Friday, October 19, 2007
Can't say I disagree with you there, Senator
Barack Obama, in Time: "I don't want to be invited to the family hunting party." - responding to claims that he's a distant relative of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
More on Dodd
From an interview with Salon's Glenn Greenwald:
Dodd: Well, it's [the attack on the Constitution] so pervasive. I mean, its domestic. It's foreign. And it is has been so calculated on so many levels. . . .
It saddens me that it even has to be an issue -- the fact that "defending the Constitution" even has to be an issue in the presidential race.
But there is an audience for this. This is really important. This is not a narrow audience. This is a broad audience. This is an audience that will surprise you if articulated well. We can win on this.
A campaign for president allows you to have a megaphone here on a national scale to talk about these things, at a time when this crowd, if it continues, can enable you to stop them, do even more than raise the issues. But secondly, if I don't win this thing, I want everyone else to be talking about these issues.
I think it reaches into a conservative constituency who ought to care about this as much, and does in many ways. So it gives us a chance to do that.
I carry every day, and have for 26 years, a copy of the U.S. Constitution given to me by Robert Byrd [takes Constitution out of his back pocket]. And to me, what could be more fundamental? With all due respect, I care about health care, education, global warming. But if you get this wrong -- what do you got? A trade association. Who wants to be president of a trade association?
And this [holding the Constitution] is the spark, the illumination, it is, if I may so say, the envy of many around the world. We have been a guiding set of principles. What is going on with the rule of law isn't just happening here. . . Other countries are saying, "We can do this, too."
So there has been an erosion in the world with the rule of the law. Having led the world in the rule of law in the post-World War II period, and having nations reluctantly moving in the direction we were moving in, and they now see the U.S. has retreated, and they are making a hasty retreat themselves.
Josh Tucker [of NYU] makes the point about the Soviet Union collapse -- You can make the case that it was military, and that was part of it, but he believes and I believe that it was the rule of law. It was Eastern European countries recognizing that this was a total sham, beginning with the Prague Spring and 1956. The Soviet Union collapsed because it rotted from within, they just rotted without the rule of law. So in addition to the other factors, this has international reverberations, beyond just what happens in our own country.
Dodd: Well, it's [the attack on the Constitution] so pervasive. I mean, its domestic. It's foreign. And it is has been so calculated on so many levels. . . .
It saddens me that it even has to be an issue -- the fact that "defending the Constitution" even has to be an issue in the presidential race.
But there is an audience for this. This is really important. This is not a narrow audience. This is a broad audience. This is an audience that will surprise you if articulated well. We can win on this.
A campaign for president allows you to have a megaphone here on a national scale to talk about these things, at a time when this crowd, if it continues, can enable you to stop them, do even more than raise the issues. But secondly, if I don't win this thing, I want everyone else to be talking about these issues.
I think it reaches into a conservative constituency who ought to care about this as much, and does in many ways. So it gives us a chance to do that.
I carry every day, and have for 26 years, a copy of the U.S. Constitution given to me by Robert Byrd [takes Constitution out of his back pocket]. And to me, what could be more fundamental? With all due respect, I care about health care, education, global warming. But if you get this wrong -- what do you got? A trade association. Who wants to be president of a trade association?
And this [holding the Constitution] is the spark, the illumination, it is, if I may so say, the envy of many around the world. We have been a guiding set of principles. What is going on with the rule of law isn't just happening here. . . Other countries are saying, "We can do this, too."
So there has been an erosion in the world with the rule of the law. Having led the world in the rule of law in the post-World War II period, and having nations reluctantly moving in the direction we were moving in, and they now see the U.S. has retreated, and they are making a hasty retreat themselves.
Josh Tucker [of NYU] makes the point about the Soviet Union collapse -- You can make the case that it was military, and that was part of it, but he believes and I believe that it was the rule of law. It was Eastern European countries recognizing that this was a total sham, beginning with the Prague Spring and 1956. The Soviet Union collapsed because it rotted from within, they just rotted without the rule of law. So in addition to the other factors, this has international reverberations, beyond just what happens in our own country.
