Uber-snark

I rarely read the Washington Post anymore, with the exception of Dan Froomkin’s White House Briefing. Today, he is just killing it. I offer a few excerpts.

On the Middle East meltdown:
“…every terse presidential acknowledgment of the human toll is accompanied by soaring rhetoric about freedom and democracy and lasting stability.

In the best of circumstances, Bush would be running the risk of being considered callous. But in the current circumstances, he runs the risk of being considered both callous and delusional.”

On the Israel-Lebanon situation:
"Q Mr. President, you spoke of having a plan to rebuild houses in Lebanon. Wouldn't the people of Lebanon rather know when you're going to tell the Israelis to stop destroying houses?"

His response was essentially that, although he cares deeply about the loss of life on both sides, the Lebanese should be grateful that they are being bombed. A cease-fire "won't solve the problem. And it's certainly not going to help the Lebanese citizens have a life that is normal and peaceful."

On Latino Senators:
Al Kamen writes in The Washington Post: "Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), at the White House this spring for a meeting with other senators to discuss immigration with President Bush, was surprised when Bush approached him as the meeting broke up and observed: 'Senator Martinez, you've been very quiet.'

" 'That's Martinez,' Menendez said, pointing to Mel Martinez -- Florida's junior senator and Bush's former secretary of housing and urban development.

" 'I'm Menendez.'

"Bush turned bright red, we're told."

Like I said, killing it. Go read the whole thing.

Not a smart career move

Mel Gibson was arrested in Malibu for DUI Friday. This would be fairly unremarkable were it not for the allegations that Gibson went on an obscenity laced anti-Semitic tirade that included threats to the arresting officer and an attempted escape. Go read the account of what transpired. Bizarre, shocking, and pretty damn offensive.

Joe is very, very angry

After screwing the working class for nearly a decade, the Republicans are seeking some political cover just in time for the elections and are going to allow debate over an increase to the minimum wage on the condition that it is tied to further cuts in the inheritance tax. The R’s see the writing on the wall. From the AP article:

Lawmakers fear being pounded with 30-second campaign ads over the August recess that would tie Congress' upcoming $3,300 pay increase with Republicans' refusal to raise the minimum wage.

For the Republicans, this move is not about doing what’s right for the American people. It is about saving their collective ass in November and throwing the wealthy yet another bone. And that hits me square in my moral outrage wheelhouse. I am not alone either. Ted Kennedy gets it as well:

"It's [sic] political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Members of Congress raised their own pay — no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect."

You’re goddam right common decency demands it. Not to mention what effect this is going to have our budget situation. These self-centered, irresponsible motherfuckers have no desire to help the people in this country that really need assistance. Just look at the Katrina cleanup or energy prices or the insistence on pushing divisive social issues at the expense of anything else that, you know, might actually change someone’s life for the better. Raising the minimum wage is an opportunity to help a good deal of this nation in a reasonable and responsible way. Anyone but a characterless bastard would embrace such an occasion. As such, this episode serves as a dismal window into the heart of the Republican leadership - soulless, uncaring, and corrupt.

Get your war on - Somalia Edition

In a post last week, I got into the looming awfulness that is the current state of affairs in Somalia. Well, things are heating up. The Islamic militia backed by Eritrea has apparently assassinated a government minister outside of a mosque in Baidoa. This ratchets up the tension quite a bit in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia and Eritrea are spoiling for a fight (again - they have fought off and on for 35 of the past 50 years) and the Somali government and militia are going to be their respective proxies.

I don’t think this is going to end well. Things in this neighborhood rarely do.

Nerve

From SwingState via Kos, I saw this story of ingratitude and sheer balls. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana), while in the Billings Airport, confronted a group of firefighters from Virginia, telling them that they had done a “poor job” of battling the recent blazes in Montana.

I think that remark moves Mr. Burns into contention for the title of Biggest Asshole in the Senate. Burns is already neck deep in the Abramoff corruption scandal and well on his way to losing to Jon Tester this fall. Hopefully, this bit of nastiness will be another nail in his political coffin.

Oops

I accidentally turned on comment moderation (thanks L. for the heads up). If you posted a comment in the past day or two and didn’t see it, that’s why. I have published everything in the queue and turned off moderation, so please yak away.

Senate race update

Per the Political Wire, Zogby has two new polls up showing Allen leading Webb with double digit leads. Not good but it is still early.

Really bad parenting

This way well be the dumbest thing that I have ever seen. Seriously.

