NYT: Bipartisan Spirit Falters

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=E15725F0C3B6A20BB87D28A2BC7DA49A.w6?a=144631&f=23

If by bipartisan spirit you mean Republicans willingness to try to solve problems rather than obstruct everything so they can bitch about Dems 'not doing anything'.

I was expecting a story about how each side has a proposal for the housing crisis but they cannot reconcile them. Except you suddenly realize that while the article uses a parallel structure (these people want to do this but others object because ... Repeat) every proposed solution is from congressional Dems and every refute is just a Republican saying 'no we just need tax breaks for millionaires'.

Even the article throws in the insight that the Republican ideas have 'little direct connection to the mortgage mess'. They couldn't even be bothered to throw together some relevant talking points, they just grabbed an old set from three years ago.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if they are bitching about not getting enough contributions from the banking industry in a few months.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/todays_must_read_285.php

Fighting back

The sad farrakhan moment at the debate was almost enough to throw me in the Obama camp. In thinking about it this morning I find myself even more turned off by Clinton's response.

When. People talk about the challenge of small politics, they are very much imagining stunts like Russert's last night.

Whose ideas a politician associates themselves with is hugely important, since they tend to drive the policies pursued if that person wins. Remember, the point of elections is to pick who will be structurally empowered to shape and drive ideas, policies, and programs that impact people. Its not a beauty pagent, its a who is going to fix more problems than they create contest.

That is why the McCain lobbying story matters. If a candidate regularly borrows the corporate keys, is intimate with every lobbyist and spinster in DC, has no actual agenda for me to look at (beyond trust me), and has repeatedly lied about whether he has done favors for them it seems fair to assume his agenda will be whatever they tell him. That's a story the American people deserve to hear.

But the six degrees of separation gotcha game played by Russert and Mark Halperin is disguisting and unhelpful for the public interest.

If obama really wanted to win me over he would have - rather than apologizing a fifth time - looked into the camera and said to the American people 'I will never be able to apologize enough for Tim Russert, but I hope each of you will at least give me an honest look. Put aside all the innuendo for 30 minutes, go to my website, and find out what I stand for and what I have done to stand up for those values, then decide for yourself whether you - not some pundit or news man who makes a living conjuring the myth of partisanship and telling you problems cannot be fixed, but you - think I can be President '.

Scary

PS. Hilary please shut up.

Calling a spade a heart

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=12383C10CFE603EF264D3B8B3554A1D1.w5?a=142634&f=19

The Times and Post both took a stab this morning at Saint John with the emerging story that the straight talk express is a littlle more meandering than what was sold to them the past decade.

Its nice to see someone point out that the special interest crusader had an intimate relationship with one of the major lobbyists for the industry regulated by his committee.

Still, would it hurt them to at least entertain the possibility he might be taking rides on corporate jets for gain rather than it being a foregone conclusion that he is just sooo virtuous that he is immune but forgot the rest of us mere mortals are not? The maverick persona is a direct response to him GETTING CAUGHT taking bribes and abusing his power.

If you read one blog...

http://www.winheldsworld.blogspot.com/

With an assist from a New York Times article today I stumbled upon Josh Winheld's blog. He is a young man in phili that is finishing his Master's in Urban Planning focusing on accessability for people with disabilities.

He also has a forthcoming memoir about living with muscular distrophy. Check out his blog - it is funny, interesting, and well written.

War is not a game

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=141321&f=19

I strongly recommend this indepth and very important piece on domestic violence in the military. It draws a direct and very important link between violence and PTSD, and a great history of military efforts to combat domestic violence the past decade - both successes and failures.

People often talk about 'the sacrifices' of military families. This is one of the big ones that is often overlooked by civilians, the war back home.

There are lots of ways to volunteer or support organizations helping families with the transition to bring back home and together. But it is also important to make sure we aren't allowing our political leaders to endlessly just leave our troops in a hostile zone with no clear strategic reason. Every extra deployment creates hundreds of new batterers and a handful of parentless children. That is a fact. Personally I think that alone is too high a cost for the nothing we are achieving in Iraq (to say nothing of the dozens of lost husbands and mothers and the hundreds permanently disabled and scarred).

