A Letter to Aron

Great story. Great candidate.
Read all about it here.

Cutsie yeah, but I'm a sucker for the hype.

Hey There Sarah

I've spent weeks reeling in horror from the possibility that Sarah Palin could possibly be one position removed from being President of the United States. Yikes. These two videos say it better than I could, and honestly, this dingbat doesn't deserve my writing time. Enjoy the show.

"Hey Sarah Palin"

Jack Cafferty Speaks About Sarah

Lies

Events have been unfolding fast in this Presidential campaign, too fast for me to keep up it seems (I've also been very busy these days), but it does appear that a clear path of attack for Obama has opened up—one that even the continually and tragically befuddled Democrats can employ: The McCain camp has been lying like hell. Continually.

On TV and on the stump, whether it Palin's pathetically false "Thanks but no thanks" statement about the so-called bridge to nowhere that she ardently supported (before it became a public embarrassment to Alaska anyway) or the McCain ad claims that Obama "supported comprehensive sex education for minors" when Obama actually supports a program to help children recognize and avoid sexual predators, they've been playing beyond loose with the facts.

Both sides traditionally stretch the truth in negative ads and attacks, that is American politics, but as Joe Klein mentions in his most recent TIME op-ed, this time McCain has completely sailed beyond the edge of normal politics into Fantasyland, even repeating lies again and again that have been proved demonstratably false to anyone with an IQ above 50.

Even when the McCain camp complains about being called liars, they lie.

It's pathetic, and doubly so because McCain, whom I once admired, promised to run an 'honorable campaign" and supposedly holds personal integrity in great regard. Were is the honor in baseless allegations, lies, and smears?

Should He Stay or Should He Go Now?

Should I stay or
should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double

—The Clash

The McCain staff isn't giving Obama a break. So much for running a "respectful" campaign. The amusing part is the flip-flopping, "try whatever sticks" attacks (usually delivered by a lackey).

First they critized Obama for saying he would bomb in Pakistan. Then later they commented that Obama was wrong to consider terrorist actions a police matter (something he's never actually said) and eschewing military action. Well, what's the problem—not enough force or too little?

Now they're going on about Obama's travel plans. McCain wouldn't shut up about the fact that Obama hasn't been to Iraq in years (since 2006 actually, so say a year and a half). Now that Obama is heading over there, killing their favorite line of attack, they're calling his trip a campaign stunt and saying he should concentrate on issues here at home instead of "campaigning abroad" (their term). Sigh.

Aren't folks getting tired of these tired, it-worked-last-time attacks?

And now some guy in Florida—I think it's Florida but I really don't care enough to check—is putting up 9-11 billboards advertising a song about not voting for a Democrat.

A quote from the CNN story on this dipshit:

"I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time," Meehan said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

Um ... hello? A Republican president at the time, eh? Who was in the White House at the time, Billboard Guy, Al Gore? Of course, perhaps he was playing that favorite of Republican games, blame the current mess on the last president (it's a favorite of theirs every time they screw up the economy yet again), but that too falls factually short since Clinton in 2000 authorized deadly force against a certain 9-11 terrorist mastermind the current Administration stopped mentioning a few years ago...

(Amusingly, another fellow claims the song name was stolen from him, and he's responded by not only insulting the Billboard Guy but also by posting his receipt for a $250 donation to the Obama campaign. Love it.)

I'm getting too old for this. Is it November yet?

Cookie-Gate

Yeah, I know, I've got to move on to better things—like John McCain's ridiculous plan for "fixing" our economy—but I couldn't resist touching on smaller potatoes.

Evidently Cindy McCain has posted a few "family recipes" on the official McCain website. One can appreciate this rich lady wanting the American people to see her happy home-maker side. One problem: she lifted them from elsewhere. Don't believe me? Take a gander of a side-by-side of "her" recipe and one that was previously posted at the Food Network's site. I put them right next to each other for your viewing pleasure. Go ahead and click on that image to enlarge it a bit, be my guest.


Evidently Mrs. McCain has pilfered her recipes from a variety of sources. Back in the July 2008 edition of Family Circle she submitted a cookie receipe, only to have an eagle-eyed reader realize the recipe had been copied from Hershey's website. Oops.

See here and here. (I believe the blame was laid at the feet of an intern, who was fired.)

I guess she's back to her old tricks.

