Mobilized

The Navy is all over the Katrina disaster, especially the crews from my hometown. This should help the relief and rescue efforts a lot, I just hope they can get their in time to make a big difference.

The Brown Stuff

Coffee: Antioxidant, Carcinogen, Health Food, Sterilizer, Crime, Joy.

Rumble in the Blogs

It seems that Evil Glenn is in a mad spot of trouble. In a story that I think shows yet another wide gulf of rifts in the entire right of center, there are calls for mass de-linking of him. And the main diatribe can be found here. What did Evil Glenn do to incur such wrath? Well, he made a backhanded comment in one of his microposts, basically dissing a huge anti-ACLU book. What did he say?

BOOKS LIKE THIS ONE ON THE ACLU, which I just got in the mail, are probably no worse than the myriad of hatchet jobs done in the past on, say, the NRA or (more recently) the Federalist Society. But I think that demonizing the ACLU is a bit silly. I do feel that they've become overly partisan in recent years, but they still do good work (I've worked with them in the past, on the New Orleans rave case for example, and will probably do so again.)

That's the post in its entirety. Now, of course people are piling on him about this. How the ACLU stands for the destruction of American values, how they are in league with Terrorists, how they are the secular Taliban, etc. etc. etc. Those who read this snippet are so furious they claim they'll never read Evil Glenn again (haha, yeah right) and are sponsoring a movement to have him stripped off all their blogrolls. This may fascinate people on the left, considering Glenn is scene as one of the biggest Republican/rightwing shills out there. Lordy be if he assert the slightest independent though.

But onto why we should even care about this. Anyone that reads any of the Evil One in any of his Evil Forms (1, 2, or 3) will be acqaunted with the fact that the man is pretty much a classical libertarian, though one that is also very hawkish on Foreign Policy. He is pro-choice, pro-stem-cell research, and anti-death penalty. Rightwing indeed! But he represents a certain wing of the Republican party that, while not possessing a huge political base (going back to today's earlier Fukuyama post), commands a share of "intellectual firepower." Libertarians, while they share with the Republican party much in terms of being skeptical of government, generally anti-tax and pro-growth, and somewhat hawkish on foreign policy, break ranks with them over social issues. Quite a few also over the failed GWOD (Global War on Drugs, of course). Evil Glenn is one such character. And it's not surprising he would help the ACLU, which is sympathetic to certain Libertarian goals on the social and civil end, on certain cases.

But, of course, this is just blood in the water to the crazy Ann Coulter right who like to throw around words like "treason", "traitor", "un-American" like pez dispensers of hyperbole. The libertarians have put much of their intellectual firepower to good use for the right, giving them great economic policy ideas, an alternate set of effective talking points, and basically fueling the ability of Republicans to compete in socially-liberal blue states by giving the Rudy Giulianis a tough yet liberty-friendly platform and ideology to stride forward on. And this backlash against Evil Glenn shows how much gratitude it has earned them. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing extremists destroy the very people that help them with their agendas over minor squabbles. All the much more when I disagree with those extremists. But if extreme right wingers continue such witchhunts amongst the rank and file of their own side, they'll only have their own empty numbers and hyperbolic rhetoric to keep them company on election day.

Time to Collect

I have been hard on Saudi Arabia for a long time, hoping that we would eventually start to demand major changes from what is supposed to be a close ally of ours. Unfortunately I realize that these expectations are not very realistic. It is unlikely that they will make progress towards becoming a democracy or respecting the rule of law anytime soon. And there is very little chance that they will do much of anything to reverse all the suffering they have caused by spreading Wahhabism throughout much of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The most we can expect is that they crack down a little on Al Qaeda cells in their country, stop donating money to charities that will eventually send that money to terrorist cells, and maybe stop some of the anti-American sermons coming from their religious leaders (notice I don't even expect major efforts on any of these fronts).

But I think I have finally come across a realistic contribution they can make to somewhat atone for their past mistakes. Bull Moose suggests that Saudi Arabia announce that it will donate money to help build infrastructure in Sunni areas of Iraq in an effort to convince Sunnis to support the new government. Since the Sunni areas lack oil revenue that could support rebuilding efforts, they will need support from wherever they can get it.

Granted, I don’t know how realistic this is. It sounds reasonable, but many great ideas have been thwarted because the Bush administration lacks the vision to see a good policy when it hits them in the face.

Bloggers and Accountability (Scary)

The idea that FEC regulations may apply to bloggers is a scary one. The notion that your comments and posts about a particular candidate may somehow become judged as "contributions" or "endorsements" and thus subject to a whole lot of federal buffoonery is outrageous. Outrageous, and, because of McCain Feingold, a possibility. But it may not just be big government who is out to crush bloggers' free speech zones. The private sector wants its turn too.

