What to do When Jack Bauer Is Indicted?

Twenty-six Americans, mostly CIA agents will be indicted in an Italian court for the illegal kidnapping of a Muslim cleric from Italian soil. The cleric was rendered by the CIA to Egypt where he was tortured. It appears to have been a sloppy kidnapping plot, more Clouseau than Bond, as they left behind a trail of clues.

Of course, they all will use that time honored justification for criminal acts under the color of authority, "I was just following orders." This even can't be excused with an "ends justify the means" defense. There is no evidence they got anything out of torturing that cleric except, perhaps, some perverse sexual release. At what point should American officials be held responsibility for the evil they have done "following orders?"

There must be public extradition hearings for these 26 Americans. If government officials want to defend these kidnappers they should do so in open court. If Administration officials ordered these people to violated Italian law then they should stand accused in open court. Will this have a chilling effect on CIA operatives in the future? Will they refuse to commit felonies in the future out of fear they might face criminal charges for their actions? I hope so.

tag: cia

Five Things That Made Me Think

The Lives We've Ruined
The Times of London looks at the lives of six ordinary Iraqis. In Iraq street cleaners are collaborators; picking up trash can get you killed. There is a baker who has been hunted by Sunni death squads because most bakers in Iraq are Shi'ite. A barber fears to trim a beard, barbers are frequently murdered for providing such a service in Baghdad. It is a painful read.

They have taken off their Rose Colored Glasses
The neocon analysis of the failures in Iraq in Vanity Fair are remarkably on target. The descriptions of the Bush Administration by the "founders of the feast" that is the Iraq War is devastating. These people who believed that war would bring Utopia to the Middle East have turned on the monster they gave birth to. They may finally be correct that with the manifest failures in Iraq the worst is yet to come. The final words of the author, David Rose:

One of the reasons we are in this mess is that the neocons' gleaming pre-war promises turned out to be wrong. The truly horrifying possibility is that, this time, they may be right.

Kafkaesque
The blogger BitchPhD looks at the confinement of Jose Padilla and recoils in shame. It doesn't matter what Padilla did, or thought about doing. Even the worst of mankind does not deserve such treatment. It should be noted that the prosecution is begging the judge in Padilla's trial to ban any mention of the condition of his three year confinement because it will prejudice any sane jury against the government.

The Chinese Understand Capitalism...
better than we do. I have not seen any Western economist discuss that virtual currency, money that exists only online, will make it infinitely more difficult to control the real money supply, hence control inflation. The Chinese see into the future much more clearly than Westerners who are obsessed with perfecting the past.

The Onion May Save Us
By printing it first, the Onion may have saved us from the spectacle of the state of Kansas outlawing the fact of evolution, not just the teaching of it. You know there was someone in the state, perhaps a senator with presidential ambitions, who was considering it.

Art is "Thinking Aloud in the Museum of Art" by Howard Hodgkin.

Handicapping the Presidential Race - Republicans

I don’t understands Republicans. I really don’t. How did they every come up with Bob Dole in 1996? How did either Bush, father or child, make it past the doubled over in laughter phase? Yet, they tend to nominate people who frequently win. (For my interest, I have added in red their Tradespot odds as of 12/6/2006.)

Mitt Romney (gov-MA) - 5 to 1 (6 to 1)
Polling in the middle of the field (9%), he has the best growth potential. Walking a tightrope. Trying to appeal to religious conservatives and political moderates (a Mormon from Massachusetts) without appearing to be a liberal religious wacko (a Massachusetts Mormon). Leads the outsider faction.

John McCain (sen-AZ) - 6 to 1 (1 to 1)
Second in most polls at 30%. Crafted the campaign financing laws to advantage himself. Benefits from the Republican habit of nominating the “guy who’s earned it” whether he deserves it or not. See Bob Dole in 1996. He is hated by the rightwing activists who vote in primaries. Too old, will be 72 on election day. McCain's best chance at becoming president is by pulling a Lieberman and running as a third party independent against a Hillary versus Condi, all woman election.

Newt Gingrich (GA) - 8 to 1 (20 to 1)
Polling 9%, Newt is the choice of the movement conservatives, are there any left? Actually, he has a chance in a weak field.

Condoleezza Rice (AL) - 9 to 1 (50 to 1)
Tied at the hip to George Bush, a darling of the neo-cons and pro-war Republicans. Her speaking style is close to unbearable, but, then, so is Bush’s. She is the only real Bush insider in the race. Condi is the hardest person to handicap. She is not mentioned in all the polls but does well when she is.

Tom Tancredo (rep-CO) - 10 to 1 (500 to 1)
The sweetheart of the anti-immigration crowd. Probably lost Florida with his crack about third-world Miami.

Rudy Giuliani (NY) - 12 to 1 (6 to 1)
Leads all the polls (33%) but, come on. His highest office has been mayor of New York City. He is pro-abortion, pro-gay, and anti-gun. His lifestyle is metrosexual so he can forget the social conservatives. His only appeal is among the "9-11 changed everything" crowd. I can’t begin to understand why he is polling so well. Did I mention that I don’t understand Republicans?

Tommy Thompson (WI) - 15 to 1, Jeb Bush (gov-FL) - 18 to 1 (100 to 1), Sam Brownback (sen-KS) 20 to 1 (60 to 1)
Long shots. Thompson (3%) has no base. Never count out a Bush (Jenna for 2032, anyone?), but he is a better bet for 2012. Brownback (2%) is the hero of the creationists.

George Allen (VA) - 80 to 1 (300 to 1)
John Sununu (sen-NH), Chuck Hagel (sen-NB) (90 to 1), Mike Huckabee (gov-AR) (10 to 1), George Pataki (gov-NY) (200 to 1) - all 99 to 1
Bet on Allen running to try to redeem his reputation. Bet on him losing. Hagel and Pataki (1%) are considered RINOs by Republican activists; no chance. Sununu and Huckabee will only run as a gift to comics.

Duncan Hunter (rep-CA) - 998 to 1 (1000 to 1)
Duncan (2%) is my representative to Congress. I know the guy. He is the epitome of the "hail fellow, well met" glad-handing politician. As corrupt as his best friend, Duke Cunningham, but smarter. Losing the chair of the House Armed Services Committee is a major hit to Duncan’s finances. He is running for president to have a second campaign committee to collect and filter money to his family and their retainers.

Michael Smith (OR), John Cox (IL) - 999 to 1
Smith and Cox are just trying to meet women.

Sources: CNN polling data, wikipedia

Handicapping the Presidential Race - Democrats

A caveat, I am lousy at making presidential predictions. In 1974, I didn’t foresee an obscure governor from Georgia would be elected in 1976. I thought Walter Mondale would defeat Reagan in 1984. I predicted failure for the inarticulate, alcoholic son of a failed president in 2000. (For my interest, I have added in red their Tradespot odds as of 12/6/2006.)

Hillary Clinton (sen-NY) - 6 to 1 (4 to 5)
Leads the early polls with 33%. There is a huge anyone-but-Hillary movement (of which I am a member) but she has the best organization of anyone in the race, is a strong campaigner, and benefits from the financial advantages senators have. I will be disappointed if she wins the nomination, but not surprised.

