Chronicles of Gore

I see that Al Gore's film , "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar. Let's see. Gore has been the foremost environmentalist in the Senate since the 1980s, and in fact wrote a book on the subject. He is an expert on global warming (which we have been denying) and an expert on nuclear weaponry (which we now are spreading and trying to contain at the same time).

Thank god we didn't elect this guy President....

Iran's Influence in Iraq

I have been following the ongoing controversy regarding whether the Bush Administration has sufficient evidence that Iran is arming Shia militias in Iraq. I guess my question is, what if they do? Let's imagine that we have uncontoverted evidence that Iran is sending all manner of nasty tools to Iraq.

What is it we can do about it?

The President says that he does not want anyone meddling in Iraq's nascent democracy. I suppose not, but when we invaded Iraq, we violated the notion that Iraq is somehow a soverereign country. We put a free for all in play. Moreover, our continued occupation does little to shore up our position. It is as if we are saying, " We don't want you foiling our attempt to alter the history of Iraq with your own attempt to alter the history of Iraq. This country is sovereign to everyone but us."

Hardly a convincing argument. In fact, we have never found it convincing when we toppled governments, armed insurgents or financed various destabilizations.

And the canard that the Iraqi people want our continued "help and support" inside their country is of little help. If they wanted us there, they wold not be shooting at us, they would not be undermining our security missions, and they would not be telling anyone who will listen that they want us out.

Lastly, the tone of indignation the Administration assumes when speaking of the subject does not play well. As though it is simply unthinkable that a country would try to influence events in a neighboring country. Unthinkable, that a Shia country may take sides in a Sunni/Shia conflict right next door. As if Iran had not been reaching out to the Iraqi Shia since the 1979 Revolution. Anyone who took Middle East Conflicts 101 knows that Saddam was the only bulwark we had against a possible Shia Super State.

And Shia Super States, besides being difficult to say, have never boded well for America.

FYI -- I see we have another carrier group to the Gulf. Rattle Rattle. Rattle.

The Straight Talk Express Has Lost A Wheel

John McCain was on the campaign trail this week. In Arizona, his home state, he was asked at one fundraiser why he was "sucking up" to the religious right and ignoring the moderate wing of the party. McCain, ever clever, asked "what is wrong with sucking up to everybody?"

Sen. McCain, if you have not figured out the answer to that question by now, you do not deserve the Presidency.

This Week In The News

• This week, the President spoke at a President's Day celebration at Mount Vernon. The President told his audience that George Washington would have approved of our invasion of Iraq because it was similar to the Revolutionary War he fought. The President continued, " No seriously. Also, it is important to mention that, and few people know that, one way that George Washington -- who also had a name with a "W" -- convinced the colonists to support his cause by telling them that the British were inventing a Super Cannon of Mass Destruction that could launch enough shot and debris to wipe out and entire village. Also, the British were in cahoots with the Indians -- I guess you call them Native Americans -- to support their plan to slaughter the colonists."
• 
  This week, presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R AZ) declared that he favored overturning the 1973 Roe v Wade decision which legalized abortion. This is at odds with McCain's previous positions on the subject, including a 2000 statement that, should his own daughter become pregnant, the decision to carry the fetus to term was her own. Pundits have, accurately, placed this statement in the context of McCain's increasingly obvious attempts to curry favor with the religious right, a group whose influence he has previously criticized. In yet another position shift, McCain confounded many by endorsing stem cell research. According to an aide, this position is highly self interested: "Should he win the 2008 GOP nomination, Sen McCain realizes he will have to re- grow his spine in short order."
• 
  This week, pharmaceutical company Novartis filed a patent lawsuit in India alleging that Indian pharmaceutical companies had infringed on its patent of a leukemia drug. (India has recently changed its patent laws at the request of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to offer protections similar to those in the US and Europe). While still in its early stages, the lawsuit has drawn the ire of the Indian press who are concerned that if its patent is upheld, Novartis will dramatically raise the price of its medicine. Officials at Novartis downplayed these concerns stating, " Don't be silly. The market will set a fair price for the drug. There will undoubtedly be some squawking when we jack the price. But look at it this way, it is not that we are overpricing our drug, its just that the Indians are undervaluing not dying a slow and painful death."
• 
  This week, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D Vt) and Christopher Bond (R Mo) introduced a bill to protect Americans from martial law. More precisely the Leahy/Bond Bill amends a military appropriations bill that was passed last year. That bill included provisions that amended the Insurrection Act of 1807 and expanded the President's power to declare martial law. Never heard of this? You are not alone. The martial law language was added after debate was closed on the appropriations bill at the request of the White House and was thus never discussed in Congress or made part of the bill's legislative history. Pressed for comment, White Spinmaster Tony Snow waxed comedic, "Listen you guys know that this administration cannot get enough of all things martial, military, unilateral and dramatic. You also know that we interpret the Constitution in a way that gives the Execeutive the powers of an 18th century king. So... you know... ooops, hand in the cookie jar. "

