant neocons, pageophiles, gay evangelist meth heads or those who did not successfully distance themselves from Bush, but it does signal that the conservative movement is a cracked monolith, ready to lose a few major chunks.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 16 2006 19:51 utc | 20

there must be a god
milton friedman that monster who called himself an economist but who in reality was the heritier of the tradion of todt, sauckel & speer, is finally dead

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 16 2006 22:13 utc | 22

R’Giap: If there really were a god, Friedman would have died 50 years ago, before he could fuck up the whole planet with his nefarious ideas. Now, it’s too late, you’d have to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, to undo the damage.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Nov 16 2006 22:26 utc | 24

mark
thanks
it is incalculable (far from)clueless joe the amounto of damage that most wicked ‘economist’ nurtured
& it is a truism that wherever milton’s economics reigned they dis so with the criminalisation of politics, the militarisation of police & the privatisation of prison
miton freidman – i hope you are today somewhere in the 5th circle of hell

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 16 2006 23:41 utc | 26

@Rg:
Hope it’s a prison like Newgate in the 18th century
where the prisoners get to purchase most anything they want, at a very dear price.
And that he always runs out of money.
Would serve that swine right.

Posted by: Dr. Quincey | Nov 16 2006 23:56 utc | 28

just a note to “b real”
sorry for the intrusion
I’ve used b. when i comment as well, but i haven’t commented here much.

Posted by: another | Nov 17 2006 4:34 utc | 30

Hmmm – WaPo editors have looked at the available decisions: protectionism or tax-increases for the rich – they come out on the tax-increase side:
U.S. Economic Leadership

The world’s trading system has been progressively opened since 1945, largely thanks to U.S. leadership. This has been one of the great achievements of the American era; denying the economic evidence that trade boosts growth is like denying the scientific evidence for climate change. Because the expansion of trade has coincided with a rise in inequality, many American voters are understandably skeptical of its benefits. But the Democrats must respond to that concern by implementing tax and spending policies that distribute prosperity more evenly, not by abandoning the nation’s role as the chief driver of trade liberalization.

Posted by: b | Nov 17 2006 7:31 utc | 32