War is not a game. Its time America stopped acting like it was one.

Where the 1st Amendment Pisses Me Off....

... is when I see people come out and say outrageous things and give distorted accounts just because they can, and just because they think that their "subjective truth" is in fact the truth.

Two such examples that I read today:

1. McCain says that his son came back from Iraq and reported that he used to "[see] IEDs everywhere", but now, "some seven months later, Iraq had become so safe he was handing out soccer balls."
2. Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin saying (it's too good, I gotta quote it in full):

   I can tell you this. If [lead investigator Jeff Novitzky] ever messes with Roger, Roger will eat his lunch.

   and then followed by

   All I meant was -- I think that was intended to show any witnesses that appear, watch out, we're watching you. Better tell the truth as we see it. Not necessarily as you see it.

That's just gold. I am appalled by what they said, but at the same time impressed by the conviction with which they spoke those words.

Gossip Girl

Roger Clemens says Andy Pettitte "misheard" him saying that he had taken HGH.

Just can't help but wonder: What were Clemens saying at the time that can possibly be misheard as that?

Really, I'd like to know.

I Say Cut Down the Damn Trees and Kill the Rainforest

This is in response to the NYT article below and DMA's comments:

I do not belittle the tremendous psychological impact that war zones or other extreme environment may have on individuals, but I refused to view aggressors of sexual assaults as victims, regardless of the circumstances.

I'm stretching this a bit, but taking a compassionate stance towards despicable acts of this sort is to say that it's also OK for a guy living in the US (or anywhere else, really) who has been dealt a really shitty hand all his life and has never had a girlfriend to rape or sexually assault someone. Come on now. This is a place where right is right and wrong is wrong, and there can be no relatives or qualifiers.

The bottom line is that there needs to be well-defined rules and repercussions for actions of Americans in Iraq that are upheld in a formal legal system, prosecutable across state lines. In Iraq male contractors are highly stressed and sexually frustrated blah blah blah, but I am willing to bet that if they will go to jail for 20 years for doing what they did to those women (who are put in the same stressful environment, mind you), a sizable number of these cases would not have occurred in the first place.

It's crazy to think how fine a line we're all walking on now that our society is, relatively and generally speaking, in order. Put the same people in a place with a different set of rules, and all hell breaks loose. I'd like to have faith in human goodness and all that, but it becomes really difficult when the bad apples speak the loudest and tend to rein the forest.

Welcome to the Jungle

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=99B18CE92B6F5CD1D42398B32518464D.w6?a=140740&f=19

The first thing that struck me about this article on the legal black hole for contractors in Iraq is that one of the rape victims could have been my girlfriend and the other could have been my mother.

Rape and sexual haressament are never ok. That said, when you put 1800000 people in a distant, high stress, testosterone charged foreign country with low levels of supervision, a culture of impugnity, dollar driven management, and 25 men for each woman innevitable is too weak a word.

I don't have any answers to the problem. Maybe women shouldn't be in Iraq? Maybe we need to jack up the liability for both the assailants and their bosses? Maybe more gender parity in the work force would help right some of the off kilter norms that enable this mess? Maybe there needs to be greater psychological oversight for employees in war zones?

Regardless, I hope Senator Nelson can help open peoples eyes to this mess and start to figure out some solutions.

Americas Finest

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/news.jsp?key=190704&rc=wo

I never cease to be amazed by the generosity and compassion of our troops in the battle field. There will always be some unfortunate incidents, but overwhelmingly they are serving is with the utmost distinction.

That said, the good will and work seems always blunted by what goes on during the day job. In this case you have marines raising money to get some coal and food for homeless Afghans trying to endure a bitter winter. Then you read on and find many are homeless because their houses and lives were destroyed by coalition bombing raids.

Seeing through new eyes

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=7D3E5D06D43826F5AA29CF2E96C2A29B.w5?a=140249&f=19

I can empathize with Israeli outrage over two brothers being injured by rockets, and even understand the anger that is leading them to call for an all out seige of Gaza. I only wish they would remember it next time an errant Israeli missile kills a pair of Palestinian brothers.

