A Look Into the Mirror

Following is a large chunk of the acceptance speech presented to the Nobel Prize Committee by Harold Pinter, the playwright awarded the literature prize this year. The entire speech is worthwhile reading but the following extracts are where he is talking about you and I. It is a damning and ugly look into the mirror. I know it is long but I think the folks that visit this site will want to read it. If you don’t want to read this entire post then just skip down to the bottom two paragraphs.

The full text of the speech is available here at The Guardian.

[snip]

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.

But before I come back to the present I would like to look at the recent past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow here.

Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified.

But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked.

Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued - or beaten to death - the same thing - and your own friends, the military and the great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was a commonplace in US foreign policy in the years to which I refer.

The tragedy of Nicaragua was a highly significant case. I choose to offer it here as a potent example of America's view of its role in the world, both then and now.

I was present at a meeting at the US embassy in London in the late 1980s.

The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua. I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the US body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself). Father Metcalf said: 'Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health centre, a cultural centre. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health centre, the cultural centre. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the US government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.'

Raymond Seitz had a very good reputation as a rational, responsible and highly sophisticated man. He was greatly respected in diplomatic circles. He listened, paused and then spoke with some gravity. 'Father,' he said, 'let me tell you something. In war, innocent people always suffer.' There was a frozen silence. We stared at him. He did not flinch.

Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.

Finally somebody said: 'But in this case "innocent people" were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidised by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?'

Seitz was imperturbable. 'I don't agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,' he said.

As we were leaving the Embassy a US aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply.

I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.'

The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.

The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.

The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.

I spoke earlier about 'a tapestry of lies' which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a 'totalitarian dungeon'. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary. The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.

Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.

The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government. It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and free education were over. Big business returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed.

But this 'policy' was by no means restricted to Central America. It was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is as if it never happened.

The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

It's a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US.

The United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.

What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days - conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what's called the 'international community'. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be 'the leader of the free world'. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally - a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man's land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticise our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You're either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.

Death in this context is irrelevant. Both Bush and Blair place death well away on the back burner. At least 100,000 Iraqis were killed by American bombs and missiles before the Iraq insurgency began. These people are of no moment. Their deaths don't exist. They are blank. They are not even recorded as being dead. 'We don't do body counts,' said the American general Tommy Franks.

Early in the invasion there was a photograph published on the front page of British newspapers of Tony Blair kissing the cheek of a little Iraqi boy. 'A grateful child,' said the caption. A few days later there was a story and photograph, on an inside page, of another four-year-old boy with no arms. His family had been blown up by a missile. He was the only survivor. 'When do I get my arms back?' he asked. The story was dropped. Well, Tony Blair wasn't holding him in his arms, nor the body of any other mutilated child, nor the body of any bloody corpse. Blood is dirty. It dirties your shirt and tie when you're making a sincere speech on television.

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

[snip]

I have said earlier that the United States is now totally frank about putting its cards on the table. That is the case. Its official declared policy is now defined as 'full spectrum dominance'. That is not my term, it is theirs. 'Full spectrum dominance' means control of land, sea, air and space and all attendant resources.

The United States now occupies 702 military installations throughout the world in 132 countries, with the honourable exception of Sweden, of course. We don't quite know how they got there but they are there all right.

The United States possesses 8,000 active and operational nuclear warheads. Two thousand are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched with 15 minutes warning. It is developing new systems of nuclear force, known as bunker busters. The British, ever cooperative, are intending to replace their own nuclear missile, Trident. Who, I wonder, are they aiming at? Osama bin Laden? You? Me? Joe Dokes? China? Paris? Who knows? What we do know is that this infantile insanity - the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons - is at the heart of present American political philosophy. We must remind ourselves that the United States is on a permanent military footing and shows no sign of relaxing it.

Many thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States itself are demonstrably sickened, shamed and angered by their government's actions, but as things stand they are not a coherent political force - yet. But the anxiety, uncertainty and fear which we can see growing daily in the United States is unlikely to diminish.

I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speech writers but I would like to volunteer for the job myself. I propose the following short address which he can make on television to the nation. I see him grave, hair carefully combed, serious, winning, sincere, often beguiling, sometimes employing a wry smile, curiously attractive, a man's man.

'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'

[snip]

Saturnalia Rocks

I want to thank DrMax for reminding us all of the true meaning behind this holiday season. I think it is very nice of all of us pagans to allow you Christians to celebrate your holiday along with ours, even if you don't give us credit for many of your holiday traditions like tress, Santa, Yule logs and mistletoe. We're glad to share but it would be nice to be recognized.

I Wish I Could Vote in Vermont

There is an excellent interview with Bernie Sanders over at The Progressive. If you are not familiar with Bernie, he is the independent and progressive Representative from Vermont and is the likely heir to Jeffords vacated Senate seat in 2006.

Here are just two questions from Ruth Conniff and his answers. Read the whole interview and you will wish there were some more politicos with this kind of fire and no nonsense approach.

Question: What does Hurricane Katrina tell us?

Bernie Sanders: I think Katrina is one more indication of how inefficient and corrupt this Administration is, and indicates the absolute lack of seriousness that Bush has in making the government respond to the needs of the people. He is there primarily to give tax breaks to billionaires, to do the service of large corporations. This is just one more powerful, dramatic, painful example of the incompetence and lack of concern of this Administration. They are so separated from the lives of normal, low-income people that it never occurred to them that if you’re poor and have no money, no car, that you can’t leave. You don’t just get in your SUV and go to a nice hotel a few miles away.

Q: So what’s your message to progressives?

Sanders: We have got to change the political culture in America. We need a political revolution. That means we are working on politics not just three weeks before an election but 365 days a year. We have to develop a strong economic message which says every American is entitled to health care through a national health care program. And we’re not going to allow these large corporations to push through trade agreements which allow them to throw Americans out on the street and run to China. We’re not going to give tax breaks to billionaires and then cut back on the needs of our elderly or poor or kids or education. We’re not going to privatize Social Security—in fact, we’re going to strengthen it. We’re going to provide quality education for every kid in America, from preschool through college. We have to take on these corporate leaders who are selling out the American people, whose allegiance is now much more to China than it is to the United States. If we have the courage to take these people on, I think we can overwhelm Bush and his friends.

Imagine

Do you remember how you felt when you heard that John Lennon was shot and killed in New York on this day in 1980?

This song is considered by many to be his most important and was voted the 2nd most popular single ever in the UK. The #1 song was "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
This was the last song played by WABC New York before it switched from Top 40 to all talk.