Again with the competence thing

Ayman al-Zawahri has published a new video tape calling for, you guessed it, jihad against Israel and the US in retaliation for the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza. And why is this punk still breathing? For the same reason that Baghdad is imploding; the clowns running the show can't do anything right.

Cashing In

Exxon Mobil posted a second quarter profit of over $10 billion. Glad to see that $3 gas is helping someone.

Senator Tom Coburn on the floor of the Senate

“Condoms and teenagers work about 50% of the time, if you count all of the studies up.”


Throughout my teen years, I always had either a summer or part-time job. And thanks to condoms, I have never been a partner to an unintended pregnancy or had an STD. So fuck you Senator Coburn. This remark is dismissive of kids that do work and unbelievably ignorant regarding the effectiveness of condoms. Bravura performance Senator - a double shot of bullshit.

Good Lord – how do spiteful morons like this get elected?

Hat tip to Atrios.

Joe really loves his wife

It’s hard to know that you have found your match. Everything becomes more difficult when you are on an even playing field. Sickness and health, happy and sad, frustrated and so in love that you cannot get anything done until you know that your girl is thinking of you almost as much as you are thinking of her. The best times I have ever had. And a baby, our baby…

This is our third anniversary and our tenth year together. We have a lot to show for it. I love you more than I thought I could.

PS – don’t cry.

Free Market Failure

Matt Stoller, over at MyDD, makes a salient point regarding the effectiveness of the free market. Take it away Mr. Stoller:

All over the country, America is enjoying a series of free market blackouts. California, New York City, and St. Louis have all been hit with electricity outages due to a poor electricity infrastructure. This infrastructure is a result of a reliance on a free market and tax cuts instead of public infrastructure investment.

Gotta love that free market, it really handles hurricanes, wildfires, and heat waves exceptionally well.

Indeed. There is a need for this discussion on a wider range of topics, healthcare being at the top of the list. Decades of conservative dominance on the issue of deregulation has led us to an interesting and not very good state of affairs with regard to a number of industries. By and large, free markets work exceptionally well when supply and demand are relatively elastic. Things tend to break down though, when the demand for a good or service becomes a necessity. The situation is often worsened by having but one choice of supplier. When you shop for groceries, you typically have a several options among stores to shop and the products offered. When you are rushed to the emergency room, you cannot haggle with the doctor or shop around other hospitals to compare prices. For that matter, it’s the same with energy or clean air or clean water. One’s demand for certain goods and services becomes concrete when those goods and services are a matter of life and death. That is why we regulate pollution emissions. As a society, we deem potable water more important than maximizing profit. I think that logic should be extended to other industries that, in my view, are equally important.

The net effect of deregulating these necessity industries is to throw consumers completely at the mercy of the supplier. And the supplier must sometimes make choices between providing the best possible service for the consumer and the best possible profit margin for shareholders. Hence, rolling blackouts in 100+ degree weather has resulted in the nearly 30 deaths in California.

New Strategery for Baghdad

The new plan is to increase troop levels in the capital to help quell the sectarian violence in the city. Maybe it will work or maybe not - I don't know. But it smacks of moving the deckchairs on the Titanic to me.

Here's the plan for Lebanon

An international force to the rescue. I doubt that this will make anyone very happy but I guess they get points for trying something.

What policy?

Atrios is right. A schizophrenic would have a more consistent Pakistan policy. The fact that Pakistan houses Bin Laden and the biggest nuclear bizarre on the planet should be more than troubling. Adding a plutonium reactor just ups the ante for the region. We could be looking a South Asian nuclear (nucular if you are from Texas) arms race between India and Pakistan. This should be making the Chinese a bit uneasy as well.

Joe dreams...

Press Conference in Joe's nightmares:

Q: Mr. Bush, what in your view, is the solution to the Israel/Lebanon crisis?

POTUS: Diplomacy is hard work…

Q: No really, what are your concrete plans for the rebuilding of Lebanon?

POTUS: I will do what the Generals on the ground tell me to do.

Q: Sir - Our Generals are in Iraq. With Secretary Rice in the region, are there any expectations for a resolution?

POTUS: Condi is doing a great job but you need to realize that diplomacy takes time. It is hard work. You gotta realize that the terrorists, well, they hate the freedom.

Q: OK fine – but what are our plans for resolving the conflict in Palestine?

POTUS: Well – heh heh – you need to talk to Rumsfeld…

Balance of Powers?

Arlen Specter, Senator from PA and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has momentarily awoken from his peaceful slumber and noticed that a good bit of his job is to provide oversight.

Funny thing this – a ton of bad policy and power grabbing was not a problem. But a smidge of bad PR, well that there requires a law suit.

