Boise
Idaho
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unraveling
29.Sept.07
Health Care Questions, and One Rejected Answer
Our governor is to be commended for
convening a health care summit, even if his decision to do it in
secret is not particularly defensible. (Just because that strategy
worked for Dick Cheney and the energy companies is not a good
enough reason.) And opening it up to all ideas is good... except for
this:
He reportedly told the participants that "nearly any idea was open for
discussion, though he pre-emptively rejected a single-payer, universal
health care system..."
Because... why would that be, exactly? There are many people who have
made good arguments for that system. How is it that Otter imagines
he knows enough to exclude one of the most promising solutions?
28.Sept.07
Let's Make the Army Even Bigger!
The idea of reducing the number and scope of wars
we undertake is apparently just too unthinkable; now that the "surge"
has extended our military past the point of sustainability, we'll need,
oh, about that 30 or 40,000
more troops in the Army, long-term. How low will the standards have
to go to keep recruiting "on track"? They've already increased the
number of recruits without high school diplomas, those scoring low on an
aptitude test, and ones needing "moral waivers" for "low-level criminal
convictions."
The students who are better at calculating risk/return ratios have all
moved on to
the
mercernary forces, by far the #2 partner in the "coalition of the
billing," its members mostly happy to trade time in harm's way for
considerably larger chunks of the "reconstruction" money than the
regular Army folks are being paid.
27.Sept.07
Faith-Based Dishonesty
The "Crossroads" of science and religion sounded like an interesting
film for Richard Dawkins to be in, but he's not so sanguine about
the new title, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." Or about the new
angle, flogging the canard that "freedom of thought and freedom of
inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools,
universities and research institutions." That would be the freedom of
imagination to label regions of ignorance with "then a miracle
happens."
That used to be a droll one-panel cartoon, poking fun at the
ever-shrinking venue left for God to act in the world, as science
whittles away the darkness. Now it's a "theory" for the Creationist set,
"explaining".... well, what could it possibly explain, anyway? Therein
lies the rub. As Cornelia Dean states succinctly in
the New York Times article, "There is no credible scientific
challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the
complexity and diversity of life on earth."
Speaking of Really, Really Important Issues for the Campaigns
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney continues to stake out as much moral "high
ground" as he can find, summoning outrage at how "out of touch" the
Democratic candidates are, for... wanting their children to learn
tolerance.
The candidates weren't "uncomfortable" enough for Romney at the idea
of 2nd graders hearing a story about same-sex marriage.
No Light, Just Tunnel
Chris Floyd's posts on his Empire
Burlesque blog are about the most depressing opinions on our
political scene on offer, even as they seem a disturbingly accurate
account of the "high crimes and low comedy in the Bush Imperium."
The
bipartisan guarantee of more war in Iraq was written in mid-August,
but hasn't gone stale, as the "major" candidates all seem to be lining
up to guarantee no forseeable end to our imperial adventure in the
mideast. Hillary's joined the "it's all Iraq's fault now" group.
"The ruination that Bush and his willing executioners in Congress have
brought to Iraq may be irreparable. As for "destabilizing the region,"
the war crime has already done that. (Indeed, it was one of the aims of
the invasion, as its architects and champions once boasted. "Creative
destruction" was the phrase used by the very serious Michael Leeden, I
believe.) There will be an inevitable escalation of the proxy war
between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is now going on the country; but that
will happen no matter what. Sectarian violence will also continue to
spiral no matter what, with one possible exception: if the Americans
leave the country and are no longer there arming the factions, stirring
them up, setting one against the other, and killing and imprisoning
civilians, thereby radicalizing more and more Iraqis every day. The only
possible chance Iraq has to see a lessening of sectar ian violence lies
in the complete withdrawal of American troops."
26.Sept.07
Holier Than Thou
Michael Gerson's description of Hillary Clinton's religiosity paints
her as a principled, liberal Protestant. What's not to love? And thanks
for the reminder of the once dominant cultural influence and the many
successes of "this high-minded theological liberalism."
The knock on the tradition, from Gerson's point of view is fascinating:
the "debilitating weaknesses" of "a preference for democratic socialism,
a soft spot for Marxist strongmen, a flitting fascination with trendy
causes and a theological shallowness that caused millions to flee the
pews."
While flying to and from Wisconsin, I read most of the way through
Richard Dawkins' year-old book,
The God Delusion, which makes the concept of "theological
shallowness" a bit of an oxymoron. Earlier, Gerson referred to the
discomfort some candidates have with "affirming their deepest beliefs,"
so this "depth" metaphor means something to him as a "stray Evangelical"
(in his self-description). It's just not clear what, exactly.
Strongest? Most fundamental? Most important? Is a personal God
and one's relationship to It more important in deep theology than in
shallow theology, for which action in the world has a greater
importance?
Gerson seems to find only two dimensions of religious interest:
moralism, and social liberalism. These map more or less directly to
political conservatism and liberality in his mind, and he sees Clinton's
straddling the two as a strength, even as he can't imagine how
"pro-life" could ever be a "moral" position.
If Giuliani gets the Republican nod, Gerson expects Clinton to have the
holier-than-thou ground, otherwise ceded to the pro-lifier candidate.
If Romney is the Red nominee, expect to see a battle about just how
"deep" his religious bona fides are, and whether or not he's
just another Massachusetts liberal going to a different church on
Sunday.
Best of the Best
Unbound by the high standards of journalistic excellence of the
other local newspaper, the Boise Weekly was free to come
up with a more topical "Best of" page, the
2007 Larry Craig Editors' Picks.
"The palpable, unending dread of this seemingly unkillable story is pure
Waiting for Godot. The confused explanations and explanations of
the explanations are Catch 22 incarnate. And yet, LC himself
won't drive that final stake through the heart of his sad, undead
career, despite the fact that he has to wake up every morning in a state
where he can now be pretty confident that everyone (with the possible
exceptions of deaf-dumb-and-blind pinball wizards and maybe a few fire
lookouts), and a vast majority of American citizens in general, know
about this and don't believe him...."