In the big scheme of things, this doesn't mean a whole lot perhaps. Rachel Ray is taking it in stride (and using it in an attempt to get Cindy on her show). For me, it's a good glimpse of how they operate—both the McCains and many Republican operatives in general, however. They assume we're not paying attention. They assume we're stupid. And they'll lie about things great and small, often with impunity. Let's all remember to pay attention between now and Election Day.

No More Sundays

Tim Russert died this afternoon, apparently of a heart attack (although details are still emerging). He had recently returned from Europe and was in his offices across from the White House preparing for his evening show when he collapsed. He was only 58 years old.

I am terribly, terribly saddened by this news. Tim’s face was a regular one in my household, and scarcely a Sunday passed without my watching Meet the Press. Tim took over the show in 1991 and molded into a powerful creation of his own making—if you wanted to be taken seriously in the world of politics, or indeed by the world at large, you went on Meet the Press. Period. His insidiously subtle style of grilling important people, even presidents, often confronting them with their own words or broken promises, was famous. Yet he did it in a respectful, gentle manner, and almost always the guests left laughing or smiling.

To this day, I have no idea what Tim’s political leanings were. He was fair, grilling both Democrats and Republicans with equal aplomb, wit, and style. His knowledge of politics was incredible, and he was tireless in doing what he so obviously loved. The image of the crazy 2000 election night for me is defined by Tim Russert scribbling furiously on a tiny whiteboard, once again making sense of this country’s political bedlam for us mere mortals.

This is truly a loss for the entire nation. I will mourn you Tim. Thank you for all the great Sundays and all the great words of wisdom over the years.

Scott Speaks

The latest in a long, long line of critical Administration "insider" books will be released next week, as former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dishes out what looks to be a surprisingly harsh tome.
McClellan was known to be extremely loyal to Bush over many years, so it is shocking to see some of the tidbits contained in the book excerpts:

“The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

and

“History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder. No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”

Whoa. I'm starting to think Scott may not be welcome at the next Crawford clambake.

Sounds like a good read by the fireplace.

Shedding the Knife

I'll keep this short. StoryCorps never fails to amaze and delight me, as people from all walks of life share their special stories. Often it is the most mundane, ordinary people that present the most courageous and inspiring tales. Enough of my chatter; check out the link. If possible, listen and don't just read it. But do check it out.

A risky thing to do. Probably. But such brave actions change our world for the better, one person at a time.

Welcome Spring

Spring is here!
Today I'll present a reading selection. Enjoy, gentle readers.

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
By George Orwell

Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something--some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature--has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time--at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.

At this period, after his long fast, the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body is shrunken, and by contrast his eyes look abnormally large. This allows one to notice, what one might not at another time, that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.

For a few days after getting into the water the toad concentrates on building up his strength by eating small insects. Presently he has swollen to his normal size again, and then he hoes through a phase of intense sexiness. All he knows, at least if he is a male toad, is that he wants to get his arms round something, and if you offer him a stick, or even your finger, he will cling to it with surprising strength and take a long time to discover that it is not a female toad. Frequently one comes upon shapeless masses of ten or twenty toads rolling over and over in the water, one clinging to another without distinction of sex. By degrees, however, they sort themselves out into couples, with the male duly sitting on the female's back. You can now distinguish males from females, because the male is smaller, darker and sits on top, with his arms tightly clasped round the female's neck. After a day or two the spawn is laid in long strings which wind themselves in and out of the reeds and soon become invisible. A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one's thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.

I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets. But I am aware that many people do not like reptiles or amphibians, and I am not suggesting that in order to enjoy the spring you have to take an interest in toads. There are also the crocus, the missel-thrush, the cuckoo, the blackthorn, etc. The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site. Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.

The Hip Boots Requirement

Whilst riding home from work today, I caught a great mini-interview on NPR. Robert Siegel was speaking with Bill Cunningham, host of the Cincinnati radio program The Big Show with Bill Cunningham on WLW. They were of course discussing Cunningham’s recent flap with John McCain, and some of the things Cunningham said regarding Barack Obama. When warming up a crowd for McCain, the radio host repeatedly referred to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as Barack HUSSEIN Obama (emphasis his).

Robert Siegel asked why the emphasis on the middle name. Bill Cunningham rattled off a number of famous presidents that used their middle names and said he merely did it to present Obama is a more respectful light.

