Dixie Chicks
It will come as no shock to anyone that I admire the Dixie Chicks for their "in your face" response to the withering scorn and rejection they have endured for the last 3 years since (on the eve of the invasion of Iraq) Natalie Maines declared before a London concert audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas". The spunky Ms. Maines called it right, folks, and the Dixie Chicks latest (No. 1) single, "Not Ready to Make Nice", reopens that old wound for a fresh rub of salt and lemon juice. Hoo ah, sisters! You're my kind of real women. If the brainless right-wing sycophants who decried that dismissal in 2003 even dimly understood what this nation was truly about they would rally around the Dixie Chicks for what they are: genuine American heroes, champions of what is right in the face of hatred and threats, individuals who do not bow before overwhelming opposition, who stick to their guns regardless of the consequences. I bought the album just because I like their attitude. We need more people like these and fewer fascist facilitators parading as patriots.
The people who reviled and threatened Natalie Maines are the true face of al-Qaeda in America,
the indigenous fundamentalists and terrorists in our midst.
Just so you know how I feel: I think President Bush is a traitor to this nation and damned besides for having flagrantly and repeatedly broken his vow before God to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Incidentally, as of 9 September 2006, the Dixie Chicks single Not Ready to Make Nice was in the No. 1 spot on VH1 for a record 12th week. Signal of a change in the political winds?
Who Are We Now?
America doesn't stand for what it once did, and what it now stands for I don't care to be party to. The old America stood for truth, liberty and justice - for everyone, not just a privileged elite. It sacrificed and fought to defend those values. The new America stands for greed, self-indulgence and dominion. It isn't only President Bush that I find embarassing, its a large fraction of the populace. People talk about putting God back into the schools and butchering children in the same breath. I'm sorry, but those two agendas only converge in right-wing totalitarian apocalyptic theocracy. I am no more interested in a government run by theo-fascists like Roy Moore than I am in letting an Islamic mullah restrict my freedom of speech from halfway around the world. Apparently, most of my fellow Alabamians feel the same way, since we roundly defeated the opprobious Mr. Moore in the June 2006 primary.
American Theo-Fascism
Following that same vein... yesterday my state passed a constitutional amendment by 4-to-1 banning same sex marriage. Today the US Senate debated and voted on the same sort of measure. No one in government wants to admit it, but the motivation behind this move is purely religious. The claim is that a ban will reinforce traditional values and protect the family as the core unit of society. That is a disingenuous argument. Does anyone really believe that banning the legal sanctification of homosexual marriage will cause homosexuality to disappear? Or that heterosexual couples will suddenly acquire previously unsuspected understanding for the rearing of their children? Here's the point: the laws reflect the mores of society. De jure reality lags de facto reality. You can't legislate behavior, let alone values. Furthermore, when a Christian tries to change the world by legislative action they have just asserted that they do not believe in the power of God. Does a swordsman fight with his fists? Does God need an army of lawyers? You do the math.
Wasting Precious Time and Money
Its incredible to me what our government find to do with themselves. We are facing extermination unless we convert our entire economy to be independent of oil within a few decades (or sooner), but the Bush administration wants us to send men to Mars. We are embroiled in a war that is demoralizing our armed forces and crushing our economy under debts we cannot carry, but now the government wants to spend billions to defend us against the ominous threat of invasion from Mexico. The entire system of government is corrupted by legalized bribery, but the Congress convenes hearings on the question of whether strength enhancing drugs are spoiling professional baseball.
