Ya Can't Make This Stuff Up

Cashing in on 9/11.


I don't create these things ... I just draw attention to things that amuse or disgust me. I'm not sure which effect this one has.

Trying to Think it Through

Norman Horowitz on Huffpo

Not that the General is a bad guy, not that the General is lying to us or misleading us, but after all, he is a soldier, and we are asking a soldier if he wants to do what soldiers do, which is to keep fighting, and fighting with as many other soldiers as possible.

Don't believe that? Have a séance and discuss this with Generals MacArthur, Patton, and Westmoreland among others.

Short essay ... but pointed.

A Win-Win Situation?

On one side, the Democrats are not going to do anything about the war in Iraq. They may posture and bluster but they're not going to do anything significant to stop this war. The reason is that they don't want to have the taint of responsibility for any part in this war. They want all of the responsibility for the war to hang like and anvil around the necks of every Republican office holder and candidate as the election season approaches. It's a short term strategy but, the argument goes, you have to get through the short term in order to get to the long term.

On the other side of the aisle, The Republicans aren't going to seriously change their "stay the course" approach to the quagmire that is their war. Their strategy is to keep the damned thing going long enough to be able to pass it on to the next president - probably a Democrat, even from their point of view. Even being out of power has its powers - in this case, the power to point a finger and say "You were so head up about getting us out of this mess, what are YOU doing about it now?"

Whichever side has the pile of poop that is Iraq land on them then has a choice. They can either pursue the absurdity of mediating someone else's civil war ad infinitum while nursing the illusion that there's a possibility of a win in there somewhere or they can take the fall, getting themselves labeled the president and party that surrendered - not a positive thing in the face of the American ego.

Given those choices - as both Johnson and Nixon faced during the Vietnam war - finding a way out is almost politically impossible. Nixon and the Republicans found a way out - or had a way out handed to them by the growing war protests during the late 60s and early 70s. The war protests, taken to the streets across this country, allowed Nixon to finally walk away from the conflict and gave the Republican party someone to blame - the anti-war liberals - for loosing a war we couldn't possibly win.

The best way out politically is to be able to say "We woulda/coulda/shoulda won but the other guy made us pull out." It's risky business. It coulda/shoulda backfired on the Republicans after Vietnam but history seems to suggest they're much better at spin than the truth. Personally, I think the smart move would be for the Republicans to support a withdrawal process while they can still point at the Democrats as the "reason" for us "loosing" - but I'm not sure they're that clever.

In any case, don't expect to see us getting out of Iraq any time soon. At this point, both parties think they have a vested interest in keeping the damned thing going. But, yep, its risky business because whoever ends up holding the hot potato is surely going to be facing anti-war protesters in the streets somewhere along the line.

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Like the poster? Check out despair.com for more.

The Economy is As Strong As Ever

And American Mortgage Brokers haven't lost one bit of their creative financing talents.

MacMansion Home Unsold, Mortgage Brokers Open Brothel

Police: Westchester Couple, Unable To Sell MacMansion House, Turn It Into A House Of Prostitution



(CBS/AP) The downturn in the housing market appears to have driven two New York homeowners to desperate, illegal measures when their house went unsold.

Police say the Westchester County couple, both mortgage brokers, turned their home into a brothel.

Robert Werner, 34, and Heather Mazzenga, 32, were arrested at the three-bedroom home Friday night and were charged with promoting prostitution. Four women, ranging in age from 21 to 30, are charged with misdemeanor counts of prostitution and practicing massage without a license.

The rest is here ... if you absolutely need it.

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hummmmm ... the article didn't say if they were Family Values Republicans or not.

Three Elements of Iraq War Opposition

The fella who does the Political Arithmatik blog has a great background in opinion poll analysis (academically and professionally). I follow his opinion poll analysis because I'm fascinated by the statistics and because his analysis is far more detailed that the sensationalist MSM (Main Stream Media). Not to mention that his analysis doesn't always support the conclusions offered in the MSM.

In this piece he examines the polling trends related to the War in Iraq. I think it's both useful and informative to understand what the public opinions really are and what they really represent.

Check it out here ...

