No Levees

You knew it, right? You knew when Georgie noticed the devastation of the Gulf Coast and watched as there was a political mess attached to the human tragedy and then acted, you knew it was all for the cameras, right? After all, if he'd cared an actual non-political whit for the Americans suffering in New Orleans, he never would have let it all fall to pieces in the first place. He might even have asked a single question during his video-conference briefing.

But the reconstruction of the city of New Orleans was a purely political project, as are all ventures for the unitary executive. Really, since his deepest commitment to humans is in their torture and illegal confinement, the suffering in the Big Easy is just more of the same. Whether it's foreigners or terrorists or anybody, if they're not scions of wealth or hereditary corporate nobility, they're just policy fodder.

Bonds

He's back! George Mitchell, the former Senate Majority Leader from back when we had a constitutional government and a Congress that did things other than say "yup" to a water-headed executive, will lead the commission that will look into Barry Bonds' (and other players') alleged steroid use. Go George!

Mitchell was my political hero for a long time. A Maine kid who became a judge and then a Senator, was a very powerful Senate Majority Leader. His power came from his ability to form coalitions and create consensus. He was the one politician to stand up to grandstanding neocon criminal Ollie North.

"It is possible for an American to disagree with you on aid to the contras and still love God and still love this country just as much as you do. . . . In America, disagreement with the policies of the Government is not evidence of lack of patriotism. Though often asked, God does not take sides in American politics"

He retired from the Senate, he said, because he believes politicians should no be in power for life. It's too bad - we could use him in Washington now more than ever. When was the last time we had a real Statesman in Washington - in any role?

And now he's out to clean up baseball. Good. MLB Commissioner Bug Selig has all the credibility of a used car salesman. Mitchell's leadership means that the investigation will be real and the results valid.

Which begs the question: why bother? For many years, there were no rules against performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Even after many steroids were banned, there was no testing until recently. What exactly are they out to prove? And if they are able to prove that a BALCO-type drug company sold steroids to Bonds, what then?


Is Barry Bonds "Unforgivably Black?" He's certainly made no friends in the media and among many fans of the sport. Does he have to? Does a Black athlete need to ingratiate himself to fans and the media to avoid investigation of past indiscretion?

Possibly. But there's little doubt from all indications that Bonds did something to pump himself up. His late career resurgence on the field and his increase in bulk and large-headedness after age 30 mean that something happened.

Ruth never used anything but beer to pump himself up, and Hammerin' Hank Aaron got the all-time record through a long and steady career of excellence - 23 years and he never hit more than 44 homers in a season. Bonds hit between 24 and 46 homers a year until 2000. Since then he's hit 49, 73, 46, 45, and 45.

Tainted? Maybe - that's up to Mitchell to discover. But, assuming he's clean now and will never fail a drug test, what's he guilty of? If he juiced, he's not the only one. Do we need to know? Do we need to start putting asterisks next to all the names of juicers from baseball's past? If so, they'll be the only sport to do it.

In the end, Bonds may well have been unlikeably, unforgivably Black.

Caspar

I was just reading the WaPo obit for Reagan Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger. Old Cap was Secretary from 1981 to 1987, and ruled over the largest peace-time arms build-up in the history of man. I mean, dogs were carrying M-60 machineguns under Cap. In his previous OMB job he was known as "Cap the Knife" for his savage budget cutting - and there are lots of kids who grew up without school lunches and health care who I'm sure would love to get out from under their bridges and go to his funeral. As Sec o'Defense, he morphed into "Cap the Shovel" for his lavish spending. Yes, trillions for guns, not a penny for butter.

But what struck me was the passage in the obit that talked about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. If you recall, Ronnie sold weapons to Iran (to support their war effort against Iraq a few years after the Hostage Crisis) and turned the money over to the Nicaraguan Contras. Cap hid his notes about the whole thing and was indicted for obstructing justice until Poppy pardoned him.

But here's the line in the obit:

"After he left office, Mr. Weinberger became a leading figure in the Iran-contra affair, in which U.S. officials covertly sold arms to Iran to win the release of U.S. hostages in the Middle East and used some of the profits to support Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras. This went against stated U.S. policy."

No. It did not go "against stated U.S. policy." It went against U.S. law. Congress passed a law making it illegal for the executive to support the Contras. A Law. When Ronnie got Ollie North and friends to circumvent that law, they were guilty of a crime.

That was back when Americans like Sen. Mitchell of Maine were willing to bring an out-of-control executive to account. Are we so far past the rule of the Constitution that we can't even call past crimes what they were? Do we have to parse them out to "against policy?"

Congress makes the laws and the executive must obey them. That's how the U.S. became the greatest democracy and economic engine in human history. When we turn the whole operation over to dictatorial ideologues, we cripple ourselves. There are lots of tinplate dictatorships in the dustbin of history.

Shall we now join them?

Blackbird

I saw a red wing blackbird this morning, the first time this year. I wonder about that name - how many names are so literal? Okay, 'woodpecker,' it pecks wood, but what does it look like? No such mystery with the red wing blackbird. You'd think it would have evoked a more poetic response from Audubon (or whoever named it). The red is a startling, cardinal-like colour, and the black is a deep jet black, not a dingy black like a crow.

As I watched the bird fly, I thought: "should I make this bird my chief of staff? It's close to me. I know its name and I know what it looks like. It won't have any new ideas or any disloyal inkling that everything I've done is wrong."

Okay, I didn't think that. I thought: "nice bird."

I hadn't yet seen the news that Andy Card finally resigned. Andy Card, Chief of Staff for the whole Junta disaster. Andy Card, the first guy on Brownie's speed dial when the levees broke. Apparently he didn't take the event any more seriously than his boss, and went off to pluck a guitar or humiliate naked prisoners somewhere - anywhere.
Take any of the disasters of the Junta, and there's an Andy Card appearance. He's been a good soldier for Georgie, making sure to never make a correct decision and never correct a bad decision. Of course, we'll get the whole story when the Democratic Congress convicts him of Treason.

But who will replace him? Some top government management professional, a tough inside/outside operator who can see Georgie through the troubled days of 33% approval ratings? You got somebody like that within pissing distance of the Oval Office?

