Marshall Darts

People Conservatives Listen To-Rush Limbaugh

2007-07-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

It will never cease to amaze who conservative reactionaries listen to in order to "understand" politics and world affairs.

We'll profile them periodically. Today's subject is Rush Limbaugh. Like the federal deficit, he's big, fat, and out of control.

Rush's qualification to be an expert in all things conservative is attendance for one year at Southeast Missouri State, not exactly the Harvard of the midwest, or any province in Serbia for that matter.

He flunked out and has no college degree. Yet conservative reactionaries with college degrees raptly listen as though he was better educated than they.

He dodged the draft after a doctor concluded that he had an open cyst at the base of spine. The deferment was undoubtedly due, however, because the draft board was surprised that Rush actually had a spine.

As a family values man, Rush like all other family values men has been married twice. He never quite got it right. He now evidently only patronizes prostitutes in Central America. Whether male or female is unknown.

Someone you want to listen to really closely, huh?

Let's See; It's been about 8 Months

2007-07-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

Let's review:

There was that Iraq thing. I see where we are still winning and may continue doing so for years to come, or at least until Boy George leaves office. The "surge", approved in January, is only three weeks old? Everyone knew the new math would not work.

The new Roberts Supreme Court is doing fine work. Give them a couple of more years to find new ways to re-segregate society and we will have the kind of racial riots that hopelessness produces, as it did in the mid-60's.

I see a number of Senate Republicans are taking more and more "courageous" stands against the Iraq War as we get closer and closer to election day.

Sorry to see that little twit, William Kristol, has gone insane. He is still writing about "winning" the Iraq War. Maybe in the next New American Century, little man.

I now know what the "I" designation before "Connecticut" means when Joe Lieberman is identified. The Senator from Israel is pushing Bush to expand the war into Iran by bombing it. Bush already thinks he is. Ain't no quagmire too deep for this guy.

I wonder if Fred Barnes has traveled down the road from the Baghdad airport to the city? He said about a year ago that it was safe. My offer stands to buy him a one-way ticket to Iraq if he will drive in an unarmored limo from the airport to Baghdad. Kathy Griffin has more courage. She's been there, Fred.

Need to get the Iraqis to agree on oil distribution and other rights? Bar the doors and tell them when they get back from their August vacation that they will have to meet outside the Green Zone. Watch how easy it is for them to "get to yes" then.

Oh, right. Scooter Libby got away with perjury and obstruction of justice. Boy George commuted part of his sentence. The hard time. Despite George's concern that Scooter would be in financial straits with the $250K fine, he paid it the next day. Hmmm. Was that from part of the money Fred (Ronald Reagan) Thompson raised for him? Oh well, he and Judy Miller can start dating again and he can whisper more "sweet nothings" in her ear.

The New Bush Library

2007-01-12T20:51:00.000-06:00

I see where there is great excitement about locating Boy George's library on the SMU campus in Dallas. There are university faculty concerns about having the University so closely allied with not only the library but also a Bush think-tank with an obvious ideological bent. That idea will be duly patronized and ignored by the powers that be.

In addition, since SMU is a metropolitan campus, there are concerns about traffic congestion, noise, etc. in the surrounding neighborhood.

If I were they, I would be more concerned about a more serious issue. That library will be a terrorist magnet. They might want to consider building the library in an underground bunker. The attack on the US embassy in Greece today with an anti-tank rocket shows that it can be done despite massive security.

After all, as Bush likes to say, everything changed after 9/11.

The Bushs' will probably move off his imitation Ronald Reagan ranch in Waco once he's out of office. They'll probably move into one of the posh neighborhoods in Dallas near the campus. I would not want to be his neighbor when an RPG grenade is fired through his front window.

Enjoy it while you have it Dallas. If I lived there I'd move to a very distant suburb when the Bushkin and his library move into the Dallas area.

The Iraq Study Group

2007-01-09T23:56:00.000-06:00

If you read the first 36 pages of the Iraq Study Group Report that constitutes the "Assessment" of the situation in Iraq you would think it was written by the Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and the SDS of the 1960's.

You know the US has a real problem in Iraq when you realize such pessimism reigns among, and was written under the auspices of conservative Republicans like James Baker, Edwin Meese, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Alan Simpson.

The result? Little numb-nuts Bush is going on TV tomorrow night to announce an increase in troop levels and will completely ignore the Study Group's recommendations. The only thing he will do is plagiarize part of its title. "The (New, Boy George's contribution) Way Forward."

Get ready for 4,000 dead Americans. It will happen much more quickly due to this acceleration of the war. That was the experience in Vietnam. Leaving our soldiers in posts within Baghdad will expose them to many more casualties.

Well, Daddy did the best he could to get the little boy back in tow, but Boy George is determined not to repeat Daddy's "mistakes". He wants to make his own, new ones. And he will.

The Real War on Terror

2007-01-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

Reports are that AC-130 gunships are pummeling radical Islamists in Somalia. The NYT reports that it is making the Somalis angry. Too bad.

Somalia cannot even claim to be a nation state. It is a legitimate free-fire zone if it cannot control radical Islamists fundamentalists.

The ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan should be considered the same.

Next will be reports that couples in the middle of weddings were mistakenly killed. There will also be reports that women and children were killed.

A little advice is in order: 1.) don't invite terrorists to your wedding. It could be dangerous to your health; and 2.) radical Islamists will not lose their family members if they don't use them as human shields.

Hillary and Obama and Bush's Legacy

2007-01-09T21:01:00.000-06:00

Hillary and Obama should get together now. Bush's strategy is to dump the Iraq war on his successor. By the time this "one last chance" goes down in flames, the Dems will be able to elect as President anyone who can speak in full sentences.

Bush's legacy will be the creation of the second Islamic State in the Middle East. That should eventually get him the Nobel Peace prize since it worked for St. Jimmy of Plains, a bonehead who doesn't know apartheid from protecting your populace from suicide bombers.

By the time Bush and his radical rightists are done, the Dems will be able to elect a William Jefferson of Louisiana and Alcee Hastings of Florida ticket running on an integrity platform.

Conditions for Surge

2007-01-09T20:41:00.000-06:00

Democrats should only agree to Baby Bush's "surge" on the condition that the idiots recommending it serve, with their children, in the military in Iraq. Not in the Green Zone, but on the streets of Iraq to the same extent real American warriors do.

That would include the following intellectual morons:

William Kristol;
Richard Pearle;
Charles Krauthammer;
Frederick Kagan (an amazing resemblance to Oliver Hardy without the mustache) who is so fat, chubby and soft he probably couldn't handle summer camp, yet seems so eager to have other people's children die to prove himself right about the war he helped ideologized us into;
Ex.Gen. Jack Keane needs another tour of duty as a grunt;
Sean Hannity;
Bill O'Reilly;
Rush Limbaugh;
Newt Gingrich;
Neil Cavuto;
Fred Barnes;
Britt Hume;
Roger Ailes;
Morton Kondracke;
Joe Klein;
Thomas Friedman; and
anyone who still admits being a neoconservative.

They can all do foot patrols under John McCain since his presidential campaign will be as disastrous as Bush's relabeled and unchanged "stay the course" Iraq Strategy will be.

All surges...

2007-01-08T22:01:00.000-06:00

recede, by definition. The terrorists know this.

The Pentagon's New Advice to Bush

2007-01-08T22:00:00.000-06:00

Insane.

Bush's "New" Strategy

2007-01-08T21:58:00.000-06:00

Insane.

McCain Wants to Send More Troops?

2006-11-20T11:15:00.000-06:00

Sen. John McCain might try to pass it off as being a "maverick." His latest remedy for Iraq, though, shows that he also learned nothing from his Vietnam experience. He suffers from the same "Vietnam Syndrome" that Bush, Cheney, and Rummy have. We would have won in Vietnam if we hadn't hog-tied the military.

He wants to send in an overwhelming amount of additional US troops to solve the Iraq quagmire. That's what LBJ did in Vietnam and it didn't work. Dramatic escalation made things worse and casualties escalated exponentially. No one in the Pentagon even believes we have the manpower to do it.

I have never believed that McCain has the intellectual heft for the presidency. His troop escalation idea proves it. Courage and experience is not the same as wisdom. It proves that he's also not a very good politician since, like Bush, he is trying to ignore the midterm election results.

His idea is outdated by four years. It was right when Shinseki said it then. It is dead wrong now. Keep it up, Senator. I hope you get the Republican nomination and continue to call for more war rather than diplomacy. Then the Dems will stroll into the White House in '08 and finish off Bush's war realistically.

Random Thoughts

2006-11-18T12:37:00.000-06:00

O.J. Simpson is a narcissistic psychopath.

Bill O'Reilly is merely a narcissist.

Rupert Murdoch is merely a greedy psychopath.

Ohio State 21-Michigan 7.

George Bush thinks we would have won the Vietnam War if we "hadn't given up," after 21 years. He needs to "stay in a history course" until he learns what really happened.

Whatever happened to WW III? General Gingrich should update us.

"Bipartisan Bush" starts off by divisively resubmitting John ("the Walrus") Bolton's nomination for UN ambassador and several court nominees previously rejected by the Senate.

Movies-Helen Mirren should win Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "Queen." "Borat" is hilarious, but the character is not as interesting or as nuanced as Ali G. Casino Royale sounds interesting, returning James Bond to his original, more complex, character.

Quote of the day: When a friend learned that Bo Schembechler had coronary by-pass surgery he retorted, "That's impossible, Bo would never pass." R.I.P. to a great leader of young men.

Abizaid Needs to Go as Well

2006-11-16T15:33:00.000-06:00

General John Abizaid testified before both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees yesterday. His testimony proved the old adage that "War is much too serious to be left to the generals"(Attributed to George Clemenceau and others).

In his testimony, the General stubbornly resisted any suggestions by Senators from both sides that a policy change in Iraq is needed. He is in as big a state of denial as George W.Bush, Cheney and Rummy.

Abizaid seems as in favor of "stay the course" as Rummy. His only concession: Put in a few more troops, accelerate training of the Iraqis, and everything will be hunky-dory. Maybe 20,000 for 4 to 6 months should take care of things.

Generals are necessary and vital participants when it comes to short-term battle tactics. When it comes to strategy, the longer-term outlook, their opinions will always be prejudiced toward combat and winning.

It is the nature of the warrior, and if the politicians don't stop him, he'll create more of a mess in Iraq. Most military men believe there is no mission they can't conclude successfully. That is why a skeptical civilian eye is needed to oversee and command the military.

Abizaid has also been co-opted and discredited by toadying to Rummy's wishes and should leave with him. Only yesterday did he acknowledge for the first time that General Shinseki was correct in his assessment that it would take 500,000 troops to occupy Iraq.

We need a fresh look at Iraq. We do not need "stay the course, but hurry it up" as a policy. Abizaid's credibility is as specious as Rummy's. He needs to go.

Mark Foley Scandal-The Midterm Election's Pivotal Point

2006-11-09T22:26:00.000-06:00

Nancy Pelosi should be awarded a Medal of Freedom for inventing the phrase "culture of corruption." I think it drove thousands of evangelicals to the Democratic column as Republican scandal after scandal kept coming.

There is no doubt that Iraq was the issue for most voters in throwing the Republicans out of the House and Senate on Tuesday. However, "corruption" was high on the list of concerns for many voters.

The Republicans were just getting ready to "swiftboat" Pelosi when the Foley page scandal exploded. You can imagine the commercials attacking Pelosi that had to stay in the can. Pelosi's face in grainy black and white, gays parading half-dressed down Castro Street, with a claim that she would surrender Washington to Bin Laden.

Thanks to Foley's wandering eye and compulsive IM's to pages, rather than smear Pelosi, whom most Americans didn't even know, the Republicans had to divert valuable advertising time and money trying to keep their own candidates from being defeated.

The "culture of corruption." The Republicans were finally out-sloganeered by the Democrats. ("Stay the course" was already crumbling.) Mark Foley crystallized and defined the corruption issue like no other scandal could. To me, it was the decisive moment of the election.

Rove's New Minority

2006-11-09T19:52:00.000-06:00

Many of the Republicans who lost on Tuesday (other than the corrupt ones who are going to jail soon) were moderates. Jim Leach of Iowa and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island pop to mind.

The moderates in the Republican party have been marginalized and ignored every bit as much as the Dems during Bush and Rove's tenure. This is exactly what Goldwater Republicans did to the venerable Nelson Rockefeller. He was booed by the radical right during the 1964 convention.

The result of such a political purge was to push many moderate Republicans into the Democratic Party in '64. I think "the Architect" is unintentionally producing the same effect. The Republicans will become more extreme and will lose the center.

Chafee is already thinking about changing parties. Marginalizing and ignoring smaller segments of his own party will boomerang on Rove. He may be in the midst of producing a "New Minority" instead of a new majority.

Rove should know better. The Democrats did severe damage to themselves by not allowing people like by Bob Casey's father speak at a convention because of his anti-abortion stance. There is nothing like losing power for 12 years to bring politicians to their senses. That is why the Dems backed Bob Casey despite his anti-abortion stance.

No party can produce a majority by establishing innumerable litmus tests a potential candidate must pass in order to get party backing. The Dems lost power trying to do it. Rove is doing it now. He's going to have a very small tent if he keeps it up.

