Just Like Home

A couple of interesting bits in the NYT today on our good friend Iraqi PM Maliki. The first is a leaked (seemingly - a NYT reporter copied it from a text given by an anonymous WH Staffer) report by Stevie Hadly, the National security Advisor. He says that Maliki's heart is probably in the right place, but he doesn't necessarily have the right stuff to make changes in Iraq.

“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change,” the memo said of the Iraqi leader. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

For all the "unvarnished report" says about Maliki, it might say even more about Hadley. Because in a companion analysis piece, Hadley's own 'reality check' seems to fall substantially short.

"Some key passages in the Hadley memo seem at odds with the reality on the ground, as if the steady worsening of America’s prospects here has driven the White House to reach for solutions that defy the gloomy conclusions of America’s diplomats and field commanders, not to mention some of Mr. Maliki’s closest political associates. "

Fascinating. Even when they try to get a grasp on reality, is slips away like a wet soap sliver. Best not to chase those down where Hadley and the rest will end up. They'll want to stand straight up, back against the wall.

The portrait of Maliki, on the eve of his summit with Georgie (in Jordan - even the Green Zone isn't safe enough anymore) is shockingly similar to one you could paint of Georgie himself: out of touch, wanting to take control but unsure how to do it - and playing exclusively to his base. In georgie's case, it's the Christianists. In Maliki's case, the Shiia.

Either way, you get the impression that even with third degree reality burns, these guys are simply not capable of grasping how big a mess they've created. They don't seem to have the intellectual or moral fibre to take in the scope of the disaster and start dealing with it. But since the electorate has started to wake up from the lie-indiced stupor of the last six years, they have to at least look like they're trying.

My advise to both men is to just stay in Amman. Neither is welcome back to their capitol city.

New Toy

I've now got what I like to call a "Crackberry." It's not that great a
stretch to see into the near future as I fall deeper and deeper under its
thrall.

I've been a Palm guy for a number of years, and it's something of an
adjustment. I'm still a bit stunned by the immediacy of the device. My old
reliable Palm Tungsten C is still a more powerful processer, and with a 512
meg memory card, it can store like crazy.

But the Blackberry is (nearly) always on line. The Palm reuqired a WiFi
connection, and those seem to be neither cheap nor handy.

Still, I'm carrying both until I can figure out how to get my ebooks on the
BB.

Technology really is grand.
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device

Talk?

The long-expected Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq is reportedly going to suggest that we start talking to Iran and Syria to improve the security situation in Iraq. That fact that this is a radical suggestion for these morons is just further proof that we've been ruled by a government that's not fit to govern a kilometer-wide Pacific atoll with a population of three sea lions and a manatee.

We did, in fact, invade Iraq. Iraq is, in fact, wedged between Syria and Iran. Okay, so Syria and Iran are global bad guys, no arguement there. But that's just more reason to talk with them. Like all the hundreds of other failed policies of this Junta, the 'not talking' thing has proven to be a huge failure - but there's no turning away from an established policy, even when (especially when) it's a colossal boondoggle.

By refusing to speak to North Korea, we've sat by while they've built new nukes under our noses. Iran is openly advancing a nuclear program. The time for not talking is way, way over.

What if the cops stopped talking to criminals? Would they stop stealing stuff? This is like the police saying: "we won't talk to bad guys because they want to talk to us, so we won't reward them. but if they do anything seriously wrong, we will shoot them."

Obviously,the crime rate for simple theft would skyrocket. The shootable crime would stay about the same.

And so it is with Iran and Syria. As long as they don't do anything bad enough to bring on an invasion (not that we could anyways with our broken military), they can and will do anything they want. Including (and especially) destabilize Iraq.

Now, if they'd only have the good sense to fly an airforce or launch some advanced subs or build some ICBM's, we'd have them. Our old Cold Warriors are itching for a new Soviet type of threat that they can build against. We're already dropping $100 billion on missile defense and launching new aircraft carriers and subs.

Let's hope for the Junta's sake that Osama takes his jihad to the seas and air - and space! Then we'd start actually fighting them!