Siegel, rather incredulously, asked if, as widely reported, Cunningham was trying to link Obama via his last name to Muslimism and he noted that Cunningham had incorrectly added other, false middle names to Obama’s on his radio show. Cunningham stated that 98% of the time he was right, but on his radio show he had been wrong (he blamed it on Internet sources that misstated Obama’s full name), but anyway, he was just using Barack’s full name as a sign of respect and not to stir up trouble.

Listen here.
Or read here.

Riiiight.

Cunningham also said he had been invited to “throw red meat to the crowd” and that now, given McCain’s apology for his commentary, he would “sleep easier” seeing Hillary in the White House. Obviously a loyal guy. And a popular show host for the Radical Right. Let’s see: you distort and fear-monger onstage, then lie about it, then smear your host. I can see why the Republican crowd loves him.

His commentary, what little I’ve heard, was typical rants about how—woe is us!—the press gives Obama and company a pass but picks on Bush and Cheney, and how they should criticize everyone. Well, Mr. Cunningham, perhaps if Obama cherry-picks intelligence to engineer an expensive war that costs us nearly 4,000 lives (and counting), lies about secret CIA prisons and torture, or jerry-rigs an election, perhaps I’ll agree it’s time The New York Times got on his case too.

Until then, you and your adoring crowd can just hold your breath.

Thus ends today’s sermon. Thanks for your indulgence.

And now a word from our contestants...

Mitt Romney: I'm in. No, I'm out. No, I'm in, I've had a change of heart.

Rudy Giuliani: Not 9-11 worried 9-11 because 9-11 we'll 9-11 get 9-11 them 9-11 in 9-11 Florida ...

Mike Huckabee: I'm coming in third in New Hampshire? Praise the Lord. And you over there, straighten that bookshelf.

John McCain: !!$#@!!! whippersnappers.

Fred Thompson: Zzzzz.

Hillary Clinton: Shit. Bill? Shit. Do I cry yet, or is that scheduled for tomorrow?

Barack Obama: You'll get no details from me, but don't I look great saying that? Yeaah!

John Edwards: Grrr!

Joe Biden: Hey, I was right about Rudy at least.

Ron Paul to Dennis Kucinich: Had enough? Good, Deep Space Nine is on, and I've got some beer in the fridge.

Christmas Songs – Top 10

Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite Christmas songs:

Bonus Track! 11. Happy X-Mas (War is Over)
In this song, John Lennon begs the world for peace … a valuable sentiment, in any season.

10. All I Want for Christmas is You
Ye gods, a Mariah song I like! It’s true. It’s rather cutsie, but I like it.

9. Please Come Home for Christmas
A blues standard. There’s actually a surprising amount of X-mas blues tunes out there, but this tops my list. The Eagles gave it a good effort, and Jon Bon Jovi does a shockingly good cover of this, but for the real McCoy get your hands on the Charles Brown (no, the blues singer) version.

8. Santa Baby
Eartha Kitt first sung and recording this in 1953, and she said it was a favorite song of hers. Smoky, bluesy, with a touch of sultry greed … this one charms with its bald-faced honesty.

7. Holly Jolly Christmas
Johnny Marks wrote a number of good Christmas songs, this among them. Burl Ives wasn’t the first to record it, but his happy voice is probably the first folks think of when this song is mentioned.

6. Let it Snow
A great love song that never bothers to mention Christmas, this tune has been covered at least 30 times to my count. Great stuff.

5. Christmas Wrapping
In 1981 the New Wave band The Waitresses spun a great tale of love lost, and found, and lost, and found… Charming, humorous, and something that touches a common chord.

4. What Child is This?
My favorite version of this lovely song is the Vanessa Williams version, well sung and passionately rendered.

3. White Christmas
The film Holiday Inn made this Irving Berlin tune immortal, and with good reason—no one does it like Bing Crosby.

2. The Christmas Song
This wonderful tune was written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells during a particularly hot streatcch of summer, when Wells jotted some wintery-sounding thoughts on paper to cool off (mentally at least). Nat King Cole recorded several versions, beginning in 1946. Others have made covers of the song, but to me Nat's buttery voice invokes hot rum cider sipped before a warm fire.

1. Jingle Bell Rock
A fast, spirited song that, to me, sums up everything cool about holiday music. It gets me in a good mood every time I hear it for the first time in the season, without fail. That’s enough to earn it first place!

