Spain legalizes gay marriage

First Canada, now Spain (actually Belgium and the Netherlands were first, but Canada and Spain happened over the past week... you get the idea).

Is the world crumbling around Mullah SpongeDob?!?

Putin the Pickpocket

I only have time for a short post today, so I will get to the point: this is total bullshit.

None of the reports this morning had Kraft giving it as a gift, and there were even some quotes stating that was not the case. Putin just slipped it in his pocket and jetted, leaving Kraft standing there completely dumbfounded as to what just happened and what he should do next.

Of course, the Patriot's media relations recovered quickly... as major news outlets tried to verify the event, Kraft was "traveling" and "could not be reached"... and if you believe that I have bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Having bought some time to consult folks in places that I would image would include the White House, the "official" line was trotted out to avoid provoking an international incident and puncturing the facade of Putin that Bush has tried to create in the mind of the public.

Not that I give a rat's ass about all this... rather I just thought it was fun to watch it unfold and see the media just swallow it all without really looking into it.

LoJack and Crime

I am not sure about Kristof's LoJack talk on house's, etc., but I sure agree with this:

Sure, some of the crime-fighting ideas being bandied about are pie-in-the-sky.
But they show how we can think about crime in systematic ways, rather than just grunting about the need for more prisons.

Sadly, that's about all the right like to do... if it doesn't involve easier ways to lock people up or use capital punishment, they are not likely to be interested.

P.S. Regardless of the rest of the story, this bit made the whole thing worth reading:

Then many people would choose the silent alarms, more burglars would get caught, and many of the criminally inclined would choose a new line of work, perhaps becoming chief executives.

Damn funny... a shame that it is in fact fun, but damn funny nonetheless...

Training Iraqi Troops Elsewhere...

I guess I must be a retard, but this thought had never occured to me... from John Kerry's editiorial in today's Times:

He also needs to put the training of Iraqi troops on a true six-month wartime footing and ensure that the Iraqi government has the budget needed to deploy them. The administration and the Iraqi government must stop using the requirement that troops be trained in-country as an excuse for refusing offers made by Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany to do more.

This strikes me as an excellent idea... these troops would be in an intensive training situation in another country where they can truly focus and are not rushed into duty or trained "on the job" in a combat situation. Meanwhile, our troops could focus more on security matters and not have to worry about ill-trained troops tagging along. Further, it would bring in other countries (noteable France and Germany) which have abstained from helping with troops. This training would give them a stake, and it would be a point of pride that they do well. Finally, it would allow some more time for the Iraqi units to be more suitably equipped.

Outside of the logistics of moving these Iraqis to Europe, what are the downsides of this?

Probably doesn't really matter... at this point, I don't think he wants Europe's help (he wants to "show 'em up") and berating Europe's lack of involvement is a useful tool for him in his bag of distractions.

More Notes from Norway...

1) Folks here are nice, but like most European countries I have run into too many people who haven't showered in the past week. Tip to the Norwegians: you aren't *that* nice!

2) The subway runs on the honor system. You buy your ticket at a vending machine, get on your train, and get off at your destination without any human or electronic interference... no turnstiles, nothing. However, they do board the trains a couple random times a week and you have to pay a very hefty fine (I thought I overheard an amount in the thousands of kroners, which is price high considering $1 = 6.5 kroner). Not that the Norwegians would skip the fare anyways... as an American expatriate I met here put it, "The Norwegians are a very square people."

3) They are also very polite... no questions on why we elected the village idiot nor jokes about our Iraq fiasco. However, the toastmaster at a banquet I ws at for my conference was telling some very funny but racey jokes, and I did have some Danes ask if they would fly in the states... unfortunately, no, they would not have.

4) Speaking of the toastmaster, he had perfect Oxford English. You serious would not be able to tell he wasn't a limey bastard. He even had the propoer volume inflections and mannerisms. Most other Norwegians do have an accent, but it is British English mixed in with a Norwegian accent... pretty amusing to listen to!

5) A convenience type store called Deli de Luca is the Starbucks of Norway. They don't serve coffee, but damn... they are *everywhere*! In one case on both sides of the street on opposite ends of the block, and in another at opposite corners of the same block of buildings. And they do serve good gelato (although I admit I probably don't know what a bad gelato is...)