Fun, Fun, Fun 'til Daddy Took the T-Bird Away

2006-11-09T08:43:00.000-06:00

Fun, fun, fun was what Boy George, Cheney, Rummy, Rove and the neo-con-artists were having until George the Elder finally stepped in and had his men take control of his son. The midterms forced the old man's hand, though the Baker-Hamilton Commission was already a precursor of Rumsfeld's departure.

It was incredible to hear that in Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" that the Elder "did not want to interfere" in his son's ruination of our armed forces in Iraq and the Republican majority. To paraphrase: He wanted his son to have a chance to do it himself. What in God's name was that all about?

That is what you're supposed to do when a teenager is learning to drive or your kid is trying to win the soap box derby. It's not what you do when he is running the most powerful country in the world into the ground. Wait and see if he could do it himself? What a pitiable excuse for not taking action before this.

Now, with the appointment of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, Bush's father has essentially retaken control of the government of the country. Bush the younger and his cohorts Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld did not even want the Baker-Hamilton commission formed, let alone to issue a report on Iraq.

To the contrary, yesterday at his press conference, little George sounded like he could hardly wait for the Baker-Hamilton report to save him from further humiliation. There is hope now that, between Daddy and the Democrats, the US will salvage something out of Iraq and start rebuilding badly strained relations with allies.

One thing is for sure. Little George won't really be at the wheel anymore. Daddy took the keys away last weekend. Now Boy George will just be pretending to drive the T-Bird while sitting still in his driveway.

The Year of the Independent

2006-11-07T10:49:00.000-06:00

Much print and many articles have focused on the "Get out the Vote" (GOTV) apparatus of the two parties. In a normal midterm election that would be a critical component for both parties.

However, I don't think this is a "normal" midterm election. Not with the war in Iraq, a foreign policy issue, playing the biggest role in this election. Normally, congressional elections are based upon economic well-being, not foreign policy. That makes this a very different election from other midterms.

All politics is local? That is still true, even with a "national issue" like Iraq dominating the election. How can it be both? Because when a local serviceman or woman dies in Iraq, and is returned home for burial, Iraq is a very local issue.

When an election like this is nationalized and a mandate about a President's foreign policy, GOTV is important. Trumping GOTV, though, in this type of race, is a voting bloc which has been ignored in the partisanship of the last decade.

That bloc is the Independent voters. A high election turnout for a midterm in the 40 percent range will not be a GOTV result. It will be the return of the Independent voter who has sat out the midterm and local elections in the past decade.

It will be refreshing to see them back, participating in the most important function we have as citizens, voting. It will also be refreshing, because, if the Democrats win at least the House both parties will get the nonpartisan messages that:

1. a dramatic course correction is needed for Iraq; and
2. voters want the parties to start governing by consensus and not by partisanship.

"Stay the Course" is Still Alive after All

2006-11-02T16:14:00.000-06:00

I see that President Bush has reported by telephone to radio talk show big, fat, liar, Rush Limbaugh, that he wants Cheney and Rummy to stay with him for the next two years until he leaves office. Rush (the "Tokyo Rose" of the Bush administration) must have approved because he didn't mimic any of Bush's intellectual disabilities (other than his stupidity) on the tape I saw. No arm waving, circling his finger around his head, or rolling eyes.

Does anyone really think that we will be out of Iraq with Boy George retaining Rummy at Defense? Rummy, the very man, who like Bush, cannot admit that he put too few troops into Iraq initially, and continues to refuse to enhance the force, or to draw it down? Rummy, the very man even Republicans want to fire, if only to save their own cushy seats in Congress.

Asked today, Bush said "I don't know" if troops will still be in Iraq by the time he leaves office. Gimme a break. The only way he wouldn't know is if he had a plan top get us out of Iraq. We all know, however, that planning is something George and company don't like to do.

By going out of his way to call Limbaugh to tell him that he wanted the two biggest chickenhawks to stay was code for "I will stay the course, I just won't say it anymore," to the remaining right-wing nuts who remain his political base. Just yesterday, I opined that no politician would use the "stay the course" mantra again. George didn't say it directly, but most people knew what he meant.

He's obviously going to dump this mess on whomever succeeds him. Then he'll retreat to his new multimillion dollar presidential library and try to finish reading "My Pet Goat," without any further interruptions, like terrorists attacks or American and Iraqi death tolls in Iraq.

Bush before the Fall

2006-11-01T11:35:00.000-06:00

As usual, Boy George has it backwards. "We'll stand down when the Iraqis stand up." Then when the al-Maliki government tells the U.S. military to take down checkpoints in Sadr City, the U.S. military objects.

That slogan he uses (and all he has are memorized slogans) has allowed the Iraqi government to avoid the hard decisions, do nothing, and rely on U.S. forces to do their job for them. Bush should be saying, "The Iraqis will only stand up when we stand down, so we're going to start to draw down our forces".

Speaking of memorization. John Kerry has created a nice little mess for Democrats in close races. This is what happens when you try to memorize your lines, rather than speaking your mind.

He muffed a joke about Bush that had been fed to him by one of his advisers, giving the right wing nuts new fodder for one last desperate attempt to sway voters.

Thankfully, good will unintentionally be the result of Kerry's blunder, because Bush is dumb enough to use it to continue to try to tell the American people how great the Iraq situation is. Keep talking, George. Pelosi needs you to deliver a comfortable majority in the House after Nov. 7.

Mid-Term Election Predictions

2006-11-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

As of today, I think the Senate will split 50-50, with the Dems taking only one of the last three states rated tossups (Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia).

I think Sen Macaca of Virginia is going down. Not only has he shown he's not presidential material, he's shown he's a bully. People don't like bullies.

In the House, Bush is going to feel the public rage for having no plan after almost 4 years to get us out of Iraq. I think the Republicans will lose at least 30 seats, giving the Dems a 15 seat majority.

After six years of majorities in both houses, he is not sophisticated nor intelligent enough to know how to make deals with the Dems. That means gridlock, no change in Iraq, and another election about the war.

He is on the way to making the Republican Party a minority party again, thanks to his arrogance, stubborness, and concern for his historical legacy. It will be a long time before any politician uses the "stay the course" slogan again.

Darfur Dies While Elites Thrive in Sudan

2006-10-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

Here is another reason why the U.S. should not stand idly by while genocide is committed in Darfur. This article from the times shows what is going on in Khartoum in the east of Sudan where the government and its elites are having a good 'ole time while committing genocide in the west.

Madonna and Oprah: The Perfect Match

2006-10-23T11:40:00.000-05:00

Where else would Madonna, the biggest publicity hound since Cher and Roseanne Barr, appear to talk about her adoption "shopping trip to Africa"? Oprah, of course.

She can talk, they can hold hands, they can cry. A perfect match.

I hope Oprah will ask her some questions about why Africa and not Gary, Indiana, or Detroit before they start the banal talk about their "feelings" on the matter.

Poor Madonna. I'm sure she must be feeling as though she is being "crucified" for her charitable attempts to help the little boy. Then again, show does a show on that too, doesn't she.

Darfur--Rwanda Genocide Redux

2006-10-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

The answer to this problem is so easy it is hard to believe the U.S. lets it continue. One NATO or U.S. tank division to protect the Africans against the slaughter by Arab janjaweed (militia) would stop the genocide in Darfur. Today's New York Times has its umpteenth article on what is happening.

"60 Minutes" had it's umpteenth show on the genocide last night. The Darfur genocide can easily be stopped if the Bush administration cared to stop it. The people committing the genocide are riding camels, for God's sake. How tough can it be for a few Hummers and Abrams tanks to send them running for the hills and establishing a security perimeter around the refugee camps?

It is appalling that Rwanda is being replayed right before the world's eyes and that no country or alliance is coming forward to stop it. It's too bad if the Sudan government doesn't want others to interfere.

If they interfered with a U.S. or NATO intervention, the Sudan government could be taken down more quickly than it took to flush Noriega out of Panama. They already have a civil war they can't handle and we should at least be covertly supporting it.

And here is Boy George at it again. He sent Colin Powell and Condi Rice, his only two African-American acquaintances, out there to express U.S. displeasure. After they left, the killing started again and Bush's position has been to "Let the UN handle it". How cynical can he get?

Normally he derides UN involvement. He's done nothing but bad-mouth the UN since he came into office. He deems it ineffective in dealing with this kind of crisis. And it is. Its force is not crossing the border from Chad into the Sudan to protect the 2 1/2 million refugees because Sudan said they shouldn't.

So why is he expecting the UN to do something he feels they are ineffective at doing? Easy answer. He doesn't care.

One thing we do know. There won't be any post-genocide apology a la Bill Clinton in Rwanda. As we all know, George Bush never apologizes for his mistakes, because he never makes any. Just ask him.

Iraq Timetable? The Bush Blame Game

2006-10-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition that the Bush administration poo-bahs, who have us quagmired in Iraq, have drawn up an Iraqi timetable.

Notice that it is not a timetable for ourselves. That's an important part of the "blame game" strategy that the Bushies have formulated. It's not to win the war. It's to blame someone else for losing it. The Iraqis, instead of Bill Clinton, will be blamed this time.

They have set time frames for the al-Maliki puppet governement to accomplish certain things, e.g., disarm militias, and other political and economic benchmarks that they probably cannot attain.

"Although the plan would not threaten Mr. al-Maliki with a withdrawal of U.S troops...the Bush administration would consider changes in military strategy" if the Iraqis didn't sign off on the plan.

Any plan that doesn't threaten withdrawal of troops for non-compliance is a joke. It will be like moving chairs on the Titanic, except much more serious. Those "chairs" will be our undermanned troops being moved from province to province again.

The only other alternative would be for the U.S. to "Fallujah" all of Sadr City and wipe out the Shiite militias, mainly the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigades, ourselves. We would need a lot more troops, which we don't have.

We would also need the public political will prepared to take many more American casualties. The mid-term elections will show that that political no longer exists due to the disastrous execution of the Bush occupation of Iraq.

No credibility equals no political will, Boy George.

The Iraqi timetables/benchmarks/ guideposts, or whatever they want to call them, will only help Bush play his political "blame game." I can hear Bush now: "We lost the war because the Iraqis didn't meet the benchmarks we gave 'em."

This type of planning is exactly the kind of gradualism that extended the Vietnam War. It accomplished nothing. It did cost a lot more lives.

Sports Police Blotter-Oct.14-20

2006-10-21T18:09:00.002-05:00

Juan Uribe-Chicago White Sox shortstop picked up for questioning under an arrest warrant in the Dominican Republic. Questioned about the shooting of two men. Released but remains a suspect.

Sammy Stewart-ex-pitcher for Baltimore Orioles pleaded guilty to being a habitual felon, felony drug possession and failure to appear in court on a felony. He's been charged with more than 60 offenses and sent to prison 6 times since 1988.

Matt Lehr-Atlanta Falcons guard suspended for 4 games for violating NFL substance abuse policy.

Shaun Rogers-Detroit Lions defensive end suspended for 4 games for taking a banned ingredient from an over-the-counter drug.

Sebatian Telfair-Boston Celtics guard under investigation for shooting of rapper Fabolous in the left thigh.

Madonna Adoption Sickens Me

2006-10-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

As everyone knows, Madonna went on a well-publicized shopping spree in Malawi, Africa this week. She came back with a little boy who has a father, who put him in an orphanage because his mother was dead.

The picture of her walking down a line of orphans looking for the one she wanted sickens me. It's right out of a Dickens novel. That's the way I once picked out a cat in a barn. The fact that the child still had a father sickens me.

It doesn't matter whether he did ask Madonna to take his son. There were other children in that orphanage with no mother or father. And if she really wanted to help the father, she would arrange to have him immigrate to the UK and at least give him a job on her estate so that he to could escape poverty and be with his son.

By the way, the next time she or Angela Jolie wants to adopt a poor parentless child in order to rescue them from a life of poverty and crime, I can help. I can take them into areas of Gary, Indiana, or Jackson, Mississippi, or New York City and help them find any number of children worse off than the little boy she bought.

They are black, brown, and white; whatever color is "in style" for celebrities the next time they feel like getting publicity. I can guarantee they are in a worse situation than the child Madonna bought on her shopping trip.

Oh My God! I'm a Minority!

2006-10-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

How could this happen in America to a white, male or female, baby boomer? I've never been a minority in my whole life. However, my wife and I did something many years ago that has recently come back to haunt us and condemned us to minority status. We got married.

According to a New York Times story, dated October 15, 2006, as a married couple we are in a relationship that for the first time in the history of the country is in the minority. How could we know back then? We were so young!

The Times story reports that living alone, or with other unmarrieds, has overtaken married couples in the majority of households in the U.S. This is according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

It makes us very uncomfortable, considering America's past history of treating minorities with less than TLC. Worst of all it might make us a target of Karl Rove and other Republican strategists in the next election cycle.

Everyone knows that Rove, and his Republican predecessors, have made political hay bashing minorities, from blacks, to feminists, and most recently gays. They are also good at identifying a new minority like ours and quickly adapting their political strategy to take advantage of it for political gain.

Thank heavens the news of our minority status comes too late to be used as cannon fodder in the upcoming mid-term elections. But what about in election year 2008? I can see the Republican "attack ads" coming in the run-up to '08 election.

If I, my wife, or other married progressives run for office we'd best be prepared for the Republican onslaught of negative advertising. There's nothing like scapegoating a minority to hustle up a bushel full votes from the Republican base.