Imperial Presidency

The American Bar Association has published a report concluding that the President is violating the Constitution by choosing to ignore provisions in laws. From the CNN story:

President Bush's penchant for writing exceptions to laws he has just signed violates the Constitution, an American Bar Association task force says in a report highly critical of the practice.

The ABA group, which includes a one-time FBI director and former federal appeals court judge, said the president has overstepped his authority in attaching challenges to hundreds of new laws.

The attachments, known as bill-signing statements, say Bush reserves a right to revise, interpret or disregard measures on national security and constitutional grounds[emphasis mine].

Essentially, King George is arguing that he can pick and choose which portions of a law the executive branch will follow. I don’t recall that be covered in civics class.

Reality Bites

From the AP, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his country will not slide into civil war, but acknowledged that mounting sectarian violence is now killing 100 civilians a day.

You have to wonder what kind of stupid it takes to make a statement of such monumental idiocy. If sectarian violence is claiming 100 people a day, is it not self-evident that a civil war is indeed being fought? At this pace 36,500 people will be dead in a year. The math is simple. How is that not a civil war? Alternatively, how many deaths are required before you cross the civil war finish line?

Maliki is witnessing his nation self-destruct and he lacks the situational awareness to perceive that reality. Oy.

International Embarrassment

I have been avoiding piling on Bush for the fiasco that was his performance at the G-8 summit. Partly because I didn’t want to say “I told you so” and partly because everyone has talked about his boorish behavior already. I am not going to add anything funnier or more on point than Jon Stewart.

Then I saw Larry Sabato’s comments regarding the situation on MSNBC:

“If they’re not doing something that’s embarrassing, they have nothing to worry about,” he says. “A president ought to know enough not use an expletive in a fairly open meeting, and almost any male alive today knows that you don’t offer uninvited massages to any female, much less the chancellor of Germany.”

That pretty much sums it up. A President ought to know that cursing, talking with one’s mouth full of buttered roll, and groping other world leaders is not model behavior. Add that to the long list of things of which GWB is ignorant.

PS – if you have not seen the video of the back rub in question, the MSNBC link has it.

Lazy

So yet another Administration official has resigned under a cloud of suspicion for corruption. One David P. Smith, an Interior Department official no one has ever heard of, has stepped down. He appears to be involved in a tit-for-tat deal with Dan Duncan, a wealthy Texas energy tycoon and hunter, to designate Houston as a port for exotic animal importation. His apparent payoff was the right to shoot a buffalo (the AP story helpfully points out that the buffalo is the symbol of the Interior Dept. - hello irony) on Duncan’s ranch. As far as corruption scandals go, this one is pretty harmless unless you are a buffalo. In fact, I wouldn’t even bring this up were it not for the description of how this very masculine and brave man took down a dangerous buffalo.

Smith said the aging buffalo he shot had torn up some ranch equipment, rammed vehicles and terrified ranch hands. He said he drove in a pickup to within 100 yards of the buffalo — the official symbol of the Interior Department — and shot it between the eyes with a .30-caliber bolt-action rifle.

Jesus Christ – that is not hunting. That is target practice. WTF? Why not just drive directly up to the creature and give it one behind the ear Soprano style?

Looks like it may be a rough weekend.

Israel is massing troops on the Lebanese Border. Tangentially related, the Doomsday Clock is currently set at seven minutes to midnight. I wonder if it might be time to bump that up a bit.

Strangest headline ever

From Yahoo's Odd News - Flaming dog meat sets Chinese school afire.

The story is as bizarre as the headline would suggest. I swear, the article reads like a Mad Lib.

Hotspots

The Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan) is about as fucked up a place as you can find right now and it is about to get even worse. The Islamic militia currently occupying Mogadishu has called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops brought in to protect the barely functioning Somali government. Sidebar: How wrecked a nation do you have to be to need help from Ethiopia? For its part, the Ethiopian government is denying that their troops have crossed the border even though there is ample evidence otherwise. The militia is obviously nervous about the Ethiopian troops and bald-faced lies by the government about their presence have not helped.

There is a lot of history between these two countries and little of it is good. Somalia is poor, unstable, and Muslim. Ethiopia is poor, only slightly more stable, and largely Christian. Somalia invaded Ethiopia in 1977 and got their asses handed to them. Ethiopia has invaded Somalia a couple of times in the past 15 years to crush Islamic revolutions and the Somalis didn’t like it one bit. Add to that the Somali tendency to talk a lot of shit and take offense at even the slightest provocation. Stir in the fact that since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, there has been no functioning Somali government. Fifteen years of anarchy and infighting tends to make one paranoid and quick to the trigger. Fold into this mix the ongoing sectarian violence tearing up Sudan. Combine these ingredients with the absolute saturation of weapons in the region and you have a recipe for one king mother of a humanitarian disaster soufflé.