Thank you, Senator Dodd
Senator Chris Dodd puts a hold on Telecom Amensty Bill.
Let's stop cowering in fear to Mr. 24% and his army of winged monkeys. This is still America, if we want it to be.
Let's stop cowering in fear to Mr. 24% and his army of winged monkeys. This is still America, if we want it to be.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Apology
In my previous post, I referred to "the 29-percenters" - the group of people who continue to support the Liar In Chief as he tries to destroy as much of our country as possible. I was in error. I should have used the term "the 24-percenters."
I apologize for my error.
I apologize for my error.
Monday, October 15, 2007
War
To hear supporters of war, whether it's in Iraq, or Vietnam, or (some hope) in Iran, it's a glorious adventure, one which will unite as a people and bring our country back to the hallowed days after World War II, when America was established as a superpower and all was right with the world. They speak of those who wear the uniform in faux-reverential tones, speaking empty platitudes about honoring the men and women who fight our wars for us. All they know of war, all I know of war, has been learned from books and movies and TV. It's been well-documented that those in our government who sent our country to war in Iraq didn't have military experience of their own, and many of those with big mouths and big microphones either haven't served or won't serve, for primarily selfish reasons.
As I said, my only knowledge of war is second-hand, either through the truth, as best as it can be told, or through fiction, in dramatizations of battle. I'm in the middle of watching the new Ken Burns documentary, "The War," about that revered "Good War," World War II (I have seen episodes 1, 2, 6, and 7). I won't pretend that watching a documentary in any way allows me to share the experience of the men who were there, but I would like to share my reactions to the experience of listening to them talk.
When you listen to the men who were there, they don't speak of the glory of battle. Not only is it not the wackiness of Hogan's Heroes, it's not even the prisoners in Stalag 17. Or the gruff warriors in The Longest Day. Or even the blood on the beach in Saving Private Ryan. (Although Schindler's List comes closer than most.) They don't talk with wry smiles about spending six months wearing the same blood-soaked clothes in driving blizzards and oven-like jungles, or of liberating death camps, or having their foxholes fill with maggots as they were pinned down by artillery fire, or dropping bombs that still had the power to kill fifty years later. They don't talk about a "good" war, but instead speak of the "necessity" of what they were doing. For some, even Pearl Harbor wasn't enough justification, although the men who were unfortunate enough to walk through the gates of hell into Buchenwald or Mauthausen learned what the necessity of the war really was. No, sixty years later, these men speak of nightmares, and death, and convey with a look what they can't say with words, that there really are no words which can tell you what it's like. The footage that Ken Burns gathered is remarkable, backing the words with images of coffins and flamethrowers, emaciated soldiers and bombed-out buildings, sunken, haunted eyes and burning aircraft, spiraling into the ground. And none of it looks like fun. None of it even hints of a "glorious adventure."
One of the things that has long bothered me the most about our national shame in Iraq was that it has been clear from the start that no consideration was given to how war affects those who are on the battlefield, whether in uniform or not. And since no such consideration was given, our country was rushed into battle without doing everything in our power to avoid it. Our country has not suffered the staggering losses we did in Europe and the Pacific, when more people died on one battlefield in three days than in the fifty-five months we've been in Iraq. (And remember - we were the lucky ones. The war wasn't fought on American soil. Our houses didn't burn and our cities weren't destroyed.) However, listening to the testimony of the men and women in "The War," what continues to come to my mind is that we have forever damaged the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, American and Iraqi, who may not bear physical wounds due to the bombs and bullets, but will bear the marks of battle for the rest of their days.