Clearly not. So the new Chief of Staff will be Josh Bolten, head of the Office of Management and Budget. Bolten's got two things going for him, big time. First - the same last name (and darned near the same first name) as national disgrace/UN Ambassador John Bolten.

Second, Georgie already knows him, so he won't have to meet anyone new or hear a new idea, ever! Look at it this way: if people outside the White House were all that hot, they'd be in the White House already. White House staff are like a feeder system for White House staff. The second charges are laid or a person resigns in disgrace and deep shame - bang! The next guy from the next door down is there to take his place.

Why do you think they hired so many empty-headed ideologues in the first place? Right - you can never have enough.

More

It's Monday, so let's have a fresh crack at the Junta, shall we? For today, we can skip the current bad acts and have a look at the new bad acts that are surfacing. It's going to be interesting for the next few years, to see what sort of decomposing fecal matter we can reveal as we turn over the rocks. Today, it's back to the Iraq war lies.

The New York Times is reporting a new memo from Britain. Apparently, Georgie and Condo had a meeting with Brit PM Tony Blair and his people early in 2003, explaining

The only real solution is an outbreak of Americanism by Americans. Only when voters take this stuff seriously will Congress be forced to act. But when will that happen? Can that happen at all?
Because one of the founding principles of neo-Juntaism is disinformation. And they're very very good at it. They have been able to spin and lie their way around impeachable offenses for five years now.

People can't make informed decisions because they're being lied to all the time. The media - as we all know - has been willing enrolees in the system. Even Democrats in Congress - led by 'Dem in name only' Lieberman - have allowed the worst parts of the Junta policy to slide.
There are no 'red states' and 'blue states.' There are only 'believers' and 'non-believers.'

I've got to go back to writing about sports.

Roster

Since I'm in absolutely no mood to shine the light of truth on the Junta today, let's look at the Patriots roster and what we may need from free agency and the draft to get back to our Super Bowl (and it is ours, don't let anybody tell you different).

QB - You're kidding, right? A hernia-free Brady will challenge for the MVP.

RB - All we need is Corey Dillon, but will he be there? He was seriously dinged up last year, after his 1,600 yards the year before. Uber Coach Belichick went into the season with only three backs (Dillon, Kevin Faulk, and Patrick Pass), and their injuries seriously slowed us down. Is more depth the answer, or perhaps some younger legs to spell the old men? Still, RB's are plentiful on the FA market, so don't look for a big move here. I'd expect one or two veteran free agents and a second-day draft pick.

WR - With the FA loss of David Givens, we do need some help here. Perhaps if Bethel Johnson could grow past his teen years we'd be okay. Givens was a tough-blocking possession guy with good hands, and is replaceable. I'd look for a mid-level free agent and a late first-day draft pick here.

TE - Lots of good TE's around camp - we're set here and can expect to see many more Ben Watson hightlights if he can stay healthy.

OL - We picked up two very good OL's in the draft last year - Logan Mankins and (Canadian) Nick Kazcur. If Matt Light can return from his broken leg, Kazcur can move to RT and put Brandin Gorin back on the bench (backing up both tackle spots). We also need to get Dan Koppen back from injury, and re-sign Stephen Neal at OG, but we are okay here and won't need to spend a first day pick. Belichick likes to have young OL to develop, though, so don't be surprised if he takes a guy on the second day.

DL - No problem here, other than Richard Seymour's contract. He's the best DL in the game and they need a way to pay him. NT Vince Wilfork is a growing force, and Ty Warren continues to improve. Depth could be an issue, and Belichick usually brings in a number of FA bodies to test at training camp. Jarvis Green gives them a solid backup in the 3-4 and a quality starter when they go 4-3, but you can never have enough depth. We're still waiting for 2005 second-rounder Marquis Hill to make his mark.

LB - Trouble. Willie McGinest free-agented to Cleveland, and Tedy Bruschi, while a fine starter after his return, has too many health questions to rely on for a whole season. Mike Vrable is more than solid, and Rosy Colvin should be back to 100% after his hip injury two years ago. Monty Beisel was not the answer at ILB last year (and shot his mouth off), but can be a good cog in the machine. With a year in the system, he might actually know what he's doing. Same goes for Chad Brown, though at his age he might just put his hand on the ground as a pass-rushing DE. Normally I'd say look for a first-day pick here, but Belichick doesn't like rookie LB's. I'd say more likely look for a mid- to upper-level free agent pick-up and a couple of picks in or after the third round (I know, that's first day - let's say late first day or after).

DB - More trouble. For some reason, DB's just can't stay healthy on this team. They need to carry like 20 of them to field four consistently. They re-signed Artrell Hawkins - a CB capably playing SS - and have Eugene Wilson (a corner playing FS), Randall Gay, Asante Samuel, and Ellis Hobbs. That's a good start, but who is the shut-down corner? Who is the lock-on guy for crunch time? And will Rodney Harrison come back and play anything like he did the past few years? Stay tuned, but look for help to arrive.

The whole defense suffered last year because the starters were gone, and then the back-ups, and then their back-ups. The team was starting a number of 'street' guys, who hadn't been at training camp. They suffered for lack of knowledge of the scheme in mid-season, but were a threat by playoff time because they understood, finally, what was expected of them.

Special Teams - Desperately Seeking Kicker. The loss of K Adam Vinatieri to the Colts hurt. Josh Miller is a fine punter, so we're fine there. Tim Dwight is gone from the return game, but that's okay because one of the young DB's or WR's will be fine there. Look for them to sign an experienced kicker - there's no way they go into the season with a rookie.

There you go. The needs are mostly on defense - starting LB, starting DB, backup DL. Offense needs help at WR and RB, but less urgently.

Adam

Let it not be said that I allowed the defection of Adam Vinatieri to pass unmarked. In this season of New England sports discontent, this may well be the most painful cut.

Gone, already, are Willie McGinest and David Givens. Still shopping with little seeming intent to stop in New England is the great Troy Brown. Wither the Patriots?

For all the cuts and defections, the Vinatieri move to the Colts stings especially sharply. The Colts are our once and future rivals for the conference championship. They've consistently played media darling and gamblers' favorite before succombing to our true inner deep vein of quality.

But now they've hired that quality. And it's a lot like Johnny "Judas" Damon's defection to the hated Yankees. Although the Patriots are more like the Yankees in this scenario - the Colts will be 'rivals' when they beat us once when it counts.

