Quote du Jour: Bob Schieffer

From "Face the Nation" today:

And finally today, I have never been much for third parties and independent candidates. For all its flaws, the old two-party system has brought us a long way in this country, and I'm slow to change.

But as I watched the Senate fumble around with the immigration bill, it made me wonder, has our two-party system lost the ability to get anything done?

We keep hearing that both parties are playing to their base. Republicans don't want to offend conservatives, so they block real immigration reform. Democrats fear the liberal left, so they don't want reform.

Result: nothing gets done on that or anything else. Yet polls show a majority of Americans want reform, want a guest worker program for illegal immigrants in this country, favor a way to make their status legal.

Who speaks for that segment of the electorate?

Certainly not Democratic and Republican leaders, who are so busy pacifying those so-called base voters.

You know, I hope we do see a third-party candidate in the presidential race next year, not because I favor anyone who might run as an independent, but because a third choice would force both the Republicans and the Democrats to move more to the center, to stop an independent from siphoning off moderate voters.

If both parties are forced to shift their hunt for votes to the center, rather than the edges of their parties, who knows?

They may find some common ground every once in a while, and actually get something done.

Congressional Quote du Jour: A Little Grammar Review

from Wednesday's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Hearing on the GSA Administrator Investigation

REP. JOHN YARMUTH (D-KY): I have two questions. One is that you said, sometimes, you have a problem with tense. And basically there are only three tenses.

LURITA DOAN, GSA ADMINISTRATOR: No, that's not true.

YARMUTH: Past, present and future.

DOAN: No, there's, like, present perfective. There's present progressive, past progressive...

YARMUTH: In the time continuum -- that's grammar. But in the time continuum, there are only -- it either happened, it is happening or it will happen.

DOAN: Or it's ongoing as we talk.

YARMUTH: I'm trying to get a handle on exactly where the issue of tense might relate to whether or not you actually were speculating about what you might do, what you may have in fact done or what you were in the process of doing.

DOAN: Well, I thought I was using, like, a hortatory subjunctive right there, in which...

YARMUTH: OK.

Well, she was an English professor, who graduated from Vassar with honors in English... as the blogger linked above points out, maybe she does know her tenses after all.

You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Hear Voices...

... although, no doubt, it helps.
But that cheap joke aside, Daniel B. Smith, who was on The Colbert Report last night, has written what looks like a fascinating book on the phenomenon of auditory hallucination through the ages, centered around the story of his own father, an otherwise normally functioning attorney who heard voices throughout his life.

Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination

For the Time Being: The Current Strategy

'We have made a deal with the devil,' from crooksandliars.com, by Steve Benen

Apparently, U.S. forces have not only aligned themselves with dozens of Sunni militiamen, we’re now cooperating with sectarian militias, working outside the Iraqi security forces, that include insurgents that have attacked Americans in the past. What’s more, we’re allowing them to procure weapons and we’re granting them the power to arrest other Iraqis.

“We have made a deal with the devil,” said an intelligence officer in the battalion.

The dynamic is not without complications. Joshua Partlow’s report explained that “fighters on both sides appeared nearly identical,” using the same weapons and wearing similar clothes. “Now we’ve got kind of a mess on our hands,” a leader of a U.S. Stryker team remembered thinking. “Because we’ve got a lot of armed guys running all over the place, and it’s making it very hard for us to identify which side is which.”

Might these militias turn on the U.S. sometime soon? No one knows. Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a Sunni militia leader said, “Let’s be honest, the enemy now is not the Americans, for the time being.”

When September Ends: A "vast metaphysical question."

Remember when September was the moment of truth as to whether or not the surge plan was working in Iraq?
Tony Snow doesn't, as of today, although the press corps tried to jog his memory.

QUESTION: The president himself has said, not just in the Reuters interview but in others, that in September we will find out whether it's working. He's been blunt about it.

SNOW: Well, again, you'll be able to see what's going on at the juncture.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: He has said "We'll know whether it's working in September."

SNOW: OK, but what I'm saying -- OK.

QUESTION: Is that what you think?

SNOW: No, I think my concern is that the expectation that seems to be raised is that suddenly, in September, there may be an expectation that the report says, "OK, all the problems are solved."

No. But what will happen in September is that we will have an opportunity to assess what's going on. Yes, we'll have an opportunity to say...

(CROSSTALK)

SNOW: ... whether it is working -- whether it is working. That does not mean that we'll have all the work. It will not be completely successful at that juncture. "Is working" where you have it in the motion of a present imperfect, I think, is fine. So...

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Is it a moment, though, for judging -- I understand the difference between -- it's not going to be over then, but is it the right time to judge whether the new way forward is working?

SNOW: Again, we'll see. We'll have to take a look. I just...

QUESTION: That sounds like backpeddling.

SNOW: No, it's not backpeddling. It's just it seems to me to be such a vast, metaphysical question.

Is your kitchen soap breeding superbacteria?

Antibiotics have an important role in modern medicine, but apparently using them for the kitchen sink may not be such a good idea...

Actually, antibiotics are one thing that are probably best not taken in moderation...

Congressional Quotes du Jour: The Good, the Bad and the Dangerously Insane

Ron Paul (R-TX) from Tuesday's Republican Presidential Debate on CNN:

We have a lot of goodness in this country. And we should promote it, but never through the barrel of a gun. We should do it by setting good standards, motivating people and have them want to emulate us.

But you can't enforce our goodness, like the necons preach, with an armed force. It doesn't work.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) discussing the William Jefferson indictment on the House floor this week (Jon Stewart's moment of zen yesterday):

When we talk about the standard here, we all know that bringing dishonor on this House is a standard that all of us attempt to meet.

Trent Franks (R-AZ) in yesterday's House Armed Services Committee hearing on body armor, in which he suggests that the committee just suit up a couple of staffers in the sets of armor in question, find Jim Webb's gun and go down to the basement to do their own damned ballistics test. Hey, if NBC News can do it:

And it's just perhaps a little bit unusual, the suggestion, Mr. Chairman, that -- we've got a gun range in the basement of this building. And I think we ought to take a couple of sets of both sets of this body armor and have both sides have a sworn affidavit that this is indeed the exact armor that's going into the field, and that we all go down and have some experts there to make sure that the tests are fair, and witness this for ourselves.

Bill of Rights Monument Project

Here's another cool thing I just learned about: Juggler/comedian Chris Bliss started a nonprofit corporation dedicated to installing Bill of Rights monuments (with different designs/ sculptures in each city) in each of the state capitals, and elsewhere across America.

Play Pumps: just heard about this...

Someone had a good idea:
Children playing instead of their mothers or themselves spending hours a day carrying water from the river.

Welcome back, Jack

Dr. Kevorkian leaves prison after serving eight years.

Eight full years... and you think about some of the violent criminals who spend far less time than that, for crimes that don't seem to compare, either in degree or kind.

Death of Panda Released into Wild: Sad, but not surprising...

... the strategy of protecting the habitats in the first place seems the better and more cost-effective approach, as a WWF director notes.

New Sudan Sanctions: A Different Perspective

Not everyone agrees that the U.S.'s unilateral sanctions are the best approach. My sense remains that they are necessary, but the truth is, I don't have a clue what's actually going on over there, so how could I possibly say for certain?

This guy, the Sudanese ambassador, John Ukec Lueth, a former government dissident now representing the so-called unity government, spoke rather passionately to the National Press Club yesterday about his perspective:

We just want the people of the United States to know that their government is going the wrong way. The situation in Darfur is more complex. You know, don't run away with the issue of genocide. We do not like any woman to be raped. We do not like anybody to be killed. These are our brothers and sisters. We are more concerned about them than anybody who pretends to say that. If they have a fiduciary interest, they should stop that. They should think that, "These are our brothers. They are our brothers and our sisters."

And in the end, I was fighting the Sudanese government. I am back now. They embraced me, and we are trying to build a new Sudan. That's what we said. And as a result, leave the custody of our people in our hands. Leave the solutions of the problem in our hands and help us where we ask for.

We have asked for the African Union to come and help us. Let them come. We will determine on the ground how many troops we need. We will also provide them with what we have. And we will have the U.N. and the African Union, as well as the Europeans, to help us also.

