Hats off to veterans

Today's post is to recognize five courageous "veterans," men who are admirable because of their steadfastness, genuine natures, and willingness to stand up for principles. My hat is off to Keith Olbermann, Woodward and Bernstein, Bob Scheiffer and the late Glenn Ford.

Olberman commentary lauded- The Washington Note, Steve Clemons' blog, takes a hat off to veteran broadcaster Keith Olbermann for his closing remarks on MSNBC's "Countdown" last night. Olbermann turns out to have a lot more depth than what might be the stereotypical view of a man who also does a radio sports show. (blog contains transcript and a link to the video-worth watching) Quoting Clemons,

Turning historical conventional wisdom on its head, Olbermann compares Rumsfeld to Neville Chamberlain -- another pretender to omniscience-- and by implication really argues that the historical equivalent to Churchill, whom Chamberlin harrassed, is John Murtha.
Here is the text of Olbermann's awe-inspiring, profound commentary tonight -- which I hope helps knock Rumsfeld out of his Pentagon perch:

Watergate's standing - The Washington Post is again featuring the Watergate Story . We should always take off our hats to veteran reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward for their service to the nation during that period in the 1970's. Their brand of investigative journalism, practiced today, would go a long way towards assuring that our nation has a future. Quoting from the intro,

The Watergate investigation brought fame to The Washington Post and the reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Woodward relied upon a secret source, dubbed "Deep Throat," who was revealed in 2005 to be FBI official Mark Felt. The duo unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage that had all the elements of a Hollywood saga. In the end, after 40 government officials were indicted and a president resigned, many would conclude that the system of checks and balances worked. Yet, the triangular relationship between public officials, the media and the public was altered forever.

Missing the old guy - Veteran news anchor Bob Schieffer will be leaving his anchor post at CBS News tonight. Sheiffer's easy-going style renewed our Six o'clock TV daily news watch. He will be sorely missed. I'll give his replacement a try, but I am not optimistic that we will stay with K.C. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram carried this interesting column about Scheiffer's Texas beginnings, from which I quote,

This has been the most unexpected adventure and the best adventure of my life," Schieffer said Wednesday from New York.
When CBS executives asked him to commute from Washington and his Face the Nation show, he thought he'd fill in as anchor for about six weeks.
"I never had any idea I'd be asked," he said. "Certainly no idea I'd be around very long." But CBS' ratings went up.

The picture of courage - Veteran actor Glenn Ford has died, according to Reuters. I came of age in the 1950's. As such I was an incurable movie fan. I collected 8 x 10 black and white "glossies" - free upon request of the studio. And Glenn Ford had his own pages in my scrapbook. I liked him a lot more than John Wayne. He had a depth and quality of vulnerability that made him a winner with a lot of us, both men and women. The BBCNews published an excellent obit, from which I quote,

Ford's great strength lay in staying strong, silent and believable. And in The Blackboard Jungle and Ransom (both 1955), audiences saw a well-meaning young man, facing threatening situations and showing courage under pressure.
These performances were borne out by Ford's life off screen. A captain of the US naval reserve, he saw service in Vietnam, overcame many health problems, and took up hang-gliding at the age of 64.
Aged 76, he married his young nurse, only to divorce her two months later. This, his fourth marriage, he took in his stride.
He once said, "I don't look back. I only think about the next day, the next dinner and the next film."

My hat is off to this group of courageous real men who hang in there when the going gets hard:

• To Olbermann for taking a principled stand against the outrageous behavior of the current administration
• To the Watergate Guys - Woodward and Bernstein - for courageous writing during a very scary time
• To Bob Scheiffer for his courageous authenticity during thick and thin
• To Glenn Ford for being a silver screen hero and a genuine human being in a town where that is hard to do for such a long time

Tags: opinion News politics Olbermann Watergate CBS Glenn Ford

State of the Nation - Part II

Part II: Leadership - Taking Stock

Malady: moral confusion, whose? MSNBC reported on a speech yesterday by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pointing out another malady the Bush administration now declares is besetting our people, "moral, and perhaps even intellectual confusion" ?! Quoting the story,

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq and counterterrorism policies of trying to appease “a new type of fascism.”
In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

Where did this bizarre characterization come from? This concept is certainly not new. And it seems that it was not even an original thought with Rumsfeld. Here is the recent reference:
August 23, 2006
Inside the “Cease-fire”
U.N.’s looming failure reveals West’s moral confusion.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers

In the long term the West loses, for once more it has allowed the jihadists to manipulate our weaknesses to achieve their aims. One has only to look at Western media coverage of the conflict to see how the moral confusion of many Westerners has left us vulnerable to jihadist fanatical certainty.

Blogger docstrangelove disagrees vehemently - offering an excellent dissection of the Rumsfeld/Bush view on moral confusion, skillfully taking it apart, piece by piece. To quote an exerpt (blogger's links),

There you have it: al Qaeda attacks us and we attack Saddam Hussein. It is the superpower equivalent of a toddler’s temper tantrum.
Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush led us into the war in Iraq with images of mushroom clouds in our cities and flowers at our soldiers’ feet as they liberate Iraq. Either they were intellectually and morally confused when they sold us this quagmire or they were lying. Since the invasion, the Administration’s moral confusion has grown by leaps and bounds. After their initial casus belli of WMD fell apart, the Administration trotted out the "freedom is on the march" argument. To this day they claim that invading Iraq was the right thing to do even when the very rationale for the invasion has been so thoroughly discredited.
Mr. Rumsfeld has been morally deficient in his handling of the Iraq invasion. He was
morally obtuse when looting broke out after the invasion due to lack of security (a fundamental moral and legal duty of the occupier); he was morally obtuse when
the abuses took place in Abu Ghraib; he has been morally obtuse as Iraqi civilians are being butchered at alarming rates; he has been morally obtuse while massacres like Haditha and rapes of little girls occur on his watch; and, he has been morally obtuse as he signed death letters of fallen American GIs using an autopen. Mr. Rumsfeld and the boss who continues to employ him have demonstrated ample moral confusion in the past 5 years.

One of my favorites, cscs' post at TPM Cafe puts it in a philosophical nutshell: " torture offers us so much moral clarity." TPM originator, Josh Marshall's post on the subject is very well written, and worth the read.
Another blogger, rationalreview's comment is just as edgy:

[editor's note: Want to talk about "moral confusion," Donald? Fine -- let's talk about referring to the unnecessary deaths, at US hands or as a known consequence of the US invasion of Iraq, of more than 40,000 civilians AT A MINIMUM, as "collateral damage." You're certainly an expert on confusion, but I doubt that you'd recognize morality if it slapped you upside the head - TLK] (08/29/06)

And you can imagine what DailyKos diarists have to say about The Rumsfeld Wisdom. Here are just a few links:

• mmontanaman - "Having studied and taught ethics, this article naturally caught my attention. . . "
• thereisnospoon - "To top it off, apparently Rumsfeld believes that Americans are deeply befuddled about themselves and the world--not only on an rational level, but on a deep-seated moral and personal level"
• kissfan - Open Letter - "You see, I know what threatens our country, Mr. Rumsfeld. It is you and the rest of this administration that insists we "stay the course" in Iraq while we allow our own country to go unprotected and the perpetrators of that horrific event to walk free."
• Hiro - "Rumsfeld calls 70% of the Nation Cowards. . . By that logic, since ~70% of the citizens of the United States disapprove of the way that the Bush Administration has handled the Iraq war, we all "lack courage".