At issue are statements posted in the comments section of Mr. Wall's blog, SEOBook.com. Many blogs allow readers to post comments, often anonymously, and Mr. Wall's blog included several reader submissions that blasted tools sold by Traffic-Power.com.

Traffic-Power.com said in the suit that confidential information about the company has been published on the blog, and it accused Mr. Wall of publishing "false and defamatory information," but it didn't identify any of the material in question.

There may be more than one reason for bloggers to turn off comments now. While it's uncertain whether this lawsuit has any true legal basis, it's also unclear that it doesn't. And now that we have one case, there will surely be others. Hat tip, Sullivan.

The Cost of Douch Baggedness

[see story in link]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a very strong conservative, but guys like Steve Moore nauseate me in the way they comport themselves like douchebags. Right on policy, horrible on people skills, downright impossible in the humility department. I'm sure there are analogs on the Left, but either they aren't as horrible at covering it up or it's just not as pronounced as with Moore.

Moore, and just about every other free market capitalist conservative should take to heart this simple truth: there is a dignity, a majestic beauty to humbling yourself as a servant to and for your political cause, in sublimating your ego to a greater cause, and not for the sake of personal aggrandizement but for the benefit of your ideology. Seems to me Moore didn't, and never did, understand this when he huffed out of Club for Growth and started Free Enterprise Fund in part out of spite.

Perhaps a certain level of humility and non-assholishness would have averted both the Club and the Fund from being tarnished by the whiff of irrelevance, and/or from the Fund ever having been started as an F-you move by Moore to his compatriots at the Club for Growth.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Robinson

Today is Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson’s 70th birthday and the Washington Post has a long tribute to him. If you don’t know that he is probably the second greatest living baseball player right now behind Willie Mays, than you would do well to read the whole article. But besides finishing with 586 home runs, 2,943 hits, Rookie of the Year in 1956, National League MVP in 1961, and American League MVP, World Series MVP and the Triple Crown in 1966, he was also baseball’s first African-American manager in 1975 – 28 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as a player. All Washingtonians should read up on the fascinating life of their fearless manager.

On another note, I’ll bet some of you are wondering why I haven’t weighed in yet on the National’s slide. I haven’t said anything because I don’t want to be like every other sports journalist who says the team is finished one day and then says they are back on track the next. There is no doubt that they are struggling right now and have been since the All-Star break. But many teams falter after having unexpected success in the beginning of the season. They will need to rebound in a serious way soon or they will find themselves watching the playoffs from their couch. I am not trying to sound harsh, but that is the reality. The Nationals need to start hitting - their pitching has been stellar but has not been getting the run support it deserves (the Nats are last in baseball in runs scored). They took a step in the right direction by acquiring infielder Deivi Cruz from the San Francisco Giants, finally deciding to give up on shortstop Christian Guzman who been underperforming with a batting average under .200 all season.

My prediction – the Nats will finish above .500 somewhere in the middle of the very competitive National League East. Look for the Atlanta Braves to take first in the division, and the Houston Astros or Florida Marlins to get the Wild Card (the Philadelphia Phillies do not have a chance). We should all realize there is no shame if the Nats finish above .500 but don't make the playoffs. The team has played better than most expected and can use the offseason to make a few moves and make an even better run at the playoffs next year - especially if they ever get new ownership.

Fukuyama for Thought

Normally, I think Mr. Fukuyama is full of crap. Him and his posthuman and posthistory and endofhistory crowd nauseate me. However, he's written an Op-Ed in the NYT that is blunt, lucid, and on-target. He dissects two currents of thought in the Republican party, and then explains what the tension is and why it is likely to get worse over Iraq.

So much attention has been paid to these false determinants of administration policy that a different political dynamic has been underappreciated. Within the Republican Party, the Bush administration got support for the Iraq war from the neoconservatives (who lack a political base of their own but who provide considerable intellectual firepower) and from what Walter Russell Mead calls "Jacksonian America" - American nationalists whose instincts lead them toward a pugnacious isolationism.

Happenstance then magnified this unlikely alliance. Failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the inability to prove relevant connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda left the president, by the time of his second inaugural address, justifying the war exclusively in neoconservative terms: that is, as part of an idealistic policy of political transformation of the broader Middle East. The president's Jacksonian base, which provides the bulk of the troops serving and dying in Iraq, has no natural affinity for such a policy but would not abandon the commander in chief in the middle of a war, particularly if there is clear hope of success.