We appreciate also the help that the United States has given us. They have spent $1.3 billion in Darfur and southern Sudan. We do not ignore that.

We must go on the right track. And this unilateral taking of decisions is not a good thing in diplomacy, in good neighborlihood. You know, even though a country is so small, like my country, it has its guts. It belongs -- it is -- we own that country. It is our home. And we cannot be overtrodden about it.

Anything else?

I appreciate you all coming. I am available any time. If you want to know more, I will give you more. I'm around here. I came here to do this. And I want people out there -- you are the medium for getting the truth out there. You know better of how things should be constructive and objective.

I believe most of you are objective. That's what made you come here this afternoon. And thank you for coming. Thank you very much.

The Cold War: We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Apparently, Putin has looked into GWB's soul and seen an imperialist aggressor. Or maybe he just wants an excuse to try out some new toys. Either way, it's not building a safer world for any of us.

Garrison Keillor: Belated Memorial Day Speech

I enjoyed this weekend's episode of A Prairie Home Companion, which described the best Memorial Day speech ever in Lake Woebegone, one acknowledging that silence was the best tribute that could be offered by civilians, who can't really understand, to veterans who could never explain it to them.
This Salon article is in a similar but bolder vein.

And in lighter news -- or darker, rather -- chocolate!

A nice, succinct guide to the healthiest kind.

Cindy Sheehan's Goodbye Letter

from yesterday, Memorial Day, on the Daily Kos.

Today in Darfur...

... is probably much like yesterday, last week, last year...

Stuff like this is still happening regularly.

This is the same world we live in, "over here," but if we truly felt it to be the same world, wouldn't something effective have been done by now to stop it? Does the world lie in thrall to the government of Sudan? What's the deal here?

Clinton-Gore Doubleheader

(Yes, I get nostalgic sometimes...)

• Al Gore has a new book out, The Assault on Reason.

• And this from Bill's commencement address at Rochester Institute of Technology:

Consider what you celebrate today at RIT. You learn together; you master technologies; you have rational arguments; you look at evidence. You learn from each other and you appreciate your differences.

How much of the world is dominated by patterns of thought and action directly opposite to what you have come here to pay tribute to, to political and religious, even emotional fundamentalism, designed to divide rather than unite, to crush argument, to seize power rather than to empower people?

How you think matters. And how people see you thinking matters.

I don't know how many times, when I was president and I was trying to convince people to make peace in one area of the world or another, someone would tell me, I hate it that we're doing this, but we have to because of the way they behave.

How much behavior in the world today; how many tribal wars; how many ethnic and religious conflicts are being driven by people who justify their conduct based on what someone else did to them or how they made them feel ashamed?

I don't care if you've got a Ph.D. and if you've been to outer space and back, every time, for the rest of your life -- you remember this -- every time, for the rest of your life, you say, do, or feel anything because you say, I have no choice because of how destructive people were to me, or because I had this problem or that problem, you give up your freedom.

You are only a free person when you recognize that every moment of every day, no matter what happens to you, no matter what is said to you, no matter what is done to you or your crowd, you still are free to decide how to respond.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why Gandhi was a free man and a great man.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why Mandela is recognized for the enduring greatness, not of his sacrifice, but of the way he responded to his sacrifice, not just inviting his jailers to his inauguration, but putting the leaders of the political parties that supported apartheid in his government, because, he said, "If I want us to go forward together, that means them, too."

He was a free man because no one could make him hate or kill or react. He got to decide.

Masters of compromise

The final incarnation of the war funding bill is another example of what I don't mean by "radically moderate."

But to be fair, the pork that made it in this bill is the best kind of pork, things (e.g. Katrina, health care for veterans and impoverished children) that would have had separate bills of their own, if the monster that is this mismanaged war didn't have its hooks in everything.

Off Topic: Louie Gohmert wins the prize...

... for the most tangential Republican digression in today's all-day House Judiciary hearing on the U.S. attorney firings, featuring the Plame-blonde Monica Goodling, who actually held her ground better than Gonzales or Sampson did (if they'd guessed that, would they have let her testify sooner?)

GOHMERT (R-TX): The Latin phrase meant "truth for Christ and the church," and that was the official motto of Harvard in 1692.

And the rules and precepts of Harvard in 1646 said, "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ at the bottom as the only foundation."

It is part of the foundation.

And I would also submit to my colleagues that the hate crime bill passed out of this committee and taken to the floor and passed recently leaves an opening. If someone here seems to indicate there's something wrong about being a Christian and someone is induced to commit violence against that Christian, then the person on this committee could possibly be charged under the hate crime bill as the principal for having committed the act of violence.

Obama to world: Don't give up on us yet.

Barack Obama* at a campaign event today in Philadelphia
*Note that this quote does not indicate an endorsement of any particular candidate, just an endorsement of these particular sentiments. ;)

Listen, when George Bush steps down, the entire world is going to breathe a sigh of relief.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will have an opportunity to go before the world, to stand before them and say, we are back; that we want to work with you, that we want to work to deal with the transnational threats of climate change and nuclear proliferation.

We want to work with you to deal with global poverty. We want to end the genocide in Darfur.

(APPLAUSE)

We want to bring an end to malaria and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

And while we're at it, we want to close Guantanamo and we want to restore habeas corpus...

(APPLAUSE)

... because that's who we are. We want to lead not just with our military but with our values and with our ideals.

Big Gulp: The Ashcroft Hospital Visit

Don't they have security in hospitals to keep people like Al Gonzales and Andrew Card away from vulnerable convalescents?

If you're like me and somehow missed the revelation of this story at a Tuesday congressional hearing, it bears repeating.

As Chuck Schumer said, it "makes you almost gulp."

And Jon Stewart's Latin American soap opera reenactment is pretty hilarious. On that note, I'll never be able to hear Ashcroft belt "Let the Eagle Soar" from now on without a sentimental tinge of respect, statue-drapings notwithstanding.

Seriously, though, I wonder if Ashcroft, whom his deputy Jim Comey described as being barely conscious at the time of the visit, ever has nightmares about those two looming apparitions at his bedside...

Well, if the 'pubs don't want Ron Paul...

... the Libertarians could consider taking him in. Isn't it time he came out as a Lib, anyway?

Apparently, there's a petition to kick Paul out of the Republican debates.

What next, the Dems trying to kick out Mike Gravel?

And even vitamins...

... should be taken in moderation, according to this study linking high-dose vitamin use with death from prostate cancer. Once again, we're talking high, high doses. When I see the 1,000+ percentages RDA on the Nutrition Facts lists on the backs of some vitamin bottles, I always wonder if they'd done enough studies like this. Apparently not.

The Da Vinci Diet

The epitome of moderation. No wonder he was a rare person.
Most of these are actually very simple and do-able; it seems the challenge would be doing them all, all the time. (That's always the challenge.)

Chimeras Among Us

MIT scientist offers help to cyclist accused of blood doping.
Apparently, DNA tests to look for chimerism have found that about 50 to 70 percent of healthy people are chimeras, a medical term meaning that their blood may have originally mingled with a vanished twin in utero, early on, or with their mother's own blood.

"And if not now, when?"

said the Rabbi Hillel, perhaps not thinking of this commentary in the Baltimore Chronicle, but if the shoe fits...

Impeach Bush or Get Rid of the Impeachment Clause

Blocked film on KBR/Halliburton: Wonder where the money went?

Progressive film director Robert Greenwald [was] scheduled to testify at a hearing on Thursday, May 10 about war profiteering. He requested to show a few minutes of one of his films [see it here] but Republicans blocked his request.

I'm a sucker for anthropomorphicized robot buddy stories

Robots in Iraq

(this blog's first and perhaps only post to get both the war tag and the warm and fuzzy tag.)

Recommended Viewing: Outfoxed

I just saw this 2004 film, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which popped out of the Netflix queue just in time to coincide with Murdoch's current bid for the Wall Street Journal, and to freak me out about the future of our society if the Bancroft family does eventually cave.
Be strong, Bancrofts!
One Fox coup I'd almost forgotten about (although it was probably mentioned in Fahrenheit 9/11, and I just have a short memory) was how instrumental they were in the 200o election by prematurely proclaiming Bush the winner at one point in the night, prompting the rest of the networks to desperately follow suit within minutes, not wanting to be scooped (accuracy be damned.) And that's not the only instance of the other networks following Fox's lead, sadly...

