Who Needs The Onion?

I watch two news programs every weekday evening: The Lehrer News Hour and The Rachel Maddow Show. For the past two evenings, I've turned to my wife after about 90 seconds of reportage on the American ship captain captured by pirates and said, "OK, I've heard enough of this. Let's move on." Futilely in both cases, because the story droned on and on. This is the sort of thing that passes for news that requires near-breathless coverage--it led the news on both shows on both nights, and it will again tonight, too, whether this "crisis" is resolved or not.

Jeremy Scahill in a rare back-t0-back inspiration for a blog entry notes the absurdity of this situation in this entry on "The Huffington Post" today. As the entire world and probably all the eavesdropping aliens, too, know, Somali pirates tried to hijack a US-flagged merchant vessel off the African coast a couple of days ago. The deal went bad, and for the past couple of days now we have the ship's captain and four armed pirates floating around in a lifeboat that's basically dead in the water because it's out of gas. This is obviously a situation that calls for . . . Superman! That is, as Scahill calls him, "the Grand Puba of militarism," General David Petraeus, who has taken personal in charge of this operation, as part of his charter to direct US foreign policy in the Middle East.

You can read the piece, but just consider for a moment the utter imbecility of this situation: a dinky little lifeboat with four denizens of starving, chaotic Somali and an American is being confronted by an $800 million destroyer, being surveyeled by an Boeing spy plane in the sky above, and is the subject of legions of news people. More warships--including, and I'm not kidding, a frigging guided missile cruiser--are on the way to the area. FBI hostage negotiators are on the job. The merchant ship, by the way, sailed off with an armed-to-the-teeth Navy SEAL team on board! The president is being briefed regularly on the situation. Meantime one of the fearsome pirates in the lifeboat, equipped with a sattelite phone, has requested our prayers. He's probably about 17 years old. I for one am praying for him and his comrades, because mark my words, contingency plans exist right now to storm the lifeboat with special ops guys and "take out" the dastardly pirates if the situtation doesn't get resolved quick enough to suit the Supreme Puba.

You cannot make this stuff up. Nobody with half a brain would believe it. "Who needs The Onion?" Scahill asks. Indeed. Consider for a moment that this little operation is costing us taxpayers God knows how many millions of dollars. I cannot wait to see what Jon Stewart does with this. I promise I'll put it up here when he does. We are truly a demented people.

Screaming Bloody Murder

Disturbing news today from a piece by Jeremy Scahill posted on Common Dreams, to wit: Obama plans to request an additional $75.5 billion in a supplemental appropriation to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Could happen as early as today.

Say what??? A thousand times NO to this. No, no, NO! A million times NO. This is not what we elected Barack Obama to do; this is certainly not why he got my vote. If this is what his even-handed, let-me-listen-to-all-sides approach has produced, then he needs to find a new strategy. What's wrong with this plan? Where to begin?

How about: it perpetrates the abysmal failure in the mid-East bequeathed to the Democrats by Bush? I've been increasingly concerned that Obama is showing no great urgency about getting out of Iraq, and at the same time he's evinced great willingness to shovel more thousands of troops and billions of dollars into Afghanistan, a war that has even more hazy objectives than the one next door.

How about: we cannot possibly afford ratcheting up our military commitment for an undefined goal for an undefined amount of time in the midst of our current economic crisis. And to borrow a page from Bush and get funding for this by the off-book supplemental sleight of hand is just despicable.

How about: this course toadies to the Pentagon, which has stalwartly backed continued open-ended engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite their noises to the contrary and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' ongoing PR campaign about reformation of Pentagon spending.

How about: no matter how much money we pour into the Afghanistan rat hole, we cannot succeed there.

How about: nobody in the administration, or anywhere else, for that matter, has defined what success in Afghanistan is. What is the end state of the war there? When do we withdraw entirely? What are we doing there? What are we trying to accomplish?

How about: this is just plain madness because it will alienate a substantial number of his supporters both in the Congress and out here in the country.

I could go on about what an outrage this is just on the general principles of the inherent evil of war and how it robs the poor and destitute of their chance to improve their lives, but I won't.

One of the more insidious things about this betrayal of the antiwar Democrats is the lack of outrage among supposedly staunch liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress. And why? Because they're afraid of getting on the wrong side of the administration on this (or apparently any other) issue and getting cut out of the White House loop. This report says Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is behind these machinations.

Well, I'm not going to silent about this disgrace. I'm going to scream bloody murder, and I'm going to continue screaming till sanity prevails. (I will probably destroy my voice forever.)