Social Security
Do you know why Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt in a few years? The claim is that its because of the Baby Boomer generation or that people are living longer now on average. Neither is even remotely connected with the truth. More Boomers in the systems means more paying in and no one is living long enough to beat the system. The reason is very simple: the government has defrauded us. They stole the money. Every year since the mid-1960s, the government has spent every penny that has come into the Social Security and Medicare pots. Whatever was above and beyond the funds required to pay out benefits that year has gone into interest free "loans" to pay for whatever Congress felt like spending on. And the best part: these off-the-books expenditures don't count against the national debt. Corporate officials have been sent to prison in recent years for exactly this kind of accounting. It is fraud. It is embezzlement. The reason that Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt in a few years is that in reality they are bankrupt right now. The only reason that its not obvious is that presently there is more coming in than is going out. The bankruptcy date that has been foretold is simply the year in which the revenues will not cover even the expenses of operation for that fiscal year. But there is no savings at all. Its all gone. Been gone for 40 years. All that aside, I did a calculation of the rate of return on my projected benefits based on what I was paying in, using the same assumptions as used by the Social Security Adminstration. It worked out that I was earning negative 9% interest. Understand what that means. Its like having a mortgage on all my Social Security payments. We are not earning anything -- we are paying a high interest rate for the privilege of loaning our money to the government for 40 years. Take 15% of your salary and give it to the government, and when you are repaid you get back only what is left after 40 years of compounded negative 9% interest. Oh yeah, less the taxes that you must pay on what is given back to you, of course -- another 20-odd percent. How does that make you feel about your government? I call it Capitol treason.
Orwell and Cromwell in 21st Century America
Between Bush circumventing all the constitutional and legal restrictions against domestic surveillance and the Congress devoting its time to defending us against gay marriage and television obscenity (as if it were impossible to be obscene without showing nudity or saying forbidden words), American government seems to be of two trends: Orwellian and Cromwellian. When the recent outrageous revelation regarding the coercion of the big telecommunications corporations to disclose their records came to light (clandestinely, I might add - the government has never admitted that this incident ever took place), I thought America would wake up to the fact that we now live in a fascist dictatorship. Not so. The Washington Post reported at almost two-thirds of those polled had no problem with having their phone records taken by the NSA and over 40% were strongly in favor of the action. Are you people aware that when resisted, on legal grounds, by one of the telecoms, the Bush administration declined to take the question of the legality of this request before the FISA court that was Congressionally established expressly to address national security matters? The administration claims that it had absolute confidence that the undertaking was legal, yet it flatly refused to allow the FISA court, which had the sole authority to decide the question, to even have knowledge of what was happening (under current anti-terrorist rules, the mere disclosure of this request for information is a breach of law). If the president can, at his whimsy, abrogate any provision of the Constitution or explicit direction by Congress, then the rule of law no longer applies to his actions. That my friends is dictatorship, regardless of how the man assumed power. In the name of "homeland security" we have endorsed any infringement of our civil liberties, any outrage against the Bill of Rights, any breach of public law, any lie uttered to appease the masses. And, if the neo-fascists don't win out, I see that the theo-fascists are lining up to take on the task, eager to reforge this nation in the manner of the fanatic mullahs of the Middle East, banning all that offends their severe orthodoxy and enforcing a dangerous amalgam of religion and patriotism that resembles nothing so much as the state worship of the old Roman Empire. Will we shortly be expected to salute the flag at a national shrine, swearing an oath of loyalty, or be branded a heretic and traitor? Will we worship the president as the Arm of God?