Even green tea...

... can be harmful in large quantities, according to this New Scientist article.
However, we're talking very large quantities, more than 10 cups a day, at least (I go through 2-3 if I'm lucky.) The only danger is really to people taking supplements, which contain 50 times the amount in a single cup of tea.

French "celebrity" atheist Michel Onfray: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?

Once again, I have to give the creds to fake news anchor Stephen Colbert for tipping me off on real news; in this case, to the growing popularity of French atheist philosopher Michel Onfray. I'm not sure how I feel about the concept of what this Northwest Herald article characterizes as "militant atheism," and as a humanist, I find Onfray's almost apocalyptic language and confrontational manner disconcerting. He goes way beyond the wry-verging-on-smug wit of Richard Dawkins. But he does raise some interesting questions about the direction we're headed, globally, given the growing atmosphere of religious fervor over the past several years.

And these lines about Onfray's encounter with France's right-wing presidential candidate inspired a touch of envy, when I considered the impossibility of a similar encounter in the U.S. between a right-wing candidate and a prominent American atheist (no names even come to mind immediately, besides Penn Jillette and James Randi.) I guess Sam Harris would be a good choice.

Ahead of France’s presidential election later this month, Philosophie Magazine arranged a meeting recently between Mr. Onfray and the front-running candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, who sometimes attends church. [envious italics mine, given this is a right-wing candidate!] They argued about faith, politics and philosophy.

Are these supposed to be the good guys?

To be fair, this is an insular, non-Islamic sect not representative of the larger Kurdish population, who generally practice a form of Islam more tolerant than that practiced by others in the region, and it's probably not fair even to generalize about the sect based on this one incident, but WTF?
I couldn't even watch it, honestly. Just the thought that humans behave in this manner makes me ill. But it needs to stop, yesterday.

Kurdish Yezidi girl is stoned by a large mob for living with a Muslim man, having been lured back home by her family's claims of forgiveness.

Sunshine, in moderation...

... can prevent cancer, cutting the risks quite significantly, according to this Canadian article discussing U.S. research that will be announced in June.

The conclusions about the higher rates of cancer in northern industrialized countries is interesting, too.

And if, like me, you have reason to fear skin cancer in particular, there's always vitamin D supplements + a bit more sunshine.

I like excuses to get a bit more sunshine, though.

And if you don't like red wine...

... for the healthful flavanoids or resveratrol, try a fruity cocktail.
Apparently, ethanol boosts the availability of antioxidants in brightly colored fruit like strawberries.
(although I think the two drinks pictured in the photo on the Yahoo news story are a bloody Mary and a classic margarita, but you get the point.)

Well, this explains a bit: Regent Law & the Justice Department

Thanks to The Daily Show for catching this story that fell through the cracks (well, actually the Boston Globe caught it, first ;) but I was surprised to learn just how many graduates of the not exactly competitive fourth-tier Regent University School of Law, formerly known as CBN University School of Law (after Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network) have worked at the Bush Justice Department -- more than 150, including the notorious Ms. Monica Goodling. (Why is it always a Monica?)
I find this very disturbing somehow.

Research suggests intelligence does not predict wealth

Well, that explains things, I guess ;)

from New Scientist

It looks like lifestyle factors, some but not all of which are correlated, trump sheer IQ.

The House Cranky-Pants/Valley Girl Committee hashes over the WH subpoena question

Highlights:

RANKING MEMBER TOM DAVIS (R-VA): In a transparent attempt to give this witch hunt against Secretary Rice some heft, the majority also asks why the State Department doesn't support needle exchange programs -- duh; like, they're against U.S. law; that's why...

*

REP. MARK SOUDER (R-IN) to Chairman Waxman: This is not the way that former Chairman Tom Davis ran the committee, and you shouldn't do it, either.

Contempt for the Bereaved: What Pat Tillman's family's up against

To me, one of the most revolting things about the cover-up surrounding Pat Tillman's death, discussed today in a House hearing, along with the military-hyped inaccuracies re: the Jessica Lynch rescue, were the disgusting atheist-bashing comments made to disparage the Tillman family by Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, which Chairman Waxman suggested should be considered conduct unbecoming an officer.
The comments, made by Kauzlarich during an ESPN interview, are excerpted in this article by Stan Goff.

Casualties of the media-savvy anti-abortion movement's first significant victory...

... first in a long war. And the "fair and balanced" media has often been only too happy to play into the hands of whichever side comes up with the catchiest phrases.

This comment in reply to the article illustrates just one example of the real consequences of the court's decision:

If one of your daughters had the terrible misfortune to have a wanted pregnancy go terribly awry because of profound fetal anomalies that were not compatible with life, I doubt that you, as a good, nurturing, loving mother would want one of her daughters to carry a fetus without a brain, or liver or kidneys, or organs all growing outside his or her body for any more weeks than necessary. She would spend those weeks in the most profound kind of torment and misery knowing that the wanted pregnancy would result in death once the fetus tried to take its first breath.

Before the D&X/D&E procedure was developed, the method used was in utero dismemberment. That procedure ran the considerable multiple risks of uterine perforation and all that it can bring. The D&X/D&E is safer and allows grieving parents to hold their wanted child and at least bury it with some dignity.

Many of these profound fetal anomalies are not able to be determined until very late in a pregnancy.

Not to pile on, but let's just sum up...

... the stellar cast of Bush appointees (from the Washington Post.)

Belatedly, in honor of Kurt Vonnegut, RIP...

... great writer and overall cool person to have had around:

Why My Dog is not a Humanist: Vonnegut's acceptance speech for the American Humanist of the Year Award in 1996.

We already have a law, sort of...

... that would have prevented the massacre at Virginia Tech earlier this week. But there were "loopholes."

A judge's ruling on Cho Seung-Hui's mental health should have barred him from purchasing the handguns he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, according to federal regulations. But it was unclear Thursday whether anybody had an obligation to inform federal authorities about Cho's mental status because of loopholes in the law that governs background checks.

Cho purchased two handguns in February and March, and was subject to federal and state background checks both times. The checks turned up no problems, despite a judge's ruling in December 2005 that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness."

If we're going to bother to have laws, they need to be enforced, they need to be compatible, and they need to make sense.

After Columbine, and with all the violence that shows up in the news day after day from around the world, I admit that my first reactions to this tragedy were somewhat numbed and detached, until I learned that my second cousin, who works at the college, had actually been on campus at the time of the shootings. Fortunately, she's fine, and was able to make it off campus before the lockdown.

Then I started remembering what it was like to be in college, what a vulnerable time it is, and how completely freaked out those kids must have been, the ones who witnessed it and survived and the ones who didn't.

This incident is bound to start plenty of "dialogue" in this country (i.e. in the media, including NBC News) but I just hope it goes beyond racial/ character profiling and the usual rants (I don't think blaming the parents seems to apply in this case) and begins to touch on some of the deeper issues here, as to why this kind of violence isn't going away. It's a trend we can't afford to tolerate, and there's no quick-fix law or platitude that's going to solve it.

"America at a Crossroads": A Squandered Opportunity?

This Salon article thinks so, when it comes to providing the American public with some historical context for the rage against the West that's existed in the Muslim world, not only for centuries, in one form or another, but very specifically since the close of the First World War. Is it being patriotic or just short-sighted to omit this vital information from the discussion in this country?
I've only seen the first episode so far, but I'm disappointed to hear this assessment and, as I keep watching, I'll keep hoping it's not so, although the article is a bit sobering, especially regarding Michael Pack's crucial role in the series. Viewers who think this is a balanced, much less liberal take on things are very mistaken. There's nothing wrong with conservatives making documentaries and putting them on public television, as long as viewers realize that PBS's image as left wing-dominated is no longer a reality.
The bottom line is that only so many chances exist for understanding between what is increasingly viewed as "us" and "them," and so PBS's possible failure to take this one would be a particularly unfortunate blow to our fading hopes for peace and mutual understanding between America and the Muslim world.

Quote du Jour: former CentCom commander Anthony Zinni

Tim Russert quoted this passage from the new edition of General Zinni's book, The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose, today on Meet the Press.

