We lived in a different America then. News that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor came from bulletins that broke into Sunday afternoon radio programs and was spread by word of mouth over the telephone, on the streets of cities and house to house in small towns.
World War II came to us in slow motion and seemed unreal until we read details in the next day's newspaper and heard a broadcast of President Roosevelt telling Congress that that day would live in infamy as he declared a state of war with Japan.
Why, then, did that unseen war affect our lives so much more deeply than the 24/7 images and endless words about Iraq, which nevertheless is sliding out of the national consciousness now day by day?
World War II was everybody's war. It would be fought by our fathers, sons, husbands, brothers and those of the people next door and down the block. I was 17 then, but in little more than a year, I knew I would be among them.
We were all in it together, and every night at 8:55, we turned on our radios for the only news most of us were able to get.
If we had been told then we would be called "The Greatest Generation," we would have wondered what was unusual about doing what we had to do. It would have saddened us beyond tears if we knew that our children and grandchildren would ever have to fight and die when the nation's survival was not so clearly at stake.
It would have broken our hearts then, and it still does.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Bloggers Digest
Karl Rove and his gang refuse to "go gentle into that good night." The Master himself is pontificating away in Newsweek and now one of his gnomes, Dan Bartlett, pops up in a Texas Monthly interview to pay tribute to conservative bloggers with Rovian eloquence:
"I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on."
Regurgitating is hard enough, but regurgitating exactly is an art that requires mastery of computer cut-and-pasting. So kudos to Bartlett for having cultivated such a high level of obedience and, on behalf of bloggers of all persuasions, let me simply say that Rove and Bartlett have always made me want to throw up.
"I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on."
Regurgitating is hard enough, but regurgitating exactly is an art that requires mastery of computer cut-and-pasting. So kudos to Bartlett for having cultivated such a high level of obedience and, on behalf of bloggers of all persuasions, let me simply say that Rove and Bartlett have always made me want to throw up.
Senate Whistle-Blower
By today's standards, Chuck Grassley is right out of a Frank Capra movie.
This summer the Republican Senator from Iowa got the Department of Agriculture to admit it had been sending subsidy checks to dead farmers, $1.1 billion over seven years.
This fall he voted to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill and worked hard to persuade House Republicans to do the same and expand health insurance coverage for poor children.
Now he is pressing televangelists to explain how and why they drive Bentleys, fly in private jets and buy $23,000 commodes. Tomorrow is the deadline for six ministries to answer Grassley's questions about compensation, housing allowances, personal use of assets and unreported income.
"If tax-exempt organizations, including media-based ministries, thumb their noses at the laws governing their preferential tax treatment, the American public, their contributors, and the Internal Revenue Service have a right to know," says Grassley, the top minority member of the Senate Finance Committee.
Even Robin Hood has not escaped the Iowan's beady eye. A prestigious New York foundation of that name had to reexamine practices that led to employees of hedge funds run by board members collecting 2% of the assets and 20% of the profits, adding up to $14 million a year in management fees.
"I don't remember Robin Hood keeping 2 and 20 as his cut," Grassley said. "I'm worried that more and more, it seems some hedge fund and private equity managers see charitable donations as a chance to do well for themselves."
In the past five years, the Christian Science Monitor reports, "Grassley has led probes of nonprofits that unearthed lavish perks at the Smithsonian Institution, conflicts of interest at the Nature Conservancy, and mismanagement at the American Red Cross."
He has also sponsored legislation to protect whistle-blowers. Frank Capra would have loved him.
This summer the Republican Senator from Iowa got the Department of Agriculture to admit it had been sending subsidy checks to dead farmers, $1.1 billion over seven years.
This fall he voted to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill and worked hard to persuade House Republicans to do the same and expand health insurance coverage for poor children.
Now he is pressing televangelists to explain how and why they drive Bentleys, fly in private jets and buy $23,000 commodes. Tomorrow is the deadline for six ministries to answer Grassley's questions about compensation, housing allowances, personal use of assets and unreported income.
"If tax-exempt organizations, including media-based ministries, thumb their noses at the laws governing their preferential tax treatment, the American public, their contributors, and the Internal Revenue Service have a right to know," says Grassley, the top minority member of the Senate Finance Committee.
Even Robin Hood has not escaped the Iowan's beady eye. A prestigious New York foundation of that name had to reexamine practices that led to employees of hedge funds run by board members collecting 2% of the assets and 20% of the profits, adding up to $14 million a year in management fees.
"I don't remember Robin Hood keeping 2 and 20 as his cut," Grassley said. "I'm worried that more and more, it seems some hedge fund and private equity managers see charitable donations as a chance to do well for themselves."
In the past five years, the Christian Science Monitor reports, "Grassley has led probes of nonprofits that unearthed lavish perks at the Smithsonian Institution, conflicts of interest at the Nature Conservancy, and mismanagement at the American Red Cross."
He has also sponsored legislation to protect whistle-blowers. Frank Capra would have loved him.
Nuts-and-Bolton on Iran
As most thinking Americans breathe a sigh of relief over the NIE report on Iran, John Bolton on the editorial page of the Washington Post, that island of insanity in a screw-loose world, is here to preserve our patriotic paranoia.
The thing has flaws, and who are these spooks to tell us what the stuff they gather means? "Too much of the intelligence community," Bolton writes, "is engaging in policy formulation rather than 'intelligence' analysis, and too many in Congress and the media are happy about it."
