Random quote of the day

From Pandagon:

Republicans for choice are like suicidals for life.

Actually, I think his girlfriend said it.

Theme of the week

Via wars of compassion:

Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.

- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Achtung, baby.

Flip. Flop. Flip!

And now Bush has reversed himself on his previous reversal.

After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares ‘We Will Win’ Terror War

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:32 p.m. ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday “we will win” the war on terror, seeking to quell controversy and Democratic criticism over his earlier remark that victory may not be possible.

In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Bush said, “We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win.

That statement differed from Bush’s earlier comment, aired Monday in a pre-taped television interview, that “I don’t think you can win” the war on terror. That had Democrats running for the cameras to criticize Bush for being defeatist and flip-flopping from previous predictions of victory.

And the flips just keep on coming! Stay tuned. Bush has time to change his position yet again before dinner.

Bush. Flip. Flop.

Square this (CNN)…

…with this (ABC):

Your head hurts, doesn’t it?

Here’s the deal, the heart of it, the crucial element in this matter that is more involved than Bush’s vision being less than “clear, precise and consistent.” It’s that Bush has decided - either on his own, or at the direction of sharper thinkers - to abandon his oft-repeated hard line and parrot the philosophy of his opponent even while he criticizes his opponent for holding the same position. If Bush actually believed in a more realistic and pragmatic approach to the war on terrorism, this would only be reason for celebration. Instead, we have a situation that reeks of opportunism and desperation. He first tested the waters of this new spin by confessing that he had “miscalculated” the post-war security situation in Iraq. Then came his too-clever description of the war in Iraq as “a catastrophic success.” Never mind the utter implausibility of Bush coming up with that line on his own; a thousand Bushes banging away on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years…well, you get the idea. Now the latest manifestation of Bush-style realpolitik: terrorism will always be with us.

Bush is clearly moving to camouflage not just his trimumphalist stance of total victory over terrorism, but his flawed and unproductive approach to the war on terror. The question now is whether the accomodating American media will allow him a free pass on this reversal. One could only dream that Matt Lauer, in his interminable series of interviews with Bush this week, had taken a cue from Prometheus 6 and asked, pointedly, “So when did you figure that out?”

The damning thing here isn’t that Bush is, in fact, the evasive flip-flopper that he’s made Kerry out to be…though he is. It’s that Bush will say any thing in order to be reelected. Any goddamned thing at all.

And now we all know it.

Hastert the hack

I could have gone until tomorrow without posting on matters political, but along comes alleged House speaker and professional hack Denny Hastert and the day’s just shot to hell. The target du jour: Democrat backer and billionaire George Soros. Via the no-longer-vacationing Kevin Drum:

“You know, I don’t know where George Soros gets his money. I don’t know where — if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from,” Hastert mused. An astonished Chris Wallace asked: “Excuse me?” The Speaker went on: “Well, that’s what he’s been for a number years — George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he’s got a lot of ancillary interests out there.” Wallace: “You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?” Hastert: “I’m saying I don’t know where groups - could be people who support this type of thing. I’m saying we don’t know.”

Smearing has become first nature, not merely second, for these people. The only question is whether or not Tom DeLay put the words in his mouth. It’s possible that he managed this bit of bile on his own. Whatever the case, it’s reprehensible. Drum adds an appropriate coda:

For the record, I’d like to note that Hastert is not an overweight filmmaker or an anonymous blogger. He’s the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third highest ranking Republican official in the country. This is what the leadership of the Republican party has become.

A turn in the South

As you know, M and I spent a week or so down in the ancestral South. We had a pretty good time. The weather was fair and relatively cool for South Carolina in late August; everyone kept telling us how lucky we were to be visiting just then. And I felt very much the visitor, which is not so odd as it sounds. I’ve been away from the state (and in St. Louis) for twenty-four years, so it’s reasonable that I’d come back to it as a kind of native stranger. Actually, it’s a very comfortable mode in which to come home. You see things at a kind of remove.