But they're closer to doing that today than they were yesterday. Already, Ron Borges is writing with unrestrained glee about what a bad person Bill Belichick is. After all, he makes Ron look bad every time he types about football.

Had there been no Vinatieri in those [Championship] games, one has to wonder, would so many residents of Patriot Nation still be chanting ''In Bill we trust, In Bill we trust"? Especially as one familiar face after another leaves without a goodbye call to their former boss?

No, Ron, and put your tongue back in your head. If the Colts had Bronco Nagurski they would have beat us. If Tony Dungy was 60 feet tall he could block field goals. And if your boy Drew Bledsoe was in town he'd have done just as well as Brady, right? Please.

And they didn't call. Wow. Not like it's a business or anything. I guess all that warm and fuzzy "feelings first" stuff that Belichick talks is a lie. Or is it?

But bashing Borges is dull - he's paid to be wrong, and he earns every penny. So be it.

While I'm sad to see him go, I do believe in Bill. And that's not sentimental or mushy in any way. It's just a clear realization that there is no more proven a coach and head office combination that New England. Belichick and Scott Pioli are still there. And they are making the decisions now - just as they have through the unbelieveable three-championships-and-counting run that they are on.

Why join Borges in the loser's circle when there's a seat waiting on the championship deck for you?

Back to Adam: we will sure miss him. He was key to our victories. He's a kicker who real players see as a real player.

I remember back in the mid-90's, when we were playing Dallas (Thanksgiving?), Vinatieri kicked off to Hershal Walker - a 250 lb world%

Oh Canada, Oh Harper

So it's started in Canada. Not so long after being sworn in as Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has gagged his cabinet. No more talking about what government is doing or wants to do. No more discussions of plans with the media - and with the voting public.

It's step one in the Karl Rove governing playbook. The less they know, the more opportunity you have to install the grossly unpopular laws of the radical right. Harper denied being a "stealth candidate" with a hidden agenda during the recent campaign. And his first rule as Prime Minister is to hide everything.

After all, if you want to dismantle the social safety net and undermine universal health care, the best place to do it from is the back room. What is it, after all, that he doesn't want his ministers saying?

Okay, sure, his Foreign Minister is Peter MacKay, one of the dumbest and most treacherous waterheads in Canadian politics. MacKay was the guy who was voted in as PC party leader - and then promptly sold the party out to the radical rightist Western Alliance party. Thanks, Pete.
MacKay immediately made his irreversible boneheadedness clear when he made some off-the-cuff hopeful statements about Canadian hostages in Iraq.

"MacKay told the Canadian Press he was hopeful after seeing a recent videotape showing the four human rights workers, including the two Canadians."

But, hey Pete: you're Foreign Affairs Minister now, not just a Nova Scotia dope-of-the-day politician. When you say things like that, people think you know something. Hopefully the gaffe was enough to prove that Pete never knows anything.

And with a cabinet rife with Alliance party extremist rejects, it's crucial for Harper to shut them up before they start talking about what his real agenda is. Because they're proud of it, and they will talk, if you let them.

Stockwell Day, former Alliance Leader and all-around yabo, is now Minister of Public Safety. His agenda probably reads like Mussolini's 1934 to-do list. "9:00 - round up undesirables. 10:00 - get quotes on barbed wire by the mile. 10:45 - facial."

But you'll never hear that from Day, as his pronouncements must now go through the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day announced today that he will "make stuff safer."

And maybe that's the difference that will save Canada. A new study shows that Canadians are not very scared of terrorists. The American Junta has ridden the fear wave to all of their post-2000 electoral "success." But that won't work for Harper - yet.

The study was done by the federal government in the wake of the 7-7 attacks in London. But they're the perfect fodder for these Conservatives. The results kick off the conversation they want to have - the more you talk about what you need to fear, the more it's on your mind and the more you fear it.

And that's the next step in the playbook - generate fear. He won't need an actual attack. Just the threat of one. I'm sure HSD Secretary Michael Chertoff can oblige with some urgent alerts about border security. The key will be to get Canadian cities locked down and scared.

Will Canadians be as guided by their basest instincts as Americans have been?

Stay tuned.

Evidence

Don't miss this: in the ongoing bungle of a death penalty trial for the insanely bloodthirsty Zacarias Moussaoui - who is not a mass murderer only because of his colossal incompetence and through no lack of inhuman murderous intent - FBI Agent Harry Samit has testified that he did, in fact, try to warn his superiors about Moussaoui's intent. More than 70 times. He raised the alarm about hijackings by al Qaeda terrorists before 9-11 to anyone in the Justice Department who would listen. None of them did.

This is not, as it seems to be playing out, a story of FBI stonewalling. There was a very good reason why nobody listened: the Junta. When they stole the 2000 election, they were determined to reverse the course of the country. All the security and prosperity of the Clinton years was to be smashed and used as landfill. Anything that Clinton considered important was to be downgraded to 'immediately ignore' status. And more than that - it was made clear that careers could be ruined by the pursuit of reality-based topics not on the neocon agenda.

So Dick Cheney formed an anti-terror committee that never met. And the administration's national security focus was moved from 'get bin Laden' to 'anti-missile defense.' Condo Rice was to give a speech on the morning of 9-11. The topic: a new anti-missile shield. Of course, that technology still doesn't work despite the $10 billion spent, and it won't work after the rest of the scheduled $100 billion is spent. And we still have no enemies who possess ballistic missiles.

So when Harry Samit attempted to raise the alarm about a terrorist attack, it was so yesterday. I mean, Clinton and Gore were totally hands-on with the terror threat - actually stopping the al Qaeda Millennium Bomber - so the new broom wanted none of it. Richard Clarke has described it in detail - the new Junta didn't just ignore terror threats, they actively dismissed them.

Oh, they've tried to blame the CIA and the FBI for missing all the signs, but it always comes back to them. They decided that terrorism wouldn't be seen or heard. Their version of reality was - and remains - based on Cold War style threats. Even their new anti-terror activities are based on old logic: go after terror countries of convenience. And more pragmatically, use terror as an excuse to pull off an Iraqi invasion and quash civil liberties at home.