There is nothing more to add to the blogosphere's derision of these most recent foolish remarks of the leadership in the current administration.
Tags: Bush administration news and politics Rumsfeld blogs bloggers commentary TPMCafe DailyKos

State of the Nation - Part I

Part I: Health and Wealth - Taking stock
U.S. citizen health and wealth depends on where you sit. If you are a Katrina survivor, your mental health is more at risk. And the Census Bureau's reported slight rise in median family income is deceptive. And 15.9% of our citizens have no health care insurance, an increase over the previous year. Things are not rosy for all of us.

Mental Health - A new Harvard study found that Katrina survivors have double the rate of serious mental illness than before the storm. But suicidality among them decreased. Reuters reports on the study, from which I quote,

Hurricane Katrina doubled the rate of serious mental illness in areas ravaged by the storm but the urge to commit suicide fell, partly because survivors bonded with each other, a Harvard-led study said on Monday. . . about 200,000 people from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi face serious mental illness because of Katrina, with about a third suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and the remainder depression, said Ronald Kessler, the study's lead researcher.
Nearly 85 percent of the survivors faced a major financial, income, or housing loss, and more than a third endured extreme physical adversity after Katrina struck a year ago and flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the survey showed. Nearly 23 percent encountered extreme psychological adversity. . . Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, said the number of people reporting a desire to kill themselves declined, in part because many survivors had forged stronger ties with loved ones and their community.
"We found an extraordinarily high proportion of our sample who said that despite the understandable sadness with all they lost and the understandable anxieties about the future ... that they felt closer to their loved ones, they felt connected to the community in a way they didn't before," he said.
"They felt much more religious, they felt that they had a purpose in their life and a meaning," he said, noting that 88.5 percent of the survivors in the survey said Katrina had helped them develop a deeper sense of meaning or purpose in life.
"Those are the people where these suicidal tendencies decreased," he said.

Gov't says "Get help" - SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), through a public service campaign, is urging the survivors to seek mental health services.
The U.S. Census Bureau issues a report every year. It came out yesterday. Read it all in the Census Report (pdf-86 pgs), "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005." The New York Times has good coverage of the new census report. It begins,

The nation’s median household income rose slightly faster than inflation last year for the first time in six years, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.
The rise, however, had little to do with bigger paychecks — in fact, both men and women earned less in 2005 than 2004. Rather, census officials said, more family members were taking jobs to make ends meet, and some people made more money from investments and other sources beyond wages.

Uninsured rate up: Census Bureau - The Catholic Health Association, according to Medical News Today, wants more attention on the part of the report that indicates the number of uninsured persons is still on the rise. Quoting from the story,

Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, CHA's president and chief executive officer, noted that "while the annual ritual of fixating on the latest census data prompts a flash of attention or brief debate of the statistics, the exercise can leave many numb to what the data really represents -- women, men, and children, who daily live without accessible and affordable health care. This is intolerable."
While the latest estimate of nearly 47 million uninsured reflects an increase to 15.9
percent of the population, there are several discouraging factors found in the Census Bureau report. Despite ongoing initiatives to enroll children in the SCHIP program, 8.3 million (11.2 percent) of children continue to be uninsured. And a review of the Census figures shows a continuing decline in employer-sponsored coverage.

In "The State of the Nation - Part II," I will examine another malady, the state of our Nation's leadership.
Tags: Bush Hurricane Katrina current affairs health and wellness News politics census
My current "creative post" at Southwest Blogger is about precious stones.

The Armitage mystery

On which side of the fence do you come down in the Plame leak story? Do you think that there was a plot within the Bush administration to discredit Joe Wilson to bolster justification for the invasion of Iraq? Or do you think that it was a royal screw-up by the village gossip? Or do you have a different take on that entire leak scandal? Recent revelations may make it possible to move on from the whole question.

Richard Armitage is probably the source of the leak that "outed" CIA covert operative, Valerie Plame/
Valerie Wilson. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff appeared with Nora O'Donnell on MSNBC's 8/28/06 program, "Hardball." During the interview Isikoff described how Robert Novack got the information leading to his column that revealed Plame's identity. Quoting from the Newsweek story,

After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."

What made Richard Armitage make this damaging revelation? Why would this man, never a loyal Bush administration mouthpiece, tell Novak - and later Bob Woodward - about Joe Wilson's wife working for the CIA? Was his motivation nefarious? Or was it just a stupid mistake?
The blogosphere has been buzzing with opinion about this question. Here's a hat tip to TPM reader, DK for this link to "Needlenose" at Swopa, who wrote a very rich post titled, "The trapping of the accidental leaker." The post is just filled with quotes and links that provide many possible clues. To quote,

So what possible wrinkles are there? I'd start with the odd claim that Armitage didn't realize his apparently crucial role until reading Novak's October 1, 2003 column.

Many of us have been attributing malevolent motivations to all those people in the current administration who caused this major scandal. Washington Post writer, R. Jeffrey Smith's 8/29/06 story, lays out the motivation dilemma. To quote,

Armitage's involvement in the matter does not fit neatly into the assertions of Bush administration critics that Plame's employment was disclosed as part of a White House conspiracy to besmirch Wilson by suggesting his Niger trip stemmed from nepotism at the CIA. Wilson and Plame have sued top administration officials, alleging that the leak was meant as retaliation.
But Armitage, the source Novak had described obliquely as someone who is "not a political gunslinger," was by all accounts hardly a tool of White House political operatives. As the No. 2 official at the State Department from March 2001 to February 2005, Armitage was a prominent Republican appointee. But he also
privately disagreed with the tone and style of White House policymaking on Iraq
and other matters.
"Just because Armitage did this on his own, earlier, doesn't mean that there wasn't a White House conspiracy to 'out' Valerie [Plame] Wilson. We don't think it affects the case," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group pressing the lawsuit.

Where you come down may depend on your politics. Slate Magazine's Sonia Smith rounds up a number of references to major blogs with their wide-ranging "takes" on the Armitage story.

Liberals are still suspicious, and some doubt Armitage was the only leaker. . .
Many on the right believe that Armitage was Novak's original source.

Here is where I come down on the question. I believe that Richard Armitage is a fallible human being who opened his mouth to two very ambitious and exploitive columnists. Novak, unfortunately gave the information to Karl Rove, the one person in the administration who would make the worst use of it. Armitage would not have had it that way for anything, in my opinion.
The other big piece of this is not an original thought with me. (I think the question came up on "Hardball," but I am not sure). Anyway, it regards why it is that Colin Powell did not tell the president who the leaker was after he found out, if that is the case. The consequence of that ommision eventually produced the entire Patrick Fitzgerald investigation, out of which came the indictment of Libby, as well as all the trouble for the rest of these nefarious Bush administration characters.
Tags: Bush Blogs current affairs News News and politics Richard Armitage Plame
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about "royal rocks."