Wexler to Petraeus

Robert Wexler is a Democratic Senator from Florida who apparently knows a little about history. The following is a rough transcript of his comments to general Petraeus:

"I vehemently opposed the surge when the president announced that last winter and instead I call for troops be withdrawn. In your testimony today you claim that the surge is working and you need more time. With all respect General, among unbiased nonpartisan expert consensus thus far the surge has failed based on most parameters. In truth, war related deaths have doubled in Iraq in 2007 compared to last year. Tragically, it is my understanding that seven more American troops have died while we’ve been talking today. Cherry picking statistics or selectively massaging information will not change the basic truth.

And please understand Gen. Petraeus, I do not question your credibility. You are a true patriot. I admire your service to our nation, but I do question your facts. And it is my patriotic duty to represent my constituents and ask you ... to question you about your argument that the surge in troops be expended until next summer, especially when your testimony stating that the dramatic reduction in sectarian death is opposite from the National intelligence estimate the Government accounting office and several other non-biased non-partisan reports.

I am skeptical General, more importantly the American people are skeptical because four years ago very credible people while in uniform and not in uniform came before this Congress and sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be false. And that’s why we went to war based on false pretense to begin with.

This testimony today is eerily similar to the testimony the American people heard on April twenty eighth nineteen sixty seven from General William Westmoreland, when he told the American people America was making progress in Vietnam.

General you say we’re making progress in Iraq but the Iraqi parliament simply left Baghdad and shut down operations last month. You say were making progress but the nonpartisan GAO office concluded that the Iraqi government has failed to meet a fifteen of the eighteen political economic and security benchmarks that Congress mandated. You say we’re making top progress? War related deaths have doubled. An ABC/BBC poll recently said that seventy percent of Iraqis say the surge has worsened their lives. Iraqis say the surge is not working.

I will conclude my comments General and give you a chance to respond but there’s one more thing if I may. We’ve heard a lot today about America’s credibility. President Bush recently stated we should not have withdrawn our troops in Vietnam because of the great damage to America’s credibility. General, there are fifty eight thousand one hundred ninety five names etched into the Vietnam war Memorial. Twenty years from now when we build the Iraq war memorial on the National Mall, how many more men and women will have been sacrificed to protect our so called credibility? How many more names will be added to the wall before we admit it is time to leave?"

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My question is how did going into this war on false pretenses effect our credibility that we're so keen to hold onto now?

Einstein's god

by Deepak Chopra on Huffpo



If Einstein pointed the way to a new form of spirituality through his comment on Buddhism in which he gave the key criteria for a "cosmic religion of the future," such a religion, he said, should

• Transcend a personal God
• Avoid dogma and theology
• Embrace both the natural and the spiritual
• Establish itself on a personal sense of unity among all things

What's left for us is to apply the same criteria today, fifty years after Einstein's death. For many people the first step will prove the hardest. They seek the reassurance and solace of a personal God, but Einstein had seen enough of world catastrophe to reject the possibility of a God who intervenes in daily affairs. A benevolent God who doesn't intervene also seems rather futile. The alternative, as he saw it, is to transcend to a level of Nature where harmony, wonder, and unity are real experiences. One would then have God's essence without needing God's interference. The second point, avoiding dogma and theology, releases us from organized religion. Einstein, being an independent thinker of the highest order, couldn't fit into any organized faith, and more to the point, the Judeo-Christian tradition is based on a personal God, which he had already rejected. Being freed from religion offers an open field for new and unknown possibilities.

The rest of the essay on Einstein's god ...

A quick one-liner from Kurt Vonnegut

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

Speaking Truth to Power

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA12) to General Petraeus: "We can not take ANY of this Administration’s assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say … I don’t buy it. And neither does the independent Government Accountability Office or the Commission headed by General Jones. Both recently issued deeply pessimistic reports… In the last few days, General Petraeus, media have reported that you are prepared to support a slow drawdown of our forces in Iraq - beginning with a brigade or two, perhaps at the end of this year. This clearly is nowhere near enough… It is time to go - and to go now."

Check out the GAO Report here and compare it with Petraeus' assessment.

File under "who ya' gonna believe - me or you're lyin' eyes?"

