Center for a New American Security

Abu M: Damn. Wrong again.

Abu M:

Damn. Wrong again. I should get my Google on more. Any respect held for me must be waning. She wrote at least one piece on rentier states, to (if I recall correctly) explain away her theory's inability to predict urban/the Iranian revolution. Still, at least I'm right (or still think I am) about other people having published much more on the topic. But who cares? - I was wrong.

ADTS

Not that I disagree with any

Not that I disagree with any of this, but don't let Palin get to you and don't waste your time writing responses. Her supporters are proud of being uninformed and will only think that criticism validates her points.

Instead, get back to thinking about how to improve our position in AfPak and other defense policy. Obama administration victories will do more to get the microphones away from her than actually trying to critically disprove her positions. Palin plays the victim so well that even bad PR is good PR.

And for the record, I am

And for the record, I am always impressed by your grounding in the social science literature, ADTS.

###

Awww... :)

Thanks, AM!

ADTS

I'm not a Palin supporter

I'm not a Palin supporter (nor hater), but my first thoughts mirror those of visitor @ 6:15:

The Federal government owns 60% of the land in Alaska, and ceded another 15% to natives through Federal legislation. Private land ownership in Alaska is less than 1% of the state's area. So it makes sense that the Feds pay a large amount per capita for stewardship of the lands they own, and for the native populations they support through Federal assistance.

And of course Alaska makes a fun target because of Palin, but it is certainly disingenuous to ignore the fact that the home of CNAS, the District of Columbia, is actually the number one recipient of Federal assistance. Federal assistance in DC is nearly TWICE Alaska's per capita. So perhaps a better comparison to make would have been DC vs. Kabul.

So despite receiving even

So despite receiving even bigger infusions of Federal cash, Abu, you still pay high taxes AND have worse schools in DC? By your own admission then, it sounds like the ultimate rentier state, with a political class completely unaccountable to the governed. Whereas former Governor Palin helped constituents keep taxes low and education achievement high. Hmmm. She's crazy alright. Crazy like a fox maybe.

And as to the charge at hand, I read what she said as, roughly, "when you make a visit to someone's country and publicly criticize the head of state there, don't act surprised when they have to talk tough in return to gain back credibility with their own populace." That might be inconvenient, or embarrassing, or even, yes, "ill-advised", for foreign policy, but it does make a lot of sense. And it certainly is something the President's own advisers should have considered before encouraging him to dress down Karzai in Kabul.

Again, I'm no Palin supporter, and am not convinced she's particularly intelligent. But her detractors sure make it easy for her.

Off topic, in this post and

Off topic, in this post and on Twitter, you knock Duke U. How can a guy that went to Penn knock Duke? Being from Philly, I know little about the reasons people hate Duke (they are elite northern students attending a snooty college in the South, plethora of white players, lack of recruiting scandals?).

Yet you are a snooty southerner who migrated north in order to attend the most elite school near Powelton Village, the site of the first MOVE shootout (in which my cousin was shot, not a MOVE member, a Philly fireman .

Why the Duke hate, when you so closely resemble a Dukie?

Abu M: You might want to

Abu M:

You might want to check this out:

http://cps.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/4-5/477

It looks at the rentier state hypothesis (or rentier state hypotheses) using US states as the unit of analysis, as opposed to Middle Eastern (or other) countries.

ADTS

Talking about sucking

Talking about sucking tit....Seems like California and Illinois are running on empty these days. The Fed prints its own money so they don't have to suck tit, just rent off the next generation. The area in Chicago were Obama got his community service experience is all about generational welfare, it goes on for miles. Just like in the Appalachians, they have been making Democrats for years. You get that way when your next paycheck comes from Uncle Sam, then it becomes change you can believe in. Why do I do it? Cause my Daddy did. I mean the govenrment told those people they could not make and sell moonshine, taking way a source of income and put them on welfare (AM, you laugh....my uncle is born and raised in Blairsville seat of Union CO.)

US Congressmen have been enriching themselves off the taxpayer for years. Then you have layers sucking on them like lobbiest and think tanks. Look at the salaries and the benefit packages. Look at the perks once they leave office. Look at the fees to rent one of these mouth pieces after they leave office. Some do it illegally, the ones we know about have gotten caught. How many have not gotten caught yet? Then there are the ones that stay legal. Legal does not mean it is morally right. We saw that with the definition of "it" with blowjob Bill. What do you say about an individual that starts a security think tank then goes on to be assistant to the Sec of Defense....little chummy.

That brings us to Afghanistan.