The Few, The Proud

The new top Marine, Gen. James Conway, says that the Corps is over-stretched.

"There is stress on the individual Marines that is increasing, and there is
stress on the institution to do what we are required to do, pretty much by law,
for the nation," he was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

The only surprise in the announcement is that it was made at all. We've become so accustomed to being lied to that the truth seems shocking. General, are you certain that you don't want to retract that? Change your story? No?

What was once commonplace - telling thetruth to congress and the people - is now a bizarre and somewhat surreal event. It wouldn't be that much more off if a disembodied head had come to Washington to talk about the experience of being blown up by and IED.

So now the Guard is a "broken force" and the Marines are tretched too thin to do their job. Who's next? The Navy? Maybe they don't have enough ships to transport all those soldiers and Marines over to fight Georgie's boutique war.

As Lt. Kendrick (Keifer Sutherland) says in the film A Few Good Men: "I love you Navy boys. Every time we have to go fight, you give us a ride."

Anyway, just tack up one more bit of national destruction to the Junta. I mean when the Marines start saying they can't do their job, you know you're in trouble.

It's like Mike Tyson saying he's 'too overdone in Bolivian' to bite a guy's ear off.

Grace?

Nancy Grace - the 'Legally Blond' quasi-journalist that CNN employs (among their army of quasi-journo's) is being sued by the family of a woman who committed suicide after appearing on Grace's program. If you've seen Grace in action, you know that she is as harsh and abrasive as an interviewer can be - even by today's standards.

And I guess that's the point - what are today's standards? The woman - Melinda Duckett - had lost her son, two-year-old Trenton, who was (and remains) "missing." She had agreed to be on Grace's show under the understanding that the (audio) appearance would help find her missing some.

Instead, Grace grilled her and implied that she was involved in the disappearance. Did you kill your two year old son today, bitch?

And Melinda couldn't take it. She killed herself before the segment was to air on CNN. And guess what? They still aired the segment, knowing that their subject had just killed herself.

All class.

This is the ethical soup that we live in today. Or rather, the ethical soup that is part of the media meal that we consume.

I don't know what happened to Trenton. Perhaps nobody ever will - I hope that's not true. But I do know what happened to his mother.

Nancy Grace is a lawyer. She made a name for herself as a prosecutor. She's become a major media figure who tangles daily with criminals, criminal attorneys, prosecutors, and other media types. Innocent or otherwise, what chance did Melinda Duckett have on her program?

In the past, she might have had a fair hearing on an unbiased program examining the disappearance. But where does a show like that exist anymore?

We consume this stuff everyday - it's like having a mental Big Mac for lunch. Grace used all her well-honed skills to pressure Duckett into breaking down and confessing on the air. Is that what we watch TV for? And regardless of our viewing choices, is this what should be broadcast?

It's the thugishness of George Bush's America. It's the Karl Rove attack strategy in living colour. If it's okay to 'Swift Boat' John Kerry, why not go after Melinda Duckett the same way?

But why is either okay? What has the media become? When did they stop reporting on the sideshow and become part of it?

That's a lot of questions. I guess the Grace thing bothers me because shooting fish in a barrel has become part of the entertainment industry. Do you think any of the celebs getting "Punk'd" actually enjoy the experience? But screw them - they're rich and famous - and they no that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

There seems to be no floor to the debasement of the airwaves. I'm totally against censorship of all kinds, and I'm not advocating it as a solution to the Grace problem. I wish that we could self-censor the garbage shows like Grave to the extent that nobody would watch them.

Let's look at it from the other side: there are "broadcasting standards." You can't show an execution. You can't show extreme violence or pornography on TV, and we can all agree to that. What more can we agree to without abridging free speech?

Perhaps simple truth in labeling, like there is on all food packages here in Canada. Why not categorize shows with a type and quality rating, and keep that on-screen at all times, like they do with NFL scores during games? Let Grace - or O'Reilly or the rest of the living dead - keep talking, under a banner that reads:

Warning - this program has been rated EXTREMELY LOW QUALITY. The
material presented is ENTIRELY UNRELIABLE and NO CONCLUSIONS SHOULD BE MADE
BASED ON WHAT IS BEING PRESENTED.