There are many, many more songs I could have mentioned, but this list is good enough for this year!

Get the lyrics and hear many of the songs mentioned here.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the very best going into 2008!

A Dispatch From Cuba

National Public Radio’s This I Believe segment today aired a wonderful piece by a former Guantanamo Bay interrogator. This isn’t a segment about torture; it’s a passionate soliloquy about enemies coming together and finding passive, mutual redemption. I was moved by it, and I urge my readers to please follow this link and read the piece, or, much better yet, listen to it.

Perhaps one day all the people of the world will realize we’re not so different after all. A naïve belief perhaps, but I certainly hope so.

Mordor Bound

This weekend saw us pulling out the long-buried Lord of the Rings RISK (LotR RISK) box for a try. It had been a while since we played this particular version of RISK, and I had never used the full, Trilogy version game board.

Note: For those unfamiliar with the Hasbro-related controversy, the original LotR RISK set had a game board that stopped above Gondor and Mordor—which was particularly odd since the ring travels toward Mordor throughout the game and because one or more players play the forces of darkness. It appears that because the initial release was tied to the Peter Jackson films, and The Two Towers had just been released at that point, the minds at Hasbro disliked the idea of revealing the full board. As a result, the buyers got a truncated board, and when the so-called Trilogy edition was released instead of containing an add-on board piece, as was expected, it contained another whole game with a full board. Folks who had purchased the initial set felt screwed and felt as if they had to buy the whole game again to complete the set. They complained. Loudly. Hasbro soon stepped up to the plate and made a “filler set” (my term here) available for a small fee.
I purchased the add-on, and for about $16 I received the full board, a full set of game pieces (some in different colors than the original set), and new rules and cards—basically everything in the Trilogy box except the box itself, it would seem! (A nice bargain.) To add to the confusion (and insult for some), a UK version actually did include just an add-on board piece, which also had a new, additional siege game printed on the reverse side!

At game start, the players had the majority of their holdings as marked in the large graphic below.



Initial turns saw Larry easily take most of Gondor, right to the edge of Mordor. He largely abandoned pursuit of other areas elsewhere.

Markus, having deposited virtually all his troops up north, made an early and expected push for Eriador (light green on map). Here came the first game-changing sequence of events… The Shire, held by Larry with one brigade, held off a huge force of elves, costing Markus numerous brigades. After seeing six or seven brigades fall to the mighty halflings(?), Mark quit his assault in disgust. It was a major blow from which he would never fully recover. He took his required three countries and ended his turn.

Meanwhile, in the south, Willie and I prepared for what I thought would be a hideous war of attrition in Mordor (dark grey on map). We both began with even holdings in the region, as well as him having some above and me beneath—a deadly clash seemed inevitable. I feared we would destroy each other, leaving the crumbs left to Larry’s hordes. Then—shock!—Willie proposed a plan: he would leave Mordor and Haradwaith (gold) to me, and he would move his troops north to mass on Rhovanion (brown). He asked that, in exchange for awaiting his peaceful withdrawal, that I limit my incursions onto Rhovanion. I happily accepted his terms. In the long run, it probably helped him more than I, but it certainly prevented a dual extermination that would certainly have destroyed one or both of us right from the start.

Soon, as expected, Willie gobbled up most of Rhovanion and also made some inroads into Rhun (burnt umber). Strengthened by a lucky, early trio of cards (netting me an additional 10 brigades) I took portions of Mordor and Haradwaith, and moved to clash with Larry in a deadly face-off that would decide the fate of Mirkwood (dark green). Some of the elven brigades in the Anduin Valley turned traitor (thanks to a played card) and I finally took the forest.

Subsequent turns saw Larry secure Gondor, although Willie skirmished with him frequently in Ithilien and South Ithilien (the far eastern area of Gondor near Mordor). He nudged his troops slowly northward as well. I gobbled up the strongholds in Mordor one by one, beginning with Barad-Dur, and I took Mirkwood from Larry. Soon Haradwaith was mine as well. Willie took the rest of Rhovanion, clashed with Larry outside Mordor, and steered toward Fangorn and the Gap of Rohan.
Markus meanwhile took over various northern countries but failed to take a continent. I continued to bolster a contingent of men I had placed in Eriador—mainly to prevent his taking this region early on—and their presence seemed to dissuade him from making a push for Eriador due to his lack of troop strength.