"We promised to build a new Iraqi state in all aspects and the Iraqi people are still waiting for us to deliver on our promise.

Why?"

We now know the answers to that question: Poor intelligence, lack of planning, faulty political motivation, incompetent or inexperienced people placed in key positions, flawed assumptions, lack of understanding of the Iraqi culture, arrogance, spin, and the list goes on and on."

Now tell us what you really think, General.

Downside to Global Warming # 197: The Canadian-American Water Dispute War of 2073?

Warming could spark N. American water scramble: U.N.

And another one from the Republicans-talking-sense file

Arnold on pumping up the environmentalist movement:

For too long, the environmental movement had been powered by guilt.

But I believe that this is about the switch-over from being powered by guilt to being powered by something much more positive, something much more dynamic, something much more capable of bringing about major change.

You know the kind of guilt I'm talking about: the smoke-stacks belching pollution that are powering our Jacuzzis and our big-screen TVs, and in my case, powering my private airplanes.

(LAUGHTER)

So it is too bad, of course, that we can't all live as simple lives as the Buddhist monks in Tibet.

But you know something? That's not going to happen. So, ladies and gentlemen, I don't think that any movement has ever made it and has ever made much progress based on guilt. Guilt is passive; guilt is inhibiting; and guilt is defensive.

You remember the commercials a number of years ago, the commercials specifically of a Native American who sees what we have done to the environment and then a tear runs down his cheek? You all remember that?

Well, let me tell you something. That approach didn't work because successful movements are built on passion; they're not built on guilt. They're built on passion; they're built on confidence; and they're built on critical mass. And, often, they're built on an element of alarm that galvanizes action.

The environmental movement is, to use a popular term, about the tipping point. It's about to get to the tipping point. There's a tipping point, and I believe the tipping point will be occurring when the environmental movement is no longer seen as a nag or as a scold, but as a positive force in people's lives.

-- from Gov. Schwarzenegger's speech yesterday at a Georgetown University-hosted Conference on Environmental Leadership.

Quote du Jour: Orrin Hatch on Stem Cell Research Opponents

For the life of me -- I've said many times -- how can we justify; how can those who feel the other way about this, and they're very sincere, decent people -- how can they justify the destruction of 7,000 to 20,000 in vitro fertilized eggs a year as hospital waste and not utilize those for the benefit of -- let's just choose one malady -- children with diabetes, virulent diabetes?

They're going to lose their sight, their fingers, their toes and so forth, over time. It seems to me that's a no-brainer. But the fact of the matter is, is that they have never come up with an answer to that particular remark.

How can they justify that?

I don't think they can.

-- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) at a news conference following Wednesday's vote on stem cell legislation

Or maybe this is why America gets a bad rap abroad...

World-Class Violinist Plays a Washington Metro Stop

Debunking the Mommy Wars

Here's an excerpt from E.J. Graff's article in the Columbia Journalism Review which pokes holes in an almost entirely media-created controversy:

By offering a steady diet of common myths and ignoring the relevant facts, newspapers have helped maintain the cultural temperature for what Williams calls “the most family-hostile public policy in the Western world.” On a variety of basic policies—including parental leave, family sick leave, early childhood education, national childcare standards, afterschool programs, and health care that’s not tied to a single all-consuming job—the U.S. lags behind almost every developed nation. How far behind? Out of 168 countries surveyed by Jody Heymann, who teaches at both the Harvard School of Public Health and McGill University, the U.S. is one of only five without mandatory paid maternity leave—along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. And any parent could tell you that it makes no sense to keep running schools on nineteenth century agricultural schedules, taking kids in at 7 a.m. and letting them out at 3 p.m. to milk the cows, when their parents now work until 5 or 6 p.m. Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?

In a Democratic Mood...

According to these interesting Pew stats, the country is trending Democratic again in the cultural and political attitudes that tend to influence party identification, and the mood is beginning to resemble the Reagan years. (It's funny, if you look at the graphs, how the country seems to veer away from whichever party is in the White House at a given time)

Sampson in the Lion's Den (there are more mixed allusions where that came from)

from Thursday's all-day Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on prosecutorial independence, or what I'll call the "Let's see if we can get a member of the Justice Department to re-think his position on cruel interrogation techniques via the role-play method, since reasonable debate hasn't had much effect" hearing. By the time everyone else had gone home to supper, the remaining three senators decided to go for a third 10-minute round. If he weren't such a lying weasel (I mean, alleged lying weasel) I would almost feel sorry for the guy.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA): On the issue about the appointment of Mr. Fitzgerald to be special counsel on the Libby matter, I think it ought to be noted that, while Mr. Fitzgerald was appointed in his capacity as an employee of the Department of Justice, by virtue of being United States attorney, that he could have been appointed under the regulations; 28 Code of federal regulations, Section 600.3 says that special counsel shall be selected from outside the United States government, so that terminating him as U.S. attorney would not necessarily have terminated him as the special counsel.

(Sampson had made a little joke/suggestion?, that, oops, made it into the record, that maybe they should go ahead and fire Fitzgerald while they're at it...)

He could have been appointed to carry on the duties in that capacity. I just want to clarify that the alternative procedure here -- and there's no suggestion...

KYLE SAMPSON, SQUIRMY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FALL GUY: Senator, to my knowledge...

SPECTER: There's no question pending for you, Mr. Sampson. You'd be well advised not to answer when you don't have to.

SAMPSON: Thank you.

SPECTER: You might be well advised not to answer when you have to...

SAMPSON: Thank you, sir.

(LAUGHTER)

SPECTER: ... not when you don't have to.

And later, discussing the role of (the lack of) election fraud prosecutions (against Democrats) in the New Mexico attorney firing...

SPECTER: Here's the conclusion I reach. Iglesias began as one of our finest, was considered for promotions, was trained to -- was selected to train others in election fraud, had one of the best border records, and yet was fired for not doing a good enough job, all of a sudden, between October and November of 2006, on facts that were never checked on.

Do you still think David Iglesias deserved to be fired?

SAMPSON: Senator, looking back on all of this, you know, I wish that we could do it over again.

They'd remember to cover their tracks better this time.

A Common Enemy: Politics aside...

... as someone who catches his White House briefing almost daily, I have to express a sense of genuine concern for Tony Snow, and hope he beats this thing, and stays positive, as he commended Elizabeth Edwards for doing, after her announcement just last week:

"As somebody who has been through this, Elizabeth Edwards is setting a powerful example for a lot of people, and a good and positive one," Snow said from the podium. "She's being aggressive. She's living an active life. And a positive attitude, prayers, and people you love are always a very good addition to any kind of medicine you have. So for Elizabeth Edwards, good going. Our prayers are with you."

Cancer is the enemy of us all, and an insidious enemy. I hope one day we'll collectively, as a species, put it out of commission.

As if they don't have enough to deal with...

... fighting in Iraq, once the lights go out, women soldiers live in constant fear of being raped by their male counterparts in the latrines, if they are unfortunate enough to need to use them after dark, according to Col. Janis Karpinski (demoted from general after taking much of the blame for Abu Ghraib.) So apparently many of the women avoided drinking water after a certain time in the afternoon, thus causing dehydration-related deaths, which, surprise, surprise, were hushed up.

Karpinski published a book about her life in the military called One Woman's Army.

Interesting: the role of emotion in moral judgment

This article in New Scientist discusses research on why, apparently, both Kant and Hume may be vindicated by neuroscience with regard to how impaired emotional processing affects moral judgments.

Let's play "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

... for the gazillionth time this year, and it's only March.
Wouldn't want to be Tony Snow. The press is just so mean, wanting to know stuff, pointing out obvious holes in a story before Karl Rove even has a chance to set it straight, off-record and unsworn in, if the Congress accepts what one saucy correspondent called the White House's E.G.O. (for "extraordinarily generous offer.") Yes, they were all pretty cheeky today.

from today's White House Press Corps briefing:.

ED HENRY, CNN: Earlier, you were saying, when I asked about, "Well, was the president informed of this decision; did the president sign off on the U.S. attorneys being fired?," you said the president has no recollection of being informed of all of this.

SNOW: Right.