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living LIFE in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will BE as one
Imagine no posessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Hat tip to Mustang Bobby

Using Christmas

For two days straight the Atlanta Paper has been beating the anti "Merry Christmas" storyline. They have quotes from "good christians" saying how they are so tired of being singled out for persecution.

Hold it! Show me some persecution. Just because Target has kicked the Salvation Army of it's front porch and having it's employees say Happy Holidays is not what I would call persecution.

Somebody has just found another way to justify religious agression by pretending they are being persecuted. We can fight you liberal, God-haters and all rules are off because you broke the rules first by persecuting us.

I will guarantee you that the people pushing this agenda are not the same people you find sitting the pews every Sunday.

Civic Duty

I have a jury summons today. I have to report to the Fulton County Courthouse by 815 am this morning which means I get to hazard Marta. If you remember this is the courthouse where Brian Nichols escaped the balif and shot a judge etc. last spring. One would think that security might be approved. We shall see.
Not much blogging or surfing today except maybe from the BlackBerry.
Play nice.

Surprised?

I guess I am amazed that anyone with just a modicum of cognitive ability would find this news worthy. Come on folks...we are talking about the most corrupt, dishonest, incompetent and wholly unsatisfactory administration in the short history of this country. Is anyone surprised that we are being mushroomed to beat the band? What else do/did you expect from this bunch? Keerist!

WASHINGTON - Time, money and ever-present terror threats have done little to close gaping holes in the nation's security system, the former Sept. 11 Commission said Monday in accusing the government of failing to protect the country against another attack.

Hello Reality, Goodbye Oil

Juan Cole, as always the go to guy for the straight skinny in what is going on in Iraq and the Middle East in general has an excellent post up at Truthdig. The post covers in detail how the Shiite majority in Iraq has used the 2003 invansion to bolster and consolidate their power in Iraq and how ultimately the real winner in Iraq is Iran. If you want to understand the dynamics of the processes at play in Iraq you have to read Professor Cole regularly.

The Bush administration naively believed that Iraq was a blank slate on which it could inscribe its vision for a remake of the Arab world. Iraq, however, was a witches’ brew of dynamic social and religious movements, a veritable pressure cooker. When George W. Bush invaded, he blew off the lid.

Quiet Weekend

A reasonably quiet weekend for a change. Only Saturday was committed. We had a 2pm performance of the Radio City Rockettes Christmas program at the Fox that was very nice and much fun. We then killed some time wandering the new IKEA at Atlantic Station waiting for time for dinner. Dinner at Pricci, a very posh Italian place in midtown and home by 9pm. Sunday was sweat pants and shirt and catching up on reading and trying to charge the batteries. Did I mention the untimely and lingering death of a very nice old vine Zin?
I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend.

Preaching to the Choir

James Buchanan, old number 15, is getting pushed out of the Number One spot as the "Worst President Ever"

There are some numbers. The History News Network at George Mason University has just polled historians informally on the Bush record. Four hundred and fifteen, about a third of those contacted, answered -- maybe they were all crazed liberals -- making the project as unofficial as it was interesting. These were the results: 338 said they believed Bush was failing, while 77 said he was succeeding. Fifty said they thought he was the worst president ever. Worse than Buchanan.


This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:

# He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

# He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

# He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

# He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

# He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign (
Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

# He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

# He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

# He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.

Quite an indictment. It is, of course, too early to evaluate a president. That, historically, takes decades, and views change over times as results and impact become more obvious. Besides, many of the historians note that however bad Bush seems, they have indeed since worse men around the White House. Some say Buchanan. Many say Vice President Dick Cheney.

Hat Tip to AmericaBlog

Like a Dog to It's Vomit

Back from the West side of this fair and fucked land. No time to catch up on all the goings on. Did catch the fact that ten more of our finest have sacrificed their lives for TANG Boy and his delusions of grandeur. Do you think if someone were to ask him tonight to name their names and home towns he could?

Off to bed but will catch up with everyone tomorrow morning. Sleep tight!

(In case you didn't know that refers to the days when beds were strung with ropes to support the mattress and sleeping tight meant your bed was properly lashed up.) A veritable fountain.

Missing the Point

I'm still here just working all kinds of hours and really haven't recovered from Monday night's travel nightmare. I have spent some time visiting all of the smart people on the blog roll and if you want some good information and insightful comment please cruise the list.
I do have a comment or two to make on all of the 'news' that flowing around.
First, everyone can spend a lot of effort and energy talking about Iraq and withdrawal and timetables and all that stuff but the reality of the situation is that out current situation is unsustainable.
Bush may want to 'stay the course' but he is probably going to have to do it alone in the very near future. He's burned through our military and there are no reserves that haven't been burned as well. In the near term we are going to have to face the reality that we cannot sustain an endless occupation with the attending insurgency indefinitely. The American military is the most powerful and well equipped force in the world but it is not limitless. We have nearly ground it down to a nub and we are not going to be able to sustain our presence in Iraq much more that 6 - 10 months at the current levels. We have used all of our silver bullets.
Secondly, we are continuing to talk about war and not about peace. We have come to a point where we need to admit than the "Project for a New American Century" is pure neocon balloon juice. Pre-emptive ware is always wrong. Occupation of a soveriegn country is wrong and has never proved successful.
Torture is not human and in any form it smacks against a raft of American principles not to mention it is against the law.
We need a complete revision of our thinking and it needs to be predicated on peace. How do we peacefully reduce our forces in Iraq? How do we insure a peaceful democratic government in Iraq. How do we back quietly away and appologize for out huge screwup.

This is Compassionate Conservatism

Bob Geiger is doing his usual good work and has compiled a list of important measures the Republicans have said "NO" to in the last month-and-a-half:

• Money to provide for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. (Twice)
• Increasing the maximum Federal Pell Grant award by $200
• Providing additional funding for title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
• Increasing appropriations for Head Start programs
• Additional funding for part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
• Funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program within the Health Resources and Services Administration.
• Increasing appropriations for after-school programs through 21st century community learning centers.
• Providing a 6-month transition period for coverage of prescription drugs under Medicaid for the elderly whose drug coverage is to be moved to the Medicare prescription drug program.
• Amending title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide the authority for negotiating fair prices for Medicare prescription drugs.
• Establishing a national commission on policies and practices on the treatment of detainees since September 11, 2001.
• Providing enhanced eligibility for retirement pay for non-regular service members in Iraq
• Amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax benefits for areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
• Repealing certain tax benefits relating to oil and gas wells intangible drilling and development costs.
• Reinstating for millionaires a top individual income tax rate of 39.6 percent, the pre-May 2003 rates of tax on capital gains and dividends, and to repeal the reduction and termination of the phase out of personal exemptions and overall limitation on itemized deductions, until the Federal budget deficit is eliminated.
• Sense of the Senate amendment concerning the provision of health care for children before providing tax cuts for the wealthy.
• Tax increase on incomes in excess of $1 million to eliminate child poverty.
• Providing an additional $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2010, to be used for readjustment counseling, related mental health services, and treatment and rehabilitative services for veterans with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance use disorder.