This war coalition is fragile, however, and vulnerable to mishap. If Jacksonians begin to perceive the war as unwinnable or a failure, there will be little future support for an expansive foreign policy that focuses on promoting democracy. That in turn could drive the 2008 Republican presidential primaries in ways likely to affect the future of American foreign policy as a whole.

This is so spot-on its amazing, and it explains the eroding support for the war. The neoconservative and Straussian arguments (aside: Fukuyama himself is part of this camp) about the importance of bringing democracy to the Mideast, a new Iraq, and the use of American military power for humanitarian and history-changing ways have considerable weight to them. The only problem is they don't sell well. People like myself, Senor C, and Chainz can spew these out all day and they are often powerful moral and philosophical arguments. The problem is that Americans have never much bought into this kind of idealistic foreign policy, and it smacks so much of neo-Wilsonianism that people are starting to realize it and become a little bit timid in the face of such grandiose theories. That's why the neocons have "intellectual firepower" but no real political base of power, as Fukuyama wisely points out.

But Fukuyama isn't done there, he has one last important thing to say. In his closing, he states:

We do not know what outcome we will face in Iraq. We do know that four years after 9/11, our whole foreign policy seems destined to rise or fall on the outcome of a war only marginally related to the source of what befell us on that day. There was nothing inevitable about this. There is everything to be regretted about it.

This is why, on balance, I was against the war and now in a bizarre turn of events I am basically for it. Fukuyama sees what happened, and he sees the support eroding, and he sees the basis for the war as questionable, but understands that our whole foreign policy is at stake here. To me, that is why I cannot simply retreat to the safety of ivory-tower like arguments about the war's legitimacy. We've staked everything on the experiment in Iraq, and if it fails we and Iraq suffer an incalculable loss. But, since this is likely a neocon/Straussian/abstract notion it is unlikely to have political traction. And that is the saddest part of this whole saga. As we grapple with Iraq, and as one dives further into the consequences and problems, the desperation over the future and the frustration of the constitution building, its clear that there is still so much that has to be done before even the end of the beginning.

The failure of the Iraq policy is something some may secretly applaud because it would tear apart factions in the Republican party and would be bad news for President Bush. It would also play into the hands of so many "gotcha" politicians who have claimed (somewhat rightly) that Iraq was just a big distraction. Whatever you think of these consequences, there are consequences of a historical nature beyond that. There's the consequence of another tyranny arising in the Mideast, another Somalian bloodbath of a failed state, and perhaps the deaths of millions in an Iraqi civil war that could rage for years and plunge the entire region into terrorism and chaos. I for one am not willing to see the latter set of circumstances play out just to get the former. But again, this position has no political base and will likely not be taken into account.

If anything, Americans are likely to take an even more careful look at foreign policy after this situation plays out. However it plays out. Vietnam changed American foreign policy forever as it tested the limits, legitimacy, and ability of the U.S. to wage a certain type of war for certain ends against a certain type of enemy. Iraq is similar to Vietnam only in that it is such a test, but against another certain type of war and enemy, toward another set of ends.

Hat tip, The Moderate Voice.

Coalition for Darfur: What It Is All About

Last weekend, the blog Blue Girl, Red State wrote a post about a regular blog commenter who went by the name "Shameless Hussy."

Blue Girl reports that "Shameless Hussy" went to Darfur in June as a humanitarian volunteer and was traumatized by what she saw

What she dealt with daily goes beyond the pale...beyond the nightmares of most people; Children with all four limbs hacked off right above the knee or below the elbow. Twelve year olds who died in childbirth after being gang-raped by the Janjaweed. Women who gave birth to rape-babies who were then cast out by their families for shaming the family name, leaving only one avenue of survival for themselves and their children after the camps: Prostitution.

What is f**ing her up is the desperation, and the fact that she worked herself to death for over a month, and she still didn't really save anyone. Now that she's gone, it's like she was never there. Even the ones she helped keep alive, she didn't save. You try dealing with that reality.

And women are the preponderance of victims. Men do not leave the villages to go to the countryside to gather firewood and other necessary items of sustenance. Women venture out, even though every time they leave their villages, they are at horrific risk of being beaten and raped and disfigured. The reason they go instead of the men? The women are only attacked, the en are killed.

This post receive a fair amount of attention within the blogosphere (as far as posts about Darfur go) mainly due to the fact that Kevin Drum linked to it. And while getting bloggers to pay attention to Darfur, if only for a minute, is a minor miracle, it is worth asking why it takes a post about traumatized aid workers to generate any interest in genocide.

