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According to the BBC Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster wrote an article in Military Review about the US military in Iraq saying: “Officers displayed cultural ignorance, self-righteousness, over-optimism and unproductive management…”

American officers are a bit upset with the Brigadier, but that is essentially what happened when the 82^nd Airborne went into the city of Fallujah in the Spring of 2003. Without a translator, they didn’t understand what the local people were protesting when the military took over a local school. The protest turned violent; local people died; and the sad history of the destruction of Fallujah had begun.

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Both Jack and Michael are put out by the Shrubbery’s shift back to his attack Shih Tzu mode where disagreement with his failed policies provides “aid and comfort to the enemy”.

Then he makes his big mistake: “The American people know the difference between responsible and irresponsible debate when they see it.”

Based on all of the recent polls, a majority of the American people don’t think the Shrubbery is up to his job. It would be irresponsible for the representatives of that majority not to openly question the policies that have gotten us into this mess. A majority of the American people think that it is time to change.

“We will stand down when the Iraqis stand up” is not a strategy, it is a bumper sticker.

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Terry has nice post on Lawrence Eagleburger demonstrating how wrong the man has been about everything that has occurred for the last 30 years, but he still gets air time and column space for his opinions.

Laurie Mylroie is another pundit who keeps getting quoted and taken seriously in face of her history of being consistently wrong.

It’s almost as if the people in the media are telling themselves that these people have been so totally wrong so consistently, they must be right this time. I can’t follow the logic involved in selecting people to be put forward as “experts”. If I were wearing a stainless steel colander™^Аня, I might assume they are doing this to convince the audience that no one understood the situation, so you can’t blame the Shrubbery.

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Back on Halloween I wrote Alito? No! just after hearing about the guy for the first time. A quick glance told me he didn’t believe that people have a right to privacy. People fixated on abortion, but he opposes more than that when it comes to keeping the government out of your private life.

Now it’s becoming apparent that he believes in the “divine right of Presidents”, that the separation of powers is not an important concept if it interferes with a President doing whatever he/she feels like.

FDR was, by all accounts, including those of many relatives, a good President dealing with some of the worst problems the country had ever seen, but the Supreme Court was right to put the brakes on him.

We are seeing the effect of a single party in control of all three branches of government, and it isn’t pretty. Historians are going to be savaging this period in our history for a very long time. The country may not be as “efficient” when the power is divided, but the rights of all of the people and their taxes are much safer.

Alito has done nothing that would require his impeachment, but the republic will not be well served with a monarchist on the Supreme Court.

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Karen at Dark Bilious Vapors tagged me for a Five Weird Things meme.

Other than the fact that I stopped drinking alcohol about 15 years ago because it was no longer fun, I don’t know what people would consider weird.

Well, since I rarely meet with clients face-to-face, as the Internet generally makes it unnecessary, I don’t bother with haircuts much, not that I have a lot hair to cut. That was the result of my regular barber running off to get married about 5 years ago, and I haven’t found another barber I like well enough to spend $20 for as little work as is required.

Hmmm? I guess the fact that I tend to live near the coast when I have no interest in water sports of any kind is weird. I’ve tried scuba diving and surfing, and did a lot of things in the water as a child, but I lost interest.

There are people who think that managing the local feral cat colonies is strange, but they don’t understand the balance that was upset by the removal of all of the large snakes that once controlled the rats. You have to have population controls or things get out of hand.

Other than that I’m pretty much the same as every other military brat who has lived all over the world, speaks a few foreign languages, spent some time in military intelligence, and now works with computers.

Nothing to challenge Karen’s position as an Oral-B preferred customer.

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So the LAPD is upset that Arnold didn’t have a motorcycle endorsement on his driver’s license when he was involved in his accident.

Arnold’s California Highway Patrol escort said he didn’t need one because he had a sidecar on his motorcycle.

But the California Highway Patrol website says:

What is a motorcycle?

A motorcycle is a vehicle whose motor displaces more than 150 cubic centimeters and has a seat or saddle for the use of the rider. It is designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground and weighs less than 1,500 pounds.

This seems to indicate that he does need the endorsement.

Except the California Department of Motor Vehicle’s California Motorcycle Handbook says:

Class C -You may operate a motorcycle with a sidecar attached, a three-wheel motorcycle, or a motorized scooter.

A Class C California Driver’s License is the normal license that you get when you move there.

Well, I’m glad we cleaned that up and California clearly states what is required. This kind of garbage goes on all the time because of the lack of definition in the laws. Maybe they will decide to clean up the law now that the governor has gotten caught up in it.

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