HENRY: So were his advisers really advising him on this, or is this really privileged communication involving the president and his advisers, if the president wasn't looped in, you're saying, on this decision?

SNOW: Well, that's...

HENRY: So, other people...

SNOW: That also falls into the intriguing question category.

HENRY: But, I mean...

SNOW: You're asking me to -- look, there are a number of complex legal considerations in here, and I'm not going to try to play junior lawyer. These are the sort of things that people are going to have an opportunity to talk about.

HENRY: But you can't have it both ways, if you're saying the president wasn't in the loop, when he just cited executive privilege for the president's...

SNOW: No, what you are saying is, "Are conversations that didn't take place privileged?"

Well, no, they didn't take place.

HENRY: So what are you protecting?

SNOW: Well, no, we're not -- what we're trying to do is to protect the ability of the American people to see folks in Washington get at the truth without, in fact, engaging in the kind of unseemly partisanship that has too often been a factor in recent political life.

Quote du Jour: NASA's James Hansen on the media's current conception of "balance" (again, no kin to moderation, IMO)

from today's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on possible political interference with government climate change scientists:

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): Among scientists, you appear to believe that the debate about any aspect of science being settled, that you think is settled, has a chilling effect on people's understanding.

You said so in your opening remarks here today. You said that the American people were confused by these contrarian opinions.

I guess we could be talking about Senator Jimmy Inhofe, who says that there isn't global warming. You say that it's settled science. Is that correct?

JAMES HANSEN, DIR., GODDARD INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES, NASA: I wouldn't state it the way that you just did.

ISSA: Please rephrase...

HANSEN: What I would refer to is the fact that, very often, the media -- sometimes with pressure from special interests -- will present "balance." And "balance" means we have one person describing the science and one person who disputes it, even in cases where the science is 99 percent certain.

And both of them speak in a technical language, which the public often -- sounds like they're, you know, technical scientists -- and they don't understand the language.

And so it looks like a 50/50 thing even when it's not.

Complicated Woman

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a guest, Thursday night, on The Colbert Report, which, prior to my working in the news media industry, was one of my primary sources of news (and now I realize how hilariously misinformed I was) but it's still one of my primary sources of entertainment.
I was impressed with how self-possessed and poised Ali remained (it's hard to be poised seated opposite Stephen Colbert playing Bill O'Reilly) while discussing her controversial views on Islam and religion in general.
What wasn't discussed in the interview, and which I was surprised to read later, was that Ali, a feminist and atheist, works at the American Enterprise Institute. It's easy enough to understand why she would have taken the job when it was offered, given that she was under threat of death from Muslims in the Netherlands after her collaboration with Theo Van Gogh, who was assassinated -- and also suddenly unwelcome in the country itself (where she had been a member of the Dutch parliament) for fabricating her reasons for seeking asylum there as a young girl fleeing an arranged marriage.
It's a fascinating story, which Ali recounts in her new book, Infidel.
But with this knowledge in mind, I thought it was interesting that SC asked her whether Christian fundamentalists should use the "fire with fire" approach in combating the violent element of Muslim fundamentalism (the new buzzword is "Islamo-fascism.")
This is the perfect question to have asked because it isolates what separates Ali's views from some of her neocon colleagues. But maybe not all of them, as I might automatically assume. Maybe it is possible to be a feminist and atheist at the American Enterprise Institute. As my significant other pointed out, at least it provides a little diversity over there. And at least it's genuine diversity, i.e. diversity of worldview versus merely the skin-deep tokenism so beloved of the neocons.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day...

... or perhaps dishonor, this was interesting. Apparently the current inhabitants of the British Isles (does Ireland resent being called a "British" Isle? I bet they do; can't they come up with a more, or would that be less, inclusive term?) Anyway, apparently, the British, Scottish, Welsh and Irish all share the majority of their genes, owing to a prehistoric population, speaking a language similar to Basque, that have lived there for the last 16,000 years.

Stephen Oppenheimer, a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford, introduces several theories that would turn long-held assumptions about British history on their head if they are further verified.

But he doesn't hold out much hope for shared ancestry healing old rivalries (maybe policymakers should take a hint from this kind of pessimism when considering other populations, say, in the Middle East):

If the people of the British Isles hold most of their genetic heritage in common, with their differences consisting only of a regional flavoring of Celtic in the west and of northern European in the east, might that perception draw them together? Geneticists see little prospect that their findings will reduce cultural and political differences.

The Celtic cultural myth “is very entrenched and has a lot to do with the Scottish, Welsh and Irish identity; their main identifying feature is that they are not English,” said Dr. Sykes, an Englishman who has traced his Y chromosome and surname to an ancestor who lived in the village of Flockton in Yorkshire in 1286.

Dr. Oppenheimer said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.

As for his thesis that the British and Irish are genetically much alike, “It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.

Quote du Jour: Peter Pace, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Can you guess what the general is speaking about in this quote from an interview with the Chicago Tribune?

"I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.

Yep, it's the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy about exposing covert CIA agents -- I mean, about whether we let them torture people in secret prisons -- I mean, no, I guess it's about whether an Arabic linguist in the Army is gay or not. I forgot that "moral" has become an exclusive synonym for "heterosexual," losing any of the other meanings it previously held.

Budget Paradox Case in Point: No Child Left Behind

In that "lowest common denominator" school of bipartisanship that's becoming more and more the rule -- not to be confused with moderation! -- Bush's No Child Left Behind compromise policy was well-meaning but too top-down and short-sighted; and then, of course, he refuses to pay for it, rewarding schools' improved performance with less and less funding each year, according to educators. No wonder they're peeved about it.

from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (yes, that's an abbreviated version of the committee name) hearing on federal funding for the No Child Left Behind Act on Wed., March 14:

JOHN JENNINGS, CEO, CENTER ON EDUCATION POLICY: The other point is, for years, since I've worked in this area, I have heard folks say, business people, politicians, well, there would be more money for education provided when there's more accountability.

Well, today, you won't find an educator in the country who will tell you that the accountability isn't coming from No Child Left Behind. And so the accountability is there, but the money isn't there.

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-IA): That's right.

JENNINGS: And so it seems time for the Congress and the administration to own up to its responsibility to provide the money. And what we heard earlier today from the secretary, well, we only provide 8 to 9 percent of the money and we can't provide any more -- that's not the answer.

The answer is that, if the federal government wants all this, the federal government has to help to pay for it.

HARKIN: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And that's what we're trying to get at. And that's this ridiculous, crazy budget that we have, that's sent down to us. And to try to get adequate -- no, not adequate, I wouldn't say adequate -- we've got to get a big increase to education -- not adequate, that's not the right word.

We need to have funding of education that would match exactly what we want to get out of it. And, as I said at the beginning, the teachers I talk to on this stuff -- the ones that I hear that are really griping about No Child Left Behind -- it's not that they don't want to do it. They can't do it. They're just -- they're frustrated. And look how many teachers we're losing in the first or second year now.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: Rockefeller pretty much sums it up...

... speaking broadly on the administration's fiscal attitudes at today's Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation hearing on FAA Reauthorization

SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV (D-WV): My own predilection is that America's making a tremendous mistake, right now, by doing everything short-term and incrementally, that we're not looking at the big picture, that we have to virtually reconstruct America from every single point of view, from our education system, to our transportation system in all of its forms, to a war on terror, to homeland security. I mean, the list never ends.

But -- and I think we have about a 10 to 15-year window in which to do this. The next question is: How can you afford that?

I have absolutely no idea. But I do know this, that when President Clinton left office, he had a $5.6 trillion surplus.

He may not, because of his Congress at the time, have been able to get away with it, but he could have figured something out with his lawyers, to take that $5.6 trillion, not use it into paying down debt but to use it to, for the one time in our recent life, in generational life, to create a construction fund, you know, a "build America" fund, everything from education to transportation to everything else.

We have enormous needs. We are not meeting them. At the rate that we are going, we will not meet them.

We have become a Congress and a society of incrementalists because we are forced to do that by our economic situation and by various things going on in the world and the rest of it. And we're not going to make it, in my judgment.

Just speaking as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I don't think we're going to make it. I don't think we have the time to make it, unless we do these things in a fairly short period time.

