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