About what IS in New Orleans

Today's pace of living can be daunting for busy people. So much happens that we are not fully able to integrate all of it into our minds. But now we are all trying to integrate Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Sometimes the thought flashes, "I'll just have to think about that later." And that mental processing may or may not actually happen. Like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, I say, "I'll think about that tomorrow." This idea came to me after blogger - with whom I sometimes exchange comments and e-mails - wrote,

"I'm settling into life after jet-lag, I hope to find the time &
mental space for post-trip processing. :-)"

Feeling mentally overwhelmed happens to me during those times when lots of changes are happening. Adjusting to change, whether positive or negative, is stressful. That is because change requires me to think in a new way. The changed realities of my own life must be integrated into my mind, along with changes in the reality of the world.
It applies to the daily news, because I am a "news junkie." I may not be directly affected by a news story, but it does affect the way I think about what IS. I am a curious analytical soul. I have always needed explanations for what it is that makes things are the way they are. I must have plagued my mom with "why's."
The perfect blogger motivation is speculating about or analyzing the news. As I write, I integrate these significant happenings into my mind. I understand. I now know why. And I could be totally wrong. (The anniversary of . . . ) initiates more mental processing and integrating realities. And the months of August and September kick me into thinking about 9/11/01 and 8/29/05.
Post-Katrina anniversary processing is my current preoccupation. The reality I see is perhaps obvious:

• New Orleans will never be the same city again as before 8/29/05. And the federal government does not intend for it to be further protected or rebuilt, despite all the rhetoric. What was, is now history.
• Local, state and federal will and capacity to help victims of flooding remains inadequate. Far too many corporations are profiting from Katrina's misery. It is still not safe to live anywhere below sea or lake level in New Orleans.
• Thousands who had homes in New Orleans will never be at home there again. Some evacuees will learn to feel at home somewhere else, some will always feel homesick for New Orleans. A different culture will emerge there.
• The nation is still plagued by racism and class distinction. America is more polarized now than in many years. And those in charge do not care that this is the way it is.

Resources:

1. National Public Radio programs: Morning Edition
2. Center for Public Integrity "Katrina Watch"

Tags: New Orleans Hurricane Katrina News and Opinion Bush politics

Uncertain future for NOLA

NOLA is not a close friend of mine; she is more like an acquaintance. Since we are neighbors, we have visited back and forth. We have traveled there, and many New Orleans residents have traveled here. Many have decided to live here permanently.
New Orleans holds very fond memories for me. We flew in there in the 1970's for a sales meeting. My job was to produce color 8x10 photos of the top salesmen. My backdrop was a lush courtyard outside of our French Quarter hotel. The shots turned out later to be hits with the winners and with their wives, too.
That night we all strolled down Bourbon Street,just as millions of other tourists have before and since. And we heard the familiar sounds of gut-bucket jazz coming through open doors, caught glimpses of skinny young women dancing on the bars, smelled the earthy and distinctive creole food, and watched others like ourselves going in the opposite direction. If I have nostalgia for those memories, just think how very bittersweet these descriptions are with readers who are intimate friends with NOLA.
She is still at risk. Yahoo!News reports that,

Despite aggressive efforts to repair the New Orleans levee system following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, it isn't clear yet whether it could withstand a sizable hurricane this year, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers conceded Saturday.

The New Orleans levees may not hold, according to a similar CBS News article. To quote,

As Gulf Coast residents are marking the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, they were hit with the news that Tropical Storm Ernesto is headed toward the Gulf of Mexico and could become the first hurricane of the 2006 season. Then New Orleans residents were told Saturday that the partially repaired levee system may not hold up in a strong storm. . .
Just a few miles south of New Orleans, St. Bernard parish took a direct hit from Katrina. One year later, few of houses are habitable, and as many as 14,000 people are still in government trailers — trailers that won't withstand any real wind.
"It would be almost a death sentence if they decide to stay in those locations with the approach of a Category 2 or 3 storm," Jack Stephens, St. Bernard parish's sheriff told Bowers.
Despite aggressive efforts to repair the system following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers conceded Saturday that it isn't clear yet whether it could withstand a hurricane with a heavy storm surge this year.

New Orleans stands at a cross roads now. It seems it could go either way for this unique city. The New York Times has a very good story about this written by Adam Nossiter. The author has done a very thorough piece of investigative journalism about what may be in NOLA's future. To quote,

At one edge of this city’s future are the extravagant visions of its boosters. Awash in federal cash, the New Orleans they dream of will be an arts-infused mecca for youthful risk-takers, a boomtown where entrepreneurs can repair to cool French Quarter bars in ancient buildings after a hard day of deal making.

At the other extreme are the gloomy predictions of the pessimists. New Orleans will be Detroit, they say, a sickly urban wasteland abandoned by the middle class. A moldering core will be surrounded by miles of vacant houses, with wide-open neighborhoods roamed by drug dealers and other criminals. The new New Orleans will be merely a grim amplification of its present unpromising self, the pessimists say.

Tags: NOLA New Orleans News politics

Keeping blogging balanced

The successful blog post, in my opinion, is a good balance of:

• what you think/feel about a subject or idea
• what someone else has to say about that or a similar subject
• readable content that is current and/or pertinent
• visually interesting style and content
• correct length for the subject

How much should be original? Your insight about something that is happening, or has happened is interesting to you. Your intellect, cleverness, humor or passion shows through. You write in an authentic and genuine way.
How much material from another source should be included? It is a balancing act to include enough to buttress your point, but not too much to "wade through." Respect for intellectual property demands a proper link, citation of source and a quote that is not much more than three paragraphs or so. It is helpful to include the date of it, the author, the publication and key words.
A balanced blog entry is one that hangs together in both form and substance. The very best ones show the author's commitment to the subject; they ring true to us.

Tags: blogs blogging commentary journalism writing opinion
My current "creative post" at Southwest Blogger is about a sandwich.

Let's be Friends Again

The current administration wants Europe to be our friend. Ironic, isn't it? In fact, we NEED these countries across the Big Pond to do some very important things for us, that we cannot do ourselves.

• On Lebanon: The U.S. has looked to our longtime European friends once again, after a go-it-alone period in the Middle East that went on far too long. Jose Manuel Barroso talks about diplomacy:

  As European Union Foreign Ministers gather in Brussels on Friday, it is important to recall that the EU has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to bring an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and is playing a key role in support of the rapid implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

• From France will come 2,000 peace keepers to be deployed to Lebanon. Remember that is the same France whose fries were "black-balled" by the administration not very long ago.

  French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France would commit 2,000 troops to a new international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The decision breaks a stalemate that has held up the dispatch of soldiers seen by diplomats as crucial to maintaining the 11-day-old cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
  Chirac's announcement in a nationally televised address followed days of intense negotiations with the United Nations, Lebanon and Israel over European concerns that the force would have no clear mandate and inadequate rights to open fire in defense of itself or civilians.

• In Iraq: British Soldiers are still fighting in southern Iraq. They are now using a tried-and-true battle tactic from World War II. The Brits have really hung in there, despite all they have had to put up with from the Bush administration. To quote this Reuters story,

  British troops abandoned their base in Iraq's southern Maysan province on Thursday, which has been under almost nightly attack, and prepared to head deep into the marshlands along the Iranian border to hunt gun smugglers. Soldiers of the Queen's Royal Hussars are to adopt tactics first pioneered by the famed Long Range Desert Group, a roving special forces unit that fought Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps in North Africa during World War Two.
  The 600 combat troops are giving up their Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles in favour of stripped-down Landrovers armed with machineguns. The units will remain constantly on the move and be resupplied by air drops.