Second Chance (search for this book by title, not author)

The author's name, Zbigniew Brzezinski, (who was the national security adviser to President Carter) doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But he's a frequent guest (often along with Henry Kissinger, who affectionately refers to him as "Zbig") on the Sunday morning talk shows, and I've always been very impressed with his frank, well-expressed opinions on foreign policy. They seem like some of the soundest opinions around, so I'd feel safe recommending this new book just based on that, although I know it's a bad habit to recommend books one hasn't read yet... so little time in the day.

Anyway, since books are usually shelved by author, not title, there's always Amazon:
Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower

The best thing the 108th Congress ever did...

... was pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Yeah, it left out some provisions that maybe should have been in there, and vice versa, but from a personal perspective, it's the Best Act Ever, all due to the Daylight Savings Time provision that pushed back the start of that magical time of year three weeks, to make it effective today.
This guy disagrees, but I don't trust people who are against sunlight, so who cares? Besides, they said on the NewsHour that he's an English professor, so what does he know about energy policy? ;)
All I know is that now is the time of year when the last drop of vitamin D drains from my body, and that, thanks to this act, I can get up from my computer and go out there to enjoy the sunshine for one hour longer each day, starting right now. Theoretically.

P.S. The new look is in anticipation of spring fever. Once it hits, I won't be able to stay inside customizing my blog. Bring it on!

From the Walter Reed hearings this week...

... here is Clinton (formerly known as H. Clinton) from one of yesterday's hearings, following up on a congressional proposal that is so obvious, practical and commonsense that it shouldn't have taken Congress to come up with it. You'd think someone in the Army itself could have suggested it. Of course, they probably did, and were soon abruptly fired for incompetence while the leadership just got shuffled around and continued to act like things were just fine.

Just why is Kiley still there, anyway? Someone in today's House hearing (sorry, I forget who it was -- Hobson seems to ring a bell, but don't quote me on that) suggested it was because he had an "angel" watching out for him, but I'm guessing it's someone with more insider clout.

But I digress...

CLINTON: We've already heard about the disconnect between the Department of Veterans Affairs schedule for rating disabilities that doesn't adequately address the current nature of wounds like TBI and PTSD and amputations and hearing loss and diseases.

In the audience is Steve Robinson. He and I worked together a couple of years ago, in trying to get a pre- and post-deployment physical exam done so that we could actually tell what was the condition of a soldier before being deployed and the condition of that soldier when he returned.

And one of the things we could not get through was a mental exam assessment, before someone was deployed.

We're now hearing that people who are reporting with TBI and PTSD are being told it was a pre-existing condition.

You know, if the proposal that I had made and that others had lobbied for had been accepted, we might have a baseline to figure out what actually happened to these young men and women during their deployments.

Also in the "Go On, Girl" file, earlier in the same hearing, newbie Sen. McCaskill (D-MO) was the first to pointedly ask Kiley if he thought he should resign. (I'm sure you can guess his answer.)

And on a lighter note, this reflection on his own post-WW2 rehabilitation from Senator Inouye (D-HI) in today's Senate hearing:

INOUYE: I had to learn to play a musical instrument. Before the war, I played a saxophone and the clarinet, but that was impossible, so then they tried a trumpet, and they said, no, your lips are too soft for that.

And so they said, how about the piano?

I said, you must be out of your mind, but I passed the test. Some day I'll demonstrate to you.

(LAUGHTER)

They even taught us how to make love. Some day I'll say so in public, not for the record here, but I can assure you it was the best lesson I ever got.

(LAUGHTER)

I've never made a mistake since.

Unit 731

This article on Japanese biological warfare experiments on the Chinese during World War II makes me want to finally join Amnesty International, something I have been meaning to do for too long. This is truly horrifying (warning: the article is quite graphic) and one is always reminded in reading things like this that if they have been done at all by human beings, they could be done again, if power were to fall into the wrong hands. In parts of the world off this nation's radar, in fact, they could be happening now.
On that note, what's also horrifying is the fact that these war crimes, unlike those of the Nazis, were excused by the U.S. government in exchange for the research data (the Cold War mentality of getting a hold of it before the Soviets did.) And they were virtually unknown to the world community until after it was too late for the Chinese to seek legal redress for these particular crimes.

I Don't Heart Huckabee, and other Highlights from CPAC

The thing is, Mike Huckabee used to be my favorite Republican contender (ever since John McCain's Bush-calls-this-a-troop-surge?-I'll-show him-a-troop-surge push.) But this statement is scary as hell:

Here's what I don't understand. For those who say we shouldn't amend the Constitution, they seem to be more than willing to amend the Holy Bible, the Koran, as well the Talmud. I'm not sure why we would take a sacred Biblical text and amend it and not be willing to amend the Constitution to be consistent with the very texts upon which that Constitution was based.

Unsurprisingly, this guy, Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-OK, who gave an anti-Al Gore (I'll call it "An All-Too Convenient Fancy") PowerPoint presentation at the conference, isn't running for president:

Why are politicians so afraid to tell the truth about man-made global warming?

It's because the families are subjected to every conceivable insult and attack. I have been called -- my kids are all aware of this -- "dumb," "crazy man," "science-abuser," "Holocaust denier," "villain of the month," "hate-filled," "warmonger," "Neanderthal," "Genghis Khan," and "Attila the Hun."

(LAUGHTER)

And I could just tell you that I wear some of those titles proudly, considering where they're coming from.

P.S. It's hard to read conservative activists sometimes, but I would say that Rudy Giuliani at least came close to stealing the show. If he can keep up that momentum, he may have a shot, despite his much-discussed liabilities. If I agreed with more than 20 percent of what he was saying, I would have been sold myself. He has a way of inspiring confidence.

Living in Opposite World

You hear about this over and over again. Someone in the administration talks about how important something is, how everything is hinging on it -- say alternative fuel sources, math and science education, etc. -- and then you look at the budget and there are cuts in that very thing, relatively deep, disproportionate cuts, no less.

Here's one example, from today's House Budget Committee's hearing on the long-term economic outlook:

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE: So again, I'm not an education expert, and I'm afraid I can't give you a long list of detailed recommendations, but I think, broadly speaking, what the issue is, is helping those who have been left behind to acquire the skills they need to compete and to earn good wages in what is becoming a more and more technologically sophisticated economy.

REP. DARLENE HOOLEY (D-OR): Well, as I see our economy changing, I see the need for more training and retraining of our workers, as time goes on. And yet, I look at the budget that was given to us, and it has billion-dollar cuts in employment and training programs.

Alanis Morrisette, take note.

Jesus Tomb Update

Apparently, many archaeologists are dismissive of the claims made in the upcoming Discovery Channel film, and are calling it a publicity stunt.
I don't know enough about archaeology to be convinced by this Washington Post article, one way or the other, that it's a fraud. The director's connection with the James Ossuary is a particular red flag. I'll definitely be viewing the film with a skeptical eye. Still curious, though :)

Quote du Jour: Leahy on Supporting the Troops

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): Now, Secretary [of Defense] Gates, we've heard time and again... that, if we disagree with the administration's policy in Iraq, we don't support the troops.

We hear it from the vice president. We heard it in the midterm elections. I've never heard it from you, sir. But I suspect, when we debate this supplemental, those of us who will question the administration's policy in Iraq will hear it again.

As the father of a former Marine, I'm tired of it. I think it's beneath a country that's always cherished the right to disagree. It's one of the things we fight for in this country.

We ought to talk about what's right for the troops. In that regard, to say, are we supporting the troops, we have asked -- senators on both sides of the aisle have asked for proper armor for them, for proper training for them. They didn't get either before they were sent into Iraq. Many are still not getting proper armor.

And it wasn't right to subject them to substandard conditions at Walter Reed hospital, and to a bureaucratic nightmare that's reminiscent of a Kafka novel.

I appreciate the way you've responded to the Walter Reed scandal. I told you that before we went in there. I wanted to make sure people understand. I was glad to see you speak out. I was glad to see General Cody speak out of the bureaucratic mumble-jumble about how great those conditions were.

Neither you nor I would want a member of our family to have to be put in such a situation. And we would hope that never would a member of our family be so badly damaged.

Our soldiers are returning with serious mental illnesses; they're not getting the help they need; serious physical illnesses, not getting the help they need. We have alarming rates of domestic abuse, of divorce. We have families destroyed by it.