Are we judging Karzai by US or Afghan standards? I really question the judgement of Washington elite who first started a war in Afghanistan then turn around and tell the elected Afghan leader what Obama administration has.
If what Karzai is doing is illegal in Afghanistan, it is up to the people of Afghanistan to do some thing about it. Afghan people voted for Karzai, right. Washington telling Karzai he is corrupt is the pot calling the kettle black. Really! Compared to some of our Washington wonders, Karzai is just about saint hood material...he just has not done the maricle yet.

I also question the judgement of a consulting wonk that is employed by a Washington think tank that effects public policy that posts comments given above in their blog of the leader of a sovereign country for which they are providing inputs.

Kinda wants to make you write the CEO's of the thing tank's sponsors to get their funding cut. Ask 'em if they want to see it in the news.

"Ever notice how the states

"Ever notice how the states with allegedly libertarian tendencies blush the least when accepting federal funds?"

I have! And so have others:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/04/beware-the-ecological...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/the_red_state_ripoff...

http://www.thefourthbranch.com/2010/04/government-spending/

The map is... instructive, to say the least.

Most of the comments here

Most of the comments here have had to do with Alaska or Duke, but I'd like to say something about the Afghanistan part of the issue raised. Now I have a pretty low opinion of Sarah Palin, but the Obama policy of boxing Karzai in, shaming him publicly, stopping the weekly face to face teleconferences between him and the POTUS, etc. etc. seems to have been absolutely the wrong policy. Not only do we now have an ineffective and corrupt partner in Afghanistan (with no alternative), we've antagonized him and made him adverserial.

Nice going White House.

"And maybe why you never see

"And maybe why you never see Sarah Palin feel the need to hold a press conference where people can ask questions that haven't been pre-screened."

Hmmm, something not quite right there. Aha:

"And maybe why you never see Barack Obama feel the need to hold a press conference where people can ask questions that haven't been pre-screened."

There, fixed it for you Abu.

AM writes "Ever notice how

AM writes "Ever notice how the states with allegedly libertarian tendencies blush the least when accepting federal funds?"

Actually, I haven't noticed any state blushing about accepting federal funds, so that'd be "no." Have I just not been paying enough attention?

(Aren't federal policies --- like drinking age and 55 MPH speed limits, IIRC --- sometimes imposed by conditionally withholding federal funds? How does that work if there are any significant number of states with reservations about taking federal money? I'm a grouchy minimal-government libertarian, so I'd just as soon there were such states, but AFAICS there aren't.)

Vistor..10:33 Hope the

Vistor..10:33

Hope the Teleprompter is working......funny Obama uses a $10,000 teleprompter staffed by 100 government employees.

Palin writes her notes on her hand with a $0.49 BIC pen.

Who do you want raising taxes in Washington ?

PS.....What the hell is this? Exum are you campaigning for Obama again?
Shit Obama has not figured it out...Campaign is over with. Fucking 1.5 yr on Health Care and the economy still sucks. Democrats AND Republicans broke it, Obama is driving it into the ground with his spending.

Ever wonder what it costs to have Obama bee bopping from state-to-state and counry-to-country? Love to have the CBO run those numbers (Are the kids still hungry on main street? Mom, don't know were Dad is at, still using the welfare debt card to buy drugs ?). Think it would trash Pelosi's bottle water (didn't the tax payer put in door plumbing in Capitol Hill buildings?.....aren't Democrats about not using plastics?) and flower costs (she should do it like the rest of us, grow flowers at home and bring them into work). Guess when you think you're a QUEEN, you think you have to be served.

If all they can do is screw up government, think I would rather look at Palin for four years..........If you think she is a stooge....at least we will have a laugh.

Whole lot better than what we have right now........cause right now I am not laughing one fucking bit.

visitor @910am. Would you

visitor @910am. Would you have AM lie? Objective truth should always be the goal. Tell me, in what strange reality do you exist in where Afghanistan is not corrupt? Or shall we go cultural relativist and say one man's nepotism is another man's loyalty. The logical conclusion to that line of thinking is a man throwing acid in a girl's face is either brutality or a necessary act to insure social stability.

On a gut level, it never fails to annoy me that Republican (not conservative; the two categories increasingly do not overlap) hatred of Obama allows them to ignore glaring inconsistencies in their own behavior and ideology. I'm not arguing in favor of Obama, but still.

On AM's question, the states you mentioned are not libertarian. No state, technically is libertarian. Sarah Palin, by virtue of her political , social, religious, and international beliefs is not a libertarian. She is a Republican, which is to say collectivist authoritarian who uses the rhetoric of capitalism to mask the reality of their positions. Where does she stand in the war on drugs (another Karzai family business if I recall)? And I'd argue that many red states communities are gerontocratic systems, characterized by outright parasitic behavior on the part of the elderly. Yes, the South is full of elderly welfare queens who feel entitled to their medicare and social security even though they are getting far more than what they paid in. There is nothing inherently libertarian or even capitalist about these people, they understand Adam Smith about as well as they understand that other book they constantly misuse, the Bible.

