• Tag Archives Politics

  • Iraq A Successful Endeavor. Dick Cheney

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    This is just the first few paragraphs of Hiaasen’s article. He’s the funniest political columnist in the good ol’ USofA.  Click on his name if you want to read the rest.

      

    By CARL HIAASEN

    On the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, President Bush declared that the United States is on the way to winning the war.

    He made this stupefying pronouncement in the safe confines of the Pentagon, where it’s unacceptable to question the commander-in-chief, no matter how dense or self-deluded he might be.

    If Bush had dared to make the same speech in a public town hall, among civilians, the reception would have been chillier. According to almost every opinion poll, about two-thirds of all Americans now stand opposed to the war in Iraq.

    When reminded last week of this statistic, Vice President Dick Cheney responded: “So?”

    Bush sent Cheney to Baghdad to mark the dubious anniversary of their costly, misbegotten adventure. What better way to buoy the spirits of the 160,000 U.S. soldiers who are now stuck in Iraq — a surprise visit by The Man Who’s Never Been Right.

    True to form, the vice president repeated his dark assertion that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had close ties with al Qaeda, a claim discredited and rejected by every U.S. intelligence agency.

    Cheney also described the American effort to bring stability and democracy to Iraq as ”a successful endeavor.” Compared to what — the landing of the Hindenburg?


    📂This entry was posted in Politics 📎and tagged

  • An Agnostic Bush Administration

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    32  bar rises 29.72 4mph WNW windchill 32

           First Quarter Moon of Winds

    On the Daily Show last night Jon Stewart asked Bush’s press secretary du jour, “Why doesn’t the press ask questions about Iraq anymore?  Why don’t we read about it?”  Her answer suggested that things have gotten a lot better since the surge and that was why the war had fallen from the news.

    I don’t think so. 

    There is a legitimate question that asks why the Greatest Protest generation hasn’t been more vocal during this war.  A part of the answer, of course, lies in our lives.  Many of us have worries about saving money for retirement, putting the kids through college and caring for ailing parents.  War doesn’t seem high on the list. 

    An absence of a draft makes this war effort different, too.  Only volunteers in Iraq, so they tend to be folks our educated generation either does not know or chooses not to know.  Complacency and political drift has a place in the void, too.  We no longer march to different drummers, but to elevator music.

    The steady drumbeat of mendacity, torture and rhetorical overreach engaged by the Bush administration explains most of it, I think.  In the sixties we could tell that the administrations heard us.  They didn’t always react the way we wanted, but, like God, they always answered in some way, even if it was to display wrath.  The Bush administration seems to be agnostic when it comes to the will of the people.  Yes, they seem to say, there may be an electorate out there, then again there may not.  In any case, we draw wisdom from our ideology, not from the average American.

    Continuously unanswered prayer can extinguish faith from all but the most Job-like of spirits.  When it becomes evident that no one is listening, we get up off our knees and head to the ballot box, as millions have done this year.


    📂This entry was posted in Politics 📎and tagged

  • OK, So Spitzer Is a Hypocrite and an Unfaithful Husband.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    34  bar falls 29.57  0mph WSW windchill 34

       Waxing Crescent Moon of Winds

    “The World” is a Chinese movie, a recent one about a theme park in Beijing.  “Give us a day and we’ll show you the world.”  It has smaller versions of such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower, Manhattan skyline, Acropolis and St. Peters.  The movie follows Tao, a 20 something dancer, and her off and on boyfriend, Taisheng, through the ups and downs of a love affair.

    This is a slice of life film most interesting to me in its depiction of rural folks who’ve come to the Capital to make a life.  The rural to urban story is a global story, retold time and time again in Bogota, Rio, Paris, Athens, Lagos, Shanghai and Minneapolis.  The tentativeness of relationships, particularly among the young, is also a global story, especially among young, recently emigrated urban folk.

    Not a thrilling movie, but moving.