And that's just since the middle of October.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Democrats did indeed say "no" earlier this month to allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We've also been the guys saying "no" to privatizing Social Security and continuing to mortgage our childrens' future by adding to the massive federal deficit.

We've been pretty consistent naysayers on the whole thing of giving rich people more tax cuts, while screwing the poor, elderly and needy. And we've also given a big "no" to being the party whose leadership is under chronic investigation and whose members should be forming an indictment-of-the-month club. More needless death and expense for an Iraq war predicated on lies? We give that a big thumbs-down too.

Thanks for the good work Bob.

No More Theatre

Tonight while cruising the blog world that I have time to peruse I haven't found anyone that has anything positive to say about the Bush speech this morning in front of another captive audience. Granted I don't visit the whack sites like Clownhall etc. but even the more centrist sites have nothing good to say.
I think Bush needs a new schtick. The problem is that the 'people' have figured out that he is just mouthing the words submitted by some speech writer and there is no sense that what he is saying is what he would say if he were using his own, unscripted words. In other words...he is not coming across as sincere.
I have an idea, that he can have for free, that will convince at least some of the people that he actually understands the import and ramifications of his words and actions.
When Bush steps up to the podium and before he opens his prepared speech he should look the audience/camera and recite from memory the names and hometowns of the last 20 American soldiers to die in his elective war on Iraq. This might convince enough people that he actually cared about those lost in his war and actually had spent some time internalizing the losses we are suffering.
Note that I say 'his' war instead of 'the' war or 'our' war. The polls reflect the American feelings toward this adventure and they are telling us that we are tired of the losses and lack of direction and that it is time to get the hell out as soon as we can do it consistent with minimizing losses.
The net of this rather ranbling post is that I am tired of the SOS(same old shit) and I don't want to see any more empty rhetoric. I want to see committment and resolve to reduce our force in Iraq consistent with good military strategy. I don't want to hear anymore theatre about embolding the enemy or building a democracy in Iraq.

Plan to Cover Ass

Just got out of the shower and turned on CNN. I was just in time to hear Bush invoke 9/11 in the first minute of his "Plan for Iraq". So far all he has talked about is the GWOT. Notice also that this another speech if front of captive audience. How long has it been since he has spoken in front of a civilian audience?
Now we get the invocation of Al Qaeda and Osama as part of the justification and once again 9/11 is brought to the fore and the murder of children. Uh oh there is the appeasement word and the insistence on "complete victory". Please define Mr. Bush.
Here comes the strategy. Build a democracy, Iraqi forces to lead the fight and reconstruction. So far nothing new.
Still harping on the terroists even after he just said that they are the smallest group of people we are fighting in Iraq. Now comes the pump up of the Iraqi forces and how much progress they have made. Wow 30 Iraqi battalions have now taken charge of many areas of Iraq and as much as 90 square miles of the capitol. Spending an awful lot of time talking about how the training of Iraqi troops and police has been improved and I would imagine this will be used to justify a drawdown plan in a few minutes. Still taking about how well we have trained them.
Now he is beginning to talk about bringing troops home and reiterating that the military commanders are driving troop strength but there is still no clear timetable or benchmarks.
All decisions are for the military to make and not by politics.
Now he invoked Lieberman as justification for not setting any deadline for withdrawal so I guess that clinches it. Joe has blessed the plan so we are gold on staying the course.
Gotta get dressed and get out of here but I will be surprised if there is any new information or a clear plan forward.
So much for this opportunity to show leadership. I am not so sure this is the speech the American people want to hear. We'll see.

Inauspicious start

The week is not starting out too well. Just got to the airport for my 945 PM flight and it has been delayed until 11. If things don't get any worse I may be able to crawl into bed in Sunnyvale by 3 am. The joys of holiday travel. The Atlanta airport is a zoo. Oh well, nothing to do but watch the people. You can sure tell who is not a regular traveler by how much crap they haul with them and the kind of zombie look they have. I hope everyone gets a good nights rest. Loads of fun here.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Update: Tuesday Morning 10am PST

It got worse. Didn't leave Atlanta until 0020...mostly due to weather. Finally got to SFO at 0220 local time. By the time I got the rental car and drove to Sunnyvale it was 0330. In bed by 0345 and at the client by 0900 this morning but tired. One good thing about having to hang out in the Crown Room for so long is that I got a chance to meet Wolfgang Puck. He was on his way home after the grand opening f the new Aquarium. His company(s) are doing the catering for it. Seems like a nice guy and was very friendly though he was obviously tired and just as cranky about the delays getting out as everyone else. A little lagniappe after an otherwise miserable travel day.

Merry Christmas..Take That!

Grace over at Scriptoids points us to a post by Doug Giles whining about the persecution of Christians over the wishing of Merry Christmas to non-Christians. While I dutifully posted a comment, the more I thought about it the more irritated I became. Therefore, I will re-post the bulk of my comment here. (Of course, I have amplified and corrected my spelling.)

Thankfully, Grace seems to be of a stronger constitution than I and regularly alerts us to the rantings over at Townhall.

Here is a snippet of Doug's whine:

The Christmasphobia seems to have seeped outside of the Pubic Fool System and has also hit the streets. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve got to think for 30 to 40 seconds about how I am to wish one well during the Christmas season for fear that the ACLU will send some soulless lawyer to my house to sue me because of an insensitive greeting.

Before, I just used to say, “Merry Christmas.” Now, I have to do CIA-like profiling trying to figure out what religion said person is before I launch a holiday howdy. Are they Christian? Muslim? Satanist? Atheist? Do they look like they have enough money to take legal action against me if I get the greeting wrong and they become deeply wounded by my well wish? It’s madness. To remedy the situation, now I just blow off saying anything aside from, “Wassup?”

I must be missing all of the reports about individuals being sued for wishing some non-christian Merry Christmas. You'd think it would be all over the news.

The truth is that Doug is so insecure in his own beliefs and maybe even ashamed of them that he is afraid to wish someone Merry Christmas and possibly being confronted by someone not of his own obviously shallow faith. I can see where the rare possibility of someone, say of the Jewish faith, might smile and respond "Thank you for the well wishes and a Happy Hannukah in return." and poor Doug would be mortified and devastated by the awful truth of his faux pas. It is truly something to avoid at all costs.