A wise guy once said an eye for an eye leaves us all blind.

Riot in the kitchen

http://boston.qwapi.com/site?t=bYV5LVPOe3KtVBTIqGQPyw

Looks like the Clinton campaign is not letting go of the pimping Chelsea comment on msnbc yesterday, and good for them.

People like to claim the existance of all sorts of bias in the 'media', but I think sexism is probably the most pervasive and definitely the least paid attention to.

Of course in the end I expect the old boy network that keeps the ilk of Chris Matthews, Russert, and Tucker in business will survive, but I think these tactical skirmishes are important to long term changes in otherwise hidden biases.

Ps - if you want to start a conversation about the importance of Afghanistan in Europe, you will have to start one in DC and at the Pentagon.
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Afghan contd

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=AB5EF7C71ECECC72B337AA7934930787.w5?a=139424&f=19

The times has an afternoon piece on the NATO meetings and Gates "self described efforts to nag members". The headline is even how he is trying to 'save' the mission, presumably from the nefarious clutches of the Belgians or Germans that would rather see is fail.

Hey jerk, this is why people hate you. You think when others agree they should do all the work so that when you disagree you can tell them to F off and undercut their interests. There are things important enough to go out on a limb for, but they have this thing called costs and pretending they aren't there - both yours and the people you need help from - doesn't make them go away.
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Its my party and I will cry if I want to

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/detail.jsp?key=188272&rc=to&p=1&all=1

SECdef Gates has been a welcome breath of fresh air on Iraq. Old school but at least he understands the concept of limited resources and that a need to make choices and rank priorities cannot be wished away with handwaving.

That said, his recent assault on NATO members has been an unfortunate step away from that. He and others concede the systemic challenges in Afghanistan are strengthening governance and economic reconstruction - not blowing things up. Yet despite the repeated pleadungs from the afghan govt to stop killing its citizens, he apparently thinks the solution to the aformentioned problems is more soldiers with looser rules of engagement.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, but it seems to me that an international economic stimulus plan with both micro and macro targets would go a lot farther.

Gates also needs to realize that when you are already pissing off your allies with Iraq, publicly berating them for not doing the job you started in afghan isn't going to help.
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WTF

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=C855ED6CC5E087AABF3F8DC02134CCA6.w5?a=138938&f=19

The Times has a piece this morning giving Hayden a bullhorn to spew his propoganda and misdirection without the senators who tried their best to limit his mendacity at the hearing.

Read the whole thing but the highlights were:

1. After five years it seems the Al qaeda Iraq terrorists actually do not have plans to do battle outside Iraq (who knew they were actually just pissed at us for invading). However, according to Hayden we have to stay because the domestic sunni insurgents (weren't we just giving them guns to fight aqi?) may shift their scope of operations outside Iraq to the US.

2. It wouldn't make sense to apply the army field manual on sexual orientation to the Intel community, so why would you make them use the interrogation manual. I sincerely wish I was making that up.

3. A pet peave is that they keep talking about 'harsh' interrogation techniques. Say it with me ... Water boarding is TORTURE. Hayden said the US has tortured people there times and if they were to do it again it would be authorized explicitly by the president and ag.

4. The NIE should have more clearly articulated that while Iran does not have an active weapons program that is no longer the bar.
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Is anybody listening?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/art/138669/19

The times has one of the most dispiriting pieces I have read in some time about why we have no idea how to win the 'war on terror'. The short version is that in 2004 we picked up an afghan national hero beloved for his opposition to the taliban, charged him with aiding them, and shipped him to Guantanamo until his recent death from cancer.



The article gives a bunch of parties the chance to point fingers - we got Intel from an afghan governor, special forces picked up the wrong guy, we couldn't find the afghan minister of energy to testify on his behalf at his sham trial, etc.



Of course all that belies the basic point that the whole thing was possible because the US has decided being able to kidnap people from their country based on heresay then make them defend themselves - regardless if they can even read - is a good policy.



On a larger point, the guy IS A FREAKING NATIONAL HERO. The most ridiculous feature of US detention policy is that there are no rules governing how you put someone in but a bureaucratic labreynth keeping anyone from getting out.

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