"Fair and balanced"

The "democratic" government of Iraq has decreed that press credentials for covering its upcoming provincial elections will be issued only to members of the press who sign an oath to provide accurate accounts of the elections. I guess the democracy we installed there didn't read our first amendment.

More doggerel

Hue-ing the line

On TV, it's Oprah,
She's king of the hill.
In movies, it's Denzel,
Or maybe it's Will.

In tennis, a Williams,
Except when it's two.
In golf, there's no question.
You know, you know who.

In roundball, a toss-up,
'Tween Kobe, LeBron.
In football, McNabb--
On a day when he's on.

And now, not just Condi and Colin:
Barack.
All of which means, trust me,
Black's the new black.

Ennui

It's not that there's nothing going on. We've got a wrecked economy, bombing in Gaza, wars everywhere, political spats galore--on top of all the crap that predated these events. So why am I unenthused, unmotivated to blog about any of this? Could it be that, as Bill Murray chanted to the campers in the movie Meatballs, "It just doesn't matter"? That none of this matters, not even Obama's election, and certainly not Al Franken's? Could it be that our planet, with all of us aboard, is hurtling through space and we're simply clinging to it like ants on a boulder? Feels like it, doesn't it?

"Negotiating with Extreme Prejudice"

That's the title of this piece on Time magazine's blog. Its analysis concludes that Hamas will consider it a victory, a la Hizballah in Lebanon two years ago, if it can hold onto power even after Israel's invasion comes to an end. Kinda like Rocky becoming a hero by surviving his fight with Apollo Creed. The difference, of course, is that only Rocky got maimed in the movie.

Raul Castro speaks

and I, an expectant American liberal, am listening. I too hope that Obama's expressions aren't just that. Can America change, truly change, from a dominating empire to a peaceloving, decent, soft-spoken nation? We'll see.

"I was just following orders."

With shocking results.

Truth through risk

Because much of American media has determined that the occupation of Iraq doesn't offer sufficient bang for the buck and has therefore withdrawn its scrutiny and reporting of that ongoing misadventure, I'm regularly checking in with this site for information about the "boots on the ground" in that part of the American empire.

Off to school in Afghanistan (video)

Fourteen students were killed in the blast.

Lest we forget

Professor Juan Cole reminds us of ten fallacies that are being touted by the Republicans about the history and present state of the nation of Iraq. Good job, Juan.

I can't imagine a better gig

than writing things like this for The Onion.

Some doggerel by me

Sic Transit Abhoria


Oh, how deeply Righties hate him.
In transition, they berate him,
To Marx and Lenin they equate him,
Quoting Preacher Wright verbatim.

Oh, how much it must frustrate ’em
That they can’t investigate him,
That impeachment won’t await him,
’Til they first inaugurate him.

Not so fast...

All's not quiet in Iraq. Not by a long shot.

Every once in a while

something is said that restores one's faith in America. The latest: Obama's response to an AP question about whether he'd be spending much time in Chicago once he moved into the White House. His answer (scroll to bottom of article) : "My Kennebunkport is on the South Side of Chicago." I never thought I'd hear those words, ever.

This is nuts

I mean, by now we've come to expect the wackos in the Bush administration to support something as crazy as allowing the carrying of loaded concealed weapons in our national parks, but buried in the middle of the article is the observation that fifty US Senators, including nine Democrats, support the rule change. When the gun lobby becomes that influential, it's time to take over the government and start again.

The party's over...

when the Tonga line leaves the dance floor.

Bush isn't so dumb, part two.

He and his religious-freak cohorts had this in mind, too.

Letter to the editor

Here's a letter to the editor of the SB News-Press that I emailed today. I'll let you know if/when it gets published.

I know that to forgive is divine, but gosh it’s hard to watch this spate of Bush exit interviews on TV without hurling something at the screen. Take the recent interview on ABC: a cozy fireside chat featuring Bush, seated beside Laura on a couch, with Charlie Gibson tossing him puffballs about “regrets” or “mistakes” during his presidency. In reply, Bush—wearing his slacker grin—rues “intelligence errors” about WMD in Iraq, while sympathizing with those who died on that account; and later, when asked about the tanking economy, explains that it was caused by actions of others: lax regulators, greedy bankers, a “housing bubble”—anything but the malfeasance of his administration. Indeed, throughout the entire interview, Bush consistently resorted to that common responsibility-shirking device of the passive voice: “Mistakes were made.”

If only once—and when better than now, finally?—Bush would acknowledge where, in our democracy, the buck stops. But no. Instead, he uses these lame-duck interviews to attempt to rewrite history in his favor: forgetting the Katrina disaster; omitting his failure to be alert to terrorist attack and to capture Osama bin Laden; failing to mention his kicking the UN inspectors out of Iraq when they were consistently reporting an absence of WMD; refusing to include, as a direct cause of the nation’s economic collapse, his own persistent demands that banking and lending regulations be eased.

The process of redemption begins with assuming responsibility. If Bush should ever do so, then I’ll consider forgiving him. Perhaps.

Update: It was published on December 8, 2008.

Bush isn't so dumb...

He planned this all along.

WTF?

What are we doing in Iraq? What are we doing in Afghanistan? What are we doing with military bases in The Phillipines, in Korea, in Germany, in Greenland, in Guam, in Australia, for God's sake?

What are we doing?

No rest for the weary

Once again, peacenik/Libertarian Justin Raimondo is right on. From the look of them, Obama's foreign-policy decisions may be effectuated by the same old forces, and they're not looking good.