More Honor and Integrity from the Family Values Party

According to Wonkette: Nobody is mourning the suicide of St. Petersburg City Council Chairman John Bryan — “a staunch Republican and former finance chairman for U.S. Sen. Connie Mack” — who sucked a tailpipe Friday afternoon after the story broke that he had sexually molested his adopted daughters and another little girl.

TampaBay.com has the full story ...

Is someone keeping track of the Democrats or are they just not as interesting?

9/11, Six Years Later

by David R. Henderson

It has been six years since the horrid attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Throughout that time, George W. Bush has been president of the United States and, especially given the emphasis he has put on 9/11, it's fair to judge him on how well he's done on policies aimed at responding to 9/11. I will leave out, except tangentially, a judgment on his policies on civil liberties, not because I don't have one, but because I want to focus on foreign policy.

So, how has George W. Bush done? In a word, badly. I'm not challenging his intentions. I believe Bush thought, like almost all Americans and, indeed, like a supermajority of the world's population, that the attacks were horrific and unjustified. I also believe that he wanted to respond appropriately to the attacks. But I'm judging his responses. As one of my mentors, the late Milton Friedman, loved to say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." George W. Bush has provided, and is providing, much of that pavement.

Finish the essay here ...

A Thought for the Day

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. – Alfred Adler

Liberals are smarter, except when circumstances call for a knee-jerk ideologue.

A study says liberal brains "are more responsive to informational complexity."

Test: You sit in front of a computer screen and wait for a letter to appear on it. You're supposed to tap your keyboard if it's an M, but not if it's a W. The experimenters mix it up but give you more M's than W's to see whether you get lulled into tapping when you shouldn't.

Results:

1) On M's, liberals and conservatives responded equally well.

2) On W's, liberals were twice as likely to be among the more accurate responders.

3) On electrical measurements of the brain area that monitors conflict "between a habitual tendency … and a more appropriate response," liberals were five times more likely to show brain activity.

Unofficial scientist/media spin: Liberals are smarter.

Official scientist/media spin: Liberals are smarter, except when circumstances call for a knee-jerk ideologue.

Knee-jerk liberal spin: We're smarter because we have more agile brains.

Thoughtful liberal spin: Then again, maybe we have more agile brains because we're smarter.

(Human Nature's view: Liberals are smart, except when their knees jerk.)

The links are all there ... have fun.

Fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way

Click graphic for more.

Unless, of course, you believe the Constitution only guarantees rights to the people who agree with you. Or if you agree with the current administration, who apparently believe, evidence their actions over the last 7 years, that the Constitution is quaint, old fashioned and should be eliminated entirely.

Five O'Clock Follies - Revised

Yesterday I bloged about the resurrection of the body count ... a metric of last resort used to demonstrate that "we're winning". The bit referenced the "Five O'Colck Follies". For those who weren't around for that minor distraction called the Vietnam War, let me put the Five O'Clock Follies in perspective relative to the current distraction:

Defined:

The Five o'clock Follies is a derogatory term from the Vietnam War for the daily official military press briefings held for reporters in Saigon.

The "Five o'clock Follies," became the baseline reporting on the war. Military officials provided news releases and verbal accounts of battlefield and air activity. They became infamous for their rosy scenarios about the war ...

But the best reporters and news organizations only used these official pronouncements as an on-the-record, official version of events to compare with information from field reporters and other sources. They would take the official word, run it by soldiers actually fighting the war, and combine and contrast the official military view with what was really happening across Vietnam.

During the Gulf War, the military changed the time of the press briefings to disassociate themselves from the Vietnam era. So, during Desert Storm they were known as the "Four o'clock Follies."

Find it here ...


The Current Perspective:

In Vietnam, infamously, foreign journalists trudged through Saigon to attend daily US military briefings that were quickly dubbed 'Five O'Clock Follies.'

They are no longer at Five O'Clock. They are no longer military. And you don't even have to trudge.

The era of digital telecommunications has introduced: the Dial-a-Folly.

To get the US Embassy's daily take on Iraq, journalists in Baghdad can now pick up the phone and get briefed by conference call from an official a mile away across the River Tigris.

This means that a scribbler already sitting in the 'Red Zone' dials from Iraq back to the USA (it is a 001 number) to ask a civil servant sitting in the 'Green Zone' what he thinks is happening out in the 'Red Zone'.

More of that here ...


Ain't technology grand.