They're not getting the help.

The vice president doesn't mention this when he says we're winning in Iraq. He says we're winning because Saddam Hussein is dead and Iraq has a new constitution. He says nothing about the catastrophe we've unleashed on the Iraqi people.

And nobody wants to talk about the fact that, when the Congress said -- united, Democratic members and Republican members -- "Go get Osama bin Laden," this administration dropped the ball.

I don't think that the fighting bears any resemblance to the war that Congress authorized or our soldiers were trained for. Whether you voted for going into Iraq or not, I don't think it's another $80 billion to keep our troops bogged down in Iraq.

If -- if -- we're going to have a pro-American democratic government there, how long? How long will it take? How much money? How many more of these open-ended supplementals?

And I look at this one, where half of it doesn't say what it's going for. How long are we going to have to do that?

Recommended Viewing: Tomb of Jesus Likely Found

This is fascinating -- in a sense, one of the biggest news stories in the past two millennia.

I'll definitely be watching. (Discovery Channel, March 4 at 9 pm Eastern Time)

More Perks of Sleep

From New Scientist:

While you sleep, your brain puts the world in order.

Bush Quote du Jour

"You've got to dream big in order to be able to get 'er done."

-- from a panel discussion on cellulosic ethanol in Franklinton, North Carolina yesterday.

And if you're elected president of the United States under our electoral college system, you just might be...

Vilsack's Swan Song

From his early concession speech today:

I think we have to have a real debate about public financing and the ability to enable the primary and the caucus process to be about ideas, about moving and challenging the nation and challenging the people of this country, not simply about a money primary.

That's the game that's being played today, and it's a game that, obviously, I was unable to play as successfully as I wanted to. That's one piece of advice.

And to those who remain in this race, you know, you're going to come to Iowa. And here's my hope and my prayer: that you understand that it isn't just about large crowds. It isn't just about the cameras. It's about ordinary folks in living rooms and kitchens and church basements, who genuinely care about this country, who need to be listened to, and who need to have an opportunity to interact with candidates.

I'm genuinely disappointed. I liked this guy. Felt the same about Evan Bayh, to a lesser extent. As much as I'm rooting for the "superstars" of this marathon campaign, there's something wrong with a system where guys like these don't even have a chance.

The Furry Demographic

Well, Tom Vilsack already won my heart (if not my primary vote) with the "Aflac" gag on The Daily Show, but this (almost) clinches it.

I'm not kidding. He gets points for this (with me.)

Thanks to Wonkette

Acronym du Jour: GWOT (Global War on Terrorism)

I realize I'm behind the times and this has been in the lexicon for a while, but I just encountered it the other day, and it made me laugh out loud.
Since it's pronounced "G-Watt," or "G-Wot," rather than "Gwaht," my first thought was a gangsta rapper with an affinity for electric light bulbs, but maybe it could just be Tony Blair's pet name for his mate, the prez, based on George's habit of speaking with his mouth full.

The Wit & Wisdom of Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

But you know, I'm a little puzzled when you said... your report says "production below potential," "rising to potential."

But then you say, well, you think it might be more than you think. I mean, if you think it might be more than you think, why don't you think it?

I mean, it does seem to me a little odd for you to say, here's what I think, but I also think it might be worse than I think. That is literally "doublethink."

*

I express my concern that procedure and substance may intermix here, and that the argument for greater certainty can become -- and you say we have the two objectives, stable prices and employment, but one of those might -- I mean, I appreciate the fact that you have two children and you love them both, but I'm afraid that one of them might get a little bit more for Hanukkah than the other, if we're not careful.

-- from today's House Financial Services Committee hearing on the economy, the labor market and monetary policy with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke

Official plug...

... for my new "side" blog, appropriately named Writing on the Side, launched secretly into the blogosphere this weekend. It's not going to be as prolific as this one, but I'll update it from time to time.
It's my little valentine to the world.

Mood lifters for the winter blues

Depression may have been an evolutionary adaptation, and "paleolithic therapies" (coinage mine) may be the new "paleolithic diets," according to evolutionary psychopathologists.

And here are eight enviable brain diseases, according to one blogger.

Quote du Jour: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)

All 435 reps will get a chance to talk for 5 minutes on the Iraq resolution, but here's one snippet:

The president has had generals tell him that this war should end and an escalation is not the answer. But when he gets advice he doesn't like, he simply fires the generals.

He has had a commission of experts advise him that a diplomatic political effort with all of Iraq's neighbors would be the most effective way to enable the U.S. to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly. However, the president does not like that advice, so he has chosen to simply ignore it.

When the president needed Congress to approve military action against Iraq, he cared about the perspective of the Congress then.

As Congress begins to conduct oversight of the combat operation, the president wants to ignore the voices of dissent that come from this very body.

The cameras of history are rolling. And I hope and pray that, at the end of this debate, history can record that this body, starting with this resolution as a first step, has taken the appropriate action to end a morally wrong war that threatens to irreversibly stain the fabric of Congress if we do not exercise our constitutional authority and our patriotic responsibility to balance the president's power.

Siestas, in moderation...

... can help fight heart disease, according to this study.

Bee in my bonnet

Something's been bugging me with regard to the expectations for this presidential season's groundbreaking candidates. Way too much is being expected of them. Obama has pretty much been unofficially canonized (he's already been all but knighted by Oprah, so an official canonization is probably not far off) and Hillary is bearing on her shoulders well over two centuries of American women's once only wistful hopes. Talk about baggage.
It's not surprising that it was (white) women writers and activists, like Harriet Beecher Stowe, who set the moral bar for black men as higher than their white oppressors, because women have been saddled with that role from time immemorial, up to and including the American feminist past rooted in the Temperance movement.
The novelist Angela Carter, most famous for her updated fairy tales and lauded as "the high-priestess of postgraduate porn," was attacked by fellow feminists for her assertion in The Sadeian Woman that women cannot be genuinely equal until they can be equally reprehensible. Understandably perhaps, Utopian feminists were not wanting to hear that. But time has somewhat vindicated Ms. Carter.
Or has it? Maybe politics is the last-conquered realm of any social trend, but until we can have a black or female candidate who is seen as just another candidate with a big question mark over his or her head, instead of the weight of the world, who is permitted flaws and skeletons and even a bad hair/tie day, we still have a ways to go, baby.

If you're in the market for a psychologist...

... in a few years, please beware.

Ted "Completely Heterosexual" Haggard and his wife are so impressed with his three-week "psychological intensive" that they're seeking online master's degrees in psychology themselves.

This somehow annoys me on so many levels, I won't even begin to enumerate them.

(I know that to be "fair and balanced," I should comment on the Gavin Newsom story as well, but it depresses me beyond the point of remark. However, that's not to say the two are equivalent. Lefties just don't have quite the sense of mind-blowing irony that the Right does when it comes to their scandals.)

Tantra, tightropes and cinnamon lattes: caffeinated musings

First, an announcement to those who may care that I plan to start a new blog (in addition to this one) within the next week or two on my other vocation/avocation, the more creative sort of writing. I think it's going to be called "Writing on the Side." It's meant to take the place of my Live Journal blog, which I will still keep but only for photos and that sort of thing.
It will be another "Eudaimonia" production, which brings me to the point that I doubt I have more than an elementary understanding of Aristotle's idea of that term, but something just occurred to me today as I was sipping the most delicious cinnamon latte ever while driving home from work (after a busy day, we were let out early.)
From a rational standpoint (obviously not a physiological one, in the case of the latter) pleasure and pain are easy to navigate. In the first case, what you want is more, right, ad infinitum? And in the second, less. Very simple. If it was diagrammed, I guess it would just look like an arrow pointing in one direction, as far as one's goals were concerned.
But anyone who's had a hangover (or drank one too many delicious lattes in a row) knows that ad infinitum is untenable.
Bearing just a little pleasure isn't pain, but it's not exactly pleasure, either. In fact, it's a rather odd state of mind for which no particular word comes to mind (I'm sure yogis and Tantrists know some, but let's stick with the cinnamon latte illustration for a moment :) Actually, it makes me curious about the less sensational aspects of Tantric philosophy, but that's another blog.
In any case, while semi-blissed out on cinnamon and the tempered joy of being released from work knowing it just meant coming in earlier tomorrow, I had a glimmer of why moderation, or my reading of it, is so prized: it's even more of a psychic tightrope than it's cracked up to be! On the other hand, maybe it's a lot sexier than it's given credit for as well ;)

Viva moderation...
(On that note, here's an article on "golden girls" living the moderately good life in a particularly long-lived region of France)

Quote du Jour: Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY)

"For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists. They're very brave with the terrorists. And if the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad."