The Samit testimony is another nail in the coffin they've built for the American Dream. And in a democracy, it alone would be enoug to launch Congressional investigations into the pre-9-11 anti-terror bungling.

But the 9-11 Commission has spoken. Mistakes were made, and that's it.

Is there no one to charge criminal negligence?

Snatching

More and more, Junta officials are sounding like the South Park depiction of Saddam Hussein. "Don't worry guy, lighten up. Look over there!" On the third anniversary of the Iraqi invasion, they all stepped out from behind the curtain to reassure a sceptical public that everything in Iraq was just peachy, and it's just the nay-sayers in the press making it seem like that country is circling the bowl toward the septic tank of civil war.

"Hey, relax, guy!"

If this was the plan - if indeed there was a plan, it would certainly make an interesting read. Step one: invade with 20% of the necessary troop strength. Step two: do not provide law enforcement on the street - allow looting and revenge killings. Step three: do not replace any of the infrastructure that was destroyed in the war and the sanctions that preceded it. Step four: deny that the first three steps happened.

That's it, and if you don't like it, well, you must hate America. Apparently, on the planet the Junta is running, the Insurgency and the Civil War are simply not happening. Never mind the daily casualties and ongoing bloodshed. Certainly, you can't mind the bodies of our heroic KIA's who are shipped home to their families as freight.

A real newsman asked Dick Cheney a real question about all this - certainly a rare occasion. It went something like this:

"Cheney also dismissed a statement by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who said the war in Iraq should never have been fought: "I would not look to Ted Kennedy for guidance and leadership on how we ought to manage national security. . . . I think what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11 mentality about how we ought to deal with the world and that part of the world."

But CBS anchor Bob Schieffer bluntly challenged Cheney on his own string of prognostications, such as his pre-invasion assertion that U.S. troops would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators and, 10 months ago, that the insurgency was in its "last throes."

Cheney replied that those statements were "basically accurate and reflect reality," but that public perceptions of Iraq's progress are being skewed "because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad."

Huh?

Since when did Cheney start talking about "reality?" In a world where a guy apologizes for getting shot by the Veep, what does "reality" have to do with anything?

But to Lord Cheney, predictions that Iraqis would greet American troops as "liberators" and that the Insurgency is in its "last throes" are "accurate and reflect reality." Where do you start with that one? Simply put, it's not at all true. And, just as simply, Cheney knows it's not true.

Apparently, there is a rule about Vice Presidential dissembling: it must be constant, and it must be obvious.

I was watching Blazing Saddles last night, and it was striking how similar Georgie is to Gov. William LePetomaine (played by Mel Brooks). Constantly lost and misguided, always ready to give a political speech, he is easily led by the unscrupulous Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The idea of installing Bart (Cleavon Little) as Sherriff of Rock Ridge is insane - until Hedley "Rove" Lamarr points out that there is a political advantage in the move. Never mind that it's certain to get Bart killed.

"Let see, land snatching, land snatching. See: Snatching."

Revolt!

"Hill Rebellion was Long Brewing." What? There's been a rebellion on the Hill? Was it that Skywalker kid? Because I knew he was trouble. Really, what "rebellion" are they talking about?

Sure, there was the Dubai ports thing, but that was just self-preservation. If the Republicans in Congress had allowed that deal to go through, they'd have been strung up and horse-whipped by their redneck constituents. And lets face it - the Junta would never have permitted the deal to go forward if they'd ever heard if it. Since their raison d'etre is wild incompetence and laziness, of course the deal was approved and never examined.

But that's not the point. The point is that any talk of a 'Congressional revolt' against their Master in the White House is pure bunk. Isn't that a resolution to legalize the warrantless NSA wiretaps? That's just mommy-ing. Like when your kids spills his milk and mommy comes and cleans it up and hands back the bottle. "Don't break the law now, Little Georgie! You already did? Okay, I'll make it all legal again."

A "Rebellion?" At this point, I'd settle for a polite note of refusal. I mean, before you get to rebelling, surely you must once act against the party in authority.

Georgie continues to get his way on everything. If Congress is polishing few apples, they are certainly not slowing down the Junta machine. His tax cuts continue to impoverish the impoverished. His military adventure continues to take lives - and to be paid for outside the budget, so he can lie about both. What is it, exactly, that they want to do but can't?

The answer, of course, is "nothing." The Washington Post is once again the propaganda arm of the Junta. Their message is clear: give Congress some wiggle room around Georgie's rock-bottom approval ratings. Allow them to seem like they're resisting, when in fact they're just as limp and useless as they were in 2001.

Even the ports 'revolt.' It would not surprise me in the least if Darth Rove had come up with that one himself to give his Congress an example to use in their re-election campaign. It's a wonderful straw man to make the Congress look good, but allow Georgie to play the 'we don't hate Arabs just because we kill them by the truckload every day' argument.

Willie

Willie McGinest ended his 12-year career as a New England Patriot yesterday, signing a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns. He'd been released by the Patriots shortly after the new CBA was approved so the team could avoid paying him a $7 million bonus. And now I'm all sad.

McGinest was a true team player. Wait a minute - it's not an obit. I feel like he's lost, so I'm a bit in mourning. McGinest IS a true team player. He 'brings it' on the field and in the locker room. The Boston Globe reported a couple of years ago that when Bethel Johnson and a couple of other young players were horsing around in the locker room, playing basketball with a ball of tape and a laundry bin, Willie took their ball and told them: 'go read your playbook.'

And, by the account, none of the brash youngsters said a word. You don't back-talk Willie McGinest in his house.

During the improbable run to the Patriots Super Bowl 36 victory, there had been media reports that the Steelers had been given a day off for players to make hotel and other plans for the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Bill Belichick cleverly used that for motivation - though it was a fairly normal thing to do in the NFL.

And I'll never forget the sideline shot of Willie, as the game was ending, shouting at anybody who would listen: "Cancel those reservations! Cancel all those reservations!"

Originally a pass rushing outside linebacker drafted out of USC by Bill Parcells, McGinest was switched to a pass-rushing end by 1996. He keyed their unsuccessful Super Bowl run that season, but suffered some nagging injuries the next few years. Playing the 'elephant' DE spot for Pete Carroll's 4-3, McGinest was solid but didn't stand out.