• Re re Guantanamo - The U.S. requested that Germany take over a detainee released from Guantanamo, but he was completely freed instead. Germany is providing what we should have provided long ago for this detainee, freedom. According to a WaPo story,

  A German native who was imprisoned by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was released Thursday, more than 18 months after a federal judge in Washington ruled there was insufficient evidence to detain him.
  Murat Kurnaz, 24, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany, was flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and reunited with his mother, Rabiye Kurnaz, after spending more than four years as a prisoner at Guantanamo, according to his lawyers. . . .
  Although Kurnaz grew up in Germany and was a legal resident here at the time of his capture, the German government at first declined to intercede in his behalf, saying he was not entitled to its help because he was not a citizen. But Germany changed its position last year and Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the case in meetings with President Bush, which led to a diplomatic agreement to release Kurnaz, German officials said.
  Kurnaz's lawyers said U.S. officials had asked Germany to place Kurnaz under surveillance and open a criminal investigation of him as a condition of his release, but relented in the end. "There will be no criminal charges, no criminal investigation," said Azmy, the defense counsel. "He's a completely free man."

It is a good thing that we go back a long way with these old friends, and that they care enough about America to forgive our short-sightedness.
Tags: Europe Bush News news and politics Lebanon

My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about a sandwich.

Political predictions

This election map of 2000 is one I am trying to scrub from my mind. It makes me very anxious. I am hoping against hope that the "reds" will diminish this year, and that we will get some new national and state political leaders for 2007-08.

What will need to happen - is obvious. Local political organizations will need to recruit foot soldiers for the cause; as the cliche goes - all politics is local. Efforts need to continue in the battle for fair and documented electronic voting. The blogosphere needs to continue fund raising and issue clarification. The mainstream media will need to do their homework, questioning assertions of candidates, investigating claims, etc. And every voter needs to get to the polls, and maybe take someone who needs a ride. We will need a good turnout by Democrats and Independents for change to happen.

What will the MidTerm map of 2006 look like? I am cautiously optimistic, but prepared to be terribly disappointed. What are others thinking? Using Dogpile Search - with the term "political predictions," I found some interesting websites. They might be useful to you, too:

• CountEveryVote's "Most Accurate Political Predictions On The 2006 Elections Resources"
• Sabato's Crystal Ball -
  A comprehensive Web site run by the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball features analyses of presidential elections, Senate, House and gubernatorial races.
• Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice -
  See our post below. National Review Online has some political predictions HERE. They're not as much fun as the psychic ones but that's the way it goes. A few of the (more serious) ones we found interesting (all of these are copied verbatim and we're giving you the name of the person who predicted it):
• Geraghty on Political Predictions -
  Jim Geraghty discusses the game of poltical prognostication and the track record of Congressional Quarterly.
• Mark Abramson's Political Predictions - (site includes a list of links to "other good sources")
  The purpose of this page is to document my predictions for the outcome of United States elections, specifically for President, Senate, House of Representatives, and governorships. My predictions are based on a variety of sources, including polls, news sources, past election history, and gut instinct. I am an AMATEUR, and my goal is to out-predict the nonpartisan professional experts. Here are the rules:
  1. I only do general elections, not primaries.
  2. I make a prediction for every race, even if it is considered a complete toss-up.
  3. To save space, only seats I predict will change parties are listed. All others
  assume no change.
  4. I reserve the right to change my predictions up until voting begins.
  5. This is a HOBBY. I do not pay any money to subscribe to professional magazines, internet sites, etc.

Tags: Bush Current Affairs Links News News and Politics Politics elections Democrat

Dateline Iraq - August 2006

(photo by lowyota @ StockXCHNG)
U.S troops still fight in Iraq. And the region remains a very dangerous place. Iraq, for me will always be one of those on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand stories. For ambivalent citizens of both the United States and Iraq there are no easy answers. The war has become a political issue for both groups. And public opinion remains divided about terrorism and how to fight the war. Armed forces of both countries are stretched to the maximum. My post today is a mixture of bad news and good. It concludes with the good news that it can become easier to understand why things are the way they are in the region. Come to know Vali Nasr**.
Some Marines face "involuntary recall" says this story from Yahoo! News. And the recall for most will surely be involuntary. Many of them probably had no idea the bad news could come to this. To quote from the story,

The U.S. Marine Corps will start ordering what could be thousands of inactive service members to return to duty in the coming months to counter a steady decline in the number of such troops who volunteer, the service said on Tuesday.

Catch up on Iraq with this excellent Iraq status overview article from Yahoo! News. There may be room for a bit of cautions optimism about a drop in violence in Baghdad. Time will tell the full story. Quoting from the current piece,

Violence in Baghdad has declined in the past two weeks and all but ended in some formerly deadly neighborhoods, the U.S. military said in a cautiously upbeat report on Tuesday on a major security clampdown in the city.

An American public opinion poll, reported in the New York Times, reveals a positive change in people's attitudes about terrorism and the Middle East. After far too long, Americans are coming to believe what has been true all along about the war news. The Iraq war originally had nothing to do with terrorism. Now it does, of course, but only as a consequence of the U.S. invasion. Obviously it is good news that people are learning the truth; the bad news is that it took so long. To quote from the current article,

Americans increasingly see the war in Iraq as distinct from the fight against terrorism, and nearly half believe President Bush has focused too much on Iraq to the exclusion of other threats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed saw no link between the war in Iraq and the broader antiterror effort, a jump of 10 percentage points since June. That increase comes despite the regular insistence of Mr. Bush and Congressional Republicans that the two are intertwined and should be seen as complementary elements of a strategy to prevent domestic terrorism.

Iraqi public opinion polls show an interesting mix of good-news/bad-news trends that are changing over time. The descent towards civil war may be sinking in on the Iraqis. They may realize that their nation's future cannot be assured if they remain so divided along sectarian lines. This news was reported in this fairly recent (8/17/06) article from US News and World Report.

The unrelenting violence and chaos of Iraq have taken their toll on the people there, according to a new study of Iraqi public opinion. The study, based on two surveys of over 2,300 Iraqis in 2004 and 2006, found increased feelings of powerlessness, insecurity, xenophobia, and pessimism, along with a striking level of distrust of U.S. intentions. At the same time, the surveys found a surprising rise in support for secular politics and nationalism, even as sectarian militias may be pulling the country toward all-out civil war. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the project was done by Profs. Mansoor Moaddel of Eastern Michigan University and Ronald Inglehart and Mark Tessler of the University of Michigan. . .
One bright spot in the research: Iraqi attitudes appear to be veering away from support for a religious regime and toward support for secular politics and nationalism -- despite the lack of secular politicians and the growth of sectarian violence. Those agreeing it was "very good to have an Islamic government where religious leaders have absolute power" declined from 30 percent to 22 percent, with a major falloff in support from Sunnis (from 20 percent to 6 percent), who fear the majority Shiites will impose an Iran-like theocracy on Iraq. Even the Shiites showed a drop in support, to only about a third of those surveyed (from 39 percent to 34 percent).

Iran's power grows month by month. And the United States cannot continue forever to refuse to talk to that government. Aaccording to this story from Reuters,

Iran's standing in the Middle East has been bolstered by President George W Bush's "war on terror" and its power will continue to grow unless stability is restored to its neighbors, a top think tank said on Tuesday.
London's Royal Institute for International Affairs said wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and with Lebanon's Hizbollah had put Iran "in a position of considerable strength."
"There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East," the RIIA said in a report on the region.