    OK, so Spitzer is a hypocrite and an unfaithful husband.  And, yes, he drug his wife along to his confession.  The Daily Show did a great piece on that last night, showing several governors with their wives by their side as they confess sexual dalliance.  They could have added evangelical preachers and congressman.  They did include Bill Clinton.

    The implication I don’t find helpful is that because he paid money for sex he was not a good prosecutor.  The guilt or innocence of the persons on Wall Street that he prosecuted are not less or more responsible for their crimes because he’s a schmuck.  The quality of his prosecution does not depend on his sexual fidelity any more than it depends on his perfect health.  

    Someday, America, we’ve got to get over this fascination with sex and public people.  We need pay much greater attention to the policies they pursue and not so much to their bedrooms.  And, yes, I even believe that’s true of Larry Craig, although his mendacity following his arrest has put him in a different category altogether. 


    📂This entry was posted in Cinema and Television Politics 📎and tagged

  • Hillary Needs to Quit

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    31  bar steady  29.86 0mph SSW windchill 31

         Waxing Crescent Moon of Winds

    Hillary Clinton got an e-mail message from me tonight asking her to quit the race.  She can’t win, the mathematics of the upcoming races don’t allow it.  No matter how you feel about her it’s time for her to get out, unify the Democratic party and get going to whip McCain. 

    This does not have to be her only year, nor has her campaign been in vain.  Ever after this year a female candidate for office will be a serious contender if they have the political credentials and more and more women do.  She has proved that women can run presidential campaigns.

    Obama is not so much a better candidate, as an acceptable candidate who has done what the primary process demands, collected votes.  The differences between them are not great and the hair-splitting over who would be better on day one comes down hard beside the point.  The point is, who has convinced the Democratic party faithful that they are the candidate for this race.  Obama. 

    Has he done it in an overwhelming manner?  No.  Praise be to God we have two candidates with good qualifications.  In that case the method of choosing between them is just as it was when we were choosing among them, go to the voters and follow the process.

    In a political campaign the voters decide the outcome, not prior expectations or the hopes of any one constituency.  This primary season has had the most excitement and genuine campaigning I can recall since I became aware of politics at age 5. 


    📂This entry was posted in Politics 📎and tagged

  • Is Integration Always Good?

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    21  bar rises 30.00 1mh WSW windchill 19

        Waning Crescent of the Snow Moon

    Ethnonationalism may seem an antique or xenophobic topic, but this article in Foreign Affairs suggests not. 

    Singapore made me scratch my head about an American article of faith segregation bad, integration good.  Little India, Chinatown, Malaytown, Arab Street and the old English quarters exist alongside each other with little apparent friction.  Apparent is a key word because speaking to Singaporeans I found Malaya’s and Indians who talked about discrimination in the larger community. There’s also the matter of the undercover police that monitor Singaporean’s daily activity.

    White’s and Chinese have long been part of Singapore’s ruling elite so they tend not to have the same concerns.  Even so, I noticed a vibrancy and a sense of cultural identity in the ethnically defined communities that I do not notice in similar communities in the US.  Also, well after midnight, I saw women walking alone through relatively deserted city streets. 

    To expand on experiences from the same trip the Thai people have a wonderful sense of identity and cultural assurance based on their long experience in the same geopolitical region; likewise the Cambodians, though their situation has deep seated corruption and the legacy of the Pol Pot years that complicate their situation.

    I don’t know if all this has any application in the US where our value of  the melting pot has long history behind it.  Even that history though has an ethnonationalistic twist.   The Civil Rights law of 1964 opened immigration to countries outside western Europe, especially to Asians who had been excluded since the days of the Yellow Peril.  Until 1964 our immigration policies favored Anglo-Saxon countries.  Then there was the 3/4’s compromise and the resulting shame of slavery for which we paid in blood and destruction.  

    Part of what made me think about this was recent material I’ve seen advocating separate  classrooms, even schools, for boys and girls.  Are we blind to some truths about human nature, or are we visionaries, a city on the hill, lighting the way for the rest of the world when it comes to a multicutural society?  God, I don’t know, but this article made me think.