The fate of the story (if not Craig's political fate, which has been
signed, sealed, and awaits delivery) now hinges upon today's decision
by a Minnesota judge, (dis)allowing him to withdraw his guilty plea.
We're waiting on pins and needles, and we'll all find out at the same
time, when the cub reporters go for the telephones with the "stop the
presses" news.
I used 3 different airport restrooms this weekend during our trip back
to Wisconsin, and I have to tell you that in each instance I was looking
at stall dimensions, and the helpless victim of my imagination. It must
be my mechanical engineering background... at any rate, all of the ones
I went into seemed to have sturdy partitions with the bottom edge
lower-than-ever, and most discouraging for the prospect of inter-stall
liaisons. Thank goodness.
During my research, I also noticed a remarkable innovation at O'Hare:
automatic ass-gasket
dispensers (motto: "makes everyone happy"). (While you're checking
that out—I know you will—don't miss the universal language
of the hygoMat™
Flash Demo.)
Do Lemming Leaders Exhort Followers to "Stay the Course"?
These would be the mythical, suicidal lemmings, rather than the
actual
lemmings, who are reportedly not so crazy, although they do share
some traits ("solitary and generally intolerant of one another") with
conservatives.
The wildly successful catchphrase (as seen juxtaposed with the
"cut and run" alternative) is getting long in the tooth, but the idea of
following a storied General (or story-book President) wherever he tells
us we must go is still playing to appreciative audiences across the
land. The challenge to Petraeus and the administration's selected
reading of the facts was a godsend to the Stay-the-Course crowd, the
perfect distraction from the administration's inability to reconsider
its failures. Patriots, rally 'round!
Senator Robert Menenedez reminds us of the issues we're being
distracted from.
"(W)e should keep in our minds that 130,000 sons and daughters of
America remain in the crossfire, with no prospects for coming home. That
our military continues to be stretched thin to the point that it can't
adequately respond to other threats that may arise. That our national
guard remains overused and overburdened to the point that it can't
properly respond to disasters here in the homeland.
"That the terror training ground in Iraq remains fertile, and one day
those trainees could be on our soil. That Osama bin Laden is back in
business and continues to roam free in a safe zone along the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border...."
25.Sept.07
The Grand Old Party for White People
When I saw the headline of Bob Herbert's latest column, I wondered
which
ugly side of the G.O.P. he might be talking about. The racist one,
as it happens: the one that rallied around "state's rights" in
Philadelphia, Mississipppi, around Clarence Thomas as a being qualified
to serve on the Supreme Court, and most recently around keeping the
mostly black citizens of Washington D.C. of being able to vote for a
Representative in Congress.
The top four G.O.P. candidates all bailed out of the
Presidential Forum on PBS to be hosted by Tavis Smiley. They can't
be bothered. They've already written off the black vote.
Cheap shots all around
Rep. Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee is perky, blonde, good-looking, and
smug as can be when David Shuster gives her the straight line, "Do you
want to take this opportunity to condemn what Rush Limbaugh said about
Chuck Hagel?"
It was an easy opening, but of course she didn't want to do that, in
spite of it being the usual hate speech from Limbaugh (or sorry, from a
caller of Limbaugh's, he was just relaying it) and
it being not funny, nor clever.
"Ha ha ha," she said, "you know, what I want to do is talk about The
New York Times."
Shuster's punchline: "When was the last time a New York Times ad
ever killed somebody?"
Oh yeah, that.
21.Sept.07
La Migra in Blaine County
Front page news,
immigration raids in Bellevue, Hailey and Ketchum (better known to
the rest of the country as "the Sun Valley area") and no one at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency feeling the need to return
phone calls. A county detective was willing to say that the roundup
is after "undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions or prior
deportations or those who have remained in the country after being asked
to leave."
Pretty much anyone with a Hispanic surname is fair game? One woman said
agents told her they were looking for a sexual predator with a Hispanic
surname.
Did they have warrants? We don't know from the newspaper story. The ACLU
reminds us that you don't need to let them in if they don't have a
warrant. Do try to keep everyone in the household cool when they pound
on the door at 6am hard enough to make the walls shake, your
teenager answers the door and six agents with guns, Tasers and
flashlight barge in.
Ah, excuse me, do you guys, like, uh, have a warrant?
If not, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
The
Statesman's reader board is not showing a lot of sympathy. rw says
"enter the country legally and then leave when your Visa expires and you
don't have to worry about ICE agents knocking on your door and being
deported... Its that simple."
That's good to know, I'm glad the ICE can be trusted to always
find the right house and everything.
Rumsfeld, Pro and Con
The Director of the Hoover Institution says the man has three
decades of experience in public service, "especially in recent years as
it relates to this question of ideology and terror." The man who
conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment says it's "unacceptable to have
someone who represents the values that Rumsfeld has portrayed, in an
academic setting."
And the
petition signed by at least 2,425 professors, staff members,
students and alumni says "We view the appointment as fundamentally
incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance,
disinterested enquiry, respect for national and international laws and
care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is
inalienably committed."
20.Sept.07
Warner's Role in Killing Webb's Amendment
Digby connnects some of the dots on a key Republican Senator in defeating
Jim Webb's
amendment to support our troops by limiting their deployment as a
function of how much time they get at home. Virginia's other Senator,
John Warner, is often making news as a moderate, but for some key votes,
he as been solidly behind the Executive Branch usurping the power of the
Congress. The "Destroy Habeas Corpus Act," for one important example
before this latest one.
You'd never know it from what they're keeping busy with this week, but
the federal government's fiscal year ends with this month, as in a week
from Sunday. All the budgets for next year are supposed to be in place
by October 1 (but hardly ever are). So after the political
grandstanding, they'll get around to as many continuing resolutions as
it takes to finish the finance bills. Maybe some time before
Thanksgiving, but count on buying your own turkey.
Digby, and
Mark Kleiman have a straightforward strategy for the Democrats to
represent the will of the people in this matter: hold as many cloture
votes (or hey, make the Republicans actually do the filibuster) as
needed to get enough of the minority to support our troops.
