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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Can't we just let bygones be bygones? Update: transcript now available, some additional material. Toward the beginning of the SOTU, when Bush discussed the war, he obliquely referenced his critics, then dismissed them as useless. To paraphrase: "We've got a war to win. How on earth can you waste our precious time and energy talking about how we got here? Support the troops!" Here's the bit that rattled my cage: In the coming year, I will continue to reach out and seek your good advice. Yet there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. First of all, note the rhetorical sleight-of-sledgehammer: any criticism = call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. No, no, no. Not true. Stop saying that. Some people are actually capable of believing both that the administration should be held accountable for its actions and that we need to work out the best possible plan for our involvement in Iraq, all while maintaining the utmost reverence for the men and women who daily risk our lives on our behalf. Bush has a lot to answer for. A majority of Americans "believe [Bush's] administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's purported weapons program before the U.S. invasion in 2003" according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released last week. The stark, willful illegality of the NSA wiretaps grows more obvious by the day. We are holding prisoners with neither due process nor the protections of prisoner of war status. We torture many of them, and cause many others to be tortured. We've bombed and shot an untold number of civilians. We don't have proper equipment for our troops, many of whom are in harm's way long beyond the term of service to which they agreed. I could go on. The assertion that even so much as a Congressional investigation into whether we were misled into war would meaningfully detract from our efforts in Iraq is absurd. It is more absurd coming from the head of an administration that insists that our armed forces and intelligence services are more than equal to the challenge in Iraq. It is still more absurd coming from the head of an administration that insists that the war does not meaningfully impair our ability to respond to serious security threats elsewhere in the world. It is especially absurd coming from a man who promised to bring accountability back to the executive branch on the back of the movement that impeached his predecessor over a blowjob. I've got news for the administration: If we frog-marched the lot of you out of office and into Leavenworth for life, we'd still be able to finish the job in Iraq. Hell, we'd probably do a better job without you. Imagine if the man who caused a huge toxic chemical spill through arrogant negligence said something like, "Look, we can go round and round about why this happened, but the fact is, we've got a lot of bodies to bury, and a lot of repairs to make. Don't you understand how serious this is?" That's about as dumbfounded as I feel right now. Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Deserving of Wider Recognition Left Coast Breakdown is a terrific blog. Go and read and laugh and snark and gnash. Monday, January 16, 2006
Why Feinstein Caved Athenae is pissed. Senator Diane Feinstein, arguably one of the biggest liberals in national politics, seems to have dropped any meaningful opposition to Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court. I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "This might be a man I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court. Athenae writes: ACTUALLY THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT MEANS, YOU USELESS PLASTIC HOOD ORNAMENT. You're a member of Congress. You're confirming him. If you disagree with the way he'd do his job, that's ground for denying it to him. Will somebody please get this woman a copy of that musty old document that begins "We the people ..." I think the salient points have slipped her mind. Given the Democrats' spinelessness on the big issues of late, it is actually not all that surprising to hear them express such mushy, directionless acquiescence to the will of the right wing. In Feinstein's case, however, it marks a sea change. Last Monday, she was interviewed on Fox News: HUME: Right, but would you consider someone who thought that Roe v. Wade was improperly decided by the court? Does that place that person outside the mainstream, in your view? Feinstein clearly knows what the stakes are. I think she also knows that rank-and-file Democrats would form a solid wall behind anyone who would take dramatic, decisive action to protect women's right to abortion. I think she might even be aware that a fight specifically over this issue could be hugely beneficial to the Democrats, by galvanizing the base and splitting moderate Republicans from the right wing. So what happened? On one hand, I don't believe the Republican leadership has any real intention of actually overturning Roe v. Wade, the issue that provides them with an army of fanatical footsoldiers, year in and year out. Perhaps someone has made the rounds and communicated this to the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, something along the lines of "Alito can't be seen as soft on Roe, or he'll get the Miers treatment. But he doesn't want to overturn it any more than you do." Having removed the big, electrifying issue from the equation, perhaps Feinstein didn't think the other issues were worth going to the wall over. On the other hand, none of that should matter. What matters is what is happening where democracy takes place, in the public arena. Alito has said precisely nothing about any of the big issues. Even if every Democrat knows for a fact that Roe is in no jeopardy whatsoever, his refusal to meaningfully address the issue constitutes a political gimme, which everyone, left and right, expected them to exploit. Don't our elected representatives have even one principle left? If not, don't they at least want to win? Friday, January 13, 2006
Food For Thought This imagined conversation between George W. Bush and William Kristol over at Gotham Image takes on Bush from an interesting and unexpected angle, and carries it off beautifully. It's on the long side, but definitely worth a read. Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Closet Bigot A heads-up to Lindsay Graham. If you're a closet bigot, the idea is that nobody knows you're a bigot. You hide the fact that you're a bigot. People who know you are unaware of the fact. When you are asked if you're a bigot, you deny it. If you were a member of a bigoted organization, you don't advertise the fact. Asking the question of an actual closeted bigot will get you a "no" by definition. Just trying to help out. |