For factual material related to these topics, please got to TrueTV.com, or
turn to the FACT NETWORK for the truth.

Of course, that might hurt ad revenue, so forget I mentioned it.

Old George

A CNN poll shows that over 60% think that old HW Bush did a better job than little Dubya has done. First of all, that's a lot. Second, where does that come from? I mean, what do people even remember about Aych Dubya?

Well, they remember that he barfed on the Japanese Prime Minister. That's worth a few points. The Japanese PM is a guy that, when people think about him, they probably think he should be barfed on.

They remember, possibly, "read my lips - no new taxes." If they do recall that particular aphorism, they probably also recall that he broke the promise. So not much help there.

No, the large monster that makes people pine for the old guy is that he fought and beat Saddam Hussein - for good reason - and then had the good sense to get the hell out of Iraq.

Why did Dubya send our finest young people to Iraq to kill and die? Dunno. How is Dubya;'s UYS ever going to get out of Iraq? Through warrantless wiretaps? Through the idefinite imprisonment of 'illegal combatants' with no access to a legal system or any outside communication with family members or legal counsel?

Maybe Dubya will get out of Iraq through 'waterboarding' or other now-legal means or torture? No?

Well, okay. Aych Dubya's sending Bob Gates and Jimmy Baker over to sort of straighten out the mess. Or just keep things up in the air long enough for the junior Bush to get his lazy self out of the Oval Office and back to the links where he can lead the life of non-Decider leisure that he was always suited to.

That's what's best. For all of us.

Iraq and Others

What's next in Iraq? It's hard to know. There is a new Democratic Congress that's going to want a say in the matter. And then there's the failure-fueled authoritatians in the White House - they're going to want to keep calling all the shots. And we all know where that has gotten us.

As by way of predicting the way this is going to go in the next few weeks and months, look for the Baker family retainer Iraq study group to come up with a bunch of recommendations. The Pentagon has beaten them to the punch with their own three-tiered proposal.

Democratic congressional leadership will have their own ideas. John Murtha was the first one out in front of the 'staged withdrawal' option.

And none of it makes any difference.

The Junta will do what the Junta does. Bush and Cheney will move forward as they always have - with fundamental corruption and a singular hatred for our system of government. Seriously, who hates American freedom more than the government officials who have scrapped it? Talk about 'working for change within the system.'

The Baker boys and the Pentagon and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will all come forward with suggestions and urgent action plans. The only 'urgent plans' that Georgie has are back at his Texas mansion. "Clear brush." "Walk dowgs."

But the tumult about 'changing direction' will serve the political purpose of making Iraq policy less toxic for the Junta. Rove will send the message: "We're changing and listening - give us time to make a difference." And the bought-and-paid for media will support it.

They'll ask Democrats - who were just elected by the people to fix the problems and make changes - "why aren't you giving the administration time to act? Why are you trying to force your cut-and-run before the BRAND NEW White House strategy has a chance to REALLY WORK?"

Right. That's Rove getting his chops back. He made two very un-Rove-like blunders over the mid-terms, which cost his side the election. First, he held back the Rummy firing (which might have kept the Senate and made Georgie an admitted out-of-the-closet liar), and he didn't have the Fabulous Baker Boys Commission report before the elections.

He miscalculated that the Iraq fear would still overcome the Iraq shame. He thought that%

I'm mostly through my first week here, and it's been something of a whirlwind. Certainly my greatest professional challenge. There is a tremendous amount to learn, and my areas of expertise (such as they are) have yet to be called on. In fact, I may end up having to create my own niche here, as there are some possible areas where I can create some territory. Stay tuned.

On the Junta front, it's party time in the Democratic camp. It was obvious that the promise of bipartisan that came from the Junta initially through Georgie himself was, as always, empty words. Bushie has pushed his radical right judges forward as well as the odious Michael Bolton. And the Dems have already said 'No.'