M was well received by the down-home folks. This wasn’t a surprise - they’ve met her before and the whole “white girl in the family” issue never was much of an issue to begin with. Outside the family, we certainly got looks, but we get that anywhere we go, so nothing new there. What really struck me about M and the family was how comfortable she was with them, and vice versa. You want your family to like your wife (yeah, you do); it’s just a little weird to actually see it in action. If family is a another tool for apprehending the world around us, then that trip provided me with another lens through which to view M and my relationship with her.

There is also the strange new notion of unifying two concepts of family: two sets (me and M, me and the kinfolk) becoming one. Like I said, it’s new, and I’m just now wrapping my head around it. What it really means is that I’m moving back into the family after rather a long time away.

I guess that’s what I’m wrapping my head around, really.

Everybody remembers this line from Frost:

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,

They have to take you in.

Nobody ever remembers the next line:

I should have called it

Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.

That’s the thing about home that people forget. You have to deserve home.

I’m keeping that in mind.

Welcome to “National Kill Your Television Week”…

…also known as the week of the Republican National Convention.

I tried watching a Matt Bauer interview with George Bush this morning, but my eyes started bleeding. I’m not taking any chances with the official GOP fest. Better to catch up on some reading instead.

Hurricane Alley

I’m beginning to think that I’m a harbinger of doom for my home state of South Carolina - specifcally, the city of Charleston. I was raised about sixty miles north and east of Charleston as Highway 17 goes, but have only visited Charleston twice as an adult.

The first visit took place in mid-September of 1989. About a week later, Hurricane Hugo hit the beach.

The second visit took place last week Friday. This morning, about a week later, Tropical Storm Gaston waded ashore.

It would be really egotistical to assume blame for storms, almost as swell-headed as taking credit for pushing them around. And Gaston is the seventh named storm of the current hurricane season, after all. So I guess any connection between my visits and violent coastal weather is purely concidental.

I guess.

While on the topic, please study this sobering image from space:

On the the left we have Gaston. On the right we have Hurricane Frances. The depression in the middle doesn’t seem to have a name yet. God is just lining ‘em up out there. It’s a regular Hurricane Alley.

One guy’s one-day weekend

Screw Bush. There’s more to life than agitprop. I’ve got one day off this week - tomorrow - and need to decide what to do with it. I have a lawn, a workout, chores, non-blog writing, and a wife. All those things factor into the equation.

Will it rain? Signs point to no. Partly cloudy, cooler, low chance of precipitation. That means that I can’t avoid cutting grass. Okay, that’s fine. Won’t take too long. What happens after that?

I detect a shopping vibe in M. She hasn’t been to Treasure Aisles Antique Mall or Gringo Jones in a while, and something tells me that she’ll want to get out there tomorrow. Of course, we’re still paying for our trip to South Carolina…and our trip last year to London and Paris…and the central air… M is fully aware of all that, of course; she’s much better with money than I am. If I were in charge of the finances, we’d be living in a van down by the river. Still, she’ll want to go shopping and she’ll want me to go with her. Shopping isn’t fatal to me, but I’m more of a “get it and get out” kind of guy. Actually, most guys are that kind of guy. When I accompany M on retail expeditions, I tend to retreat into an inner happy place where I fly starfighters and shoot protonic beams. M will rouse me to show me some item, I’ll nod and say something or other, and then retreat back into my reverie. M knows I do it. She thinks it’s hilarious.

A movie? That’s a thought. I’ve been bad about seeing movies…for years now, actually. Part of the problem is other people. When did people decide that it was all right to jabber during a film? And the moment they sit down, they whip out cell phones. It’s as though no one can stand to just sit quietly anymore. The whole thing makes my teeth hurt. Plus there’s a lot of crap in theatres these days. Not that what I watch is necessarily any better than somebody else’s film choice, but we’re talking just now about my needs, aren’t we? So yeah, movies. The trailers for Hero looks pretty cool. I understand that the self-aggrandizing Quentin Tarantino has slapped his name on the film, though he had no hand in making it whatsoever. Tarantino also makes my teeth hurt these days, but I can look past him to watch the film. After all, it’s the biggest hit in Chinese movie history. A billion people can’t be wrong.