Belechick's arrival rejuvenated his career, putting him back in the 3-4 OLB spot where he'd started his career. As a leader and a big-game player, he made some spectacular contributions to the three-time champion Patriots.

In their last (latest) Super Bowl victory over the Eagles, the coaching staff decided that a 4-3 front would be more effective against the Eagles offense. Even though they hadn't played a 4-3 all year, and that sort of drastic change is unheard of in the NFL, Belichick and staff installed it - and called it the "Calley" defense. Why? Because it was built around McGinest, a USC California guy.

The defensive coach who created that scheme - Romeo Crennell - is now the head coach in Cleveland. And that's where Willie's headed.

So hail and farewell, mighty warrior! You will be missed!

And he never stopped being "Willie." I kept waiting for him to request the public name change to "William," but it never happened.

Proposal

I was contemplating the problem we have and will continue to have for many years in Iraq. Already, Georgie is making 'cut and run' noises, and will no doubt make a token troop reduction before the 2006 elections to help himself politically - because domestic politics trumps all. But shortly after that, we'll be right back there, 138,000 or more American troops fighting Vietnam all over again. They walk into a village and 'liberate' it, then walk out as the insurgency pours in behind them.

Certainly it's a waste of American lives, and just as importantly it's a waste of Iraqi lives. Every day you read in the paper that another batch of executed corpses has been 'discovered,' and that another car bomb has exploded - killing the innocent and guilty alike. There is no resolution to the sectarian violence, and impending civil war. The only realistic hope is that in 30 years they'll get sick of nailing each other to the floor, like the Irish did (or may have done).

Certainly Rummy's surreality-based DoD has not the first clue what to do about it. It's their mess, and now even the neocons are saying we should get out because it's been so badly mangled. Boy, that's neocons for you - no staying power. They chose the war, but since nation-building is actual work they're just not up to it. Maybe all those State Department peaceniks were right and they should have used the huge multi-faceted exhaustively-researched plan to rebuild Iraq that Rummy had torn into strips and used as bog paper?

Maybe.

But since the neocons have brought us low with their refusal to accept the reality of reality, here's a modest and surreal proposal for getting out of Iraq today:

Let's hire the Israelis to take over the occupation.

Look: The IDF has lots of people - there are over 2 million Israeli men and women who are considered capable of taking up arms. And they're all trained through their mandatory service in arms. So, for them, peeling off 138,000 - or more realistically 300,00 or 400,000 - troops is not a huge problem.

Everybody already hates Israel, so their status in the world wouldn't change. They know how to run a country and an economy. What do you want to bet they'd have the power and sewage working inside a month?

Best of all, they operate in the real world. They don't put thousands of lives on the chopping block for some notional theory about war-fighting like Rummy does. They can't afford to be that deluded and bloody.

Their forces could be replaced in Israel by EU troops - not Americans. US forces would be targets there and we'd be no better off. Troops from the EU would be treated as friends - they don't mind watching Jews die. They've proved that time and time again. They'd have to be under Israeli military command, or else they'd quickly turn into terrorists themselves. But they would understand, finally, that if they let the barbarians through the gate, there's no place to retreat to. They'd have to stand and fight.

Georgie likes to outsource jobs to India and ports to Dubai, so he can outsource this whole mess to Israel. Pay them on a cost-plus basis. Hell, they'd have to be cheaper than Halliburton.
If Israel took over, they would be doing it with a clear benefit to their country in money and security. That's a lot more than any American can say about this debacle.

So think it over. I think we can talk terms...

Back

I was thinking about earlier eras of retrenchment in American history. After the progressive era, there was a backlash. And after FDR, Truman, and WWII, America turned to Joe McCarthy and Ike. The turbulent 70's and Jimmy Carter resulted in a backslide with Ronnie Reagan and Big George. Every time the US has made social and economic progress, there have been powerful conservative forces to make us poorer and meaner.

But perhaps it was the Clinton progressiveness that was the worst of all. Clinton proved to be both popular and successful. The economy was never as strong - ever - as in the Clinton years. And the gap between rich and poor never narrowed so much. Culturally, we moved from being horrified at Murphy Brown's single parenthood to laughing Will & Grace. Well, not laughing that much, but you get the point.

and then there was the technology. I was talking to my good friend Mike M (I'll perceive your anonymity) who is a prof. at UCB. We were in grad school together when Mike bought his first computer - a Franklin IBM clone with one floppy drive, no hard drive, 256k RAM (that's 256 _K_), and a massive 4.77 mhz processor.

There are greeting cards with more computing power these days.

I had an Apple IIE clone (yes, Franklin cloned the Apple IIE as well - now they're making 'bunker buster' bombs) which I bought just for grad school. I don't even know how "powerful" that was.

Point is, he and I did our undergrad studies without a computer. The only computer available then was the mainframe, and that was strictly for nerds.

But over the Clinton Era, not only did we see social progress, but technology changed our lives in a very fundamental way. Watch a TV show from the 90's - you won't see a computer on anyone's desk. They are talked about like 'those infernal machines.' It was even wors in the 80's - computers were going to come alive and take over the world. It was us or them.

And in the 70's we had the "North Dallas 40" approach. "Not one of you [players] is as good as this machine." Computers were strangely powerful and incomprehensible - they were a threat.

By the time Georgie and the throwbacks arrived, we were due for a historic retrenchment. It hasn't been just economic growth and societal advances that 'need' to be withdrawn, but the very fabric of modern life. It's all been too much too soon. We don't want to order pizza on the internet.

But for all the grass roots rejection of modernity, the Luddites could n't have conceived of a George W. Bush. Here is the figurehead of destruction. Here is the extreme right fascistic leader who will burn the modern world and see us back into time, back into the days of Ike - and even earlier.

Here is the president who will repeal FDR. His reactionary forces are leading us back to the Industrial Revolution, where child labour drive the engine that makes rich men richer and poor men dead. Too much? Who was the Jack Abramoff client that's been burning all the rightists who played ball with them? Right - the Marshall Islands. And what did the Marshall Islands pay Abramoff to help them keep?

Sweat shops. Child labour. No worker rights. Early death and blacklung.

Welcome to 2006.