The man who was too disagreeable to be confirmed as US Ambassador to the UN, Scooter Libby's defender, who lectured Jon Stewart with fake news about Lincoln on the Daily Show, who has been out-Cheneying the Neo-Cons in pushing Bush to attack Iran, that John Bolton wants us to know that the NIE is rash in its "psychological assessment of the mullahs' motives and objectives" based on "internally contradictory and insufficiently supported" data, is being suckered by disinformation from Iran and relies too much on "the latest hot tidbit" from its spies.
Moreover, Bolton reveals, many are "not intelligence professionals but refugees from the State Department" who had "relatively benign views of Iran's nuclear intentions five and six years ago, now...writing those views as if they were received wisdom from on high."
Bolton, who has been hearing voices from on high much longer, outranks them all and is just the clear-sighted expert to set us straight.
The thing has flaws, and who are these spooks to tell us what the stuff they gather means? "Too much of the intelligence community," Bolton writes, "is engaging in policy formulation rather than 'intelligence' analysis, and too many in Congress and the media are happy about it."
The man who was too disagreeable to be confirmed as US Ambassador to the UN, Scooter Libby's defender, who lectured Jon Stewart with fake news about Lincoln on the Daily Show, who has been out-Cheneying the Neo-Cons in pushing Bush to attack Iran, that John Bolton wants us to know that the NIE is rash in its "psychological assessment of the mullahs' motives and objectives" based on "internally contradictory and insufficiently supported" data, is being suckered by disinformation from Iran and relies too much on "the latest hot tidbit" from its spies.
Moreover, Bolton reveals, many are "not intelligence professionals but refugees from the State Department" who had "relatively benign views of Iran's nuclear intentions five and six years ago, now...writing those views as if they were received wisdom from on high."
Bolton, who has been hearing voices from on high much longer, outranks them all and is just the clear-sighted expert to set us straight.
What's Offensive Is Romney's Religiosity
He has painted himself into a corner and, no matter where Mitt Romney goes in tonight's speech on religion, he is going to leave messy footprints.
Even the locale is a mistake. Meant to evoke a parallel with John F. Kennedy's deft defense of his Catholicism in 1960, it only underscores how much the role of religion has changed in American politics and, in the Bush era, for the worse.
In Kennedy's time, separation of church and state was an article of faith for mainstream politicians of both parties. Until then, Presidents had all been white Protestant men. Kennedy, in trying to broaden the definition to white Protestant or Catholic men, was arguing that religious belief may be a reflection of a President's principles but is not substantively involved in how he governs.
"I believe," he told Protestant ministers in Houston, "in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish...where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all...
"I believe in a President whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office."
Voters agreed and, in Gore Vidal’s 1960 play, “The Best Man,” as a former President recalls the old days when politicians “had to pour God over everything like ketchup,” audiences laughed at the anachronism.
Nobody is laughing now. George W. Bush has erased the line between church and state to the point where Romney, as a candidate, has been pandering to the Religious Right to win the nomination. It is that religiosity, not his religion, that is offensive.
Now Romney, still holding the ketchup bottle, will try to persuade voters that as President he would "maintain our religious heritage in this country," as he recently put it, but that his own particular religious beliefs are beside the point.
Romney is essentially a salesman (in amassing millions, associates say he was the "presenter") who has tailored his pitch on many issues this year to what voters want to hear. If he can sell this one, maybe he deserves to be President and use his skills to persuade the world to stop hating us.
Even the locale is a mistake. Meant to evoke a parallel with John F. Kennedy's deft defense of his Catholicism in 1960, it only underscores how much the role of religion has changed in American politics and, in the Bush era, for the worse.
In Kennedy's time, separation of church and state was an article of faith for mainstream politicians of both parties. Until then, Presidents had all been white Protestant men. Kennedy, in trying to broaden the definition to white Protestant or Catholic men, was arguing that religious belief may be a reflection of a President's principles but is not substantively involved in how he governs.
"I believe," he told Protestant ministers in Houston, "in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish...where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all...
"I believe in a President whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office."
Voters agreed and, in Gore Vidal’s 1960 play, “The Best Man,” as a former President recalls the old days when politicians “had to pour God over everything like ketchup,” audiences laughed at the anachronism.
Nobody is laughing now. George W. Bush has erased the line between church and state to the point where Romney, as a candidate, has been pandering to the Religious Right to win the nomination. It is that religiosity, not his religion, that is offensive.
Now Romney, still holding the ketchup bottle, will try to persuade voters that as President he would "maintain our religious heritage in this country," as he recently put it, but that his own particular religious beliefs are beside the point.
Romney is essentially a salesman (in amassing millions, associates say he was the "presenter") who has tailored his pitch on many issues this year to what voters want to hear. If he can sell this one, maybe he deserves to be President and use his skills to persuade the world to stop hating us.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Mall Killings: The Arc of Insane Fame
Half a century ago, TV created a new kind of American assassin, one who would escape insignificance by killing someone famous--a President or a star like John Lennon--and become famous for doing it.
Now we are in a new phase of this madness, where quantity has replaced quality in selecting victims. After yesterday's random killing of eight people in an Omaha mall, police report finding a suicide note from the 19-year-old shooter, who had been fired by MacDonald's, saying he was going to be famous.
He joins the Virginia Tech rampage killer who left self-pitying videos in achieving notoriety through mass murder. Perhaps this new stage of insane fame was inevitable. Arthur Bremer, who was just released after 35 years in prison, wanted to assassinate Richard Nixon but settled for Gov. George Wallace because the President was too well-guarded. It's so much easier to kill numbers of people at random.
In our grief, perhaps we should do with these sociopaths what the media do with rape victims, withhold their names, certainly not to protect them but to deny them the fame that motivated their savagery. It's the least we can do out of respect for the victims.