**Good Reference: Mid-east politics "101" - I recommend that you become acquainted with the outstanding work of Iranian-born, Dr. Vali Nasr, Naval Postgraduate School National Security Professor. The good news is that it is possible to come to a better understanding of these very complex issues. I have discovered someone who, for the first time for me, helped me to understand much more deeply what is behind the volatility in the region. Dr. Nasr's prominent family of origin escaped Iran (he was in high school), just before the fall of the Shah. His father was a professor and chief of staff for the Shah's wife. Here are some ways to learn more from this very rich info resource:

• Council on Foreign Relations published a ground-breaking Nasr article, "When the Shiites Rise," published in July/August Foreign Affairs. Summary -

"By toppling Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration has liberated and empowered Iraq's Shiite majority and has helped launch a broad Shiite revival that will upset the sectarian balance in Iraq and the Middle East for years to come. This development is rattling some Sunni Arab governments, but for Washington, it could be a chance to build bridges with the region's Shiites, especially in Iran."

• Nasr'sArticle (18 pg. pdf): "Regional Implications of Shia Revival in Iraq".
• **C-SPAN VIDEO: "Washington Journal" 8/14/06 interview exploring the background and history of the Middle-east region. Dr. Nasr is probably the best expert I have ever heard on Islam, including the differences between Shia and Sunni.
• Most recent publication: "The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future" (Hardcover) by Vali Nasr.
• Dogpile search "ValiNasr".

Tags: Bush Iran Iraq security terrorism war current affairs News News and politics Middle East
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about NOLA and Hurricane Katrina.

The Big Easy Today

First anniversary of Hurricane Katrina brings lots of television attention to New Orleans. Probably the best news is that C-SPAN is in New Orleans Monday and Tuesday - with wonderful coverage. Visit their website for a wide range of information resources. Take the time to watch the coverage on today's "Washington Journal," starting at 7:00 A.M. (est) or "Lessons "Learned from Hurricane Katrina" at 1:00 P.M. (est).

Photo left is of Chalmette, Louisiana - September 2005.
Under the heading of GOOD JOB DONE DURING RECOVERY:

• nola.com - website of The New Orleans Times-Picayune
• Louisiana United Disaster Response Ministry - website of a group that enables church volunteers from all over the world to help residents start to rebuild their home. The Rev. Darryl Allen Tate appeared on C-SPAN Monday.
• NOPD - Assistant Superintendent Warren Riley seems to have done a good job of trying to turn around the NOPD from its disastrous performance record at the time of Katrina.
• Metro Hurricane Katrina - the Brookings Institution study of related issues
• NOAA images of Hurricane Katrina - lots of richly detailed satellite images of the Gulf coast. These are in the public domain, but credit National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Under the heading of INTERESTING WEBSITES:

• neworleans.com - opens with a neat little video of sights and sounds of New Orleans, a rich website with 4 staff listed, in existence since 1995.
• New Orleans Calendar - lots of hotlinks to scheduled events details
• New Orleans Wiki -volunteer maintained collection of articles about NOLA and info about the Rising Tide Conference

Under the heading of a POOR JOB DONE DURING RECOVERY:

• City of New Orleans - an excellent and very modern website that does not reflect the poor job done by the city administration.
• State of Louisiana - official website of LA., the entity most responsible for administering Federal aid to New Orleans. Bureaucracy at its worst.
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - near the bottom of the list. It was their levees that failed and let the city drown.
• FEMA.gov - at the bottom of the list, with big grade of "F."

Tags: NOLA New Orleans Hurricane Katrina FEMA Gulf Coast recovery government
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is a short essay about New Orleans.

Freedom from fear

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." --Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR's First Inaugural address is linked to the title of this post) The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has an exhibit that could be an inspiration for courage in our scary times. Former President Roosevelt had a way of leading that is lost today. I was born in 1937, so I can remember how it was to grow up a child of the Great Depression living through World War II.

President Roosevelt inspired old fashioned patriotism. See this link to "Powers of Persuasion," a 1994-1995 poster exhibit at the National Archives. I am old enough to remember Norman Rockwell's inspiring series of illustrations, "The Four Freedoms." These posters came out in 1943. Rockwell had been inspired by another of President Roosevelt's speeches, his January 6, 1941 message to Congress. FDR truly had the capacity to assist the whole United States citizenry to be brave in the face of danger. I clearly remember how much the Saturday Evening Post coming in the rural mail meant to our family. These"Four Freedoms" illustrations graced several covers in 1943.

How do people in the 21st century deal with their fears? This essay in the WaPo, written just before the 2004 election is a great read. It explores, with more insight than many of us can muster, the questions with which we still fearfully struggle. It begins,

Fear Itself
Learning to live in the age of terrorismBy Gene Weingarten
Sunday, August 22, 2004; washingtonpost.com. Page W18
"The meaning of life is that it ends." -- Franz Kafka
YOU ARE NOT AFRAID OF TERRORISM, REALLY. You have weighed the facts and have concluded, rationally, that even if terrorists strike again in this country, the chances are negligible that you or anyone you know will be killed or injured. You feel
no special tension when you place your seat tray in the upright position. You are old enough to have lived through other supposedly apocalyptic times, or you've surely heard about them -- most famously, the silly spectacle of 1950s-era schoolkids giggling under their desks in anticipation of The Big One.
The recent warnings about terrorism during the election campaign have ratcheted up your concerns a little, but so what? You are going on with your life not as an act of defiance so much as a celebration of rationality. You will be fine.
So here's a question: Would you ride a bus in Jerusalem? Right now? Here's your 5 1/2 shekels, go take a bus to market, buy some figs. Pick a bad day, after the Israelis have assassinated some terrorist leaders and everyone is waiting for the second sandal to drop. There are lots of buses in Jerusalem -- the odds are still long in your favor. Do you take that dare?
A few weeks ago, I did just that: boarded a bus on just such a day, and rode for nearly an hour. I did it because I wanted to better understand the psychology of terror. Not the psychology of the terrorist -- the psychology of the terrorized.

FEAR MONGERING is the opposite of inspiring courage: "spreading discreditable, misrepresentative information designed to induce fear and apprehension." This definition applied to the subject of childhood vaccination. But I believe it can also be applied to certain national security pronouncements coming from the current administration.

Think terrorism - Think Progress (10/06/05) provided a more specific example of how the fear talk came out in the Bush administration last year: ("When all else fails, start fear mongering. Some excerpts from President Bush’s speech today":) This article can be very helpful in understanding the process itself as it is happening right now. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc.
Standing in the face of Republican rhetoric - firedoglake's Christy Hardin Smith fiercely posted (8/12/06) on the antidote to fear mongering. I quote her most pungent paragraphs:

For the record, of course I’m worried about my safety and that of my family. Of course we need to take all necessary precautions, support good police investigative work, recruit more human intel capability both here in the US and abroad, take whatever steps are necessary to shore up our homeland security (really shore it up, not just put a bandaid on a huge gaping hole and declare a PR victory)…you know, get our hands dirty and do some real work on the issues at hand. All of us — every single person in this nation of ours, pulling together.
But I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to let Osama Bin Laden dictate how I live my life.
And I would appreciate it if the President of the United States would have the guts to do the same. If you need me, I’ll be living my life exactly like I did before…with a selected finger for the terrorists, and another for all those pantywaists who cower in the corner when they say boo.

