The Fulcrum
Friday, April 09, 2004
Friday Dog Blogging
It's late, but I actually remembered!
I'm not really a dog person - I like cats, so I'm not used to an animal that can't let you out of its sight. Baylea can hardly stand to let her "mommy" get out of her sight. As you can see from this week's picture.
I'm not really a dog person - I like cats, so I'm not used to an animal that can't let you out of its sight. Baylea can hardly stand to let her "mommy" get out of her sight. As you can see from this week's picture.
BushCo. vs Clinton
Compare and contrast:
BushCo.: Fought to prevent the formation of the 9/11 Commission. When it finally relented, it stacked the commission with people it (mistakenly) thought it could control. Every step of the way, the administration dissembled and smeared those who testified to anything other than the party line; especially Republican appointee Richard Clarke. They fought for months to prevent Condi Rice from testifying, relenting only when public and commission pressure became too much of a liability. They made sure that her testimony toed the neo-con line as closely as possible. They withheld documents released from the Clinton Library to the commission and refused to release thousands of other documents, all the while claiming to be giving all possible assistance. Finally, in a move that boggles the mind, after much wrangling, they will allow Bush himself to testify only if the VP is there to hold his hand.
Clinton: Released all documents relevant to the investigation from his Presidential Library. Promised unrestricted access by the commission in interviewing him and his VP, Al Gore. And... well, let me let a member of the commission say the rest:
Very instructive, no?
BushCo.: Fought to prevent the formation of the 9/11 Commission. When it finally relented, it stacked the commission with people it (mistakenly) thought it could control. Every step of the way, the administration dissembled and smeared those who testified to anything other than the party line; especially Republican appointee Richard Clarke. They fought for months to prevent Condi Rice from testifying, relenting only when public and commission pressure became too much of a liability. They made sure that her testimony toed the neo-con line as closely as possible. They withheld documents released from the Clinton Library to the commission and refused to release thousands of other documents, all the while claiming to be giving all possible assistance. Finally, in a move that boggles the mind, after much wrangling, they will allow Bush himself to testify only if the VP is there to hold his hand.
Clinton: Released all documents relevant to the investigation from his Presidential Library. Promised unrestricted access by the commission in interviewing him and his VP, Al Gore. And... well, let me let a member of the commission say the rest:
The commission met in private with former President Bill Clinton later in the day, it said in a statement that praised Clinton for being “forthcoming and responsive.”Think about how people behave when they have something to hide. How do they behave when they have nothing to hide?
“I thought it was tremendously helpful,” former Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, a Republican member of the commission, said Thursday night on CNBC’s “Capitol Report.”
“He was totally forthcoming,” Gorton added. “He answered our questions very well. It was a very productive four hours.”
Very instructive, no?
Condi vs The 9/11 Widows
I haven't commented much on Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission. So I thought it would be appropriate to point you in the direction of some people who listened very closely to the testimony. Four of the widows, "The Jersey Girls," were on Hardball last night.
Go read how they shred Condi and Rummy and Georgie. Even Matthews, the big whore, gets in a few tangential digs.
Go read how they shred Condi and Rummy and Georgie. Even Matthews, the big whore, gets in a few tangential digs.
MATTHEWS: How far did that information get up to the ladder to the president?
LORIE VAN AUKEN, WIDOW OF 9/11 ATTACK: You know, that’s the question we have, the urgency question. In “Bush at War,” it was quoted that Bush said he felt that al Qaeda was important but not urgent. Whose job is to convey urgency to the president if not the national security advisor, getting information from the intel. agencies up to the president?
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Atlanta Airport
Yesterday it seemed to be a big story. Today it's basically disappeared. The first reports were of a grenade of some type attached to a cell phone, similar to those devices used in Spain last month. The stories were everywhere, with pictures of bomb squad members removing a bag from a restroom and talk about how the device was so much like the suspected al Qaeda devices on the Spanish rail line on March 11.