Marine Sentenced to a Century

Today a military tribunal sentenced Marine Sgt Michael Cortez to one hundred years in prison. Cortez participated in the gang rape of a 14 year old Iraqi girl and the the subsequent murder of the girl and her family. One Marine remains to be tried. He will be tried in a federal court as he was discharged before he was charged with the crime.

Sgt Cortez' actions are indefensible and his sentence well deserved. However, it strikes me that this type of atrocity is one of the "unintended consequences" of war that Pope John Paul II warned our President about before we invaded Iraq. Haditha is another. Abu Ghraib yet another.

The rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and her family falls squarely on the shoulders of Sgt Cortez and his co conspirators. The vilification of our country throughout the world falls squarely on the shoulders of our President.

Shmaebeus Corpus

Yesterday a Federal Appeals Court upheld a section of the Military Tribunals Act which strips a federal detainee of their right to have their imprisonment reviewed by a federal court. The ruling applies to any detainee so long as they are not held on US soil.

The ruling is a victory for the Bush Administration and everyone else who wants to live in a society where a man can be imprisoned against his will and held indefinitely without any ability to challenge the legality of their detainment.

Sego...

Ok. I admit it. I have developed a bit of a thing for Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency. I would say it is a schoolboy crush, but her charms appear more subtle than straightforward. I am even willing to forgive a bit of awkwardness in her early campaign. Let's hope French voters are like minded.

Run, Sego, Run....

President's Day

I see that the President used President's Day to assert that George Washington would have approved of our invasion of Iraq because the invasion of Iraq and the Revolutionary War are so similar.

Huh....

There are not enough gigabytes available to me list even the major differences between the Revolutionary War and the Invasion of Iraq.

Suffice to say that the Revolutionary War was an insurgency fought by American colonists to establish themselves as an independent democratic republic in America. It was a war to restore the democracy colonists enjoyed in their home country and a war to throw off English imperialism (that is to get rid of a foreign occupying army.)

The invasion Iraq involved the invasion of a foreign country by Americans, with no consent or aid from Iraqis to establish a form of government that has no history in Iraq. Moreover, George Washington did not build his movement by telling people that the British Army had weapons of mass destruction and were colluding the Native Americans to butcher the colonists. George Washington did build his movement by saying things like:

Permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and
passionate
attachments for others, should be excluded. The nation which
indulges towards
another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some
degree a slave. It
is a slave to its animosity or to its affection.

The Pentagon Inspector General's Report

Late last week the Pentagon Inspector General issued a report dealing with pre war intelligence on Iraq. The report states that during the run up to the invasion of Iraq, Undersecretary of Defense, Douglas Feith sytematically reviewed intelligence on Iraq collected by the CIA and other intelligence agencies. At the request of V. President Cheney, Feith then drafted a set of "alternative conclusions" from the intelligence and passed them on to V.P. Cheney. According the report, Feith's alternative conclusions were not supported by the available intelligence and, in fact, often contradicted the conclusions of US intelligence agencies. Feith never made his "alternative conclusions" available to the intelligence community for review.

Feith's "alternative conclusions" were ultimately used by the V.President and President to make the case for war. For his part, Feith says he is relieved that he will not face criminal prosecution because the report concludes he was acting under the direct orders of his superiors.

Have we reached the level of impeachable offense yet?