Here's what I fear Republican negative advertising against a married liberal would look like:

Voiceover:
"Vote Republican, vote for Joe Right Wingnut this fall. He's the father of three and has been happily divorced twice, just like Newt Gingrich. Joe is presently shacking up with his latest girlfriend.

He is just an average American like most of us. (Insert attractive color film of candidate
Wingnut, his housemate and three children, shot during his visitation weekend). He will lower your taxes by reinstating the marriage penalty on those shameless married couples who flout their relationships in public by wearing wedding rings."

(Switch to an unflattering, grainy black and white picture of the married Democratic candidate, looking out of the side of his eyes, making the candidate look as though he just stole a voter's wallet.)

Voiceover:
"This is Mr. Wingnut's opponent, (insert name). He (or she) wants to cut and run from Iran as well as Iraq. He wants to impose estate and gift taxes on Paris Hilton. If you can believe it, he actually expects business to live up to their pension obligations, and wants to make healthcare available to everyone, even poor children.

(Voice full of ridicule) But what would you expect, from a married person?

Vote Republican this fall. Vote Wingnut. Stop the "married minority" from running and ruining your life."

(Switch back to Wingnut, housemate, and kids, now playing with cute dog on lush green grass in front of a house that he does not own.)

"I'm Joe Wingnut and I approved this ad because my Republican consultant told me to."

Wow! It never occurred to me that those Republicans would smear the opposition party's candidates on a relationship status they used to praise. Until I became a minority. Now our "alternative lifestyle" has my wife and I very worried.

NFL Football Predictions-Week 6-Post-Mortem Updates

2006-10-16T12:25:00.000-05:00

Dallas 34-Houston 10-No contest. Houston defensive end, picked 1s in the draft, not exactly having Reggie Bush impact. Was this Charlie Casserly's last bomb before he left to become an "expert" commentator, or was it the new owner? Expect Owens to get the ball a lot more.
Post-Mortem: Dallas 36-Houston 6 As expected. Houston needs to start all over with this franchise.

Buffalo 17-Detroit 6-These teams are so bad, this score could as easily be reversed. It's the "who cares" game of the week.
Post-Mortem: Lions 20-Bills 17 I got the Bills number right. Who cares?

Bengals 33-Tampa Bay 21-New Tampa QB looked good last week. We'll see if he's as good as he looks. I think he is. But Bengals are on a whole different level.
Post-Mortem: Tampa Bay14-Bengals 13 Tampa got the Bengals to play their game; defense.

Redskins 26-Titans 14-Vince Young will survive, but will not win much this year. He's lucky to have Jeff Fisher as coach. A smart coach who will keep it simple for the ingenue until he figures out how to use him effectively.
Post-Mortem: Titans 25-Skins 22 Jeff Fisher is a great coach. Skins haven't mproved much since Gibbs retruned. He'll probably hang it up after this year. Biggest personnel change Skins still need remains change in owner.

Falcons 24-Giants 13-Giants overrated again this year because of NY media. Michael Vick will run wild on weak defense. Vick's new "college option" offense will be hard to stop. Might be the answer to his mediocre throwing ability.
Post-Mortem: Giants 27-Falcons 14-Best I've seen Manning play. Looks like Atlanta is the overrated team. Mora won't be able to get away with firing another coordinator if he goes 8-8 again with the best athlete in pro football. He'll be gone.

Baltimore 17-Carolina 10-Defense, defense, defense. Both teams have great ones. However, Steve McNair makes the difference for this team. Their first real QB in years. Panthers unimaginative offense will hold them back again.
Post-Mortem: Carolina 23-Baltimore 21 No McNair after early concussion. Delhomme's best game ever overcomes coaches inability to call scoring plays twice within inches of Ravens's goal line and fluke catches by Ravens made game closer than it should have been. Despite Carolina coaches, Carolina is starting to look like a Super Bowl contender again with Steve Smith back.

Philadelphia 42-New Orleans 34-Lots of points and flash on both sides. Probably the most glamorous fun game for fans this the day.
Post-Mortem: New Orleans 27-Eagles 24 Pick wrong, but it was the glamor game of the day. Last second field goal to win was only fitting.

Rams 28-Seattle 27-Close game. Rams win due only to home-field advantage.
Post-Mortem: Seattle 30-Rams 28-Another last second field goal lets Seattle slip past Rams home-field advantage.

Jets 24-Miami 14-Miami is hapless and hopeless this year. Daunte Culpepper has the talent, but not the brains. New England not that good this year, but the division has become the weakest in the NFL.
Post-Mortem: Jets 20-Miami 17 Miami proves it can lose a little better with Joey Harrington than with Daunte Culpepper. It will take Saban a while to clean up Dave Wannstedt's "legacy". It took the Bears years to clean up the mess Wannstedt left in Chicago.

Steelers 23-Kansas City 21-Steelers will also win due to home-field, and because Cowher will go berserk if they lose again.
Post-Mortem: Steelers 45 KC 7 Cowher had his players more terrified than I thought. Why KC gave up draft picks to get Herm Edwards, after mediocre coaching career with Jets, is beyond comprehension.

San Diego 40-49ers 13-Rivers is the real thing and Tomlinson makes him that much more effective. Niners are real too; really terrible. A great franchise destroyed by "office politics" of all things. The ghosts of Terry Donohue and Steve Mariucci still haunt this franchise.
Post-Mortem: SD 48 49ers 19 No Surpise.

"Out" all Republican Gays in Congress

2006-10-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

The best thing for the whole country is to force the Republican Party to "out" every gay on their side of the aisle in Congress, whether on staff or a politician. This is not a homophobic reaction to the Mark Foley scandal. Quite the contrary, it is to expose Republican hypocrisy and to take the gay issue off the political table.

Every two years since George Bush took office in 2000, Republicans have bashed gays for political advantage. They have quite intentionally misled their social conservative base into thinking that the Democratic Party is the party of homosexuals.

They were getting ready to do it again in this year's mid-term elections. They were campaigning on a theme that Nancy Pelosi would be the next Speaker of the House if the Dems took control. She is the representative from, horror of horrors, San Francisco, Sodom reborn.

Then the Mark Foley page scandal erupted and they were left without a campaign strategy and on the defensive. Does anyone believe that Foley is the only gay Republican? It is well known in Washington that other Congressmen, Senators, and staff are gay. It is coming out in the investigation of the Foley scandal that gays were working for the top leadership in the party.

Yet every two years these deeply closeted gays have had to endure the cynical hypocrisy of the Republican Party denounce gays in order to gain votes. They will have endure it in the future as well, unless everyone knows how many Republican gays are in Conress and what positions they hold.

That will prevent the Republicans from bashing gays every two years and then employing them to advance their agenda until the next election. It will effectively remove the gay issue from the political table, at least as a Republican versus Democrat issue.

Then both parties can admit they knowingly employ and rely upon intelligent and loyal gays in advancing their political agendas. This will only come as news to the followers of Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Tony Perkins. The Falwells, Dobsons, and Robertson and Perkins's know that there are gay Republicans. They are just as cynical as the Republican Party itself in acting surprised that one turned up.

It will be cathartic for both the Republican Party, and the oppressed gay Republicans that have to stay closeted, to out them all. It will also end a major point of hypocrisy that has become ingrained in the political culture, i.e., gay-bashing rather than discussion of real issues like Iraq, healthcare, and the real War on Terror.

Sports Police Blotter-Oct.7-13

2006-10-13T12:11:00.000-05:00

Chris Henry-Cincy Bengals receiver-2 game suspension for violating NFL substance abuse policy.

Stephen Jackson-Indiana Pacers guard, was arraigned on a felony charge of criminal recklessness and two other counts for a fight outside a strip club in which he discharged a firearm.

Steve Foley-San Diego Chargers linebacker, was charged with drunken driving stemming from a confrontation with a police officer in Coronado, California that resulted in Foley being shot three times.

Mark Downs, Jr., the Pennsylvania youth baseball coach accused of offering an 8-year-old money to bean an autistic teammate, was sentenced to two consecutive 6-36 month prison terms for corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault.

Axis of Evil 3-Bush Administration 0

2006-10-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

North Korea
Well, the third part of the "Axis of Evil", North Korea, exploded a nuclear weapon yesterday(assuming they're not lying just to test world reaction), and they may have exploded one today.

This despite all the bluster by Boy George and company that we would not "live with it," and other threats of dire consequences. It capped an all-around great week for the Axis.

We've reversed roles with North Korea. They used to bluster and we used to shake our heads at what idiots they were. Now Bush blusters and Kim Jong-il nods his head knowingly.

I never thought that telling a paranoid regime that you were out to get them (as Bush implied in his now infamous State of the Union speech) was a good idea.

IRAN
Iran continues its uranium enrichment program, blithely ignoring other useless and silly threats from a U.S. "superpower", with a military emasculated by Bush's Iraq misadventure. Combine that with a post-modern "War is no longer an option" western Europe and you have the perfect recipe for inaction.

Bush continues to look like Mr. Bluster from the old "Howdy-Doody" show. What an embarassment he continues to be due to the gap between the strident rhetoric and the inablity to act.

IRAQ
The U.S. has no ability to respond to either North Korea or Iran because of the mess Bush made in Iraq, alienating all our allies along the way. Daddy has finally sent in James Baker (rather than Henry Kissinger) to advise little George on how to cut and run out of the occupation of that part of the Axis (without looking like it). Old George doesn't want his son to have to send in helicopters to airlift our embassy employees out of the Green Zone.

UN
Russia and China will make sure that Boy George and "I am the Walrus", John Bolton, who have shown nothing but contempt for the U.N., are unable to get any tough sanctions out of the Security Council against North Korea or Iran.

China considers North Korea to be within its sphere of influence. Putin's "soul" into which stared has turned out to be more pragmatic and enigmatic than he thought.

SUMMARY
The greatest danger in all of this? That Japan will rearm. It could probably go nuclear within a week. China, having suffered terribly by Japan's WW II invasion, would go berserk. And the people we nuked, would have nukes.

Now that would be a real WMD crisis. A nuclear arms race in Asia.

John Mark Karr Walks in California; Society Loses

2006-10-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

Karr won't even have to register as a sex offender, because the prosecution lost computer evidence, so the judge had to dismiss the case completely. I don't blame the prosecutors for losing evidence that was over 5 years old.

I do blame the legislators who aren't doing enough to keep guys like this off the street. Even if convicted, he couldn't have been sentenced to more than the time he had already served behind bars back in 2001 when he was arrested.

We know he can't be rehabilitated, and criminal child molesters are serial criminals by nature. They also tend to get more violent with each crime. It's only a matter of time before you'll see him again in the news.

I don't see why a Colorado prosecutor can't prosecute him for giving false information in the Ramsey case as a way of getting him off the street.

A great week for pedophiles, straight and gay.

Foley's New Pedophilia Defense; " I Am a Victim "

2006-10-04T10:20:00.000-05:00

The alcohol angle that supposedly made ex-Rep. Mark Foley a congressional male page pedophiliac doesn't seem to be working. Even Peter King (R-NY), one of the main Republican apologists called it a "gimmick."

So Foley has suddenly remembered that he was molested by an unnamed clergyman between the ages of 13-15. He will not reveal the clergyman's identity until after his 30 day rehab (probably to make sure a clergyman is dead and cannot defend himself).

It's an amazing fact that all these oddballs, including Rush Limbaugh, only need 30 days to recover from whatever mentally ails or addicts them. It took me years to overcome my tobacco addiction, and these guys are all "cured" within 30 days.

It's also funny how "family values" politicians like Foley only remember these sexual abuse incidents after they've been caught. That is quite unlike the heroic, sexually abused, Catholic adults who came forward because they were egregiously wronged by their priests.

The right-wing reaction to all this is hilarious. When they're not pointing fingers at each other concerning who did, or should have done what, they're suddenly tacitly defending gay rights and indirectly acknowledging fear of the power of political correctness.

WW III veteran, Newt Gingrich, says that if the Republicans had disclosed Foley's pedophilia back in 2001 when they first learned of it, they would have been accused of gay bashing, so they had to cover it up.

Since when did General Newtie and company worry about PC? And why would Newt worry about such a thing as being accused of gay bashing? He and his friends in the Republican Party do it every election cycle. They don't care if they're called "gay bashers," so long as it gets them votes.

I didn't know Newtie, Matt Drudge, and Bill O'Reilly were such gay rights guys. Why else would they have helped keep it a secret. It turns out that Fox News sat on the same emails for years.

Maybe those three and other right-wing family value guys should all apply for an associate membership for "straights" with the Log Cabin Republicans. Assuming they're not secretly entitled to full membership.

Condi Girl Covers-Up Too

2006-10-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

Condoleezza Rice is into her own cover-up these days, thanks to Bob Woodward's new book. Woodward revealed that Condi Girl got a dramatic briefing from George Tenet and an aide in July about an almost certain strike against the U.S. by Bin Laden. She brushed them off.

Her response to Woodward's reporting was typical Watergate-style. It was that she "did not recall" the meeting. That's the old Ehrlichman-Haldeman shtik. She also said it was "incomprehensible" that she was told about an imminent threat from al-Qaeda at that meeting.

She has now gone into Ehrlichman's "modified, limited hang-out" routine. When you are caught in a lie you suddenly remember that part, but then try to minimize its importance.

Caught in that lie by the NY Times, she now remembers the meeting, but the information was "not new" and didn't amount to an urgent warning, her spokesman says, Ehrlichman-style.