    📂This entry was posted in Politics World History 📎and tagged

  • Kama’aina of the Heartland

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    15  bar rises 30.17  2mph WNW windchill9

        Waning Crescent of the Snow Moon

    “People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this, that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it.” – John Jay Chapman

    I would add to Chapman, it often means a taking a bone from a vicious dog and a strong one.  That’s why it’s fun.  And dangerous.

    Just made an attempt to sign up for the Sierra Club’s political committee for this election year.  I want to put my hand back in, but with Taoism as my mentor this time, rather than liberation theology or neo-marxism.  We’ll see what that means if I get selected.

    Slept late today.  Still getting used to the center of the continent. 

    One realization I had while in Hawai’i is that I am kama’aina of the heartland, the center of a large landmass, the actual geographic opposite of island life.  As a child of this land, I relish significant even sudden changes in weather.  The cycle of planting, growth, maturity, harvest and a fallow time is as essential to my Self as it is to the rhythm of life here.  I am, in every sense of the word, an American.  A Midwesterner.   A Northerner.  Each of those geographic identifiers impacts key aspects of my person, my approach to life and my deep values.


    📂This entry was posted in Great Work Our Land and Home Politics Travel 📎and tagged

  • Cisco Kid, Ramar of the Jungle and Sargent Preston of the Yukon

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    22  71%  26%  3mph N bar29.99 falls windchill19 Imbolc

                   Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon

     A late night.  Every time I stay up late watching election returns, as I have tonight, I recall the Stevenson/Eisenhower race.  Dad and I sat up until 3 in the morning watching election returns.  It was a magical time for me.  I got to stay up late; Dad stayed up with me.  We shared an interest in the political realm, even though I was only 5 years old.  You may think that’s odd, but at the age of 6 I proved the point.

    Mr. Gross had picked me up at church to drive me to a meeting with some friends.  As we drove out in the country, he asked me, “Charlie, are you a Democrat or a Republican?”  I said, “Democrat.”  He said, “Well, I don’t allow Democrats to ride in my car.” 

    “Stop the car, Mr. Gross,” I said, “I’ll get out and walk.”     

    We had one of the first televisions in our little Indiana town because Bob Feemster, a Wall Street Journal executive who own the Times-Tribune, the paper my Dad edited, thought the newspaper editor needed to keep up with the new technology.

    Most of the time I found the Cisco Kid, Ramar of the Jungle, Captain Midnight and Sargent Preston of the Yukon much more to my taste, but around elections, I watched right along with Dad.  Very soon after that I became a poll watcher, which meant I stationed myself at one of Alexandria’s precincts and when the vote count finished I called in the results to the paper. 

    Tonight I can’t tell what the numbers mean quite yet, though I did hear an amazing number if it’s true.  Hillary Clinton wins voters making 50,000 and below, while Obama wins with voters making more than 50,000.  If these are accurate numbers, it’s an interesting story and one to ponder.

    This is the best election I can remember, ever.  Issues.  Candidates.  Momentous decisions.  Perhaps a turning point in American history.  I hope.


    📂This entry was posted in Memories Politics 📎and tagged

  • Obama Wins Andover #8

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    25  73%  26%  4mph NW  bar30.04 steady windchill23 Imbolc

                Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon

    Just back from caucus.  A blessedly short event.  Obama won our precinct 58 to 36.  Kate’s PNHP group passed out a sample resolution for universal health care, single payer.  I presented it and it passed.  Though not without some troubling debate.  One young voter said, “Wouldn’t that be a monopoly?  That’s against the constitution and Federal law.”  He had a worried look.  So did I, after that breath taking example of civic ignorance.  A woman said, “It’s been shown that competition makes things better.  The Canadian and British systems don’t provide good care if you have a special case, just for most of the people.”  Well, health care for most of the people would be a hell of an improvement on what we have.  As I left, a man came up, took my hand, and said, “Good job.  Thanks.”  Felt good.