Notes from Norway

Sorry for the lack of posts of late... I have been on the road at conferences a lot of late.

In fact, I am writing this post from a cafe down the street from my hotel in Oslo, Norway. A few obervations thus far:

1) Norwegains have no idea how to queue... that will take some getting used to...

2) I can already tell things are just more laid back here... amazing how good you can feel when everyone gets 5 weeks guaranteed vacation, cheap and effective medical care, and no worries about getting snookered into an elective war...

3) The Thom Kah Gai that I am eating right now is amazing... the Norwegians apparently know their Thai food.

Better them than us, right?

It's pointed out here that Bush admits that because we've drawn all the terrorists (in the world?) to Iraq, we'll be much safer here in America. I wonder what the Iraqis that we LIBERATED think about that?

"Here's your liberation. Sorry about the mess we created. Good luck... Oh yeah, do you mind if we grab a little oil before we go? Thanks so much."

Moving the Goalposts

This via Atrios... a dollar to a donut says the media will either not blink at this or will say something like "some Democrats question the adminstration's previous comments."

Ignoring Evil

Awesome passage by Billmon:

As for morality . . . Well, if you can't see the evil in locking prisoners of war -- some of them held by mistake, others only foot soldiers in the Taliban's army -- in 100 plus degree rooms for 24 hours without food or water, until they shit or piss all over themselves -- then you're truly beyond redemption. Once you've reached that point, you can probably justify anything, up to and including murder.

Unfortunately, according to the polls, that category may include a sizable fraction of the American people. I've speculated on the reasons for this before, I won't rehash them here. Maybe it's just human nature to ignore evil when it takes place outside of immediate eye or ear shot. Solzhenitsyn also wroteabout this trait, and how the Cheka learned to use it to its advantage:

There's an advantage to night arrests in that neither the people in the
neighboring apartment houses nor those on the city streets can see how
many have been taken away. Arrests which frighten the closest neighbors are not an event at all to those farther away. It's as if they had not taken place. Along that same asphalt ribbon on which the Black Marias scurry at night, a tribe of youngsters strides by day with banners, flowers and gay, untroubled songs.

Easier still to look the other way when the arrests take place half a world away, the archipelago is entirely offshore and the prisoners aren't driven through the streets in trucks but whisked through the sky by the CIA's own private airline. Add in the facts that those arrested are foreign, non-Christian and non-white -- and that some of them almost certainly are guilty of terrorist atrocities -- and you have the perfect excuse for a nation of Sergeant Schultzes to stick to its "We know nothing" line.
And why not? If the inhabitants of greater Dachau could ignore the smoke billowing from the chimneys of the invisible, unmentionable camp up on the hill, why shouldn't we expect most Americans to ignore what's going on in Guantanamo, or Bagram or Abu Ghraib -- or any of the other islands in the archipelago?

Alterman Snark

This is friggin' hilarious:

Todd Gitlin is right too, here. Where is the reporting on the crimes of America’s detention? You know you’re in trouble when Tom Friedman is breaking news. That means the cabbies in India already know it.

Halliburton to build new Gitmo Prison

Kevin is right... writing for the Daily Show has got to be the second easiest gig in the world right now (next to being a weatherman in San Diego)

Kill 'em all

Wow... and I mean WOW

Atrios points us to a Hardball transcript on Gitmo that I can hardly believe... bolds are mine:

ORIN: I go back to the fact that we need to remember we‘re at war. And it makes it—you know, for some of the people who are on the left on this issue, it gets very easy to say, oh, we need to treat them with proper respect and so on. This is a very complicated question, because, on the one hand, you don‘t want to behave as badly as they do. On the other hand, you know, I think the reaction in much of the al Qaeda world to this story will be, what a bunch of wusses. Boy, if that is all they do to you, we don‘t even have to be afraid of being captured.

MATTHEWS: My big concern is, the longer you keep them, the angrier they get. Eventually, you are going to send them home. Maybe the smarter thing is to execute everyone down there, because if you‘re going to send them back to the Arab world or the Islamic world angry as hell at us, they‘re going to be doing dirty stuff against us, right?

DUFFY: Well, that‘s another reason why I think they need Gitmo. They need somebody to put these—place to put maybe these people for a very long time, not three or four years, but longer than that. Even if you have tribunals...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Is that the thinking down there? It is a gulag?