What does he think I will do if he wishes me a Merry Christmas? I am not a Christian per se but, then again, I don't wear my faith on my sleeve. Would I lash out with a terrible and cutting diatribe accusing him of persecution and disrespect for my beliefs? Of course not. I would respect his apparent beliefs and wish him a Merry Christmas right back.

I have celebrated Christmas since I was a baby,being raised in a Christian family, and it was only in later years that I grew spiritually beyond the need for a desperate, fearful belief in Jesus. That doesn't, however, mean I don't like Christmas in spirit and it doesn't hurt me at all to wish another human Merry Christmas. I do it all the time to all kinds of people and don't ever remember hesitating, fearful of insulting their beliefs. Since when did wishing someone a Merry Christmas equate to religious persecution?

The reality is that Doug is just a wimp and I imagine that if he sincerely wished another person Merry Christmas and truly implied the good wishes meant by the holiday greeting that, regardless of faith, the other person would respond in kind and not be offended. If someone was offended by such a sincere greeting then they have some issues and some insecurities around their beliefs as well.

A Wine Adventure

Off for an adventure this afternoon. Going up just north of Dahlonega, Georgia to Wolf Mountain Vineyards for a special wild game dinner and wine tasting. The menu is supposed to include Buffalo Chili, Grilled Quail, Rabbit Stew, Venison Sausage and Exotic Mushroom Strudel. I've tasted the wines and they are quite nice. The other vineyards here in Georgia produce a mixed bag of wines, some good and some not so nice, but everything I have tried from Wolf Mountain has been good.

The owner and founder of the winery is a long time acquaintance and this has been a decade plus long project for him and a partner. It looks like it might be successful. Looks like it will rain but there is something refreshing about the North Georgia mountains even with less than ideal weather.

This was supposed to be a little treat for our English friends who have had to delay their visit but we found another couple that thought it sounded like fun so we're off.

Find the Light

This kind of news is not helping me deal with my sense of frustration and disgust over the Chimpinator's adventure in Iraq. Every time I get to the point of convincing myself to drop the anger and focus my energy on the positive something like this pops up. The last was the white phosphorus.

LONDON, England -- Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein if not worse, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said.

"People are doing the same as (in) Saddam's time and worse," Allawi said in an interview published in Britain on Sunday.

"It is an appropriate comparison," Allawi told The Observer newspaper. "People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things."

Until we can accept the past, recognize the tragedy for what it was and redirect our negative feelings into positive action we are going to short change the energy we can project into actions we have to take now. We cannot continue to dwell on the past and spend all this emotional energy on the past and over something which is done. The immenseness and ramifications of everything that has happened are continuing to bounce back at us.
The mental image I keep having is one of us struggling to crawl out of a pit of filth, covered in death, greed and stupidity, the offal of war, and there is Bush and Cheney and the whole clan with long poles pushing us back down.

More Black Helos

Don't miss this post over at Democratic Veteran by Jo Fish. It is getting worse by the day...how far away is 2006 again?

The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.

[snip]

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI's massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage.

The measure, she said, "removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies." She said the Pentagon's "intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate."

Failure = Success

I can see the CNN headlines now. Something to the effect of

"Latest Evaluations Indicate Iraq is Better Prepared for Own Security Than Previously Thought".

Now that the American people have decided that it is time to figure out how to get the hell out of Iraq with a minimum of further loss and Dubya's handlers have finally realized that they are not going to be able to spin it away we have a new story line.

The LA Times has an article that pretty well summarizes the amazing change of situation.

In a departure from past statements, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week that the training of Iraqi troops has advanced so far that the current number of U.S. troops probably will not be needed for much longer.

President Bush will give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in which aides say he is expected to proclaim the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the key condition for withdrawing U.S. forces.

[snip]

Some analysts say the emerging consensus might have less to do with conditions in Iraq than the long-term strain of the deployment on the U.S. military. And major questions over the readiness of Iraq's fledgling security forces pose risks for any strategy that calls for an accelerated American troop withdrawal.

As recently as late September, senior U.S. military commanders told a congressional hearing that just one Iraqi battalion, about 700 soldiers, was considered capable of conducting combat operations fully independent of any U.S. support. Administration officials now dismiss that measure of military readiness, saying more Iraqi units are able to perform advanced operations each day.

Josh Marshall also comments that it is now just a matter of spinning the news to make it seem like it was the Administrations idea all of the time.

I'm going to way out on a limb and take James Fallows' word over the president's and assume that there's been no radical turnaround in the training and functioning of the Iraqi Army over the last couple months.

And if that's true, it clarifies this essential point: there is no debate about withdrawing American troops from Iraq. That's over. What we have is posturing and positioning over the political consequences of withdrawal. The White House and the president's partisans will lay down a wall of covering fire, calling anybody who considers withdrawal an appeaser, to allow the president to go about the business of drawing down the American presence in Iraq in time to game the 2006 elections.

Finally, over at Mahablog Barbara notes that if the Dems are not careful Bushco will change the dialogue and use this against them in the 2006 election. We should never overlook the fact that this administration is totally driven by politics. Every decision is colored first by the political aspects and results and not what is in the best interest of the country.

New People, New Thinking

Let's talk about Iraq. Over the last week or so there has been a lot of discussion about withdrawal, whether immediate or phased and the likely effects on the future of Iraq and the "war on terror" and the middle east as a whole. There are also a lot of side issues about whether we were lied to about the whole thing.

It is extremely important to think clearly and without any preconceived answers.

First, it doesn't matter whether you were for or against the war it is now a "done deal" and there is nothing, at this point, to be gained by allowing this to bias our thinking.

Second, it doesn't matter whether the the war was the right or wrong thing to do. Again, it is a "done deal" and should not be allowed to cloud the question of what we should do or not do now.

Third, it doesn't matter if the war was precipitated on false pretenses. Spilt milk.

Stop thinking about the above as they are a waste of time and while important on some level are not actually germane to solving the problems that Cheney and the other neocons have created for the U.S. and the world.

There are really only two questions that need to be addressed:

1. Will an American withdrawal from Iraq create more or less stability in the Middle East?

2. Will a withdrawal increase or decrease the threat of additional terrorist attacks here and elsewhere?

Any other questions are actually side issues of the above two fundamental questions. If we cannot answer those two questions with some assurance of accuracy then we have not gotten a grasp on the situation.

I want us out of Iraq, and the sooner the better, but I am not so sure I am prepared to pay the long term price of an ill considered "cut and run" nor do I think we can "stay the course". There has to be an answer in between these two extremes. There has to be some new thinking.

The other key point to remember, as we go forward, is that we should not look to the current administration for the answers. They have proven themselves incapable of creative thought when it comes to the future of the middle east and therefore cannot be expected to suddenly have the answers needed. There have to be new players.