Now we are in a new phase of this madness, where quantity has replaced quality in selecting victims. After yesterday's random killing of eight people in an Omaha mall, police report finding a suicide note from the 19-year-old shooter, who had been fired by MacDonald's, saying he was going to be famous.
He joins the Virginia Tech rampage killer who left self-pitying videos in achieving notoriety through mass murder. Perhaps this new stage of insane fame was inevitable. Arthur Bremer, who was just released after 35 years in prison, wanted to assassinate Richard Nixon but settled for Gov. George Wallace because the President was too well-guarded. It's so much easier to kill numbers of people at random.
In our grief, perhaps we should do with these sociopaths what the media do with rape victims, withhold their names, certainly not to protect them but to deny them the fame that motivated their savagery. It's the least we can do out of respect for the victims.
Brain Checks for the Candidates
In the 1960s, a New York Times ad headlined "1,189 Psychiatrists Say Goldwater Is Psychologically Unfit to Be President" led to a $75,000 court judgment against a magazine by Sen. Barry Goldwater.
It now turns out that the publisher was prescient in making the mental health of candidates an election issue but lacked the technology to do it properly.
In today's Los Angeles Times, neuropsychiatrist Daniel Amen proposes a brain scan for potential presidents, arguing that a "national leader with brain problems can potentially cost millions of people their lives."
Dr. Amen's diagnosis: "Three of the last four presidents have shown clear brain pathology. President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease was evident during his second term in office...President Clinton's moral lapses and problems with bad judgment and excitement-seeking behavior--indicative of problems in the prefrontal cortex--eventually led to his impeachment."
As for George W. Bush, it looks dire. Dr. Amen, lacking Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography for the patient, nevertheless suspects "our current president's struggles with language and emotional rigidity are symptoms of temporal lobe pathology."
Dr. Amen, drawing on his long-distance diagnoses of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, is worried about "Rudy Giuliani's messy personal life, John McCain's temper and Hillary Clinton's inability to seem authentic."
He wants to check them out in one of his four conveniently located clinics or, failing that, they can at least answer 101 questions for the online interactive self-test on his web site. The future of mankind may be at stake.
It now turns out that the publisher was prescient in making the mental health of candidates an election issue but lacked the technology to do it properly.
In today's Los Angeles Times, neuropsychiatrist Daniel Amen proposes a brain scan for potential presidents, arguing that a "national leader with brain problems can potentially cost millions of people their lives."
Dr. Amen's diagnosis: "Three of the last four presidents have shown clear brain pathology. President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease was evident during his second term in office...President Clinton's moral lapses and problems with bad judgment and excitement-seeking behavior--indicative of problems in the prefrontal cortex--eventually led to his impeachment."
As for George W. Bush, it looks dire. Dr. Amen, lacking Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography for the patient, nevertheless suspects "our current president's struggles with language and emotional rigidity are symptoms of temporal lobe pathology."
Dr. Amen, drawing on his long-distance diagnoses of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, is worried about "Rudy Giuliani's messy personal life, John McCain's temper and Hillary Clinton's inability to seem authentic."
He wants to check them out in one of his four conveniently located clinics or, failing that, they can at least answer 101 questions for the online interactive self-test on his web site. The future of mankind may be at stake.
Here Comes Huckabee...
Last week's news is translating into this week's poll numbers.
A new national Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll today shows Mike Huckabee threatening the national lead of Rudy Giuliani, who is apparently being damaged in voters' eyes by the montage of scandals building up around his campaign.
Nationally, Guiliani's lead has shrunk from 32-7 percent in October to only 23-17 now. Meanwhile, Huckabee seems to be solidifying his lead in Iowa where 60 Iowa pastors, some of them former backers of Sam Brownback, have endorsed the ex-Governor of Arkansas.
Huckabee leads Giuliani 20-18 percent when Republicans are asked which candidate says what he believes rather than what voters want to hear. Fifty-two percent say Giuliani's pro-abortion stance doesn't bother them, and 73 percent are untroubled by Romney's Mormon faith, an issue he will address in a speech tomorrow night.
As the primaries get closer, so does the race for the Republican nomination.
A new national Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll today shows Mike Huckabee threatening the national lead of Rudy Giuliani, who is apparently being damaged in voters' eyes by the montage of scandals building up around his campaign.
Nationally, Guiliani's lead has shrunk from 32-7 percent in October to only 23-17 now. Meanwhile, Huckabee seems to be solidifying his lead in Iowa where 60 Iowa pastors, some of them former backers of Sam Brownback, have endorsed the ex-Governor of Arkansas.
Huckabee leads Giuliani 20-18 percent when Republicans are asked which candidate says what he believes rather than what voters want to hear. Fifty-two percent say Giuliani's pro-abortion stance doesn't bother them, and 73 percent are untroubled by Romney's Mormon faith, an issue he will address in a speech tomorrow night.
As the primaries get closer, so does the race for the Republican nomination.
Damming the Mainstream Media
Alberto Gonzalez, Monica Goodling and others of the Bush Brigade who worked so hard to subvert American freedoms are gone, but their mission is moving forward. After chipping away at our legal rights, next on the agenda is control of our minds through mass media.
A House Committee will turn the spotlight today on FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who has been busy trying to concentrate ownership more than ever before into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and a few other corporate chieftains.
Like all loyal Bushies, Martin has not let legal niceties get in his way.
Citing "complaints from the public and professionals within the communications industry," Rep. Bart Stupak, who heads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is investigating the FCC head, says, "It is one thing to be an aggressive leader, but many of the allegations indicate possible abuse of power and an attempt to intentionally keep fellow commissioners in the dark."
Martin and other FCC members will testify about his efforts to bulldoze through the easing of rules limiting cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same city as well as "cooking the books" to push through regulations to crack down on cable TV which, outside of Fix News, has not been as servile as the Administration would like.