But…I have a wife. M isn’t necessarily into ultra-stylish martial arts, even if there’s an actual storyline attached to them. She skipped Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as I recall. Time to rethink. We saw an ad for Garden State last night. That’s the auteur project by that guy from Scrubs. The ad said it’s “this year’s Lost in Translation.” Hmp. I haven’t even mustered the desire to see last year’s Lost in Translation. Garden State has “girlie flick” written all over it. Still, it’s garnered good press and I’d score points with M. Those of you who wonder why one would need to score points with one’s wife have obviously never been married. Sometimes you just have to bite the girlie flick bullet. (Man, that phrase came out weird.)

Okay. It’s a start. I’ll flesh out the rest of the day on the fly. As for tonight?

Damn. I haven’t even thought about tonight.

The Panglossian Times, or the American media and Iraq

panglossian: Adjective - Expecting a favorable outcome or dwelling on hopeful aspects: optimistic, roseate, rose-colored, rosy, sanguine. Informal: upbeat. Idioms: looking on the bright side, looking through rose-colored glasses. See hope.

That the Bush administration has sought to paint its Iraq debacle in rosy hues is expected, even if reprehensible. When your foreign policy is composed of equal parts arrogance, thoughtlessness, and ineptitude, the natural craven response is to put a false face on dire consequences. But for the press to engage in the same subterfuge - abandoning its watchdog role, promoting mindless nationalism, ignoring hard truths surrounding failed policies - is a betrayal of the public trust. This betrayal takes place every hour of every day on television, on radio, and in print. There’s no better (or is that worse?) example of “the new Pravda” in action than the editorial effluence of the Washington Post. The same paper whose reporters are capable of such critical reportage as Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s three-part Promises Unkept: The U.S. Occupation of Iraq has an editorial staff that is astonishingly servile to power and anxious to engage in…well, are you familiar with the phrase “journalistic turd polishing”? Check out the Post’s latest act of subservience and a fiery, clear-eyed response at Today in Iraq:

The difficulties are well-known. The Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has performed relatively well since it took over in June, and it has at least one major factor on its side: Most Iraqis still seem to share the overall goal of shaping a coherent, multi-ethnic democratic state. Mr. Allawi’s commitment to hold elections by early next year while seeking to restore as much security as possible is in sync with that goal. But he does not have a strong enough army or police force to deliver as much security as Iraqis expect, and the U.S. and allied troops he must therefore rely upon are deeply unpopular. Meanwhile the enemies of democratic transition, including foreign terrorists, Islamic militants and Saddam Hussein-trained Baathists, may comprise a small minority of the population, but they are ruthless and capable of terrible mayhem and intimidation. Mr. Allawi must navigate these currents while Iraqi forces continue to be trained.

Since June 28th, Allawi’s government has performed as well as the CPA did before June 28th – they have screwed up everything except their effort to bamboozle the US media. Like the CPA, the Negroponte/Allawi gang has chosen to pursue a military solution to the insurgency while deliberately offering the insurgents unacceptable political solutions, except that Allawi provides more belligerent rhetoric than Bremer. As with the CPA, military solutions have failed miserably and served only to stiffen opposition. Worse, each failure reveals the weakness of the military option and encourages further insurgent violence. Allawi’s battleship mouth has only succeeded in revealing the weakness of his rowboat ass.

The WaPo editorial board makes a tremendous leap of logic by assuming that because “most Iraqis still seem to share the overall goal of shaping a coherent, multi-ethnic democratic state,” most Iraqis support the Allawi regime. It appears that a growing majority of Iraqis do not support Allawi for the same reasons they gradually grew to resent and despise the former Iraqi Governing Council: Allawi is an outsider without any significant political base in Iraq, he has no intention of holding anything but a rigged election and his government is propped up only by the use of foreign troops who regularly bomb Iraqis at his direction.

Allawi’s only success in navigating Iraqi “currents” has been his perversion of the Iraqi judicial system and his use of the few trustworthy police he controls in isolating and prosecuting his political enemy, Ahmed Chalabi’s exile faction.

Glossing the abject failures of Bush’s Iraq policy misleads an entire population, and shields the president and his cohorts from accountability. Worst of all, it gives license to those who would continue to spend lives and treasure to no good end. A sycophatic media - held hostage to its own fawning adulation of power - is as culpable for abuses of that power as any officeholder.

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