Today, I had to search for stories, most of them from last night, on Google News. Why the change?
It seems that there was no grenade and no cell phone either. Just a "trip flare" and some other "attachments." A fire hazard, perhaps, but no real danger, right? Not so fast.
I've used trip flares. They are activated when the pin, attached to a wire stretched across a path, is pulled, igniting the flare. Infantry troops set them out to "cover" avenues of approach that they cannot see directly or that are not the main approach for the enemy. Used properly they are not a danger to most people.
The problem with this story disappearing is that in the context of something like this getting on board an aircraft, they are exceptionally dangerous. Here's why:
There are two basic types of trip flares, one that when activated, burns in-place, illuminating the immediate. The other launches a small rocket with a flare that parachutes down, illuminating a larger area. The big problem in this case is what burns. It's magnesium powder; which burns at around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the hold of an aircraft or in a bathroom on board, the burning magnesium would burn through the aluminum skin of the aircraft. At a minimum, this would cause the pressurized cabin to explosively decompress. If attached to the right place on the aircraft, it could burn through cables or hydraulic lines for critical controls. It's hot enough to actually set the aluminum on fire.
No one has said what the other attachments were yet. A two-way radio? A cell phone?
It's unlikely someone would go through the trouble and the risk of smuggling such a device into Hartsfield Airport just to start a bathroom fire.
Today, I had to search for stories, most of them from last night, on Google News. Why the change?
It seems that there was no grenade and no cell phone either. Just a "trip flare" and some other "attachments." A fire hazard, perhaps, but no real danger, right? Not so fast.
I've used trip flares. They are activated when the pin, attached to a wire stretched across a path, is pulled, igniting the flare. Infantry troops set them out to "cover" avenues of approach that they cannot see directly or that are not the main approach for the enemy. Used properly they are not a danger to most people.
The problem with this story disappearing is that in the context of something like this getting on board an aircraft, they are exceptionally dangerous. Here's why:
There are two basic types of trip flares, one that when activated, burns in-place, illuminating the immediate. The other launches a small rocket with a flare that parachutes down, illuminating a larger area. The big problem in this case is what burns. It's magnesium powder; which burns at around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the hold of an aircraft or in a bathroom on board, the burning magnesium would burn through the aluminum skin of the aircraft. At a minimum, this would cause the pressurized cabin to explosively decompress. If attached to the right place on the aircraft, it could burn through cables or hydraulic lines for critical controls. It's hot enough to actually set the aluminum on fire.
No one has said what the other attachments were yet. A two-way radio? A cell phone?
It's unlikely someone would go through the trouble and the risk of smuggling such a device into Hartsfield Airport just to start a bathroom fire.
Meanwhile...
On the real front of the war on terror - that would be Afghanistan, in case everyone wasn't clear on that point - a renegade general and "war lord" has taken control of a northern province city. President Hamid Karzai has had to send troops from the new and still very small national army to try and wrest control from General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his mostly Uzbek "private army."
The new president of Afghanistan can't control his own country. Coalition troops there are stretched way beyond the breaking point because the rest of the US military is distracted by Iraq, the troops that are there can't chase suspected al Qaeda soldiers into what is supposed to be our closest ally in the area; Pakistan, and the Pakistanis seem incapable of controlling the tribal areas where these al Qaeda folks are hiding out.
Good thing pResident Shrubby is "the War President," huh?
Are any of the adults in our government paying attention to this?
Nevermind... I forgot, there aren't any adults in charge here anymore.
The new president of Afghanistan can't control his own country. Coalition troops there are stretched way beyond the breaking point because the rest of the US military is distracted by Iraq, the troops that are there can't chase suspected al Qaeda soldiers into what is supposed to be our closest ally in the area; Pakistan, and the Pakistanis seem incapable of controlling the tribal areas where these al Qaeda folks are hiding out.
Good thing pResident Shrubby is "the War President," huh?
Are any of the adults in our government paying attention to this?