And no time at all passes before the next revelation of spooky goings on and calls for recrimination against the New York Times and the sources of a story describing the mere existence of our clandestine financial spying on suspected terrorists. I'm sorry, but I believe that the government made it plain in 2001 that we were investigating the finances of suspected terrorists. Am I the only person on Earth who knew that? Why then all the acrimony and absurd allegations that revealing the fact of this effort undermines our national security? Simply this: Bush and his minions are still furious at being exposed for the fascists that they are, but being fascists they truly do wish that they could put Bill Keller of the New York Times and the rest of his colleagues to death for treason. Nor is the fascism confined to the White House. The Senate failed to pass a flag burning desecration amendment to the Constitution by only 1 vote. We are just a step away from being a fully fledged fascist totalitarian regime in which merely questioning authority is an act of treason, everything pertaining to "national security" is top secret (including the fact that you and I are being watched) and with mandatory state worship (what else do you call it when the pledge of allegiance "to the flag", not the people, is required in school or when the flag can be desecrated?). Only holy things can be desecrated. Sorry folks, but I am a servant of YHWH and I do not worship idols - not even red, white and blue idols. I think burning the flag is for an American a silly, pointless and needlessly offensive thing to do, but when you even contemplate making that act a matter of desecration you only inspire the anger that makes people burn flags, because you violently dissociate the flag from the people of this nation and its values and make it a holy symbol of state power. After a flag burning amendment, all that will be left for the Senate is to institute a national oath of loyalty, make Bush dictator for life and declare him a god on his death, then we'll have resurrected the ancient regime of Imperial Rome. Hail Bush Augustus! God Emperor of America! I'd rather risk being blown to smithereens by terrorists than live in a fascist imperial America. How about you? I don't want to be protected that badly.
The CIA
All of the secret prisons in countries notorious for their abuses of human rights should be abolished immediately. Who honestly believes that these prisoners have been sent to such places simply because we don't have space? The CIA has corrupted and defiled this nation for too long. I have fantasies of disbanding the CIA. If I ever were to become President I wouldn't simply appoint a new DCI to clean house, I would storm the CIA with the 18th Airborne Corps, arrest everyone on site and abolish that organization. It has acted without any measure of real oversight for too long and done too many things that we are paying for now. None of us knows the tenth part of the evil they have wrought. I'd open the files on all that has gone on (what they haven't hidden or destroyed or re-written). Did you know that for a decade we harboured the Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie, using him to train our operatives in the torture techniques perfected by the Gestapo, or that the CIA set up schools to train the secret police of Latin American dictators in the tactics of the Gestapo? Offhand, how many democratic reformist governments were toppled by the CIA? I can think of three and I haven't studied that question. Anyone who seriously believes that Congress or even the President (or his appointed Director of Central Intelligence for that matter) exercises any meaningful control over the murkiest operations of the CIA is deluded. They know only what the CIA wants them to know. I have no doubt but that there are groups within the CIA that have acted without accountability (other than some slight fiscal accountability) to no one. All it takes is one branch manager to cover for it and a plausible story. Are there noble elements within the CIA? Absolutely! But how do you sort out the wheat fromt he chaff? Besides, it only takes a few gross misdeeds to destroy the reputation of a whole nation. We've endured too much opprobation from activities of this rogue entity.
Don't Tread on Me
America is distinct from every other nation on Earth for one simple reason: it was established with the understanding that government, by its very nature, is intrinsically hostile to the interests of the people. No other nation crafted a Bill of Rights in its inception, and one so redolent with justified paranoia of a strong, centralized government. Every tenet of the Constitution of the United States is designed to limit the powers of the central government (what we now call the "federal government", although the federal system, which includes the states, was created to reserve most of the powers in the hands of the states). Appearing in state mottos and on flags, the expression "Don't Tread on Me" was the catchphrase of the early American separatists, with the symbol of the coiled rattlesnake - an innocuous creature, until cornered and provoked.
While there are good reasons for the national government to enforce the provisions of the Bill of Rights over the objections of states (as in the case of racial equity under law), the political consequence of the so-called American Civil War (which was, incidentally, never about civil rights, rather the economics of the textile industry) was the abolition of the original intent of the framers of our national government, the institution of a standing army used for suppression more often than defense (revisit late 19th century and early 20th century history if you doubt that remark and pay close attention to the details of the Reconstruction, the genocide campaigns in the West and the use of military force against labor unions) and the gradual loss of collective memory that this nation was never intended to be an imperial state. Since we emerged from World War II essentially undiminished, indeed invigorated, nothing has withstood our dominion, not even our European allies, those elder statesmen who now stand on the periphery and await our judgment and lead (as we see it). Our arrogance has become so vast that we can no longer see the edges of it - it fills our vision from horizon to horizon. The evolution of the American imperial state is almost complete. All that now is lacking is the inevitable decay and the extremism that such decadence engenders. How much will we endure before we reassert our warning, "Don't tread on me"? Or, is that spirit of true patriotism forever lost?