To the contrary, intelligence officials say the presentation was a "10 on a scale of 1 to 10...". Let's see, then she received a briefing paper in August that was entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" and still did nothing.

Isn't she the one who was so indignant when Clinton told Fox News that he had done more than the Bush Administration to kill Bin Laden?

The Congrssional Page Cover-Up

2006-10-03T09:33:00.000-05:00

They never learn in Washington. More politicians are caught and punished for covering up a scandal then for participating in it. Watergate and Iran-Contra are the most outstanding examples.

Brian Ross from ABC News, who broke the story, reports that ABC is now receiving massive amounts of information from other pages. This will be much bigger than one congressman and one page.

There will be a lot more "outing" of gay Republicans who have been living double lives. Gay Republicans have been toadying up to James Dobson for votes and living a closeted lifestyle. They deserve what they get.

The finger-pointing has already begun. Rep. John Boehner, Republican majority leader from Ohio is already trying to throw Speaker Dennis Hastert under the bus, saying it's in "his corner."

Alcoholism and Homosexuality?

2006-10-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

Mark Foley, a Republican congressman who represented West Palm Beach, Florida, was forced to resign in disgrace last Friday. It seems he is a sexual predator who has been sending lewd emails and instant messages to underage male congressional pages.

In a bizarre twist today, he announced that he was going into alcohol rehab. This patently ridiculous ruse raises two questions:

1.) Since when does alcohol rehab change a person's sexual orientation, straight or gay?

2.) Since when does alcohol rehab solve a sexual predator's deviancy?

Is he really trying to say that alcohol made him into a homosexual predator of young boys? That's about as logical as saying a male's sexual orientation is based upon whether he dresses fashionably.

He was on of the many "family values" Republicans who voted to impeach President Clinton. He was quoted at the time as calling Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky "vile."

Last appalling note: He was the chairman of the Congressional Committee on Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

Bob Woodward's New Book; Henry Kissinger's New War

2006-10-02T10:29:00.000-05:00

The new book by Woodward, "State of Denial" confirms what most people have thought about the Iraq War. Things are getting worse and not better in Iraq. It also confirms that there was no pre-war planning for how to set Iraq on a democratic track after the invasion.

What makes Woodward's book the most credible of all that have been written, however, is that he had access to all the actual participants, including Rummy, Rice, Cheney and others. Most importantly, he had access to the Pentagon, where generals spoke candidly about what a terrible job Rumsfeld has done.

The biggest scoop in the book? Not the ghost, but the actual, Henry Kissinger is back. He has secretly encouraged Cheney and Bush to keep fighting (not that they needed much). He's fighting the Vietnam War he lost 30 years ago over again. The result is that we're losing again, and our kids are dying again, thanks, in part, to him.

You remember Vietnam. Henry negotiated such a great peace deal that we had to airlift our employees off the roof of the American embassy as the North Vietnamese entered the embassy grounds. He got the Nobel Peace Prize for that piece of handiwork.

I have wondered why the pro-war rhetoric of the Iraq War is so similar to the rhetoric of the hawks during the Vietnam War. Now I know. Kissinger's involved.

"Vietnamization" was the propaganda slogan used back in Kissinger's days as Nixon's Secretary of State. It meant that as the South Vietnamese army was trained and took over the fighting, the US would withdraw our troops.

Sound familiar? Vietnamization has been repackaged as "we will stand down when the Iraqis are ready to stand up". Get ready for another airlift off an embassy roof. If there is one real war criminal in the United States it is Henry Kissinger. And he is a serial killer, of our children.

What "Ailes" Fox News

2006-09-29T18:58:00.000-05:00

Roger Ailes is the head of Fox News. He is the fellow who created the psuedo-news network for Rupert Murdoch that captures the heart of every right-wing nut in America. It is very much like Murdoch's tabloid newspapers. Heavy on local, grisly murders, violence and sex, mixed in with an extreme right-wing editorial agenda.

Ailes recently criticized President Clinton for his now legendary explosion at a Fox News set up question by little, elfin-looking, Chris Wallace. The question implied that Clinton hadn't done enough to get Bin Laden.

Ailes, who has done more to destroy the credibility of objective reporting and journalism than anyone since Joe McCarthy, called Clinton's outburst an "assault on all journalists". Why an assualt on journalists is of concern to him is not obvious, since he hires failed models and actresses and right-wing ideologues to slant and convey the reactionary news that he sees fit to broadcast.

His actor/commentators, like O'Reilly, high school grad Hannity, and Cavuto, spend most of their time trying to get Americans to distrust the mainstream media. That's what makes it ironically humorous when he called for all journalists after the Clinton-Wallace interview to join Fox and him and...do what?

Nothing. He just wanted to make the statement so that his "news"casters can "prove" once again to the average gullible Fox viewer that the mainstream media is liberal, i.e. venal, if it doesn't criticize Clinton as well. I'm sure those Fox viewers will believe it, and the reactionary propaganda machine that is Fox will roll on happily.

In an ABC internet report Ailes is also quoted as saying, "I quit (politics) 14 years ago because I hated it." He doesn't hate politics. He loves politics. He's just practicing it in a disguised form, as a pseudo-news chief that slants extreme right-wing reactionary opinion in this country as "fair and balanced". Himmler could have learned from him.

At least the Daily Show says it is fake news and is purposely funny. Fox News is fake news also, but denies it, and is only inadvertently funny, as when an ex-Nixon hatchetman like Ailes "worries" about an attack on all journalists; a sport in which he and his minions engage all the time.

Bob Woodward:Understimate Him at Your Peril

2006-09-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

Bob Woodward's latest book "State of Denial" has caught the Bushies completely off guard. They were patronizingly complimenting him after his first two books on Bush's Iraq War. Now, even before the new book is published, they already vilifying him for not toeing the party line.

The conventional wisdom on Woodward among GOPers was that if you gave him access he would treat you sympathetically. This wisdom was based on his first two books on the Iraq War.

Surprise! The Bushies forgot that this is the guy who broke the Watergate scandal. He is still an "investigative journalist". He and Bernstein almost invented the title.

Every ambitious young reporter, especially in TVland, wants to use that title because of Woodward and Bernstein's work. Many are titled investigative journalists, but few are chosen to be so talented.

It serves the Bushies right. The guy they thought they were manipulating was actually manipulating them all along.

Return of the Sports Ghouls

2006-09-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

The sports ghouls were out again at the Ryder Cup. Once again, in a mock show of sympathy, they couldn't pass up any opportunity to say that Darren Clarke's wife died from cancer the week previous to the Ryder Cup.

To add insult to injury, they asked not only him, but all of his teammates, the obvious. Do you think it was inspirational for him to play with his wife dead?

How charming. About as considerate as the Marquis de Sade.

Rough Ryder Cup

2006-09-29T09:49:00.000-05:00

U.S. Golf took it on the chin again last week at the Ryder Cup. Not surprised. Unlike past years, this U.S. team wasn't as good as the Euro team. It didn't have the depth. It was also the first time that the Europeans were, on average, higher in the world rankings than the U.S.

Something more than rankings is going on with the Americans, however. They are always criticized about being too individualistic, not by nature team players. So whoever their coach is, Tom Lehman this time, always trys to do things to "bond" them together.

This year it was sing alongs. In the past it's been table tennis, dining together, and other bonding techniques. As far as I know, no coach has yet to have them close their eyes and have them fall in a circle of other players who catch them. It can't be far away, though.

The problem isn't bonding. The problem is a common one in sports, whether golf, football, baseball or basketball. It is called choking.

It was visible to anyone who watched the matches that the Euros were loose and having fun. The Americans were tight and grim, waiting for the worst to happen. And it did. They missed short putts and muffed shots that they regularly make on tour.

The more you lose in sport the harder it is to win. The U.S. has now been so unsuccessful in so many recent Ryder Cups that they expect to lose. They expect the Euros to make lucky shots. And everytime they miss one it makes the burden of playing the next shot that much heavier.

Ryder Cup psychology for the Americans is all wrong. It's hard for losers to turn things around in sports. Sports sages like to say that winning breeds winning. The obverse is also true. Losing breeds losing.

The Americans won't win again until they loosen up and play like it's a game again.

ABC/ESPN Hit New Low

2006-09-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

It was hilarious to hear the commentary on the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game earkuer tonight. Brad Musburger was the lead announcer. He was fine.

There was another fellow in the booth whose name I didn't get, but served as the seemingly required third body in the booth for football games.

The unbelievable, jaw-dropping (and funny) part was that Bob Davie was the "expert" analyst! Bob Davie! You remember him. He was once the coach at Notre Dame who almost completely destroyed the most storied football program in college history with his terrible coaching.

ABC/ESPN actually put him on the air to critique the play and coaching of the school that fired him. I believe that is a first, and one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in sports broadcasting.
To hear Davie give ND coach Charlie Weiss advice on what play to run and how to beat Michigan State shows one of two things.

One, Davie has no sense of the irony of how stupid he sounds in confidently and authoritatively giving advice on how to beat a team he could never beat. Two, someone at ABC/ESPN has a great sense of irony (and humor) on how stupid he would look.

Then again, maybe both are true. Even so, ESPN Sports continues to reinforce its reputation as the place where hapless, losing coaches go when they get fired. ESPN is not only "your home for sports." It's also a home for incompetents to become experts when nobody wants them to coach their football team.

Can Dave Wannstedt of Pittsburgh University be far behind?

Bill O'Reilly on al-Qeada Death List?

2006-09-20T19:05:00.000-05:00

Bill told Barbara Walters that he and others at Fox were on an al-Qaeda hit list. He asserted that the FBI told him so. No word on whether Babs or anyone else at ABC tried to confirm the assertion.

Despite what a substantial number of Americans of all faiths may want, if I was al-Qaeda I'd want him on in primetime preaching his hate-based initiatives against Muslims.

I wouldn't let any Muslim touch him. He's the perfect xenophobe to alienate and radicalize our Muslim population.

By the way, has Bill demanded that the Pope apologize for his insultingly medieval reference to Islam? Has Bill wondered out loud why more Christians haven't come out and denounced what the Pope said? He expects Imams and ordinary Arabs to do so all the time.

Onward Christian soldier, culture warrior, and patriotic caricature.

Hugo Chavez, Castro's (hot) Heir Apparent

2006-09-20T18:55:00.000-05:00

Hugo Chavez made his play to be the next generation's Castro at the U.N. today. He called Bush the Devil (I thought Jerry Seinfeld was, according to Kathy Griffin). He held up a book written by Noam Chomsky to prove America was evil. I don't think he claimed to have read it.

In a particularly clownish act he made the sign of the cross after calling Bush the devil. He rambled on and on in "Fidelisms" that we have heard for 50 years.

If he doesn't replace Fidel as the top anti-democrat in the world, there's always the circus. I thought Bush was embarrassing to his country when he spoke. Chavez was absolutely humiliating to his country with his act.

The Ryder Cup this Weekend

2006-09-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

The U.S. will have the more talented team, as usual. Europe will win, as usual.

European dominance has become so total, regardless of talent level, people in the U.S. don't even speculate anymore about why the U.S. loses every two years.

Wives, individualism, "bonding." When they're not manic-depressives sports writers are Freudian analysts. Golf is golf. A game, not a national cause.

Iraq Troop Levels Will Rise after Mid-Terms

2006-09-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

Expect U.S. troop levels in Iraq to hit 200,000 after the mid-term elections. Gen Abizaid mentioned needing more today.

Last week, a highly classified Marine intelligence document was leaked. It said that we don't have enough troops there to control Anbar province since others have been moved from there to Baghdad.

The public line will be "this will do it for sure."

Iran to U.S.: Shove It

2006-09-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

Mahmoud did speak tonight at the U.N. after all. He knows that Bush is bluffing and blustering about "not ruling out" military action. The U.S., thanks to Bush, is so over-committed that Iran knows America's hands are tied when it comes to attacking them.

Iran also knows that U.S. interests are not aligned with the other major players, Russia and China. Thanks to the dumb invasion of Iraq, and the commitment of our armed forces to that war, the U.S. has no military flexibility in dealing with Iran. Thanks to the invasion of Iraq, U.S. "intelligence" will have no credibility with the U.N., even if they get it right this time. According to the IAEA they have it wrong again, anyway.

Thanks to Bush and the invasion of Iraq, no one will believe that Iran is harboring al-Qaeda, which they probably are. An attack on Iran after the mess in Iraq will draw no allies this time.
When Tony Blair leaves office British troops will leave Iraq.

Europe, in general, has no stomach for war anymore. Iran knows that. It knows that Europe will do nothing if it continues to develop nuclear capabilities, as long as the Iranians keep negotiating.

I think that as long as Bush is in office, Europe believes it has a greater interest in keeping the U.S. from starting another war than in dealing with a nuclear Iran.

This is where Bush's policies have us. No allies, few friends, and no credibility in our foreign policy.

Altogether, I'd say Mahmoud had a much more excellent adventure today than did George.

Madonna for the Pope, Part 2-The End Time

2006-09-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

NBC announced that Madonna's crucifixion will take place in a November sweeps special. It looks like it's all coming together.

NBC will show it just in time for the Pope's visit to Turkey.

The Pope can denounce her and approve her crucifixion to demonstrate to all Muslims that he denounces everything pre-Renaissance, not just Islam.

Until then all good Christians should collect nails and mail them into NBC.

Madonna's crucifixion will also take place right about the time of the mid-term elections. A Karl Rove "November Surprise" family value issue to help the Republicans retain both Houses of Congress.