Why would special forces be

Why would special forces be doing anything in Papua New Guinea?

You want to understand the economic rationale behind all the political posturing on the left and the right, you gotta read the economic news:

Exxon Gets Export Bank Funding After Paying for Trip
By Mark Drajem

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. and its partners in a $15 billion Papua New Guinea gas project last year paid the travel expenses for employees of the U.S. Export-Import Bank as it considered whether to help fund the venture.

The four workers ran up $97,367 in bills traveling to London, Tokyo and the South Pacific, according to data compiled by the bank. They flew business class, viewed the project’s route by chartered aircraft and were entertained by costumed villagers. Eleven months later, the bank approved $3 billion in financing for the liquefied natural gas facility, the biggest transaction in the agency’s 75 years.

Exxon Mobil, the biggest U.S. oil producer, isn’t alone in picking up the travel tab for the Washington-based bank. In the past two years, the bank accepted $366,865 for employee trips, according to information provided under a Freedom of Information Act request. Workers visited projects sponsored by companies including Newmont Mining Corp., ConocoPhillips, Saudi Aramco and Barrick Gold Corp.

Sarah Palin is a flaming moron on foreign policy issues. Doesn't she know that Reagan also called for dismantling global nuclear weapons stockpiles? Yes, we know that Wolfowitz and Pearle and Cheney and Rumsfeld opposed Reagan's deal with Gorbachev - meaning that Sarah Palin must think Ronald Reagan was a friggin' idiot and a traitor to American nuclear security, right?

Maybe she's the real idiot, huh? Along with her other neocon whack job pals.

"Tell me, in what strange

"Tell me, in what strange reality do you exist in where Afghanistan is not corrupt?"

I have lived in Afghanistan for a year, and whether by our standards the country is corrupt or not, is less important to me than whether such a publicly ineffectual display of diplomacy with an ally is counterproductive.

Labeling Karzai as "corrupt" or not doesn't accomplish any mission or save any lives. How do we make the situation better? What do we do? The situation is what it is. We can adapt to it, or refuse to. Sooner or later we will leave. Those are facts.

Karzai's threats to join the Taliban indicate to me that this is not it.

Does anyone know where I can

Does anyone know where I can get penis gourds? I've searched on eBay, and... nothing. I'm going to Afghanistan, and would like to wear one for the next shura or any sort of local celebration.

Just a historical note:

Just a historical note: this narrative (the right criticizing Obama for undermining our allies) is one that's played well since Carter and Nicaragua. It works very well: the fact is, a foreign leader does look weaker when criticized by his stronger partner, and if he falls you can then say, "See, told you so." It also plays nicely with the base since, if your folk have been supporting Somoza/Karzai "lo these many years" you don't have to talk about your own shortsightedness and the problems you've created. You shift the topic of conversation to how your opponent is adding to instability in an already dangerous world.

@CharlieFord, We didn't

@CharlieFord,

We didn't create the problem. The Afghans, Paks, Pashtu, Saudi's, Russians and English did.

We just reacted to an imperfect situation with an imperfect solution. Karzai.

Try and remember we couldn't quite ignore it.

Here's the part I don't get.

Here's the part I don't get. Palin is clearly very stupid. What's Liz Cheney's excuse? Is she just evil?

Andrew, I agree with just

Andrew, I agree with just about everything you say in this post. I would, however, like to point out that much of the money that Alaska and my former home state of Utah receive from the Federal government is to compensate them for their inability to levy property taxes on federally-owned land. In Utah, for example, nearly 80% of the land in the state is owned by the federal government. Think about it: Hill AFB, Tooele Army Depot, Dugway Prooving Ground, the AF Bombing Range, all the National Forests, the five or six National Parks, multiple wilderness areas, to say nothing of the huge amount of land operated by the Bureau of Land Management. That being the case, it seems a bit unfair to classify these states as rentier states.

CharlieFord, Our interaction

CharlieFord,

Our interaction with Afghanistan was giving them arms to rid themselves of a genocidal oppressor, the USSR. They were already hard at work on the problem and would be anyway. We just helped - a lot. Then left, because the internal situation is hopeless. Still is.

We also gave the Taliban some money - 200$ million - in aid. Mostly to stem heroin. How evil.

And yes we lobbed cruise missiles at some terror camps after they bombed our embassies.

If you are working off the we made Bin Laden myth - well it's a myth.

Here here

Here here

I miss this place from

I miss this place from before the yahoos found it. Sigh.