Isolate

Fascinating. Now it's isolationism. Don't get all isolationist! That would be bad. Stay engaged with the world, don't turn inward. It was in the State of the Union address and now it's resurfacing as a talking point for Georgie all over the place. But what exactly does he mean?

His entire presidency has been a colossal effort to isolate the US. Since WWII, the US has been anything but isolationist. We've led the world - not always in the right direction, for sure, but we've been engaged everywhere. Every important decision has had our stamp on it one way or another. We created the UN and have pushed for safety through internationalism. It's been our collective belief that we are more secure when bound to others. And as the Soviet Union fell, Clinton was wise enough to hold out a hand to the former Soviet states and satellites.

But in the past six years, neoconservative extremists have had their way with our foreign policy. Gone are the ABM treaty - or any other treaty for that matter. No longer are we a partner for peace, trade, and stability. John Bolton is our non-confirmed Ambassador to the UN - a man who dedicated his career to eliminating American treaty obligations. And then there's Iraq, where the US lied about a case for war in order to launch an invasion of choice - and then bungle the whole thing badly.

So, no treaties. Treaties limit our course of action - like invasions of choice. We hamstring the UN - no international unity, please. And Georgie keeps his posture as the 'war president' into perpetuity. So we are at war and must think always in terms of conflict. The conflict is defined so broadly that it can include just about everybody, and is so threatening that we must destroy the fabric of our civilization - our civil liberties - to fight it. Which begs the question of what exactly we're trying to protect.

It's not the Constitution. Little George has made it clear that he considers the old document just a loose guideline. And it's not those civil liberties - they were the first thing to go into the fire after 9-11. The illegal NSA spying policy was authorized just days after the attacks.

No, what the Junta is fighting to keep is their control over the 'homeland' (a word that's always made me a bit uncomfortable). Not our beliefs and not our philosophy and not anything to do with our legitimate democracy. We fight to keep "them" from hurting our people and property.
And maybe that's the whole nut of the Junta. Obviously, Job One to them is gathering power and wealth. But where does that come from?

When I think of America, I think of the great democracy, the mighty historical victories over fascism and communism, and the egalitarian ideals of liberty and freedom.

When they think of America, they see a vast economic engine, a spot of ground, and a mass of unruly people. Their challenge is to harness that engine to their own advantage, rule the people in any way they can (lies, racism - whatever works), and keep the bad guys away from the ground. To do that, the great oceans used to be effective but not so much anymore.

What we've got now, in lieu of vast walls and deep oceans, is a foreign policy that says, in no uncertain terms: FUCK YOU!

Foreign countries are either our valets (Great Britain), our enemies (Iran, North Korea), or suspiciously uncooperative oddities who, let's face it, are probably harbouring al Qaeda fugitives (everybody else). If you're not going to carry water for us, you're in the way and need to be marginalized.

So now we must avoid isolationism? Where could that possibly have come from? The Junta has built their walls. They've spent $10 billion of our hard-earned dollars on an inoperable missile defense shield against a threat from nobody. We don't participate in Kyoto or a thousand other treaties we used to enforce, and we're sure as hell not signing any new ones.

As a backdrop to the most toxic foreign policy in our history, Georgie wants us to not be isolationist. But what does he want? Engagement?

Hardly.

My guess is that this is just another of his Swift Boat responses. While those traitors were smearing John Kerry's good name and record on Georgie's dime, he disavowed them all over the place. "I honor Sen. Kerry's service."

So now Bolton's strangling cats in his UN office and preventing the UN from doing anything at all, and Congress has shut down the Dubai ports sell-off. We're all "safer" at the same time that we've never been in more danger. And Georgie wants to be sure he doesn't get all the blame for making us twitchy and paranoid.

Nice try.

Civil War

Remember the Iraqi Insurgency? The one that's been killing Americans for three years now and was presented as a total surprise to the long-warned White House? You know, like the New Orleans levees that "nobody anticipated" could fail, other than the officials screaming at Georgie "the levees are going to fail!" That insurgency. Well guess what? They are now the other problem in Iraq.

Suck on that, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi!

According to Rummy and his "personal friend and general" John Abizaid, Iraq is headed for that civil war they said wouldn't happen, and that's now Job One. So al-Zarqawi can just get himself a cold one and put his feet up. He won't be needed again until the next act.

Yes, America in its all-too-finite wisdom, has put the least competent government in place that could possibly be charged with running things. Steve Martin would do a better job with Iraq, if only he could be stopped from re-making every movie made in the 1970's. James K. Polk, were he reincarnated today - but with no more technical or scientific knowledge than he had in the 19th century, would run rings around these guys.

Iraqis - and many others - must be wondering how the hell people this stupid could have amassed such power. And surely that's the Junta's most powerful pro-democracy argument: if we can manage it, anyone can. Of course, as we tumble down the slippery slope to fascism, that looks increasingly like what we can expect from any continually-botched 'nation-building' exercise we mount.

So yes, Rummy, there will be a civil war. Remember back when everyone who didn't have gum in their brain pan was telling you that if you cheaped out on Iraqi security you'd have a civil war? Guess what?

And your answer to the impending frenzy of internecine death and destruction? 'Oh, the Iraqi troops will take care of that.' Right.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Oh. Those same Iraqi forces who can't do a thing about the insurgency. The same troops that come from the groups that are about to start fighting in earnest. Those troops.

Rummy and the boys must be proud: they promised they'd make the Insurgency less of a problem, and they've succeeded. By making a bigger problem.

Memo to the rest of the world: we are not all this blind, bloody, and stupid. Only our leaders are.

Deal

Well, they did it. The NFL avoided - for six years - the fate that MLB and the NHL allowed themselves to suffer. There will be labour peace, ownership peace, and fan peace. Team owners found a way to agree to cut up their lucrative pie in a way that made all of them happy - or at least happy enough to sign on the dotted line. And what more happiness is there in life?

The NFL has succeeded in supplanting all other sports as King of America. They've done it largely through the money deals they cut on the heels of their labour struggles in the 1980's - two work stoppages which rightly scared them into a salary cap and free agency.

You have to wonder about the players, though. They make less money than their counterparts in baseball and basketball (and probably NASCAR, but we're talking athletics here, not mechanics), and their contracts carry far less guaranteed money. Plus, their careers are far shorter due to the nearly inhuman brutality of the sport. So where is their big break in the new deal? Couldn't union president Gene Upshaw have shaken the Commish down for a few more mil in his quest to preserve the league?