Late turns saw multiple attempts to slow the ring and everyone tried to complete missions (I think only Larry was successful in this) and secure regions. I finally took Mordor, only to watch helplessly as Larry invaded via sea to seize 90% of Haradwaith for his own. I unleashed my northern hordes to take 90% of Eriador and I took all of Rhun but a single country (which was inhabited by Willie’s ogre force).

Willie continued to assault the edges of Gondor and ruined Larry’s chances of securing that continent. Willie marched on Fangorn.
Markus eventually took and lost different northern and central countries, and used his final turn (the last of the game as it turned out). As the One Ring plunged into the fires of Mount Doom, Markus attacked Moria and Carrock in a successful attempt to play “spoiler” and disrupt our control of Rhovanion and Mirkwood, respectively. (I stupidly never claimed all of Rhun or Eriador, losing complete control of two regions by one country each.)

When the smoke cleared I edged to a clear point victory, helped by the numerous strongholds I held, and Markus and Willie tied for second. Larry, despite the best starting plays of the game, fell short of victory. I was a great, edge-of-the-seat clash between four very evenly matched forces (and players)!

Halloween Treats

I love Halloween; it's probably my favorite holiday of the year. Halloween weekend in my house always includes a few frightening movies, played back-to-back and viewed with friends (beer, coffee, and chips also in abundance). This year, in addition to a few “scary” Three Stooges shorts inserted to break up the gloom, were two offerings I had never seen before: The Descent (2005) and Saw (2004). I often prefer older, classic movies—such as The Omen—so this year I went for the new(ish).

The Descent

This movie involves a group of six women who partake in a yearly adventure-sport outing. Shortly after a white water rafting trip in Scotland, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) loses her husband and young daughter to a grisly automobile accident. Her strong-willed friend Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid) convince her to join the next expedition—a caving excursion in a scarcely populated area of North Carolina.

After arriving and entering the cave system, things begin to go badly wrong. The women are trapped by a cave-in, and Juno admits that, rather than exploring the ‘boring” cave system they had planned to visit, that she purposefully led them to an unmapped, unexplored cave system. The ladies hunt for a way out, struggling with injuries, short supplies, and each other, and just as things can’t apparently get worse they do—something else in the caves is alive and wants to feed on them.



The film worked for me. This is straight-up horror. The film-makers don’t bother with gratuitous topless scenes or silly humor—this is pure horror, like it or not.

The six characters, while not all well defined, are realistic and reflect all stripes from the reckless and headstrong to the meek and over-cautious. All the major food groups of horror are represented: claustrophobia, darkness, fear of heights, painful injury, being trapped, being hunted, and friends you cannot trust. Jump-at-you scares are coupled with rising dread well. My biggest complaints: at times, especially as the action picks up in the last third of the movie, it’s difficult to tell whom is with whom or where people are in the caves; the creatures also could have used a slower revelation, in that once the women become clued in that they may not be alone, the creatures are there in abundance attacking them. The creatures themselves, described as “crawlers” in the credits, were well played and frightening.

Saw

This film has become a popular franchise, so a I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw it. For the uninitiated: the plot of this first installment finds two men, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell) awaking in a dirty room, chained to the wall. Neither one appears to know the other. They discover cassette tapes in their pockets and, after obtaining a recorder clutched in the palm of a corpse lying between them, play the tapes. They are being held captive by Jigsaw, a serial killer know for placing his victims in devious deathtraps where they must undertake almost unthinkable actions to survive. Following slim clues, they find hacksaws that are too thin to cut the heavy chains that bind them … but perfectly adequate for cutting off their feet. Meanwhile Dr. Gordon is told that he must kill the increasingly untrustworthy Adam by 6-o-clock—or his family will die.


For a series of films known for its gore (the third installment is reputed to be particularly gruesome) I found this film very “blood light” and far more of a mental exercise. This is not to say it doesn’t work—it does. At times the plot gets stretched a bit thin, and the film must be viewed tongue in check, but watched in that light I thought it to be an effective, interesting bit of psychological horror. I was happy to see Danny Glover in the role of an obsessed detective, and Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannel (who also co-wrote the movie) turn in reasonable performances.

I wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

A Yawner

The recent Republican debate was a bit of a yawner. True to form, most of those on stage tried hard to invoke the spirit of Ronald Regan—they summon him up like the Ghost of Christmas past, it seems. Or they wish they could. Tax breaks, tax breaks … yeah, yeah. How is it that the conservatives, who are so xenophobic at heart, don’t mind if we borrow money from China like there’s no tomorrow? What happened to the financial conservatives anyway? Doesn’t anyone have a problem with the mounting (actually it’s already a mountain) debt? (And please, for the love of Pete, don’t tell me we live in a different kind of world now. Bankrupting your country isn’t the first sensible response to terrorism that leaps to my mind.)

Eventually national security came up, as it always does with these guys, but I lost interest before Rudy could invoke 9/11. Ron Paul was the only one onstage to speak any truth to power with regards to foreign policy, the purposeful limits of presidential power, and the utter lack of a direct threat Iran poses us. His reward was to be cast as the nut of the group, the one so far behind he can howl away as he pleases and occasionally speak common sense—sort of the Dennis Kucinich of their side, I suppose.

Fred Thompson’s debut was also a major yawner. He started a bit unsteadily, but gradually got into the role. Given that he’s used to working off a script—I love him as an actor, by the way—I personally thought he’d do better. He was OK, but okay doesn’t cut it for Thompson at this point. He’s got to emerge at a run and impress the voters, and I seriously doubt he did that. Indeed, as John Stewart so ably said on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, we’ve already had one fairly lazy, gloss over the details, leaving the thinking to others, drawl as I speak -type president and Thompson is just more of that… it’s time we had a thinker in the White House.

I passionately agree.

Foregone Conclusions

Yesterday and today General David Petraeus met with Congress to deliver his much awaited briefing, although at this point most folks (including on the Hill) have already made up their minds about his testimony.

The event just leaves me sad, and feeling somewhat empty. I believe Petraeus is basically an honorable man. I believe the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times was a bit over the top and insulting as well. I also believe that the White House—even if they didn’t “write his report”—probably put one hell of a lot of pressure on the man to spin the facts like a top.

I basically believe what he says—but it isn’t what I want to hear. Readers of my blog know I’m pretty liberal (although I try hard to be fair), but I must disagree with the left-most elements of the Democratic Party that are pushing hard for immediate withdrawal. That could be a catastrophe, not just for Iraq but (more importantly) for our troops.
Leaving hastily now would simply make our troops vulnerable. We need a steady draw-down, slow enough that the contractors and equipment can be evacuated in an orderly fashion. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have been pretty straight forward in talking about this, saying not what folks want to hear but instead bravely saying what must be said.

While overly harsh, the MoveOn.org ad does focus some light in a good direction—the Bizarro World numbers in some of the Department of Defense’s statistics. It is true that car bombings—even those such as the enormously deadly and obviously sectarian-driven bombing in northern Iraq a few months ago—are not considered in the “sectarian violence” death and injury counts. In World War II terms, this is like counting up the damage by individual German soldiers sneaking into Britain but ignoring the Blitz.
Other times Petraeus’ charts began at differing start times, from weeks to years ago, always in service to the best numbers. It’s true that security gains in some areas have been made, some of them significant, but the White House trumpeting them is hardly deserved. The worst offender is the President’s continual citing of "our success in Al Anbar province"—a region that owes its lower rate of violence far more to tribal leaders turning against outside terrorists months before the surge even began, in the interest of protecting their own families (and sometimes their smuggling operations). In other areas violence is "down," but from when? Last year, when it was far higher than the year before?

I also have anger about the situation aplenty. Anger at the Administration’s decision to go to war, that put us in this intractable mess in the first place. And don’t let the pundits try to spin that, with all the “all the world’s intelligence agencies believed Iraq was a threat” and “read all these quotes my Democrats back then” nonsense. And that’s what it is—nonsense. This administration alone slanted the intelligence to push their case for war. This administration alone orchestrated a huge media push and talked about mushroom clouds, conflating 9/11 and Iraq and playing upon the feelings of a wounded and grieving nation. This administration alone ignored the UN and inspectors and the view of other countries and pushed relentlessly toward war, just as they would now begin to do with Iran.