Nevermind... I forgot, there aren't any adults in charge here anymore.
Arianna Huffington: Cyberslut?
In Salon, via Bark Bark Woof Woof, we learn that Arianna is "weak in the knees" for bloggers:
I wonder if Ms. Huffington would deign to not only read blogs but to write one herself? An interesting idea...
UPDATE: Thanks to alert reader Elayne Riggs at Pen-Elayne, I learn that Ms. Huffington does, indeed have a blog: Arianna's Blog. Go check it out!
Although I've only recently stuck my toe in the fast-moving blogstream, I've been a fan -- and an advocate -- ever since bloggers took the Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond story, ran with it, and helped turn the smug Senate majority leader into the penitent former Senate majority leader, a bit of bloody political chum floating in a tank of hungry sharks. Simply put, blogs are the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine broke onto the scene.Go read the rest at Mustang Bobby's, then stay a while, there's lots of great commentary to read there.
I wonder if Ms. Huffington would deign to not only read blogs but to write one herself? An interesting idea...
UPDATE: Thanks to alert reader Elayne Riggs at Pen-Elayne, I learn that Ms. Huffington does, indeed have a blog: Arianna's Blog. Go check it out!
Rumsfeld in Wonderland
Rummy has finally taken the plunge down the rabbit hole and taken up residence in a secure bunker in Wonderland. How can I tell? Have a look at these two bits of an article on ABCNews:
Appalling.
REALITY: "Militiaman loyal to an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric controlled large swaths of three Iraqi cities Thursday after clashes with coalition forces, while U.S. Marines fought insurgents for the second day around a mosque in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah."Amazing; this is the American Secretary of Defense and he is completely lacking a grasp of the reality of a combat situation in which our soldiers are being killed daily.
RUMSFELD: "Rumsfeld discounted the strength of al-Sadr's militia. "There's nothing like an army," he said. "You have a small number of terrorists and militias coupled with some protests." U.S. officials estimate al-Sadr's force at about 3,000 fighters."
Appalling.
It's Official; Viet Nam II
Ted Kennedy thinks so, plenty of people on the web have asked the question; but I think it's official now. Iraq is becoming Viet Nam II. It's not just the rise in recycled rhetoric from that never forgotten conflict like "hearts and minds" and "body counts." Two things caught my attention this morning and as I listened to the news I knew that Iraq had morphed into a new thing: a quagmire, to be sure; a new Viet Nam.
The first thing I heard was a report that thousands of troops have been told they are not going home for a while. Our military is in the midst of a huge troop rotation right now, tired soldiers training and briefing their replacements (who themselves were probably in Iraq of Afghanistan less than a year ago), so there are lots of them there. By holding those ready to go home a little longer, BushCo. has effectively increased the troop level without any kind of public announcement of intent to do so. It sounds hauntingly like the way troops were built up in Southeast Asia as we transitioned from "advising" the South Vietnamese to making it an American war.
The second thing that really made my heart sink came while listening to some ex-colonel or general practicing at being a news talking-head. He spoke about the tactics that Marines and soldiers would likely use in Fallujah. Soldiers, he said, would cut off an area of operation inside the city, move in and "neutralize the target," then exit the city. The whole time he spoke all I could hear was the phrase "pacify the village." It was a basic lesson from Viet Nam that was taught at West Point and at all the Army training courses: you can't control territory you don't occupy. It wouldn't surprise me at all to begin hearing stories of "free fire zones." In the jungles of Viet Nam, American forces would move in, engage the VC, then move back to their fire bases; at night, the VC would move right back in and take up operations where they left off.
I think not only can we now say that Iraq is becoming Viet Nam, we can also say that as you'd expect from past actions, nobody in this administration has learned the lessons of history.