Where on earth are we headed? DailyKos' Diarist, "Plutonium Page," reports on a number of recent air travel stories coming out of the current climate of fear. It opens and closes with these two paragraphs (diarist's links):

Sun Aug 20, 2006 at 02:42:47 PM CDT
Dick Cheney and the rest of the fearmongers would be truly proud of the brave folks who spotted some "suspicious looking" people and diverted a flight, all by themselves! Wow! . . .
How many more such stories are we going to hear?
Oh yes, remember to vote Republican, because otherwise, the terrorists will win!!

What can we do about it - thenation "Fear Itself," by physician Dr. Marc Siegel, is an article with the psychological exploration of the problem. The author has provided some wise words, from which I quote a little sample:

We need to be re-educated as a prerequisite to healing fear. We tend to overpersonalize much of the information we receive. To correct this tendency, we
need a new sense of proportion. . . .
Realizing that we have been conned into being afraid is the first step toward learning a new set of skills to assess risk. Fear must be reserved for real danger. Each step away from false worry is a step toward true health.

I will not live my life in fear. I will not be terrorized, by terrorist actions nor the actions and rhetoric of my own government.
Tags: Bush politics terrorism FDR security
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about animals.

Journalists, Scholars & Lawyers vs. OCP

ush Stands By Wiretap Program
'Strongly Disagrees' With Judge's Ruling Against Warrantless Wiretaps"

He would, of course! So why are we not surprised by the reaction of OCP (OurCurrentPresident) ? His quote,

"I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the
nature of the world in which we live. I strongly disagree with this decision."

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, in Detroit made this historic ruling. This CBS News story tells it all.

We have no idea about what will eventually come of this. Will journalists, scholars and lawyers prevail over an imperial president?
Here is my speculation. I do not believe the government's appeal will go all the way to the Supreme Court, which I believe would go against the administration.
Senator Spector's bill - to allow a FISA court to pass (affirmativelyI am almost sure) on the constitutionality of the NSA domestic surveillance program - will be passed by Congress and signed by the president.
Case closed. Thus the program will continue, almost unchanged. It will still be warrentless, and merely sanctioned by some court.

Please let us know what you think with comments.
Tags: Bush security Terrorism News and politics thoughts jurisprudence

My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about ANIMALS.

Why not talk about the news?

It is tempting to jump on the news bandwagon. But many of us are a little fed up with what passes for news these past few days:

• I have no stomach for looking into the shifty eyes of the self-confessed perpetrator who hid out in the Far East.
• I know Senator Lieberman made a lot of folks mad - and why. I don't want to hear another Republican slyly endorse him.
• I will not become more afraid for my safety as a result of another fear-mongering Presidential proclamation about plots.
• Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera . . .

Here are the real headlines:

• British break up terrorist plot and with it, the U.S. mid term elections
• The Alaska pipelines have not been regularly inspected - drilling will begin off every coastline
• Global warming - not climate change - turns trees to tinder
• More people now in poverty - Thank goodness welfare reform did not stop welfare
• U.S. soldiers found in the line of fire in Iraq civil war
• Meet Lebanon - the newest broken country
• Airline passengers adjusting to a new normal - FAA underfunded and ill-equipped
• Domestic spying found illegal

Feel free to add your own as comments.

Tags: news media In the news commentary

Bloggers nix bureaucracy

The most successful independent bloggers are an independent lot, definitely thinking for themselves. If you are a progressive, think about who you read regularly among the "big blogs," and why you read their blogs. Do you admire their independent entrepeneurial streak?
I am a Little Blogger, no less independent, which accounts for my prolonged absence from posting to S/SW. I have been occupied with development of another site using the new "Beta.blogger." Fun, fun!
What many independent bloggers are trying to escape is bureaucracy. My last post discussed briefly how bureaucracy could be a positive force for good. Aas an antidote to OCP's devotion to the Unitary Presidency theory, professionals in the bureaucracy serve as potential checks on Mr. Bush's executive power.
Mainstream Media gients are not bureaucracies serving the public interest, in my opinion. These large corporate owners of news media may a negative force, their bureaucracies not serving a free press well at all. Of the checks and balances built into our constitution, an independent press is one of the most crucial checks on bad government. Thus how bureaucracies are positive or negative all depends on whether they operate in the public interest.
This writer broke away from his MSM job. His story is one of courage, ingenuity and a great sense of community. PressThink's Jay Rosen featured the story by reporter turned writer, Paul Bass. This is Rosen's heading for Bass' post to PressThink:

Liberation! Guest Writer Paul Bass on Creating the New Haven Independent
Bass was a reporter in New Haven for 25 years. He took a break to write a book and
found he couldn't go back to corporate journalism. Inspired by Baristanet, he decided to start a news site in his own town. But with a mortage and two kids, he couldn't just wing it. Key decision: go non-profit.

How do independent bloggers feed themselves? I am retired; few bloggers support tmenselves with their blogging. But some independent bloggers have found financing, diende reports. Quoting from the post,

Here is an interesting article looking at how some independent bloggers are
getting financing by technology and media investors.

Another way to be compensated - Wired news discussed the hiring and credentialing of independent bloggers associated with the Democratic Convention in 2004. To quote,

12:53 PM Jul, 10, 2004
NEW YORK -- More than 30 independent Web journalists have been accredited to cover the Democratic convention, and the Republicans said Friday they'll also credential so-called bloggers.
It's the first time bloggers will be joining the thousands of newspaper, magazine and broadcast journalists at the quadrennial presidential-nomination events.

And many, many independent spirited bloggers, working in bureaucracies blog to keep themselves sane. It's the American way - yankee ingenuity become community.

Reference: Search terms used with Dogpile search engine: "independent bloggers" "mainstream media bloggers"

Tags: blogs blogers blogging bureaucracy independence corporate media MSM

To Be or Not To Be - On Bureaucracy

Has the traditional Federal Bureaucracy moribund, replaced by a Feudal State? It is a very good possibility, because things do not seem to work the way they used to in Washington, D.C. The theory of the Unitary Executive has been put into place, but it is being played out in a more primitive/feudal way.

The rule of law for the Executive has been replaced by edict. The unpopular son in a long line of feudal family members, is behind the moat with the drawbridge up, and the army is out in the hinterlands. We might hope for the return of our stale and cumbersome federal bureaucracy. By comparison it looks like a good thing.

What is a bureaucracy? by Claude Lefort, at Generation-online.org, gives an explanation of the theory of bureaucracies originated by Max Weber:

The Bureaucracy as a Type of Organisation
. . . the multiplicity of bureaucracies in modern society and draws attention to their common function and similarity. Here Max Weber is the starting point. He lists certain traits he considers typical of modern bureaucracies: (1) The duties of functionaries are officially fixed by laws, rules, or administrative dispositions; (2) The functions are hierarchical and integrated into a system of command such that at all levels lower authorities are controlled by higher authorities; (3) administrative activity is spelled out in written documents; (4) These functions require a professional apprenticeship; (5) The work of functionaries demands complete devotion to the office; (6) Access to the profession is at the same time access to a particular technology, jurisprudence, commercial science, administrative science, etc.