Brian Schweitzer (gov-MO) - 7 to 1 (1000 to 1)
This is a dark horse who isn’t mentioned on any of the polls. He is a successful western governor from a western, presumptively red state. My, albeit western, opinion is that the chances of a long term shift to a Democratic majority lies in making the western states blue. Nominating a western governor could make that happen.

Barack Obama (sen-IL) - 8 to 1 (5 to 1)
Second in the most recent poll (15%). He has more charisma than every other potential candidate combined. He has a John Kennedy aura about him. The question is whether he can maintain the charm for another 18 months.

John Edwards (SC) - 9 to 1 (10 to 1)
Last season’s charmer. His biggest flaw is he has no natural base to work from. Polling 14%

Wesley Clark (IL) - 10 to 1 (90 to 1)
The man with the military creds. If national security is a big 2008 issue, Clark will benefit the most. He has honed his media skills the past two years. Polling 4%.

Al Gore (TN) - 12 to 1 (11 to 1)
My choice. My man. The man who should have been president. His biggest flaw in 2000 was his image as a wooden politician. He has developed a vibrant speaking skill since then. I don’t know why he isn’t polling better than 14%.

Bill Richardson (gov-NM) - 15 to 1 (80 to 1), Carl Levin (sen-MI) - 20 to 1
We are getting into the long-shots. Richardson (3%) wants to be president and virtually nobody has noticed. Levin doesn’t want to run but has a presidential bearing.

Gary Hart (CO), John Kerry (sen-MA) (70 to 1), Tom Daschle (SD) (1000 to 1), Joe Biden (sen-DE) (100 to 1) - 25 to 1 each
The old warhorses. Hart has been out of politics for a generation. Kerry (7%) is personality impaired. Daschle is forgotten. Biden (3%) has been running for president since Lincoln. Nominating any of them is giving up on the general election.

Evan Bayh (sen-IN) (40 to 1), Chris Dodd (sen-CT) (170 to 1), Tom Vilsack (gov-IA) (50 to 1) - 99 to 1
Mike Gravel (AK) - 999 to 1
No hope. They are running out of ego.

Sources: CNN polling data, wikipedia

Someone Stupid, Someone Insane

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. ~ Benjamin Franklin or Albert Einstein depending on which source you use. Anyhow, somebody brilliant said it.

President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers ~ Guardian, November 16, 2006

Currently, there are 150,000 US troops, with more fire power than God, in Iraq. There is nothing more that 170,000 troops can accomplish. The plan coming from the Bush-al-Maliki is the same as all of the other plans. Just wait one more Friedman Unit (until July 2007) and Iraq will magically become the New Eden.

There is no new insight here. The President of the United States is mad as a march hare.

The Worst Presidential Blunders

Jimmy Carter describing the Iraq War as one of the greatest blunders leads me to wonder where does it rank in history. The University of Louisville did a survey of historical scholars earlier this year and produced this top-ten list. My modest effort is the top five worst policy blunders and the top five worst personal mistakes.

Five Worst Presidential Policy Blunders
1. Buchanan's sitzkrieg before the Civil War
I agree with the U of L here. During his four years a president, Buchanan shattered his party to the point it ran two candidates for president in 1860 (Douglas and Breckenridge) that led to the election of Abraham Lincoln with less than 40% of the vote. In the four months between the election and Lincoln inauguration, he did little more than whine and play whist while seven states seceded and three Federal forts, including Fort Sumter, were captured by Southern milita. The Civil War had been brewing for several years, it is probable that nothing would have stopped it, Buchanan didn't even try.

2. Nixon's Watergate
In 1972, Richard Nixon was going to win reelection in a walkover. The only Democrat, Robert Kennedy, with the charisma to defeat him had been assassinated in June. The was no rational reason for Nixon to approve a break-in of the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel that July. I can't decide which was worst, his stupidity or hubris.

3. Bush and the Iraq War
There is a maxim in chess, "the threat is greater than the execution." Your opponent will tie himself into knots if you threaten to capture a pawn. Once you take it he will often discover it was not such a big deal. In the wake of the quick defeat of the Taliban in Afganistan, nations were scrambling to distance themselves from Al Qaeda and radical Islam. They were afraid of what the mighty United States would do next. All the invasion of Iraq proved is that the United States is far from mighty.

4. Hoover and the Depression
Crops failed. Banks collapsed, wiping out the life savings of millions of Americans in the process (the FDIC was a New Deal creation). The stock market crash was the least of the problems. Hoover's response was to increase tariffs (stifling business even more) and to urge large companies to voluntarily help out. None volunteered.

5. Johnson and Vietnam
By 1964, the war in Vietnam had been going on for over a decade with little input from the United States. Eisenhower had rejected any involvement beyond a few military advisors. Generals jonesing for a war to test their new equipment had failed to convince Kennedy to do more than send a few more advisors. Finally, in Lyndon Johnson, the generals found someone who would listen to their prattle. The war would end quickly with the defeat of Communism if we only send a few thousands troops. Then a few thousand more. Then more still. And more again. What is it about Texas presidents and stupid wars?

The 5 Worst Personal Presidential Mistakes
1. Going to the theatre
Abraham Lincoln should have stayed at home and read a good book. By accounts, the play he went to, Our American Cousin, wasn't worth dying to see.

2. Jefferson chosing Aaron Burr as his Vice-President
Thomas Jefferson picked Aaron Burr as his running mate because he need Burr to win New York. Burr used a quirk of the Electoral College to try to steal the presidency. When, after 36 ballots in the House of Representatives, Jefferson finally won, Burr went home to New York in a snit. Afterwards, Burr shot political opponent Alexander Hamilton in a duel and his attempt to foment rebellion in the western territories of the United States led to his trial for treason.

3. Harrison forgetting his coat
William Henry Harrison, the hero of the battle of Tippecanoe, was determined to show his macho at his inauguration. He stood in a biting cold, coatless, for two hours delivering his inaugural address. He caught pneumonia and died a month later.

4. Clinton's loose zipper
How history would have been different if Bill Clinton had just learned how to keep his pants up.

5. Ulysses Grant's Cabinet
No president was a worse judge of men than Grant. His Treasury Secretary, Benjamin Bristow, stole over $3 million in taxes. Another Treasury Secretary, William Richardson, took kickbacks from the man he hired to collect back taxes. His Secretary of War, William Belknap, was caught taking bribes. The list goes on. The hard part is finding an honest man in the Grant Administration.

Sticking It to the Teachers

Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task. ~Haim G. Ginott

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

From National Public Radio - Teachers are taking a hit from a little-noticed change in federal tax law. They will no longer receive a tax break on the classroom items purchased out of their own pockets. Growing up, we all knew that the best teachers would sometimes buy things the classroom needed but the school board couldn't, or wouldn't, pony up for. It was an act of charity for the kids.

To the anti-tax Bush Administration, such generosity is pure evil. Several small countries could be educated with the tax breaks the oil industry has gotten from this government. But, when underpaid teachers use their hard earned cash to help their children learn? Why, no tax is too high to stem such perfidy. (Note: I wouldn't know that word were it not for my teachers.)