Looney Tunes II

This conversation between one of my favorite right-wing media crazies and a caller who identifies himself as a Republican who voted for McCain, a Marine and Army veteran, and a person who does not approve of torture doesn't require much commentary. The caller takes issue with Limbaugh's approval of torture and states that he, Hannity, and some other right wingnuts of the air waves are "brainwashed." So what does Limbaugh do? Guess. Right. He humiliates the caller, since he cannot refute the caller's assertions. Just a measure of the ignorance of Rush Limbaugh is his declaration that he knows of no one who died at the hands of US torturers. This is absolute nonsense. As one of people commenting on this coversation points out, in March 2005, the AP reported: "At least 108 people have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of them violently, according to government data provided to The Associated Press. Roughly a quarter of those deaths have been investigated as possible abuse by U.S. personnel."

Soon-to-be-US-Senator-from-Minnesota Al Franken still has the most accurate characterization of Rush Limbaugh: "big, fat idiot." And, let me add, dangerous neo-fascist.

Update I: Keith Olberman blasted Limbaugh on his show last evening. The Nation's Chris Hayes commenting on the event, said it represented a philosophical divide in what's left of the Republican Party:

Right now, I really think you see a fissure between the right wing coalition in the people who want to kind of double-down and follow Limbaughism off the cliff…and then the people that have some sense that this is actually going in the wrong direction . . . I don't think there’s an iota shame in Limbaugh or in Limbaughism. There’s a large part of the conservative base that doesn’t feel it has anything to apologize for.

Looney Tunes I

A buddy alerted me to this story that ran yesterday on NPR. Apparently the sales of guns of all kinds and ammunition have gone through the roof since Obama was elected president. And why, you might logically inquire. Because, dear friend, people think Obama is going to take away their guns. Here's what a gun shop owner says:

. . . people are buying the guns to protect themselves because they perceive Obama's policies as socialist and rewarding those "people who are not working hard." They are also afraid, he says, of more restrictive gun laws.

"Everybody was scared he was going to take the ammo away or he was going to tax it out of sight on the prices," [the gun shop owner] says. "So people started stocking up, buying half a lifetime to a lifetime supply of ammo all at one time."

Right. So let's think about this for a minute. We don't have such things happening without prerequisites. In this case, I can think of several, none particularly encouraging:

1. Probably the most striking of all, for this to happen, you must have a population who are terrified of "people who are not working hard." This is code language. What it means is "poor people," and specifically black poor people, or to a lesser extent, Mexican poor people. In America, don't start analyzing any social phenomenon without first considering race.
2. A population totally ignorant of the meaning of "socialism."
3. A population credulous and uninformed enough to have swallowed whole the entire Republican smear against Obama in the election. Moreover, who still believe it after the man has been in office for two and half months. This in itself is no great endorsement of the intelligence of the American people.
4. A society that blesses and encourages the notion that such people should be able to buy as many guns as they want . . . and provides thousands of outlets for them to do so.

Even if the ammo shortage turns out to be permanent, (and would that that would happen!), not to worry. There are already hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of people who think Barack Obama is more of a threat to their liberty than the neo-fascist who just left office. Makes you feel real safe, doesn't it?

Yeah!

I cannot let the evening pass without noticing that my Texas Rangers won the season opener this afternoon down in Arlington, Texas. And they won it handily, beating Cleveland Indians by a score of 9-1. That actually is better than handily. That's a drubbing. If you're not a baseball fan, you can't really appreciate what a win on opening day means. Although it's not at all true, everybody interprets a win on opening day as portent for a winning season. So it feels much better than a loss, which is a foreboding of a losing season. Best part of the story today is the pitching. Starter Millwood only gave up 5 hits and 1 earned run in seven innings. That's good!

I always feel better about everything when baseball is in season. If only just by a little.

Blown Away

Sometimes I just have to shake my head and wonder just what in the name of all that's holy is wrong with this country. I've almost lost the capacity to be shocked any longer by what some nut case has done has done with a gun or, in many cases, guns--almost. The lunacy that we witness in this country because any lunatic can own or procure a gun is simply unspeakable. I was truly shocked and appalled to see that another madman with a gun, actually 2 guns, had killed 13 random people and then himself in Binghamton, NY, a few days ago. Even as I am in shock, I could actually understand somebody not being shocked by these mass murders any longer. They've become routine. We can count on 3 or 4 of these every year, it seems. Just think about how many there have been in this country in the four weeks. Care to guess how many lives have been blown away in that time? Forty-seven, brothers and sisters. FORTY-SEVEN. From coast to coast: New York, Washington, Alabama, North Carolina, California. Oh yeah, this is nationwide madness.