To all of those who beat the drums for war - to those vile souls who still think that somehow blowing up bombs validates our national manhood and is something to swagger about. To those whose bloodlust for those who differ from themselves in heritage, or belief, or place of birth and drag us all along on their gruesome crusades. To those who would sacrifice other lives, American or not, in the name of greed and power. To George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell, and George Tenet, and Alberto Gonzalez, and Rush Limbaugh, and William Kristol, and Bill O'Reilly, and the whole gang over at Fox News, and the Corner at the National Review, and the rest of the 29-percenters who refuse to see what harm they bring to the world every time they speak. To all of you, I wish I believed in a heaven and a hell, and an afterlife where, in a just universe, those who have suffered for your ill words and ill deeds would spend eternity in paradise and where you would burn with the horrible wounds, the crippling nightmares, and the tragic devastation of lives forever changed by your deeds for a time out of time, beyond the death of the universe, spending forever in a cataclysm of pain for a crime for which there is no atonement.
As I said, my only knowledge of war is second-hand, either through the truth, as best as it can be told, or through fiction, in dramatizations of battle. I'm in the middle of watching the new Ken Burns documentary, "The War," about that revered "Good War," World War II (I have seen episodes 1, 2, 6, and 7). I won't pretend that watching a documentary in any way allows me to share the experience of the men who were there, but I would like to share my reactions to the experience of listening to them talk.
When you listen to the men who were there, they don't speak of the glory of battle. Not only is it not the wackiness of Hogan's Heroes, it's not even the prisoners in Stalag 17. Or the gruff warriors in The Longest Day. Or even the blood on the beach in Saving Private Ryan. (Although Schindler's List comes closer than most.) They don't talk with wry smiles about spending six months wearing the same blood-soaked clothes in driving blizzards and oven-like jungles, or of liberating death camps, or having their foxholes fill with maggots as they were pinned down by artillery fire, or dropping bombs that still had the power to kill fifty years later. They don't talk about a "good" war, but instead speak of the "necessity" of what they were doing. For some, even Pearl Harbor wasn't enough justification, although the men who were unfortunate enough to walk through the gates of hell into Buchenwald or Mauthausen learned what the necessity of the war really was. No, sixty years later, these men speak of nightmares, and death, and convey with a look what they can't say with words, that there really are no words which can tell you what it's like. The footage that Ken Burns gathered is remarkable, backing the words with images of coffins and flamethrowers, emaciated soldiers and bombed-out buildings, sunken, haunted eyes and burning aircraft, spiraling into the ground. And none of it looks like fun. None of it even hints of a "glorious adventure."
One of the things that has long bothered me the most about our national shame in Iraq was that it has been clear from the start that no consideration was given to how war affects those who are on the battlefield, whether in uniform or not. And since no such consideration was given, our country was rushed into battle without doing everything in our power to avoid it. Our country has not suffered the staggering losses we did in Europe and the Pacific, when more people died on one battlefield in three days than in the fifty-five months we've been in Iraq. (And remember - we were the lucky ones. The war wasn't fought on American soil. Our houses didn't burn and our cities weren't destroyed.) However, listening to the testimony of the men and women in "The War," what continues to come to my mind is that we have forever damaged the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, American and Iraqi, who may not bear physical wounds due to the bombs and bullets, but will bear the marks of battle for the rest of their days.
To all of those who beat the drums for war - to those vile souls who still think that somehow blowing up bombs validates our national manhood and is something to swagger about. To those whose bloodlust for those who differ from themselves in heritage, or belief, or place of birth and drag us all along on their gruesome crusades. To those who would sacrifice other lives, American or not, in the name of greed and power. To George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell, and George Tenet, and Alberto Gonzalez, and Rush Limbaugh, and William Kristol, and Bill O'Reilly, and the whole gang over at Fox News, and the Corner at the National Review, and the rest of the 29-percenters who refuse to see what harm they bring to the world every time they speak. To all of you, I wish I believed in a heaven and a hell, and an afterlife where, in a just universe, those who have suffered for your ill words and ill deeds would spend eternity in paradise and where you would burn with the horrible wounds, the crippling nightmares, and the tragic devastation of lives forever changed by your deeds for a time out of time, beyond the death of the universe, spending forever in a cataclysm of pain for a crime for which there is no atonement.
