Life's a bitch

Especially if you're hard of hearing, elderly and wearing a bulky jacket in the winter in Baghdad.

Back to the drawing board

Just last week, pundits, echoing Bush and McCain, reported that Iraq had met one of the important political "benchmarks" by adopting a plan for elections of provincial governments. Well, not so fast. Apparently, the triumvirate of something called the "presidential council," consisting of three men, a Kurd, and Sunni and a Shiite, who were required to approve the measure, didn't. And not on some insubstantial ground: there was disagreement about the power of the national government, particularly when it comes to firing the heads of the regional governments. It wasn't certain when or if these differences would be overcome, the measure having been sent back to the Iraqi parliament for further process, and it's likely that the delay will mean that the scheduled provincial elections, set for October 1, won't take place.

The Bush administration's cavalier reaction: "That's democracy." My reaction: Meanwhile our troops and treasure are being wasted.

Worst of both worlds

Now the "s" word--stagflation--has replaced recession as the most worrisome economic prospect. I remember those dog days. The slow economy, coupled with increasing prices, meant that the idea of lowering interest rates to spur the economy would trigger an inflationary spiral, so there was nothing to be done to stop the ongoing quarters of zero economic growth. Are we there yet?

Killing me softly...

So, it turns out that Osama bin Laden was right: We're gonna kill ourselves, with only a little help from our enemies. Indeed, Pogo was right after all.

Oh, damn

It's with sadness that I report that Ralph Nader has decided to run for President again. Sadness because, although I agree with everything he says about the inadequacies of the stated policies of both Clinton and Obama (and a fortiori McCain), the solution is not for him to become a presidential candidate and thereby to weaken his influence, but rather to work with one (or both) of the Democratic candidates toward his ends. Nader is weakening his influence by these repeated candidacies, weakening his image and his legacy as well. Instead of effectively raising his laudable policies into public discourse, he's isolating himself from the electoral process and diminishing them and himself, becoming now a near-ridiculous footnote in history.

In case you forgot

there's still violence aplenty in Iraq. (Scroll to bottom of Dr. Cole's post.)

Update: This year, only 40 Iraqis were suicide-bombed yesterday on their annual pilgrimage to Kerbala, way down from the 150 or so that died last year. Now, that's progress.

Obamamobile

Two weeks ago I fashioned the following bumpersticker for my SUV and pasted it inside the rear window: "This vehicle is a certified Obamamobile." A nice touch, right? And a unique one, too, right? Not so. Today I learned that Ben & Jerry, the ice cream guys, have come up with the same phrase, Obamamobile, and are cruising around in it to drum up votes in Vermont.

So--I'm not crazy. Or all three of us are.

Okay, I admit it

I stole the following observation from one of the commenters (scroll down about two inches below the cited post) in which Bush is quoted as denying that the present imminent recession has anything to do with the massive federal spending on the war in Iraq, but instead attributing it to the housing crunch in the US.

Bush is right about the wrecked economy being attributable to improper housing, namely, having the wrong person in the White House.

We've got a way to go in Iraq

if its citizens can't even agree on the national flag.

MSM no more

Yup, this guy's right. To label the network and most cable news sources the Mainstream Media, MSM, isn't accurate. It's the corporate media, hereinafter CN.

And while I won't go so far as to wipe CNN off the presets on my remote, as has my friend Kyle, I'll watch that channel only for updates of the ongoing, quite suspenseful, Democratic primary race.

In case you're counting

here's a tabulation (an estimate, only, but an informed one) of the Democratic delegate tally, updated automatically every minute by CBS News. BTW, with his victory in yesterday's Maine caucuses, Obama now leads Clinton by three delegates, even including Clinton's lead in endorsement-announced "superdelegates."

He doesn't think about winning the Nobel Prize

and other insights, from an interview of the writer, Philip Roth.

A rarity on the Internet...

A must-see video. (2 minutes)

Not with a bang, but a simper

So this is how the Democratic presidential nominating process will end: in the back rooms of the convention in Denver. One room will be where the credentialing committee (which I understand is made up of three former members of Bill Clinton's administration) will decide whether/how to give voting power to delegates from Florida and Michigan--delegates that Billary received the majority of in primary voting that wasn't supposed to count due to those states' violation of the Democratic National Committee's rules against too-early primaries; and the other room where the hundreds of "super delegates" determine who they're going to cast their votes for.



Some of the latter will likely be swayed by which candidate has won the most delegates in the various primaries and caucuses around the nation. They'll also be swayed by their hunch about which of the two candidates is more likely to beat McCain, and by their sense of which one is more likely to bring more voters to the polls for more local contests. On both these last two items, Obama's the clear winner--and perhaps on the first as well, unless the credentialing committee decides to award to Clinton the bulk of the Michigan and Florida delegates that were chosen in their respective "outlaw" primaries.

Notwithstanding the "reforms" of the 1970's in the delegate-choosing method of the Democrats, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Who's on first?

Remember that report last month about the Iraqi Army (such as it is) cleaning out a "militant Shiite cult" (whatever that is)? Well, maybe all is not as it seems. Surprise, surprise.

What the fuck are we doing in Iraq?

Not black enough?

I think not.

Talk about a grass-roots movement

Check out these signs posted in the windows of Manhattan merchants.

Lest we forget

this date five years ago.

Fun reading, really fun reading

Here's a bullet list of raps against John McCain by a nutzoid arch-conservative. I gotta agree: For the truly insane voter, such as the author of the list, McCain's the devil. If/when he's the Republican nominee, watching the Right devour itself will be great amusement.

McClatchy reports

on an item that's beyond the MSM these days: The spread of insurgent influence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's not a pretty picture. It makes one wonder how it can be that John McCain, who has supported every one of Bush/Cheney's failed efforts in the Middle East, can be a viable candidate for President. Could it be that the media--and Republicans--are idiots?