But...what about Grenada? Vietnam? Panama? Korea?

Over at the The Corner, it takes two of their writers to conclude that the Nobel speech was an utter failure because Obama failed to list the latest war in Iraq as a just one.

As far as the re-writing of history is concerned, there was the predictable, and increasingly tiresome, criticism of the Bush administration — particularly unfortunate when speaking to a global audience in a foreign city. In this regard, in describing the need to use force legitimately — a key element of both the just-war theory and international law governing self-defense — President Obama identified the war in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War as examples. The 2003 Iraq War was conspicuously absent from this list. Indeed, in case his listeners somehow missed the point, the only thing that the president said about the Iraq War is that it “is winding down.”

I ridicule these people for being unable to let go of their notion of Iraq II as a great and glorious crusade in which they fight from the sidelines, but..."re-writing history?" By omitting a war that he has long opposed as, rightly so, "stupid," and counter to our national interests, how is that "re-writing history?" I can't believe that slipped past K-Lo's brilliant blue pen.

Turning a corner, but not at The Corner

From the Corner of Ignorance and Spite, Charles Krauthammer shares his unique perspective on how to fix the economy.

On the White House jobs summit:

Well, it is obviously a PR maneuver. Unemployment is high. People showed [concern] on Election Day in November that the administration and Congress are spending all their time on health care, which is not a high priority. High priority is the economy.

It is the conceit of liberals in power to imagine that the government not only should but can create jobs. Outside of world wars, it doesn't. Generally it gets in the way.

I mean, there are things that you can do by clearing the brush:

Number one, kill health care with all of the job-killing mandates and penalties which are holding up employment.

Secondly, kill cap and trade, which will destroy what's left of the industrial Midwest.

Kill the stimulus package, and distribute the remaining billions either to individuals or to the Treasury.

The other thing they can do is to approve the free trade agreements with Columbia and South Korea, which will create American jobs …

And lastly, and the most important here, is sort of a reprise of 2008 — lift the unbelievably absurd restrictions on drilling for gas and oil, which would create a gold rush of jobs in the country and help us in terms of national security and the economy.

I thought we were tired of "clearing the brush" as a response to national crisis, but whatever.

Yes, as everyone knows, South Koreans and Colombians are just dying for our protectionist tariffs to fall so they can buy oodles of our stuff...Wait.

And as everyone also knows, it's the "absurd restrictions on drilling" -- not the fact that oil is now trading below $77 per barrel and the price of natural gas is at a 52-week low -- that are keeping the oil companies from launching their own WPA program to put unemployed wretches to work to pump more into the over-capacity pipes.

I won't even mention the "jobs killing" of health care reform which is based on...what? Or that cap & trade will destroy midwest industries (as opposed to...free trade agreements?).

And yes, let's "kill the stimulus" since it's such a fucking failure from keeping us from Great Depression II.

From NBC's Mark Murray
During President Obama's first 10-plus months in office, most of the economic news hasn't been positive. The unemployment rate is in double digits for the first time since the early 1980s. Critics have argued that the $787 billion stimulus hasn't worked the way some hoped it would. And Republicans, not surprisingly, have pounced on these shortcomings.

But as the economic news begins to get better -- positive growth in the 3rd quarter, the CBO estimating that between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs in the 3rd quarter were created or saved by the stimulus, and today's best monthly jobs report in nearly two years -- Democrats are now pointing to what they see as the GOP's disconnect on the economy.

"There is a real disconnect," said Doug Thornell, a top Democratic congressional spokesman. "At what point are they going to acknowledge the positive steps taken that have pulled us away from the brink?"

I guess we can answer Doug Thornell's question:

How's never? Does never work for you?

First they came for my Puccini, and I said nothing...

At the risk of dismaying many of those near and dear to me, I'm not a big opera fan. But when I learn that the newest battlefield in the Culture War is at The Met, then I guess duty calls me to attend.

Krugman's housing bubble

From The Corner of Obliviousness and Laziness:

'Things I'm Glad I Never Said' [Mark Hemingway]

Arnold Kling digs up this Paul Krugman chestnut from 2002:

To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

Oy. Might want to remeber that sentence next time you consider any of Krugman's economic advice.

(via Moynihan via McArdle)

Um, Krugman, in his actual 2002 column (which Hemingway does not bother to link to), does not say the U.S. needs a housing bubble. He says Alan Greenspan needs one in order to explain The Sage's optimism about the economy in the face of the NASDAQ bubble bursting and the likelihood of "double dip" inflation during the Bush II years.

Indeed, Krugman was quite prophetic as Greenspan did drive down interest rates and encouraged variable rate mortgages, thus pouring gasoline on a burning housing sector.

But the best part: Hemingway is too lazy to even come up with his own post title.

UPDATED to get rid of some annoying NRO html coding, fix spelling...the usual, ya know.

UPDATED II: Arnold Kling reconsiders.

Wingnuts across the globe!

Is it me, or is there something about the Communist Party of St. Petersburg (and isn't that an oxymoron) that reminds one of The Corner?