DUFFY: Well, imagine. Even if you have tribunals and you actually go through the process of having...

(CROSSTALK)

ORIN: Wait.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: No, is it a gulag if it‘s—if it is a place you send people that don‘t come back, what would you call it?

ORIN: You know, we don‘t have...

MATTHEWS: What would you call that?

ORIN: We don‘t have millions of people dying there. Let‘s not call it a gulag.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: We‘re talking about making them stay there until they do die, right?

DUFFY: One of the things we also learned is that these guys are really good at resisting interrogation. They‘re really good at it. They‘ve been trained. They know how to throw back every trick, every psychological trick.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: If you were getting lemon chicken every night, you would...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: You would resist for a while.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Anyway, coming up, President Bush goes on the offensive in a fund-raising speech last night, getting—we‘re getting a lot of noise about how good he was last night. He is going after the Democrats against the obstructionism, he calls it, of the Democratic Party.

Matthews thinks we should just execute all the prisoners, guilty or not, because if we don't then we could be creating more terrorist by letting them go... and neither guest on the show pukes in horror!

Matthews then lets one of the guest squirm out of the gulag question in favor of making a lemon chicken joke... and how about that George Bush stickin' it to the Dems!

This is your media... this is your world...

More on Coingate

What is up with the last name "Lay" and financial scandels?

Also, the Toledo Blade has my support in taking over as the best investigative paper in the country... the Times and Post haven't done shit (with the occasional Walter Pincus and Mike Allen exceptions)

Severin

This is an older item, but I thought I would chuck it onto the ol' blog in case any of my three readers missed it.

The rights' response to all this? Probably something along the lines of "Krugman is so shrill."

Iraqi "Security" Forces

Clap louder, damn you!

Really, go read the whole thing... the cultural differences boggle the mind.

Lynching Vote

Conrad joined, so all that are left are White Christian Southerners...

Of course, the fact I pointed that out is bigger than the original story according to the MSM...

Ex-Bush Aide Who Edited Climate Reports to Join ExxonMobil

We the corporations, for the corporations, and by the corporations...

You know, the revolving door stuff is getting so bad that I don't even think the Onion would be able to come up with something over-the-top enough to effectively lampoon it.

Religious fanatics? Or sexual competition?

Those crazy Mormons...

Our Allies in the War on Terror

I wish more folks in the MSM (and by "more" I mean "any") paid attention to the hypocrisy of the administration regarding democracy and terrorism.

We count Sudan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan amoung our "friends" in the effort against terrorism, but then turn our back when inconveniences like human rights abuses, genocide, and little things like that pop up. The worst is that this is a feed-forward cycle: the more they think they can get away with, the more they will continue to do so...

Gamer kills over virtual sword

This was bound to happen sooner or later...

As my friend GH put it: "Hey, why didn't the body blink and disappear? And why didn't I get any loot or experience points?"

Shame is for Sissies

If you happened to pick up a copy of The Independent Weekly this week, you might have seen this article. And if you're like me, you would have stopped what you were doing and read every word of it as your heart started beating a little faster.

Hal Crowther gets it right. I'm so freaking tired of this administration, the right-wing jihad of our society, the muzzling of free and fair debate, the crippling of the 4th estate, and the broad assumption by our society that conservative = moral.

[DHP: Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Residency starts tomorrow so I've been getting in all the fun and good times I can before I have to buckle down again. Wish me luck! ...and don't anyone get sick and come to the hospital for at least the next month and a half!]

Felt/Watergate Coverage

This passage in Rich's op-ed jumped out at me:

Such is the equivalently supine state of much of the news media today that Mr. Colson was repeatedly trotted out, without irony, to pass moral judgment on Mr. Felt - and not just on Fox News, the cable channel that is actually run by the former Nixon media maven, Roger Ailes. "I want kids to look up to heroes," Mr. Colson said, oh so sorrowfully, on NBC's "Today" show, condemning Mr. Felt for dishonoring "the confidence of the president of the United States." Never mind that Mr. Colson dishonored the law, proposed bombing the Brookings Institution and went to prison for his role in the break-in to steal the psychiatric records of The Times's Deep Throat on Vietnam, Daniel Ellsberg. The "Today" host, Matt Lauer, didn't mention any of this - or even that his guest had done jail time. None of the other TV anchors who interviewed Mr. Colson - and he was ubiquitous - ever specified his criminal actions in the Nixon years. Some identified him onscreen only as a "former White House counsel."

