Month: August 2004

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Haven’t been in much of a mood for blogging this week but this is really something. Apparently – and of course nobody is quite sure why – Senator Ted Kennedy’s name found itself onto the FAA’s “Watch List” and Kennedy was barred from flying as a result.

Now, you may not like Ted Kennedy, but putting him on a list of people who are so much of a danger to the USA that they should not be allowed to fly smacks of deep wingnuttery. Except that this time the wingnut in question worked for the US Government.

Kennedy said it took three calls to Tom Ridge and several weeks before his name was removed from the list. Being a Senator, he has the kind of clout to make that happen. We average citizens, who would be lucky to talk to any human being ewith real clout at DHS, let alone Ridge, should be very very concerned.

Shirat Ha’Sticker

This article in the NY Times is an interesting slice of Israeli life.

“When I had my list of stickers, I realized it’s like a capsule of Israeliness, all the brutality and aggression and the need to get out of this situation,” said [song author David] Grossman, who is best known for magical-realistic novels like ”See Under: Love” and volumes of left-of-center political essays, including last year’s ”Death as a Way of Life.”

”The more the dead end of the situation grows, the more frustrated people become with their inability to influence it,” he continued, in a telephone interview. “Few people on the left or the right are satisfied. And the more they are frustrated, the more they are extremists, the more bumper stickers they have on the car. Sometimes you stop behind a car that looks like a shouting demonstration.”

Gadi Taub, one of Israel’s leading cultural critics and public intellectuals, put Mr. Grossman’s experience into a larger context. ”Israel is such a small place that taking a political position is like declaring the very core of your identity,” he said. ”For many years it was unthinkable for Israelis that if you’re a Likud voter you could marry someone from Labor. It would be a battle over every dinner and every breakfast. So your car, too, will declare your identity. You don’t think you can even make friends across bumper stickers.”

iTunes doesn’t have the song, unfortunately, but I found it in less than 5 minutes on an MP3 file trading network. Hat Tip: Amygdalagf for the link.

It’s Baaaaaaack

Just when you think that this administration has been so screwed up for so long and has done so many heinous things that it’s hard to tell them all apart or even care about them all anymore, along comes something that reminds you that the horror is not over and you can still be outraged.

Digby excerpts a long GQ article about Joseph and Bernadette Darby and what has happened to their lives since Joe was identifed as a whistleblower in the Abu Ghirab scandal.

Digby talks about the article as a window into red-state wingnut America and why nobody is supporting the Darbys in their home town. Which is true, and the fact that they have had to be moved into protective custody is sad, but as far as I am concerned, what’s really appaling is why.

Abu Ghirab is in fact worse that we’ve heard. And it’s getting lost in the outrage backwash. Nobody is talking about it. And we don’t know why.

One thing Bernadette didn’t know

Debate Schedule Announced

The Presidential / VP debate schedule for the fall has been announced: details here. It’s interesting to note that 2 of the 3 of the debates are going to have candidates seated at a table (the 3rd debate doesn’t specify). I have no idea why but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Kerry is so much taller than Bush, and the more traditional podium debates show the height difference more clearly.

My problem with the whole debate format is it has become yet another way for candidates to get out their spin more than anything else. Nothing that’s said there can be taken as either fact or serious policy proposal.

Here’s an example:

I have a very clear recollection of one of the 2000 Presidential debate – I happened to be driving up Nob Hill at the time and for some reason Candiate Bush’s comment about how he was completely uninterested in “nation building” (the buzzword of the time; considered a criticism of the USA’s involvment in Bosina) stuck in my brain. Look what 4 years have brought.

Yet I’m sure I’ll watch them all anyway.

Tom Harkin Rocks!

Hat Tip: All Spin Zone for finding this beautiful quote:

Sen. Tom Harkin called Vice President Dick Cheney a “coward” for avoiding service in Vietnam and called on President Bush to end the “backdoor draft.”

The Iowa Democrat was responding Friday to the call-up of a Des Moines police officer who has already completed his eight-year military commitment.

[snip]

“The part of the U.S. code that provides for this anticipates major wars, major national emergencies,” Harkin said. “That is not what we’re confronting right now. You think about using this law only in (extreme cases), only when we’re really in dire, dire need.”

Harkin also shot back at Cheney, who said in a visit to Iowa on Tuesday that presidential candidate John Kerry lacks a basic understanding of the war on terrorism and cannot make America safer.

He noted that Cheney had several student deferments that allowed him to skip serving in Vietnam.

“When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil,” Harkin said. “Those of us who served and those of us who went in the military don’t like it when someone like a Dick Cheney comes out and he wants to be tough. Yeah, he’ll be tough. He’ll be tough with somebody else’s blood, somebody else’s kids. But not when it was his turn to go.”

Nice to see a Democrat finally being blunt about Cheney’s service record (or lack thereof). Let’s hope it continues.