To do so, Martin has used what media watchdogs call "a rigged process" designed to produce a "predetermined outcome."
The FCC chairman came to his position of overseeing free speech in America at the age of 33 with no communications experience whatsoever after working on the legal team that blocked the 2000 Florida vote recount to put Bush in the White House.
In 1961, President Kennedy's FCC chairman, Newt Minow, famously called commercial TV a "vast wasteland" and worked to expand its range of content by enabling UHF stations and public television.
His 2007 counterpart is less interested in what's on than who controls it. "America Idol" and reality shows are high art as long as the right people profit and keep the medium from sending the wrong political message.
A House Committee will turn the spotlight today on FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who has been busy trying to concentrate ownership more than ever before into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and a few other corporate chieftains.
Like all loyal Bushies, Martin has not let legal niceties get in his way.
Citing "complaints from the public and professionals within the communications industry," Rep. Bart Stupak, who heads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is investigating the FCC head, says, "It is one thing to be an aggressive leader, but many of the allegations indicate possible abuse of power and an attempt to intentionally keep fellow commissioners in the dark."
Martin and other FCC members will testify about his efforts to bulldoze through the easing of rules limiting cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same city as well as "cooking the books" to push through regulations to crack down on cable TV which, outside of Fix News, has not been as servile as the Administration would like.
To do so, Martin has used what media watchdogs call "a rigged process" designed to produce a "predetermined outcome."
The FCC chairman came to his position of overseeing free speech in America at the age of 33 with no communications experience whatsoever after working on the legal team that blocked the 2000 Florida vote recount to put Bush in the White House.
In 1961, President Kennedy's FCC chairman, Newt Minow, famously called commercial TV a "vast wasteland" and worked to expand its range of content by enabling UHF stations and public television.
His 2007 counterpart is less interested in what's on than who controls it. "America Idol" and reality shows are high art as long as the right people profit and keep the medium from sending the wrong political message.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Credit Crunch from the Cheap Seats
For the middle-class old, of which I am a card-carrying member, the sub-prime mortgage loan crisis is like distant thunder. As storms roil the markets, most of us know we won't be drenched but, from experience, we are braced to pay a price for our prudence.
It happened when the dot.com stock market bubble burst, and it's happening again with the drop in interest rates to help bail out the greedy, the gullible and the reckless that will cut into what we can get from Certificates of Deposit and bond-fund holdings to supplement Social Security and pension income.
Many of us, recalling our parents' shock in the Great Depression, mistrusted the stock market boom of the late 1990s and, in large part, resisted the euphoria over the "new economy."
Just before the Millennium, in a doctor's waiting room, I felt old and foolish overhearing the receptionist and a messenger comparing their capital gains on AOL and Amazon stock. Maybe there was a free lunch after all, and my generation was just too stubborn to belly up to the bar.
When the bubble burst, our conservatism was rewarded with the lowest interest rates in half a century that cut modest incomes from savings by more than half. As Social Security became the largest part of our safety net and the costs of health care rose, we were becoming the newest poor until interest rates finally began to inch back up from 1 and 2 percent.
Now that another wave of greed is threatening to swamp the economy, the government will rightly do what it can to save the homes of people who were roped into no-down-payment and variable-rate mortgages by sharks who "innovated" credit markets into disaster.
It would be churlish to complain about our modest losses compared to the real victims, but there is cold consolation in having lived long enough to know enough to resist the something-for-nothing lures that keep coming up for each new generation.
It happened when the dot.com stock market bubble burst, and it's happening again with the drop in interest rates to help bail out the greedy, the gullible and the reckless that will cut into what we can get from Certificates of Deposit and bond-fund holdings to supplement Social Security and pension income.
Many of us, recalling our parents' shock in the Great Depression, mistrusted the stock market boom of the late 1990s and, in large part, resisted the euphoria over the "new economy."
Just before the Millennium, in a doctor's waiting room, I felt old and foolish overhearing the receptionist and a messenger comparing their capital gains on AOL and Amazon stock. Maybe there was a free lunch after all, and my generation was just too stubborn to belly up to the bar.
When the bubble burst, our conservatism was rewarded with the lowest interest rates in half a century that cut modest incomes from savings by more than half. As Social Security became the largest part of our safety net and the costs of health care rose, we were becoming the newest poor until interest rates finally began to inch back up from 1 and 2 percent.
Now that another wave of greed is threatening to swamp the economy, the government will rightly do what it can to save the homes of people who were roped into no-down-payment and variable-rate mortgages by sharks who "innovated" credit markets into disaster.
It would be churlish to complain about our modest losses compared to the real victims, but there is cold consolation in having lived long enough to know enough to resist the something-for-nothing lures that keep coming up for each new generation.
The N.I.E. Mystery-Riddle-Enigma
Yesterday's news about Iran's nuclear weapons or, more accurately, lack thereof is an event that recalls Winston Churchill's description of the Soviet Union as a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.
Even by Bush Administration standards of incompetence, illogic and intrigue, there is no sane explanation for the President's continuing public insistence that Iran come clean about weapons that his National Security Adviser now admits Bush has known for "months" do not exist.
Unless...
Going back to the 2003 Cheney gang massaging of intelligence about Iraq's WMDs that prompted Colin Powell to mislead the UN, the questions arise (1) Is Stephen Hadley trying to hide the fact that Bush was being similarly duped or (2) Did the desire for another invasion lead Bush and Cheney once again to hide evidence that would destroy the rationale for doing it until the intelligence agencies themselves finally rebelled against doing another George Tenet?
