“Doggonit!”

On purpose.  All the time.  The most blatant, shameless, and visible self-parody in recorded history.  It’s the icing on the Embarrassment Cake of America, and the whole planet gets a piece, requested or not.  Even Milton gets a piece.

My first and last words about Bristol

Lots of flotsam and jetsam this weekend on the whole Bristol Palin thing but here’s my two cents, then I’ll shut up about it

I can’t believe the number of postings I’ve seen on the various blogs and news sites that say that Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is a “family matter” and not a political issue! That’s just nonsense. There is not one “family matter” that doesn’t have one foot in the political arena simply because they affect us as individuals who are members of a community.

I may want to sit in my living room and smoke cigarettes, drink scotch and watch TV ’til I croak. I have the right to do so, but that doesn’t mean anyone can’t criticise or dicuss my behavior in the context of the overall health of the black male in society if they want to. I can act on it or give ‘em the finger but I can’t shut ‘em up.

Same for Bristol Palin’s pregnancy:
We have a right to talk about it in a political context because she’s another pregnant 17 year old in a country where woman have had to fight for the right NOT to end up in the same boat she’s in.
We have a right to talk about it in a political context because her own mother advocates a form of birth control that is unscientific, ineffectual and, like it or not, a part of our international AIDS policy which elicits worldwide disdain.

As long as we can legislate what goes on with the human body the body politic has a right to talk about it.

Alright, the soapbox is up for grabs now…

Am I slow or is a basic question about the Iraq war still going unanswered?

I was looking at a post on Center for Media and Democracy taken from The National Security Archive and it brought to mind a nagging question: just why did the Bush administration feel they had to invade Iraq? The available information that I’ve seen does a good job of drawing the timeline of events and decisions, (see the PBS Frontline special Bush’s War and this wonderful project  Inquiry into the Decision to Invade Iraq) but neither distills it down to a simple, believable, black and white “quid pro quo“.

I just have a hard time believing that Ahmad Chalabi conned the White House into this whole thing. This article in The Independent from May of last year has a telling quote that illuminates the point:
“Did he invent evidence of weapons of mass destruction or prompt witnesses to do so? In fact all the opposition, particularly the Kurdish security services, were doing this. But it was absurd for the CIA and assorted American services and newspapers along with MI6 to later claim that they were misled. They knew what President George Bush and Tony Blair wanted and gave it to them.”
(italics mine)
What did they want?

If you place the article from the National Security Archive on the timeline it supports the contention that the Bush cabinet had a hard-on for attacking Iraq, what the Phase II report termed a fixation on Iraq, but none of the accumulation of data dares to define a reason, short of saying that the White House deemed Saddam Hussein a threat to U.S. security.

Now, my admittedly hyperactive conspiracy theory gland wants me to say that it was something as simple as oil or Haliburton contracts (see this aforementioned timeline to see the links to the Oil hypothesis) but my logic gland wants somebody else with a bigger brain to link all the beads together. And at that point if the conclusion is as nefarious, nay criminal as my gut tells me it is, then when do we start throwing the obvious criminals in jail?

Alive in Baghdad – videoblog you must see

http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/In their own words:

Alive in Baghdad employs Iraqi journalists to produce video packages each week about a variety of topics on daily life in Iraq. Through the work of a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground, Alive in Baghdad shows the conflict through the voices of Iraqis. Alive in Baghdad brings testimonies from individual Iraqis, footage of daily life in Iraq, and short news segments from Iraq to you. 

 

Separation of Video Games and State

“Computer and video games need to be defended from stringent government regulations, as they continue to be a punching bag for multiple elected officials. Enough is enough! Stand up for games, and if you’re 18 or over, join the network to ensure that games remain self-regulated.”

‘Nuff said. Join the Video Game Voter’s Network.

Slacker Ratings-Obsessed Media Ruins Nation

Hardly a news flash, but:

Last week I was talking to my Mom and I mentioned something about Dodd being awesome again, and she said, “That’s nice, but how am I supposed to know anything about him?”  WHAT?!?  “You can go to his very informative website, read, and watch videos!!!”  I couldn’t believe it.  “But nobody knows who he is!”  “SO READ HIS SITE.  Then you can tell your friends that you’re really impressed and tell THEM to read the site.”

The media so completely destroys the politically competent because people are too busy with their own obvious concerns.  Politics should be an obvious concern, but it barely registers for most people, or I think Dodd would be doing much better.  Fighting the republicans is hard as hell even when they serve up their own disaster on a platter, but fighting for a media that does what it’s supposed to do looks even harder.  We watch CNN every morning just so we can see how even non-FOX mainstream distorts everything, and generally ignores the most important stories.  We leave the house fuming every day.

Worth spreading around.

Cheney in 94 explaining EXACTLY why invading Iraq was a terrible idea. It matches today to the letter.

I’ll be psyched next time he wraps himself in the flag so it’ll be easier to [GIVE HIM A GREAT BIG HUG] until he [BECOMES EXTREMELY HAPPY] from the shear force of my [BOUNDLESS LOVE]. I wonder if they’ll read this?

Let’s get sci-fi

Just a thought as I was reading this in the New York Times:

The administration, [Former Surgeon General Richard H.] Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.

“I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ ” Dr. Carmona said.

The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people, and the Kennedys have long been deeply involved in it.

So the scenario is: You go back in time to Inauguration Day, 2001, and tell your former self about Bush administration history, 2001-2007. Knowing that, wouldn’t your 2001 self support impeachment as a matter of duty and policy, overriding any potential political implications?

The Leading Democrat on Energy

MoveOn just had a vote to choose the Democratic presidential candidate with the best energy policy, and I voted for Senator Dodd.  There are three video clips per candidate here.

Edwards doesn’t say much of substance, while Clinton and Obama make a big push for cap and trade and carbon auctions, which looks like sweeping crap under the rug. Dodd clearly has the edge here, and it’s been difficult to get media attention for some reason (I’m working on a conspiracy theory), even though he has the best and most aggressive plan, and the plan most applauded by experts.  There are big problems with the empty talk and polluter-friendly half-measures of the other candidates, and I’d like to think Dodd could make headway in this climate. I wish people would talk more about how the front runners are being safe and NOT LEADING. Gravel and Biden aren’t being safe, but one is spewing his own marbles, and the other one is screaming himself hoarse. Richardson is boring the hell out of me, and Kucinich is an alien fruit loop.

Spread the word people, Dodd is the man with the plan, as well as the experience and desire to see it all through.

Itchy Impeachment Finger

I’m on a lot of e-mail lists. I don’t know how I got on some of them, but I don’t care. I don’t respond to many of them, but it’s good to see what everyone on “our side” thinks. Now suddenly, they all seem to be of one mind about impeaching Cheney. We’ve talked about this before; how we believe he deserves it, but it’s easy to question whether it should be done now, with everything else going on. I’m in favor of it out of screaming rage over everything they’ve done, and after no research I believe this kind of shakeup would be good overall and wouldn’t destroy the country, but I’m not pinning any hopes on it or expecting anything from it. I only bring it up because I’m curious if the alignment of e-mail lists points to any more serious thought in the Democratic party? Is this something the Dems aren’t talking about publicly, but using the lists as market testing? True Majority quoted a poll saying that 54% of Americans support impeachment of Cheney, but I never heard of the place. Thoughts?