I saw some snippets of quotes from guys like Colson and GGL on the news shows when the Felt story broke, and noticed that they always said "Former Nixon Aide" or the like, but always assumed that these shows would also identify them as being Nixon criminals as well... really, this is journalism 101, and the media isn't even willing to get that right! It really is a stark example of how the media is shirking its duty to democracy...

Yet another memo

Via TPM, we see that there is another memo to add to the DSM...

I imagine the MSM will ignore this one as well. That burns me, but at the same time anyone with half a brain knows that this war was completely fabricated, so what really burns me is that the entire topic is being ignored rather than individual memos and evidence.

Update: On CNN right now, the headline feature is on the DiD, while the memo is placidly-worded link on the right side of the page. Surprised?

Update: Walter Pincus at the Post reports on the memo as well... this is my favorite bit:

Testimony by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of Iraq policy, before a House subcommittee on Feb. 28, 2003, just weeks before the invasion, illustrated the optimistic view the administration had of postwar Iraq. He said containment of Hussein the previous 12 years had cost "slightly over $30 billion," adding, "I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years." As of May, the Congressional Research Service estimated that Congress has approved $208 billion for the war in Iraq since 2003.

Update: Atrios pops over comments that Kevin Drum said that essentially mirror mine... Atrios is right, but here my caveat of "anyone with half a brain" saves me. I think the more important point is that regardless of the obviousness of it all, that doesn't excuse anyone from not caring or covering the story.

Recruiting Nightmares

We have all heard that the Army and Marines are missing their quotas by large margins and have since embarked on all sorts of questionable tactics and lowering of standards. However, you gotta read this to get a sense of how bad it appears to be getting... (via Kevin Drum)

Sensenbrenner and GOP Judiciary members shut down Patriot Act hearings

Atrios and John are right... this is really pretty incredible.

In a nutshell: the Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings on the re-authorization of the Patriot Act which have - surprise! - been dominated thus far by supporters of the act. The Dems wanted to hear some other viewpoints, and finally got their opportunity. However, part-way through the proceedings, Chair Sensenbrenner decides he doesn't really care for what he is hearing, tongue-lashes those who are there to give testimony, declares it all irrelevant, and adjurns the meeting by personal fiat. The Dems and the witnesses stay for about ten minutes and continue their business (even though they got their mics turned off).

It really makes your head explode that this scene the wasn't on the war, this wasn't on oil or energy policy, this wasn't on social security (not that it would have been ok in any of those cases)... it was on the friggin' Patriot Act!

The Republicans are shitting all over liberty, all over the rules of governance, and all over the governed, and yet CNN is jerking itself off in jubliation over the fact that it has another Damsel in Distress story to chase!

I normally don't really care much for CSPAN, but I would encourage you to watch the videos in this case.

I did note that Sensenbrenner claimed that the testimony was not related to the provisions with sunset rules; I didn't hear all the testimony, nor do I know much about the sunsetting provisions, so I can't attest to the veracity of that argument. However, I kind doubt he would have sat through two hours of that without directing the committee and the witnesses to keep their comments germane to the issue in such a case. Instead, he simple shakes his jowls and erupts once he feels that he has had his fill and walks off.

Furthermore, the cynical side of me feels that it was all rather intentional anyways... a shot of kabuki theater designed to invigorate the mouth-breathing base of the Republican Party by kicking sand on the Dems and asking "What are you going to do about it?" Otherwise you could have easily let the Dems have their one hearing out of 11 and move on with the likelihood that one hearing wouldn't really make much of a dent. No, this is a DeLay-like drunk-on-power display, and in any place with a decent bit of reporting or media, it would not be tolerated.

Klassy

I would have paid to see this...

Craptastic Dowd replacement

Not that Dowd is a world-beater all the time, but come on... you shouldn't read a Times Op-Ed column where the very subject matter invariably elicits the response of "Who gives a shit?!?"