There are other, less likely possibilities. Did Congressional overseers threaten to blow the whistle (they deny it)? Did somebody finally wise up to the fact that the murky exile-terrorist group, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK, credited with "helping expose Iran’s secret nuclear program,” has been no more reliable than Ahmed Chalabi's grifters were in Iraq?
As conservatives scramble to explain that Iran stopped trying to produce nuclear weapons in 2003 because they were terrified by our invasion of Iraq (the most Hail Mary of passes in a gone game), the maddening opaqueness of what happened this week to derail Bush's milk run to World War III remains a 21st century mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.
Fourteen months from now, maybe we can give up playing these heart-stopping Neo-Con games and start living again in a sane world.
Even by Bush Administration standards of incompetence, illogic and intrigue, there is no sane explanation for the President's continuing public insistence that Iran come clean about weapons that his National Security Adviser now admits Bush has known for "months" do not exist.
Unless...
Going back to the 2003 Cheney gang massaging of intelligence about Iraq's WMDs that prompted Colin Powell to mislead the UN, the questions arise (1) Is Stephen Hadley trying to hide the fact that Bush was being similarly duped or (2) Did the desire for another invasion lead Bush and Cheney once again to hide evidence that would destroy the rationale for doing it until the intelligence agencies themselves finally rebelled against doing another George Tenet?
There are other, less likely possibilities. Did Congressional overseers threaten to blow the whistle (they deny it)? Did somebody finally wise up to the fact that the murky exile-terrorist group, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK, credited with "helping expose Iran’s secret nuclear program,” has been no more reliable than Ahmed Chalabi's grifters were in Iraq?
As conservatives scramble to explain that Iran stopped trying to produce nuclear weapons in 2003 because they were terrified by our invasion of Iraq (the most Hail Mary of passes in a gone game), the maddening opaqueness of what happened this week to derail Bush's milk run to World War III remains a 21st century mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.
Fourteen months from now, maybe we can give up playing these heart-stopping Neo-Con games and start living again in a sane world.
Exposed! Obama's Kindergarten Secret!
Is it sexist to say Hillary Clinton is getting shrill? If you think piercing screams only come from women, remember Howard Dean in 2004. But that was after the vote in Iowa. Clinton's tone there now is rising in pitch as her poll numbers go down.
What's disturbing about the decision to attack Obama is not that Clinton is doing it but doing it so lamely. "I have been, for months, on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks," she announced stiffly. "Well, now the fun part starts. We're into the last month, and we're going to start drawing the contrasts."
Obama took the opening: "This presidential campaign isn't about attacking people for fun, it's about solving people's problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system. Washington insiders might think throwing mud is fun, but the American people are looking for leadership that can unite this country around a common purpose."
The official "Hillary for President" web site went after Obama for saying, "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for."
This heinous untruth is exposed by quoting Obama's law school classmates, brother-in-law, third-grade teacher and, most damning of all, his kindergarten teacher, who discloses he wrote an essay, "I Want to Become President," proving that he was an ambitious tyke even back then.
As this pathetic attack is released on the official Clinton site, over at the gloves-off "Hillary Is 44" location, which has been vilifying Obama for months, the leadoff fusillade accuses him of "lying" seven times in the first ten lines.
On his blog, Robert Reich, who was in Bill Clinton's Cabinet, asks, "Why Is HRC Stooping So Low?" while refuting a "series of slurs" against Obama over Social Security and health care
Why indeed and, if the former First Lady feels she must stoop to conquer, why isn't she doing a better job of it?
What's disturbing about the decision to attack Obama is not that Clinton is doing it but doing it so lamely. "I have been, for months, on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks," she announced stiffly. "Well, now the fun part starts. We're into the last month, and we're going to start drawing the contrasts."
Obama took the opening: "This presidential campaign isn't about attacking people for fun, it's about solving people's problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system. Washington insiders might think throwing mud is fun, but the American people are looking for leadership that can unite this country around a common purpose."
The official "Hillary for President" web site went after Obama for saying, "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for."
This heinous untruth is exposed by quoting Obama's law school classmates, brother-in-law, third-grade teacher and, most damning of all, his kindergarten teacher, who discloses he wrote an essay, "I Want to Become President," proving that he was an ambitious tyke even back then.
As this pathetic attack is released on the official Clinton site, over at the gloves-off "Hillary Is 44" location, which has been vilifying Obama for months, the leadoff fusillade accuses him of "lying" seven times in the first ten lines.
On his blog, Robert Reich, who was in Bill Clinton's Cabinet, asks, "Why Is HRC Stooping So Low?" while refuting a "series of slurs" against Obama over Social Security and health care
Why indeed and, if the former First Lady feels she must stoop to conquer, why isn't she doing a better job of it?
Monday, December 03, 2007
Nuclear Hiccup
Oops. "A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold," the New York Times reports today.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, issued a statement spinning the new National Intelligence Estimate as good news rather than a sign that the same intelligence mistakes that got us into Iraq are still being made today.
“It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons,” Hadley said. “It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen. But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem.”
Shameless but par for the Bush-Cheney course to toss off their months-long drumbeat for invading or bombing Iran as a slight glitch that proves we scared Ahmadinejad in stopping a nuclear weapons buildup that never was.
It was only five weeks ago that a Zogby poll showed that more than half of voters would support a military strike to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon and believed it was likely the US would do so before next year's election.
But all that is old news. Looking to the future, Hadley now says, “The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically--without the use of force--as the administration has been trying to do.” Did Barack Obama sneak into the White House and take over without anybody noticing?
Someone please get the smelling salts for Joe Lieberman and Norman Podhoretz, and wipe the foam off the snouts of Cheney's Neo-Con attack dogs.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, issued a statement spinning the new National Intelligence Estimate as good news rather than a sign that the same intelligence mistakes that got us into Iraq are still being made today.