Political Corruption
In case you had not noticed, the US government is utterly corrupt. Granted we have one of the least corrupt governments in the world, but that is not saying a lot, considering that most governments are so corrupt that you cannot get a driver's license without bribing a local official. Even in Europe scandal is common. Witness Italy and the UK. Latin America has never known anything else. No, we are not the worst offenders, but nevertheless our government is utterly, thoroughly corrupt.
- There is no difference between a campaign contribution, or a payment from a lobbyist to some favored "cause", and a bribe. They are all a purchase of political influence.
Campaign donations and lobbying efforts are bribes, plain and simple. They are legal bribes, but bribes nonetheless. Most of these charitable causes and poltical action groups sponsored by various politicians are nothing more than elaborate money laundering schemes. It must stop. Congress is incapable of acting in this regard, so it falls to the President to do the unthinkable: make an executive order banning all political fundraising, for any reason, by any person or entity.
In times past this would have been an untenable proposition, but the internet has changed that. Today it is a simple matter to offer equal time to all candidates on a free, government-sponsored website. Nominees would be proferred by local, regional and state committees or even individuals. Let it be 10 candidates or 10,000. Who cares? This is cyberspace. The cream rises to the top. The people would naturally gravitate to the leaders that inspired them. This is not a process that would be favored by the big parties because they cannot as easily control it, but we must restore honesty to government. In my business, people go to prison for doing what politicians consider business as usual. They are so inured to it that they cannot appreciate how corrupt they have become. They only way to abolish it, is to ban it altogether, to remove any gray area that can be exploited.
The Pitfalls of Free Enterprise
It seems that Jesus' adage: "Physician heel thyself" is the appropriate remark for the free market fanatics who have clamored for us to create a global free trade zone under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Apparently, free market rules apply until they start causing the architects of that dogma to lose money. Lately, the economic moguls within the West have been seeing the hand writing on the wall as far as the vision of a limitless run of western corporate domination and growth. The out-sourcing of manufacturing to China, and of low-level jobs to the Pacific Rim and to India has led to a similar hemorrhage of mid- and high-level white collar jobs, with no more than a temporary patch on the widening leak in corporate profits vis-a-vis emerging markets in these same areas. Basically, the free marketeers have been hoist with their own petard.
I used to shake my head at the idiocy of the protesters at the WTO gatherings, wondering what were these kooks thinking. Now I know. They were smarter than the rest of us, for all their tree-hugging, hippie, Earth Mother-Goddess nonsense. The chief problem with unrestrained economics is that its unrestrained. People do not act in the best interests of the human population generally or of the Earth. They act in the best interests of their immediate economic horizon, which almost invariably is very personal and limited to a few months into the future.
This recent breakdown of negotiations of the Doha agreement within the WTO has caused some to despair and I hope that despair spreads like the avian flu. I hope it kills the WTO outright.
Its very simple: either we put an end to the WTO or the WTO will put an end to us.
Two or three years ago that statement would have sounded like the mantra of an economic troglodyte. Now, its not as crazy. Its very much like the problem with global warming. Fifteen years ago, global warming was the talk of hysterical fringe scientists, alarmists, nut-jobs with leftist leanings. Suddenly now the Earth is hotter than at any time in the history of temperature recording or even in the last two millenia and no one can deny it but those gripped with pathological denial. Globalization of trade presents a similar risk on the economic landscape. Its hard to convince people, but unless Western economies take protective measures now to stem the tide of job loss and technology export and educational deterioration, then the US and other western nations will have seen their zenith and will fade. There are a number of major players in the West who don't care and are already planning their future by investing in the burgeoning economies of India, China and the Pacific Rim, having written off America as a lost cause.