The first thing I heard was a report that thousands of troops have been told they are not going home for a while. Our military is in the midst of a huge troop rotation right now, tired soldiers training and briefing their replacements (who themselves were probably in Iraq of Afghanistan less than a year ago), so there are lots of them there. By holding those ready to go home a little longer, BushCo. has effectively increased the troop level without any kind of public announcement of intent to do so. It sounds hauntingly like the way troops were built up in Southeast Asia as we transitioned from "advising" the South Vietnamese to making it an American war.
The second thing that really made my heart sink came while listening to some ex-colonel or general practicing at being a news talking-head. He spoke about the tactics that Marines and soldiers would likely use in Fallujah. Soldiers, he said, would cut off an area of operation inside the city, move in and "neutralize the target," then exit the city. The whole time he spoke all I could hear was the phrase "pacify the village." It was a basic lesson from Viet Nam that was taught at West Point and at all the Army training courses: you can't control territory you don't occupy. It wouldn't surprise me at all to begin hearing stories of "free fire zones." In the jungles of Viet Nam, American forces would move in, engage the VC, then move back to their fire bases; at night, the VC would move right back in and take up operations where they left off.
I think not only can we now say that Iraq is becoming Viet Nam, we can also say that as you'd expect from past actions, nobody in this administration has learned the lessons of history.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Did I Really Hear That?
As you can tell from last night's post and picture, I wasn't in any mood to write about events in Iraq. But this morning, one phrase I heard on ABC's news keeps spinning around in my head. And it was sent spinning even faster by a comment from Steve Bates on this post on "The 'Q' Word."
One of ABC's Pentagon reporters was passing on the comments of an (of course) anonymous military source who said (and this is my best memory of it), "We're not trying to win hearts and minds (ed. in Fallujah), we're just counting the bodies."
In the comment, Steve asked "are we allowed to name the V-war yet?" The "counting bodies" line and the invocation of Viet Nam is just too evocative. While I was relatively young at the time, I still remember the reports on the evening news from Viet Nam; the body counts, the pictures of helicopters and wounded soldiers, the knowledge that a favorite uncle was "over there." The correlation between those memories and the sights and sounds on the news this week has been way too close.
I only hope that the architects of our new Viet Nam have not so badly screwed things up that we are not able to salvage some good from all of this when they are kicked rudely to the curb in November. I hope that Kerry's cabinet picks are up to this job.
One of ABC's Pentagon reporters was passing on the comments of an (of course) anonymous military source who said (and this is my best memory of it), "We're not trying to win hearts and minds (ed. in Fallujah), we're just counting the bodies."
In the comment, Steve asked "are we allowed to name the V-war yet?" The "counting bodies" line and the invocation of Viet Nam is just too evocative. While I was relatively young at the time, I still remember the reports on the evening news from Viet Nam; the body counts, the pictures of helicopters and wounded soldiers, the knowledge that a favorite uncle was "over there." The correlation between those memories and the sights and sounds on the news this week has been way too close.
I only hope that the architects of our new Viet Nam have not so badly screwed things up that we are not able to salvage some good from all of this when they are kicked rudely to the curb in November. I hope that Kerry's cabinet picks are up to this job.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
A Balm for the Soul
I watched the news tonight and it was one of those broadcasts that left my wife and I depressed, sad and angry. More Marines dead, more battles raging in Iraq, so-called conscience laws for pharmacists who won't dispense legally prescribed medicines, remembering the masacres in Rwanda... the list goes on for way too long.
So, despite that opening paragraph, I want to tell you about something small and beautiful and innocent; something that, for a short time can help you forget about the madness of the world.
This past weekend it snowed here near Rochester, NY. It's a little late in the season, but not unheard of. There was lots of seed in our bird feeders, but when I took my camera outside, I wasn't really thinking of birds, but rather the scenery. I opened the back door and stepped out into the arctic wind and blowing snow. I took a shot or two of some grand old oaks through the snow - and they came out beautifully. But after all the noise of opening the door and snapping away with my digital camera, as I turned away, I saw a small shape in the tree just 15 feet or so from the back porch.