Americans live with an illusion of bureaucracy. And in many ways, much bureaucracy remains. But it does not make the crucial decisions now affecting the health of our democracy. The Republican Executive branch runs the government. The reality is:

1. It has no real power if laws and rules can be subverted, ignored or supplanted by executive order.
2. The system is certainly heirarchical, but command is very weak and centralized.
3. Written documents, supposedly tracing the activities of the executive are often classified or tardy or unavailable. For example, presidental papers of certain former presidents are no longer available).
4. No apprenticeship is required to head an agency, "Brownie" at FEMA, for example, had been in the horse business. And our Commander in Chief never fought with the military.
5. Functionaries may or may not be completely devoted to the office. Some of the good ones, fortunately, became leakers or whistle-blowers.
6. The influence of career bureaucrats, people who new the business has been diminished in the face of political appointees, loyal to the feudal heirarchy of which they have long been a part.

The site, grazian archive, explains political organizations with a section on the

DEGREE OF CENTRALIZATION
A third system classifies governments as federal (or feudal) or unitary according to their degree of centralization. Federal and feudal states divide up the power of making important decisions among local and central authorities. A "confederation" generally refers to a weak federation in which the central authority has few powers. Unitary states, by contrast, give the right of decision on all important political matters to the national government. Such power may or may not be delegated to local authorities. If it is delegated, then the state is called a decentralized rather than a centralized unitary state. In the early nineteenth century, England exemplified the first, France the second.

An empire is harder to classify. Its central government holds sovereignty and power over countries of dissimilar nationality or culture. Generally, since all important decisions tend to be made by the imperial government, the empire has a unitary character; but many important cultural and social events and customs are determined by the colonies, which have, therefore, a considerable amount of decentralized autonomy. Indeed, certain components of the so-called British Empire are quite in a position .to make very important political decisions by themselves; Canada and the other Dominions of the British Commonwealth of Nations are really independent affiliated nations nowadays. But other possessions of the British Empire are ruled directly by the central government in England as colonies, protectorates, or military bases.

Which form of government has been launched by the Bush administration? To me it feels more feudal than imperial. But I do not know for sure. What do you think?

References:

1. Dogpile search phrases: "basic elements of bureaucracy," "elements of stale bureaucracy," and "bureaucracy and feudal state"
2. From C-SPAN - Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire from July 22, 2006 . In "Dark Ages America" author Morris Berman compares what is happening in America today to the fall of the Roman Empire. Mr. Berman argues that the American empire is in decline due to an overextended economy and a self-destructive foreign policy.

Tags: unitary executive Bush administration bureaucracy commentary politics

Scandal or Intelligence?

Scary news today about a foiled (we hope) terrorist plot in the United Kingdom is another reminder that we should not get too comfortable. We have been forced to remember 9/11/01 again. At the time it was hard for our minds to put together the idea of of a commercial passenger airliner with "weapon of mass destruction." Even Condoleezza Rice had trouble with the idea and said so. But there it was.

People try to integrate incomprehensible facts into their minds by trying to make sense of them. One of the mind's tactics for this is synthesis. Wikipedia defines this as,

Synthesis (from the ancient Greek σύν (with) and θεσις (placing), is commonly understood to be an integration of two or more pre-existing elements which results in a new creation.

photo credit: "Iron Rose" by cybersb @StockXCNNG

Unnatural combinations - The Queen of Synthesis is at it again. I am putting concepts together that should remain separate. Yesterday it was war and elections, earlier it was about "loyal opposition," and today a story is about scandal and intelligence.

This intelligence scandal is plain dumb. WaPo reporter par excellence Walter Pincus, reports that two top Counterintelligence officials are going to resign. They have been linked to the Duke Cunningham scandal in California. This one is yet another item to add to the long list of reasons why Secretary Rumsfeld should resign, too. To quote,

David A. Burtt II, director of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Defense Department's newest intelligence agency whose contracts based on congressional earmarks are under investigation by the Pentagon and federal prosecutors, told his staff yesterday that he and his deputy director will resign at the end of the month.

The best minds - Here's another one "for the books:" A summer intern working for Homeland Security also made the WaPo. Zachary Goldfarb writes a good story under this headline, "Is DHS Site Really Ready? Science Intern Thinks Not." To quote,

Emily Hesaltine was a sophomore at the University of Virginia looking for a summer internship where she could apply her engineering background to a public policy issue.
This summer, as an intern at the Federation of American Scientists, the 20-year-old did that in a big way: She analyzed the Department of Homeland Security's emergency preparedness Web site, Ready.gov, and came up with a new version of the site that the federation calls significantly improved.
The government site, which has had more than 20 million visitors since 2003, offers
advice for what to do in the case of a natural disaster or chemical, biological, or nuclear attack. But since it went up in February 2003, the site has been lampooned for what critics said were obvious or dubious suggestions.

The world still feels slightly insane to me this morning. Much of the news makes our heads spin because we can make no sense of it. What makes sense to me today is what I have synthesized, i.e.,

• Since 9/11 al Qaeda has not gone away. We should have finished the job in Afghanistan.
• The overly robust counterintelligence function in the Department of Defense could have been predicted, and should have been investigated years ago by Congress. The defense department oversight function of Congress has been incredibly missing in action.
• Homeland Security is not a very smart place. It is too big and unwieldy and too bureaucratic to take good care of us. It lacks creativity and is out of touch with the its citizenry. Super-cooled Michael Chertoff has set a tone that could have predicted the department's reaction to the bright young intern in the story above.
• I have to live with the current administration's dangerous synthesis of arrogance and ineptitude, but I do not have to like it.

Tags: Bush middle-east Security terror Terrorism war current affairs News news and politics Politics scandal
My current "creative post" at Southwest Blogger is a poem about going over the hill.

War and elections now joined

Everyone is talking about the elections yesterday, particularly the Connecticut Democratic primary. At dailykos "Koss" blogged today about the winners and losers in the Connecticut Democratic primary. Democracy for America (led by Jim Dean) says, "Thank you, Ned." John Aravosis, at AMERICAblog, linked to the coverage in all the main newspapers at his site. TPM Cafe - Election Central included a table of links to the latest poll results. (Better look quickly, as I was unable to find a permanent link to the entire table). It feels like a growing tide of opinion making itself felt more strongly against the war in Iraq. That emerging strength of the voices of opposition makes me feel just a bit more optimistic this morning than I did yesterday.

Reuters News Service headlined Lieberman's loss - "Lieberman loses tough battle over war." And I do believe it was largely over the war, though Lieberman had clearly become disconnected from his constituents. New and unalligned voters came out in large numbers to vote in the primary, I think because they felt strongly enough to go to all the trouble of voting. Here is a quote from an article, by John Whitesides, Political Correspondent:

HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters)
- Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman narrowly lost a Democratic Party showdown to
a relative unknown on Tuesday, sinking under a tide of voter anger over his support for the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush.
Six years after he was the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Lieberman fell in a tight Senate primary battle to wealthy businessman Ned Lamont, who had called him a cheerleader for Bush and urged voters to send an anti-war message to the country.

Wars in the mid-east are front and center in the headlines.

• Aljazeera's headline today is "Arabs warn of Lebanon 'civil war'" - To quote,

  The Arab League has said that any United Nation resolution that does not demand an immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon could lead to a civil war there.