I sat down to write this piece about the Binghamton murders, but in checking Google News to get a link for the Binghamton story, lo and behold: two more stories of mass murder confront me. This violence leaves me speechless, and every time something like this happens, I go all nuts again about the idiotic gun laws we have in this country that unquestionably enable these killings. Worse and truly depressing, I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that those laws will ever change. Americans are a violent people, and we will not brook any curbs on our capacities for wreaking it whenever and on whomever we chose.

In Graham, Washington, yesterday a guy killed his five kids and himself after his wife told him she was leaving him. The kids were 7, 12, 14, and 16. The kids were shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle just to make sure they were all good and dead. Four of the five were in their beds. My God!

In Pittsburgh yesterday morning, some lunatic who was pissed off at his mother shot and killed three policeman who were responding to the domestic disturbance call. The whole tiff between mother and son started because the dog had pissed on the floor. In context, I suppose we should all be thankful that the guy didn't kill his mom, too. God help us all.

The World is Changing

As you know, I love my Kindle. And I'm not the only one. The latest paean to the remarkable Kindle that I've run across was in Newsweek, but apparently it showed up originally in Slate. The happy Kindle user is Jacob Weisberg, and he's been excited by the Kindle ever since the first one, not nearly as good as the Kindle 2, came out. He makes an arresting prediction:

"Jeff Bezos [Amazon's CEO] has built a machine that marks a cultural revolution. The Kindle 2 signals that after a happy, 550-year union, reading and printing are getting separated. It tells us that printed books, the most important artifacts of human civilization, are going to join newspapers and magazines on the road to obsolescence."

In other words, the world is changing. Weren't you aware that the electronic age we're in is just beginning? Vast changes that we cannot imagine are going to happen. Already popular culture has undergone a monumental change. Kindle is just part of it. "Why should a civilization that reads electronically be any less literate than one that harvests trees to do so?" Weisberg asks. Setting aside for the moment the massive amount of voluntary illiteracy in the US, why, indeed?

I have to tell you that I pretty much agree with the assessment that books as we know them are on the way out. And I'm not concerned. I will still love books. I spend most of my life in a room where I'm surrounded by books. Books and I have a life-long love affair going. But I brought my Kindle with me on a recent trip, and, man, you talk about great. I kept up with the blogs I read daily and continued reading a couple of books. The Kindle is carry-on. No weight and no space to speak of. A dream of a piece of technology on a trip. Full disclosure: I also brought a book with me. It's part of my current research.

Weisberg addresses the main argument that I've heard against this technology, that it is going to replace books and that books are just better. No, Kindle is not going to replace all books; books are still going to be around. Nice books. Well-made books. Throwaway, recreational, or transitory reading is what the Kindle's for. Book-lovers don't need to fear this device. I sure don't. It's the most helpful gadget I think I've ever had.

More, More, More: Give 'Em More!

Here's a picture of everything that's wrong in conventional thinking, if not, in the broader sense what's wrong with the country. Or should I say one of the main things wrong with the country? It's a picture of the love affair our politicians--and it doesn't matter which party--have with the Pentagon. First of all, we have the sainted General Petraeus, whom the vile little pretender formerly in the White House--I really need to get an acronym for this oft-used appellation, but how catchy is VLPFWH?--appointed the Far-and-Away-Only-Qualified-Man-in-the-US-to-Set-Middle-Eastern-Policy. A title which the country continues to bestow in this guy, who, as far as I can tell has the same policy as every other flag-ranked officer in the Pentagon: more money for more troops and more billions for the ever-greedy, ever-present defense corporations and their lackeys. And then there's the senator from Connecticut. The photo above should be captioned: Aw, Come On, Joe, You Know You Want to Kiss Him.

If there's one guy in the Senate who makes me retch, it's that grinning, pasty droop-face, Joe Lieberman. The last time I had to notice this repulsive specimen was when the Democrats decided they needed his vote too much to kick his ass out of their caucus over to the Republican knuckleheads where he belongs. So, surprise, surprise. Joe Lieberman thinks the military is not getting enough money. Just how mad do we have to get? How insane does this society have be before we wake up and realize how much of our sustenance as a nation we're pouring down the military rat hole?