To Tim Johnson, R-IL (15th)
Congressman Johnson,
I am writing to you to urge you to reconsider your vote and to overturn the President's veto of the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. This bill is one of those good things that government can do, and which requires all of us to work together. Children do not have the choice of purchasing health insurance - they get what's provided for them, and for far too many children, that's not enough. The data is clear that preventative health care makes a huge difference, and for lots of families, that's not an option.
Our government has thrown away trillions of dollars in the last few years - the unconscionable disaster in Iraq, the Medicare debacle, and tax cuts for people who don't need the money. What's wrong with giving a small fraction of that to kids - money that will help them get a better start in life, money that will prevent us from paying thousands of dollars for emergency room trips when we could have paid a hundred for routine care? Are you willing to look at a kid and say "sorry, I could have helped you get better, but I decided not to?" Are you okay with letting kids suffer while you continue to support a failed policy?
The President is wrong on this (as he has been on so many things), but you have the power to help make it right. Overturn his veto.
I am writing to you to urge you to reconsider your vote and to overturn the President's veto of the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. This bill is one of those good things that government can do, and which requires all of us to work together. Children do not have the choice of purchasing health insurance - they get what's provided for them, and for far too many children, that's not enough. The data is clear that preventative health care makes a huge difference, and for lots of families, that's not an option.
Our government has thrown away trillions of dollars in the last few years - the unconscionable disaster in Iraq, the Medicare debacle, and tax cuts for people who don't need the money. What's wrong with giving a small fraction of that to kids - money that will help them get a better start in life, money that will prevent us from paying thousands of dollars for emergency room trips when we could have paid a hundred for routine care? Are you willing to look at a kid and say "sorry, I could have helped you get better, but I decided not to?" Are you okay with letting kids suffer while you continue to support a failed policy?
The President is wrong on this (as he has been on so many things), but you have the power to help make it right. Overturn his veto.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Update
In case you're counting:
Days until the 2008 Illinois Primary (February 5) -- 114
Days until Election Day 2008 (November 4) -- 387
Days until Inauguration Day 2009 (January 20) -- 464
Days until the 2008 Illinois Primary (February 5) -- 114
Days until Election Day 2008 (November 4) -- 387
Days until Inauguration Day 2009 (January 20) -- 464
Friday, October 12, 2007
A corner-sitter
Living in Champaign, I know that many (like our own Pete) are upset that the University of Illinois got rid of its mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Not having the memories of watching the Chief as I walked around good ol' State U when I was a feckless youth, I mostly found the Chief's halftime dance an absurd mockery, and was glad when it was discontinued. Whichever side of the issue you're on, however, I hope you can see the sadness in the following letter in the News-Gazette:
Well, I'm glad you won't be here. I'll enjoy it more without you.
So, Mr. Bergethon spent his formative years in Champaign, up through part of college, and the only thing of value he can find to return to is the frickin' halftime show? That's truly pathetic. We still have the "cool, crisp, sunny days" and the falling leaves and the marching band, and the football team is actually good. But because a white kid no longer dresses up in a headdress for 5 minutes a week, it's all for naught.
Chief's gone, so what is point of returning?
I was disappointed to learn that Chief Illiniwek is no more. How sad. I grew up in Champaign, graduated in 1964 from Champaign High School and went to the University of Illinois for two years before the U.S. Army came calling.
I remember going to many games at Memorial Stadium as I grew up. We'd park on the grass on the west side of the stadium and walk through the falling leaves to the stadium; I loved those cool, crisp, sunny days.