Halloween from the Pumpkin's Perspective

Watch this. It is REALLY funny.

Crazy

An Oklahoma man has been charged with threatening the life of Bill Clinton. While being interviewed by the Secret Service, James Williford claimed that the Big Dog was "a communist mole for the Red Chinese" but denied the threats. He also doesn't think much of Paris Hilton.

Well, OK then.

Standard Operating Procedure

Sen. Mike Dewine (R-Ohio) is airing an ad using a faked image of the burning World Trade Center. If this is not the perfect metaphor for the way the Republicans have used 9/11, then I don't know what is.

Distort. Exploit. Repeat.

Family Reunion

My wonderful sister, as well as her equally wonderful family, are returning to the Commonwealth after a 10 year exile in the frozen wilds of Fairbanks, Alaska. Hurray! I have been waiting for this for a long time. Now I just need to hold out for four more weeks. My whole family is absolutely thrilled and my baby J. gets to meet his baby cousin, N., for the first time.







Baby N.














Baby J.











These two are going to be a handful together. I am going to start carbo-loading now.

PS - to P., C., R., and N. We love you guys and can't wait to see you.

Here comes trouble

Israel is talking about a full scale invasion of Lebanon. From the AP article:

But an Israeli army spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Israel broadcast warnings Wednesday into south Lebanon, telling civilians to leave the region — a possible prelude to a larger Israeli ground operation."There is a possibility — all our options are open. At the moment, it's a very limited, specific incursion but all options remain open[emphasis mine]," Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

This was tried first in 1978 and again in 1982; the latter leading to an eighteen year occupation of the south. If it had worked either time, they probably wouldn't need to do it again. The devil of the situation is that Israel doesn't really have any other options.

From bad to worse

A few days ago, I wrote about a potential nightmare scenario coming to pass in the Middle East. As mentioned, I didn't get into the Turkey aspect of things because that would require a whole new set of complications that I didn't want to get into. Turkey, however, has other plans. Those plans appear to involve invading Iraq from the north to fight the Kurdish rebels based there.

A Turkish invasion will, de facto, annex the northern portion of the country. That territory was recently part of the Ottoman Empire and regarded by most Turks as part of the Turkish homeland. Turkey doesn’t like the Kurds and has long feared the creation of Kurdish state. Not to mention that the Turks have a long history of brutally repressing ethnic groups they find objectionable. Take a look at their treatment of the Armenians and Greeks during their respective wars. Not pretty.

If Turkey decides to get into the game, the outcome for Iraq is completely unpredictable. This country will go beyond civil war; it could very well disintegrate.

Tom Tomorrow is right

Sometimes it sucks to be right. But it really sucks that Tom predicted the Iran thing correctly.

And Mr. Black is right, buy the book. It is funny and scary as hell.

Wal-Mart 1, Maryland 0

A federal judge has rejected a Maryland law design to force large employers to pay a greater share of their employees’ health care costs. The main offender here is of course Wal-Mart. Many states have complained that the retail giant makes its healthcare plan too expensive for employees, forcing them onto state Medicaid rolls. In some instances, Wal-Mart stores encouraged their workers to get state-funded healthcare.

So basically, Wal-Mart et al are allowed to subsidize their bottom line by not providing decent benefits to employees and laying those costs off on the states. Corporate responsibility at its finest and reason number 621 to hate Wal-fucking-Mart. On the flipside, this kind of behavior may indeed back the nation into some sort of single-payer system that we desperately need anyway.

Science on pause

President Bush broke out the veto pen for the first time in his term and struck down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Funding this research has wide support (upwards of 70%) in this country and will eventually be passed. Bush's veto merely delays the potential progress towards curing many injuries and illnesses. Cold comfort for people that suffer from ailments that could benefit from the knowlegde gained but here we are.

Perhaps other nations' scientific communities not hobbled by American conservative's fear of science will fill in the gap. Does any other industrialized nation still fight over evolution and scientific research as much as the US does?

Ha ha...

Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition and uber-wingnut, lost his primary battle in Georgia for Lieutenent Governor. It seems that the stain of the Abramoff scandal was too much to overcome. My inner Nelson Muntz is pleased.

Gay Marriage ban fails again

The House defeats the proposed Amendment 236-187. Good - discrimination should not be codified.

In a nutshell...