While I do not have the answers I do want to make sure we are thinking clearly about the options.

• An "American style" democracy may not the the appropriate solution for Iraq or any other country in the middle east.
• Patriotism has absolutely nothing to do with what is right or wrong for Iraq.
• "Christian" values have no intrinsic value when it comes to the correct solution for the current mess.
• We cannot "undo" anything done so far.
• Al-Qaeda(or its equivalent) exists and our actions will either empower it or weaken it.
• We may have screwed up so badly and pushed the situation so far toward disaster that only massive upheaval can create the conditions necessary for progress.
• No solution is going to be perfect.
• More people, Iraqi, American, British, Jordanian, man, woman and child are going to die before we begin to see light and hope.
• Peace and stability are possible but are going require effort, courage and treasure.

Let's get going on trying to find our way.

It's A Sickness

Here I am about ready to start in on my Thanksgiving cooking. It's just Madam and I this year as our planned guests had to cancel. The daughter is working as she always volunteers to work on such holidays so the firefighters with children can be off. I am still going to cook though. I can't help myself.
I did manage to hold myself back and only bought a small turkey breast this year and even that is still going to produce a week or more of leftovers. You just can't pass this holiday by without turkey and dressing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, squash casserole, hot rolls, gravy, green beans and. of course pumpkin pie. I am fortunate in that I have an extra fridge in the basement so I will be able to store all of the leftovers. I have to hit the road again on Monday so Mrs. Fallenmonk will have plenty to eat while I am away.

I hope everyone has what they want this Thanksgiving.

Santa's Little Helper

I was thinking this morning about how we really don't do a very good job when discussing the cost of the Iraq war. People don't really understand numbers of dollars in the billions. It doesn't have any context in their day to day world.

I went looking for some answers and Googled the website of the National Priorities Project. It is a fascinating site that allows you to put some context around the horrendous monies we are wasting in Iraq.

A little background is in order and then we'll play with the numbers a little.

In October of this year, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded that $251 billion had been obligated or appropriated for the Iraq War. The research was based not just on Congressional appropriations, but on the Department of Defense's (DOD) DFAS monthly obligations reports.

So let's pretend that this money is ours to spend on something other than killing Iraqis and ourselves and making Halliburton et al richer. It is coming up on the Christmas season, after all, so let's take this $251B out for a spin and see what we can do with it.

We could go crazy and drop the whole wad in one place. What if we decided to tackle something huge like world hunger. Is that big enough? Here are some facts:

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 estimates that over 800 million people worldwide are hungry and undernourished. The FAO has also stated that an annual increase of $24 billion in anti-hunger efforts would reduce world hunger by half (to 400 million people) by 2015.

There you go...we could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by half over the next 10 years. Not so bad.

Maybe we should spread it around a little more? How about immunization? Here are some facts:
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has estimated the additional monies needed to immunize every child in the developing world at $2.808 billion annually. The report (Table 8) calculates that 3 million children die annually from vaccine preventable diseases.

Rounding off to $3B annually we could immunize every child in the world every year for the next 10 years and only spend a lousy $30 Billion. Chump change for Dubya and we still have $220B in the bank. Such a deal.

Think we should spend a little in the neighborhood?

How about we build 500 thousand units of affordable housing? Estimates are that it would cost about $100 thousand a pop so it would cost us a cool $50 Billion so that will leave us with only $170B. (Just ignore the jobs created.)

Let's throw in some health insurance for kids. Estimates are that it would cost 1,800 bucks or so a year per child. Let's do a million kids for ten years and squander another $1.8B per year for a total of $18 Billion and we are left with only $152 Billion.

Maybe we need some more teachers if we are going to have all these healthy kids? How about 50,000 and we pay them what they are worth and say $75K a year and we guarantee them a 5 year contract. There's another $3.75B per year for total of $18.75B and we have spent all but about $130 Billion.

Whoops! Forgot Public Safety. Let's do the same with First Responders like Fire Fighters and Paramedics. There goes another $20B or so. Still money left over!

You can see how this is going and I'll leave it up to you to spend the remaining $100B.

Before some bean counter or economist jumps up and down. Yes, I know this is unsophisticated and that this is just funny money and that we really don't have this money to spend since all of it has been borrowed from the Asians in the first place. I'm just rying to put the cost of Iraq into human terms and opportunity lost. Somebody else can figure out the true economic impact of spending this kind of dough at home on jobs and the quality of life.

If you go the National Priorities Website you can see how the cost of the war is impacting your state specifically. Very interesting.

Better Play the Trump Speedy

You gotta hand it to these clowns...when the Iraqis sling more feces at the rotary ventilation and basically tell us to get the hell out and soon, they whip out Jose Padilla after three long years of being held and try and steal the headlines.

Is anyone in the MSM going to deal with this or are they going to let the administration steal the show with an indictment? Read carefully and note that the charges do not include conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in the United States.

How long do you suppose they have been holding this "trump"?

A Day to Remember

Mustang Bobby at BBWW reminds us that today, Novemeber 22, was the day in 1963 that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Only those of us over 50 can probably remember exactly what we were doing and where we were that day. I, for one, can mark that time so clearly that I get a lump in my throat if I dwell on it too long.
I had just two months before turned 14 and was sitting in my favorite class, biology, when the principal came over the intercom to announce that Kennedy had been shot and was dead in Dallas. This was in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was warm for November and I can remember that the big windows in the old school house room were open. A gorgeous fall day. That announcement changed the atomosphere in the room from pleasant to tortured. I don't remember if I cried but there was a lot of it going around. They must have dismissed school early that day but I don't recall.
The next thing I clearly remember was the days of black and white TV and the funeral.
Sometimes I can point to this moment in time and see that it was a cusp of sorts for many things that would eventually impact my life and who I am today.

It was an important day and worth remembering.

Bush Boom On You

The Bush boom is striking close to home. Included in the 30,000 job cuts announced today by GM 3,000 of so are right down in the road in Doraville, Ga. For those of you not familiar with Metro Atlanta, Doraville is a city that is in the northern burbs of the Metro area. Things shouldn't shut down completely there until sometime in 2008.
See how good the GOP is for business.

Shoulda Known

Max Blumenthal over at HuffPo has done the research on who the Marine Colonel is that the slut from Ohio quoted as cover for her cowardly attack on John Murtha.

Seems Colonel Danny Bubp is a right wing whacko from way back and has been hooked up with the witch for some time. Battling against all the jumped by Jesus bugaboos. He is obviously as bat shit crazy as she is and doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as John Murtha.

Here is a snippet.