Here's a quick list of things that must end in the next two years:

1) Tax cuts for the rich. We can't afford them; we never could.

2) Psychotic rightists in positions of power. See where Rummy and Brownie and Roberts and Alito and the rest of the slavering authoritarian fascistic demagogues have brought us? We're not going there anymore.

3) Outright lies on both important and small matters. When the WMD garbage starts to fly through the machines of a compliant press, there will be an opposition in place to start sending out subpoenas to get to the truth. Remember - when AG Gonzo testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on torture and wiretapping, he was pointedly not placed under oath. Get your hands on that Bible, Gonzo, and start telling the truth under penalty of law.

4) Sunshine and flower petals in Iraq. It's all falling apart and the new guys will have to clean up the mess.

5) Criminal negligence on oversight. Halliburton will have to turn off the vacuum cleaner they've been using to Hoover up all our money with no accountability. Political cronies won't have the government's ATM pin anymore.

6) Environmental dumping. This, like many things, will be hard to enforce. Like the Civil Rights section of the DOJ, the EPA has become a rubber stamp for greed-happy extremists.

For many of these things, the sunlight shone by simple basic oversight will make them shrink away. For others, the Junta will simply brass things out, keeping their programs despite Congressional disapproval. It may be up to the courts to%

Cons

Somebody needs to disable or hide all the shredders in Washington, because there are lots of Republicans looking to get out from under their paper trail. First among them, Donny Rumsfeld. Donny, as you'll no doubt recall, was secretary of Defense from 2000 to yesterday. In his tenure, he managed trto transform the greatest fighting force in the history of the world into a bunch of incompetent losing torturers.

Thanks in part to Donny's performance, the Republican Bush Worshippers lost enough seats in both chambers to hand the entire Congress back to the grown-ups. Churlish self-important perpetual teen Karl Rove - often credited with possessing a "political genius" simply because he has no moral compass and no sense of decency - blew this election by not insisting that Donny be jetisoned a month ago.

If Georgie could have shoved Donny off the train before the election, it would surely have saved the Senate for his party. Georgie couldn't do that because it would have made the election not merely a referendum on how badly he's done his job, but also one where people would have agreed with his own admission that he had done a terrible job.

By sending Donny home now, Georgie doesn't have to listen to voters agree with him.

You wonder whether, at any level, he gets how badly he's screwed up. Does he have the mental fortitude to admit that everything he's tried to do is an abject failure? I'm not sure he ever will.

But one reminder will be the spectre of Bob Gates at Defense. Gates is his Daddy's man, probably a grown-up. What will it be like to have an adult at the White House and Defense?

A government run on neocon fantasies, evangelical social policy, and ninteenth-century robber baron economic policy is not one that will welcome the cold slap of reality.

But with Donny - a top dreamer - gone to wait for his time in hell, the wide-awake Democrats will have a dose of caffeine for the lot of them.

Rum Ending

There is one overriding, overarching reason that Rumsfeld was "allowed" to resign yesterday (after having claimed to do so on several occasions in the past). It's about the sweeping Democratic congressional victory - not the reasons for it and the glaring reasons to change course on virtually everything.

It's the testimony. Executive branch leaders like Rummy are going to be frog-marched down to Congress and forced to answer the questions they should have been asked years ago. And Rummy's not up to it.

No, that's unfair to the monster. Rummy could sit there and be as pugnacious and offensively glib as he's always been. It's just that pretty soon it's going to matter what he says. When he gives the crafted or crackpot answer to very serious questions, the contempt charges, the subpoenas, and impeachments will appear where they haven't in the past.

Remember when Arlen Spectre said the Torture Bill would set justice back 900 years - and then voted for it? Guess what? Not any longer.

Rummy has been the most radical and least competent Defense/War Secretary in memory - certainly in this century or the last. He has been the one rejecting the pleas of the uniformed military. He's the one who set and maintained an ineffectively light force in Iraq. He set the program of torture in motion - and protected it to the point of making it legal. He rejected the Geneva Conventions.