Thanks, Anne, for cluing me into this story.

Now For Something Competely Different

So, I'm researching a couple of topics (immigrant camps in San Diego canyons and the November Ugly American Award). Both are complex and both are really depressing. Depressing enough that it is easy to yield to writer's block when it whispers in my ear. To keep my fingers interested in the keyboard I will give my nephew a Thanksgiving gift.

Boy, Was I Wrong!!!
At the beginning of the football season I wrote off the San Diego Chargers, saying they would get no more than six wins. They had let their star quarterback, Drew Brees, go to free agency and his replacement, Philip Rivers, was almost a rookie, and there would be no veteran backup to help train him. The coaching philosophy of Marty Schottenheimer had ossified and the front office seemed determined to squander every advantage and lucky break they had. The defense had a habit of looking fair for three quarters and folding like a tent in the fourth. Sure, there was LaDainian Tomlinson, but as Barry Sanders proved in Detroit, even a great running back can't improve a piss poor team.

I can't tell you how wrong I was. The Chargers are 8-2 and lead the AFC Western Division. Rivers' first season as a starter has made him a star. Statistically, he is just a hair behind Peyton Manning. Like Manning, when Rivers has to take control of the game (like when the Chargers had to score 42 points in the second half to defeat Cincinnati) he controls the game with robot-like efficiency.

The defense is stellar. Even with injuries, gunshot wounds, and suspensions piling up like cordwood, the defenders have managed to hold back the flood. When Shawn Merriman and Jacques Cesaire return the Charger defense will rival the Chicago Bears as the best in the league.

And then there is Tomlinson. Always an artist with his feet, he seemed at times to float above the grass with the way he could cut, this year he has become mythical. Eight touchdowns the last two games, 22 touchdowns in ten games this season (second place has 14). Individually, he has more rushing touchdowns than every other team in the league and more total touchdowns than 17 teams. He has singlehandedly outscored the entire Oakland Raiders football team.

He is setting scoring records that may never be broken. With six games remaining, he is only six scores away from the record for most touchdowns and eight touchdowns from breaking Paul Horning's single season scoring record of 176 points (Horning was the Green Bay Packers' place kicker as well as their starting halfback that season). If he continues his pace of two scores a game, Tomlinson will have 34 touchdowns and 204 points by season's end. The question is not whether Tomlinson is the greatest running back in the game today. That is a given. The only remaining question is whether he is the greatest running back to every play the game. I have been lucky enough to watch Wayne Gretzky play hockey, Michael Jordan play basketball, and Lance Armstrong race on a bicycle. Now LaDainian Tomlinson. What fun.

So, I was wrong about the Chargers. My God! was I wrong! And, I've proven that writing is easy when you are not kvetching all the time and write about something fun.

tags: san diego chargers, LaDainian Tomlinson

I'll Take the Credit

Every year on my birthday (January 1st) a huge parade is held in Pasadena in my honor. Oh, sure, they don't say it is in my honor. They say it is for some football game, but since I was a child I knew the truth. It's all about me.

It is in that spirit that I shall take full and complete credit for FOX Broadcasting's decision to pull the two-part interview with O. J. Simpson and HarperCollins' decision to shelve Simpson's tell-all book on how he slaughtered his wife and an unlucky stranger and got away with murder. Murdoch and company made the decision just two days after I posted my decision to boycott anything involved with the book or interview. I knew I was powerful. Even I didn't know I was that powerful. This must be be what God feels like all of the time.

Rebelling Against an O.J. Christmas

Being a writer I viscerally despise the concept of book banning and book boycotts. This, however, is an exception. The O. J. Simpson tell-all snuff pornography exceeds even my liberal bounds of tolerance. This requires concrete action.

• No HarperCollins book, from any of their imprints, on any subject, by any author, shall ever pollute my bookshelf again. This boycott is complete and total. No Michael Crichton, no Lemony Snicket, none of them. There are more than enough publishers and writers that I need not give a penny of my money to a company that would choose to enrich such a man.
  
• I will not watch a second of the FOX O. J. interview, that's a given. However, I will be very interested in reports on which advertisers buy time on the broadcasts. Obviously, any business that chooses to advertise on that interview has self-selected itself as a business without even a shred of social mores. In a free society, I can choose not to do business with such contemptible companies.
  
• I will inform the manager of any bookstore than places If I Did It on their display tables that I object to its prominent display. I don't believe in censorship so I don't care whether they sell the book. But I strongly object to being slapped in the face with that snuff pornography. If I see the book on display, I will leave and do my Christmas shopping elsewhere.
  

There is no anger here. Just firm resolve.

oj simpson

Bush: Master of Diplomacy

George Bush is in Vietnam demonstrating again his mastery of international relations. It started before he left when the White House web site promoted the visit not by using the flag for the Republic of Vietnam but using the South Vietnam flag - a flag and nation that died thirty years ago when Vietnam was unified. Upon entering Vietnam Bush declared that the mere existence of their country was an object lesson to Americans to never cease fighting in Iraq. He is sorry we stopped killing their parents so soon. If America had the resolve in the 1970's he had today their Vietnam would not exist.

I'm sure it translates into Vietnamese better than it does from Bush-speak into English.

'Stay-and-Pray' Strategy

Hope is not a strategy. Hortatory talk about what the Iraqi government must do is getting old. I mean, I have heard over and over again that the government must do this, the Iraqi army must do that. Nobody disagrees with that. The brutal fact is, it is not happening. ~ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

The Administration's strategy in Iraq has devolved into Stay-and-Pray. Nothing we try is working but if we just keep at it a little longer everything will be just fine. Insanity is defined as "doing the same thing and expecting a different result." General John Abiziad, by this reckoning, is quite insane.

The truth is that the current strategy is a failure. Three and a half years after the occupation began the opportunities to adjust the strategies to find a successful result have all been squandered. The blatant corruption of companies like Halliburton, the brutality of mercenary firms like Blackwater USA, the incompetence of the Coalition Provisional Authority have so poisoned relations that anything resembling success is impossible. The only choices are between differing ways to fail.

Not knowing what to do when surprised by a bright light, the deer stood motionless in the middle of the road until run over by a truck.

It is instinctive when faced with a conundrum to stand transfixed, unable to decide what to do next. It is instinct; it is also foolish. Yet this is how Gen. Abiziad stands. Blinded by a dazzling failure, his only thoughts are to not think. Faced with not knowing what to do next, he chooses to do nothing. Stay the Course. Stay and Pray. When Hope transcends Reason, all we have left is prayer.

On Guantanamo Rights and Waterboarding

Compare and Contrast the following statements:

Voice of America News (11/14/2006): The Bush administration says terrorist suspects being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have no constitutional right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Cpl. Jennifer Smith (translating Mustafa Nasser): All I'm asking for is that you treat me according to the Geneva Convention, and I have all the right to have an attorney.
Major Rosenthal (US interrogator/torturer): Here in Guantanamo you have no rights. ~ Iranian TV broadcast, "Guantanamo", (11/4/2006)

Can you tell the difference between official Bush Administration policy and the image broadcast in Iran describing detention there? Is it any wonder why the world views the United States as an outlaw nation because of our Guantanamo policies?