Even though we lived in Kansas and now reside in Colorado, I'd bring my family back to Champaign occasionally and go the UI's homecoming games specifically to watch the halftime show. The football games often weren't very good. But I still got chills when the band would march across the field, and Chief Illiniwek would crouch down, sneak out through the marching band and then appear to cheers from the crowd.
I used to point him amid the band members to my son. He'd try to find him before I did.
Now I wonder what will happen to the Chief Illiniwek logo that was so common. As for the name Fighting Illini, how long before it will be in danger? Will we call the UI's team "the Fighting Midwesterners" or the "Fighting Central Illinoisans"?
The local Chamber of Commerce should know that I won't be coming back to Champaign and spending several hundred dollars while there. If Chief Illiniwek is gone, so is my desire to return to Champaign. Goodby.
ERIK (RIK) BERGETHON, Pueblo, Colo.
Well, I'm glad you won't be here. I'll enjoy it more without you.
The magic beans
Just as Pete from time to time listens to wingnut radio, to hear what hate is being spewed over the air, I find myself drawn to their half-illiterate ramblings.
Today we find:
Ann Coulter saying that she hopes that one day Jews will perfect themselves and become Christian.
Debbie Schlussel comparing the Empire State Building being lit with green lights for the end of Ramadan to the planes flying into the WTC: "Planes into the building, yesterday. Jihadist-Green atop the building, today. Same difference."
BillO ranting about how John Edwards would be a horrible president because he wouldn't torture, he'd give prisoners access to attorneys, and he'd restore the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus.
And my favorite - the Nobel Prize committee is liberal because they gave Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize for his work alerting the world about the dangers of global warming: "I can't help thinking that Gore's prize is yet another attempt by the left to undo the horrible trauma of Election 2000."
Now back to your regularly scheduled hate attacks against 12 year olds.
Today we find:
Ann Coulter saying that she hopes that one day Jews will perfect themselves and become Christian.
Debbie Schlussel comparing the Empire State Building being lit with green lights for the end of Ramadan to the planes flying into the WTC: "Planes into the building, yesterday. Jihadist-Green atop the building, today. Same difference."
BillO ranting about how John Edwards would be a horrible president because he wouldn't torture, he'd give prisoners access to attorneys, and he'd restore the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus.
And my favorite - the Nobel Prize committee is liberal because they gave Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize for his work alerting the world about the dangers of global warming: "I can't help thinking that Gore's prize is yet another attempt by the left to undo the horrible trauma of Election 2000."
Now back to your regularly scheduled hate attacks against 12 year olds.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Anniversary of Shame
Five years ago, the U.S. Senate completed what the House had done the night before. They gave a madman a blank check to wage unprovoked war. Here are the words of that madman:
The president's conduct is shocking, though, even in light of the egregious grant of authority by Congress, because even that pathetic measure allowed for the use of force only if the president certified to Congress that
The United States does not desire military conflict, because we know the awful nature of war. Our country values life, and we will never seek war unless it is essential to security and justice. We hope that Iraq complies with the world's demands. If, however, the Iraqi regime persists in its defiance, the use of force may become unavoidable. Delay, indecision, and inaction are not options for America, because they could lead to massive and sudden horror. Should force be required to bring Saddam to account, the United States will work with other nations to help the Iraqi people rebuild and form a just government. We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They are the daily victims of Saddam Hussein's oppression, and they will be the first to benefit when the world's demands are met.The Congress gave him all he wanted, as many craven democrats, afraid of what the big bad media would say, shamelessly caved.
The president's conduct is shocking, though, even in light of the egregious grant of authority by Congress, because even that pathetic measure allowed for the use of force only if the president certified to Congress that
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic or other peaceful means alone either (A) will not adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq or (B) is not likely to lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq, andLies upon lies in a night of shame.
(2) acting pursuant to this resolution is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or persons who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorists attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Take a second look...