Congress and the White House need to cease being the lackeys for these unrestrained economic fanatics. Economics isn't a religion. You are not a heretic if you reject failing ideology or harbour doubt about the wisdom of completely free trade. The ghost of Milton Friedman will not haunt you on some wintry night like a figure from Dickens. The small print regarding true laissez faire economics is that it operates according to natural laws in which unemployed people die and businesses become extinct. This intrinsic ruthlessness is rarely acknowledged by the advocates of absolute free trade. In the pure free economic model, America is expendable, an acceptable sacrifice on the path of economic evolution. Are you ready to be extinct? We need to protect our indigenous work force and we need to reinvigorate its innovation.
America has some of the worst education of any industrialized country, and it isn't just the public schools; the very people dragging their kids out of public schools to place them in private school or to home school are doing so in most instances because they are closet racists and/or because they want to teach "alternative views" of science like creationism, effectively negating scientific education altogether by substituting theology and pseudoscience. We have to be smarter and better.
Without banning the import of foreign agricultural products of other goods and services, we need to enact legislation that removes all incentive for the out-sourcing we now see. There needs to be a level playing field and if that means that US corporations don't make a 15% profit this quarter because sales overseas were hit by corresponding protections, so be it. That will normalize in exactly the same way it did in the past. The truth is that all of this free trade philosophy is really about just one thing: maximizing profits for the ruling elite. The US economy was not always ruled by the stock markets or by investors with absolutely no real invovlement in or loyalty to American business, seeking only a quick score. Its time we trimmed that rank growth back as well.
Universal Health Care
Politicians can make every excuse they like, but its a shocking disgrace that the most prosperous nation on Earth does not have universal health care for its citizens. Before we have spent dime the first on trips to Mars or launching wars on foreign soil for vague and dubious reasons, we should have long ago paid for every person to be fully covered for all necessary and beneficial medical care. We talk about the cost, but it would be a small fraction of what we are spending on homeland defense and the war in Iraq. It would be a fairly simple matter to create a national health insurance plan in this country. The difficulty would be in preventing the Congress from robbing this cookie jar when it wants to spend.
The Madness of King George
The US is governed by a madman. Its been observed before, and not merely by those of antipolar political viewpoint, that George W. Bush is not rational, that he seems to have bizarre delusions. More than one source has quoted him as claiming to have been spoken to by God, and as having a divine call to spread liberty by the sword or to create a Palestinian state. Bush now is speaking of the carnage in Lebanon as an opportunity for a bright tomorrow, much in the way that a scientist might speak of a forest fire as a rejuvenating event in the life cycle of a mountain ecosystem. The difference is that hundreds of innocent people are dead for no reason. He talks as if democracy, liberty and peace on are on the verge of breaking out all over Iraq and that the insurgency is in essence a spiritual and ideological struggle between positive, hopeful ideas and negative, dark ideas, that the violence is spawned by people who are reacting to their fear of this new revolution - rather than to ages old endemic ethnic conflicts. Bush seems incapable of objectively regarding his policies of aggression with the same lens that he uses to view Hamas, Iran and al-Qaeda, somehow failing to understand that death and destruction on the scale produced by the US (and Israel), is far greater than that caused by terrorism and not justified simply because we claim to advocate a positive ideology. Perhaps the better analogy (while admittedly historically inaccurate) is that of an insane Nero playing the violin while he watches Rome burn around him.
Why the Democrats May Lose Yet Again
The Democrats are certain that they deserve to be in power - they just can't remember why. Its a pathetic demonstration of the disconnect between the world of Washington, DC and the real world when politicians are at such a loss of imagination that they cannot cover their naked desire to rule with some plausible excuse. Once upon a time the Democrats were the party of social activism. Now they just talk about it on special occasions. The Republicans are next-door to being Nazis and the Democrats still can't seem to stand out and rise above the stench of their own obsession with political power for its own sake. Hilary Clinton is doing all in her power to sound like a warhawk. The rest of the Democrats are casting about like involitient zombies trying to remember their names. They don't know who they are or what they stand for, they only know that they need power. The last thing we need is another chameleon in the White House whose only motivation is some fringe agenda. This is why we cannot afford as a people to allow career politicians to exist. Once politics becomes a career, the politician becomes a parasite and any sense of accountability to the electorate is lost.