All these significant events converging at the same time cannot be a coincidence, ladies and getlemen. It won't be sweeps week. It will be the End Time.

Right before the start of Kathy Griffin's new season, too. Just when she looks like she's getting off the D-list, she'll be pre-empted by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Bush Speech

2006-09-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

Same old hardline at the UN. The word "diplomacy" is not in his limited vocabulary.

Ahmadinejad didn't even show up. He was supposed to speak tonight. His speech has been put off due to an eveidently successful coup in Thailand.

I guess they're going to let the Thai prime minister speak in his spot. I don't know what he'll say if he is now a criminal in his own country.

George and Mahmoud's Excellent Adventure

2006-09-19T08:14:00.000-05:00

It should be an interesting day today, as Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad of Iran give speeches at the UN. Which one will say the most unrealistic, bellicose, things? Which will tell the UN to do its job by stopping the other from doing what he's doing?

Which will be more popular? The bossy guy with the nuclear weapons, or the little nut in the K-mart jacket working on one? Which will threaten more while calling for peace?

It should be an excellent adventure. Stay tuned.

Madonna for the Pope

2006-09-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

How about a trade with those Muslims indignant over the Pope's insensitive remarks about their faith?

Christians will agree to really crucify Madonna if Muslims accept the Pope's apology, and both sides move on to a more intelligent dialogue.

Madonna's act comes with a cross, so crucifixion wouldn't be that difficult to get done quickly. We'll just need to find a few nails.

Kathy Griffin is ours, though. No compromise on her, no matter what she may blurt out in the future.

Sorry, gotta run. The Daily Show is on.

Ford, GM, and the End of American Labor Unions

2006-09-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

Restructuring. The word means many things in the corporate world. All bad. Whether it's a reverse split in stockholder equity, elimination of jobs, or Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it's all bad.

At Ford and GM it means massive job losses among both blue collar and white collar workers. The blue collar union is going the way of the steam engine. How we will maintain our middle class in the long run is a mystery to me.

The future employability of a person will be based on education and degrees. Those without will be the future working poor of Wal-Mart and McDonald's, without regard to age or experience.

There will be no well-paying middle class jobs. Society is evolving further into a "have not" class serving "haves", with no class of society in the middle between them. A situation rife with class warfare and societal conflict down the line.

The labor union was the only thing that kept industrial jobs paying middle class wages. Without them we will return to a situation where a worker, even with a white collar, will be fungible goods, easily discharged and replaced.

China has trillions of U.S. dollars in reserves from taking our labor jobs. It will use it to spread its influence throughout Asia and beyond. Bush and his fellow reactionaries had better get all their wars going now, because America won't be able to afford them in the future. Not only won't they be able to afford them, they won't have the natural resources, like oil, or the manufacturing base, like steel mills, to fight them.

Unlimited free trade overseas and terrible domestic management geared toward quarterly profits are proving the undoing of society. The management of the automobile companies never learned the lessons of the 1970's gas shortages. They never did make a decent small car to compete with the Japanese throughout that whole era.

They went to the gas guzzlers every time prices came down, as though gas prices would never go back up. When prices inevitably went up they were caught with their pants down each time.

What to do? Restructure. In today's American auto business that means acknowledging that you've managed to lose more market share and must get smaller to reflect it. Eventually, though, your market share is all gone. You can't get any smaller. You, and your middle class, are out of business.

Clinton on Jon Stewart Tonight

2006-09-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

Do you think Bill might have called Stewart up and asked to be booked? I have a feeling he wants a chance to respond to "The (right-wing) Path to 9/11."

Why Jon Stewart and the Daily Show Terrify Politicians

2006-09-18T13:18:00.000-05:00

I read an article recently about "The 'Daily Show' Generation" in USA Today. The article itself was by a college professor analyzing a study by two other college professors about The Daily Show effect on young people. The two professors from Eastern Carolina University claim to have found that watching the show made younger voters more cynical.

That conclusion about a liberal satirical TV show won't surprise you if you've ever lived in the backwoods of eastern North Carolina. You're talking "Tobacco Road" and Jesse Hemms country. (The spelling of the last name is the way it's pronounced there).

The contemporary dictionary definition of a cynic is "a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view." You can see that the definition is broad enough so that at some point, and sometimes with good reason, we are all cynics to some extent.

I will leave the academic discussions about whether a young person watches the show because he or she is already a cynic, or whether the show makes them cynical, to the academics.
The interesting point the show raises is why politicians of both parties are so afraid of the show that academics are allowed to use state funds or grants to write studies about it.

The way politicians practice their profession oozes the very characteristics that produce a cynic, as defined, e.g., "...only selfishness motivates human action..." Yet it isn't really cynicism that politicians fear from the voters. Cynicism about politicians has been around long before TV or radio, let alone The Daily Show. Good politicians know how to manipulate cynicism to their advantage.

What really terrifies a politician is being the object of ridicule. Humorous ridicule has the most destructive, least reperable, effect on a politician's career. It's one thing to be the object of hate, distrust, or even cynicism. It's quite another to be the object of ridicule.

An object of ridicule is never taken seriously. A politician cannot survive if perceived as a walking joke. Making politicians the objects of humorous ridicule is The Daily Show stock-
in-trade. That's what really terrifies politicians about Jon Stewart and company.

I can't think of a better example than ex-President, then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton. He knew that ridicule like Stewart's is anathema to a politician's career. He was ridiculed by Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show host, who had fifty times the viewers (of all ages) as Stewart.

Carson made a number of jokes about Clinton's long-winded speech at the Democratic Convention in 1988. Clinton didn't care that he was actually booed by fellow Democrats after his speech. The consummate politician was terrified, however, when the renowned Johnny Carson started cracking jokes about his performance and making him the object of ridicule. He knew Carson's ridicule, and his nationwide audience, could ruin his political career.

Clinton and his people frantically and insistently badgered Carson to have him on the show. Clinton saved his career by appearing on the show, playing his sax, and making self-deprecating jokes about the speech himself. After that Carson dropped the jokes. It serves as an object lesson from a master of politics that becoming the object of ridicule can be fatal to your political career.

Despite the study, which seems rather pointless to me, I don't think a little cynicism in politics hurts the young or the old. I prefer Ambrose Bierce's definition of a cynic from his "Devil's Dictionary," anyway.

He defined a cynic as "A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." I hope we all have a little bit of that in us as the mid-term elections approach.

NFL Lover's Only

2006-09-18T01:33:00.000-05:00

Observations on Sunday's NFL games:

Dumbest Play-Carolina's Chris Gamble "trick" pass that gave Vikings the victory.
Dumbest Coaches-The guys who called the play, offensive coordinator Dan Henning and head Coach, John Fox. Get "Stevie Wonder" Smith back soon or you're a .500 club.
Surprise Super Bowl finalist-Baltimore Ravens. Steve McNair first good quarterback they've had since Johnny U. with the Colts. Unstoppable with that defense.
Dallas will win NFC East. Washington playing down to its talent level this year.
Bucs will finish last in NASCAR division. Other teams have Sims on tape from last year. This will be his real rookie year, and it will be brutal for him.
Gruden must be missing Brian Griese now.
Not enough "Hail Mary's" in the Giants playbook to get them to the playoffs.
Brady carves up the Jets. J.P. Losman(?) beats Miami in Miami? Pats will stroll through division again.
Indy Colts-After so many years, Manning will have to prove it before I believe that they can win, or even get to, Super Bowl.
Bears will stroll through weakest division in football this year.
Seattle will stroll through second weakest division.
Not convinced about Atlanta yet, but at least they're letting Michael Vick do what he does best, run.
Tennessee got what they paid for in Kerry Collins, king of the turnover.
Raiders keep saving money and losing games. Team motto changed to "Just scrimp, baby."
Houston Texans passed on Reggie Bush in the draft for a defensive end. Charley Casserly's last curse on the franchise before getting a job in the NFL commish's office. Isn't imcompetence rewarding when you know the right people?

More next week. All predictions subject to injuries. Not only best defenses, but healthiest teams make it to the Super Bowl.

Nightmare Prediction for Iraq War

2006-09-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

If the Republicans retain the House and Senate in the mid-terms, McCain, Warner and Pentagon hardliners will agree with Bush to send more troops to Iraq. Everyone will finally agree that we've never had enough troops there to control the country, and that rationale will be used to increase troop strength.

Rumsfeld will take the bullet for Bush (with adequate political body armor in the form of his own Medal of Freedom). A new Sec. of Defense will "reassess" our troop strength. He or she will find it inadequate, and the Generals will tell Bush "for the very first time" that they need more troops.

With elections over and Republicans safely in control, escalation, not redployment, will follow.

Baghdad to Catch Trench Mouth

2006-09-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

A new report out says that the perimeter of Bahgdad will be trenched so that there will only be 28 points of entry into the city. No time to build a castle wall, I guess.

I hope it works to keep terrorists out, though I think most of them are in the city already. And many of their leaders (the Mahdi Army and other militias) are in the parliament of the new "unity" government.

We're turning another corner in Iraq. Let's just hope there's not an RPG waiting.

The Pope and the President

2006-09-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

Benedict and Bush, both men of their time. If their time was the Middle Ages. To say what the Pope said in Germany about Islam is one of the most effective ways to return to those nostalgic days of religious warfare. Exactly what Islamic fundamentalists like bin Laden want.

For the Vatican to say that the Pope was quoting someone else's insult is disingenuous at best. If you use a quotation, you adopt it as your belief unless you expressly qualify or disclaim it when you use it. Questioning the perversion of the concept of "Jihad" by Islamic fundamentalists is perfectly fair game.

Questioning the whole premise of someone's religion is antagonistic and insulting. The fact that the Pontiff quoted a Byzantine emperor from the Middle Ages is apropos because it reflects Middle Age thinking on his part.

Both the Pontiff and the President say they do not want a clash of civilizations. Yet they are bumbling into something much worse with their poorly chosen words and ideas. They are widening the already strained relations between theologies.

Religious wars are much bloodier and ruthless than nation-state wars. During the first crusade Christians slaughtered 30-40,000 Jews and Arabs (who actually fought together) in the conquest of Jerusalem. There are no Geneva Conventions for religious war.

People feel they can do anything they want since they are killing in behalf of their God. Bin Laden and Zarqawi and every suicide bomber is evidence of that belief. We do not need negligent, undiplomatic rhetoric by Christian believers to stoke the fire that is already underway among Muslims in the Islamic world.

Trust No Poll Before Its Time

2006-09-15T11:24:00.000-05:00

To paraphrase Orson Welles's old wine commercial, trust no poll before its time.There has been much surprise among younger bloggers about how the Lieberman-Lamont primary tightened so quickly right before the vote. Lamont had a large lead up until about the last week.

There is a lot of excitement among the same group about a Democratic takeover of the House, based on polls run in various congressional districts. A piece of advice: beware the double-digit lead.

Lieberman-Lamont is typical of the unreliability of polls until almost the last week of an election cycle. Most voters don't even focus on their congressional races until then. And party rank and file who publicly express doubts about whom they will vote for tend to return to their usual voting pattern on election day.

A recent poll in Indiana shows 3 Democrats with double-digit leads over their opponents, all incumbents. If people take that to mean the Dems will win all three, they don't know how conservative Indiana is.

Those double-digit leads should disappear by election day. If the Dems win one of those seats it will be a big accomplishment. If they do win all three, it will indicate a huge sweep of the House by the Dems. They are three good races to watch on election day as an indication of how the House will go.

Don't expect big wins based on polls this early in the election season. They are always fun to watch and to analyze, but incumbent congressmen haven't even been able to come home to campaign. When they do, and we get closer to election day, watch those races tighten.

Talkin' Terror

2006-09-15T11:03:00.000-05:00

Since Bush's announcement and acknowledgment of CIA secret prisons, through 9/11 memorials, to the latest debate about Art. 3 of the Geneva Convention, the Republicans have slickly changed the subject from Iraq to terrror.

Even if Sen McCain, John Warner, Colin Powell and other Republicans are arguing with Bush about the details on Art. 3, they are still talking about the subject they prefer: terror. If the issue of Iraq is raised during the "arguments" over Art.3 it merely seems to validate Bush's ridiculous assertion that the Iraq war is part of the War on Terror.

With less than eight weeks to go before the mid-terms, the Democrats had better get the subject back to Iraq. The waste of soldier's lives, treasure, and U.S. credibility in the world is of much more immediate importance to Americans than the nuances of Art. 3.

If the Democrats don't get the discussion back to Iraq they will not win the House back in the mid-terms. The Dems may think that Republican intra-party arguments about Art. 3 will help them. They won't. It will allow the Republicans to run the clock out to November 7 with the terror issue, which works to the Republican's advantage.

Once again, it is Iraq, Iraq, Iraq that will win for the Democrats. They shouldn't complacently allow the Republicans to monopolize the remaining weeks talking, or even arguing about, terror.

State-Sanctioned Torture of our Terminally Ill Patients

2006-09-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

I cannot understand why Congress is spending all this time debating the state-sanctioned torture of terrorists when it allows it to go on everyday in American hospitals and homes.

A close and beloved relative of mine has inoperable pancreatic cancer. He decided to forego chemo after several treatments since the doctor said further treatments would only get him an additional two months of nausea and vomiting and an inability to eat.