This situation in Darfur has existed for over two years and, if people were interested, they could find accounts of death, disease, rape and torture occurring there on an almost daily basis. 400,000 people have died and nearly 3 million have been displaced and yet nobody - not politicans, not the media, not bloggers - really seem to care.

To anyone who has been paying attention, the atrocities witnessed by "Shameless Hussy" are, sadly, well-known. If her story generates concern for the people of Darfur, then for that we should be thankful. And if people who were moved by it are really interested in Darfur, then they should start reading the analyses produced by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Eric Reeves and the International Crisis Group, supporting organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Save Darfur and STAND, reading blogs like Passion of the Present, Sudan Watch, the Coalition for Darfur, and Sleepless in Sudan and demanding that their elected leaders do something about it.

Our thanks goes out to "Shameless Hussy" and all those who sacrifice to help those in need. But we must keep in mind that Darfur is not about them - it is about this

Katrina

Inevitably, the elephant in the room must be addressed. And I'm not talking about PoP. This hurricane is a catastrophe, and you only need to read the harrowing first-person blogger accounts Joe Gandelman has diligently and somberly collected to get half a clue about it. I can't top his extensive meta-blogging prowess, nor will I try. My thoughts and prayers to all those touched by it. It is truly a horrific display of natural power. I hope New Orleans will be spared, but it doesn't look good. I hope the death toll will be low, but it doesn't look good. This has truly been one of the worst hurricanes the U.S. has ever seen, and the final damages will be unprecedented as levees break and cities submerge.

There are already many in more-than-idle wonderment at this. To all the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Fallwells who will likely say this is because we tolerate gay people, I reference you to the erudite script already in Beliefnet. An event this full of awesome power deserves some theological thought, and the Beliefnet piece is as good as any a place to start. The human damage of this is high, and will take some time. FEMA has leapt into action. And I will, and I hope everyone else will, open up your wallets when the relief charities come asking.

Oil prices will rise, no doubt. The refineries and chemical plants may yet end up wreaking environmental havoc should the flooding continue unabated. The damage to people, environment, and property shall be immense in the end. Again, my thoughts and prayers out to the victims of this.

The Other Side of Coming Down

The US Census Bureau just released some new numbers about poverty and it don't look good:

The official poverty rate in 2004 was 12.7 percent, up from 12.5 percent 2003.

And according to a professor from where I spent way too long in exile earning my mad grad creds:

Tim Smeeding, an economics professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, says the nation has experienced a shift from earnings income to capital income and capital gains, which aren't reflected in the Census Bureau's latest numbers.

''Most of that growth in the economy over the last couple of years has gone to higher income people and has taken the form of capital income -- interest, rents, dividends,'' Smeeding said.

So how come poverty is going up when we're supposed to be experiencing an economic recovery? The "economic recovery" is uneven - the trickle down part of supplied side economics is failing to trickle. As Smeeding points out, the income growth is in the higher income distribution (with CGs and such); it's not within the lower and middle parts of the overall income distribution which is fed by wages (earnings income). More simply, the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.

Sheehan Activism Update

I received the following in an email this morning from Sojourners, a liberal Christian magazine. Below my post you will find the cartoon which accompanied the text, which I excerpt below:

Dear Ken,

Buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires public high schools to hand over students' private contact information to military recruiters. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funds. As if that weren't bad enough, the Pentagon has now built an illegal database of 30 million 16 to 25-year-olds as another recruitment tool.

Action 1: Protect our Children - "Opt Them Out!"

Sojourners is partnering with Working Assets and others in The Leave My Child Alone Coalition to make it easy to protect children from unwanted military recruiting by getting their names off both Pentagon and high school recruiting lists.

»Click here to opt out your child

Action 2: Host a Back-To-School Event

Because most high schools turn over their student lists to military recruiters in October, it's imperative that we get as many kids as possible "opted out" during the month of September. Parents, teachers, grandparents, and concerned citizens are planning Leave My Child Alone back-to-school events from September 7 to 30. It's easy to host an event at your home, church, or local coffee shop - we provide you with the forms and information you need, plus a FREE DVD (http://www.leavemychildalone.org/DVD) on opting out, featuring Cindy Sheehan and former recruiter Jim Massey.

»Click here to register an event now and help local families opt out! Consider making "Opt Out" the subject of a religious education class, youth group gathering, book club, or other community activity you already participate in.

Now, it is a fair point that NCLB may need some amending to restrict data-mining by the Pentagon, although, considering that every 18-year old male is required to register with Selective Service anyway, I fail to see how this is so earth-shattering a privacy concern.