(Thanks to team member/all too infrequent contributor JB)
Much attention has been given to the military force authorization vote concerning Iraq. We conveniently forget, though, the outrageous power grant given to the president just a week after the terror attacks:
Much attention has been given to the military force authorization vote concerning Iraq. We conveniently forget, though, the outrageous power grant given to the president just a week after the terror attacks:
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.Remember the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
(a) IN GENERAL- that the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggressionand
This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace and security of the area is reasonably assured by international conditions created by action of the United Nations or otherwise, except that it may be terminated earlier by concurrent resolution of the Congress.Read that in light of the odious "Lieberman-Kyl" amendment that says
the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organizationFeel good about that?
The Conservative "Mind" at Work
Courtesy of Daily Kos, some tidbits from the sort of people you find flailing around the National Review, looking for a clue:
Are there even a thousand really poor people in all of America? Really poor. Dying-on-the-sidewalks-with-open-sores poor?
The so-called poor have cars and cable tv and free medical. They live in America in the 21st century, where school is free and libraries are free and a bus ticket to a better town costs less than a bag of crack. If they're "poor" it's because they were too lazy and stupid to a) finish high school and/or b) keep their pants on.
and
Advanced western democracies have delivered the most prosperous societies in human history. There simply are no longer genuinely "poor" people in sufficient numbers. As Miss Shaidle points out, if you're poor today, it's almost always for behavioral reasons - behavior which the state chooses not to discourage but to reward. Nonetheless, progressive types persist in deluding themselves that there are vast masses of the "needy" out there that only the government can rescue.
Yes, the conservative says, if you're poor, it's clearly a result of your choices, and besides, no one is really all that poor anyway - at least not the poor people they see on TV. One of the great things about this attitude is then nothing has to be done - poor people obviously have chosen to be that way because of their immoral lifestyles (we'll ignore the data, for example, about the preponderance of veterans among the homeless), so it's all their fault. And since we don't have, Ethiopian kids lying bloated and covered in flies on the street, no one is poor enough that they actually need help, so we're covered there.
I'm not going to bother to refute these arguments - those of us who actually have brains know poor people, from the truly extremely poor living on the street, or in constant threat of disaster, to the working poor - those with jobs (often multiple) but who still can't sustain a living and whose lives suffer every day because of it.
Schmidlap - is this an example of Evil, Greedy, or Stupid conservatives? I can see an argument for all 3.
Are there even a thousand really poor people in all of America? Really poor. Dying-on-the-sidewalks-with-open-sores poor?
The so-called poor have cars and cable tv and free medical. They live in America in the 21st century, where school is free and libraries are free and a bus ticket to a better town costs less than a bag of crack. If they're "poor" it's because they were too lazy and stupid to a) finish high school and/or b) keep their pants on.
and
Advanced western democracies have delivered the most prosperous societies in human history. There simply are no longer genuinely "poor" people in sufficient numbers. As Miss Shaidle points out, if you're poor today, it's almost always for behavioral reasons - behavior which the state chooses not to discourage but to reward. Nonetheless, progressive types persist in deluding themselves that there are vast masses of the "needy" out there that only the government can rescue.
Yes, the conservative says, if you're poor, it's clearly a result of your choices, and besides, no one is really all that poor anyway - at least not the poor people they see on TV. One of the great things about this attitude is then nothing has to be done - poor people obviously have chosen to be that way because of their immoral lifestyles (we'll ignore the data, for example, about the preponderance of veterans among the homeless), so it's all their fault. And since we don't have, Ethiopian kids lying bloated and covered in flies on the street, no one is poor enough that they actually need help, so we're covered there.
I'm not going to bother to refute these arguments - those of us who actually have brains know poor people, from the truly extremely poor living on the street, or in constant threat of disaster, to the working poor - those with jobs (often multiple) but who still can't sustain a living and whose lives suffer every day because of it.