He was diagnosed last December. He did relatively well until the last few months. Over time his body has become as bone-crushingly thin as survivors of the Holocaust. There is one big difference. He has no hope of being freed of his cancer. To say he has a quality of life of any kind is to mock life.

He has done everything society has allowed him to do. He made a living will. He brought in hospice and they are doing a wonderful job in trying to relieve pain. He has a twenty-four hour live-in to take him to the bathroom and clean him.

He is lucid only periodically now and hospice tells us he is probably within the last two weeks of his life. When lucid, he says consistently, "I just want to die." The rest of the time he sleeps in bed and asks for morphine when the pain becomes too intense. He hallucinates and can no longer carry on a coherent conversation.

However, even though he often told us that he did not want to linger and suffer a long and painful death, the state requires that he do so. In the name of life, no less. He is being tortured because of the irrational ideology and theology of people and a state who have no other interest in him than as a symbolic object of public policy.

No one could look at him and say that the best is being done for him. He has seen and visited with all his grandchildren before he entered this last phase of illness. He was long ago reconciled to the idea of death. The best that could be done for him is what he needs and wants, allowing him to take a life-ending painless medication.

In this final death stage, he tries compulsively to sit up on the side of his bed as though he wants to get out. When asked if he wants to get up, assuming he can understand, he says "no" he just wants to lay down and die.

We asked the hospice nurse why he was sitting up so often. She said it happens all the time with the dying. They even have a name for it. It is called "terminal restlessness." The patient doesn't even consciously know he or she is doing it. According to the nurse, it is symptomatic that the patient is restless to get his or her death over.

I've heard the garbage about how if people are given the choice between living with the absence of pain or death, they will choose to live without pain rather than death. That is a canard, a hoax, used by ideologues who are trying to stop other states from passing Physician-Assisted Suicide laws as in Oregon. At some time, anyone in last stage of death will suffer so much, they will opt for death, just as a person being tortured will.

My relative is not in excruciating pain, thanks to hospice. However, he is ready to go. Yet the state won't let him have that right. They may not mean to, but the forces that create these obstacles for the terminally ill are torturing them at their most vulnerable and weakest state. This last few weeks in my relative's home has not been about some inexperienced, unsympathtic, dogmatist's silly concept of the "sanctity of life."

It has been about the denial of a terminally patient's right to die with dignity.

Ann Coulter's Disappearance

2006-09-14T15:08:00.000-05:00

I haven't seen a lot of Ann Coulter in the news lately. Oh, that's right. She called the 9/11 relatives a bunch of attention-grabbing wannabes or some other slander like that. And it was 9/11 recently wasn't it?

Good idea, Ann. I see Matt Drudge is keeping your picture as a faux model off his blog to help you out. Hide in that bunker at least until October. Maybe Cheney can join you. Yeecch! A terrorizing thought.

LNEICCLA # 3

2006-09-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

The latest "news" events I couldn't care less about:

Air America's bankruptcy. Radio is a dying medium.
Satellite radio. Pay for a dying medium? Come on.
The visit of the President of Khazikstan to complain to Bush about Ali G. This comes from a dictator who is sitting on a nuclear cesspool left over from the old Soviet Union.
The Bush "assassination" film. Ho-hum. Banality disguised as art.
The "Path to 9/11" mini-series. Ho-hum. Right-wing politics disguised as history. Do people really watch TV mini-series anymore?
Kinky Friedman's race for Governor of Texas. A self-promoter who will do anything to get attention and make a buck. He'll be happy to take yours if you visit his website. Will perform as dancing bear at parties after the election.
Jim McGreevey's search for himself after having adulterous affairs with men and then going home and making love to his wives.
Polygamy and the latest nut case in trouble with the law.
Whitney Houston's divorce from fellow coke-head Bobby Brown. How sensational can you get?
Don Imus. Another high school grad (maybe) like Hannity and Carlson to whom I am supposed to listen to find out how the world works.
Nancy Grace's existence.

James A. Baker Advising Boy George? Pray It Be So

2006-09-13T19:39:00.000-05:00

Keep your fingers crossed. Insight.com is reporting that James A. Baker, ex-Treasury Secretary and the elder Bush and Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff is now unofficially advising Dubya on the Middle East. Finally, at the behest of Bush's father, included in those discussions are an exit strategy for Iraq.

Baker and Brent Scowcroft are the two most experienced, diplomatic, and practical men from the father's presidency. Baker would have made an excellent president himself. He can eat Cheney and Rummy for lunch politically. He has an enormous constituency among all Republicans and many Democrats.

He knows and is trusted by all of our Arab allies ever since the first Gulf War. The elder Bush probably decided that he couldn't allow his underachieving son (mom and dad thought Jeb would be president) to self-destruct his presidency.

If Baker truly does obtain the necessary influence with little Bush, in place of the amateurish Rice and the fossilized Cheney and Rumsfeld, there is hope to get Bush out of office without making it impossible for the next government to rule with credibility.

Why the Establishment Doesn't Like Blogging

2006-09-13T17:21:00.000-05:00

Blogging cuts across party lines and political ideology. It counters and contradicts the "wisdom" we are supposed to receive from the powerful media magntes and the political elites that until now had a monopoly on information.

Blogging has exposed media blunders and fraud, e.g., the altered Reuters pictures of the black clouds over Lebanon, and the backward clouds of Sen Mike DeWine's WTC political cheap shot ad. "Macaca" became part of the election-year lexicon because of blogging.

It continually shows that the MSM and the political spinners who control it are challenged. Something they are not used to having done. Blogging continually challenges the conventional wisdom that they establish with their herd thinking and reporting.

Worst of all for the establishment, blogging can't be controlled by people who know that controlling information and how you receive it is critical to their existence. Whether it is your daily newspaper, your local TV station, national outlets, the government, or local radio talk show host, they have lost their monopoly over information.

Politicians dislike it for the same reason. They can't control the message. They know that if you can't control the message people may start to draw their own, independent conclusions. That is very unnnerving for politicians, since to be one you have to be a bit of a "control freak."

They hate that loss. That monopoly is the only thing that allows their existence, unless they are good and fair at what they do. Otherwise, they may go the way of the telegraph.

They're response to blogging? As does every monopolist, they try to co-opt it. So each of your local TV stations, every politician, and local newspaper has set up their own blog. In the name of blogging they are merely trying to retain editorial control over a blogger's content and intellectual property.

If you blog on your local paper's blog, you are merely submitting a Letter to the Editor, giving him or her, rather than you, the right to determine if others should see your opinions.

Don't blog to CNN, CBS, or any other institutional blog. Start your own blog. Do it yourself. Take the opportunity to let others know what you think, not what your local newspaper decides
they should think.

Worm Alert

2006-09-13T13:04:00.000-05:00

There have been two attempts within the last twenty-four hours to plant a worm on this blog.

The IP address of the worm is 194.129.79.6. It's coming out of the UK.

If you have a problem with my opinions debate them here, you little worm.

This blog is open to anyone to express an opinion, even a lower-life form like you.

Bush's "Struggle for Civilization"

2006-09-13T10:10:00.000-05:00

Little did I know that in only the sixth year of the new millennium the United States would be consigned by George Bush in his 9/11 speech to the "decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the call of our generation." If this is a "struggle for civilization," hell, get the nukes out and let's get it over with George. Meet you at Armageddon.

What a cynical ploy to scare voters into voting for an ideologically bankrupt political party again. It also, however, gives you a good insight into how the Bushies want us to buy their Manichean view of the world. There is only good and evil in the world, no shades of gray. We are good, "they" are evil.

The United States is the most powerful country in the world, and yet Bush insists on using rhetoric that attempts to make us feel as though we are the weakest and most vulnerable.

As the world's most powerful nation, we have the power and influence to shape this millennium in many different ways. We can build alliances, or go it alone as we did in Iraq. We can be a force for peace in the Middle East, or we can de-stabilize it as Bush has done. We can use negotiation and diplomacy to resolve differences that will always be with us, as long as mankind survives, or we can continue to use force first, and possibly bring about the end of our standing as a great power, if not the end of mankind.

No one, especially citizens of the greatest power on earth, should buy into Bush's apocalyptic view of the world except apocalyptic-types like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson. We have had enemies from the beginning of our existence as a country. Some, like the Soviet Union, have had nuclear weapons. Neither they nor we ever launched one at the other. Why? The answer is obvious. No one would win.

Iran may end up with a nuclear weapon. So what are they going to do with it? If they launch one, at us or at Israel, there won't be an Iran the next day. It will simply be an area of the world that glows in the dark for the rest of the millennium. The Iranians aren't that crazy, no matter how our conservative reactionaries like to portray them.

Iran will slip a nuke to al-Qaeda? Do you really think we wouldn't retaliate against Iran with only minimal proof? Iran knows better. They are not that crazy, nor are they as apocalyptic as our President. We didn't let Ghadafi go unpunished when he killed our soldiers in Germany, even though he proclaimed his innocence. It would be lights out for Iran in that instance as well.

North Korea? Despite the Republican reactionary propaganda, Kim Jong-il is not crazy either. Note how the reactionaries try to portray any enemy as crazy. They used to do it to the Soviet Union and China also.

How do we know that Kim is not crazy? When we invaded Iraq, Kim hid underground for more than 30 days, terrified that we were coming for him next. Hiding to survive is not the action of a crazed lunatic. It is the rational reaction of a man who has enemies on the march. He's a big talk, no action guy. If we haven't learned anything else about the North Koreans we know that.

As I wrote at the beginning, America will have a lot to say about how this millennium turns out. And it won't be decided by November 7 or even by November, 2008. There will still be 92 years left after the 'o8 elections, George.

Bush doesn't have to create an apocalyptic atmosphere in this country and the world to win what he insists on seeing as an endless War on Terror. There can be a much lower key, less crude, more "civilized," approach to winning against a bankrupt ideology like Islamic fundamentalism.

Barren ideas, like communism, end up in the dustbin of history. Islamic fundamentalism is also a barren idea, sure to invent its own destruction and to settle into the same dustbin. We need only time, patience, and vigilance for it to collapse of its own irrationality.

Don't make Islamic fundamentalism more than it is, George.

Contain it. Be vigilant. But be not afraid.

I Love the Ads on this Blog

2006-09-12T21:54:00.000-05:00

I think Google's algorithms are a bit out of rhythm for this blog. I don't think I've ever posted anything complimetary (intentionally, anyway) about President Bush, but they keep trying to sell pro-Bush bumper stickers and other right-wing paraphernalia here.

To be fair, Google also advertises anti-war, anti-Bush offerings on the blog sometimes. But I hope you don't think that I really want you to buy a book by that bag of wind, WW III veteran Newt Gingrich.

Kill Yourself a Stingray...

2006-09-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

in loving memory of Steve Irwin. That will teach those intelligent beings not to mess with our entertainment.

Let's see, Australia is one of the few countries in Iraq with us, isn't it? OK. It's starting to become clear now.

Sen Allen's "Macaca" Party Falls Flat

2006-09-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

If you've seen the Senator from Virginia's "rally" today it is pretty pathetic.

It's pretty bad when you have to hold a rally to try to reassure certain segments of voters that you don't hate them. That's more desperate than a goal-line stand.

Sad commentary on the State of Virginia that he is still up 4 points, although now within the margin of error.

Bush's Speech

2006-09-12T12:37:00.000-05:00

It was pretty much as I expected if you read my post from yesterday. Bush did add one new wrinkle to his rationale for starting an unecessary and aggressive war in Iraq.

He admitted that for the first time since FDR and WW II, America was actively and purposely trying to de-stabilize the Middle East.

That is exactly what the old Soviet Union always tried to do. It is also the reason the United States is viewed as an aggressor rather than an honest broker trying to further a fair Middle East peace.

An Opportunity to Open Dialogue with Syria

2006-09-12T11:34:00.000-05:00

The recent protection afforded our embassy against Islamic extremists in Damascus presents the U.S. with another opportunity to bring Syria into a Middle East peace process. Let's hope the Bush Administration doesn't blow it again.

Would you rather negotiate with the current secular regime, even though non-democratic, or the religious fanatics who attacked the embassy?

Bush to Appeal for Unity in War on Terror?

2006-09-11T17:26:00.000-05:00

President Bush is supposed to ask us all for unity in the War on Terror in a speech tonight. Is there an American in the U.S. who is against the War on Terror? Bush had all the unity he needed after 9/11. Then he blew it by taking us into Iraq through deception.

The "unity" that Bush really wants is for people to accept his definition of the War on Terror. That includes fighting in Iraq, and any other place he and his reactionary buddies Cheney and Rummy want.

That is not a War on Terror. That is a War of the Worlds without end. You get unity only when you earn trust. Bush has lost that trust forever.

Al-Anbar Province in Iraq

2006-09-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

More great news from "the front" on the War on Terror. The Washington Post has a story about conditions in al-Anbar province. It is the province to which every right-wing chickenhawk who volunteers opinions in favor of the Iraq War, but doesn't volunteer for the armed forces, should be sent.

The province includes Ramadi and Fallujah. Two of the cities that were going to greet us as liberators and dance in the streets, if you remember. The link will take you to an article about the report of the Marine Corps chief of intelligence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204_pf.html

We all know what "cut and runners" those Marines are. Just ask Bush and Cheney. We need the right-wing chickenhawk brigades to make up for the shortfall in troops that Rummy sent into Iraq at the start of the war.

The troops in al-Anbar were moved to Baghdad to try to restore order in the capital city. So now al-Qaeda is taking over.