Additionally, while parental input is key for a lot of kids and the education and career choices they make fresh out of college, it seems to me this push by Sojourners, Sheehan, et al is bordering on being anti-military and being insulting to the maturity, intelligence, and bravery of the youth of our nation. I'm sure most 17 and 18-year old American kids these days recognize the costs and risks, the dangers, and the benefits of military service. To hype this issue as though children are mindless robots who are easily seduced to some dark side (joining the military) is a window into the soul of the anti-war movement and how it truly is diving in head first into the shallow end of the pool.




Cartoon accompanying an email from Sojourners magazine, a liberal Christian journal.

We're Not Worthy

David Segal has a great article in the Washington Post Magazine. In it, he talks about the search for the Live Concert Moment (LCM). While the point of his article seems to be that these seemingly unplanned moments at live music that cause awe and wonder for the listener are becoming harder to find due to what he sees as a focus on theatrics instead of music and causing concerts to lose some of their unpredictability, he does spend a lot of the article talking about some of his favorite moments. While I don’t necessarily agree that it is harder to find LCM in music today, his description of these moments is one of the best explanations I have come across for these experiences. I also don’t think it has to be unpredictable – but it is always something transcendent. Whether it is watching Bruce Springsteen for the first time as he seemingly gives every ounce of his energy to that show you are at (and obviously loving every minute of it), listening to Dave Matthews Band perform Two Step during an encore that was besieged by an unexpected severe thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail, watching Ray LaMontagne at Bonnaroo at a tent full of people who might also have come to Tennessee just to see him, or seeing Bela Fleck play his banjo in a small night club with Sandip Burman – a short and skinny man from India who plays the tablas faster than I have seen anyone play a percussion instrument, these moments are unexpected, often defy explanation later as to what made them so great, and are also very unforgettable.

What Segal also points out though is that these moments happen at different shows for everyone. Too many music fans have amazing chips on their shoulder – as if music fans with different tastes are nothing but hacks. Most people who read this might not have been blown away by Ray LaMongtange or Bela Fleck and Sandip Burman – just like I could not imagine enjoying ‘NSync. But the point isn’t where you get the LCM – but that you get it at all.

Segal’s article reminds us of those moments, and rekindles the search for more of them. He also makes me hope he isn’t right that it is harder to find them these days. Granted, Dave Matthews Band might be losing some of their creativity, U2 might be more choreographed these days, and many bands might be too close to their corporate sponsors. But there are still plenty of places to seek out live music experiences. Events like Bonnaroo, where guest musicians abound, are breeding grounds for these moments. In fact, the most amazing thing about that festival was the relative diversity of the performers - from Jurassic 5 to Earl Scruggs - there were plenty of new experiences for even the most traveled music fans.

Segal is leaving the world of pop music reviews for another job. I guess from now on he'll have to search for these moments by paying for tickets just like the rest of us.

Mmm... Tobacco

I will never advocate for the US to follow the international community on every issue. But we also shouldn’t be shocked that we have so few who want to help us with Iraq specifically and the GWOT in general when at the same time we refuse to go along with a number of major initiatives.

The decision by the Bush administration not to send the international tobacco control treaty to the Senate for ratification will only promote the view that America is behind the times and is impeding global progress on important issues. As the world tries to deal with global warming and the major health threat that is tobacco, they continue to be frustrated with how we stand in the way.

Now We're In For It

Sistani has rejected the Iraqi Constitution. Expect blanket condemnation to follow from virtually every source, especially Al-Sadr.

UPDATE: This appears to be a phantom story. Apparently it was up (I even saw it), now it's gone. Iraq the Model is usually pretty reliable, so it may resurface, or it may be uncorroborated. We'll see.

Attack of the Pat, Part II

Not Pat Robertson, but another famous Pat from right-of-center, Patrick J. Buchanan. Yeah, lacking a book to plug alternative views of the political strategems of Hitler in WWII, I guess he has to resort to making crazy off-the-wall man-bites-dog political news by saying Bush should be charged with an article of impeachment:

Why is a Republican Congress permitting this president to persist in the dereliction of his sworn duty?

George Bush is chief executive of the United States. It is his duty to enforce the laws. Can anyone fairly say he is enforcing the immigration laws? Those laws are clear. People who break in are to be sent back. Yet, more than 10 million have broken in with impunity. Another million attempt to break in every year. Half a million succeed. Border security is homeland security. How, then, can the Department of Homeland Security say America is secure?

Twice, George Bush has taken an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Article IV, Section 4 of that Constitution reads, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion."