“It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons,” Hadley said. “It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen. But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem.”
Shameless but par for the Bush-Cheney course to toss off their months-long drumbeat for invading or bombing Iran as a slight glitch that proves we scared Ahmadinejad in stopping a nuclear weapons buildup that never was.
It was only five weeks ago that a Zogby poll showed that more than half of voters would support a military strike to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon and believed it was likely the US would do so before next year's election.
But all that is old news. Looking to the future, Hadley now says, “The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically--without the use of force--as the administration has been trying to do.” Did Barack Obama sneak into the White House and take over without anybody noticing?
Someone please get the smelling salts for Joe Lieberman and Norman Podhoretz, and wipe the foam off the snouts of Cheney's Neo-Con attack dogs.
Fetal Food Preferences
You are what your pregnant mother ate. Tastes are shaped in the womb, according to the latest news from the world of science, one more opportunity to create designer babies and another issue for psychotherapists with patients who blame their mothers for everything.
A new study at the Monell Chemical Senses Research Institute in Philadelphia finds flavors from mothers' diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and babies learn to like a food's taste when mothers eat it on a regular basis.
This new leap forward suggests that a healthy diet during pregnancy can insure children who like broccoli, spinach and carrots rather than junk food.
Talk about eating for two: Experiments found that women who ingested large quantities of carrot juice or raw fruit had children with more of a taste for carrots and fruit than those of women who didn't.
Even after birth, there is still time to influence taste buds, another study showed. When new mothers who were breast-feeding started eating green beans, their children acquired a taste for them.
Maybe so, but I have anecdotal evidence to the contrary: A pre-teen twin I know has become a self-made vegetarian while his brother eats roast beef every chance he gets. Can a mother-to-be send gastronomic mixed signals?
A new study at the Monell Chemical Senses Research Institute in Philadelphia finds flavors from mothers' diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and babies learn to like a food's taste when mothers eat it on a regular basis.
This new leap forward suggests that a healthy diet during pregnancy can insure children who like broccoli, spinach and carrots rather than junk food.
Talk about eating for two: Experiments found that women who ingested large quantities of carrot juice or raw fruit had children with more of a taste for carrots and fruit than those of women who didn't.
Even after birth, there is still time to influence taste buds, another study showed. When new mothers who were breast-feeding started eating green beans, their children acquired a taste for them.
Maybe so, but I have anecdotal evidence to the contrary: A pre-teen twin I know has become a self-made vegetarian while his brother eats roast beef every chance he gets. Can a mother-to-be send gastronomic mixed signals?
Huckabee Is Ready for His Closeup
His lead in the Iowa polls has propelled Mike Huckabee into the Republican top tier, making it a certainty he will be cover-storied, 60-Minuted and commented-on ad nauseam this month.
For a start, a reporter who covered him for years in Arkansas, John Brummett, insists the former Governor is, by nature and experience, less a preacher than a huckster, "more decidedly a media man than a pulpit man," that his success "comes via a disc jockey's shtick rather than a pastor's...more Don Imus than Billy Graham."
Like the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan, Huckabee got his start working in radio, reading news and weather at the age of 14 before going off to seminaries and coming back to work for a TV evangelist.
As a preacher, he supplemented his income on cable TV and, even as lieutenant governor, guest-hosted for a radio talk show host. That would explain Huckabee's ease with pop cultural references, such as complaining last spring that his campaign was drawing less attention than "Britney Spears getting out a car without underwear."
Now the attention is there. In the Los Angeles Times yesterday, Huckabee was pictured playing his electric guitar and quoted as saying, "I drink a different kind of Jesus juice."
Out front now with the leaders now, he will be drawing fire for lack of ardor in tax-cutting by the Grover Norquist gang, softness as a self-styled Second-Commandment Christian and other perceived shortcomings by the Religious Right, possibly even Willie-Horton attacks for commuting the sentence of a rapist who later killed a woman.
.
But Huckabee's amiable MC manner may be concealing a much tougher campaigner. Nobody should underestimate the determination of a man who dieted and sweated off 110 pounds to save his health and now regularly runs in marathons.
Those cover stories won't be dull.
For a start, a reporter who covered him for years in Arkansas, John Brummett, insists the former Governor is, by nature and experience, less a preacher than a huckster, "more decidedly a media man than a pulpit man," that his success "comes via a disc jockey's shtick rather than a pastor's...more Don Imus than Billy Graham."
Like the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan, Huckabee got his start working in radio, reading news and weather at the age of 14 before going off to seminaries and coming back to work for a TV evangelist.
As a preacher, he supplemented his income on cable TV and, even as lieutenant governor, guest-hosted for a radio talk show host. That would explain Huckabee's ease with pop cultural references, such as complaining last spring that his campaign was drawing less attention than "Britney Spears getting out a car without underwear."
Now the attention is there. In the Los Angeles Times yesterday, Huckabee was pictured playing his electric guitar and quoted as saying, "I drink a different kind of Jesus juice."
Out front now with the leaders now, he will be drawing fire for lack of ardor in tax-cutting by the Grover Norquist gang, softness as a self-styled Second-Commandment Christian and other perceived shortcomings by the Religious Right, possibly even Willie-Horton attacks for commuting the sentence of a rapist who later killed a woman.
.
But Huckabee's amiable MC manner may be concealing a much tougher campaigner. Nobody should underestimate the determination of a man who dieted and sweated off 110 pounds to save his health and now regularly runs in marathons.
