Tipping Point

Well, I like to ski and don't get to do enough of it. I'm sure living in SD has something to do with it, being a good 3 hours from any minor ski resort and 8-12 hours from any major resort.

But I have a Plan.

When and if I need to leave the country, presumably because Bush/Rove have suspended the Constitution in the name of national security, I plan to go to Canada, work for the ski resort developer Intrawest in VC and live happily ever after.

Hitler and the Nazi party didn't just appear one day at the start of WWII. He and the Nazi party came to power slowly, with a combination of chutzpa, luck, and single-minded fanatical obsession over a twenty-year period. He also did it legally through the democratic process in Germany at the time. That was Hitler's stroke of genius.

Remind you of somebody else?

Please read for yourself:

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/dictator.htm

I'm not saying the GOP and Karl Rove are like the Nazi party and Hitler…I would never say such a thing, heh.

But I am suggesting that a revolution is happening, slowly, in American politics and you see the same tactics in both situations.

So, friends, when the Constitution is legally suspended to save us from terrorists, have an exit plan.

Pull My Finger

Interesting comments from our friend Scott Ritter, former Marine, weapons inspector, and now, apparently, peace nik.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1881.shtml

Says Bush has signed off on a June attack of Iranian nuclear sites.

Never know about the alternative press account of things. Hopefully Seymour Hirsch and the New Yorker are on it. God knows the NYTs and CNN have better things to report, like Fashion Week.

An attack would not surprise me though, followed by some pretty strong saber rattling, maybe even massing troops on the Iranian border.

Bush needs something to distract the corporate media machine from his SS boondoggle. Figure an attack on Iran while the Senate votes on SS reform late on a Friday night. Maybe throw in a Supreme Court nomination in there too.

Wasn't Medicare passed at like 3:30 am without an announcement?

It’s the domestic agenda-WOT two-step.

All the rage in Washington these days.

That Quaint Old Fashioned idea of The Law

Did you read the torture piece from the New Yorker, www.newyorker.com. Its long one and free and very interesting.

The now infamous legal two-step is summed up in a quote from law prof Yoo (now at UCB, then with Bush): "Why is it so hard to believe that there is a category of behavior that is beyond the law."

He was referring to terrorists, of course, but I guess it could cut both ways.

Gee, I'm not a lawyer but I thought there was no behavior beyond the reach of law. Nazy death camp architects were put on trail (and to death) and they killed many more then 3000. Melosivich, Dehmar, McVey, and they are still after Pinoche; all of them came under the law. The first Trade Center bombers, put on trail.

But not terrorists after 911.

The article explains how the CIA rendered terrorist types before 911. They would help capture them after they had already been convicted in abscentia and send them to Egypt. Even then, they had to get written assurences that the prisoners would not be tortured. He would, of course, but the CIA had its CYA.

But after 911, well that Law stuff is a bit quaint, isn't it?

What Bush wanted was carte blanc to grab anybody anywhere anytime and gitmo them if suspected being within 500 miles of a terrorist. God help you if your brother's friend's roommate knew a guy whose uncle's brother had a stopover in Afghanistan.

(Christ, my renters are from Jordon/SA -I and my entire family could be gitmoed at any moment.)

Instead of one or two bad guys a year like the pre 911 CIA, Bush wanted to round up 600 guys a year and torture them at will for info.

Yoo and Gonzales did the legal two step to allow that.

So the law went out the window for certain people. How long before they gitmo US citizens for not going to church.

The coup de grace of the article was that a reportedly tortured (by Eygiptains) terrorist (pre-911) told of Saddam's contacts with terrorists and his bio program, the same info Powell took to the UN, the same info that turned out to be false.

This is a real moral failure, people (talk about your values). Bush responded to evil with fear instead of strength.

I fear one day we will look back on this time with the same shame as Slavery, Indian reservations, separate but equal, internment camps, and McCarthism.

Time Table for Leaving Iraq?

How bout never.

We went into Iraq to fight terrorism (not WMD, da) but not the way you think, mono y mono. No, we are in Iraq to establish several permanent military bases that will serve nicely for major saber rattling gestures and, if need be, staging areas for operations anywhere in the Middle East.