Well, we are being invaded, and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion. Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment, charging George W. Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against "invasion."

Hat tip: Drudge, who else. Do you think I read WND on a regular basis? I guess you do. Well I don't.

Now It's Really Getting Ridiculous

So obviously by now everyone is waxing weary of Cindy Sheehan, especially since she got her time with President Bush in 2004 and because everyone knows she's a few cans short of a six-pack. So what to do to find a new angle? Why, just get a paralyzed Iraq vet to ask Bush why he won't revoke his ban on federal funding for stem cell research:

Paralyzed Iraq veteran Tomas Young called on President Bush to meet with him to explain why his best hope to walk again, stem cell research, was not being pursued. Tomas was wounded in Iraq the same day that Casey Sheehan was killed.

Your Call

Mr. Sun has created yet another invaluable tool, the Cultural Flowchart. I say we occupy about step 6 or 7. Any other thoughts?

Missing Koran Pages?

Jihadists fear Allah AND Metro. (Skit)

Bluegrass Loses a Pioneer

I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that I didn’t hear about this when it actually happened. Last Tuesday, Vassar Clements died of lung cancer at the age of 77. His death might not have made headlines due to the fact that he was a pioneer in a music that is way outside the mainstream (and it didn’t help that he was a quiet pioneer). A virtuoso on the fiddle, he took his instrument through all different genres. Although he spent most of his time with bluegrass, some of the most memorable moments were his collaborations outside of his traditional music. He played with such greats as Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs, and collaborated with everyone from BB King to Paul McCartney. Some of his groups were short-lived, like Old and In the Way with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. But each one was memorable and had lasting impacts on the country and bluegrass world. Many give him credit for what modern bluegrass musicians are taking advantage of – a style of bluegrass that is heavy on instrumental improvisation and heavily influenced by jazz. My lasting memory of his work though will be his collaborations with Bela Fleck.

Sight This!

The wait of all waits is over. RINO Sightings, enjoy the carnage.

Major GWOT/GSAVE Victory

There's still a war in Afghanistan, as I've been prone to stating recently. A war that is important and which has historical consequences perhaps at least as major as Iraq. And it's going well. And certain people who put a lot of stock in Cindy Sheehan should take note of the fact that she would like to have us pull out of there. Thankfully, she hasn't been successful, otherwise people like this would still be alive and still trying to return Afghanistan to a medieval, theocratic hellhole.

The man, identified as Payenda Mohammed, was in command of more than 150 Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province. He was killed along with three of his men in a battle last week, a U.S. military spokesman said.

"He was known for conducting rocket attacks, ambushes, guerrilla-style attacks and setting up illegal checkpoints," Colonel Jim Yonts told a briefing.

Taliban insurgents are battling the government army and about 20,000 U.S. troops across a rugged swathe of south and east Afghanistan.

About 1,000 people have been killed in violence this year, most of them militants, but including 48 U.S. soldiers.

The governor of Uruzgan province, Jan Mohammad Khan, said Payenda Mohammed was one of the main Taliban commanders in the province and he had been responsible for numerous attacks.

Another nail in the Taliban's coffin. And the sooner they end up in the dustpan of history, the better. While Afghanistan still has major drug problems, mopping up the Taliban is proceeding well, especially since they themselves have agreed not to attack voters in the next election.

Darfur Related

First off, here's the transcript from last night's 60 minutes on Darfur. I didn't catch it, but from reading the transcript it was probably a good program. It should definitely help increase awareness of the situation and what we're all letting happen. Secondly, there's this bit of disturbing news:

Bandits are stepping up attacks on African Union and relief convoys in Sudan's Darfur region disrupting the flow of aid in the conflict-stricken area, African Union and aid officials told Reuters on Sunday.

"There is a lot of banditry ... The area is lawless and they (gunmen) are attacking everyone," Jean Baptiste Natama, a senior AU protocol officer told Reuters.

Natama said one person was lightly injured on Thursday when unidentified gunmen attacked a patrol near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.

The AU has been given all the heavy-lifting duties and they are being raided. Heavier hands are needed. At least the AU hasn't pulled a UN and run at the first sign of trouble. Once again, as I've articulated before, I think an air strike is in order. At the very least it will help back up the AU and disrupt some of these hives of gunmen. With the janjaweed now attacking refugee camps and disrupting supplies, and bandits raiding the only troops sent in for relief, there needs to be some assertion of power over this mayhem.

Hat tip, the Coalition, always on top of things.

Friday Gatling Blog: Villains Rocking Blue Hair Edition

It's late on Friday, but I have arrived with a full plate of gatling blog glory of this week's more provocative posts for you all. The Carnival of the Involuntary. . .fire away!

