Posts from — August 2006

But only about import things: their jobs.

From Eric Alterman’s piece, The Punditocracy vs. History:

It’s 1972 all over again or so Cokie, Broder, Marty, Jacob, Bill, Bob, Joe, are telling us. The Democrats blew it by endorsing a left wing “elitist” antiwar candidate who hated Middle America back then, and now are getting read to do the same. Here’s the thing, being a pundit makes you stupid. All these pundits supported the war, natch, and understand at some subliminal level, that they too are being rejected by the voters who blame Lieberman for trusting Bush and getting us into this horrific war. They reach for the nearest historical analogy they can find to bolster their argument and settle on 1972. Thing is, they understand very little of history, most of them having stopped reading anything but one another in college.

Later he capture this: “White House spokesman Tony Snow put it more succinctly, ‘A white flag [in Iraq] in short means a white flag in the war on terror.'”

Actually, most of the “liberals” I know felt and feel that Iraq is a distraction from the real “war on terror”: the dismantling of al Qaeda and the capture of Osama bin Laden. The failure to capture bin Laden makes us look impotent in the Muslim world.

After five years of the Shrubbery our border’s a sieve; there are minimal cargo inspections; we can’t respond to disasters; the military is broken; and we are several trillion dollars further in debt. Why would any sane individual want to continue on this course?

In June it was the RCMP and CSIS in Canada and now it’s the Metropolitan Police Services and MI5 in the United Kingdom who are blocking “terrorist plots.”

Terrorism is a crime. When criminal investigations are conducted in accordance with existing procedures, the criminals are caught. There is no meaningful difference between al Qaeda and other “crime families.”

Computer Room Security

I’ll protect them.

[Editor: Sox assumed guard over the latest manual Ringo knocked off the desk and my moccasins when he heard there was heightened security.

Friday Ark

Every time I give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they will catch up with reality when things calm down, I see something that makes me think it isn’t the “fog of war”, it’s the steaming mist hovering over another pile of bovine excrement.

The Israelis apparently decided to send the deputy chief of staff to the north because they were planning this: Israel approves deeper offensive.

So far the “moles” are winning in this obscene version of “whack-a-mole” that the IDF is playing along the Lebanese border. With all of their firepower they can’t really control the villages just over the border. At this point the villages are nothing more than piles of rubble, but the “moles” keep popping up and destroying armored vehicles.

If the Israelis push in with a huge force, the “moles” will stay underground, pop up when the army has passed to re-supply from the Israeli trucks, and strand the army against the Litani River.

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What’s with the Department of Homeland Security warning Windows users to install the latest patches?  They can’t do their own job so why are they issuing reminders for Bill Gates?

Badtux strikes again with Whine, whine, whine.

The Republicans are halving the budget for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. Because of “budget constraints” and the need to preserve Paris Hilton’s sense of entitlement they are cutting the budget from $14 million dollars last year to $7 million dollars this year to treat the returning casualties from the Shrubbery’s great adventures.

The perceptive penguin notes that ADM is getting $4 billion dollars worth of corn subsidies this year and wonders why no one thought to move $7 million from that fund to provide for people injured in service to the country. I would wonder why the “supermarket to the world” needs a government welfare check? Why don’t they get a job like the rest of us? Haven’t they heard of the free market?

I was listening to Fresh Air tonight and the first guest was intriguing. His voice reminded me a little of Truman Capote and he was talking about the Lebanon situation.

Augustus Richard Norton (Ph.D., University of Chicago)(Colonel, US Army retired) is a Professor in the Departments of International Relations and Anthropology at Boston University. He taught at West Point, served two tours in Vietnam, and was stationed in southern Lebanon. He also seems to be a “go to pundit” on Shi’ia issues.

He was interviewed by Harper’s and written an opinion piece, Time won’t help Israel disarm Hizbullah, for the Christian Science Monitor.

His bottom line could be summarized as: the US and Israel seem to be doing everything they can to help Iran and make Hizbullah the most popular party in the Islamic world.

On the military side he thinks Hizbullah is going to be able to finance itself in the future by running training seminars for insurgents on how to defeat a regular military force on a budget.

In 1968 the Democrats had a problem with an unpopular war and the Republicans won by promising peace. Tricky Dick “had a plan.” In 1972 Nixon still had a plan, and everyone wanted the war over. Nixon was talking about ending the draft and the draw down of troops.

The two elections are tied together, as many felt that Nixon had made some progress and just needed more time.

If we re-run the 1968 election today, it’s the Republicans in power, and they take the hit.

I was there and I voted in those elections. It’s the Republicans who are in trouble if we revisit 1968.  I expect we’ll hear a lot about that election because there are Republicans who understand who’s in trouble, but will try to bury the reality, as always.

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! according to the Shrubbery…

While the nation remains at the

alert level, flights to the United Kingdom are raised to the

alert level, and flights from the United Kingdom ARE RAISED TO

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Athenae makes a great point in her look at the Lamont campaign: more floats.

If I had the time and money, Jeff Miller would not go anywhere in the district without something like this following him around.

I’d probably add a few oily hand prints on the truck to go with a series of short hits:

Miller prefers:

• Corporations over Cobia
• Tar balls over Turtles
• Petroleum over Porpoises
• Natural Gas over Nature’s Grace
• Profits over Paradise

Just a few reminders of his vote on offshore drilling.

John McKay at archy is approaching his half century and is hoping to achieve 75K hits before then, a couple of weeks. He wants to do it “honestly”, not multiple visits from the same people. If you haven’t dropped by in a while make the effort – the “50” makes people weird so it could get interesting.

I’ve added Anecdotes from a Banana Republic, a Lebanese Riverbend to the roll. She lives in Beirut and has a sense of humor about a very unfunny situation.

Juan Cole on the Connecticut primary: Lieberman’s Defeat

Finally, it is important because whether or not the liberal blogosphere played a significant role in dumping him, many will say that it did. Being perceived as powerful is almost as good as being powerful.

For those who live on another planet, Lieberman is not exactly a champion for the First Amendment or women’s rights, and aligns with Perle, Feith, et al. on foreign policy.

Anne Garrels [one of the best foreign correspondents ever] mentioned this earlier on All Things Considered and now the Houston Chronicle has the AP story: New Israeli general oversees Lebanon.

The last time the Israelis did this was when the Egyptians were given the IDF problems in the Yom Kippur War. Sending in Major General Moshe Kaplinski to “assist” Major General Udi Adam, the current commander of the northern front, is not a good sign.

Back in mid July Juan Cole provided me with the epiphany that produced Of Course.

My thoughts are reinforced and [backed up with a lot of maps] by the News Hounds with the article, You Can’t Drink Mud and Salt.

It really points out what the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms are really about, as well as my thoughts on the West Bank and southern Lebanon.