Those cover stories won't be dull.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
A Papal Question
In a new encyclical, the Pope declares atheism has led to the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" as clerics incite mobs in Khartoum demanding death for a teacher who named a teddy bear Mohammed, the faithful in Iraq behead children of the wrong religious sect and eight Americans who want the most powerful position in the world express their faith in the Bible and their passion to punish people who were born in the wrong place or make them feel uncomfortable.
"How," asks Benedict XVI, "did we arrive at this interpretation of the 'salvation of the soul' as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others?"
Not in a world where heretics burn believers at the stake.
"How," asks Benedict XVI, "did we arrive at this interpretation of the 'salvation of the soul' as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others?"
Not in a world where heretics burn believers at the stake.
The Mighty Are Falling Primarywise
The subject of today's sermon is pride--as well as money and power--cometh before a tumble.
The Iowa polls show people with names hardly anyone knew a year ago, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama, leading the former First Lady, the celebrity hero of 9/11 and the former governor who is spending tons of money there.
In New Hampshire, the only paper that counts, the Union Leader, endorses John McCain as "the most trustworthy, competent, and conservative of all those seeking the nomination" who "can be trusted to make informed decisions based on the best interests of his country, come hell or high water."
There are, of course, still promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep (pace Robert Frost) in this season of decision, but today's news is oddly heartening. Somehow, in the face of all the conventional wisdom and the smart money, Americans are struggling to make up their own minds about who is best suited to keep them safe and sane in a turbulent world.
In Iowa, women and younger voters are turning toward Obama, while Huckabee is tapping into social conservatives and the middle-aged.
McCain's endorsement from a paper that doesn't "agree with him on every issue" is all about character.
"When McCain was shot down and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese," the Union Leader notes, "he was repeatedly beaten. When his captors discovered that his father was a top U.S. admiral, they ordered him released for propaganda purposes. But McCain refused, insisting that longer-held prisoners be released before him. So they beat him some more. He never gave in then, and he won't give in to our enemies now."
In one place, at least, that trumps Rudy Giuliani's performance on 9/11 and Fred Thompson's on "Law and Order."
Most of all, the voters seem to be sending a clear message: Don't take us for granted--or fools.
The Iowa polls show people with names hardly anyone knew a year ago, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama, leading the former First Lady, the celebrity hero of 9/11 and the former governor who is spending tons of money there.
In New Hampshire, the only paper that counts, the Union Leader, endorses John McCain as "the most trustworthy, competent, and conservative of all those seeking the nomination" who "can be trusted to make informed decisions based on the best interests of his country, come hell or high water."
There are, of course, still promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep (pace Robert Frost) in this season of decision, but today's news is oddly heartening. Somehow, in the face of all the conventional wisdom and the smart money, Americans are struggling to make up their own minds about who is best suited to keep them safe and sane in a turbulent world.
In Iowa, women and younger voters are turning toward Obama, while Huckabee is tapping into social conservatives and the middle-aged.
McCain's endorsement from a paper that doesn't "agree with him on every issue" is all about character.
"When McCain was shot down and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese," the Union Leader notes, "he was repeatedly beaten. When his captors discovered that his father was a top U.S. admiral, they ordered him released for propaganda purposes. But McCain refused, insisting that longer-held prisoners be released before him. So they beat him some more. He never gave in then, and he won't give in to our enemies now."
In one place, at least, that trumps Rudy Giuliani's performance on 9/11 and Fred Thompson's on "Law and Order."
Most of all, the voters seem to be sending a clear message: Don't take us for granted--or fools.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
The Right Choice for an Empty Oval Office
Fred Thompson may be onto something. Today's New York Times puzzles over his "sleepy, unconventional" approach to pursuing the presidency, noting, "Indeed, what has defined his campaign recently has to a large degree been his absence from the trail."
But the Senator/actor who got his start during the Nixon impeachment may be putting his experience to good use. After the trauma of an administration that tried to do too much, the country was ready for a vacant Oval Office or, failing that, an innocuous president like Gerald Ford and then a low-key Jimmy Carter, who was perplexed by the "national malaise."
With the high-energy Rudy Giuliani imploding in scandals, laid-back Fred Thompson may be foxier than he seems. As an antidote to Bush's imperial presidency, he may be showing voters how little he would do to make them anxious or fearful.
His ambling through primary states could be just the ticket for the times. Before the debate, he had a week with only one retail campaign event: a “meet Fred” in the back room of a Southern Carolina barbecue restaurant with no music, food or even chairs. A hundred voters stood for three hours before he arrived for a few remarks and half a dozen questions. Less than 30 minutes later, he left.
At the Florida state convention, other candidates blustered for half an hour or more. Thompson chatted for four minutes, leaving one supporter to say, “We were all hoping he would say something we could get behind, but there was nothing.”
Republicans, his campaign manager sums it up, will have decide whether they want "the Energizer Bunny or a consistent conservative."
At this rate, if Fred Thompson gets the nomination, he may nod off during debates with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama and doze all the way to the White House.
If voters want a restful President, he's their man.
But the Senator/actor who got his start during the Nixon impeachment may be putting his experience to good use. After the trauma of an administration that tried to do too much, the country was ready for a vacant Oval Office or, failing that, an innocuous president like Gerald Ford and then a low-key Jimmy Carter, who was perplexed by the "national malaise."
With the high-energy Rudy Giuliani imploding in scandals, laid-back Fred Thompson may be foxier than he seems. As an antidote to Bush's imperial presidency, he may be showing voters how little he would do to make them anxious or fearful.
His ambling through primary states could be just the ticket for the times. Before the debate, he had a week with only one retail campaign event: a “meet Fred” in the back room of a Southern Carolina barbecue restaurant with no music, food or even chairs. A hundred voters stood for three hours before he arrived for a few remarks and half a dozen questions. Less than 30 minutes later, he left.