At Least We're Enjoying the Ride
While everyone's paying attention to the U.S. military, the real attack
on our world dominance may be on our currency rather than our soliders.
The shift from the Almighty Dollar as the world's "reserve currency"
to the Newly Mighty Euro is underway, and before it gets much farther,
the Jig may be Up. Ronald Reagan's Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul
Craig Roberts thinks that
America's status as world hegemon is slipping away, not with the
sound of airplanes crashing, but with the whisper of outsourced jobs,
and deepening and unsupported debt.
Which countries corporations use to find their labor is a matter of
indifference. It's a choice of logistics, language, tax advantages, and
of course, finding the cheapest labor rates. The Board of Directors, and
the C.E.O.s are going to get their stipends and fat salaries and golden
parachutes regardless, and as they work for themselves (and trickle
enough return to keep shareholders from revolting), they don't have to
care where the middle and sub-middle classes are headed.
"(O)ffshoring is not trade, free or otherwise. It is labor arbitrage. By
replacing US labor with foreign labor in the production of goods and
services for U.S. markets, US firms are destroying the ladders of upward
mobility in the U.S.... The U.S. is on a path to economic Armageddon.
Shorn of industry, dependent on offshored manufactured goods and
services, and deprived of the dollar as reserve currency, the US will
become a third world country."
Connecting the World, One Couch at a Time
First I heard of "couch surfing" as an active, rather than a passive
pursuit was the
NYT
feature of it today. That should give
couchsurfing.com a boost,
even as its reported 300,000+ surfers don't sound like they need one,
really. The
mission statistics show positive experiences outnumbering negative
ones 499 to 1.
Supporting the Troops
The
majority of the Senate was willing to vote on Jim Webb's proposal to
let our troops spend as much time at home as at war, and we suppose (but
can't know) that a similar majority would have ratified the initiative
had there been an "up or down vote," as the Republicans used to call for
when they couldn't get one. It takes 60 to tango in the Senate these
days, otherwise they all pretend there'll be a filibuster, and so they
just drop it and go on to something else.
There are other proposals, like another go at Russ Feingold's attempt at
Congress' Constitutional control of cutting financing. No one expects
that to reach the supermajority threshold, either.
What the Senate could agree on is a
condemnation of MoveOn.org's ad about Petraeus, "and all attacks on
members of the military" by almost a 3:1 margin (and including Jim Webb
in the Yeas). I rather agree that the MoveOn ad was over the top,
but I also agree with the executive director of MoveOn.org's Political
Action Committee, Eli Parser, when he says that "the president (having)
more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to
get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war" is "disgusting."
So we'll follow our Commander in Chief and his trusty sidekick, Tonto,
wherever they lead us, for as long as the madness persists. That will be
through January, 2009, to be sure, but the next Presidential campaign
will not be decided by Super-Minority the way the Senate's issues are.
Unless a miracle happens, Mr. Bush's war will be a ticket for President
for the Democratic nominee.
19.Sept.07
Hukabee's the One
The "pro-family conservatives" seem to be left without a top-tier
Republican candidate who cares about their agenda, but Mike Huckabee is
there to pick up the slack, as "the most articulate and disarming" of
the second tier, according to
Bryan
Fischer's report of the Monday "Values Voter" debate.
Huckabee says he's "blue collar," comes from "Main Street," wants to
save the Republic (rather than the Republican Party) and with a career
as an evangelical preacher as training for politics, what's not to
love?
Libertarians aren't moral enough, anyone in favor of immigration is
right out, and those cowardly, fearful top-tier candidates?
Fuhgeddaboutit. "They each were asked difficult questions which none of
them were there to answer," as the Values Voters apparently hung them
from an empty podium.
It may not have a lot to do with the actual presidential campaign, but
it's certainly an interesting look into Fischer's mind and his political
values.
On the Rehabilitative Power of Impeachment
Bill Cope: "(S)peaking as a dedicated Democrat, I don't want future
Democratic presidents exercising Bush hand-me-down imperial powers any
more than I want future Republican presidents doing it. This goes beyond
party loyalties. This has to do with the legacy—be it tarnished or
bright—we will bequeath our descendants."
Piecewise Withdrawal
Geoffrey Wheatcroft says enough with the "special relationship" blather
already, and provides
a
succinct history of U.S.–British relations that's not as
friendly as Tony Blair, John McCain and others have been so fond of
misremembering.
"Some of us take modest patriotic pride recalling the day that our brave
lads burned the White House. And when he sings The Star-Spangled
Banner, can Senator McCain have forgotten that it was a British
rocket's red glare?"
Beyond the historical braggadaccio however, is the current withdrawal of
the British Army from Basra, downsizing their participation in the
coalition willing to prop up Mr. Bush's terrible war and occupation.
The more immediate question for the occupation is whether Iraq can make
good on its desire to expel Blackwater, however, the pre-eminent member
of the "coalition of the billing" as Jeremy Scahill termed it in
the analysis piece on last night's Newshour. Blackwater is
"the official mercenary company of the U.S. occupation," by his
assessment, and "telling Blackwater they have to leave the country is
essentially saying, 'We're going to expel the bodyguards of the senior
U.S. officials.'"
The spokesman for the mercernary trade group ("International Peace
Operations Association") "explained" how companies and individuals who
work for them might be held accountable, given that none of them seem to
fall under Iraqi law, or U.S. law. While "you can actually bring
individuals back to the United States for trial," that hasn't happened
to anyone yet. The best Doug Brooks could say is that "the private
security companies are involved in a proportionately smaller number of
incidents than the military is." Not a lot of a comfort if you make the
wrong move near one of the convoys they're defending.
18.Sept.07
To "the Honorable" Inspector General
Henry
Waxman would like to invite you, Mr. Krongard, to a hearing of the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on October 16, to see
if you have an explanation for "a dysfunctional office environment in
which you routinely berate and belittle personnel, show contempt for the
abilities of career government professionals, and cause staff to fear
coming to work." Or for blocking the investigation of fraud and
corruption in the construction of the Iraq Embassy. Stuff like that.
Y'all come?