A quick glance at Bubp's background reveals him to a low-level right-wing operative who has spent more time in the past ten years engaged in symbolic Christian right crusades than he has battling terrorist evil-doers. And throughout his career, Bubp's destiny has been inextricably linked with Schmidt's. Bubp may be a Marine, but his view of Murtha as a "coward" is colored by naked political ambition. He is nothing more than cheap camouflage cover for the GOP's latest Swift-Boat campaign.

March 1999 marked the beginning of a brilliant career. It was then that Bubp became pro-bono legal counsel for Adams County for the Ten Commandments, an ad-hoc Ohio group formed to keep 10 Commandments monuments displayed in local public schools after the ACLU filed a lawsuit demanding their removal. Bubp was assisted by a Who's Who of Christian right leaders, including James Dobson, Don Wildmon, Judge Roy Moore and Jay Sekulow. The campaign was organized primarily by Rev. Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who was once detained for threating Bill Clinton's afterlife at the National Cathedral.

No Dragons Or Wizards This Time

I never really and for truly thought this whole Iraq thing was going to turn out well. I was fairly well convinced from the get go that W and company would take the whole gloriously bad idea of a pre-emptive war and totally screw the pooch. When has war ever really been a good idea? Sometimes, I guess, it has been apparently necessary but never a good idea.

I always hoped though, somewhere is the unrealistic part of my brain that enjoys science fiction and wishes there were still dragons and wizards and that Hogwarts was for real, that something good would happen. Somehow, I thought, all these lives lost or maimed cannot have been spent for naught. All this pain and treasure cannot have been just simply wasted.

The ugly reality of it all is beginning to be too much to wish away or see beyond, however, and the harsh truth is that this whole adventure by the neocons is possibly one of the worst political and humanitarian disasters of all time. I can't see any positives. I can't see any elevation of the human condition.

Mr. Krugman does his usually clear job of explaining the situation in Monday's column.

So the question isn't whether things will be ugly after American forces leave Iraq. They probably will. The question, instead, is whether it makes sense to keep the war going for another year or two, which is all the time we realistically have.

Pessimists think that Iraq will fall into chaos whenever we leave. If so, we're better off leaving sooner rather than later. As a Marine officer quoted by James Fallows in the current Atlantic Monthly puts it, "We can lose in Iraq and destroy our Army, or we can just lose."

And there's a good case to be made that our departure will actually improve matters. As Mr. Murtha pointed out in his speech, the insurgency derives much of its support from the perception that it's resisting a foreign occupier. Once we're gone, the odds are that Iraqis, who don't have a tradition of religious extremism, will turn on fanatical foreigners like Zarqawi.

The only way to justify staying in Iraq is to make the case that stretching the U.S. army to its breaking point will buy time for something good to happen. I don't think you can make that case convincingly. So Mr. Murtha is right: it's time to leave.

Man in Black

Went to see Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line this afternoon. I can highly recommend it. If Reese doesn't get an Oscar nomination for her protrayal of June Carter something is really amiss. Joaquin did and admirible job as well but Reese stole the flick. Both of them did their own vocals and I must say Reese sings amazingly well and much better than June Carter ever did. Then again, June always said she couldn't sing.

Update: 9pm fixed stupid spelling mistakes

Done Deal

Via Steve Gilliard

Steve has posted a chunk of Frank Rich's column from the pay side of the Times which I will steal and post below. It points out something I have been trying to quantify for some time.

The American people have already decided what is going to happen in Iraq. 52% want the troops out within 12 months. The 2oo6 election is the deadline since most of the people running for office, while morally suspect, aren't necessarily stupid. Regardless of the catalyst or the exact timing, the withdrawal from Iraq is effectively already underway, at least emotionally, with the American people. Representative John Murtha just managed to put it into words.

They know the voters have decided the war is over, no matter what symbolic resolutions are passed or defeated in Congress nor how many Republicans try to Swift-boat Representative John Murtha, the marine hero who wants the troops out. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup survey last week found that the percentage (52) of Americans who want to get out of Iraq fast, in 12 months or less, is even larger than the percentage (48) that favored a quick withdrawal from Vietnam when that war's casualty toll neared 54,000 in the apocalyptic year of 1970. The Ohio State political scientist John Mueller, writing in Foreign Affairs, found that "if history is any indication, there is little the Bush administration can do to reverse this decline." He observed that Mr. Bush was trying to channel L. B. J. by making "countless speeches explaining what the effort in Iraq is about, urging patience and asserting that progress is being made. But as was also evident during Woodrow Wilson's campaign to sell the League of Nations to the American public, the efficacy of the bully pulpit is much overrated."

Mr. Bush may disdain timetables for our pullout, but, hello, there already is one, set by the Santorums of his own party: the expiration date for a sizable American presence in Iraq is Election Day 2006. As Mr. Mueller says, the decline in support for the war won't reverse itself. The public knows progress is not being made, no matter how many times it is told that Iraqis will soon stand up so we can stand down.

On the same day the Senate passed the resolution rebuking Mr. Bush on the war, Martha Raddatz of ABC News reported that "only about 700 Iraqi troops" could operate independently of the U.S. military, 27,000 more could take a lead role in combat "only with strong support" from our forces and the rest of the 200,000-odd trainees suffered from a variety of problems, from equipment shortages to an inability "to wake up when told" or follow orders.

Sobering Thought

Here's a snippet from The Independent on the glaciers in Greenland and the rapid increase in the melt. This is serious business folks. Can you just imagine the financial impact of the world's oceans rising by 20 or so feet? Good bye London, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, Boston, etc., it is a very sobering thought. Not only will a major portion of the UK disappear under water but the climate in Northern Europe will drastically change for the worse without the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream.

Granted, it is probably too late to do anything about it but we should at least begin planning for the upheaval.

Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean, leading scientists to predict that the vast island's ice cap is approaching irreversible meltdown, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Research to be published in a few days' time shows how glaciers that have been stable for centuries have started to shrink dramatically as temperatures in the Arctic have soared with global warming. On top of this, record amounts of the ice cap's surface turned to water this summer.

The two developments - the most alarming manifestations of climate change to date - suggest that the ice cap is melting far more rapidly than scientists had thought, with immense consequences for civilisation and the planet. Its complete disappearance would raise the levels of the world's seas by 20 feet, spelling inundation for London and other coastal cities around the globe, along with much of low-lying countries such as Bangladesh.

More immediately, the vast amount of fresh water discharged into the ocean as the ice melts threatens to shut down the Gulf Stream, which protects Britain and the rest of northern Europe from a freezing climate like that of Labrador.