I love Newsweek's Conventional Wisdom piece. It is a quick hit barometer of who/what has been in the news. In the most recent edition, they hit the nail on the head. The whole thing is good.

Is it time to stop talking about "insurgents" and "sectarian strife" and admit that the Iraq mess has morphed into civil war?

Answer - yes.

Defining down swimwear

Starpower does her thing on the most ridiculous looking bathing suit since the 1940's. Truly hideous.

Childish Punk

Terrell Owens is an overpaid, whiny baby. In an interview with Bryant Gumbel airing tonight, Owens kvetches about the unfair treatment that he receives from the media and that he is "misunderstood". This guy has badmouthed his teammates and coaches on a regular basis. He treats his team as supporting actors in the T.O. Show. Owens often refers to himself in the third person - a sure fire flag that one has an over-inflated sense of self-worth. He is locker-room poison defined. The football site at About.com has a full timeline of the stunts this joker has pulled. With a history like that, what image does he think the media is going to portray? If you act like an asshole showoff, guess what, that's the line the media will take. This should not be a surprise to an adult.

More Fun with YouTube

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager. Too funny...

Keith Olbermann destroys Ann Coulter

Regular readers know that I hate Ann Coulter with the fury of a thousand suns but some of you may not know why. For those of you unfamiliar with the antics of this evil little harpy, Keith Olbermann sums it up in 30 seconds. Have a look. It requires no further explanation. Hat tip to First Draft.

Pre-game for World War Three

This was a weekend where no news would have been good news. Instead, we got a steady stream of violence and mayhem that may push us down a path to a massive regional conflict with 130,000 US troops in the middle of it.

Israel is fighting a two front war, staring down the barrel of 13,000 rockets in the Hezbollah arsenal in Lebanon. You can faintly hear the war drums beating for Syria. Afghanistan is teetering on the brink again. The Saudis, Egyptians, and Jordanians are nervously standing on the sidelines. Meanwhile, Iran is sitting in the catbird seat, watching its proxy army attempt to level Haifa and its neighbor and longtime rival, Iraq, melt down into failed state mode.

This is just a prelude to how bad things can get if this situation is not cooled off quickly. The real danger here is the sort of domino effect similar to the start of WWI. What began as a localized, Balkan conflict hastily drew each side’s allies into a Europe wide conflagration. Here’s the scenario:

Israel decides to go all in and launches an invasion of Lebanon and Syria. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) would probably make short work of the Lebanese Army but would need to slug it out a bit before Syria would fall. Iran would then step in on Syria’s behalf, as they have already pledged. The most logical way for Iran to get significant amounts of personnel and equipment into Syria would be a march straight across Iraq and into the American Army and/or the Kurdish militias in the north. The Iranian Army (regulars) number 350,000. Add to that several hundred thousand Revolutionary guard and nearly one half million veterans, the potential ground force Iran could bring to bear would overwhelm anything we could bring to the field at this point. That force could wipe out our presence in Iraq, with nothing to stop it until it reached the Israeli border. With a hostile force that size preparing to invade, I think Israel launches its nukes. Tehran and Damascus become fireballs. There is no way that the Egyptian populace will allow the government to sit on its hands after Israel pulls the nuclear trigger; Egypt will either invade or erupt in the streets. Same goes for Pakistan. The Pakistanis may even fire off a nuclear weapon of their own at Israel. If Israel is still standing at this point, they nuke Cairo and Lahore.

At the end of this little picture, we have chaos from Egypt clear across the Middle East to the Chinese border. I even left out the possibility that Pakistan and India go after each other and the Turkish reaction to Iran marching across a piece of Iraq that they consider Turkish homeland. Admittedly, this is not the most likely outcome and a million different bad things have to happen before Israel fires off a nuclear assault. But if the Israelis are faced with the real possibility of an overpowering invasion and potential extinction of the Jewish state, they will go down swinging. And they will take as many of their enemies down with them as they can.

We need some serious diplomacy and leadership before things get out of hand. World War I started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, an Austrian Duke, in Sarajevo (then Serbia). The state of affairs in the Middle East is quite a bit more serious than that. In the grand scheme of things, Ferdinand’s murder should have been a minor blip on the historical timeline of Europe, but the situation spun out of control. I think we are in danger of a similar confluence of events.

Pathological?

One does not come across a story like this very often. A German man, in court on a theft charge, stole from the presiding judge during the hearing and almost got away with it. That takes either huge balls or a deep, deep sickness.