NFL players are far more regimented than players in any other sport. That's part of their success - they must be team-oriented, or they simply won't succeed. Look at WR Terrell Owens. He is a prancing me-first prima donna. Because he is nearly uncoachable and his team-mates despise him for his selfishness and toxic personality, he was let go by his team mid-season. And they were right to do it. And it was great to see such a loathsome narcissist get a measure of comeuppance.

But… in what other sport have you ever seen a guy - a star player - get cut because he was an uncoachable jerk? Allen Iverson? Barry Bonds? These guys get guaranteed contracts and outlast their coaches. Not in the NFL.
Which is probably a good thing, but when you measure the price NFL players pay in mileage on their bodies to the money they get, you would think their union might have fought a bit harder for them.

But hey, even the low guy on the depth chart is going to make more in a year than I will in a decade, so screw them anyway. The only important part in the equation is the fan base. They (we) are the suckers buying the tickets and the tee shirts. Without us, these guys would have to work for a living. Any work stoppage would have had us saying "gosh, the Jays are looking mighty good this year."

Sports is like the first and best reality TV show. And like that benighted genre, there's always another one on the next channel.

Illegal

How do they do it? How do Junta Senators abdicate their responsibilities to America? I mean they do it every day. It's not that it's particularly surprising that they do it these days. But where did they get the idea that they were elected solely for the purpose of supporting their power cabal at all costs? I mean, don't they have, somewhere, a corner of their soul that belongs to America and not the party?

And I guess that's where the Cult of Personality around the Executive comes in to play. Rove has been able to convince them that it is in the personage of the executive that salvation lies. So it's not just the party, or the K-Street funded Junta itself that commands loyalty above and beyond the nation, but the personage of Imperial Georgie.

NSA warrantless spying is, clearly, illegal. Just as clearly, it falls under the purview of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Now, any American who understands at even a cursory level what their nation is all about would want the Senate to investigate - at the very least. The law has been broken by one of three branches of government. The branch with direct oversight of that branch should do something about it, right? Right?

Nope. Sen. Pat Roberts is just going to give the whole thing a pass. Nothing to see here, move on. Karl Rove has agreed to let a sub-committee review the program. Yay!

Once again we get the illusion of debate without any debate. Maine's "moderate" Republican Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel went along with the Roberts sell-out, so guess what? No investigation. No meaningful oversight. No restraint on executive power. You go ahead and break the law, we'll work overtime to find a way to make it legal.

How did it all get so badly broken in only a few short years?

Debate

As the Grey Lady points out in a sort of State of the Union piece today, the Junta is retrenching in the face of their declining ability to have their lies believed by anyone from the Republican elite to Joe Sixpaque. It's always been the basis of whatever 'successes' they've had (meaning political success, not ever any real-world success) that they've lied to the public and to lawmakers to push through destructive programs. As the lie machine is increasingly off the mark, and the polls plummet to new depths, the Junta retreats further to the one and only strategy it's ever really used: executive unilateralism.

In each case, the limited power that the executive was meant to wield has turned into a massive over-reach, to the point where Georgie will soon be putting the crown on his own head.

And don't miss this Rove trick: the "debate," such as it is, is between one faction of the Republican party and another. The Dubai ports deal became an issue in the media not when the Democrats made noise about it, but when Republicans did. Some Personality Cultists maintain that Georgie was okay to sell off our assets to the Osama-loving oil dictators, and others didn't - there's your debate.

Andy our path to one-party power. McCain's been a key player in this strategy. The anti-torture sentiment was his baby, and he delivered just what Rove wanted - toothless legislation that allows Georgie to keep on torturing. Dissent is only 'real' dissent when it's coming from the far right or the insanely far right. Any noise coming from the centre is ignored as "liberal." In fact, the 'left' is now assumed to be the two moderate Republican Maine Senators - Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. Except that, for all their supposed 'moderation,' both are reliable down-the-line Junta soldiers.

If Congress is sowing its wild oats these days, that's fine with Rove. It's time for the ultra-right to look past Georgie to the next executive/dictator. Rove understands that politics trumps everything, so certain of their soldiers must be seen to be running away from Georgie.

As long as the national debate, as framed by their wholly-owned national media, is carefully doctored to be between "the right" and the "far far loony wingnut crazy fringe right, " they will be fine.

Democrats still haven't figured out how to run a campaign and control the agenda. Partially it's because the right owns the media and simply won't report what the left says. It's partly because Reagan did away with the "Fairness Doctrine," so media outlets can be as partisan as they like with no constraints.

Whatever it is, Democrats must learn how to control a debate so that it's their points (reality and truth) vs. the right, and not right vs. far right.

And they've only got a few months before the mid-terms.

Baseball

I was sitting at home the other night with a little downtime (not time to be down), and I thought I'd play some Xbox. Normally, I'd read (nah, been reading too much Thompson ), or play guitar (nah, fingers too sore), or work out (nah, fists still hurt from the heavy bag yesterday - and too lazy). Or work on my screenplay (nah, too brain-fried).

So, I check my Xbox shelf. Lots of goodies there, and I just picked up Half Life 2 . There's always Madden 06, but I haven't played in a while and the game can be a cruel bitch to the unpractised. NBA Live 06 - I still haven't mastered it, and my Celtics are weak, so who do I play? Do I lose with my C's or play Atlanta or take another team? Too many decisions. Pass.

And there it was, on the far side of the NBA, next to Halo 2: MLB 2K5. Baseball! And it flashed in my mind that Manny had reported to camp recently. They're in Spring training! Pitchers and catchers have already reported!

So I popped it in, unexpectedly excited to be excited. I had just a tiny corner of W.P. Kinsella's "thrill of the grass." I had started a season with the Red Sox when I got the game last year (the Red Sox!). And I had to play the Yankees in New York. And I won!

Is it possible that I will rediscover my long lost love of baseball this year? It would be good timing, as my hometown Jays are supposed to be good this year (somehow better than Boston, but I don't see how that's possible). Baseball tickets are cheap and plentiful.