Here we are in the grips of the worst economic downturn that anyone alive has ever seen, with a military that consumes about $1 trillion a year (counting all the war-related spending that doesn't get counted in the so-called "defense" budget, things like spying, nuclear weapons, etc.), that furthermore got a 4 percent bump in the budget this year, and Joe Lieberman and other nimwits like him--Cornyn (R-TX), Kyl (R-AZ), Thune (R-SD), Graham (R-SC), and some so-called "centrist" Democrats--think the military needs more money. Apparently, goes the argument, they need this money for the Obama plus-up in Afghanistan.

So are we now adopting the idea that $1 trillion a year is baseline for the Pentagon, that anything further they do has to be funded because they don't have enough to cover everything? Oh, please. This rant is long enough as it is.

Tickled Plumb to Death

By all accounts, the Obamas' first foray overseas was a great success. While Barack was being just his cool, articulate self at an almost hour-long news conference with journalists from all over the world; meeting with the president of India (who asked for Obama's autograph "for his daughter"); or flashing his ready smile . . . why I am just tickled plumb to death that I don't have to be embarrassed because our president is exposing his crudity, boorishness, and ignorance to the entire world. God, I used to cringe whenever Bush spoke in public anywhere, much less in some foreign country. No worries with Barack on that score. What a relief and a pride to have a guy like this speaking for America.

And then there's Michelle. All she did on this trip was wow the entire United Kingdom. I listened tonight to a female British reporter who enthusiastically approved of the unheard of gesture of returning a back touch from Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, and the most famous monarch in the world. The Brits went bonkers with this action that we Americans don't think twice about--hell, I'd hug Michelle Obama if I ever got the chance, and I'll bet she'd hug me back, too--but the widespread opinion is that this was a good thing, not a breach of etiquette at all. But for my money, the best thing of all was the huge, friendly, and at times ecstatic reception Michelle got an English school she visited. I was really touched by reports of it, and touched by what she told these kids. (See below and there are photos and a story here.) Stuff like this can make you forget what a huge mess the country is in, and just for little while be proud that we're being led by a couple of genuine human beings.

I just love the way she hugs these kids, and I love the consternation of the secret service when she decides to greet some girls in the audience. But they couldn't do anything about it.

The Time Has Come

Well, I'm back. And to tell the truth, I've missed being here to churn out something practically daily that nobody reads. Go figure.

Two items of note today, both of them gleaned from The Rachel Maddow Show. While I was watching tonight, I told my wife, "I like her." And indeed that's the case. I can picture having dinner with us, and wine. And I think conversation with this savvy lady would be fascinating. But there I go down fantasy lane. I was going to tell you about . . .

1. Good news from the Obama foreign trip. Evidently this guy was operating on fumes today after the flight that jet lags everybody else. He talked to the Russians, the Chinese, the Brits, the Queen . . . and some others. But apparently in conversation with Russian president, Medvedev (ok, I confess, I had to look it up), the two agreed to re-enliven actions to reduce nuclear weapons. What a concept! My understanding is that US and Russia each have about 10,000 warheads apiece. The two countries hold 96 percent of the world's nukes, which number about 23,000--enough to reduce this beautiful planet to a charred cinder. Apparently also, there's an increasing number of world leaders and indeed military brass who are raising questions about the utility of these weapons. Well, duh! What's driving this is the collective fear everybody with any sense has for a terrorist getting his hands on one of these weapons. Sane people won't use nukes; insane people will, and everybody who's sane knows it. So, good, let's get rid of every single goddamned nuclear weapon on the earth. The time has come. Today. Right now. If you want to do something positive yourself about this, go to Globalzero and sign the declaration.

2. Rachel interviewed Colin Powell tonight. He was expansive on all the subjects except one. She asked him about the high level meetings (which reportedly included Condi Rice, Rumsfeld, George Tennant, Powell, and a couple of others I can't remember) that discussed torture, or in the euphemism of the day "interrogation techniques." On that subject, Powell said nothing. What a surprise. He said he would have to await publication of the "complete record"--which he fully expected to come out. Before that he couldn't say anything. He also dragged out the "it's a legal question" defense. Rachel kept after him, but he wouldn't budge. Why? What complete record? The answer is easy to figure out: Look, he, along with all the others, sanctioned US use of torture. It was Bush administration policy. As I've mentioned before, Colin Powell back in 1968 was part of the command chain that covered up the Mai Lai massacre. Not a common factoid on the guy. But for some reason, Powell is regarded as some sort of demigod.