Hey Howard! You were on the right track three years ago when your voice cracked and the Democratic National Committee took advantage of that comedy of the absurd to derail your populist usurpation and install its favored son. Now, things are different. You are in charge. So, make the changes that need to be made. Sacrifices must occur. It is not always in the public interest to support the incumbent. Dead wood and one-issue leftist fanatics need to be trimmed. Better candidates are out there. Don't let the fascists among the Republicans (or "me-toos" among the Democrats) own patriotism and don't apologize for calling them traitors when they betray the Constitution and recklessly lead this nation toward ruin. Don't fail to uphold our Bill of Rights and preserve it - in its entirety - at all costs and against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Return our national focus and our funding priorities to domestic concerns: education, healthcare, retirement security, poverty, civil liberty, and (above all) dependable, clean energy. End deficit spending forever and start dealing with our colossal national debt. Revitalize our fading economy. Promote this agenda and you'll stand out from the Republicans. What's more, you win the majority of centrist voters who crave change and real interest by our elected officials in solving our problems.
"Balancing" Civil Liberty with Security
On the eve of the 5th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I have a declaration for all those pounding the terrorism drum: there is no balance between civil liberty and security - our civil liberties are mandated by the Constitution, the highest law of the land, and are not negotiable or subject to lawful suspension at any time, for any reason, by any person! Find the clause within the Constitution that says that the President may, at his private discretion, suspend or revoke provisions of the Bill or Rights in time of "war". There is no such empowerment! As such, George W. Bush is a felon, as have been several Congresses and Supreme Courts. You don't like the fact that its illegal to suspend the liberties insured by the Bill of Rights in order to combat terrorism? Deal with it. That's America.
Fire the Bums!
I have a suggestion for the upcoming election: let's fire every incumbent. Sure, we'll lose a few good folks, but on balance we'll get that many new good ones. The important thing is to end the careers of the politicians. Too few have any interest in America's problems. They are analogous to a spouse who spends all the income on frivolous activities, running up a debt of almost 90% of your annual salary with no plan to pay it down and more debt acruing every day and plans to spend even more and demand more from you. Meanwhile, the bills aren't being paid, the house needs repair, the kids need money for school and basic needs and doctor's bills. But the spouse really does feel the pain; the new Maserati with the Gucci interior makes it all easier to bear.
Sack them all! Don't let anyone scare you about the perils of gay terrorists teaching our kids about evolution, federal funding for free abortions in pre-school, subsidies to hand out machine guns to high-schoolers from low income neighborhoods any other silliness. Don't even look at the party affiliation. Just vote for whoever is not the incumbent.
ADDENDUM: As anyone who pays even passing attention to current events can attest, the election was a stunner for the recalcitrant Republicans. It remains to be seen if the newly empowered Democrats will do what needs to be done to stave off disaster - or fall back on their old pattern of behavior and concentrate on extremist policies (gun control, gay rights, abortion rights, etc.). They have two years to prove that they are a viable alternative. Otherwise, I propose that we systematically un-elect the entire Congress.
Lies, Damn Lies, etc.
Did you note the release of the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on pre-war intelligence concerning the threat (if any) posed by Iraq? It abolished any doubt that the White House was beguiled by the CIA or anyone else in the intel community into asserting that Saddam Hussein was amassing WMDs or consorting with al-Qeada. Those fabrications were identified as such by the CIA at the time and the White House was specifically cautioned against relying on sources providing such claims that had been proved to be false and baseless. So, it was never a case of the CIA analysts misleading the President, it was a case of the White House lying and soliciting liars that it could cite as confidential sources.