Think of it as a police station in a bad neighborhood.

And gee, Iraq is right next to our dear Axis of Evil member, Iran, supposedly a main source of state-sponsored terrorism.

And said police station is also sitting atop a ton of oil. Nice.

The goal has always been a functioning Iraq, flowing oil, happy Iraqis, and a few large bases in an American-friendly environment.

We may even pay rent.

We watch the oil, we watch Iran, we watch the terrorists, we watch the Mullahs all from a couple of high-tech military posts right in the Mullah tent.

So there is no time table for leaving Iraq, we are there permanently. As the Iraqi army increases and gets trained, most of our guys home, but certainly not all of them.

Why would we be building a billion dollar embassy if this were not the plan.

And for once, and perhaps because I'm over-caffeinated, Bush's plan makes sense. And frankly, this is the reason most Americans didn't have too much trouble with the invasion of Iraq. They saw the deal beyond the sales pitch.

American knows a decent price when they see it, despite the used-car salesmen's bedside manner.

But don't try to sell me private accounts, I ain't buying.

News Media to Blame

In this era (911, Iraq, W1, W2, SS), I think it’s the news media that has let the American public down the most.

Politicians have always been power hungry schemers who occasionally do the country some good.

And it was the news media's main and cherished task to keep them semi honest by exposing them for what they are.

And there was a balance there.

But now we have news media that is either entertainment or propaganda and the propaganda outlets are killing everyone in the ratings, which begets more propaganda.

Imagine today how Watergate would be reported.

W and B would be portrayed as leftwing nuts with ulterior motives and the Post would be roasted for being bias and onesided. Fox News, Limbaugh, and the rest would be reporting how the break-in was a liberal plot and that democrats calling for impeachment were disloyal and in danger of having their districts rearranged. And the blogsphere would be questioning everybody's loyalty while the country was at war.

Nixon would complete his second term and upon his death, be hailed as the greatest President ever to serve.

My how times have changed.

So in the end, politicians are now and will always be the same. What has completely changed is how the media portrays them to the public, and of course what the public swallows.

Careers

I've always struggled with my career, never been satisfied with what I was doing, always worked to provide for the family hoping someday to find myself doing something I really enjoyed.

I recently met a fellow who was in commercial real estate lending. He had an MA in RE. He also taught RE financing at NYU. RE financing was his career.

Pop! Bingo!

It finally occurred to me, Larry, not his real name, had a CAREER in RE. He was educated, and worked in the field and knew about the field. He was useful in the field. And he was committed to his field. He can also move around in his field. And he taught in the field. He was visiting SD for a convention in the field.

I need to find a field.

But in fact, I am in a field. The field of writing. I've been writing a blog, been writing technical guides, been writing my novel for years. Writing is my field.

Hmmmm. Could be worse. I guess.

I need to make a greater commitment to my field.

Maybe I'm at the point of moving on in my field to a different type of writing. I wonder if I could be a newspaper writer.

Or a novelist. I have a decent first draft you know.

The Fluff Girls of GOP Media

Man it was hard to surf the news channels late night after the SOTU speech, not that I was looking for news, usually I'm looking for summer camp movies or anything with a Brief Nudity rating..heh (oy, desperate middle-aged men).

The GOP media was just lapping it up in the worst way. Not a single critical thought or pang of skepticism in 24 hours of continuous coverage. Is that what our media has become?

Guess objectivity is gas.

I used to think journalism was about skepticism, now journalist swallow it all and smile at the camera for the money shot.

I can't help but think it’s the money involved and the ratings and the glamour. GOP media gets ratings for acting like fluff girls to the president meat. Its what Red state American wants to see. Maybe they should try real porno.

Mainstream journalists used to be the Doubting Thomas of American discourse. They were skeptical of all things political, critical of all politicians red, blue, and inbetween and of parties and planks and agendas and everything else. That was why at one time, boys and girls, politicans hated jouranlist. Image that.

Nowadays FOX, CNN, MSNBC spend their news hours stroking the Presidential wand. No wonder I went to bed early and blue.

And what’s this blue stuff on everyone's finger, some kind of colored lube, oh never mind.