On an related point, we all know that the interrogation technique of choice in Guantanamo is waterboarding. But, do we really know what that means? At left is a 16th Century engraving of waterboarding back when the people doing it proudly described it as torture.

Here is a description of one victim of waterboarding during the Argentinian Dirty War from the book Torture and Truth.

"You have to talk, this is your last opportunity, and this is your salvation." And then they put me on a table. And I thought, "Well, if they are going to kill me, I hope they kill me pretty soon." They pushed my head underwater, so I could not breathe. They take you out, ask you things, they put you in, they take you out—so you cannot breathe all the time. "Who did you receive this from? Who do you know?" Who can control anything when you cannot breathe? They pull you out, you try to grab for air, so they put you back in so you swallow water, and it is winter and you are very cold and very scared and they do that for a long time.

It is the knowledge that evil men are doing these things in my name that sickens me to my soul.

PS: Regarding the German court charges of war crimes against Donald Rumsfeld. Take the bastard, you can have him.

A Fascinating Iranian TV Drama about Guantanamo

O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us. ~ Robert Burns

On November 4, Iranian television broadcast a 39-minute melodrama titled "Guantanamo." It follows a Lebanese doctor (Mustafa Nasser) and an American corporal (Jennifer Smith) from the doctor's torture at Guantanamo Bay prison through the revelation of the Abu Ghraib tortures. The evil antagonist is a satanist American major named Rosenthal. The Middle East Media Research Institute offers the film with English subtitles.

By American video standards it is poorly directed and badly edited. By historical standards it is pure fiction. But it is a fascinating look in the mirror at how we are seen in other parts of the world. Besides, the actress who plays Jennifer Smith has some serious cute going for her. It is worth it if only for the following monologue.

A world dominated by one single nation is a frightening world. 9/11 gave the U.S. a strong pretext for spreading its power over the entire world. Another attack will convince the U.S. that in order to save democracy, you must first destroy it. If you accept this logic, historians will have a hard time explaining why the golden age of democracy lasted only 200 years. We will sadly ask ourselves how human beings like us, through cowardice, could bring the world back to the worst moments of human history. ~ character of French lawyer André Mahfuz in the Iranian TV program "Guantanamo"

Democracies and War

Ann Althouse is depressed by the election. Not because Democrats won but because Americans no longer support the Iraq War. This is how democracies function.

Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections. ~ Meg Greenfield

Unlike Afganistan, the Iraq Adventure was always a war of choice with no significant, or even insignificant, national interests at stake. Winning gains us nothing, losing deprives us of nothing except the spent lives of loyal servicemembers.

From the beginning I've denigrated the Iraq War by describing it as a "recreational war." It was engaged in because the President wanted to, not because the country had to. I knew it would be popular only as long as it was fun. As "Shock and Awe" devolved into a slow, bloody slog people rightfully asked "what are we fighting for?"

What are we fighting for? Even for the Bush Administration that answer has been a moving target. I've heard all of the arguments, all of the reasons that have been given over the years. They all amount to nonsense. We entered the war because we thought it would be easy; we are stuck because it wasn't. (Yes, I know the real reason was an obtuse neocon theory that conquering the Baathist Party in Iraq would create a cascade of democracy throughout the Middle East. That was always nonsense, and they thought it would be easy.)

It is one of the collective wisdoms of democracies that they do a cold cost-benefit calculation when it comes to war. We will fight as long as the benefit of victory outweighs the cost of achieving it. When the costs exceeds any potential benefit, democracies conclude it is best to just cut our loses. This is a calculation that any competent CEO would understand.

When wars are thrust upon democracies (as in WWII) they will fight with a fury dictatorships can't match. When democracies stumble into wars, either through ignorance or arrogance, they had better be successful because democracies do not suffer foolish wars for long.

This is a strength of democracy, not a weakness. The weakness is staying in a war through inertia long past the time it made even a feeble sense.

Adventures in Schadenfreude

I have been enjoying a pleasant wandering through the rightwing blogsphere. They are working through the first stages of grief.

Stage 1: Denial
Certainly the most common thread of denial is the claim that that they didn't really lose at all. The election was not a repudiation of conservativism, just Republicans. Somehow trying to pretend that A doesn't equal B. A lot of Republicans are clinging to Lieberman's victory in Connecticut as proof that the nation really backs the Iraq War and the losses everywhere else were aberrations. Others argue that, if you look back far enough in history, the losses aren't so bad. "If you compare this election to the results in 1862...."

Stage 2: Anger
A startingly number of rightwing bloggers are hoping for a terrorist nuclear attack on New York or Los Angeles to "teach the country a lesson." It seems nothing will make grieving conservatives feel better than reducing a major American city to radioactive slag.

Most of the anger is aimed at Bush. He's a traitor to conservatives for: firing Rumsfeld, for not firing Rumsfeld last month, for saying Nancy Pelosi's name without throwing up on his shoes, for sounding conciliatory towards Democrats. Several commenters (the best of these is from streiff, one of the bigwigs at Redstate) have declared Wednesday marks defeat in Iraq, defeat against Al-Qaeda, even the end of Western Civilization. And it's all Bush's fault!!!!

Stage 3: Bargaining
Not much happening here yet, but it is early. A few writers are looking to win back the Senate by the death of a couple Democratic senators from states with Republican governors. Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts are the most frequently mentioned states. If any of these six senators dies in mysterious airplane crashes in the next few weeks, it was not an accident.

Gleanings from the Exit Polls

Fox News had the proprietary and top secret Edison/Mitofsky exit poll .pdf for the House of Representives available on their website briefly this morning. Long enough for me to download it. It totals the results for all 13,208 interviews on election day.

The Iraq War is now a Republican War
Nothing is more glaring than the result to the question "How do you feel about the U.S. war in Iraq?" Eighty percent of those who disapprove of the war voted Democrat; eighty-one percent of those who approved voted Republican. This is a startling division. Iraq is a one-party war now, plan and simple.

The Youth Belong to the Democrats
Democrats won all age groups but kicked ass among the young. Sixty percent of voters under 30 voted Democrat. This was an 11% improvement over 2002. The best the Republicans did was get forty-nine percent of oldsters (aged 65 and over). The future is voting Democrat.

Republicans are the Party of the Rich
No surprise. Only when you get over $100,000 in total family income do Republican voters outnumber Democrats. But Republicans have lost the middle-class. In 2002, Republicans won the middle-class (household income between $30,000 and $100,000). This year they polled under forty-five percent.

Smart folk have abandoned the GOP
In 2002, 55% of voters with college degrees voted Republican. This year that dropped to just forty-five percent.

The GOP is a Religious Party
Seventy percent of white evangelicals voted Republican. Sixty-one percent of everyone else voted Democrat. Protestants voted Republican (54%), everyone else went heavily for Democrats. Catholics (55%), Jews (87%), and no religion (75%) all voted for the Democrats.