Vodkapundit crushes Pat Robertson more succintly and powerfully than anyone ever has.

Liquid List keeps tabs on John Bolton's psychotic beginnings at the U.N.

The Anchoress comments on George Will and Hillary's coming implosion.

Right Wing Nuthouse wants to see Cindy Sheehan's bus tour. Be careful what you wish for.

Progressive Conservatism has plenty on Vietnam and its explosive development as of late.

Voice of the Taciturn discusses CIA problems and reform.

Tigerhawk writes probably one of the most sobering and best essays on anti-war dissent I've ever seen.

Marginal Revolution says welfare states might be obsolete. I would venture that's sort of an almost Marxist comment! (But won't say why, because this is Gatling Blog, and in Gatling Blog I don't editorialize).

In the Agora answers an old Kerry prophesy that no one probably noticed didn't come true.

The Jawa Report writes a rosary for the left.

Virginia Centrist reiterates that not all Democrats are crazy leftists.

Classical Values extensively covers the underground economy in America.

Donklephant asks a very important question.

Cindy Sheehan Quote of The Day

Apparently Sheehan sees membership in the US Army as uncharacteristic of people who are kind and gentle souls:

For Casey to even join the Army, let alone being killed in battle was the thing that was most uncharacteristic of him. He was a gentle and kind soul who only wanted to help others. What did his untimely and unnecessary death accomplish? It accomplished reinvigorating a peace movement that was sincere, but not very active -- or if active, not well covered by the main stream media.

Sheehan here betrays her kooky far left outlook on war and peace. To be a kind and gentle soul you must eschew all violence, even that against depraved enemies who are a threat to peace and security of kind and gentle souls everywhere? And what of the chaplains and doctors and nurses in the US military, who wish above all to see an end to the carnage and bloodshed of war? Is their military service uncharacteristic, or rather an extention of their kindness and gentility, and their desire to serve others?

Maybe Sheehan just doesn't get the history of the American GI in war and occupation, particularly from War War II through the Cold War onward. The war in Afghanistan saw an unprecedented simultaneous carpet-dropping of food for destitute Afghan civilians alongside a targeted bombing campaign to dismantle the Taliban, the very regime holding Afghans in destitution and repression.

Cindy has a right to her beliefs and I hope she keeps it up, as she has every right to, but the American public should not assume Mrs. Sheehan is a moderate or apolitical woman thrust into the anti-war camp by the death of her son causing something inside to just snap. She's a political actor with a political agenda, and a skeptical media should, tactfully of course, be careful to relay that to everyday American news consumers.

Kill Whitey?

A new, pathetic low for El Wapo.

This article reminds me of a line an old friend from NYC used to recite: "You can take the white girl out of Westchester, but you can't take the Westchester out of the white girl." Not to say that I subscribe to that "fallacy", but I find it rather discomforting that anyone would want to "kill the whiteness inside".

"What that means, precisely, is debatable, but it has something to do with young white hipsters believing they can shed white privilege by parodying the black hip-hop life. In this way, they hope to escape their uptight conditioning and get in touch with the looser soul within them."

To even claim that what mainstream America sees on MTV and BET is even remotely representative of "the black hip-hop life" is laughable. Mainstream hip-hop life is already a parody of hip-hop life. So what does a parody of a parody make the "Kill Whitey" crowd?

A great day for John Thune

Ellsworth AFB has been spared the chopping block. Apparently the Pentagon's proposed closure really wouldn't save any money at all, but it would have done major damage to South Dakota's economy.

Thune promised to save Ellsworth and maybe he is partly responsible, but it seems to me to have been largely out of his hands, and that Ellsworth may have been saved just on the merits. That said, I don't expect South Dakotans to think Thune expendable in the next election. Given the conservative Republican bent of the state, and if Thune proves to remain popular and deliver for the state, I think we can see the old boy around for a while.

Do Democrats Need a Leader?

Mickey Kaus, Kerryhater for Kerry, says no. After some correspondence with a reader, Kaus wrote the following brilliant nugget:

Alert kf reader G.S. suggests leaderless Democrats take another look at that Amazing Dr. Pollkatz Polling Graphic. The only time Bush's steady polling decline stopped was in 2004, when he actually had some identifiable Democratic champions (Dean, then Kerry) to be set off against. G.S.'s upshot is

Midterm political advice for the Dems: Keep the party face-less through the 2006 races.

It's good to be kingless!