The ACLU Stands Up For Larry Craig
The American Civil Liberties Union has
filed a
friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of our embattled singing
Senator, arguing that "solicitation for private sex, regardless if it
occurs in a bar or a restroom, is protected speech under the First
Amendment," and so he should be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea.
Public solicitation is OK, as long as the sex isn't public. (Or
paid for, I suppose?)
From a Constitutional point of view, one could hold up a sign in the
airport saying something like, I don't know, "WANT SEX? ASK ME HOW."
Why beat around the bush?
Ok, one could be a bit of a nuisance, loitering in a restroom and asking
each customer coming in if they were interested in a little private
rendezvous, but there must be some other ordinance covering that.
The quiet toe-tapping and hand-waving that Craig exchanged with the
undercover cop was hardly a nuisance to anyone but the "interested"
parties. Never should have been arrested.
"Since the law the state has applied to this defendant makes it a crime
to use offensive language, and since the use of offensive language alone
cannot be made a crime, the law is unconstitutionally overbroad on its
face. The Minnesota Supreme Court said as much almost 30 years ago."
Except for the uneasy minds of the Republican Senate leadership (for the
rest of this term), and the voters of Idaho (for any possibility of a
future elected position), that might be case closed.
Excess Gas
At our house, we use natural gas to heat our water, and with cool and
rainy fall(-ish) weather coming in, we'll be relighting the pilot light
on the furnace as well. We burn up a couple thousand cubic meters a
year. Seems like a lot, but not in comparison to
how much natural gas is "flared" into CO2 because it's in
the way of oil. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) estimates that enough gas to heat about 90 million homes
such as ours is wasted every year. Trouble is, the oil wells it comes
out of are not in convenient places to capture and transport the gas;
it's "uneconomic."
17.Sept.07
Free for All!
At "midnight Tuesday night" (presumably EDT, so, in just 17½ hours),
the NYT is turning off its paywall, making its columnists' work and
the newspaper’s archives from 1851-1922 and 1987-present available
without charge.
We were part of the 227,000 people willing to pay $50/year from the
inception, so made our contribution to a successful two-year experiment.
On the one hand, it would be nice ot have the hundred bucks back; on the
other, I think we got pretty good value for the expenditure. Now, it's
all gravy...
Brain v. Brain
When we weren't trusting anyone over 30, there was no World Wide Web to
debunk our misapprehensions (or to further bunk them, as the case may
be). Now that 30 sounds awfully young to us, and as a generation we've
provided ample reason not to be trusted, a new generation is not keen on
being made a scapegoat.
It's not clear how old a "senior researcher" at
youthfacts.org would be (or that it
matters!), but Mike Males gets a shot at myth-busting in The New York
Times, with his op-ed contribution,
"This Is Your (Father’s) Brain on Drugs."
"The supposedly immature brain development that renders teenagers
naturally risk-prone mysteriously fails to affect teenagers from more
affluent backgrounds, or from Europe or Japan (where youth poverty rates
and dangers are low), who routinely display risks lower than adults do.
Rather, 'science’s discovery' of the problematic 'teenage brain' is just
the latest in a long, disgraceful history of alliances between
officials, interest groups, sensational media, and a small number of
scientists who serve their needs. The ability of authorities to
scapegoat unpopular, powerless groups in society instead of facing
difficult social problems—in this case, rising middle-aged drug
and crime epidemics and the effects of poverty on youth
risk—endangers Americans by preventing realistic solutions to
serious crises."
Is Bryan Fischer Evil?
In Rocky Barker's front page feature about the surprising
alliance between some evangelicals and environmentalists
the pastor of Boise Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Tri Robinson, is
featured. He's been the prime mover in bringing his flock to the
cause.
After the jump, Barker collects some opinion from "prominent Idaho
evangelist" Bryan Fischer, without mentioning a couple of salient facts.
Fischer's
Idaho Values Alliance
(which Barker misnamed "Network") appears to be an alliance between
Bryan, his god, and no else who will lend their name directly to his
issues. It would be more accurate to call Fischer a prominent Idaho
fundamentalist and political gadfly.
Bryan used to be the pastor of a local church, but his congregation
voted him out. (Idaho might vote him out too, if only there were some
means for us to do so, but instead we have him as the go-to
fundamentalist nut-job, able to give the contrary opinion to most any
newspaper story. That's handy for a reporter's Rolodex.)
Fischer's complaint that the alliance with environmentalists threatens to
"compromise biblical principles" is a lonely voice in the wilderness,
based on his misreading of the Bible, that "God granted man authority
over the Earth to do with it what he pleases," according to Barker.
In contrast, "Robinson emphasizes God's call to care for his creation
until Jesus returns." Fischer's further complaint that
environmentalists' "solutions are relentlessly political" is
disingenuous, given his own
political
activism. He just doesn't like those politics. And he
probably is no fan of earthly authority: his accountability moment led
him to being kicked out of his leadership position.
Here is the nut of the issue: if your god tells you "all this is yours
to do with however you please," anything is permissible. It's Biblical!
But in the reality-based planet on which we live, actions have
consequences here-and-now, rather than by-and-by. We need to be
accountable to each other, not just an imagined deity. Fischer
failed the test, and his carping against a positive, progressive alliance
between those who are called to stewardship above exploitation does not
bring us closer to each other, nor does it bring us closer to any god.
14.Sept.07
The Prescience of Dick Cheney
The haunting memory just keeps haunting, thanks to
the indelible
memory of YouTube:
"Once you got to Iraq and took it over, you took down Saddam Hussein's
government, then what're you gonna put in its place? That's a very
volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government
in Iraq, you can easily see pieces of Iraq fly off... It's a
quagmire..."
Somewhere between 1994 and 2001, Dick Cheney seems to have lost the
proper functioning of both his heart and his mind, and we and the
Iraqi people are paying a heavy price for his dementia. We've committed
the bulk of our most-powerful-in-history military to the quagmire that
our best and brightest can see
no end of. As we self-destruct, our leaders exhort us to "show no
weakness!" lest the enemy somehow think they've gained an advantage on
us.