Robo-calls in the Golden State

Living in California (State Mottos: "We Gerrymander the Hell Out of Everything" and "Always Nominate Imbeciles for Governor") has spared me from the great sea of robo-calls that have plagued battleground states. I've only had five to ten a day since Thursday. Who were they from? Damned if I know. If a campaign can't enlist a breathing human to call I won't pay attention.

I haven't been annoyed by them until this morning when I got a 6am wake-up call from some computer masquerading as a nurse. Still don't know what it wanted. Even half-asleep, I don't care how the computers want me to vote.

USS Intrepid Mucking Bottom in NYC

This is a metaphor for the US military under George W. Bush. The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is stuck in the Hudson River mud. The Intrepid is now a museum ship no longer capable of operating under its own power and, try as they might, the civilian tugboats can't pull her free.

A Cynic's Prediction

Tomorrow, at least one heavily Republican precinct in Virginia or Maryland will have a voter turnout in excess of 100% or at least 110% of the votes cast in a precinct will be counted for the Republican candidate for Senate. Given the nature of human and machine error combined with Diebold vote fraud makes this inevitable.

Grading the November Surprises

There have been a raft of news surprises popping up the fortnight before the election.

A+
Richard Pearle, Kenneth Adelman, and David Frum publically announce their opposition to the Iraq War. These three were the philosophical core of the Republican neocon war crowd in 2002-2003. For them to come out five days before the election is an attempt to influence the election results and encourage Republican defeat. For them to renounce the war they championed, and blame George Bush for it, is huge.

A-
Envangelical White House advisor hires male prostitute and buys illegal drugs. Just when the Republicans thought the had put the Mark Foley kerfuffle to bed (bad pun), behind them (worse pun), this hits them like a two-by-four to the groin. Pile this on top of the previous scandals and it has the potential for being a tipping point story.

B-
The Bush Administration posts nuclear bomb making instructions on the internet. It hasn't gotten as much media play has it deserves but for those who noticed, this clumsy act puts to lie the Republican talking point that only they can be trusted with national security.

C
Military papers call for Rumsfeld firing. Most people won't notice and it is not like 95% of the human race has already call for his being canned. Still, this sends a "support the troops, fire Rumsfeld" message.

C-
George Allen's staff assaults blogger. I'd like to grade this higher but I just don't think it has legs. This story doesn't have any sympathetic characters. Allen's people were thugs; the blogger was rude. No winners. Now, if the blogger had been a little old lady with a walker....

D-
John Kerry can't tell a joke. Sure, this story got more media play than the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I just don't see how it will have any effect. Anyone who stayed awake through the 2004 Presidential elections knows John Kerry can't tell a joke to save his life. Still, it is the Republican's big winner for the week.

F+
Saddam to be found guilty. Show of hands, how many people are expecting him to be found innocent? This would be the non-event of the election season if not for ...

F
Dick Cheney thinks the Iraq War is going swimmingly. So, who thought Mr. Last Throes was going to change his mind now?

Kiss and Tell Republicans

There was a time when I had great respect for how Republicans handled their sexual dalliances. Democrats tended towards prostitutes (Barney Franks), strippers (Wilber Mills), and trailer trash (Bill Clinton) who just couldn't keep their mouths shut. (editor's note: There may be a double entendre here)

(click on the photo for a fascinating political website)

Republicans mistresses were older and uglier than their Democratic counterparts, but they were descreet. You had to respect that. An example of the old way of doing It is George Bush and Condi Rice. You could infer the torrid affair they had from the way they looked at each other and how he would always call her "Condi" while she called him her "husband." You even knew it was over when Bush began coolly referring to her as "Secretary Rice" and she started dating a Canadian. Everyone knew what was happening, but it was still completely hidden.

Now, we have a Republican candidate for Secretary of State bragging about having steamy sex with multiple Green Bay Packers. Duke Cunningham having a Department of Homeland Security limo service ferry prostitutes to his poker parties at the Watergate Hotel. Mark Foley flirting with underaged congressional pages who weren't mature enough to purge their e-mail log files. Finally, there is right-wing evangelical preacher Ted Haggard whose hatred of godless homosexuals compelled him to hire a male prostitute. Several times.

Over the years, if there was anything that Republicans did well it was keeping their sexual peccadillos undercover. It was a point of pride that Republican whores didn't talk. They can't even to that anymore. If they've lost that, they have lost everything.

Dissing the Troops

Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner has laid the blame for all the failures in Iraq at the feet of the soldiers. Forget the botched joke, this is what disrespecting the troops looks like.

This new "Blame the Grunt" talking point conveniently ignores a bushel of facts that places the blame on the civilian leadership:

• Civilian corruption
• The failure to provide adequate supplies
• Rumsfeld interference in war planning
• The army didn't decide to go to war, Bush did
  

I could keep going but I haven't had breakfast and I'm hungry. The bottom line is that the "Buck Stops Here" philosophy of Harry Truman has been replaced with George Bush's "Pass The Buck To Your Underlings."

Bush and the Anti-Sex League

That the Bush Administration is funding anti-sex programs for everyone under the age of 30 should not surprise anyone. This has nothing to do with morality and has everything to do with control.

There is a rising tide of totalitarian governments trying to control the sex lives of their subjects as a way of demostrating absolute control. As nascent totalitarians, the Bushites would naturally want to develop programs to regulate the people's sexuality.

As pointed out by George Orwell in 1984, if the government can deprive people of sexual contact it is easy to refocus their energies. The government (and the Party) will become the sole target of both love and devotion and can use pent up emotions to spread hate and war.

Afganistan's Taliban and Iran's mullahs are well known examples of governments that have invested an inordinate amount of effort in controlling their population's sex lives for just this purpose. The Khmer Rouge in the 1970's went so far as to regulate when married couple could meet and have sex and who every citizen would be allowed to marry.

This is not morality. This is all about who controls your life and your body - you or your government?

Missing Weapons in Iraq

Over 14,000 American weapons are missing in Iraq. Not surprising. Insurgencies throughout history have armed themselves with their enemy's own weapons. Native Americans during the Indians Wars, the French Resistance, and the VietCong all scavenged for their weapons. A powerful occupying army brings in all the weapons insurgents could every use. They just need to get them.

How is it the occupation army in Iraq is losing so many weapons? Some are stolen, others are sold by entrepreneurial Iraqis and Americans. Remember, a large number of Americans in Iraq are paid mercenaries who would think nothing of selling guns to the enemy if it means a tidy profit. The irony is that it is likely that several of the 23,000 casualties in Iraq to date were caused by American weapons sold to the rebels.

One Death Every Three Minutes

Thoughts inspired by an article in Iraq of Tomorrow by Dr. Sayyar Al Jamil.

For three and a half years, every three minutes, another Iraqi needlessly died because of American arrogance and Bush incompetence. With an ill-planned invasion we opened a floodgate of death with no idea how to close the gate or even begin to stem the flow. Twenty-five acres of farmland can be irrigated an inch deep with the blood spilled in this war. Forty thousand tons of flesh have been consumed by the war monster in Iraq. And the rate of death continues to accelerate. It is pleasant to blame Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney for they have cheerfully bathed in the blood. But we are all at fault. We have stood by while an orgy of death has been played in our name. We have not protested often enough, we have not screamed loud enough. We have allowed the butchers to stay in business for far too long.