Schmidlap - is this an example of Evil, Greedy, or Stupid conservatives? I can see an argument for all 3.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Sen. Widestance and Der Chimpenfuhrer
George W. Bush and Larry Craig. Hmm, what do they have in common--other than an ambivalent sexuality? Very simple--neither one gives a damn about their Republican party.
The president brings out the veto pen to kill a bill that has widespread bipartisan support, a measure supported by 47 of 50 governors and radicals like Orrin Hatch. Fiscal conservatism? Please, more money falls off the back of supply planes in Iraq than this measure would have cost. There is no logical reason for the veto other than he wanted to do it and he doesn't give a damn about his party. That makes perfect sense, given that he feels he owes the party nothing. He did nothing with the party in terms of coming to prominence. He was the accidental empty suit who was the first spawn of a mediocre president and nothing else. He owes the party nothing, and is giving it nothing in return.
And Larry Craig? He is an embarrassment to the party and has angered even the Idaho GOP. He can do nothing as a legislator from now on, and he is a tremendous liability both locally and nationally. Does he care? No, like his president, "it's all about me."
The president brings out the veto pen to kill a bill that has widespread bipartisan support, a measure supported by 47 of 50 governors and radicals like Orrin Hatch. Fiscal conservatism? Please, more money falls off the back of supply planes in Iraq than this measure would have cost. There is no logical reason for the veto other than he wanted to do it and he doesn't give a damn about his party. That makes perfect sense, given that he feels he owes the party nothing. He did nothing with the party in terms of coming to prominence. He was the accidental empty suit who was the first spawn of a mediocre president and nothing else. He owes the party nothing, and is giving it nothing in return.
And Larry Craig? He is an embarrassment to the party and has angered even the Idaho GOP. He can do nothing as a legislator from now on, and he is a tremendous liability both locally and nationally. Does he care? No, like his president, "it's all about me."
How screwed up is our presidential selection system?
On how many levels is the process by which we choose our next president screwed up?
First of all--the "primaries."
Primaries have no explicit or implicit basis in the constitution. They are rooted in this rather bizarre "party" system we have now. The order of primaries is bound by nothing other than tradition.
With all due respect to the fine citizens of these states, WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE? These two states together have fewer people than live in metro Chicago, yet they can determine who leads the free world? Iowa farmers who think Steve Alford is a great guy and the inhabitants of Our Town get to decide? Also note that a primary vote is only a vote for delegates, who, in many states, have no obligation to do what the voters want.
Second--money. I don't really need to say more, we have a perverse system where fundraising, rather than positions, defines who wins. I get at least 10 calls a day from various candidates because I stupidly gave $50 to the DNC in '04 (and the "Do Not Call" list does not apply to political solicitations.) Money has grotesquely perverted what used to be "the democratic process."
And finally--"the electoral college." Yes, I know it is defined in the constitution, and I am loathe to amend the constitution to put the social policy du jour in place.
However, it is beyond clear that this vestige of an era when the vote was not universal and there was no national media no longer serves a defensible purpose. If a national candidate need not campaign in Texas or Illinois, the system is broken--period. Every vote counts, so--count them.
First of all--the "primaries."
Primaries have no explicit or implicit basis in the constitution. They are rooted in this rather bizarre "party" system we have now. The order of primaries is bound by nothing other than tradition.
With all due respect to the fine citizens of these states, WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE? These two states together have fewer people than live in metro Chicago, yet they can determine who leads the free world? Iowa farmers who think Steve Alford is a great guy and the inhabitants of Our Town get to decide? Also note that a primary vote is only a vote for delegates, who, in many states, have no obligation to do what the voters want.
Second--money. I don't really need to say more, we have a perverse system where fundraising, rather than positions, defines who wins. I get at least 10 calls a day from various candidates because I stupidly gave $50 to the DNC in '04 (and the "Do Not Call" list does not apply to political solicitations.) Money has grotesquely perverted what used to be "the democratic process."
And finally--"the electoral college." Yes, I know it is defined in the constitution, and I am loathe to amend the constitution to put the social policy du jour in place.