The President speaks to us,
in multiply forked tongues, and we have to wonder,
is anyone still listening?
Iraq is now "an ally of the United States" that has "placed its trust in
the United States"?! And of course the only message of the two long days
of testimony from Crocker and Petraeus that matters is that conditions
are "improving" and that "the troop surge is working." 'Nuff said!
"The local people (in Anbar province) were suffering under the
Taliban-like rule of Al Qaeda," Bush said, continuing his mendacious
confounding of our response to terrorism and the war of choice he and
Cheney undertook. This is not the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden and the
9/11 attack. This is "Al Qaeda in Iraq," a new creation of the chaos and
quagmire we sowed in that country, and of the worldwide Al Qaeda brand
we have helped to create.
Judging by his speech, he had delegated all responsibility to managing
the occupation to General Petraeus, and is not submitting himself to
questioning to address the fundamental strategic question that is not
Petraeus' job: is the occupation making us safer?
Now that we have extended troop deployments to (or possibly beyond) the
limits of what we can sustain, we're going to bring some home, and
magically, Bush finds himself the "uniter" he always said he was going
to be: "The way forward I've described tonight makes it possible, for
the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of
this difficult debate to come together."
He is further uniting the next President of the United States with his
"vision" of a military presence in Iraq with no end in sight. Welcome to
his nightmare.
12.Sept.07
A Moment of Candor
There must have been more than one in two long days of Congressional
testimony... the jokes probably signal some of them. But the unexpected
question of whether our continued occupation of Iraq is making us
safer caught the General unprepared. Given a chance to reconsider,
he produced the "correct" answer: oh sure, yeah, absolutely.
But that first answer, the unguarded and unscripted one, that was where
the truth leaked out. He hadn't considered it, actually. Well, who can
blame him, he's the head of
the Multi-National Force-Iraq,
not the head of Making-Safer Force-Homeland. (Who is in charge of
that one, by the way?)
It's not a fair question for the General, nor the Ambassador. It is of
course a question for the President, but we no longer look for Truth
(never mind Wisdom) from that source. (Bush knows it as well as we do,
which is why he's delegated integrity to someone with a uniform.) All we
get is the wishful thinking of progress being made, the continued
deceptions confounding terrorism and the unnecessary war we started, and
more excuses for the continued commitment of our Department of Defense
to occupying Iraq instead of actually providing for our own
security.
Acting Presidential
Bill Frist and Cokie Roberts
talk with Charlie Rose about the Presidential campaign, among other
things. Frist weighs in on his favorite candidate's chances:
"America is tarred of the extreme partisanship, and
bickering—it's always probably been there in Washington, I was
only there for 12 years, but now it's interfered with governing, with
meaningful solutions to everyday problems, cost of health care,
nobody's talkin' about it. Nobody's talking about it.
And so people are tired of, that sort of, uh, I'll say 'partisanship,'
but really sort of lack of civility there... If Fred can come in, and
really rise above that, talk directly to regular old people out there,
and you know it's a little bit about why he's announcing the way he
is, trying to be unconventional, to be able to reach out and speak
directly to people and people say, 'well, Leno, is that really speaking
directly to people?' It'll reach a lot more people than the debate
(jovial laughter with Cokie and Charlie)..."
If Thompson can "capture the hope" and "demonstrate he's a proven
Conservative." "he'll go a long, long way."
Cokie says "there is a vacuum among the Republican candidates," which I
guess is a nice way of saying they all suck. The big problem for the
Base is that Rudy Guiliani is in the lead. Frist expects primary voters
to base their choice on "Gay issues, Gun issues and Life issues,"
so can't imagine Guiliani getting the nomination. And he's
from New York.
Cokie provides the key insight: "People are investing (Thompson)
with all kinds of qualities he may or may not have." Just like we did
with George W. Bush, eh.
As far as Thompson's "consistency of where he's been in the past," we
wonder if "defense lawyer for hire" works as well as his
Law and Order role of District Attorney, if the
American consider his collecting billable hours defending abortion
rights, or
Libyan
intelligence agents involved in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland.
In Your Face
The cure for excess partisanship at the Justice Department started with
Alberto Gonzales' resignation, followed by... well we don't know, yet, but
rumors of Ted Olson being first in line for our next Attorney
General suggest the need for a second opinion. The "staunch partisan"
who successfully argued Bush v. Gore and got 5 of the Supremes to hand
George W. Bush his office? What a great choice he would be for the
twilight days of the darkest Presidency in history.
11.Sept.07
Think Different
On the one hand it's blindingly obvious, but on the other hand, the particular
neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism make for
an interesting study. As
reported in the MSM,
brain pathways reflect the characteristics of the spectrum: tolerance
for ambiguity and openness to new experiences, versus habitual behavior
and preference for things as they are. We all have some of each; we're
creatures of habit, just as we enjoy a certain amount of novelty. But
ultimately, how we think becomes the structure of how we can
think.
Regardless of our flexibility and habits, however, our minds show a
disturbing tendency to believe what just isn't so. The
persistence of myths can make even the denial of falsehoods
reinforce them. Not a happy prospect for public policy if proof by
repeated assertion from one source can be more convincing than credible
evidence from multiple sources. We see it in action, however. Large
numbers of Americans think that the terrorist attack on 9/11 was somehow
direct justification of the war on Iraq. And
the Pew Global
Attitudes Project found last year that large majorities do not
believe that Arabs carried out those attacks: 59% of Turks and
Egyptians, 65% of Indonesians, 53% of Jordanians, 41% of Pakistanis, 56%
of British Muslims.
This too escaped from Pandora's Box: our ability to persuade is coupled
with our ability to deceive; others, and ourselves.
Group Think
After an unprecedented campaign to discredit a four-star General, and
news that the White House was going to script his long-awaited report
to the Congress, it was perhaps essential for David Petraeus to start
his testimony by claiming sole authorship. That came after Foreign
Affairs committee chairman, Tom Lantos said "we cannot take any of this
Administration's assertions about Iraq at face value anymore, and no
amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility."
"This is my testimony... I wrote this testimony
myself."