Abu Ghraib's New Jailers

2006-09-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

Among the institutions the U.S. turned over to the new Iraq government recently were the jails. Now that the U.S. is out of there things are much improved, right? Not exactly. What Iraqi jailers are doing to Iraqi prisoners at Abu-Ghraib makes the U.S. scandal pale by comparison.

The new "unity" government has merely substituted a new group of Iraqis treating their countrymen barbarically for the previous group of Saddam's Iraqi jailers who treated them barbarically.

You can see how bad it is by linking to the story in the UK Telegraph newspaper
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/10/wirq10.xml.

This doesn't excuse what Americans did at Abu-Ghraib. It's just another example of how getting rid of Saddam in name of the War on Terror accomplished nothing but the destabilization of the Middle East and just changed the roles of the torturer and the tortured between Iraqis.

Bush's Last Dance on the Grave of 9/11 Victims

2006-09-10T18:40:00.000-05:00

Thank God. George Bush has no further excuse after today to exploit America's greatest domestic tragedy for political purposes. Bush tried to take the high road by laying a wreath at the memorial for the victims of 9/11 at Ground Zero today. He also finally kept his mouth shut.

While he did that, though, he had his whores out on the Sunday TV talk show streets at the same time, still trying to make the al-Qaeda, 9/11, Iraq connection that Bush himself just denied two days ago.

Rice was working the "Face The Nation" and Fox News side of the street trying to seduce some gullible "John" into believing she wouldn't give him a moral STD if he bought into what was going in and coming out of her mouth.

Cheney was walking the other side of the street trying to pick up gullible "Johns" on "Meet the Press." He was taking his targets for a trip around the world to try to make the connection.

None of it worked. The issue on November 7 will be Iraq, all by itself. The further exploitation of 9/11 has run its course. Bush acknowledged as much when he said there was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq.

The victims of 9/11 will never be forgotten. Now maybe they'll be able to rest in peace, rather than be exploited by Republican reactionaries for political advantage.

.

No Link Between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein?

2006-09-09T17:05:00.000-05:00

Duuuuuh.

Thank You, Brad Pitt

2006-09-09T16:27:00.000-05:00

I was beginning to run out of excuses with my live-in, too.

Arnold Thought Hollywood Was Nasty

2006-09-09T14:38:00.000-05:00

Poor Schwarzenegger. He probably thought he was getting away from all those rags like The Enquirer and The Star with their celebrity gossip and defamation.

Instead he found out that politics is even tougher stuff. His "very hot" comment about a Latina lawmaker and Latinos in general was taped and leaked to the press. That, of course, required a humiliating apology.

The most remarkable part of the story is that his remarks were taped and leaked by someone on his own staff to the LA Times, no less. Someone he hired.

If he thought Hollywood was cutthroat, he's now learned that loyalty is in even less supply in politics.

The New Islamic Republic of al-Qaedaistan

2006-09-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

One of the most overlooked and under-covered stories of the week is the new deal Pakistan has cut with the leaders of the tribal region of North Waziristan. Welcome to the new Islamic Republic of al-Qaedaistan.

It is the capitulation of Pakistan in the real war on terror. Pakistan has agreed to pull its soldiers out of that tribal region and redeploy them on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The tribal leaders promised in return not to let the Taliban use the province as a base to attack Afghanistan.

However, Pakistan also agreed not to send its military into the province to pursue Bin Laden, al-Qaeda or other terrorists in the province, including Taliban. That creates the same conditions for running training camps and a command center for al-Qaeda that they had in Afghanistan.

As long as al-Qaeda leaves Musharraf, Pakistan and Afghanistan alone, Bin Laden and his cohorts have the province to themselves, free of any Pakistani military interference in their activities, and immunity from capture or arrest.

Nothing in the agreement says that the terrorists can't attack U.S interests anywhere else in the world from the tribal region. We could certainly use those troops being wasted in Iraq on the Afghan-Pakistan border. If we had them we could use them to attack real terrorists in North Waziristan, since Pakistan has copped out on the war on terror.

Words and Phrases a Republican Won't Say

2006-09-07T09:30:00.000-05:00

The following is a list of words and phrases (and a few sentences as well) that a Republican in a close House race won't say to their voters in their district between now and November 7:

We can't cut and run.
Stay the course.
I agree with President Bush.
It's great to have Dick Cheney here with us today.
Budget Deficit.
We need more tax cuts.
It's great to have Don Rumsfeld with us today.
I'm against stem cell research.
Appeasement
Iraq is tied to 9/11.
Social Security Reform.
Macaca
Bring 'em on.
The price of gas.
Blacks cannot swim.
We're winning the war on terror.
We're safer today than we have been.
WW III has begun.

Words and Phrases a Republican Can Say

2006-09-07T09:15:00.000-05:00

Here are words and phrases Republicans in close House races can say to the voters in their district between now and November 7.

Be afraid.
Illegal immigration.
Laura Bush has been a wonderful first lady.
Karl who? I've never met him.

DeLay out to Defeat "Ultra-Liberal" Jerry Springer

2006-09-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

Just getting a good conservative like Sarah Evans to win "Dancing with the Stars" is not enough for Tommy boy (see post below). He's also out to defeat that "ultra-liberal" Jerry Singer from winning.

You can have him if you want him Tom. He keeps trying to buy his way onto a Democratic ticket with the money he's made by exploiting the poor and uneducated.

He isn't able to do it because of the way he's made his ill-gotten gains. He should try your Republican party. They don't care how you make it, as long as you've got it.

Springer runs his TV show like you helped run Congress. Confrontation rather than accomodation. You're both from the same mold.

To paraphrase Barry Goldwater, "Extremism in the pursuit of money is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of power is no virtue."

He'll do anything to make money and acquire power and so will you. You two should enter as partners. Then you can have a confrontation about who is the star. No chair-throwing allowed.

Tom DeLay Still Trying to Fix Votes

2006-09-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

At least this time there are no accusations of bribery, yet. Tom DeLay is busily spending his days endorsing one Sarah Evans to win "Dancing with the Stars," one of the many criminal venues of Hollywood slime. Even before the first samba.

Why? She is a conservative who sang at the Republican National Convention. He actually sent a mass e-mail to his reactionary supporters to stuff the ballot box for her.

The lobbying business must be slow for him with that indictment hanging over his head. What kind of twisted mind would make a dance contest a political issue?

Bush Blames Supreme Court for No Gitmo Tribunals

2006-09-06T17:22:00.000-05:00

It's never his fault. Boy George, in another attempt to deflect criticism from why he hasn't prosecuted top terrorists, took another constitutionally low-blow at the Supreme Court. He blamed the court for deciding that he had to have Congress enact legislation before he could run his military tribunals.

What he never tells you is that he has lawyers too. So does Dick Cheney. These lawyers feed Bush and Cheney's ignorance and disregard for the Constitution with the most extreme interpretations of constitutional law ("Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice").

Some obscure reactionary lawyer named David Addington on Cheney's staff seems to be the lawyer who mainly dishes out the unconstitutional stew that Boy George and Herr Cheney want to slurp down as correct legal reasoning.

At his news conference on terrorism today, Bush acted as if he would have had Khalid Sheik-Mohammed and 13 other high ranking al-Qaeda hung by now, except for that liberal Supreme Court making him follow the Constitution and come up with some rules for fair tribunals in consultation with Congress.

Of course, he could have consulted Congress 5 years ago, passed the necessary legislation, and have them hung by now, if he hadn't acted as though he himself had some dictatorial power to decide how to hold the tribunals.

He shouldn't be pointing fingers at the Supreme Court, of which seven of nine are Republican appointees. He should be asking his own lawyers why they gave him such lousy advice.

Beware Democrats: A Republican Issue with Legs

2006-09-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Gay marriage has finally played out as a wedge issue. Terror has become secondary to getting out of Iraq. That doesn't mean the Republicans are without an issue that can help them keep the House. That issue is illegal immigration.

I posted about the disturbing effects of illegal immigration on the border state in which I live on 8/11. My conclusion was to build the wall first and stop the flow. Then deal with how to handle the illegal immigrants that are here.

The NYT has an interesting article today about how the "build the wall first" issue is resonating not only with Republicans but also with independent voters. In Colorado, no less. Hardly a border state.

It could be the decisive issue in many swing districts if Democrats don't maintain Iraq as the issue in the campaign. Illegal immigrants aren't killing American soldiers.

For Democrats to argue in favor of a guest worker program is a loser. When Republicans talk about immigration, Democrats should acknowledge the problem and then go right back to the Iraq issue.

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. You win. Illegal immigration without a wall first, you lose.

Tony Blair: A Good Man Brought Down by One Mistake

2006-09-06T11:33:00.000-05:00

Tony Blair, under pressure from his own party, will step down as British PM in July, 2007. Over the last ten years he has been a tremendous asset to the UK at home and abroad, except in one case.

He has to leave office for making one very big mistake. Going abroad with George W. Bush. It was due to a sincere desire by Blair to retain the "special relationship" that he thought existed between the U.S. and the UK ever since Roosevelt and Churchill defeated Hitler in WW II.

The first problem was that most Americans, and George Bush especially, don't view anything special about the relationship.

Blair also thought, naively, that he could serve as a moderating influence on our little boy president who always wanted to be a cowboy. He did not know Bush well enough when he fatefully agreed to take the UK into Iraq with the U.S.

He didn't know that the Bush is not only stubborn and inflexible but also dumb and unsophisticated. The "Yo, Blair" humiliation was the final straw for British public opinion.

It is sad to see a real statesman leave the scene, while a clown continues his rope dance through the Middle East quagmire.

"Katie" News

2006-09-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

She seemed more comfortable showing exclusive pictures of Suri Cruise than Lara Logan's great report on the Taliban. I don't know how Miss Logan does it. She is able to get to places no one else can. She is a very good and serious reporter. She has no chance to make it in the new world of Katie News.

"Katie's Friends," a/k/a "Free Speech," will recycle the same faces and same opinions of every talking head you'll see on every other talk show. Her first "friend," Morgan Spurlock, just got done doing the Colbert Repor(t). The once interesting, now dreadfully preachy, Thomas Friedman was also involved in wasting part of only 22 minutes that network news has available.

And finally, Katie and her mommy just haven't been able to come up with a sign-off, even though she's had 6 months and probably 100 staffers to help her. Won't you please help her by going to the CBS website and seeing how many hits she can get? How cynically manipulative can one get? So much for journalistic integrity, which, in case she forgot, includes telling the truth.

The "show" should be just fab tonight, with the right-wing's dancing elephant doing "Free Speech." Make sure and miss it. I don't have a sign-off suggestion, but how about a new theme song? I'd suggest "Bring in the Clowns."

Goldwater's Reactionary Legacy: Bush and Rove

2006-09-05T16:50:00.000-05:00

I was reading a number of essays by Gore Vidal over the Labor Day holiday. He is one of the greatest American novelists, critics and political observers of the last half of the twentieth century.

Most of the essays were written between 1958 and 1967, an era of immense social change in the U.S. One of his essays was about Barry Goldwater and The Future of Conservatism published in 1961. I recently read that a Goldwater relative (maybe a granddaughter) is doing a documentary about Goldwater.

It is supposed to feature people like Al Franken and other liberals talking about what a great political figure he was. It also reveals that Hillary was a "Goldwater Girl," who sold cookies for the campaign.

Before liberals get too excited or nostalgic over Goldwater, they should read Vidal's 1961 essay. One major fact to remember. Goldwater refused to renounce the support of the John Birch Society, a group so radically right it called President Eisenhower one of forty million communists in the United States in the 1950's.

Vidal's essay also shows us how the political language of America has changed. Goldwater always called himself a "conservative." However, Vidal, and everyone else at the time knew him for what he was, a "reactionary."

Vidal defined the difference between a true conservative and a reactionary in the following way: a true conservative wishes to maintain the status quo. Any change should be incremental and not greatly expand the American welfare state.

A reactionary like Goldwater is one who wishes to reverse an existing state of affairs and to return to a previous condition of society.

Vidal goes on to say: "In the case of Goldwater and his fellow reactionaries...the program of the reactionaries is largely negative. Get the government out of this and out of that. Don't give Federal aid to the schools; don't extend Social Security in any way; do nothing about the...unemployed; save as much money as possible by cutting out all human services so that the income tax can be gradually eliminated (reminds one of the Bush tax cuts, doesn't it?).

Vidal winds up the essay by writing presciently: "In free elections in reasonably serene times, the reactionary has no chance at the polls...In the event of some economic or military disaster, I suspect the reactionary elements in America will come together and try to take power."

Ever since Bush's election that has been the state of our political affairs. Reactionaries have retained power due to the 9/11 disaster and by instilling fear in the electorate. They have never let "reasonably serene times" exist. They use their their color-coded terrorism alerts to make sure voters stay on edge.

Hillary might have sold cookies as a "Goldwater Girl" in 1964, but she grew out of it. Bush and Rove never grew up politically. They are today's Goldwater reactionaries, not Eisenhower conservatives.

There are some differences in the modern day reactionary's agenda. Making corporations rich at taxpayer expense has been added to the reactionary list for instance. Halliburton comes to mind. The reactionaries of today lust for war in a way that is actually anti-Goldwater, who was more of an isolationist.

The fact that reactionaries are now called "conservatives" is one of the greatest political hoaxes ever pulled off by the radical right. Bush and Rove don't want to maintain the status quo. They want to eliminate (reverse) Social Security, lower taxes for the rich, and cut social services. That's a reactionary platform not a conservative platform.