Poor Porgy

Well, Porgy and Bess was not too thrilling. There were a few moments, but overall I think it was a less than inspired performance. The two lead female vocalists were good and managed to get their voices out and intimate with the audience. Not so for the males.
I was a nice evening out with friends so it was not a waste...just a little disappointing.

More to Come I Think

Do you think it just coincidence that Congressman Murtha offered his resolution when he did and that so shortly thereafter General Casey offered a plan for a drawdawn? I seriously doubt it. Murtha has alwasy been close to the Pentagon and I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit if he was chosen to deliver the message to Congress. It is very career limiting for this kind of talk while you are still active service and using a surrogate of such impeccable credentials would make sense.

I don't think we are going to see the last of this issue just because of the stunt pulled by the GOP last night.

Well, off to dinner and the Atlanta Opera and Porgy and Bess. I will catch you on the flip side humming Gershwin.

The Whole Story...Not!

ABC has an article up that "reveals" what the "enhanced interrogation techniques" are that I mention in an earlier post.

The techniques they list are:

1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes him.

2. Attention Slap: An open-handed slap aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.

3. The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach. The aim is to cause pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.

4. Long Time Standing: This technique is described as among the most effective. Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation are effective in yielding confessions.

5. The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees. Throughout the time in the cell the prisoner is doused with cold water.

6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.

This information is supposedly direct from the CIA. This is a very interesting article because what it is trying to do is separate these "techniques" from torture per se and getting the public used to the idea. They are supposedly only used in limited cases and are carefully monitored.

Don't believe it folks, as this is just more "sunshine up your kilt". You can see that none of these things sound like "real" torture. Water boarding is the most extreme and nobody is actually hurt right? I guess we are supposed to conveniently forget about the broken bones, bruises, scars and dead bodies. If these things are so tame why do we feel it necessary to haul these guys off to foriegn countries to "gently persuade them to lie to us".

Think it through. The people that volunteered to be trained in these techniques, and the other ones we are not being told about, are more than likely sociopaths already. Who the hell volunteers to inflict pain and fear in another person? Do you honestly think, knowing what you know of human nature, that these folks stop here? Do you think all the photos and stories we are seeing are fakes?

For the most part, the article is ABC News carrying water for the adminstration once again. If you take it at face value you are a sucker.

Same Old Tricks

I have been encouraged lately by what seemed a more balanced approach to reporting the news by CNN recently but teaser paragraphs like this just show me that they are still marching to the Whitehouse media machine's beat though slighly out of step. The quote below connects the latest suicide strikes to Murtha's comments yesterday about withdrawal. This is by association and not directly but it will have the same effect in many minds. If you read the entire article you will get a different picture but to a large degree all of the damage is already done by the lead in.

Suicide bombers killed dozens of people today in Baghdad and near the Iranian border in Khanaqin. The U.S. military said 55 people were killed; Iraqi police reported 65 dead. The blasts came a day after Rep. John Murtha, a Democratic hawk on defense issues, sparked a firestorm of debate when he called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

As a side note, there is a quote from Scott McClellan that gives us a preview of the latest administration psyop tactic for attacking the questioners of the Iraq debacle.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan compared Murtha with anti-war filmmaker Michael Moore and echoed earlier statements by House GOP leaders in accusing him of "surrender."

Linking the concept and word "withdraw" with the emotionally loaded word "surrender". If you talk about withdrawal you are talking about the U.S. losing in Iraq and surrendering to Osama.

This is psyops and brainwashing at its finest. Keep and eye out for other examples, which there will be, of the Whitehouse taking legitimate words used in the Iraq discussion and linking them to emotionally charged words such as "losing", "surrender" and "defeat".

This kind of stuff only works if you accept the linkage and legitimize it in your mind.

President of the World - Good Idea

Esquire magazine has chosen the Big Dog as "The Most Influential Man in the World". I hope the little bastard wandering around the far east reads this, though I know he doesn't read. Maybe someone will leave a copy in the john and he'll just accidently pick it up. I can just see him running to Condi or Karen and telling them to do something about it.

Since leaving office, Clinton has been so active that his post-presidency amounts to "a third term" for the Democrat who held the White House from 1992 to 2000, the magazine said. He has tackled global issues from AIDS, poverty and global warming to the recovery from last December's Indian Ocean tsunami.

Esquire editor David Granger argued that Clinton was poised to become "something like a president of the world or at least a president of the world's non-governmental organizations."

In spite of some less than progressive things I still consider Bill Clinton the greatest President of my lifetime. It still angers me to think of the wasted opportunities that resulted from Bill having to spend so much time fending off the whacko right. Seeing the contrast between Dubya and Clinton just makes me more convinced of that.

Thanks to Charles2 at The Fulcrum for the heads up.

Sunshine Peeking Through?

The Republicans suffered another major setback today in trying to finance Bush's taax cuts for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of the poor. The Democrats stuck together and 22 moderate Republicans voted down this awful bill that included all kinds of cuts to programs that help the poorest in the nation including large cuts in the heating assistance program just when we are looking at an upcoming disaster with respect to people being able to afford to heat their homes this year. All I can say is it's about time.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people.The 224-209 vote against the $142.5 billion spending bill disrupted plans by Republican leaders to finish up work on this year's spending bills and cast doubt on whether they would have the votes to pass a major budget-cutting bill also on the day's agenda.

Democrats, unanimous in opposing the legislation, said it included the first cut in education funding in a decade and slashed spending for several health care programs. "It betrays our nation's values and its future," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. "It is neither compassionate, conservative nor wise."

On and On and On

10 more lives in the last two days. Goddess it's getting real hard not be incapacitated by this tragedy.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military announced the death of a US soldier killed in Iraq, the 10th serviceman to die in two days at a time when US opinion is turning against the war.

The latest victim, who died Wednesday of wounds sustained in a Baghdad bomb explosion, brings to at least 2,080 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on the independent Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

Cautionary Tale

For those of you not familiar with Mark Morford of the SF Gate. His columns are always good and sometimes great. Regardless, his prose is just good to wade through. Here is an excerpt from his latest concerning Bill O'Reilly and his recent comments about SFO.

Here's the takeaway, the only thing you need to know: Bill O'Reilly is a walking, snorting cautionary tale. For those of us who occasionally tread similar terrain of barbed political commentary (tempered, I hope, with satire and hope and sex and humor and fire hoses of divine juice), he is the Grand Pariah, the threshold, the Place You Do Not Want To Go as an intellectually curious human soul. He is the guy you can always look to, no matter how bad it gets, and say, Wow, at least I'm not him.