I look at many of the Republican forerunners with fear and amazement—fear because they are so very much like Bush and amazement that some folks enjoy tough talk and yet still fail to see the emperor has no clothes. Rudy Giuliani in particular is demonstrating—at least in public now, before the general election—a slew of dangerously familiar traits: the tendency to wrongly and purposefully conflate varied countries and terrorist groups, stubbornness, a preference for military over diplomatic solutions even when the former is likely to fail, unwillingness to understand the enemy or the reasons terrorism begins, etc. It’s truly scary.

As far as the “surge” goes, let’s remember that the whole purpose for the surge wasn’t simply to clamp down the violence—something one can assume will be automatic if you dump a huge mass of troops into any one area—but to allow Nouri al-Maliki’s central government a chance to bring the warring factions together.

“And the first step for success is to do something about the sectarian violence in Baghdad so they can have breathing space in order to do the political work necessary to assure the different factions in Baghdad, factions that are recovering from years of tyranny, that there is a hopeful future for them and their families. I would call that political breathing space.”

Press Conference by the President, February 14, 2007, Washington, DC

“These troops are all aimed at helping the Iraqi government find the breathing space necessary to do what the people want them to do, and that is to reconcile and move forward with a government of and by and for the Iraqi people.”

President George W. Bush delivers a statement on the War in Iraq during a visit Monday, April 23, 2007, by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of the Multinational Force-Iraq, to the White House

Well, there we have it. We give them some security and the Iraq government goes on vacation for a month. Ryan Crocker today admitted the dysfunctionality of the central government. Meanwhile, the GAO report on Iraq’s progress is dismal (even after desperate attempts to slant the report from the White House) and we’ve determined that the Iraqi National Police are hopelessly corrupt, untrusted by the majority off the populace (certainly the Sunnis), and dysfunctional. The citizens of Baghdad, long used to continual electricity before the occupation, still don’t average more than 6 hours of electric power a day... Oh, and our Army and Marines are nearly at the breaking point. Wonderful.

This was the Administration that told us the Mission was Accomplished. They told us the resistance was in its last throes. Food for thought.
So now, aided by a fully inept and dispirited Congress, the war plods on, giving Bush time to pass off the ball to the next sucker and ultimately leaving America with two choices: leaving behind chaos or more years of lost billions and needless American deaths. That’s a hell of a choice.

9/11

Finally, I wish peace to all those that lost loved ones six years ago today. The fallen are all heroes, merely by their innocence, or their dedication to family or work, or perhaps because they tried to help others in their final minutes. They will never be forgotten.

Godstorming

Last night Schizo, Larry, Willie and I met once again on the field of battle—this time the selection was Risk Godstorm. Bellies full of BBQ and chips, we descended on the board like a plaque of locusts.

Two plague zones fell in useless spots—Roma and southern Nubia—but two other blocked off Europa nicely (falling on Seythia and Phonecia if memory holds). I ended up (due to random placement) with a large number of Germania holdings, plus a few scattered in Asia Minor and 1-2 each in Africa and Europa. Schizo was spread mostly Germania (the “British Isles”) and Africa, plus one Atlantis country. Willie dominated Atlantis, starting with three of four areas, but was otherwise spread around everywhere but Germania. Larry started strong in the central board (see map below), in Europa and neighboring Hyrkania.

The initial game (indeed all of it) went poorly for me. I purposely underbid in the first turn bid, in an attempt to secure an early death god and powerful death cards, with which I hoped to turn the tide of war my way. This placed me third in the initial pull.

Schizo came out of the game strongly. His initial placement suggested that he didn’t desire to yield Atlantis to Willie or Germania to me without a major, protracted struggle. I had dumped many troops at strategic points in Germania to stave off multiple attacks, and threw a war god in Asia Minor with a small force. My troops held Germania against Schizo’s determined assaults, but the many “split decision” rolls weakened us both greatly. It was the first blow from which I was never to recover.

Willie and Schizo battled over Atlantis. Despite some early progress in areas, and a huge card lead (many powerful relics) Willie never took Atlantis, and instead moved to strike my flank in southern Germania. The combination of the multiple Germania assaults forced me to consolidate my forces around Thule. My forces in Asia Minor did better, seizing a few countries. Meanwhile Schizo made some serious inroads, as did Willie, in Africa.

Larry, during the first two turns, placed conservatively. He made minor gains, easily took Hyrkania (the first continent taken), and stood unopposed in Europa. (Europa was never taken by anyone, despite the relatively low number of troops there and the blocking plague zones.)