• The New York Times headline put it this way, "Anti-U.S. Feeling Leaves Arab Reformers Isolated." To quote NEIL MacFARQUHAR,

  Published: August 9, 2006. DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug. 8 —
  Moderate reformers across the Arab world say American support for Israel’s battle with Hezbollah has put them on the defensive, tarring them by association and boosting Islamist parties.
  The very people whom the United States wanted to encourage to promote democracy from Bahrain to Casablanca instead feel trapped by a policy that they now ridicule more or less as “destroying the region in order to save it.”

The Associated Press headlined Iraq - "Bombings, shootings kill 33 across Iraq." I find it very disconcerting and disheartening that since the turn of the century war and elections have been linked. These two opposing ideas for settling differences. How could the methods have become so entangled as a result of our administration's gross mismanagement and failure to plan for unintended consequences ? Well, to come to think of it, there have also been two U.S. elections since the turn of the century, as well! Quoting from an article By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

Tue Aug 8, 6:42 PM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq -
A series of bombings and shootings killed at least 33 people Tuesday, most in the Baghdad area, as more American soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital in a make-or-break bid to quell sectarian violence. . .
A U.S. statement said about 6,000 additional Iraqi troops were being sent to the Baghdad area, along with 3,500 U.S. soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and 2,000 troops from the U.S. 1st Armored Division, which has served as the theater reserve force since November. . .
The general priorities are to bring stability to the key neighborhoods where there is sectarian fighting," the top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. George W. Casey Jr., told reporters in Tikrit. "You'll see us starting there and then gradually expanding across the rest of the city."

Newspapers jumped on General Abizaid's warning last week about possible civil war in Iraq. There are no good military options left in Iraq. Two leading US senators, a bipartisan duo, say that the country is already in civil war. Quoting the 8/7/06 AFP article,

WASHINGTON (AFP) - There are no good military options for the United States in Iraq, two top US senators said, describing the country as in the midst of a civil war and suggested that Washington convene a high-level diplomatic conference involving regional powers.
However Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Christpher Dodd, both senior members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, gave few further details on the proposal.
"A cold hard assessment that Iraq is not going to turn out the way we were promised it was and, that's a fact," said Hagel, interviewed on the CBS show "Face the Nation."
"This is a civil war," said Dodd. "I don't believe that US military people can play referee in that kind of situation."
Both Hagel and Dodd referred to testimony in Congress Thursday by General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, who said that Iraq could slide into civil war if Iraqis do not take decisive action to stop it.

The entire mid-east region seems to be on the brink of war unless the U.N. can do something quickly. It occurs to me that the United Nations does not have something called a "War-making Force." (That, unfortunately, has been the U.S.' role.) The U.N. does have a history of sending out "Peace-keepers." They need to get on the ball.
Tags: Democrats joe lieberman lieberman ned lamont Middle East ned lamont Iraq election politics News

Conyers: "Constitution in Crisis"

U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Michigan, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, is a blogger at The Huffington Report. On the fourth of this month he posted about the release of his final Iraq report, "Constitution in Crisis." To quote,

The report, which is some 350 pages in length and is supported by more than 1,400 footnotes, compiles the accumulated evidence that the Bush Administration has thumbed its nose at our nation's laws, and the Constitution itself.
Approximately 26 laws and regulations may have been violated by this Administration's misconduct.
Our Constitution established a tri-partite system of government, with the notion that each branch of government would act as a check on the other two. Unfortunately, for the last six years, the Republicans in Congress have largely viewed themselves as defenders of the Bush Administration, instead of a vital check on overreaching by the Executive Branch. By doing so, I believe they have acted to the detriment of our Constitutional form of government.

Here is the report: At the House.gov website is the official Iraq Report," with links to all aspects of the report.
Good summary - Mother Jones gives an excellent write-up about the Conyers Iraq Report.

Beginning with post-9/11 false intelligence and public deception, Conyers uses sources including public statements, the Downing Street Memo, CIA reports and intelligence briefings to refute Bush’s carefully constructed propaganda advocating a war with Iraq. Step by step Conyers traces the different reports citing no links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, and the lack of evidence of WMDs. . .
The report makes clear that the blame cannot lie solely with Bush and his inner circle. Conyers faults the Senate and House Intelligence Committees for refusing to conduct any independent, serious investigations into these matters. He also faults the courts for being slow to act and easily stymied by the “procedural defenses” asserted by the administration.
Conyers quotes Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning that “there comes a time when silence is a betrayal,” concluding, “In my judgment, that time is now.”

Conyers interview (1) - Hat tip to bartcop.com for this link from Justin Rood of TPMmuckraker, August 4, 2006,

Earlier this week I had a chance to talk with Conyers about why he produced the report.
"We could get no response from the president" about their concerns over pre-war intelligence and the march to war in Iraq, he said. "Then we tried to get hearings in the Judiciary Committee," which met with a "no way" response, according to Conyers.
"We said, 'look, we'll do it ourselves'" -- compile a document that lists every instance of alleged wrongdong by the Bush administration's handling of intelligence, the war in Iraq, and retaliation against those who tried to speak out about it. "Every sentence,
every allegation, every accusation that we have in this 371-page report has a citation or a reference to it of where we got it," Conyers explained, with a hint of pride at his staff's work. . . .
If the Democrats take back the House, would this lead to impeachment?
"There's no way I can predict whether there will ultimately be an impeachment proceeding underway or not," Conyers replied. But with three months to go until the midterm elections, "to be putting together a list, an agenda for the Judiciary Committee. . . smacks me as being a little. . ." he didn't finish the sentence.

Conyers interview (2) - Harpers published an essay, "The Case for Impeachment," by Lewis H. Lapham, February 27, 2006. It asks why Conyers prepared and published the report? To quote from the essay,

Unless the congressman intended some sort of symbolic gesture, self-serving and harmless, what did he hope to prove or to gain? He answered the question in early January, on the phone from Detroit during the congressional winter recess. “To take away the excuse,” he said, “that we didn't know.” So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, “Where were you, Conyers, and where was the United States Congress?” when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that “somehow it escaped our notice” that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.
A reason with which it was hard to argue but one that didn't account for the
congressman's impatience. Why not wait for a showing of supportive public opinion, delay the motion to impeach until after next November's elections? Assuming that further investigation of the President's addiction to the uses of domestic espionage finds him nullifying the Fourth Amendment rights of a large number of his fellow Americans, the Democrats possibly could come up with enough votes, their own and a quorum of disenchanted Republicans, to send the man home to Texas. Conyers said: “I don't think enough people know how much damage this administration can do to their civil liberties in a very short time. What would you have me do? Grumble and complain? Make cynical jokes? Throw up my hands and say that under the circumstances nothing can be done? At least I can muster the facts, establish a record, tell the story that ought to be front-page news.”

How we can help - Democrats.com gives good suggestions for follow-up actions we can take to move this project forward.
References:

1. Conyers webpage - John Conyers website
2. The beginnings: From CNN, Conyers initiated a letter (signed by 89 Democratic House Members) to President Bush in May 2005 asking for an explanation of the "Downing Street Memo."
3. Previous Conyers posts @ S/Sw: Brits Own Deepthroats, Democrats - the Generations
4. Search engine: Dogpile

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Other blog - My current "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about remembering landscapes.