I was going to write something about the end of the first week of the Israeli insanity, but EBW at Wampum saved me the effort by writing A minor problem of (political) targeting.

One thing he didn’t write about was why Hamas won the election that the Shrubbery demanded the Palestinians hold. The answer is simple: corruption.

The Fatah party was as corrupt as Tammany Hall under Boss Tweed. If it weren’t for Israel, they would probably be the most corrupt party in the Middle East. [Did you forget that Olmert has resigned to spend more time with his defense attorneys; that the President of Israel was replaced for inappropriate behavior; Sharon’s problems?]

Hamas was providing the social services that the Palestinian Authority under Fatah was being paid to provide, but wasn’t. When they entered the voting booths in a monitored free and fair election that Fatah couldn’t rig, Palestinians threw the bums out. With Fatah controlling everything, it was impossible to gauge how truly ticked off the Palestinians were. The prevailing “wisdom” was that Hamas would make some gains, which would frighten Fatah into being more pliant in negotiations. Just another Hedgemony failure.

If you have never read George Washington’s Farewell Address, you really should. Unlike the clowns who appear on talk shows these days, George understood what could go wrong, and warned against it two centuries ago.

In paragraph 17 of the linked version he describes the Hedgemony. He knew that if we weren’t careful this would happen, and he lays it out.

Paragraph 29 is a very succinct statement of why public education is important to the country.

In paragraph 33 he explains why the current state of US-Israeli relations is a terrible idea.

He told us this would happen, and we went ahead and did it anyway.  Isn’t it amazing on how many points “liberals” agree with him, and “conservatives” do the opposite of what he counseled?

Catnip Napping

Not the flash, man…

[Editor: I told Sox it was organic and he should go easy, but, hey, it was New Year’s.

Friday Ark