The next several turns were marked by tit-for-tat scuffles. I took much of Asia Minor, only to lose it to Larry. Africa battles swept back and forth, with numerous godswars. (I desperately clung to a Death card that banished all war gods and sky gods, even after I had neither, because of a high faith cost I could barely afford—a bad mistake, given the number of battles I saw won due to the tie-winning abilities of the plentiful war gods in play. Willie pushed back hard into Atlantis (still amazingly never conquering it) and I watched, bemused, knowing a card I held could sink the whole continent at any time. (A loose 1-turn truce I held with Willie prevented this action, as I wished to secure his orderly withdrawal from Iheria (southern tip of Germania).

The fourth turn was huge. Larry destroyed Willie’s many relics (and several of his own) with a single card. He swept aside my defenders in Varangia and moved into Germania. At this point He controlled almost everything save Africa and Atlantis. Much of Willie’s and Schizo’s strength were in the latter places, and I was holed up in Thule. I was quickly eliminated from everywhere else on the board except Germania. My pitiful income never allowed me more than 4 incoming troops and my sole temple has long since fallen to Willie’s earlier attacks. The numerous crypts I help in the Underworld secured me several bonus Death cards, all of which were two expense to make use of easily. They sat unused. I won a godswar or to and rousted Schizo from the British Isles. Willie forged into Hyrkania and Asia Minor, while Schizo raged around Eqypt.

The final turn saw me sweep out from my sole country—Anglia in the ‘Isles—to peck away at Larry. Good defensive rolls prevented my breaking his continent at the gates of Hyrkania. Larry, taking no chances, stole Pandora’s Box from me, denying me a free Death card play the final turn (and I didn’t have the faith to play my other cards). The others nibbled away at Larry’s vast holding as well, reducing the size of his empire. It was not enough. Larry earned a well-deserved victory. Schizo came in second, with Willie and I limping behind. It was a frustrating game for me, as I never got a “good headwind” due to the multiple earlier attacks I was forced to repel, but it was a good game nonetheless. I await with much avidity our next bout. I shall learn from my mistakes and the Ancient Empire shall tremble! (Hoo hah!)

Scooter Scoots

Yawn.

Is it just me, or is the White House getting predictable?

President Bush, not 24 hours after the federal appeals court ruled without discent that Libby was not entitled to avoid jail (while he was appealing his conviction on four felony charges), lets Scooter of the hook. Never mind the recent, similar decision in a similar case. Never mind law and order. Bush bowed to his hardline base, the only fans he has left. His poll numbers have already long-since sank below Nixon's worst, and things might get worse yet.

The White House issued a lame statement speaking of the considerable fine that remained. Sure, right. A Yale-graduate lawyer, backed by millions in donations by fellow Republicans, should have real trouble paying that fine. Please.
I've tried mightily to present thoughtful arguments here, and be polite, and be even-handed to all sides, but the mountain of hypocracy and bullshit has grown to the point that King Kong might well try to climb it.

Oh, and read this for a hoot:

Had enough yet?
That's my bumber sticker for the day.

No Confidence

Today marks another sad day in our democracy.

As I write this, it appears a test-vote of no confidence for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will not be going anywhere, as most Senate Republicans—even those that directly told Gonzales during testimony that he should resign—will not vote expressing their lack of confidence.

I need not belabor Gonzales’ wrongful actions here. The recent and blatant politicization of the Department of Justice, a department with a long-established tradition of political appointees acting nobly apolitical after hire, is (yet another) black mark on our country’s honor. The Hatch Act was enacted to prevent such nonsense, but to the current group in power truly nothing is sacred.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa), a fierce critic of Gonzales, said today
"If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no. I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales." Specter has had concerns about the no confidence vote and its affect on his party, but it appears he may take the high road. Bully for him if he does.

The President, true to form, has backed Gonzales. In this administration loyalty to one’s stooges far out-weighs competence, but of course in this case the “decider” doesn’t overwhelm in the competency department himself, so it’s almost understandable. The President has called the vote “pure political theater” by the Democrats, despite the harsh criticism several important Republicans have heaped on Gonzales these past few months. Perhaps the vote of no confidence should be directed somewhat higher up; that may be the only way historians, given 20 years or so of objectivity, can conclude that Americans back in 2007 had any sanity left.