-- to Secretary Rice in a House hearing today, as prelude to a suggestion that the State Dept. consider hiring Arab and Farsi linguists fired by Defense (due to "don't ask; don't tell") to cover their shortage of such specialists.

J.K. Rowling: Apparently the last and only hope that kids will continue to read books.

At least according to this article in the New York Times Books section:

And the end of the Harry Potter series is not the most pressing problem facing publishers of books for children and young adults; competition from other forms of entertainment is the real threat. “When you look now at an 8- or 10-year-old, they are truly online, they are IM-ing their friends, they are text-messaging, they have an iPod where they are watching and listening to music,” said Susan Miller, president of Mixed Media Group, which develops books, television shows and movies for children. “They have a lot of other ways to spend their time, media-wise, and if you like to consume stories you can be watching something on the television. There are a lot of places for them to be entertained.”

Still, there’s always this possibility: Ms. Rowling could just write another series. “At some point she’ll come out of retirement and pull a Michael Jordan,” said Mr. Searby of J. P. Morgan.

Non-dystopian Quote du Jour

Robert Frost, when asked near the end of his life,
“Do you have hope for the future?” after a pause, said,
“Yes, and even for the past.”

Best Dystopian Film...

... I've ever seen:

Children of Men

Chillingly realistic, and just plain chilling.

Has my vote (if I had one) for the few Oscars it's up for, especially Adapted Screenplay.

Quote du Jour: Al Sharpton

“I told him I take a bath every day.”

-- in response to a telephone apology from Joe Biden re: his ill-considered description of Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Between this and his comments on Fox News boasting about the fact that Delaware was once a "slave state" that would have gotten on board with the South except that "there were a couple of states in the way," I have to wonder about Biden. Sure, he doesn't know when to shut up (lucky Foreign Relations Committee, of which he's now the chairman, i.e., can speak as long as he likes, and indeed he does) but these -- and there are others -- are some disturbing "slips."

If anything, contrary to Sharpton's concern, I think the most lasting effect of this incident is to endear Obama to black voters who may have otherwise, as pundits have been musing, leaned toward Clinton out of loyalty to her husband.

Biden has some good ideas on Iraq, but '08 going to be a whole different kettle of fish than '06.

Nutrition in a Nutshell

From the NYT Magazine, courtesy of Mr. X.

I like Michael Pollan's moderate, common sense approach, but does this mean I have to actually cook, every day?

That seems like something to ease into gradually.

Quote du Jour: Kim Gandy

"Decades from now, when this country finally catches up with the rest of the developed world with regard to women's rights, we will look back on the Bush presidency as a temporary detour from our long history of building democracy one right and one freedom at a time. The eight years of mis-rule by this President will be seen as a profound embarrassment that was eventually overcome. I guarantee it."

-- Kim Gandy, president of NOW, from her biweekly column, "Below the Belt"

Quote du Jour: Chuck Hagel on the nonbinding resolution on Iraq

“This is not a defeatist resolution. This is not a cut-and-run resolution. We are not talking about cutting off funds, not supporting the troops. This is a very real, responsible, addressing of the most divisive issue in this country since Vietnam.
Sure, it's tough. Absolutely. And, I think, all 100 senators ought to be on the line on this.
What do you believe?
What are you willing to support?
What do you think?
Why were you elected?
If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes.”

(from yesterday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing)

I can't say I've always been a Chuck Hagel superfan (as Republicans go, he's no Arlen Specter) but I have to admire his stance on this resolution, not because it's more than a symbolic gesture compared to Chris Dodd's substantive one, but because by co-authoring it with two Democrats, he's basically (unless I'm missing something) putting the last nail in the coffin of his hopes for the Republican nomination, if he hadn't given up on that already.

Don't you wish you were me right now?

I'm reading a copy of the State of the Union, which is classified, or as they call it "embargoed," as, just this very second, W. is being introduced. Soon you too will know and understand my, um, joy.

Pat Leahy: You're funny, Al, but not haha funny.

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice, Chairman Patrick Leahy questions Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the details regarding a Canadian citizen sent to Syria to be tortured.

GONZALES: I think General Ashcroft confirmed this publicly, that there were assurances sought that he would not be tortured from Syria.

LEAHY: Attorney General... (derisive chuckle) ... I'm sorry. I don't mean to treat this lightly. We knew damn well, if he went to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held. He'd be investigated.

We also knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured.

You know, and I know, that has happened a number of times, in the past five years, by this country. It is a black mark on us. It has brought about the condemnation of some of our closest and best allies. They have made those comments both publicly and privately to the president of the United States and others.

And it is easy for us to sit here comfortably in this room knowing that we're not going to be sent off to another country to be tortured, to treat it as though, well, Attorney General Ashcroft says we've got assurances.

Assurances from a country that we also say, now, we can't talk to them because we can't take their word for anything?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I...

LEAHY: I'm somewhat upset.

GONZALES: Yes, sir, I can tell. But before you get more upset, perhaps you should wait to receive the briefing...

LEAHY: How long?

GONZALES: I'm hoping that we can get you the information next week.

LEAHY: Well, Attorney General, I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll meet you halfway on this. I'll wait next week for that briefing. If we don't get it, I guarantee you there will be another hearing on this issue.

Canadians have been our closest allies -- longest unguarded frontier in the world. They're justifiably upset. They're wondering what's happened to us. They're wondering what's happened to us.

Now, you know and I know, we're a country with a great, great tradition of protecting people's individual liberties and rights. You take an oath of office to do that; I take an oath of office to do that.

I believe, in my basic core nature, in that. My grandparents, when they immigrated to this country, believed that. Let us not create more terrorism around the world by telling the world that we cannot keep up to our basic standards and beliefs.

So I'll wait a week. I'll wait a week, but I won't wait more than a week for that briefing.

What do you and I have in common with detainees in Guantanamo?

Look what Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (and I thought he was one of the better ones) slipped in at the end of the last Congress:

U.S. civilians can face military trials.

Testy cable news exchange du jour

From an interview on MSNBC today between Tucker Carlson and Dennis Kucinich, in which the former refuses a little history lesson from our favorite small but feisty presidential candidate:

KUCINICH: You and I are in agreement with respect to the exercise of freedom of speech, but I want you to go back to 1934. And this might be good, to have a...

CARLSON: (with characteristically petulant defiance) I don't want to go back to 1934.

KUCINICH: Well, you need to.

But isn't Tucker Carlson already living in 1934?

Bush's Iraq plan speech: spoken "with the confidence of a perp in a police lineup"

Howard Kurtz's breakdown of the media reaction to the much-leaked speech, including the above reaction from Newsweek's Howard Fineman.

As for the actual content of the speech, Congress was well prepared to be unpleasantly surprised. They may have a point, though. History is not on the side of the last-ditch, politically expedient, face-saving effort.

Quote du jour: (the other) Dick Clarke

"Bush reminds me, in doing this escalation, of a gambler who came to the table and was given a lot of chips and repeatedly made what, at that time, were foolish bets, what everyone looking on at the time knew were foolish bets. And he depleted all of those chips. And he's now left borrowing chips in a last, double-down attempt at a very remote possibility of leaving the table with some chips, with some face."

In order to save face, he is not only borrowing money, our grandchildren's money, by running up the debt. But he's also gambling with the lives of Americans; he's gambling with the lives of Iraqis; and he's gambling with U.S. national security."

-- Richard Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council, delivering remarks on terrorism at The Center for American Progress, 1/9/07

The Ehren Watada court martial case

Kevin Sites article: Conscientious Rejector?

Dems to 'pubs: Cry Me a River

Well, let them gloat for a few days, at least (no more than 100 or so...)

Washington Post editorial, A Fairer House: But not quite yet.