This Week In the News

• 
  This week, Under Secretary of State Christopher Hill announced that North Korea would agree to halt its nuclear program in exchange for a package of aid (mostly heating oil) from six countries and a promise that the US would negotiate a "normalization" of relations with North Korea. While the international community has heralded the agreement as a successful piece of multi lateral diplomacy, insiders within the Bush White House were skeptical. Said one Senior Aide, "Lemme get this straight. We sat down with a bunch of countries. We gave away some stuff. They gave away some stuff. The other countries chipped in some stuff. We all agreed that we would have diplomatic ties in the future so this type of mess doesn't happen again. No 'Mission Accomplished.' No big guns. No 'the Decider.' What the hell kinda bull sh-t is that.?" Rumor has it that President Bush now will only refer to Hill as "Lil'Clinton" or "Chrissy" and has banned him from ever seeing Flity, the President's Flight Suit.
• 
  This week, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama continued their joust for the title of Most Inoffensive Candidate Ever (MICE). While Clinton bobbed and weaved on Iran, Obama took a bold swing at neutralizing his African American heritage as an issue in the campaign. Realizing that many white voters will assume that he will champion a civil rights agenda, Obama took what he called the YOH! Pledge, (short for "You're OK Honky"). The pledge binds Obama to reassure white voters that no one holds them responsible for anything ... ever and perpetuate the myth that generations of slavery and Jim Crow segregation have no effect on the conditions of the black community. Noted, one Obama strategist: "Hopefully, it will pay off on election day, when white voters will not associate Barak with a bunch of uncomfortable guilt and accountability. In short, we are shameless about holding them blameless."
• 
  This week, yet another Marine on trial at Camp Pendleton pled guilty to charges that he kidnapped an unarmed Iraqi, murdered him and then planted evidence to make it appear as though the man was planting a roadside bomb. According to the six Marines who have pled guilty to the same crime, the Marines were upset that they could not find a particular suspected insurgent, so they decided to kill another young Iraqi in order to "send a message." According to one Marine who pled guilty, "We wanted to be all like, 'Don't mess with us.' Instead we were all like, "We will kill innocent people brutally and indiscriminately." On the up side, each Marine now has his own month in Al Queda's official Recruiting Calendar available throughout the Middle East.
• 
  This week, UNICEF issued a report that ranked the United States and Great Britain at the bottom of industrialized nations in measurements of child wellbeing (including child poverty, infant mortality,material well being and other categories). The study demonstrated that a country's overall wealth has little to do with the well being of their children, as many of the countries ranked above the US and Britain are relatively small economies.. Commenting on the study, Under Secretary of Health and Human Services Cruella deVille announced, "Look, I realize that it is a bit embarrassing to get our butt kicked by the Czeck Republic, but you have to understand that we are executing a different strategy with respect to child well being. Instead of raising conditions in the US, we aim to level the playing field by lowering conditions everywhere else. Through our trade policies, military interventions and manipulation of foreign aid, we intend to devastate the well being of children around the globe, thus allowing us to jump triumphantly to the top. You see, there is more than one way to skin a cat... or starve a Czeck six year old."

An update -- you may recall that last week, I reported on the White House ousting sitting U.S Attorneys and replacing them with political cronies. Turns out one of the ousted U.S. attorneys was Carol Lam of San Diego, who was active in prosecuting the corruption charges against Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Prior to her dismissal without cause, Lam announced the indictment of a an ex CIA official on corruption charges. Let none speak the word "retaliation."

Iran

I see that the President has backed off his assertion that the Iranian government was arming Shiite militias in Iraq. He now contends that it is some rogue element of the Iranian army. I am not really sure there is any significance here, other than yet another example of this White House making an accusation only to later back away from-- or heavily qualify -- it.

What concerns me more our expectation that other countries -- some of them bordering Iraq - should take a hands off approach to events in their backyard. First, our own history clearly shows that we have had no problem arming, funding and otherwise influencing just about anyone at anytime. I worry the world will view this episode as just another example of the US trying to impose one set of rules on the rest of the world while we play by our own. (Think about it. If an armed civil war broke out in Mexico, Cuba, or Canada, would we sit on the sidelines and wait to see who won? We didn't in Latin America. )

Second, given Iran's longstanding support of the Shia in Iraq, did we really think they would not now offer Shiites support in their struggle against the Sunnis? Is this just another false assumption on our part? Wasn't this a totally foreseeable consequence of destabilizing Iraq?

An Update on L' Affaire de Coeur

My ongoing, almost exhausting, affair with my dancer girlfriend Helena continues but has hit a small snag. As regular readers know, I was hopeful that her ex boyfriend would be released from his electronic tether and move out of her apartment... leaving behind a cozy, yet cluttered lovenest .. at least on the nights Helena's cousin can watch her kid. (It is hard to find a steady sitter for a child with HDD, ADD, Defiance Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder. The last two in particular make him sulky, and too anxious to do anything actually defiant).

Well this happened. The jackass finally packed up his shot glass collection and Jimmy Buffet paraphernalia and moved on. (He did leave behind the ParrotHead Ab Reducer, which leaves open certain possibilities.) But Helena is in the dumps. The kind of dumps that ... inhibit things even in the face of a perfectly serviceable piece of well padded exercise equipment).

Bottom line. She wants a bigger apartment. Someplace she can do her Art. By which I mean her sculptures of clowns and children with prominent ears. (The painted ones are very nice, although there seems to be a limited market for life size sculptures of clowns. Particularly as they have no trousers.) Because dancing doesn't pay much when you have visible scarring, and some noticeable asymmetry she was hoping I could chip in. I am loathe to fork over any hard earned dollars, but who can resist the doe- eyes of a girl with permanent mascara?