At the corner of Hypocrisy Street and Irony Boulevard…

Pete Coors, Coors Brewing executive and the face of its advertising, was arrested for DUI in May. How many years has he personally, in his commercials, been telling people to drink responsibly?

I need a Hero

So Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act yesterday 390-33 without change. Bravo. But that means that 33 people actually voted against it. Do you think these crackers are the reason that a new AP-Ipsos poll of registered voters finds people want the Democrats back in power by a 51-40 margin? Or maybe it is this or this or this or this? I am not sure what the reason is but I know the current situation is too much for the Bungler in Chief to handle.

I fear that the Administration has let things get out of control. And Lord knows what trouble Bush is going to get us into at the G-8 Summit. He always pisses someone off at these big international to-dos. So let’s all say a little prayer that our President can coast through the next two years without starting World War III. Countdown to 01/20/2009 - the official last day of the Bush presidency - begins today. Maybe then we can have some adults run the show.

Paging Mr. Gore, Mr. Al Gore…

Incompetence without bounds

Sweet Jesus - these people should not be allowed to handle sharp objects much less run the Department of Homeland Security. CNN has the details. So DHS cuts funding to DC and NYC by 40% because, you know, the terrorists are getting tired of hitting those places I guess. DHS develops a database of critical infrastructure that considers Indiana the most target rich environment for terrorism in the US. The database lists a kangaroo conservation center and a bean festival as targets but misses the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty. WTF?

This is further proof that the Administration cares not a wit about governing. They just royally suck at executing any plan. And accountability, that only applies if you are a Democrat. A capable President would have fired Michael Chertoff in a heartbeat. Sheer fucking arrogance and incompetence – it would be funny if thousands of lives were not at stake.

Tom Delay may yet run

After the judge ruled that Delay must remain on the ballot, Big Money Tom appears to be mulling over running again. Said Delay,

"For this guy to say he can't tell where I'm going to be on Election Day, and that I am forced to be on the ballot, well, they may get exactly what they want,"...

Delay's challenger, Nick Lampson, must be the luckiest man in Texas. I mean, the campaign adds almost write themselves.

World Cup thread

Oy. I went into this game hoping for an exciting match. I was pretty neutral having as I have an Italian wife and a love for the game and class of Zinedine Zidane. After Zidane's disgusting headbutt incident, I was an Azzurri fan all of the way. So props to Italy. I am not a fan of PK's deciding a game but the right (if not the best) team won.

Jesus - This is a sad way for one of the greatest players to ever put on the boots to go out. I just want to know what went wrong...

Truth and Consequences

After watching GWB’s press conference, I decided to go work out my frustration and weed the garden. As I worked, the stupid little phrases spoken by Our Dear Leader kept popping into my head. “Stay the course”, “Mission Accomplished”, “Bring it on”, etc. Then I got to “They hate us for our freedom”. I kept turning that over in my head, trying to pinpoint which freedoms “they” find so offensive. The rights to bears arms, one man one vote, free speech – nothing really stood out.

Then it struck me, that insidious little phrase really means nothing. It is just a convenient response to the question of why so much of the Muslim world dislikes us so intensely without having to actually dig into the issue. The idiom absolves us of having to question American policy decisions that affect the Arab and Muslim world so profoundly. We are free – they hate us for it. Simple.

The genuine reason why they hate us is our policies and their inherent hypocrisy. When we spend billions a year propping up corrupt and anti-democratic regimes such as Iran under the Shah, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, why in the hell would they believe any of this talk about freedom in Iraq? When we condemn from the rooftops suicide bombings by Hamas but not decry with equal fervor the Israeli bombing of a civilian power station in Gaza, how can trust us to be fair-minded in trying to resolve that conflict?

In short, they can’t and they won’t. Take our old buddy Osama. Bin Laden’s militancy originally grew out of a hatred for the Saudi regime. While he never liked the US, his focus, initially, was to bring down the house of Saud; a government that he viewed as decadent and crooked. That focus shifted to the US during the first Gulf War as we poured massive numbers of troops into the Arabian Peninsula with the long term goal of maintaining permanent bases there. In his eyes, we were infidels occupying the Muslim holy land. That policy created the pretext for the first World Trade Center bombing and the rest is history. Here was a guy that spent the previous decade killing Russians (with our help) after they invaded Afghanistan. How do you think he was going to deal with a situation where we use our military to defend a government in his home country that he found illegitimate? It is not our freedoms people; it is the choices that we, as a nation, make.