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. ~ Plato
To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals. ~ William Penn

Heard It All Before

Excuse me for having no faith in General George Casey's prediction that Iraq will magically be all better in 12 to 18 months. I've heard it all before.

Feburary 7, 2003 - It is unknowable how long this conflict will last. ...I doubt six months. ~ Donald Rumsfeld
January, 2004 - we are about to enter into a very critical six months. ~ Tony Blair
August, 2005 - The next six months will be very critical ... whether the Iraqis are really going to be capable of defending themselves ~ Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NB)
June 7, 2006 - The next six months will be critical in terms of reining in the danger of civil war. ~ Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
October 5, 2006 - The next six months will determine the future of Iraq. ~ General George Casey
October 24, 2006 - It is going to take another 12 to 18 months or so till ... the Iraqi security forces are completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security that's still coupled with some level of support from us. ~ General George Casey

In Artificial Intelligence this is called the "Horizon Effect." If a computer is faced with an insurmountable problem, say in a chess position, it will plan so as to postpone the inevitable defeat beyond its ability to see ahead. If it can't see the defeat then it no longer exists.

The Administration and Pentagon have a similar cognitive disfunction. They always see perfection six months in the future. Things may be horrible now, but in six months.... It is a sign of how bad things are in Iraq today that General Casey thinks it will take two or three six months for things to become perfect. It is all a failure of critical thought combined with My Pink Pony wishes.

Keith Olbermann Proves the Power of the Spoken Word

Keith Olbermann has renewed my faith in the spoken word. I'm old enough to remember when political rhetoric actually involved using complete English sentences to express complex thoughts. I had grown to feel that this era of "sound bite" speaking had killed off the art of political speech that can touch both the soul and the mind.

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment (MSNBC's Countdown) for October 23 is an elegant dismantling of the Bush presidency. With both passion and intellect Olbermann points to how Bush and Osama Bin Laden have become allies in their mutual goal to terrorize the American people. In six years in office the only thing Bush has successfully accomplished is spreading fear itself.

It was riveting television. Read the transcript or watch the video. Be proud of the art of political discourse again.

All that need further be said is to add three words to Shakespeare. Mr. President, you, and that advertisement of terror, are full of sound and fury—signifying (and competent at) nothing. ~ Keith Olbermann, October 23, 2006

A: Truncate the Name So People Have to Guess for Whom They Have Voted

Q: What is yet another way to use electronic voting machines to steal an election?

In Virginia, in selected counties, the voting machines have been configured to cut off Democratic Senate candidate James Webb's last name. To vote for Webb you have to vote for James H. "Jim" ... But that won't cause any confusion because there is also a James T. "Jim" (last name cut off) on the ballot.

These voting machines are manufactured by Hart InterCivic out of Texas (State motto: Over seventy years experience in rigging election returns). The election authorities all agree they want to fix the problem, eventually, but not this year. My favorite excuse is from Sheri Iachetta, general registrar for Charlottesville, "I completely understand (people complaining), but it's not something I can control."

Ah, sister, you bought those machines in 2002. You had the responsibility to insure they worked perfectly before you paid for the fucking things. It is totally in your control.

Source: WaPo via DailyKos.

Troops Petition For Redress - End the War

Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ~ First Amendment, United States Constitution
It is DoD policy that Members of the Armed Forces shall be free to make a protected communication to a Member of Congress. ~ Department of Defense Directive 7050.6, 4.1.1

Sixty-five active duty members of the Armed Services have petitioned Congress to end the occupation of Iraq and bring our service members home. The press release was issued today; there will be a press conference on Wednesday. May this mark the beginning of the end.

What's So Bad About Peace, Love, and Understanding?

The latest attempt at fear-mongering by Republicans is to charge that if Democrats gain control of Congress they will establish a Department of Peace. Rep. Roy Blunt has sent out a press release saying that if Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House all sorts of bills will be passed. Heading the list is a Department of Peace. All the sites that mention this simply regurgitate the Blunt release.

an aside: A sign of how demoralized Republicans are is their inability to express individual thoughts. All they seem able to manage just now is cutting and pasting from some official's mass e-mail.

I have searched in vain for any conservative reason for why a Department of Peace would be a bad idea. As best as I can surmise, to conservatives, Peace is such a demonic concept that mere mention of the phrase "Department of Peace" gives them the willies. They can't explain why it gives them the willies, they just know that Peace is Bad.

second aside: This home school site does try to explain the evils of Peace (aside within an aside: nothing explains the insanity of the religious home schooling advocates than this guy). As far as I can understand his rambling writing, Peace is Slavery and only through constant war is liberty possible.

There is proposed legislation to establish a Department of Peace in both the United States and Canada. The goal is to create a government effort towards seeking non-violent resolutions to domestic and international conflicts. Throughout history, violence has been the easy answer to a disagreement, especially when the strong want to impose their will upon the weak. Like playground bullies, violent resolution to conflicts is the mark of an immature society. It has been known for some time that mankind will not survive as a species until we can move past the quick resort to violence.

A Department of Peace does not make war impossible. It does not require us turning our swords into plows and spears into pruning hooks. It simply means, as a people, we will seek the path of peace first. And what is so bad about that?

Update: I forgot to include the link to the home schooler who considers Peace to be an anti-Christian evil. It's here.

The Ugly American Award - Robert Tuttle

Robert Tuttle is the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. This award does not question whether Tuttle is qualified for the job he holds representing this country with its only significant ally in the Iraq War. He is clearly not qualified. Tuttle is a Southern California car dealer who bought the posting to the Court of Saint James with a $59,000 campaign donation to George Bush in 2004.

This award is not because Tuttle is a lying scumbag, although he is. In November, Tuttle denied the US military was using white phosphorus bombs on civilians in Fallujah. He had to retract that lie when the proof surfaced. The next month he denied the US was sending people to Syria to be tortured, "extraordinary rendition." The embassy staff had to retract that fib.

This award is granted to Robert Tuttle because he is an arrogant SOB. London has established a system of road tolls to regulated traffic in the center of the city. Tuttle has defiantly labeled the tolls an illegal tax and has refused to pay. Thus far, he has racked up over one million pounds ($1.9 million) in delinquent tolls and fines. The mayor of London has called Tuttle a "chiselling little crook."

For approaching the art of diplomacy in the same way he would selling a used car - equal portions of bald-faced lying and petty thievery - for doing everything he can to piss off the only friends we have left in the world, Robert Tuttle is awarded the Ugly American Award for October.

The Ugly American Award is given monthly to someone who has tainted us all throughout the world with his or her supercilious gall and general, all around, assholery.

tag: ugly american

Celebrating 'National Character Counts Week'

How Republicans have chosen to celebrate National Character Counts Week (Oct. 15-Oct. 21).