All the same, if the White House had written his script, how
would we have been able to tell the difference? The new plan is to stay
the occupational course, with minimal adjustment. After a nominal
drawdown, we can look forward to returning to pre-surge troop levels, 18
months after the plus-up was undertaken. The "good" news is that "as a
bottom-line up-front, the military objectives of the surge are, in large
measure, being met."
The Fall 2007 roll-out looks a lot like previous years' models, with no
questioning of the assumption that without our occupation, Iraq will
fall into chaos (a short drop from where it is now, at least), so we
must stay there. It won't be easy, or quick. It'll go on through the end
of the Bush Administration, for sure. Between Moveon.org overplaying
its hand, and the timidity of Democrats in Congress, our
best of the best General, reeking with every bit as much integrity
as Colin Powell brought to the United Nations, may have
let the gas out of the anti-war movement with a whimper rather than
a pop.
His side-kick, Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker opined that "a secure,
stable, Democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbors is, in my view,
attainable. The cumulative trajectory of political, economic, and
diplomatic developments in Iraq is upwards, although the slope of that
line is not steep. This process will not be quick. It will be uneven and
punctuated by setbacks, as well as achievements, and it will require
substantial U.S. resolve and commitment."
In reciting what the vast majority of the population had only known, the
merciless rule of the Baath party and Sadaam Hussein, I looked for a
contrast that the Iraqis might see between that and the occupation.
Violence and intimidation, a pervasive climate of fear, lethal force and
torture. Hussein was able to provide more electricity, and less mayhem,
I think.
"Some gains in the economy" include, in some places, that "war damage is
being cleared and buildings repaired, roads and sewers built, and
commerce energized." The auction of cell phone spectrum conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers netted $3.75 billion, we're told, and we might
imagine that the real currency will become almost as ephemeral as that
"asset" that was auctioned.
So we look forward to fewer people being shot in the back of the head,
a few of our brigades coming home without replacement, and more of the
same for years to come.
On the Sixth Anniversary: Complacency
Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton headed the 9/11 Commission, produced its
report, and gave an assessment of our progress two years ago. Now,
another
assessment, with the same conclusion:
We still lack a sense of urgency in the face of grave danger.
The "rising tide of radicalization and rage in the Muslim world" is a
consequence of our actions, especially the war of choice we undertook
against Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
"We are also failing in the struggle of ideas. We have not been
persuasive in enlisting the energy and sympathy of the world's 1.3
billion Muslims against the extremist threat. That is not because of who
we are: Polling data consistently show strong support in the Muslim
world for American values, including our political system and respect
for human rights, liberty and equality. Rather, U.S. policy choices have
undermined support.
"No word is more poisonous to the reputation of the United States than
Guantánamo. Fundamental justice requires a fair legal process before the
U.S. government detains people for significant periods of time, and the
president and Congress have not provided one. Guantánamo Bay should be
closed now."
9.9.7
Democrats Set Him Up
Stanley Stolarski of Twin Falls cooks up
the
most astounding theory of Larry Craig's demise to date:
it was the "leaders of the Democrat [sic] Party" and the dastardly ally
they recruited, a police officer who was "likely a union member." And
one in that "liberal state" of Minnesota no less.
Idahoans would be better off just staying in their home state, rather
than risking liberal persecution outside our borders, from police
officers skilled in tricking people into pleading guilty and collecting
fines to fund their union.
Romney's Narrowing Stance
Viewed from the outside (the only view available to non-members, of
course), the overwhelming impression I have of the Mormon religion is
that it's practical. It's a cohesive social organization, ideally
suited to claiming and developing territory on the frontier. Whatever
motivated its inception, the persecution of its practitioners forced an
evolution to what we see today. The members I've know all seem like
nice people, even though they didn't care to have that much to do with
me outside of well-structured circumstances, like organized sports.
Ex-Mormons who I've known reinforce the impression of the tight, and
closed society, with a strong penalty of ostracism for those who find
they can't abide the religion for one reason or another. Profession that
theirs is the "one, true faith" seems more central than it did for the
faith of my childhood, Roman Catholicism. Going to a Catholic grade
school, we all knew that ours was the one, true faith, going back to
Jesus and St. Peter after all, but we didn't necessarily need to make a
big deal out of it. Fraternization was not a problem, even if marrying
outside the Church was considered a gaffe, at least.
This cohesion is now a political issue to some extent, thanks to Mitt
Romney's candidacy. His evolving (or perhaps revolving?)
positions on those issues that mean the most to the Republicans who will
decide whether or not he's their candidate next fall may have nothing to
do with his religion, or they may have everything to do with it, I don't
know. But his stance on gay rights and the litmus test of gay marriage
sounds particularly unprincipled by
Michael Luo's description in the NYT. When it was convenient, he was
willing to wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Now that he's on the national
stage, the winking is over, and he couldn't get enough distance between
himself and Idaho's Senator fast enough once Larry Craig got the hint of
"gay" upon him.
8.Sept.07
Damn the Torpedoes
John McCain spent most of his credibility sucking up to the Bush team
after he'd been so sorely abused in the 2000 race, and then in the years
following. He's now such a friend of Bush that he's
thumping for surge like there's no tomorrow. Rather like the reverse
of Chicken Little: "the surge is working! The surge is working! It
is working!
Why bother even having Petraeus report on Monday, given how foregone all
the conclusions are? Facts are certainly
not going to stand in the way.
Illegal, or Just Secret?
It took most of 5 years, but the Judicial Branch is finally getting
around to stating the fairly obvious: key provisions of the so-called
USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional.
National Security Letters issued without a court's approval, and
coupled with a gag order preventing the recipient from telling anyone
s/he's received a NSL, for example;
that's out.
And the argument that the lawsuit to determine the legality of the
spying by the National Security Agency should be dismissed
because the program was so secret,
that's out, too.
7.9.7
"I Can't Recall" times 5 million
The other NSA (the National Security Archive) is
suing the
Executive branch for its failure to properly preserve the electronic
communication of the Bush administration. The suit claims that the
emails "exist only on back-up tapes," but we have to wonder whether
that's so. It could be that the tapes were never made, or were binned.