I was pretty amazed, but I guess the lure of lots of easy food was too much to overcome the desire to flee my none too quiet presence. Of course the fact that the wind was blowing at around 25 miles an hour and the snow reduced visibility to just half a mile or less may have had something to do with it as well. But there in the small, bare tree next to our newest feeder was this little finch. I snapped about eight or so pictures and then quietly went indoors where I watched him for at least another half an hour while he ate. And ate. And ate! I'm not sure how he got himself and all that seed on the wing, but a little while later he was gone.
As I looked at this picture and the others I took I thought how wonderful it is that while humans are so busy making a mess of their world, a little bit of nature manages to live on as if none of the rest of it were happening. I hope that this picture brings a little peace to you, too. Enjoy.
So, despite that opening paragraph, I want to tell you about something small and beautiful and innocent; something that, for a short time can help you forget about the madness of the world.
This past weekend it snowed here near Rochester, NY. It's a little late in the season, but not unheard of. There was lots of seed in our bird feeders, but when I took my camera outside, I wasn't really thinking of birds, but rather the scenery. I opened the back door and stepped out into the arctic wind and blowing snow. I took a shot or two of some grand old oaks through the snow - and they came out beautifully. But after all the noise of opening the door and snapping away with my digital camera, as I turned away, I saw a small shape in the tree just 15 feet or so from the back porch.
I was pretty amazed, but I guess the lure of lots of easy food was too much to overcome the desire to flee my none too quiet presence. Of course the fact that the wind was blowing at around 25 miles an hour and the snow reduced visibility to just half a mile or less may have had something to do with it as well. But there in the small, bare tree next to our newest feeder was this little finch. I snapped about eight or so pictures and then quietly went indoors where I watched him for at least another half an hour while he ate. And ate. And ate! I'm not sure how he got himself and all that seed on the wing, but a little while later he was gone.
As I looked at this picture and the others I took I thought how wonderful it is that while humans are so busy making a mess of their world, a little bit of nature manages to live on as if none of the rest of it were happening. I hope that this picture brings a little peace to you, too. Enjoy.
No Win Situation
The events in Fallujah and other areas of Iraq are being well covered and discussed in other blogs and in the news; I'm not going to rehash any of the facts.
We have, it seems, gotten to a point in our Excellent Iraqi Adventure where no matter what we do we will be wrong. Everything BushCo. can tell the military to do or not do will be exactly the wrong thing.
It also seems that we are destined to lose more soldiers and civilians in this quagmire as BushCo. thrashes around blindly - without a plan.
Without a clue.
Without a chance to win.
We have, it seems, gotten to a point in our Excellent Iraqi Adventure where no matter what we do we will be wrong. Everything BushCo. can tell the military to do or not do will be exactly the wrong thing.
If the CPA or the Iraqis arrest al Sadr the Shiites will explode in anger and violence. Recent events will seem tame in comparison. If he is wounded or killed in the attempt it will seem that a nuclear weapon had gone off.This morning on ABC News, Diane Sawyer, doing a pretty good imitation of a journalist, asked Paul Bremmer if there were anything that would force the rescheduling of the June 30th handover of power to the Iraqi Provisional Government. He would not even answer the question, despite repeated attempts by Sawyer to pin him down. It seems that this ill conceived power shift is going to occur no matter what.
If the CPA does nothing about al Sadr and the Shiites, the spiral of violence will continue to spin out of control and more coalition soldiers and civilians and Iraqis will die by ones and twos or threes.
If the coalition decides to withdraw from Iraq precipitously (something that is not likely to happen given the swollen egos of BushCo.), anarchy and chaos will explode in Iraq and it will descend into the worst religiously fueled civil war imaginable.
If the coalition stays the violence perpetrated by the Sunnis will continue and probably spread well outside the Sunni Triangle and infect the rest of the country, ensuring that more coalition personnel die every day. A religious civil war is likely in this situation as well.
