A test of Iraq's army?

Bush is applauding the recent assaults by al Malaki's forces on the Shiite militias, claiming that they're evidence that the surge is working by showing how well the Iraqi army can stand up against its adversaries. Well, look again. In Baghdad, the US is augmenting Iraq's forces with both air attacks and armored assault vehicles. In other words, all that the surge has accomplished is to change the color of the faces of the troops wearing boots, reducing our casualties on the ground while we supply fire from above and from behind solid steel barriers.

The next shoe to drop

is the home equity loan crisis.

The audacity of spin

The Pentagon's announcement that the recent increase in violence in Iraq is evidence that Bush's "surge" is working? I'm not making it up.

Anderson Cooper deserves a look

I happen to be a fan of this reporter on CNN, because he does his job well--good delivery, good balance--and now he's done some spadework and commentary on the Rev. Wright thing that really deserves credit. On his blog, he quotes a long segment of Wright's entire sermon in which the "chickens coming home to roost" remark was made, placing it into perspective. Good for AC.

Fickle folks

I get it now, finally. The "surge" was Rove's way of kicking the can down the road, not just to the next president, but as a way to extend, and hence bore the public with, the Iraq war and occupation. He realized that there's no drama in Iraq anymore--no stories of heroism, no torture mess--and that therefore the media would slow down its coverage and the American public would move on to the state of the economy and Spitzer's failings and so on.

And of course Rove was right.

It's comforting to see

that celebrities have their ups and downs too. (Most distressing, to me, is #10 in the slide show: Val Kilmer, an unlikely Batman lately.)

Hmm...Maybe I should rethink

that "organ donor" designation on my driver's license.

Is all lost?

I happened to be watching the recent interview of Barack Obama in which he said something like "My grandmother is a typical white person," the same grandmother of whom Obama had previously said, as part of his landmark speech about race, that she sometimes harbored fears of blacks and spoke in stereotypical terms about them.

My reaction to his "typical white person"comment was immediate. I knew two things: First, that it would add two more days to the news cycle on Obama's race-thingee; and second, that the Right would spin the remark into something damaging to Obama, likely that he was denigrating whites, painting them as racist as a group, and hence displaying his own racism.

Of course I was right on both counts. But my problem isn't with the Right's reaction, but rather with my own, a cringe. I realized that I wanted the racism question to go away, to disappear into the shadows, the same shadows that Obama's speech had shed light on. I was, I realized, part of that culture that would talk about race in private, but was still fearful of addressing it as a matter of public concern, and most fearful of a black person addressing it.

If I cringed--I, an enlightened one--is it likely that others could overcome that reaction? Can we change a culture--or even honestly acknowledge one of its powerful memes--in time to vote a truth-speaking black person into our highest office? Can we even nominate such a person to run for it? I'm beginning to think not.

One solution to the high price of crude oil

It seems to be working, too: Ruin the American economy, so it drags down the global economy, so that demand for oil declines, and the bidding price for future oil deliveries declines.

Is this burning the barn to roast the pig? Your suggested adage?

Must-see video

Baghdad, city of walls. (Four minutes)

It all adds up

Just so you know (although the Corporate Media doesn't tell you): In the thirteen months since "the surge" began, the average daily number of American troop deaths has been 2.34, almost identical to the daily average during the entire five-year war (2.36). At this rate, in about fifty years the number of deaths of US troops in Iraq will equal the number of dead troops in the VietNam war (about 60,000). Fifty years, which is just about when McCain and his buddies will finally withdraw our troops from Iraq, because by then we'll have sucked up all their oil.

An essay on our capitalist culture

to which I can only respond, "Yup."

Horror of horrors

This is most enduring Bush legacy, and it's awful.

Bumpersnickers

I've seen some great ones lately. My favorites:

"The more people I meet, the more I like my dog."

"Where is Bush taking Americans? And why are we in this handbasket?"

And the last one, presumably an observation about McCain's melodic "Bomb, bomb Iran" reference:

"McCain: Putting the laughter back into slaughter."

Okay, I admit it

When it comes to choosing a Democratic "dream ticket" for president and veep, I'm not perfect.

All the news that's fit to surf

You know you're a political junkie when you visit this webpage, displaying the counties of Wyoming and how each of them voted in yesterday's caucuses, which resulted in an Obama victory. You know, further, that your addiction is boundless when you roll your cursor over the counties to learn the tallies of each, including that of Hot Springs county (in the center of the state) where the vote was 31 Obama, 22 Clinton, 11 uncommitted. I had more people than that in my homeroom class at Sam Hughes elementary.

A day in the life

of the so-called "improving" Iraq.

Time to take the gloves off

Okay, now I'm getting pissed. Here's a video spot on Hillary's website showing a blackened, widened image of Obama, and presenting a lying message about his subcommittee, and here's a detailed analysis of the spot, showing why the HRC campaign must be stopped.

Frozen in place

A two-minute video. Too cool.

I missed my calling

I shoulda hired onto The Onion staff, so I could think up stuff like this. What a great gig!