I was a faithful citizen of "Red Sox Nation" as a kid. I was, unfortunately, 11 when they lost the Series to the Reds. Sure, we all remember Pudge's homer, but I also remember the let-down of losing to the Big Red Machine (I still hate those guys and Pete Rose can sit on the Hall of Fame doorstep until Doomsday). 11 is a bad age for that sort of let-down, because what the hell else is there when you're 11?

So, somewhere between 1975 and 1978 I became a die-hard Patriots fan. They were actually good then, and were robbed by referee Ben Dreith of their hard-earned trip to the Super Bowl in 76. In 78 they set the all-time record (which still stands) for rushing yards by a team (even though they didn't have a 1,000 yard rusher). By the time the 86 World Series cane around, I was a Larry Bird/Andre Tippett guy to the bone.

Which didn't stop me from vomiting up my beating heart when the Sox lost to the Mets.

Anyway, it's been a long time since baseball meant anything to me. After watching the violent ballet of football and the crashing timbers of the NBA for a couple of decades, it's hard to slow down to baseball speed. Not that there aren't sharp moments of violence and flash in baseball, it's just that there is a pitch-wait-pitch-wait rhythm to the game which can be hard to adjust to.

Baseball is a game of straight lines. The ball is thrown pitcher-catch in a line. It's hit in a line, and runners must run the baselines. First-second-third-home is four straight sprints. You will never see a spin-move or a juke in baseball. Feats of strength occur at the plate, but hitting seems to have a quality closer to golf than to football. Any size of player can hit the ball any length, though the big guys seem more capable of the crowd-pleasing homer.

The game centers around the duel between pitcher and hitter - so if you're not into the pitches (power curve? slider?) or the batter strategies, it can be kind of challenging to watch.

And the season is a marathon. 162 games? Are you kidding? And playoff series after that? Yikes. That means hundreds of at-bats, thousands of pitches. The season is not made or broken on a single game (until the playoffs). And over time, teams with poorer markets (baseball's money system is killing the sport) can't compete, drop 30+ games out of contention, and play out the second half (or last three quarters) of the season for the fans (and the contracts).

Players make unbelievable money - A-Rod actually signed a $250 million contract once. $250 million! And it's all guaranteed.

But for all that, baseball does seem to have a place. Baseball is a conversational sport - even for the die-hards. Don't try to talk to me during a football game. Or a hoops game - I'm too far into it. But you can have a long, deep, meaningful conversation during a baseball game and not miss a thing. It gives you a steady level of entertainment, punctuated with moments of amazing excitement.

And baseball is Summer. When you see baseball game highlights on TV, it's hot out. You've lived to see another sunny day, and that's pretty cool.

So maybe, just maybe, I'll get sucked into baseball again. Hell, I already bough the Street & Smith's baseball annual.

Dig It

Coal mining sucks. The hours are long, the work is backbreaking, and the conditions are miserable. Oh, and on top of that, if anything goes wrong there's a good chance that lots of people will die. Mining companies have a centuries-long tradition of not caring even the slightest about the health and safety of their workers. A hundred years ago, they'd beat and shoot miners who tried to unionize. Happy are we, then, that the federal government is there to enforce safety standards.

Or not. In the case of the Junta, it's decidedly not. They've decided to come down heavily on the side of the robber barons and against the rights - and health and lives - of workers. I'm sure you're just as shocked as I am.

Never let it be said that there was a penny on the ledger sheet that Little George wouldn't kill a worker to spare an industrialist.

In this case, the lie is that there are lots of violations being written up, but that doesn't solve the problem. To solve the problem, you have to stop enforcing the law altogether so that mine companies will like you.

Once they like you and know that you're their friend by allowing them to kill miners at will, they will, presumably, lose their appetite for murdering their workers. This, clearly, is the Bush Labor Doctrine; stop enforcing all labor protection laws so companies make more money. What happens to the workers is not within the scope of the doctrine.

As will all Bush Doctrines, this is the exact opposite of what should happen, and the effect of its sub-human wrong mindedness is to kill, impoverish, and otherwise destroy the lives of lots of people who are neither rich nor powerful. The message to workers is: "be glad we're just neglecting you and not rounding you up to be tortured and imprisoned outside any legal system."

And the fines that don't work? Often $60. They top out at $10,000. So, for a mine making millions a year, the penalty for endangering workers is next to nothing. And since the Junta has actually stopped collecting the fines in most cases, the real cost is really nothing. Except lives.

By why worry about that when there are rich people to enrich?

More Gonzo

There's more. You knew there was more, didn't you? I mean, if you're going to set up a secret illegal surveillance of Americans without a court order, what wouldn't you do? As Al Gore suggested in his recent speech, if there are no limits on wiretaps and no limits of torture of prisoners and if you somehow believe that the executive is utterly unconstrained by the Constitution, why would you stop at a few wiretaps?


So Attorney General Gonzo has issued a "clarification" of his testimony before the Senate committee. Apparently, when he said "that President Bush had authorized it "and that is all that he has authorized," it didn't mean that was all he authorized. Perish forbid.

But in yesterday's letter, Gonzales, citing that quote, wrote: "I did not and could not address . . . any other classified intelligence activities." Using the administration's term for the recently disclosed operation, he continued, "I was confining my remarks to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the President, the legality of which was the subject" of the Feb. 6 hearing.

So don't think that you have some sort of civil right that the president can't trammel on a whim. That would be a mistake. Your civil liberties are his playground. And if you want to be an American person not banged up at Gitmo indefinitely, you'll go along, Buster. Or not an American. Let's say you're a person or a human; in that case you can be swept of the streets of any place that has streets (or anyplace tat doesn't - don't try to limit me here) and put in prison with no access to a legal system or any way of defending yourself against charges which may or may not (but probably won't) be levelled against you.

That's now the way we do things. And in order to pile up a list of people to unjustly incarcerate, or just because the Patriot Act Secret Police are bored when they hit the 3:00pm sleepies, they can wiretap you and read your email at will.

Feel safer yet?

But beyond the increasingly obvious high crimes of this fascistic executive are the Junta soldiers in Congress. Faced with executive malfeasance and given orders like a Cuban bus boy at Club Med, Congress has curled up into a ball. Their answer for the illegal NSA wiretaps? Pass a law to make them legal.

At some point, you have to stop looking at the looters for a moment and start looking at the cops approving%