The graphic Kaus talks about is here, and there's some sense and logic to this. Bush does very well when CONTRASTED to someone else. When put next to an Al Gore, a John Kerry, or a Howard Dean, something happens and these qualities come out that people don't see normally. Also, it's just an issue of focus. With two faces, there's going to be some attention diverted to both, and every politician is flawed. When there's one face, the President and the Republican party, all the focus goes on them. Kaus also makes the point that the Dems don't even need to be an opposition party (because we already have an opposition party: the media!). And that's part of it.

With no Dem leader, the spot light remains on Bush. And right now it's not working out so great. Maybe the Dems shouldn't have a leader, and maybe they should just let the Republicans have the spotlight for awhile. After all, what they're doing with it doesn't seem to be much other than self-destructive.

Yemenis Do WHAT?

Seriously. What the hell are they doing in Yemen these days? Oh yeah, doing their best impressions of the Gestapo.

Un-fricking-believable

Its like the Twilight Zone over there, complete anarchy, the only rule is power. They take this editor and beat him up and tell him not to write about government officials. They took him in a military car. Lets review normal intimidation tactics on the journos in Yemen: death threats, threats against their kids, slander, arrests, taking newspapers, cloning newspapers, assaults, letter bombs, the list goes on. This more than anything else shows Yemen is not anything close to a democracy but instead is a repressive dictatorship.

Jamal Amer, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper al-Wassat, told Reuters armed men blindfolded him, forced him into a military car and took him to a remote area outside the capital Sanaa where they beat him.

“They warned me about slandering state officials and questioned me about writers and editors at the newspaper, and about our sources and funding,” he said. Officials were not immediately available for comment.

Read the WHOLE post.

Uncurious George

Where the hell has Senator George Allen (R-Va) been during this whole BRAC process? I feel like Senator Warner has been front and center (given he's the chair of the SASC, but still), with Senator Allen content to take full advantage of the summer recess. What gives Georgie?

Holy Bejesus!

Don't tell someone they should lose weight, or you might lose your license! Salute, The Moderate Voice.

The Fair Tax Hoax

While Lunchbox is probably much more competent than I at explaining and dissecting the Fair Tax phenomenon and what is wrong with it, I ran across something that surprised the hell out of me. The Freepers, that's right, the Libertarians who of all people should be all over the Fair Tax and how wonderful Boortz and Linder are, have unraveled THE WHOLE DAMN THING. Boom. And that's that. Turns out this best-selling right-wing manual isn't anything but a nice little novel that belongs in the fiction section. I was skeptical of this whole Fair Tax mythos to begin with, but when your own allies are throwing the bullshit flag on you you're in some deep doodoo. Hat tip, Pandagon.

Liberation Ratio?

All right, while I don't complete condone this type of mathematical exercise nor completely accept its results, it's a provocative point and food for thought. Confederate Yankee has crunched some numbers about U.S. casualties in war, and the number of people basically spared/liberated as a result. In the process, he has crafted a People Freed per U.S. Soldier killed number which coincidentally has only gone up over time. He appends some nice commentary to it, as the whole thing is meant to be a rebuttal to Cindy Sheehan's declaration of BOTH Iraq and Afghanistan as "senseless wars" with "meaningless deaths." The exercise may be a bit contrived, because it does not take into effect things like civilian casualties in these liberations and also areas where effectively people aren't so "liberated" (by that I mean areas where the fledgling governments haven't really been able to establish dominance), but it helps to place some context to U.S. Casualties and their scope. Salute, Jawa Report.

Pimp Their Rides

The Army is finally copping to what we all know to be true: the Humvees ain't working. Just not cutting the mustard. So, to counter it, they're off and running to conjure up a better vehicle, and this time they want to do it right.

"Survivability is our primary concern," says Jeff Bradel, project officer at the Office of Naval Research, which is overseeing prototype development for the Marines. Unlike the Humvee, originally designed for tasks behind the lines, the next vehicle will be a fighter from the start, he says.

The original Humvee design worked well in the Persian Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere, says Thomas Donnelly, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a research organization. The Iraq war has forced the vehicle into doing what "it was never contemplated that it would do," including battling bomb-wielding insurgents in today's urban combat.

Again, this is an important lesson in Military Force Transformation. Lighter isn't better, especially when we're talking nation-building, occupation, guerilla war, or whatever you want to call it to euphemize the reality. Rumsfeld's stated goals of a smaller, lighter, faster force have hit the reality in Iraq like a brick wall. We've consistently needed more boots and heavier armor to deal with urban warfare. At least all of that is being acknowledged in the plans for this new vehicle. Maybe the best route is slower, heavier, and more numerous.