More on Dubya and Africa

This is an awesome post about the situation and how Bush responds to questions on the issue... here is one of the best parts:

First, though, George W. Bush's performance Tuesday was particularly pathetic, especially when the Q&A started. This is what I mean:

QUESTION: Prime Minister Blair has been pushing for wealthy nations to double aid to Africa. With American aid levels at among the lowest in the G-8 as a proportion of national income and the problems on the continent so dire, why isn't doubling U.S. aid a good idea?

BUSH: Well, first, as I've said in my statement, we've tripled aid to Africa. Africa is an important part of my foreign policy. I remember when I first talked to Condi, when I was trying to convince her to become the national security adviser, she said, "Are you going to pay attention to the continent of Africa?" I said, "You bet."

Riiiight... I noticed all that attention he has been paying to Darfur, and the fact that Condi has taken several trips over to the continent. And by several, I mean none. I also like the switcheroo on the numbers he pulled... classic politics. Kinda like citing mean incomes rather than the median when talking about tax breaks and the economy.

But Harkavy hammers something you will never see discussed on the talk shows: the implication that only blacks are and should be interested in Africa's problems:

Good Lord, is he a honky or what? Someone asks him about aid to Africa, and the first thing he says is that he talked with his house Negro about it. I'm surprised he didn't mention Colin Powell, Willie Mays, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Wayne Brady.

What an idiot. It's revealing that he apparently thinks of this Africa thing as a cause that only black people would be interested in—you know that in his heart of hearts, he couldn't give a shit about it.

Yeah, that's about it.

P.S.: I thought I would note that I found this post in a rather interesting way... Doonesbury had the Condi quote on his site but without a link, and a google search lead to this. Given the snarkiness of the writing, I might have to pop in on it every now and then. Always nice when you stumble upon something.

AIDS in Africa

Normally I would caution folks to leave stuff like this to Kristof, but Brooks actually does a pretty good job of showing what can be done with a little investment into the sub-Saharan AIDS crisis.

Unfortunately, he misses one big point: Bush still isn't putting his money where his money is.

Dubya continues to underfund or reduce contributions, and drops dimes in the charity box when he should be dropping dollars. This is very similar to his initial reaction to the tsunami, but unlike that event the media isn't holding his feet to the fire on it.

North Carolina pride

Bursting at the seams with Helms' memoirs... still an unapologetic racist.

And even though he has "moderated" his tone on AIDS, I like this bit:

"Until then," Helms writes, "it had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong."

Yeah, screw those druggies and sexual deviants... they deserve to die out! What's that? It is spreading to other populations? Oh, well now I am concerned...

Cat Blogging (by proxy)

These are some super cute kittens (via Atrios)

Army comes up short again

Here

Is it me or is it getting a bit drafty in here?

Tie Fighter Case Mod

How friggin' cool is this?!?

Dog Bites Man

Color me surprised...

Update: And another...

Update: And one more... what is the debate on this one?!?

Zoo to have creationist display

Sigh...

Vouchers

Tierney's latest seems oddly out of place... nobody has talked about vouchers for private schooling in a long time, and the current marching orders are for social security all the time (with a brief time-out to Swift Boat Mark Felt).

However, it does give me the chance to briefly address the issue and give a few short thoughts on it. As far as Tierney and like-minded conservative and libertarian individuals are concerned, I find their stance to be highly suspect on idealogical grounds. If they want to pull their kids from public schools, then fine...but to ask for a government subsidy to do so? That's heresay against the traditional dogma of the conservatives. Of course, this is Dubya's cake-and-eat-it-too conservatives, so I am not too surprised.

I also find their position very suspect regarding motive... let's be honest here: Tierney and the rest of 'em couldn't give a cup of warm piss for Adrian and similar students. What is really going on is that the religious right want subsidies for religious schools, and businesses want to get a bigger piece of the educational pie.

But nevermind all that (and the idea that Tierney's argument is both anecdotal and a strawman)... what do I think? How about this modest proposal: fund the educational system better. No Child Left Behind not only sucks, it is also an unfunded mandate that has put cash-strapped schools in an even tighter bind. A friend of mine has a teacher for a mother, and she has several kids without desks who have to sit on the floors during class... how friggin' absurd is that?

This doesn't say anything about the quality of our teachers, which I think is a bit suspect overall... but why wouldn't it be? Horrid conditions, parents who don't discipline or support the instructor, and shitty pay... sign me up!

