October surprise

I've for so long feared a Bush-Rove October surprise--the idea being that in a close race they'd pop some big development at the last minute (capturing Osama bin Laden, withdrawing troops from Iraq, whatever)--that I didn't focus on the Democrats' prospect for same. What could Kerry/Edwards come up with that would swing the election their way in the last few weeks?

Discovering a nonwhite love-child of Bush? Maybe an under-the-desk intern? Perhaps, even, an allegation by Kobe Bryant's "friend" in Colorado about a similarly forceful tryst?

I'm open to suggestions, and to a means of effectuation thereof.

If you read nothing else about our foreign policy this week

please read this piece in the Observer about Brent Snowcroft. A voice once in the thick of things, now in the wilderness.

Here's whazzup in Iraq

As the school year begins, Iraq's colleges, including Baghdad University, the nation's largest, are in shambles eighteen months after the occupation started. Iraqis who are working for the US are being regularly shot down. The Iraq Assembly is under mortar attack. The number US wounded is approaching 7,000 and the number of US war dead stands at 975, many killed in the weeks since the "handover of sovereignty." Hostages are being executed by the dozens. The US is still bombing Iraqi cities, still killing civilians.

You hear nothing of this in the major media. And certainly not while the Republican Convention is blaring on every TV channel, celebrating Bush's coronation.

God, if you're out there, please help us.

The Upside-Down Recovery

For a thorough and entertaining exposition of the quality of Bush's recovery, specifically how it differs dramatically from recoveries after previous recession--in detailed detail--check out this series of graphs, charts and essays.

Imagine

The following is a copy of a letter I've emailed to the editor of the News-Press, our local paper. I'll let you know if it gets published. I don't read the News-Press religiously, so if you happen upon my letter, let me know.

Just imagine if eighteen months ago President Bush had waited three more weeks—just three more weeks—until Hans Blix, who headed the United Nations weapons-inspection team in Iraq, had completed his work. Blix would have reported that there were no weapons of mass destruction (as indeed turns out was the case), the UN inspection teams would have remained active (under the terms of the previous Security Council resolution) and the “no-fly zones” over northern and southern Iraq would continue to be patrolled by US and UK warplanes, ensuring that Saddam Hussein would remain boxed, figuratively and literally.

Given the severity of the ongoing UN sanctions, Saddam may have decided, as did another evil-doer, Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi, that it made economic and political sense to change his approach and to join the community of nations. (Recall, Qadaffi was once considered as awful a tyrant and international demon as Saddam, so much so that US warplanes bombed his residence in 1986, killing his infant daughter.) But putting aside such speculation, this much is certain: Nine-hundred seventy-six American soldiers and 10,000 Iraqis would be alive; 6,000 American soldiers wouldn’t have been maimed; and $87 billions of American tax dollars would be here at home, benefiting Americans in ways we can only imagine.

Just imagine.

Meanwhile, down south

Shi'ite militia, funded and armed by Iran and other neighbors, have taken over the infrastucture of Basra, the largest city in southern Iraq. We have created the perfect climate for revolution and takeover of Iraq by forces who despise us.

Absolutely no surprise, no surprise at all.

A view of Bush's heroism

This article in Slate says all there is to say about Bush's heroism, pre- and post-9/11. It concludes,

I don't mean to be unfair to Bush. Vietnam was a lousy war. He wanted a way out, and he found it. But isn't it odd to see Republicans belittle the physical risks Kerry took in battle while exalting Bush's armchair wars and post-9/11 photo ops? Isn't it embarrassing to see Bob Dole, the GOP's previous presidential nominee, praise Bush's heroism while suggesting that Kerry's three combat wounds weren't bad enough to justify sending him home from Vietnam?

Watching the attacks on Kerry and the glorification of Bush reminds me of something Dole said in his speech to the Republican convention eight years ago. It was "demeaning to the nation," Dole argued, to be governed by people "who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned."

You tell me which of this year's presidential candidates that statement best describes.

Thank you KTLA

The Los Angeles TV station that's carried by cable here in SB did a report on the status of violence in Iraq in the two months since the "handover." A hardcopy appears here.

This is the only news to such an effect that I've seen on any mainstream outlet. They're too busy covering the convention, the Kobe case, the Jackson case and so forth, I suppose.

An advertisement worth watching

This tv spot has a serious message. Check it out at

http://www.n3t.net/humor/Seriously.mpg


The ad takes a bit of time to load, but it's worth the wait, especially the end, where a truly profound observation about Bush is made by the concerned mother.

Hat tip to Erika.

Oh, for a blue dress

What does it take to get a president out of office. An expanding spy scandal at the highest levels? Ongoing violence in two theaters of operation: Iraq and, again and still, Afghanistan? Increasing poverty and loss of health insurance for millions of Americans? Evidence of expanding responsibility for torture of prisoners? Investigation of national security leak of a CIA's operative's name to the press?

And, it is said, Bush's numbers in the polls are increasing!

If the majority of Americans re-elect Bush, they deserve him.

Whazzup in Iraq

While all the media attention has been on Najav lately, check out this NYT exposition of the status of the "democracy" in Fallujah and other points west of Baghdad. Not surprising, not heartening. Not worth all those billions of dollars and hundreds of American, not to say Iraqi, lives.

What a debacle this Iraq adventure has become.