It also calls on the defendants to "implement an adequate archival
management system" as required by law. It seems the White House
got rid of the old system in 2002, and never got around to setting up a
new one.
Gee, was any of that stuff important? Just the invasion of Iraq,
Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 election campaigns, the outing of Valerie
Plame, the Swift-Boating of John Kerry, the negotiations with Diebold
for bringing Ohio's votes to Bush/Cheney... Maybe it would even help
Alberto Gonzales' memory.
Our (soon to be) Late, Unlamented Senator
Mark Solomon's home on Moscow Mountain provides the
longer-term
perspective of Larry Craig's time in the Senate, and what his
departure will mean for the land, water, and forests that we love.
With Craig's resignation the
Lords
of Yesterday are left without senior senatorial errand boys. Their
ability to control the West's future is seriously diminished. Newer
western senators such as Mike Crapo understand the need to balance use
of public lands with their protection, something the Lords' senators
never did.
General Petraeus Reporting
Which is
not quite the same as providing a report. The reports
that we do have—the National Intelligence Estimate, from the
Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research
Service, the U.S. Embassy, and the Independent Commission on the
Security Forces of Iraq—are all pretty negative. Or as
Paul Krugman
puts it, "the surge has reduced violence in Iraq—as long as
you don’t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites,
Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the
head."
6.Sept.07
Political Handicapping
Randy Stapilus of Ridenbaugh Press offers up an entertaining
political analysis of possible moves and countermoves in the Larry
Craig affaire de toilette.
"Craig has been in the Senate almost 17 years, plenty long enough to know
all about the dark side of the members there. If he decided to begin
unearthing secrets - well, that’s not a place the Republican caucus
wants to even think about."
The hard part is figuring out what he wants, and just how serious
"political hardball" he's prepared to play to get it. "Clearing his
name" is going to be somewhere between difficult and impossible, but if
he wants to take someone or some others with him, he could probably get
that done.
The Police State of Bathroom Etiquette
Should consenting adults be allowed to do as they please in the privacy
of their bathroom stalls? Not a question we thought about very much
before last Monday's news, but now we wonder. Should police be trolling
to see who knows the secret code to enable consensual lewd behavior?
Dina Adham
doesn't think so, and she puts her opinion under a pithy quote from
H.L. Mencken for good measure.
That the media (and we media consumers) have been having a field day of
"sensationalism and infotainment" can hardly be denied, but the
prurience of this whole business is of course at the heart of the
matter. If we weren't so fascinated by sex, and weren't so loaded up
with enculturated inhibitions protecting our sexual beings, well, we
wouldn't be having this conversation.
Adham is behind the curve in understanding the circumstances, however;
the bathroom was a notorious venue for hooking up, the back-and-forth
signalling is well known by those who use it and Craig's claims of
innocence are genuinely incredible in the context. Whether what he was
trying to do should be a crime, or whether cops should be trying
to catch such "criminals" by entrapping them are valid questions. The
rules that have been established by the likes of the conservative
Senator from Idaho say such things are "nasty" and "naughty," so more
than anything else, he's been hoist on his own petard.
(In case you missed them, those were epithets Larry sent Bill Clinton's
way duing the Monica Lewinsky scandal; for his part,
Clinton was considerably more gracious now that it's Craigs turn in
the unwelcome spotlight.)
Criminalizing High School
While out at Centennial High today around lunchtime, an announcement
blared over the parking lot, impressing students with the seriousness of
their must-always-be-wearing photo ID badges. It's no joke to be taking
someone else's badge, the gal said. "You will be charged with a
felony."
A felony?! Never mind that just about none of the students are
legally adults (especially in early September), but doesn't the threat
of sending a high school student out to
Pleasant Valley (or worse, an outsourced prison in Texas?) for the
crime of taking a fellow student's name tag seem just a bit over the
top?
I called the school after I got home and asked what's up with that.
The handy police detective stationed at the school explained that taking
something from someone's direct possession, regardless of the item's
value, is grand theft, which is indeed a felony. (For adults, at
least. Do we charge children with felonies now, or do we have to declare
we're going to pretend someone is an adult first?)
So a nice moral distinction for high school hijinks; if you want to
swipe something from someone as a prank, make sure you don't take it
away from them directly, and make sure it's not something worth $1,000
or more, so you keep your theft petty. Of course, it's better not to
take things from people at all, but you'd best be aware of the games
adults are going to play on you if you don't toe their lines for
behavior.
5.Sept.07
Straining Credulity
"You solicited me," Larry Craig insisted to the undercover cop who
brought him in for Inappropriate Footsie and Hand-waving in the airport
stalls, making it clear enough that he knows something about the game
he's pretending he never heard of and can't imagine playing, in a
restroom that was a notorious pitch. Was it the cop returning his gaze
through the crack while the Senator was looking for an open seat? The
foot moving up and down? We know it wasn't the presentation of the
badge, as Larry never gave the Submissive signal.
He should have found himself a lawyer, but he evidently did not want to
talk to anyone about the incident. His innocent visit to the loo was
"misconstrued" as trolling for anonymous sex, but his attempt to handle
the matter "quickly and expeditiously" led him to
plead guilty. Almost two months after the incident. Still before
he'd told any family, friends, staff, or counsel what had happened.
And now we hear
his
misdirected voicemail to "Billy," explaining how he's going to
finesse his "intent to resignation" speech, without bothering to tell
the Governor or other Republicans who were willing to stand up for him
at the press conference.
He's had a nice career if you like what he's voted for (I almost never
did), he's in line for a comfortable pension after most of 3 decades on
the job, and he's already given us one "resignation." Do we really want
this guy representing us in the United States Senate any more? What's
next, his announcement that he's going to run for another term?
Count our governor, Butch Otter as
one of the faked out faithful. Should he be interviewing
replacements, or what? Numerous Idaho Republicans are peering through
the crack to eye the open seat, and the Governor sounds like he might be
trying to avoid pre-empting the Party's decision (never mind the
People's?) about who to lift up, and name a "placeholder" instead of a
"front-runner."