It's Hard for a Pimp
Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) had a long-term extra-marital affair with a woman he “repeatedly and violently physically assaulted and abused.” President George Bush flies in tomorrow for a Sherwood campaign rally ($350 to get in the door, $2,500 for a picture with the President, $5,000 if both you and your mistress want a picture with the President). Bush is one of over 40 Republicans who are whoring for Sherwood.

Star-Studded Endorsements
Michael Steele, Republican candidate for Senate in Maryland, announced two key endorsements this week. Fight promoter Don King (convicted killer) and former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson (convicted rapist) have both endorsed Steele's campaign, surprisingly, at Steele's request. Way to wrap up the violent felon vote there Mike.

Double Dipping
This week, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) caught the FBI's attention twice. That takes more than a little effort. On Monday, his daughter's office was raided by the FBI related to Weldon's influence peddling for a Russian energy company. Today comes news that Weldon's ties to a crooked Serbian businessman are under investigation. The businessman is barred from doing business in the United States because of his relationship with former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic. And the week's not over yet.

Oval Office Orgasms
President Bush chose Character Counts Week to sign the bill granting him the legal right to torture prisoners and obliterating the right of Habeas Corpus. Look at the faces behind Bush. The glee in the room at the prospect of inflicting pain of helpless prisoners is palpable. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-my district), second from the right, is positively orgasmic.

To Republicans, this is what Character is all about.

How Much Privacy Do You Want?

MSNBC has a online survey querying about people's attitudes regarding privacy and the onslaught of corporate and government domestic spying. It is worth taking the survey.

Art is from a great site, the Propaganda Remix Project. It is worth a bookmark.

All I want Is to Change the Channel

I am living in a country where the borders between reality and television/movie fantasy has disappeared. I don't know what is real life and what is scripted programming any longer.

Big Brother Is Watching
It is not just a metaphor from the Orwell novel 1984 or the movie renditions. He really is watching as we walk down the street. Look up, sometimes you can see the cameras. He knows every purchase we make, whether we prefer corn flakes or sugar puffs for breakfast. What do you think that supermarket discount card is for? All the Google searches I made researching this have been logged and recorded. And, so what? We really don't care. We feel safer from muggers, terrorists and people who would steal our identities. Actually, the Feds are rather sloppy about securing all the information they have gathered.

If you rejoice at the knowledge Big Brother cares for you, the Students for an Orwellian Society are for you. If, on the other hand, you care about keeping certain things private, visit the Privacy Rights Clearhouse but, beware, Big Brother will know you've been there.

Desire is Irrelevant - I am a Machine
It's bad enough that Arnold Schwarzenegger is (and will likely remain) my Governor. The new breed of robot warriors being developed for the Pentagon are "self-learning and adaptability." They don't need detailed programming to seek out and destroy their targets. They can figure things out for themselves, adapt to injury, even teach each other. We are planning to produce swarms of killer mechanical cockroaches (remember that X-Files episode), each individually intelligent and able to attack in concert. Judgement Day will approach to the sound of scurrying little artificial feet.

'If torture is evil shouldn’t we boo Jack Bauer'
Last June, the Heritage Foundation (right-wing think tank if you didn't know) hosted a seminar on how close to fact the televison series "24" is and whether we should care if it is real or fiction. Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff took time off from his busy job protecting the nation to be the keynote panelist. Chertoff praised the show's realism while moderator Rush Limbaugh thanked the show for giving torture a good name. The quote above is from National Review writer Jonah Goldberg.

Share and Enjoy
What started me on this flight of fear is a little story about intelligent elevators and intelligent floors. The elevators use artificial intelligence to manage riders while the floors track your movements by body weight so the floor knows exactly where, when, and how quickly every individual has walked. The floor will even know if you are carrying something on the return trip.

This reminded me of the Sirius Cybernetics elevators in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who were so intelligent they got bored with just going up and down and ended up sulking in the basement.

Really, I swear, I'm trying not to panic.

Sacrifice for the Troops or Bring Them Home

A writer at California Conservative (and Rightfielder) wrote what appeared to be a thoughtful reconsideration of the Iraq War. He had recognized all that was going wrong with the war and how impossible the task is. Then it ended with his heart going out to the servicemembers and a renewed dedication to fight a war he knew to be hopeless to the death (someone else's death).

(my reply)
I was going to congratulate you on your arrival in the world of rational thought, but, in the end you got all wobbly. Perhaps reading this will stiffen your spine. If you truly want to support the troops -

1. Demand your government institute a military draft to quintuple the size of the Army;
2. Demand your government significantly raise your taxes to pay for properly supplying the troops;
3. Demand your government try, convict, and imprison war profiteers such as Halliburton;
4. Enlist in the Army. If you are too old (the current enlistment age is 42) the chances are you have children of enlistment age, insist on pain of disinheritment that your children join the Army. Your children must join the war.
   

If you are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to truly support this war with your blood and your wealth, then support the troops by bringing them home from that Hellhole they should never have been sent to in the first place. War is not a football game. Supporting the troops means more than standing on the sidelines and cheering while they are maimed and killed.

I believe you are sincere but I am sick and tired of armchair patriots who parrot "Support the Troops" as if that phrase is not meaningless rhetoric. Sacrifice for the Troops or bring them home.

Why Was Adam Gadahn Charged With Treason

Over at Redstate (Know Thine Enemy) a blogger asks why al-Qaeda propagandist Adam Gadahn is the first person in 60 years to be charged with treason. Since I been banned there for excessive reasonableness I'll answer here.

The treason indictment was the October Surprise Karl Rove had promised. They were planning on promoting the hell out of it. Unfortunately (for Karl), more interesting news has buried it and, if they had tried their promotions, it would have looked like "wagging the dog."

NOTE: Commenters at Redstate, true to their authoritarian wet dreams, are hoping for the mass arrest for treason of war opponents. And they want mass arrests. The Futurist identifies 8-10% of Americans as Fifth-Column traitors, "we cannot win the War on Terror until we recognize and thwart this internal enemy."

A Cynic's Prediction

Republicans will retain both houses of Congress.

How can I say that given the news, the polls, and the palpable depression coming from right-wing pundits?

• The odds have always been against us. In the Senate, Republicans have a 40-27 advantage among senator seats not up for election. We have to win 73% of the Senate elections to gain a one-vote majority. Republican gerrymandering of House districts means that Democrats will have to win 54% of the national votes cast to get 51% of the House seats.
• The prospect of wide spread vote fraud. The primary election in Maryland was a test of just how much fraud Diebold can get away with and the answer was, a hell of a lot.
  

I will now take my Prozac and crawl under my bed until the depression lifts.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future. ~ Sidney Harris
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. ~ H. L. Mencken
Expect the worst and you increase your chances of being pleasantly surprised. ~ me

Striding Boldly Into the Past

The Southern California city of Escondido (about 40 freeway miles northwest of my little hovel) has passed an ordinance making it illegal to rent any living space to "illegal aliens." The law would send landlords found to have rented to illegal aliens to jail for up to six months. Obviously, the easist way to stay out of trouble will be for Escondido apartment owners to rent only to white skinned people and to refuse to rent to people who speak with a Spanish accent or, worse yet, speak Spanish.