Devil in the details

Here's a quote from Islam Online, detailing the points of agreement under which al-Sadr's militia moved out of the shrine of Najav:

Late Thursday, Sadr signed a five-point plan put forward by Sistani that insisted on the departure of all armed elements from Najaf and its twin city of Kufa.

Sadr ceded control of the Imam Ali shrine to representatives of the religious leadership Friday, August 27.

But fighters of his Mehdi Army refused to surrender their weapons to Iraqi authorities, defying one of three conditions laid down by the caretaker government for halting its US-backed assault on the militia.

Reports said fighters hid their Kalashnikov rifles at home, while mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were stashed in safe houses in the Old City.

That's why I read Islam Online. For the details.

Okay, here goes

High-ups in the Pentagon, an inch away from the highest-ups, are handing Israel our state secrets. Let's see. What can that mean?

To me, it proves that the neocons--the men who've taken over the Defense Department--are, and have always been, bent on establishing a system in the Middle East by which the US, with Israel as its local nuclear-armed ally, dominates the oil-rich region. To resident Muslims, it confirms precisely that, and that both Israel and the US are the mortal enemies of Islam.

I'm an American citizen. I have no designs on the Middle East, I want energy independence from the region and want our government to stop supporting regimes that allow our corporations to exploit their oil, at the expense of the citizens of the nations that own the resources.

I certainly don't side with Israel in its constant war with the arabs who are trying to regain lands long ago inhabitated by them and promised them by the United Nations sixty years ago.

This latest Bush administation scandal--Feith-gate--tells me this: Our nation is so egregiously off course in its dealings with the rest of the world, and in its treatment of the world, that revolution is inevitable.

Photo Finish

OK folks, the race is on and Bush is way ahead. We need to give our blogger Erik some encouragement. See, this is the 950th post on All That Arises. There are currently 971 US casualties of the Iraq war. The question is, will George W. Bush bring home the 1000th dead American before Erik can post his 1000th entry?

Here are the rules: no dividing essays into multiple posts, no multi-bagging of remains. It's gonna be a photo finish, folks, possibly in time for W's acceptance speech. Well, no photos involved, exactly; I doubt Erik will let us in his comfy crib with a digital camera, and no photos are allowed at Andrews AFB. ...

Sorry Erik, but personally, my money's on Bush. Somebody get Vegas on the line.

I mean no disrespect for our troops or their families. I know this post is in terrible taste, but so is this damn war. If this made you uncomfortable, good.

Cute

In an interview with the NYT, Bush has apparently admitted "miscalculations" in his assessment of postwar Iraq. Miscalculations. Sounds alot like "mistakes," doesn't it? As in Vietnam?


Sounds even more like Goebbels explaining the retreat from Stalingrad. Miscalculations. Tell that to the dead GI's, the dead Iraqis, the dead allies. Tell that to the American taxpayers, whose payments have been wasted, whose goodwill has been wasted over the world.

A miscalculation of enormous proportions. Certainly big enough to warrant Bush's replacement as president.

The moderate force arrives

The Shia cleric, al-Sistani, is about to lead a march into Najav. He's being styled as the the "moderate influence" in Iraq, whose presence will quiet the conflict.

What? Does that mean that we, the US, who're supporting the Interim PM, Alawi, are on one extreme, and that al-Sadr is on the other, so that a moderate influence is needed? Yes? Well, whaddya know. I thought we were supposed to be the moderating influence in Iraq. Silly me.

Isn't this refreshing?

An actual mass-media source, USA Today, taking the higher-ups in the Pentagon to task for the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison.

Counterbalanced, however, with the report I saw this evening by Tom Brokaw on NBC (I rarely watch network news, but it was on, so what the hell): Brokaw reported the Iraqi soccer team's rejection of Bush's political ads with a soft-spoken, denigrating attitude, like the soccer players were stooges or something.

NBC, and Brokaw, are owned, are stooges themselves. I must tell you, I've lost respect for our media, all of it, except, occasionally C-Span and of course the truly good radio stations, like KPFK locally and AirAmerica nationally.

If I were an ally of the United States

I'd be pissed off bigtime. While Bush is claiming he's made America safer from terrorism by his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the nations that supported us--Saudi Arabia,Spain, Australia, Italy, many others--have each suffered devastating attacks. So maybe during the last couple of years we haven't been attacked, but if you line up the series of nations, it pretty much looks like we're next. Let's just hope it doesn't come in a form, or at a time, that does other than show Bush to be what a cheap imposter he is as a chief executive.

Could it be, could it possibly be

that the story about the Iraqi soccer team's refutation of Bush's campaign ads that tout their success as Bush's success will finally make it to the major media? Finally, the LA Times has picked up the story. Can it now be ignored? Let's see.

The latest scam in Iraq

After all the trumpeting of the "handover of sovereignty" two months ago, one would think that Iraq's "election" of the interim governing body would be met with trombones and tubas ablaring. But no. Hardly a word's been heard about the event, even though the body is supposed to have veto power of the interim PM's decisions, and to have legislative power until the nationwide elections, supposedly to occur in early 2005. Reason for the silence? The "interim national council," as it's called was chosen without fair ballot, over the protest of numerous of those assembled to vote on it, and consists largely of the same hand-picked US puppets, mostly foreign-dwelling Iraqis, who the US installed initially. And the vote to select these 100 council members? Forget about it. A four-person tribunal made the selection.

Sound familiar?