    My political impulses are all contradictory these days.  Don’t know what to make of it. 


    📂This entry was posted in Politics 📎and tagged

  • Castrate Him!

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    26  87%  28%  2mph NE bar 29.88 steady  windchill23 Imbolc

                    Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon

    A good senate race has run under the radar of the Clinton/Edwards/Obama vs. Romney/McCaine/Giuliani primaries.  It’s a shame, too, since the Democrats have a real opportunity to win back a Senate seat.  I was skeptical of Al Franken, but it seems he’s run hard, straight and with serious intent.  I’m gonna support him on Tuesday, along with Barrack Obama.  I read a convincing article in the Nation that portrayed Obama as the only candidate with true left credentials.  Progressive is a weasel word, not least because Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt used it of himself and his movement.

    If you enjoy the numbers and drama of politics, this has been a great year.  Lots of poll data, lots of actual votes and plenty of campaign back and forth without, so far at least, too much mudslinging.  Even a pinch of political junkie in your bloodstream would get you into the fray.

    Wish for snow and voilá, it snows.  Six inches today they say.  Paul Douglas called this one.    

    The perfect week shapes up for me:  up north for four days in a time of snow, home for a night and then off to the Sandwich Islands. 

    Started reading last night in the annals of the Grand Historian, Sima Qin.  He’s a fascinating character. He inherited the task of completing the history of the Chinese people his father, also the Grand Historian, began.  Living in the time of Emperor Wu, a great Han dynasty emperor, he made the Emperor mad.  Apparently, at the time, making Emperor’s mad resulted in castration.  And, the usual response was suicide.

    Sima Qin, however, felt he had a duty to finish his history so he lived for 21 more years, in spite of the indiginity.  His work is readable, at least in translation, and more than that, interesting.  Just ordered his volume on the Qin dynasty.

    Now then, off to Maple Plain for some new shoes and to the coop for bread and cheese.


    📂This entry was posted in Politics World History 📎and tagged

  • The Only Place Our Intelligence Community Looks Good

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    24  81% 23%  omph EEN bar29.94 steady windchill24  Imbolc

               Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon

    Movies move slowly across the 694 pick-up line.  I just watched Breach, the story of the capture of Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI.  It’s well done, written by the young agent hopeful who worked as Hanssen’s assistant and put the last pieces together to bring Hanssen down.  After reading some of Legacy of Ashes, a history of the CIA, it became clear to me the role these movies play in the national psyche.  Playing up the clever strategies and cunning skill of guys like Hanssen puffs up the image of the FBI when they finally corner him; but, consider, he worked 22 years inside the FBI and even headed the Task Force looking for the mole. 

    Legacy of Ashes shows that when it comes to matters of subterfuge, we don’t get it.  The CIA failed at most of its chaotically designed missions, blundering around in the affairs of other nations like a giant child, flailing and hiding behind parking meter posts.  The only place the intelligence community gets to look good is in movies and books.  I don’t know whether the books and movies are intentional propaganda or if the material that gets a greenlight passes a certain screening.  Or, it may be that we need, as a nation, to believe that in the world of the shadows we can play as well as anybody.  Those who’ve looked into it suggest we can’t.  Thought all the way through movies like Breach show the same conclusion.

    Demonstrating the frail line between happiness and horror our neighbor, 55 or so, went to the hospital two weeks ago.  They thought he’d had a stroke.  It would have been a better thing.  He has a demyelinating process at work in patches inside his brain.  A process at the root of M.S. demyelination strips the insulation off nerve fibers and creates electrical storms.  He has some aphasia. It’s not clear how bad the damage is, nor whether it will persist.  He’s at home now, sleeping 44 minutes at a time which keeps his wife and daughter, who just graduated from college, up as he wanders when not asleep.


    📂This entry was posted in Cinema and Television Politics 📎and tagged