So, if you are really interested in the problem, don't take the good students out of the schools and increase the amount of educational and economic stratification in this country... just pony up a few bucks. Otherwise you are stacking the deck and wondering why they don't win.

Funny in that weird sort of British way

Man, I have got to read Fafblog more often...

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

The original MILF, Anne Bancroft, dead at age 73

Prostitution Ring run by Granny

She sez needed to supplement her social security checks... might see a bit more of this if Dubya privatizes the program (yuck, yuck)

News Title of the Day

From CNN: Lohan Wonders Why Tabloids Care (Actress: 'I don't know why I'm so interesting')

Here is my follow-up title: Blogger Wonders Why CNN Thinks People Should Care About Lohan (Blogger: 'This type of shit isn't news people... get a clue')

"Progressive" Taxation

Kevin Drum sez that regular readers shouldn't be surprised at this, but I sure am... not that our taxation isn't as progressive as most people think it is, but rather than the rates are actually higher for someone making $75k than someone making $10 million.

I am one cynical guy, but even I won't have come up with that one on my own... and as the Times article points out, this is off of tax returns which means that all sorts of dough has been sheltered within those higher brackets and thus their rates are probably overestimated.

How the Republican Party and anyone who even thinks about supporting them could not be absolutely ashamed at this is beyond me...

Lebanon

Hmmm... I wonder if the right is still taking credit for the Cedar Revolution? Looks like things are still a long way from rosey:

"There really is a sense among people that the conclusion, the outcome, is a foregone conclusion, and that maybe very little has actually changed on the ground," Mills said.

Huh. I was completely assured that pro-western democracy was flourishing...

Irony

I am on a couple Word-of-the-Day listservs, and this one just crossed my Inbox:

catholicity (kath-uh-LIS-i-tee) adjective
1. Wide-ranging; universality.
2. Broad-mindedness; inclusiveness.

I have no further comment other than to again note the title of this post.

Journalistic Ethics

In regards to the Felt Family, Tierney pumps his chest up over journalistic ethics, but then comes out and speaks the truth anyways:

They didn't appreciate how seriously we journalists take our ethical standards.

Riiiight... if they were trying to get paid for the revelation, then I think they estimated them just fine. But as it turns out, what they take seriously is not ethics per se but the appearance thereof:

The Felts' mistake, of course, was hawking the secret directly instead of persevering with the genteel approach used by celebrities and former presidents: laundering the news through a book publisher. You don't actually have to write the book yourself, but once your name is on the cover, you've joined the literary priesthood and are pure enough to accept cash offerings.

As a mere source, though, you cannot be trusted with money, at least not according to the keepers of journalistic ethics in America. They say the money would taint the media's image, inspire lies from mercenary sources and maybe even corrupt journalists. An editor once told me that if he bought an article, he feared he would overplay it to justify the expense.

At least Tierney doesn't turn it into a rant about how good a guy Nixon was and that Felt is a baby-killer... even though he is of the conservatarian breed of the right, he still sides with Felt on this one:

Now the reporters are rushing out another book, and Mr. Felt is still not supposed to get any money from it. He deserves a cut, not only for what he did for them but for what they and their editor did to him. He risked his career to expose corruption in the White House, and they ensured that his name will be forever linked in the annals of history with a 1970's porn flick. They owe him.

The State of Iraq

Hmmm... I wonder how they came up with some of the numbers in this graph.

Iraq civilians killed in warfare ops is a loose term on its own, and since the US Military studiously avoids counting the dead Iraqis, how did they arrive at these values? Similarly, there is a controversy over the number of trained Iraqi Security Forces... last I heard, the estimate wasn't half that high (not that 50k is very good).

Beyond that, the number that truly struck me is the number of wounded troops per month: 615. That's an awful lot of broken lives for zero WMD's and heap of external responsibilities.

Double Standards

Ben Stein, who was a speechwriter for Nixon, writes this in the American Spectator:

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.

Bullshit aside, I wonder if Stein would then denounce Dubya as a lying, conniving warmongeror like he did with LBJ. I rather doubt it (note how he skipped Dubya). I also found it amusing that he finds a lying politician to be so drool while labeling Clinton a "seducer," which is probably about as equally applicable to politicians as being a liar, and lauds Nixon for his achievements without doing the same for Clinton and his economic boom and peacemaking (Kosovo, Bosnia)

Not surprising, but I thought I would point it out...