If your Congressman supports their platform, he or she is a radical of the right, a reactionary, not a conservative.

Remember that Goldwater admirers think that the following was one of his finest moments of the 1964 campaign. In his nominaton acceptance speech he said: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And...moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." People today might not know what signal that sent, but back in 1964 it was clearly an anti-democratic appeal to the Birchers and other radical right elements.

Politicians like Bush and Rove took those words to heart. That's why they see no problem with warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, why they see no problem with doing away with separation of church and state. It is why they think their extremism in fighting terrorism is "no vice." They are the "Goldwater Boys" who, unlike Hillary, never grew up.

Katie Couric Ends the National News as We Know It

2006-09-05T11:01:00.000-05:00

One of Bill Clinton's biggest achievements in office was the 1996 reform of the welfare system. It was a rare bipartisan achievement and he was proud to say he had "ended welfare as we know it."

Based on evidence so far, Katie Couric will soon be able to boast that she has "ended professional network news coverage as we know it."

According to the Drudge Report, she is going to give such reactionary oddballs as Rush Limbaugh a national forum to spout and spread his loudmouth lunacy. "It was Katie's idea," chirped an anonymous CBS sycophant. With about 18-22 minutes to show the news of the whole world, part of those precious few minutes are going to such well-known heavyweight political thinkers as Bill Maher, the comedian.

This waste of time will be initially be known as a "guest editorial." My guess is it will eventually be called something more "Todayish," like "Katie's Friends." I can hear Matt Lauer expounding on the hottest Hollywood celebrity on that segment of the show someday. Entertainment as news has fully arrived at the home Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, William Paley and Dan Rather, of all places.

If you don't get enough entertainment from your CBS news there is a new website called Couric & Co. Today's post was supposedly by Katie herself. She refers to the billion dollar CBS media conglomerate as "the little village that is CBS News." No reference to any little Shia or Sunni villages in the Iraq civil war whose population is being wiped off the face of the map today by sectarian violence.

Her ghost goes on to write that Katie just wants the site to be viewed as "the coffee house on the corner where something is always brewing." She probably means the Starbucks in the mall, which is the audience she is after. Do you think her little coffee house will include chit-chat about how many marines died in Iraq today?

If you think there is a gender gap in politics, you haven't seen anything like the gender gap that this kind of "Oprah-ized" news coverage will create. News presented with the goal of having everyone like you, from Limbaugh to Maher, is not news. Men will head for the hills and another network.

Will I tune in tonight? Sure. I'm as curious as the next person. Will I ever tune in again? Not likely, unless the newscast is much different from the way they are promoting it.

Newtie Afraid of Barbara Pelosi

2006-08-31T18:02:00.000-05:00

WW III veteran, Newt Gingrich, gave a speech in South Carolina yesterday. He said the whole idea of Nancy Pelosi being third in line to the presidency is "frightening." Now he knows how I felt when he was Speaker of the House.

He's worried about nuclear bombs destroying American cities, as if no one else is. He cited North Korea, Pakistan after an al-Qaeda takeover, and Iran. He said he wanted to replace the North Korean and Iranian regimes, and Syria too. Without using force, of course.

Right, we want to leave it to Newt to conduct our foreign policy. He has such a great record as a diplomat.

As a matter of fact in his one attempt at diplomacy, with Bill Clinton over the federal budget, he produced the closing down of the federal government for weeks. Then he caved. Just the kind of guy we need to deal diplomtically with other countries.

He'll end up creating a real WW III if he's ever given the diplomatic reins of US foreign policy. Incompetence is a lot more frightening than ideology.

SAT Scores Down in 2006

2006-08-31T16:30:00.000-05:00

The SAT results recorded the sharpest drop in scores in 31 years. Not coincidentally, it was also the first year students had to write as part of the test.

It's obvious to anyone from the older generations that the language, as written, has been deteriorating for a long period of time over the last two generations. Read your inbox emails at work and you'll find plenty of evidence of that.

With all the emphasis on communication by picture and image it was bound to happen. Younger people will not learn good grammar from MTV or other youth-oriented network. Bad english has actually been used as a symbol of youthful rebellion. That would be OK if those who used it for that purpose actually knew good grammar. There is no evidence that they do.

Nor will they learn it from listening to cable TV news. The young people writing that stuff and reading it are the same people whose emails you have to decipher.

The lack of reading is also a contributor to poor writing and poor speaking. If you don't believe that, watch George Bush talk without a script. Dr. Samuel Johnson once told his biographer, James Boswell, that it is impossible to write well if one doesn't read extensively. How can you understand how to write if you haven't read people who do it well?

The next time you're on an airplane, notice how many people are using cellphones rather than reading. Once the cellphones must be turned off, these people generally don't know what to do with themselves for the rest of the trip.

They certainly don't pull out a book or even read a magazine. Once the airplane hits the tarmac at its destination, out come all the cellphones. How can you expect someone who lives by text messaging, our modern form of hieroglyphics, to possibly write an intelligent in-depth communication?

Writing scores are poor? Of course, because reading skills and interest in reading is poor. It's more fun to play with a gadget than have to actually read words. Someday the SAT will be revised to be a timed test to see how well a student can manipulate images, photo-shop, and pick an appropriate ringtone.

You can't stop progress.

Iran and UN Sanctions "Sing-Along"

2006-08-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

(The following may be sung to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town")

They're making a list,
checking it twice,
gonna see if Iran's been naughty or nice,
UN sanctions are coming to Tehran.

They don't know if Iran's cheating,
they do know that they have lied,
they don't know if its nukes are real or fake,
but they'll impose sanctions for their own sake.

Oh, you better watch out,
you better talk tough,
if the UN imposes sanctions
they won't be enough.
UN sanctions are coming to Tehran.

Russia says no,
China says no,
All John Bolton can do is hope,
that UN sanctions will come to Tehran.

Iran knows we've been threatening,
they know the SC won't act,
they know that without Russia and China,
that sanctions will fall flat.

Oh, you better watch out,
Bolton better not cry,
He's part of the reason,
We have no ally,
Will sanctions really come to Tehran?

Tom Cruise-The Actor

2006-08-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

Tom Cruise's personal life, as many celebrity lives, will pop up on my LNEICCLA as it did earlier today. As an actor, however, I really do like him. Not for his action movies like "Mission Impossible," or "War of the Worlds".

If you have ever seen Cruise in the movie "Collateral," you'll see a rare, real, superstar performance on the screen. I can't think of any other actor who could play the "Vincent" character any better. Jamie Foxx was terrific as his foil.

The thing about all great actors is their willingness to take chances. Cruise didn't have to in Collateral because it was a natural fit. He did in "Eyes Wide Shut" and did a great job. A lot of actors wouldn't take that type of chance.

So he and other artists can jump on Oprah's couch, and subscribe to Reader's Digest or Scientology. It is meaningless and qualifies for the LNEICCLA. Artists throughout history have been eccentric.

The only thing that really counts is an actor's performance on the screen. Cruise has a screen presence that only Jack Nicholson can match these days.

I wouldn't write his career off too quickly.

One Year after Katrina

2006-08-30T19:08:00.000-05:00

Bush takes "full reponsibility." That's what Nixon used to do during Watergate. Bush took no fault or blame. That's what Nixon used to do too.

Beware Historical Analogies

2006-08-30T14:25:00.000-05:00

It has started again. About this time in every war our "Wise Men (People, if you prefer)" begin to roll out the superficial historical analogies by which they deem themselves, and would have others deem them, "Wise."

Gary Hart started it last week in a post on the Huffington Post entitled "Twenty-first Century Rome." He superficially compared the Bush Administration's policies to the policies that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of Julius Caesar in 49 b.c.e.

Not only was the analogy superficial, Mr. Hart left out one major detail. Bush is out of office in 2008 and regardless of what you think of him, I doubt he'll try to become a dictator thereafter; nor will our democracy disappear.

Mr. Hart should also be ashamed of himself for using the Roman analogy since he should remember that "The Fall of Rome" was used by right-wingers to justify our continued presence in Vietnam, a war he opposed.

Not to be outdone, Rummy and Cheney have pulled out the other easy, thoughtless historical analogy often used when you have screwed up a war policy and are losing popular support. That is the Munich "appeasement" analogy. It is even worse and more absurd than Hart's Roman one.

Both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon used it during the Vietnam War. Like Rumsfeld and Cheney they always used it in front of the American Legion or another veteran's group that fought WWII.

The argument is that if you "appease" your enemy by stopping the prosecution of even an ill-conceived war you will encourage them to continue their conquest of the world or at least Western civilization. The last I checked, we have not been overrun by Vietnam since we left there, and communism has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Vietnam is now a trading partner as well.

I'm not exactly sure who we will be "appeasing" if we leave Iraq soon. The Iraqi people to whom the country belongs? Fundamental Islam, which will spread from San Francisco to Lynchburg, Virginia?

Has anyone ever heard of a "strategic retreat?" Certainly no one in the Bush administration has. They should ask the Israelis about that. They just did it in Lebanon.

The latest usage of the two favorite and inapplicable analogies (Rome and Munich) do prove one thing. They prove not that history repeats itself. They prove that people who ponder present day historical problems superficially, without much thought, eventually try to substitute the historical analogy for original, creative thought.

The historical analogy has its roots going all the way back to Thucydides writing of "The Peloponnesian War." and a fragment written by Euripides, the ancient Greek playwright. They believed that history repeated itself. I think they were wrong. It is human nature that repeats itself, not history.

George Santyana did the world the greatest disservice to independent thinking by uttering every superficial analogist's favorite cliche. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." That is true only in the most superficial way, though to the lazy analogist it is dogma (and easy to remember).

It is especially ironic since Santyana's quote comes from "The Life of Reason, vol. I, Reason in Common Sense."

History never comes at us in the same way. There are always variations that make any historical analogy anything but perfect or ironclad and should only be used cautiously and in its broadest sense.

Whenever you hear the Santayana quote, beware. It means that the speaker or writer has decided to engage in cant, without resorting to independent reason.

Latest News Events I Couldn't Care Less About #2

2006-08-30T11:45:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest news events that I couldn't care less about since my last post on 8/21, or as Stephen Colbert on the "Repor(t)" might say, the LNEICCLA, second edition.

-How many copies of her new album Paris Hilton has sold.
-Katie Couric's waistline size.
-Tropical storms forming off the coast of Africa that I am supposed to watch for 5 or 6 days to see if they turn into hurricanes headed for the U.S. Let me know when they get here.
-Whether Beyonce is guilty of abuse of alligators.
-Whether Bruce Springsteen is getting divorced.
-The next dumb statement that Katherine Harris, Republican candidate for Senate in Florida makes. She is 50 points behind Bill Nelson, but the pundits at Huffington Post can't stop obsessing about her.
-With whom Tom Cruise has a new movie deal or its terms.
-How many home runs "Steroid Barry Bonds" hits. He's a fraud whose records are meaningless.
-Whether Katie Holmes had Cruise's baby.
-What Kofi Annan did today.
-Whether Tom Cruise has a baby or not.
-Whether tall people are smarter than small people. I only hope taxpayer money didn't fund the study. As I understand, Napoleon was pretty small when he conquered most of Europe.

UN Sanctions for Iran

2006-08-30T10:49:00.000-05:00

The only people who seem to believe that the UN can agree to impose sanctions on Iran are the people who have belittled the UN the most. That would be the Bush Administration and, in particular, Ambassador John Bolton.

If they think they can talk either Russia or China into agreeing to any form of sanctions against Iran they are self-deluded. Why should either of those powers, both who do business with Iran, agree to sanctions?

The Iranians pose no threat to either country. There are no demonstrations in Tehran about "Death to Russia" or "Death to China." Just as Americans gloated as the Soviet Union became bogged down in Afghanistan, both Russia and China are doing the same with the U.S. bogged down in the Middle East.

Without their cooperation, any attempt to impose sanctions against Iran by the U.S. and a few European countries will be a miserable failure. We have absolutely no leverage with either country to make them agree to a sanctions regime.

It's a little late to talk about concerted action against Iran with the UN Security Council when we totally ignored its members wishes that we not invade Iraq.

Bush-Ahmadinejad Debate?

2006-08-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

The Iranian President, dressed as usual like an American homeless person, but without a shopping cart, has challenged President Bush to a debate the right of Iran to have nuclear power.

The President will certainly refuse because: 1.) the President has just learned how to say the word "nuclear" rather than "nuculer;" 2.) he is too inarticulate to debate anyone about anything; and 3.) Ahmadinejad would win even if the American people heard the whole debate in Farsi, without translation.

Send Kerry or Hillary, or even Jesse Jackson. They would win without any problem. No one wants to see 10th cenury Muslim clerics with a nuclear weapon. That would be like having Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson running our nuclear program.

Fox News Ratings Way Down

2006-08-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

28% down in primetime. They might want to replace Sean Hannity with a college graduate, and Alan Colmes with someone who doesn't look like a little man from Mars.

They also might not want to alienate every non-Christian viewer they used to have with another book about wars on holidays. John Gibson did a great job of telling everyone who didn't celebrate Christmas that they were not real Americans.

Finally, I expect their ratings plunge is a leading indicator of how much credibility not only the network, but the Republicans have lost over the last two years. It probably indicates that the Republican propaganda machine has run out of gas.