And he promoted incompetent loyalists over brilliant American military officers. For everything he's done to wreck the once-great US military, that might be the most damaging. Sure, he put them in a fight they can't win without the means to do anything but lose slowly. But he also took out all the innovators, all the bright officers who could see his grotesque incompetence, and replaced them with yes-men. Yes-men are poison to an army.

Rumsfeld was the deluded neocon living in a make-believe world - but leading real soldiers to kill and be killed. He is a deluded ideologue who simply does not care how much blood is spilled for his warped ideas - as long as it's not his own.

For Canada, this is great news. Now there is at least a chance that the Afghan campaign will be run on an effort to win, and not an effort of effect domestic American politics. That's a stretch because Georgie is still the Moron-in-Chief, but you never know.

Without Rumsfeld, we may, for the first time, fight to win.

Democracy

I'll admit it: there were times when I wondered whether democracy was still possible in the United States. With the lies, dirty tricks, vote fraud, and all the other tools that are gleefully used by Republicans, I wondered if it was still possible to eliminate them at the ballot box.

And apparently it is.

Because there are Americans left in America, the Democrat Party (to use the perjorative as a positive) will assume control of the House of Representatives. As Tip O'Neill was fond of saying, it is the "people's house," a place where the people can be heard.

It has also been the home of the most extremist right wing legislators and legislation in the country's history for the past six years. That changes now.

And I hope new Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not too quick to restore the chamber to its bi-partisan traditions. The Repubs were the most heinous dictators as the majority party, and pushed through the most heinous and un-American legislation imaginable - with no debate. Let them work under the rules that they themselves imposed.

Let them watch from the sidelines as tyranny is undone and true American freedom is re-established. Let them watch while the Halliburtons and the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds and all their functionaries are subpoenaed and made to talk in from of Americans.

The Repub's only hope is to force recounts in Virginia and Montana, because those two wins will give the Senate to the good guys as well. As long as the vampiric spectre of Karl Rove can be kept far enough away.

This chamber is haunted by the ghosts of those who died needlessly and of the squandered opportunities for betterment both for the nation and the world.

They have a lot to answer for. Let them start now.

Surprise?

It will come as no surprise at all that I'm sitting here hoping that both houses of Congress go Democrat today. In my life, I never thought I would see such a thorough destruction of the great American experiment as I've seen from this president and this congress. It's time to start the investigations. It's time to start cleaning up the mess, and it's time to pay the bill.

And that includes bringing the war profiteers to justice along with their enablers. I don't want to hear about any unity or reconciliation crap. They've done big hurtful murderous bankrupting damage, and we're going to have to name names. The Haliburtons need to be put out of business, and I mean now. The Congress needs to start oversight, indictment, and impeachment proceedings - now.

And when the Chimp is impeached and indicted, it'll be time to impeach Cheney.

And it all starts tonight.

I haven't poll-watched much. I know a few of the big and close races will come down to anti-democracy forces on the Republican side trying desperately to save their asses be stealing the election for their masters. I pray that Democrats are wise to them now, but you never know.

So if you're reading this in the US, it's time to vote. If you need any convincing, go read this Rolling Stone story and then go vote.

We'll see where that leaves us in the morning.

And don't miss Stewart/Colbert live tonight.

Been a While

Wow. That was the longest break I've ever taken from blogging (since I started in 2004). It's been a whirlwind September-October for me. I've been applying for jobs for a while, and in September I started getting some interviews. But October I was interviewing actively for four different positions, and by mid-month I was deciding between two very good offers.

I took one, and gave my former employer two weeks notice, for which I received the coldest possible shoulder. You want to know what people are really like, you watch them when things don't go their way. They thought they had me forever and could make whatever decisions they wanted to about my future and my career, on their timetable.

No.

So now I'm taking a 'reading week' between jobs, hoping to get mind, body, and spirit (such as they are) prepared for a huge challenge. The new job is a fantastic opportunity, but in the end it is just that: an opportunity. What I do with it is up to me, and that's a frightening thought indeed.

I'll try to get back to sports and politics tomorrow...