Anniversary Ruminations
People are calling September 11, 2001 the worst tragedy in American history. That's absurd. The Battle of Antietam was the worst single day loss of life, but there were many Civil War battles lasting more than a day that rivaled it in carnage. More Americans died in that war than in all the wars of the 20th century combined. The Bataan Death March in the Philippines in World War II cost 7000 to 10,000 lives. Go read some history. Its probably the worst tragedy in your lifetime, but most of us have had it very easy. Prior generations were more acquainted with tragedy. We have forgotten (or never bothered to learn).
Invisible Carnage
The recent level of carnage in Iraq has prompted all but the most ebullient to admit that civil war is underway. The reported death toll has been as high as 100 per day. Incredible, isn't it? Did you know that America loses that many people each day to disease caused by tobacco? It also costs billions. The difference is that the carnage is invisible to the average person and rarely makes headlines and the costs are healthcare, rather than reconstruction.
North Korea's A-Bomb
The recent testing by North Korea of its alleged nuclear weapons capability has been quite amusing. Most officials and journalists have reacted with apprehension or alarm - the White House has even hinted that it would obliterate Pyongyang. I see the proliferation of nuclear arms as an irrepressible tide. Eventually, everyone will have the Bomb. So, I was neither shocked nor outraged by the test. What is more disturbing, though no less anticipated, is Kim Jong Il's newfound confidence and belligerance, to the point of declaring UN and other sanctions acts and declarations of war.
The yield of the explosion was quite small by nuclear standards, only about 500 tons, so small that many have openly speculated that the alleged test was a sham. Apparently, we now have detected some radiation, although it is possible to fake that as well. Its just possible that they are struggling to get it right and felt the need to make a demonstration. Arranging a conventional detonation of 500 tons is quite easy, we do that sort of thing all the time to test ground shock effects on structures that must survive nearby detonations of nuclear weapons. Still, if I were setting out to fake a test I would arrange for a larger explosion, at least a couple kilotons. Frankly, I think they really did attempt a nuclear test, and merely botched it, just like they did recently with their Taepo-Dong 2 missile test.
Make no mistake: a 500 ton warhead would be more devastating
than any conventional warhead in existence - by far.
But such a yield doesn't have nearly the deterrent cachet of a weapon with a 10 kiloton yield. It will also grieve the Dear Leader to waste so much precious plutonium for such a puny result. On the whole, I think the test was a great event. It showed the duplicity and ill intentions of Kim Jong-Il, revealed the weakness of North Korean technology (again) and bolstered our commitment to developing ballistic missile defense. And if our curly-haired friend from across the sea nukes somebody - or tries - well, we can sort this mess out once and for all, as will almost inevitably be necessary.
Wolf! Wolf!
The Department of Homeland Security has (once again) raised the threat level at the airports to Orange ("High Risk"), just in time for election season. The cry of "Wolf! wolf!" by the boy terror-fighters has become both tiresome and a cause for real concern. It is reminiscent (and for the same reason) of the new definition of a Tornado Warning in the post-Doppler radar era. The reason is political liability. Essentially, officials who declare a constant state of high alert have insulated themselves from accusation of "not doing enough" to warn people and take action. The feckless and idiotic security measures that have been implemented in airports over the last five years are in the same category: not meaningful deterrents against terrorism, but symbolic gestures aimed at deflecting liability in the event of another terrorist attack. If ever (whenever) that happens again the officials will lay the blame on those inattentive TSA folks and wash their own hands of responsibility because "we took the necessary steps to safeguard America". The real risk now is that no one takes the threat level seriously. How can we? Its either yellow or orange all the time.
Newsflash: No one living today will ever see a time when Islamic terrorists do not seek
to kill Americans. Neither will our children's children's children.
