The pragmatic consequences of U.N. recognition (of a Palestinian state) may well backfire, given the radical, religious nature of Israel’s government. But the Palestinians know that the Israelis have no intention, whatever blather they give us in public, of creating a genuine two-state solution anyway. The point of the resolution is to accelerate Israel’s encounter with reality: if they want to continue the Greater Israel project, it needs to be laid bare for the world to see. It needs to be seen as a land-grab and a clear policy of occupation that leads inexorably to apartheid and brutality. … I do not blame the Palestinians for using the only real leverage they have: international condemnation of the settlement policy. (Israeli leader Benjamin) Netanyahu had a chance to make a deal. Now he should see the consequences of intransigence.
Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish
I find it truly comforting that some things never change — and two of those things are President Obama’s ideas and rhetoric. Obama’s long-awaited jobs speech offered his usual mix of hyper-partisanship (no longer convincingly masquerading as post-partisanship), class warfare, and thinly veiled resentment that, in our form of government, he cannot simply do whatever he wants.
But after many weeks of buildup and two years of arguably the worst post-recession recovery in six decades, the real tip-off that Obama is utterly incapable of changing course was when he again referred, Saturday Night Live-like, to fast trains… In the wake of Obama’s latest effort, it now seems quite possible that he is well on his way to ending (Jimmy) Carter’s three-decade reign as the most recent president in whom the American people overwhelmingly lost confidence even before the end of his first term.
Jeffrey Anderson
The Weekly Standard
The candidates who have been doing well, among Republicans, are the absolutists. Rick Perry is as absolutist as they come: Other candidates may want to privatize or end Social Security, but he’ll tell you outright he wants it gone. Other candidates may give speeches on how much they want to hurt workers, help businesses, and cut government help to all the poor bastards who are unfortunate enough to need it, but Rick Perry can point you to all the specific people he’s hurt. He’s actually proud of the dismal wages, bad working conditions, inability to access health care, and all those other little Texas Miracles—and the Republican base will eat that stuff up.
Daily Kos
What can (Obama) and Congress really do to help sustain and strengthen the economic recovery? I propose the following. First, distinguish between bad jobs and good jobs. An example of a bad job is hiring someone to dig a hole and then fill it in. The person’s time is totally wasted. An example of a good job is one created by Steve Jobs: hiring someone to produce a product, say the iPad, that someone else wants to buy and is willing to spend his own money to buy. The person doing the work gives up his time but is paid for it by someone who wants the product.
My example suggests that bad jobs will tend to be those created by government with the goal of making work; good jobs will tend to be those created by people in the private sector creating value.
David Henderson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