This law is in the long California tradition of encouraging people of color to sleep in the healthy outdoor environment of our canyon shanty towns. From the 1920 Alien Lands Act, which made it illegal in California for aliens to rent or own any property, through racially restrictive housing covenants, where landowners could legally prevent Jews, African Americans, Latinos, and Asians from buying homes in nice neighborhoods, California has been a leader in efforts to maintain the racial purity of our housing stock.

Of course, in the 1940's and 50's the Supreme Court overturned California's many restrictive laws. But, this is a new time with a new Supreme Court which can be counted on to understand the virtue of protecting Escondido's citizens from being exposed to brown skinned people speaking a strange language.

Iraq War: Quarterly Update

American Military Deaths
3rd quarter 2006 ..... 180
average - quarter ... 1.96 deaths per day
Total ................ 2,714

American Military Wounded
3rd quarter 2006 ..... 1,880
average - quarter ... 20.43 wounded per day
Total .............. 20,687

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths (est.)
3rd quarter 2006 ..... 4,062 (a 35% increase from the previous quarter)
Total .............. unknown
This number may be a gross underestimation - The New York Times reported 3,438 Iraqi civilian deaths in July alone.

Approximate Number of Insurgent Attacks
January 2006 ........... 80 attacks per day
2nd quarter 2006 ..... 120 attacks per day
July 2006 .............. 135 attacks per day
estimated from a chart in this report

source
tag: Iraq, War

The Pure Definition of Godliness

When that gunman captured an Amish school last Monday, killing as of now five children, there was during that horror an act of purity divinity.

13-year-old Marian Fisher ... appealed to Charles Carl Roberts IV to shoot her first because she thought it might allow younger girls to survive. ~ CNN

No violence, she did not attack the gunman. She did not rant or rage neither did she meekly submit. She just had calm courage. She boldly offered to sacrifice her life in an effort to save others.

Jesus is quoted saying "greater love has no man than to give his life for another." Mahatma Gandhi taught Ahimsa, the non-violent respect for all life. This young girl practiced their teachings with a purity that both men would have honored.

This is an age when most of the great religions on Earth are competing to see which can most effectively kill the most people in the name of God. In the Middle East, some imans are teaching the Jihad of Death. In Israel, oppressing Muslim Arabs has become an article of the faith; the more religious the Israeli the more forceful the oppression. American clergymen are preaching that hatred for gays, immigrants, and a broad spectrum of other humans is the only way to show a love for God. Yet, all of them have passed far from the teachings of their faith.

Viktor Frankl, writing of Holocaust survivers, observed that the most noble of concentration camp vicitms were the first to die. They were the ones who would sacrificed for others in a time and place when sacrifice meant quick death. He wrote, "the best of us did not return." Young Mirian was among the best of us.

Two Gun Teachers

It is inevitable. After there is a school shooting some legislative gun nut who spends way to many evenings polishing his pistols gets an insane notion.

What if, he thinks, teachers and janitors were strolling down school halls with guns strapped to their hips? What if the principal kept a fully loaded semi-automatic shotgun on the wall behind his desk? What if Miss Tyler, the spinster English teacher, kept a 9mm Beretta tucked in a garter holster between her thighs? What if Jimmy, the janitor all the girls are scared of, took to totting a Cobray Mac-10 with him?

If every teacher thought he was John Wayne, if every janitor thought he was Rambo, how much safer our schools would be.

You Call It Lazy, I Call It Research

I have been wasting away a morning when I could have been doing some witty writing by reading what others have penned. There is some good stuff out there today.

Congressman Attacked by 'Beasts'
Just about everyone is talking about Matt Drudge's creative defense of Congressional Predator Mark Foley. According to Drudge last Monday, the "poor congressman" was "being played for all he was worth" by "16 and 17 year-old beasts." In the perverse little world that Matt Drudge lives in, 16 year-old boys are all slavering sex beasts prowling for naive, sexually inexperience congressmen three times their age.

Hastert's Fat Is a National Treasure
Dennis Hastert has been way too fat for way too long, even his metaphors are getting fatty. In an interview with Rush Limbaugh (no stranger to fat) where the House Speaker call the Mark Foley scandal a vast left-wing conspiracy he dropped this little bon mot, "We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well." Dennis Hastert is the blubber that surrounds the vital organs of the American Heartland. Without his quivering lipids embracing the body politic we would all freeze to death in this cold world.

After several days of struggle, the Republican talking point on the Foley scandal has resolved into blame the Democrats. Democrats knew all about this for years while Republicans were clueless because ... well, they can't seem to explain that yet. But Vast Left-wing Conspiracy has become the universal talking point.

Not Funny, Just Scary
One of the teenagers harassed by Foley has been receiving threats. The only possible source is right-wingers trying to terrorize the child. Heard it first at Dependable Renegade.

Torture...Secret Detention... oh look, Sex
Steve Bates points out that the obsession with Foleygate has buried the more important story, the fact that Congress passed laws legalizing torture and outlawing Habeas Corpus for anyone that the President deems unworthy of human rights. He wonders if Republicans are using Foleygate to do a little "dog wagging."

Hey, Mark, how did you vote...never mind
Hecate caught something I had missed. While on the House floor, Foley had cybersex with at least one page and ABC news has the transcript. They sit close together in Congress. It makes me wonder how uncomfortable it was for Foley's colleagues when Foley got itchy fingers. Did his congressional neighbors have to get up and go to the vending machines when Foley started text-messaging a page? Or, is a little phone sex SOP on the Republican side of the aisle during those boring roll call votes? I would love to know who was sitting next to Foley during his sex-messaging sessions.

Following the Foley Money

I've long believed that political contributions are nothing more nor less than legalized bribery. The story of how sexual predator congressman Mark Foley quieted concerns about his page-trolling is proof as to how direct these bribes can be.

1. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) brought Foley's solicitation of a page to the attention of Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) sometime last spring.
2. Reynolds, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, had a conversation with Foley.
3. On July 27, Foley's campaign committee wrote a check for $100,000 to Reynold's committee. That is the only contribution Foley's campaign has made to any campaign in 2006.
   
4. Reynolds reports to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that the Foley situation has been resolved.
   
5. The matter is very quietly dropped until the shit hit the fan last week.
   

Was that $100,000 hush money? Of course it was. Congressmen use their campaign committees to buy influence and favors from their colleagues all the time.
The converstion between Reynolds and Foley went something like this:

Reynolds: Mark, you've been e-mailing pages again, haven't you? One of the pages talked. Didn't we tell you to cut that out?
Foley: Am I in trouble?
Reynolds: No. Not if you show your loyalty to your party, to your colleagues, by writing my committee a generous check. I promise I'll make this whole thing disappear again.
Foley: How's fifty grand?
Reynolds: You can do better than that.
Foley: Hundred-k?
Reynolds: Sounds good. So, have you been able to bang any of those boys lately.
Foley: Nah.
Reynolds: Aw, tough luck. If you do, remember to gift them up good so they won't talk.
Foley: You bet.

Foley gave the National Republican Congressional Committee $200,000 just before the 2004 elections. Any guesses what that successfully covered up?

Foley's campaign gifts.