4.Sept.07
Psych!
Ok, this'll get him back on the front page:
if Larry Craig can undo his guilty plea to disorderly conduct,
maybe he won't resign from the Senate on Sept. 30th after all.
Could he possibly be so naïve as to imagine that the handful of
colleagues making expressions of heartfelt support would be prepared
to support him for Plan B?! I can't quite imagine Mitch McConnell
saying "gosh, you're not guilty after all? C'mon back into the
club!"
Counting the Days, Nervously
Scott Ritter, on Truthdig:
Why Cheney Really Is That Bad:
"The vice president is the single greatest threat to American and
international security in the world today. Not Osama Bin Laden. Not
the ghost of Saddam Hussein. Not Ahmadinejad or Kim Jung Il. Not
al-Qaida, the Taliban, or Jose Padilla himself. Not even George W. Bush
can lay claim to this title. It is Dick Cheney’s alone. Operating in a
never-never land of constitutional ambiguity which exists between the
office of the president and the Congress of the United States, Cheney’s
office has made its impact felt on the policies of the United States of
America as had no vice president’s office before him."
Ray McGovern
figures that Rove's (and Snow's) departure is bad news because Rove
provided a counterbalance to Cheney's attitude for still more war.
"Despite the administration's warlike record, many Americans may still
cling to the belief that attacking Iran won't happen because it would be
crazy; that Bush is a lame-duck president who wouldn't dare undertake a
new reckless adventure when the last one went so badly. But—with
this administration—rationality has not exactly been a strong
suit."
Just Like the Big Boys
While the stars of the pro tennis world were laboring in Flushing
Meadows yesterday, we local recreational types were wrapping up the
Eagle Tennis Tournament. We didn't have 128 player draws, but neither
did we have 2 weeks to stretch things out. The singles semifinals at
8am had deliciously cool conditions, but those didn't last long. The 10am
doubles semifinals (and my partner and I) were done in about an hour,
which made for a nice, long mid-day break for me. The doubles final was
delayed by another match, and so it was about 5pm and the hottest part
of a hot day before my opponent and I faced off for the singles final in
the 3.5 draw. My good fortune was that it was "only" my third match of
the day, whereas Jim Enzler had made it to the doubles final (and won!),
so it was his fourth.
Which is tougher, a 5-set match for a 20-something, or back-to-back
best-of-three doubles and then singles when you're in your 50s?
The court temperature was easily into triple digits, providing
the most substantial stress test I need to see for a while, even without
having to have played that extra "warm up" match.
I'm not sure what my overall tie-break record is, but I suspect it's
well below .500; seems like I've seen more comebacks from my competition
than I've made myself. Yesterday's match may not show up as a comeback,
since I won it in straight sets, but given that I was ready to propose
flipping a coin rather than playing a third set that would've run till
about 8 o'clock as I faced three set points at 6-3 in the second set
tie-break, I'm going to count those 5 straight points that gave me set
and match as a solid comeback. Punctuated with a clean, cross-court,
forehand passing shot on my first match point, against a big guy
at the net who hasn't lost a doubles match all year; very
satisfying.
Learning From Our Mistakes
A week after Idaho awoke to the "How can this be?" question about
Senator Larry Craig, he finally moved below the fold of The Idaho
Statesman, but not quite off the front page. The one mention this
morning was a teaser to a a reprint of
a remarkable letter to the editor of the Washington Post,
from James McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey, and now a
seminary student.
The signal that almost got McGreevey arrested was the flash of his
headlights. He was able to talk his way out of the jam with his former
prosecutor's badge, and tells of advancing his political career by
following public opinion, staying in the closet, and standing against
same-sex marriage to "affirm his bona fides as a 'straight'."
That worked until he was
found out and, like Craig, resigned in disgrace.
"Only after the crisis that resulted in my resignation, when public
opinion no longer mattered, did I realize the importance and legitimacy
of same-sex marriage....
"I pray that the tide of American history continues to sweep toward the
inevitable expansion of freedom that recognizes the worth and dignity of
every individual -- and that mine is the last generation that is
required to choose between affairs of the heart and elected office."
2.Sept.07
The Voice of Justice: Holier-than-thou
Lest the impact of
Patricia Justice of Meridian's letter to the editor be diminished,
she pulled out the thesaurus to provide the horrid characteristics
"typical of all Democrats." Standing up her pen for ID-01 Bill Sali's
defense of Christian nationalism, her list includes arrogant,
holier-than-thou, "hell-bent on losing the war on terrorism," "dominated
by radical marxists," vicious, "extremely agitated to the point of
maniacal hysteria," and willing to do anything to collect the votes of
"felons, immigrants, the ignorant and the uniformed."
Unlike that "Republic" Party, always knowledgeable, calm, parental, and
heaven-bent, the party of the truth and maturity.
There is of course an intelligent alternative to dogmatic insistence on
one particular religion (much less one particular interpretation of a
religion) as the basis for our government and society, and it was the
wisdom of our forebears to establish such a form of government here.
For those stuck on the "truth" of a favorite god, book, or denomination,
consider a
statement of moral values for a pluralistic society, based on two
simple principles: "the basic principle of freedom, the right of all
human beings to follow a life of their choosing as long as others are
not harmed, and the basic principle of the inherent equal dignity of all
human beings, which includes the right of all human beings to equal
justice."
Cultural Hangover
Seth Randal, the filmmaker who documented the 1950s sex scandal in Boise
has an Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times, with BSU archivist
Alan Virta, acquainting the general public with
Idaho’s Original Same-Sex Scandal. Andrew Sullivan refers to
Randal's film, The Fall of '55,
and provides one of the keener insights of the past week's headline news
out of Idaho:
Larry Craig is just one of the more public victims of the cultural
atmosphere in this country that portrays homosexuality as disgusting and
something of which to be ashamed. There are many, silent sufferers like
him. You could see his shame in (Tuesday's) press conference, and that
the specter of Boise, 1955 has hung over Larry Craig all his life.
raveling
Tom von Alten
tva_∂t_fortboise_⋅_org
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