Evidence of Desperation

Josh Marshall is making a very important point this morning that bears repeating. Despite the absurdity of their arguments with respect to the run up to the Iraq debacle the Whitehouse is now backed into a corner with a great majority of Americans now convinced that they have been lied to and that invading Iraq was a huge mistake. All that is left to them is that 30 - 40% of people who are obviously not capable of anything resembling coherent thought. You know, the Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to market, wrestling on TV is real, Bud is beer crowd. The Whitehouse is just trying to get them worked up and give them some talking points. It doesn't matter to this crowd that the words they utter bear no semblance of truth or reality...they just need something to say to the "I told you so" crowd. Anything will do. We just need to take every opportunity to keep them silent and make them feel stupid for regurgitating the Whitehouse spin and the silence will soon win out.

Here is the essence from Josh:

Virtually all of the arguments the White House is now advancing are transparently ridiculous on their face to anyone who has closely followed this evolving debate over the last three years.

But that doesn't matter. The White House doesn't need to win any debates. What they need is for their core supporters to have something to say. Anything. And to be able to say it loudly. The one thing that would be fatal for the White House from its defenders would be silence

Pile On!

Confirming that the wheels have fallen off the Bush administration Senator Hagel takes his turn at tinkling on Dubya'a parade. When your own team begins to kick you when you are down you are basically toast. Good one Chuck.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) strongly criticized yesterday the White House's new line of attack against critics of its Iraq policy, saying that "the Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them."....

Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and a potential presidential candidate in 2008, countered in a speech to the Council of Foreign Relations that the Vietnam War "was a national tragedy partly because members of Congress failed their country, remained silent and lacked the courage to challenge the administrations in power until it was too late."

"To question your government is not unpatriotic -- to not question your government is unpatriotic," Hagel said, arguing that 58,000 troops died in Vietnam because of silence by political leaders. "America owes its men and women in uniform a policy worthy of their sacrifices."

Hagel said Democrats have an obligation to be constructive in their criticism, but he accused the administration of "dividing the country" with its rhetorical tactics.

Compassion Overflows

I guess it is not too surprising but here is another example of GOP compassionate conservatism. Bush and Congress are reneging on part of the promise of aid to NY for the care of 9/11 first responders.

WASHINGTON - Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.
[snip]
The tug-of-war over the $125 million began earlier this year when the White House proposed taking the money back because the state had not yet spent it.

Put this relatively small amount of money in contrast to the 2 BILLION dollars we are spending per day in Iraq and you get the full measure of the slap to New York.
Keep the picture of the Chimperor standing at ground zero pledging whatever it will take to help NY respond to get the full effect.

False Alarm

More excitement in Tennessee this morning. After managing to dodge the tornadoes yesterday afternoon I now get jolted out of a sound sleep this morning at 4 by the hotel fire alarm. False, but still got to stand outside on a very cool morning for a while. Does wake one up. I should apologize to the alarm clock which I rather brutally tried to turn off until I realized it was the fire alarm. Still seems to be functional so maybe I didn't kill it. let's see what the rest of the day brings. I hope this weather front moves on through Atlanta this morning and I don't have to fly into it this afternoon on the way home.

Volunteer State

Tennessee bound today and away from the net pretty much all day. I will see you later from a hotel in Jackson. You boys and girls be good.

Going Somewhere

Spoke too soon!. Getting launched to the wilds of Tennessee tomorrow for an overnight. Some client meetings. Have to fly to Memphis and then drive to the central part of the state around Jackson. Very strange travel day evidently... no coach seats on any plane to Memphis tomorrow or coming back Wednesday... had to book first class. It's the price they pay for short notice trips or it could be a plot by the airlines to make you pay out of the nose if you have to book for next day travel. They know they have you and can squeeze all they want. Stranger still was Hertz had no cars available in Memphis tomorrow. I believe that is the first time I have been told that there were no cars available. Did find hotel rooms in Jackson on the first try so maybe it is a local Memphis thing. Maybe something going on I am not privy to? Is Elvis coming back?

Anyhow, so much for my week of non travel.

Euphemism Warning

Here we go again. We are getting manipulated by the "word smiths" again. This time they are attempting to take some of the sting out the word "torture".

In this article discussing Stephen Hadley's chicken dancing around the President's "do not torture" statement last week. A new term is weaseling it's insidious way into the dialogue. The new phrase they are trying to make stick is "enhanced interrogation techniques". Does that make you feel a little better about it? "Enhanced interrogation techniques" sounds a lot less forbidden than "torture". It doesn't automatically bring to mind bamboo manicures, electric penis clips or the big favorite "Palestinian Cross".

We can't let them use these weasel phrases to take the focus off the fact that torture is wrong. There is no "torture light". If you torture or condone torture in any fashion you are a war criminal plain and simple.

A good example of how we have been brainwashed by the use of euphemism to soften the reality of something unpleasant is how we now refer to the nervous collapse in soldiers too long in combat as PTSD or "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder". That sounds a lot better than the original term used in World War I..."Shell Shock". Shell Shock is too brutal for today's sensibilities it is simple and direct...no pussy footing around. Tells you everything you need to know...Shell Shock.

In WW II "Shell Shock" evolved into "Battle Fatigue". That's a little softer, not so brutal. "Fatique" is better than "Shock" you know it doesn't sound nearly as bad. "Battle Fatigue" still wasn't soft enough though for the war mongers because in the Korean Conflict it evolved yet again into "operational exhaustion" ... still a little softer and less alarming. In Vietnam we finally managed to weasel "shell shock" into "PTSD" and not only did we totally take all of the simplicity and directness out of the phrase we now had something that was easy to abbreviate and remove that last vestige of emotional baggage.

This is what they are attempting to do with "enhanced interrogation techniques". Take all of the emotional baggage associated with "torture" away so it will be a little more palatable for the sheep who really don't like to "dirty their beautiful minds" with "torture".

You will see the phrase "enhanced interrogation techniques" more and more as this unbelievable discussion around how much torture is enough torture proceeds.

An example is from Republican Senator Kit Bond, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who told Newsweek magazine that "enhanced interrogation techniques" had worked with at least one captured high-level Al-Qaeda operative, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to thwart an unspecified plot.

The article goes on to state that compromise discussions are underway between the White House and the Senate on the language in the McCain ammendment.

I guess it is OK to consider a compromise if you are only talking about "enhanced interrogation techniques" while it would be unheard of to talk of compromise over "torture".

Don't be distracted by the arguments that the ends justify the means and that they are only doing it to protect us. The argument over torture is not about any of this.. it is about who we are as a country. If we continue to torture or condone torture we surrender all moral authority over human rights anywhere and anytime. Holy Keerist one of the many excuses Dubya used to justify attacking Iraq was because Saddam tortured people. There is absolutely no gray area here... it is a totally black and white issue. Yes or NO.