It also seems that we are destined to lose more soldiers and civilians in this quagmire as BushCo. thrashes around blindly - without a plan.
Without a clue.
Without a chance to win.
Road to Ruin
If you've wondered why it seems that the tax burden falls more and more on the middle class and the poor, you're not alone. Everyone knows that BushCo. structured their tax cuts to benefit the top 1% of income earners, what you may not have realized is that tax laws for years have been changing so that corporations are paying less and less taxes.
How much less?
How about NONE.
Here's the headline from an article (subscription) in this morning's Wall Street Journal: "Many Companies Avoided Taxes Even as Profits Soared in Boom."
So who gets stuck with the bill?
Class warfare my ass.
How much less?
How about NONE.
Here's the headline from an article (subscription) in this morning's Wall Street Journal: "Many Companies Avoided Taxes Even as Profits Soared in Boom."
More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared, the investigative arm of Congress reported.So let me get this straight: the top 1% of earners, who garner something like 20% or more of all income, pay less and less; corporations, who made trillions of dollars in that time paid less and less; government spending increased by a minimum of 3% - 4% and often more (and of course Congress voted itself at least one pay raise during that time).
The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign. Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured. By 2003, they had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934, federal budget officials say.
So who gets stuck with the bill?
Class warfare my ass.
Monday, April 05, 2004
BushCo. Environmental Outrages
Still have a spot on your forehead that you haven't pounded against a wall or your desk? Not totally disgusted yet by Shrubby's Excellent Adventure in Mesopotamia?
Go read this outstanding New York Times investigative report on how BushCo. systematically destroyed environmental regulations that were on the verge of delivering - not incremental - but a quantum leap in pollution reduction.
Go read this outstanding New York Times investigative report on how BushCo. systematically destroyed environmental regulations that were on the verge of delivering - not incremental - but a quantum leap in pollution reduction.
Having long flouted the new-source review law, many of the nation's biggest power companies were facing, in the last months of the 1990's, an expensive day of reckoning. E.P.A. investigators had caught them breaking the law. To make amends, the power companies were on the verge of signing agreements to clean up their plants, which would have delivered one of the greatest advances in clean air in the nation's history. Then George W. Bush took office, and everything changed.
Religious "Militias"
I've kept up with the news this weekend about the uprisings and deaths in Iraq. I haven't decided what to say about them - or even if there is anything to say that I haven't already. But something I heard in the reports and read in the articles struck me.
Why should any religion - or any sect of any religion, which claim to be about peace and love, need a militia?
There just shouldn't be any way of putting those two words together and have them mean anything. They should repel each other in thought and word like two magnets facing North to North. They should be the epitome of an oxymoron. And yet we read things like this:
The world is mad.
WARNING: Totally non-P.C. Commentary Ahead!
Here's my suggestion to BushCo and Mr. Bremmer: Get every US and coalition soldier out of Iraq now. Get all the relief workers and missionaries and other NGO staff out. Seal off all the borders - nothing and nobody gets in or out. Throw away the keys.
Why should any religion - or any sect of any religion, which claim to be about peace and love, need a militia?
There just shouldn't be any way of putting those two words together and have them mean anything. They should repel each other in thought and word like two magnets facing North to North. They should be the epitome of an oxymoron. And yet we read things like this:
"Within hours of a call by [Moktada al-Sadr, a 31-year-old firebrand Shiite cleric] to his followers to "terrorize your enemy," his militiamen, said to number tens of thousands across Iraq, emerged into the streets of Baghdad, Najaf, Kufa and Amara..."I am not in any way religious; but this is a gross and horrible twisting of words and meanings; a religious "leader" imploring his "militia" to kill...
The world is mad.
WARNING: Totally non-P.C. Commentary Ahead!
Here's my suggestion to BushCo and Mr. Bremmer: Get every US and coalition soldier out of Iraq now. Get all the relief workers and missionaries and other NGO staff out. Seal off all the borders - nothing and nobody gets in or out. Throw away the keys.