However, it is beyond clear that this vestige of an era when the vote was not universal and there was no national media no longer serves a defensible purpose. If a national candidate need not campaign in Texas or Illinois, the system is broken--period. Every vote counts, so--count them.
Thomas Jefferson on Blackwater
We're beyond being shocked at what this administration does, but the Blackwater revelations last week came close. We heard that this private army of mercenaries, hired by an ideological soulmate and close friend of the administration, has been killing Iraqis largely for sport, where drunken killers fire at random and face no legal consequences.
Mercenaries. Just think about it, what have we become? As Thomas Jefferson wrote of mercenaries 231 years ago,
Mercenaries. Just think about it, what have we become? As Thomas Jefferson wrote of mercenaries 231 years ago,
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.Indeed, this is "totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Who could have said such a thing?
"This defines Petraeus’s failure. Instead of obliging the president and the Congress to confront this fundamental contradiction -- are we or are we not at war? -- he chose instead to let them off the hook….
"Politically, it qualifies as a brilliant maneuver. The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly."
The title of this piece is "Sycophant Savior," and it also says that Petraeus "is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes."
From MoveOn perhaps? Daily Kos? How about
(link)
"Politically, it qualifies as a brilliant maneuver. The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly."
The title of this piece is "Sycophant Savior," and it also says that Petraeus "is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes."
From MoveOn perhaps? Daily Kos? How about
(link)
Monday, October 01, 2007
Now, that's truly special
C&L has this one, but I wanted to make sure that everyone read it. (Of course, our readership here is much larger than theirs...)
Movie critic/Wingnut Michael Medved is out with an essay on Townhall entitled "Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery". You could go read the drivel, and there are those, I'm sure, who would want to try to rebut his arguments. But really, folks, here's the key - he's arguing that slavery wasn't that bad. Slavery. You know, one person owning another. I don't care if it was slavery based on race, or gender, or religion - I think most of us could pretty well agree that slavery is on the list of no-no's, well, at least those of us who aren't evil.
The buried, racist heads of the evil wing of the GOP continue to sneak out of the sand and their vestigial eyes are blinking in the harsh light of reality. What possesses someone to write an essay like this? If you read any part of it (and then wipe the vomit off your keyboard), you see that he's upset that anyone (I think there's a straw man slave in here somewhere) says that the US doesn't have the moral authority to bomb brown people because slavery was legal in parts of the country 142 years ago. Personally, I don't think we have the moral authority to bomb brown people because I don't think anyone has the moral authority to bomb brown people, but maybe I need to take a closer look at things.
Oh, for crying out loud, I can't even get sarcastic about this idiocy.
Movie critic/Wingnut Michael Medved is out with an essay on Townhall entitled "Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery". You could go read the drivel, and there are those, I'm sure, who would want to try to rebut his arguments. But really, folks, here's the key - he's arguing that slavery wasn't that bad. Slavery. You know, one person owning another. I don't care if it was slavery based on race, or gender, or religion - I think most of us could pretty well agree that slavery is on the list of no-no's, well, at least those of us who aren't evil.
The buried, racist heads of the evil wing of the GOP continue to sneak out of the sand and their vestigial eyes are blinking in the harsh light of reality. What possesses someone to write an essay like this? If you read any part of it (and then wipe the vomit off your keyboard), you see that he's upset that anyone (I think there's a straw man slave in here somewhere) says that the US doesn't have the moral authority to bomb brown people because slavery was legal in parts of the country 142 years ago. Personally, I don't think we have the moral authority to bomb brown people because I don't think anyone has the moral authority to bomb brown people, but maybe I need to take a closer look at things.
Oh, for crying out loud, I can't even get sarcastic about this idiocy.
Just a suggestion
Under Harry Truman, the name of the "War Department" was changed to the Department of defense.
I think we should change it back.
I think we should change it back.
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