P.S. I will say that there are some snippets that I kinda agree with, mainly that Nixon is underappreciated for some of the liberal-minded domestic regulatory bodies he created (e.g. OHSA, EPA). I sure doesn't save him from being a crook and anti-Semite (natch) but it is at least something.

Update: If you really want to see some wild-eyed stuff, check out Peggy Noonan...

Dems and Iraq

I am a little confused and dismayed by this post at Eschaton:

I'll have more on this when I have more time, but it's clear from beig in DC that Iraq is going to continue to be a big problem for Democrats, a problem that they for various reasons are unwilling and unable to confront. More importantly Iraq is going to continue to be a big problem for this country, and that is something the Democrats had better figure out how to confront very quickly.

I am interesting in seeing what he is referring to... I guess he is talking about how the Dems need to come up with an alternative vision for Iraq (Pull out? More troops? Is so, from where? A draft?) if they want to regain power, but the thing that bugs me is that this whole mess is the fault of the Republicans... why is Iraq not more of a problem for those cockknockers?!?

(Yeah, yeah... I know the answers... it makes me pissed off all the same)

Awareness of Darfur

I was reading this post on Darfur by Kevin Drum and got slapped in the face by this line:

Let's break this down. For starters, only 18% of the poll's respondents are even aware Darfur exists. The other 82% are either "slightly aware" of Darfur or not even that — and I'd bet my last nickel that "slightly" is just a face-saving version of "I couldn't tell you which continent Darfur is on if you paid me."

I am flabbergasted... and completely pissed off as well. I'll warrent a whole lot more than 18% know all about the Runaway Bride, her name, what floral arrangements she was going to have at the wedding, etc.

Snowflakes

I think John might be getting a little worked up over this one, or at least a little too worked up without knowing the full story.

The issue at hand is the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program and the fact that the NY Times article in which this is featured obliquely mentions that the adopting parents have to be conservative Christians:

Couples adopting or donating Snowflakes embryos are mostly Christian, and most embryo donors are white, Ms. Maze said. Some families are Roman Catholic, even though the church has historically opposed in vitro fertilization.

Couples must agree to adoption-like procedures: receiving families are screened and must undergo counseling, and Snowflakes allows donating and receiving families to designate criteria for each other, meet and maintain contact after birth. Adopting couples must agree not to abort any embryos.

Those conditions were fine with Bob and Angie Deacon of Virginia Beach, Va., who donated their 13 embryos after having twins and being discouraged from another pregnancy by a doctor.

"With another program, to be honest with you, they could have been adopted by lesbian parents, and I'm totally against that," said Mr. Deacon, 35.

It took two and a half years to bring themselves to fill out the papers. On their forms, they said the adopting family must be conservative Christians and, ideally, include a stay-at-home mother.

Look, I think that whole aspect stinks as well, but I don't necessarily know if it actually violates any laws... I *suspect* it might, but if this is an independent organization/business that doesn't receive federal funds, etc., I am not sure this illegal. Of course, if this *is* in fact a business, and the religious right does indeed buy the idea that these embryos are "living," then isn't that essentially trafficking? I really don't know the law on all this, but it is an interesting thought.

Additionally, the "conservative Christian" restrictor on the Snowflakes Program raises an interesting "Better Dead than Red" question: Better an un-used embryo than a child in a non-Christian household? If so, then why does the religious right worry about non-Christians who get abortions?

I myself noticed another component of the article that the reporter should have followed up on: the notion that the adopting parents could not abort. What about cases in which the adopting mother's health is on the line? Is there any "out clause" for that? Who makes the determination if their need is sufficient? What is the penalty under the contract?

As far as the program on the whole is concerned, it pisses me off if for no other reason than there are tons of living, breathing, non-theoretical children who desparately need real homes and real parents... if you are adopting and truly want to make a Christian impact, start there.

Pain

Right now I am sitting in a hotel lobby in Nashville (bad), with a dicey internet connection (worse),and CNN is running the tape of the Runaway Bride's initial call to her fiance (Oh God, the pain... make it stop!)

Anderson Cooper then comes back on and asks an analyst if this will be the last we all will hear about this...

IT WILL BE IF YOU STOP COVERING THIS HORSESHIT, YOU PRAT!!!