Now I know there are some geopolitical realities that prevent us from giving a full-throated condemnation of Saudi Arabia. For all intents and purposes, they have us over an oil barrel. Pressing Egypt to have a free and fair election might very well bring the extremists into power. The same goes for Pakistan. So the big question is where do we go from here? Do we push repressive nations to be more democratic and gamble on the outcome or maintain the status quo and hope things work out? Is there another option? I am not sure. But we need to be more honest about the situation and how we got here. Otherwise, we will never be able to get beyond meaningless platitudes. I don’t advocate making policy decisions based solely on how they are going to be viewed in the Muslim world. We should not be surprised, however, when these choices bite us in the ass.

(Sidebar: I am a big supporter of Israel. They have been something of a fair weather friend to the US but I firmly believe that the state of Israel is necessary. I do not believe, however, that we should sit idly by when they do something as horrible as destroying a power plant in the middle of the summer in one of the most overpopulated places on the planet. It is not going to take much to push Gaza into a full scale humanitarian disaster. Without power, there is no potable water and no functioning sewer system. Cholera is a very real possibility. Go read Wolcott for the summary of the situation. I don’t agree with everything he has written but he is a helluva lot smarter than I am.)

It's hard out there for a President

I am torturing myself by listening to Preznit Bush's press conference. His standard response to almost any question is "this is hard work". WTF? Does he think the job should be easy?

Please God, can you fix it so that our next POTUS is someone that can think on their feet?

Also, why does he keep saying we cannot ignore tyranny all the while maintaining such cozy relationships will Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt?

Adventerous food

I will try just about anything that does not offend me morally or ethically. I can't see myself eating whale because, well, it's a whale. I don't find endangered species especially appetizing. But Explorers Club in New York may well have a menu that would leave me both scared and hungry. If, however, spider canapes are your cup of tea, check out some of the other frightening morsels available.

We won this battle but the war goes on

It appears that Tom Delay will remain on the ballot in the November election, even though he has resigned from Congress and moved to Virginia. Delay withdrew from the race after being indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges, but did so well after winning the primary for the seat. State Republicans argued that because Delay left the state, he is ineligible to run and the Party should be allowed to replace him. Federal judge Sam Sparks issued the decision yesterday that contradicts that notion stating,

"DeLay was chosen as the Republican nominee by the voters in the Republican primary, and he is still eligible to be the party's nominee".

So, that plan seems to have backfired. This decision will undoubtedly be appealed but the longer this drags on the better. My dad taught me the expression "Too smart by half". I think it applies here.

Fake Soldier versus Real Soldier

Picture 1: George Felix Allen, Jr. pretending to be a general in the Confederate Army.
Picture 2: Jim Webb in Vietnam.
Who looks tougher to you?

Jim Webb is going to beat George Allen because he is fearless and speaks the truth. His campaign is just kicking Allen's ass all over the place. From Raising Kaine,

Allen Campaign Called Out for Knowingly Misrepresenting Jim Webb's Position on Iraq
Arlington, VA - The campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb today blasted George Allen's campaign manager for covering up Allen's failed leadership on Iraq by misrepresenting Webb's prophetic warnings about the war and its aftermath.

"Dick Wadhams is proving the point made recently by pollster John Zogby, who claimed that he was incompetent and should be fired," said Steve Jarding of the Webb campaign. "He reminds me of the Jon Lovitz pathological liar character, Tommy Flanagan, from Saturday Night Live. Like the Flanagan character, Wadhams lies to cover up for, in this case, his boss' inadequacies and failures," Jarding said.

Webb gave the Democrat's response to President George W. Bush's Fourth of July weekend address to the nation last Saturday. Stating at one point that "when things aren't working well, it is the responsibility of our leaders to admit it, and to fix the problem," Webb invoked the experience of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, when the recently retired General strongly condemned the conduct of the Korean War as "an appalling failure" and claimed that "the old Administration cannot be expected to repair what it failed to prevent."
Wadhams told the AP that the Webb response was further evidence that Webb was offering "conflicting views on how and when to withdraw," and that Webb was in fact backing "a cut and run strategy similar to [what] John Kerry [had] offered."

"Jim Webb is a leader," said Jarding. "Unlike George Allen, he has always led from the front -- he even went to Afghanistan two years ago as an embedded journalist, going on combat operations and sleeping on the ground with the Marines over there. He knows that issues such as the Iraq War can't be solved by wise-guy sound bites of the sort Mr. Wadhams specializes in. Webb has led consistently on the issue of the Iraq War since before the two Georges -- Bush and Allen -- committed the strategic mistake of invading the country. As for John Kerry, Mr. Wadhams knows full well that just last week, Jim Webb said that if he were in the Senate, he would have opposed John Kerry's legislation calling for the U.S. to pull out of Iraq by next year."