At the Florida state convention, other candidates blustered for half an hour or more. Thompson chatted for four minutes, leaving one supporter to say, “We were all hoping he would say something we could get behind, but there was nothing.”
Republicans, his campaign manager sums it up, will have decide whether they want "the Energizer Bunny or a consistent conservative."
At this rate, if Fred Thompson gets the nomination, he may nod off during debates with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama and doze all the way to the White House.
If voters want a restful President, he's their man.
The Rudy Mud Keeps Rising
With Bernard Kerik as a character witness, Mr. 9/11 is fast becoming the most ethically challenged Presidential candidate since Bill Clinton came on the scene with a reputation as "Slick Willie."
Giuliani's sleight of hand about the hidden tryst fund that had taxpayers underwriting his courtship expenses enhanced his image this week as the guy with a green eyeshade who inspires other poker players to keep cutting the cards and calling for fresh decks.
To explain why hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for his security, presumably to protect against terrorists in beachwear while the Mayor was courting Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, were buried in accounts of obscure city offices, Giuliani fell back on that old reliable, a "political hit job." It was only done to speed up slow payments from the Police Department, he claims.
Kerik, Giuliani's police commissioner now under federal indictment for tax fraud and corruption, backs his former boss and business partner. “There would be no need for anyone to conceal his detail’s travel expenses,” Kerik insists.
But the current and former New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he knows of no problems with the delay of payments before Giuliani was mayor or afterward.
Blogger Big Tent Democrat, a lawyer, points out related charges that the Mayor's then-mistress, according to a former city official, "used the PD as her personal taxi service," the same practice that led former NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi to resign as prosecutors were preparing to indict him for felonies over using state employees to chauffeur his wife.
The New York Times, overflowing with Giuliani's truth abuses, did an omnibus piece yesterday about his penchant for "misleading statistics" to claim accomplishments during his tenure as mayor that are "incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong."
In coming weeks, there will be more Giuliani mud, some of it from Manhattan fire fighters over 9/11, much of it no doubt inspired by Fred Thompson's New York Chairman, Alfonse D'Amato aka Sen. Pothole, whose day job is lobbying for the Poker Players Alliance to overturn a federal ban on internet gambling. D'Amato is an expert on sleaze.
At some tipping point, this rising tide of sewage could overwhelm the Republican front runner's campaign. If not, we might have a President to make Bill Clinton look like Snow White.
Giuliani's sleight of hand about the hidden tryst fund that had taxpayers underwriting his courtship expenses enhanced his image this week as the guy with a green eyeshade who inspires other poker players to keep cutting the cards and calling for fresh decks.
To explain why hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for his security, presumably to protect against terrorists in beachwear while the Mayor was courting Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, were buried in accounts of obscure city offices, Giuliani fell back on that old reliable, a "political hit job." It was only done to speed up slow payments from the Police Department, he claims.
Kerik, Giuliani's police commissioner now under federal indictment for tax fraud and corruption, backs his former boss and business partner. “There would be no need for anyone to conceal his detail’s travel expenses,” Kerik insists.
But the current and former New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he knows of no problems with the delay of payments before Giuliani was mayor or afterward.
Blogger Big Tent Democrat, a lawyer, points out related charges that the Mayor's then-mistress, according to a former city official, "used the PD as her personal taxi service," the same practice that led former NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi to resign as prosecutors were preparing to indict him for felonies over using state employees to chauffeur his wife.
The New York Times, overflowing with Giuliani's truth abuses, did an omnibus piece yesterday about his penchant for "misleading statistics" to claim accomplishments during his tenure as mayor that are "incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong."
In coming weeks, there will be more Giuliani mud, some of it from Manhattan fire fighters over 9/11, much of it no doubt inspired by Fred Thompson's New York Chairman, Alfonse D'Amato aka Sen. Pothole, whose day job is lobbying for the Poker Players Alliance to overturn a federal ban on internet gambling. D'Amato is an expert on sleaze.
At some tipping point, this rising tide of sewage could overwhelm the Republican front runner's campaign. If not, we might have a President to make Bill Clinton look like Snow White.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Political Head Cases
Gallup reports today that "Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent."
File this under the "Alfred E. Neuman Effect." In his extensive research, Dr. Neuman has discovered a correlation of intellectual curiosity, empathy and compassion with anxiety and depression, resulting in prescription of "What, Me Worry?" medication for afflicted Democrats.
The therapy has worked so well that some patients have not only gone into remission as Independents but achieved total cures and experienced Republican bliss.
For some, however, there have been significant side effects from overdoses--blonde brassiness in women (Ann Coulter Syndrome) and porcine belligerence (Limbaugh Logorrhea)--which have failed to respond to all known treatments.
Researchers at the Rupert Murdoch Institute are studying such cases in hope of discovering a new state of mental health they have tentatively labeled "super-excellent."
File this under the "Alfred E. Neuman Effect." In his extensive research, Dr. Neuman has discovered a correlation of intellectual curiosity, empathy and compassion with anxiety and depression, resulting in prescription of "What, Me Worry?" medication for afflicted Democrats.
The therapy has worked so well that some patients have not only gone into remission as Independents but achieved total cures and experienced Republican bliss.
For some, however, there have been significant side effects from overdoses--blonde brassiness in women (Ann Coulter Syndrome) and porcine belligerence (Limbaugh Logorrhea)--which have failed to respond to all known treatments.
Researchers at the Rupert Murdoch Institute are studying such cases in hope of discovering a new state of mental health they have tentatively labeled "super-excellent."
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