Is that not obvious? If so, then how can it be Threat Level Yellow or Orange all of the time? Of course they are trying to kill us! We get it. Every day, every minute, they are trying. The whole point of the threat alert is wasted if it is always at the level just below an ongoing attack. Incidentally, we have five levels of threat. FIVE! That is brain damaged. Do we have five levels of severe weather advisory? No! Because all you need to know is that conditions are favorable for it to happen or it is happening at this moment. All of the rest of the time you go about your business. Level Green is a "low risk of terrorist attack". If anyone expects that kind of definition to exist from this point onward in history it would require the death of every muslim in the world, plus the eradication of every copy of the Quran and the erasure of the memory of every person who ever read it. Not happening.
There should be two levels of alert: yellow and red. Threat Level Yellow means that an attack is believed imminent. That would depend on credible intelligence, not hearsay or political expedience or just being "on the safe side". Threat Level Red is September 11, 2001 after the first plane hit the World Trade Center; not a drill, not credible intelligence, but certain knowledge of an ongoing operation. Anything else lulls people into a state of carelessness and blunts the effect that should be created when a White House press briefing releases a statement that intelligence indicates a high probability of an imminent terrorist attack. Who would get excited about such a statement right now? Practically no one, and that is because the threat level is always too high and because the credibility of the White House and the intel community right now is nil.
Moonbase Alpha
NASA has formally unveiled its long range plans for a permanent human settlement of scientists on the Moon by the 2020s - demonstrating that the effects of reduced gravity and artificial atmosphere include mental debilitation.
Among its many challenges, and particularly with the all but insurmountable challenge to completely transform our entire economy within that same timeframe, weening us entirely from petroleum dependency, we cannot afford such a fanciful and essentially pointless endeavor as a moonbase.
Are you listening Democratic Congress? This is one of your tests. Put the kibosh on that nonsense at once, before any significant money is spent on it. Let NASA hold a competition to develop a low-cost probe to send to the Moon to collect data on mysterious particles and cosmic rays. You don't need people to do that mission.
The Real Plan for Victory
Now that the Democrats hold a narrow majority in Congress many, including Speaker Pelosi, are challenging the President's proposed plan to "surge" another 20,000 or more troops to Iraq "temporarily" (have we already forgotten that this was what we did just a year or so ago?). The telegraphing of this proposed plan well ahead of its formal presentation seems to me to be an invitation to the Democrats to accept the bait of a trap. Clearly, Bush is not concerned that the early release of the basic approach will give his opponents more time to pick it apart. That may reflect nothing more than his arrogance, but I think it does suggest more.
The GOP is not ready to step aside and while Bush may be headed for the political boneyard, he and his posse are determined that their legacy not be one tainted by failure. The Democrats have just enough time to evaporate any hope of presidential victory in 2008, a sure-bet one would assume. I think Bush is baiting the Democrats to slash the budget as a means of curtailing his operations in Iraq. True, he could simply veto such measures. But, it may work out that they can't be vetoed for one reason or another. The effect of such budget cuts would be an embargo on our armed forces deployed in Iraq. It would not put a stranglehold on Bush so much as on GI Joe and GI Jane. Bush would call on the troops to serve their country in honor and duty despite the intent of Congress to take away their support. Its precisely the sort of ugly assault on our military that galvanizes Americans and guts Democratic support in the middle of the electorate.
The Democrats must not fall for this trap. Are you listening? Ultimately, the fastest route to getting our forces out of Iraq is to let Bush have all the rope he needs to hang himself. Realistically, there is no chance that US forces will withdraw prior to Bush leaving office in 2009. Given that, it is imperative that someone from the Democratic Party be in office then. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a small battle in order to win the war. Two more years of Bush dominated Iraqi conflict will sink the GOP. However, if the Democrats provide any pretext whatsoever for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to claim that victory was within reach, but it was denied by the craven Democratic Congress, then the backlash could be severe in 2008. This, in my judgment, is precisely the victory that the Bush cabal is trying to achieve: a scapegoat for their fiasco in the Middle East.
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