"Wadhams is lying about Jim Webb to shift attention from George Allen's empty record on Iraq. Allen has shown no leadership in supporting George W. Bush 100 percent on the Iraq War. He demanded no accounting from Bush before we got in, he glossed over the fact that Bush had no exit strategy, he ignored the fact that we have not protected our troops and indeed rejected the advice of our military leaders that our troop levels there were not high enough thus endangering those who went," said Jarding.

"It is obvious that George Allen fears Jim Webb's independence and his record of strategic vision. It is a strength that the Allen henchmen feel they need to obfuscate and mischaracterize or they will lose. The truth is that George Allen has but one position on the Iraq War, regardless of the consequences there, and that is whatever position George W. Bush tells him to take," Jarding said.

Ouch. That is a fastball right between the eyes. And whatever they are paying Steve Jarding, they need to double it. That guy is a damn Rottweiler.

Big Ups to Hillary

I am not a huge fan of Hillary Clinton. I don't dislike her, but I think her positions on several issues (flag-burning, the war, etc.) are flat wrong and too calculated. Her announcement that she will support the Connecticut Senate Democrat nominee, whoever it is, is a big check in the plus column for me. From Atrios,

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a longtime supporter of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, said Tuesday she will not back the Connecticut Democrat's bid for re-election if he loses their party's primary.

"I've known Joe Lieberman for more than thirty years. I have been pleased to support him in his campaign for re-election, and hope that he is our party's nominee," the former first lady said in a statement issued by aides.

"But I want to be clear that I will support the nominee chosen by Connecticut Democrats in their primary," the New York Democrat added. "I believe in the Democratic Party, and I believe we must honor the decisions made by Democratic primary voters."

Good for you Hillary. I think this should be a litmus test for any Democrat seeking election.

Spoiling for a fight - North Korean edition

North Korea, and Kim Jong Il in particular, is the petulant little brat that always has to be the center of attention. When the brat perceives that something else has drawn focus away from them, a tantrum is sure to follow. This is what played out yesterday when NK decided to fire off seven missiles. Kim, little bitch that he is, could not stand all of the attention the US is paying Iran and their theoretical nuclear capabilities. So he launched his missiles and shifted world focus back to himself.

I am no expert on North Korea or behavioral science but this whole thing reeks of a childish fit of temper. Sometimes you can ignore these displays; sometimes not. A screaming meltdown is generally harmless until the kid picks up a hammer. Well Kim grabbed a huge hammer and started swinging, but I think this is going to backfire. First, South Korea, Japan, and China are super-pissed about this. Second, the missile that everyone worries most about, the long-range Taepodong-2, actually failed less than one minute into its flight. Third, the fact that he launched on Independence Day and after the shuttle liftoff was nothing more than salt on the wound. The Administration would not negotiate with Kim one on one before this incident. Being a stubborn as Bush is, they are sure as hell not going to do it now. If anything, the military option is now back in play. The U.N. is going to be hard pressed to let this go without some form of retribution. The pressure on China to not veto a powerful response from the Security Council is going to be enormous. This act of provocation may well galvanize support behind Washington’s position rather than isolate the US and push us into a standoff. Let’s hope that the Administration has its shit together on this and can bring China and the rest of the world into some kind of consensus on what to do.

Independence Day

Happy 4th everybody. Here's to a safe holiday from the Commonwealth.

Benedict Lieberman

You smug, self-serving bastard.

Joe Lieberman has decided to run as an independent, or as he calls it a "petitioning Democrat"(whatever in the hell that is supposed to mean), should he lose his primary to Ned Lamont. Way to keep up with the party unity thing. It is one thing to be Bush's favorite Democrat or to provide cover for the right's war-hawking blather. But to betray your party in such a way is arrogant and disgusting. When you lose a primary, you endorse you opponent for the sake of the party. You don't run as an indy and split the vote. This is a total bitch move and I hope Lamont and Connecticut democrats blast him into irrelevancy.

Holy Joe has made a career out of selling out the progressive wing of the party on social issues like censorship and abortion. CT dems were not always happy with that but they liked Joe. They thought he was a good guy. But Iraq and Bush are wildly unpopular in the Northeast and those are this issues that matter right now. Holy Joe supports the war and the President. He is on the wrong side of both issues, knows it, and will run his kamikaze mission anyway.

The Democratic Party has served Lieberman well in his 18 year Senate stint. I wish like hell that Lieberman had served the Party in kind. So fuck you Joe. You made this bed but you’re too much of a wimp to lie in it.