Luckily I can confide all this to you dear readers, without any fear that my wife will find out about my Tasty Tryst. You see, she doesn't read The Overpass.

Just Add One Cup of Sugar and Drink....

I was on vacation last week and returned to the United States only to find out that Oprah Winfrey and Mitch Albom will collude on a movie version of Albom's last book. So America's reigning queen of pop psychology and low end intellectualism will finally join forces with America's reigning king of sweet sentimentality.

The whole thing reminds me of an experience I had on vacation. When you take a bunch of really sweet liquors, mix them with some heavily sugared punch and then put them inside a pineapple what results is a generally noxious combination -- bearing no resemblance to anything alcoholic -- that will exit your system not long after it entered leaving behind only a headache.

Like this rum punch, I suspect the masses will break their collective ankles trying to get hold of the Albom/Winfrey progeny. Who can resist all those sweet tastes without a trace of bitternesss...

Today's Rant

Ahh the Drug Warriors. In today's USA Today, one Rita Rubin writes under the headline "Caution: Marijuana May Not Be Lesser Evil.' Sounds pretty provocative. Sounds like we may have some evidence against the evil weed.

Not so.

Here is what the article, and its alarmist headline, admit:

• Most users of highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin smoked pot at one time. There is no evidence supporting a link going the other way-- that marijuana users go on to use harder drugs.
• Adolescents who use marijuana may later use harder drugs. Or they may not.
• Marijuana, like alcohol, affects hand eye coordination and reaction time.
• Heavy marijuana users (users who smoked marijuana an average of 20,000 times), had lower verbal IQ's than non users. This may be due to an unknown toxic affect of marijuana, or it may be related to other factors not controlled for in the study. (Maybe the results are explained by the fact that if you are in the 20,000 Club, you have no time for reading as you are smoking, rolling, buying and de-seeding pot eight hours a day. Why would you do such a study and not control for other factors?)
• Heavy users, (the 20,000 Club) experienced the following withdrawal symptoms when they quit: irritability, loss of appetite and trouble sleeping. The symptoms abated after one week and disappeared after two weeks. Notably, these same symptoms appeared in the same duration among men who just broke up with their girlfriend, got cut from the football team, or demoted at work. That is not withdrawal, it is an inconvenience.
• As to addiction, here is the articles conclusion: "research has clearly provided unequivocal evidence that some people can become addicted to marijuana." "Some people can ...??" We are going to make laws based on the fact that "some people can?"

The point here is that, despite USA Today's scary headline, no scientists has been able to associate marijuana with any serious symptomology. How then, do we justify the headline?

Anecdotal evidence.

Besides the facts cited above, the article also traces the lives of Tyreol Gardren and Rachael Kinsey, who have had hard lives and have smoked marijuana. I guess when you don't have science on your side, you have to find some shocking examples whose lives have been ruined and who have used drugs and hope that readers assume their lives were ruined because they used drugs.

I feel for Tyreol and Rachael. They have had a rough time of it. But I am not sure their sagas are a sound basis for public policy.

Nothing Says "Culture of Life" like....

This week, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the marriage amendment act passed by Michigan voters prohibited municipalities and public universities from offering medical benefits to same sex couples and their dependents. The legal challenge was brought by the Catholic Thomas More Legal Society, who are -- as you may imagine -- quite pleased with their legal victory.

So at the end of this battle for righteousness we have more people without health insurance. At least some of these people, according to the Free Press, are children.

Christianity may be about a lot of things, but I don't think it is about denying people medical care. Are we to imagine that Christ would not have raised Lazarus from the dead, or refused to heal lepers, if they were gay? This is just the type of sad, twisted, hypocritical theology that sours so many -- myself among them -- on so called people of faith.

On another note, we continue to shed blood in an unjustifiable war in Iraq. And this is the fight the christians pick? This type of myopia -- this strange fetish with fags, f---king, and fetuses --is such a terrible waste of resources and a terrible perversion of the best Christianity has to offer. One could only imagine the results if so-called christians dedicated this much time and energy to getting coverage for the 47 million uninsured, lowering our astronomical infant mortality rate, stopping this horrible war, or seeking racial conciliation.

For right now, that's all we can do ---- imagine -- becuase for right now, unless it involves sex or unborn children -- the Christians ain't touchin' it.

Nothing Says Peace Like a Budget Deadline

Today the Administration unveiled a budget that promises to balance the federal budget by 2012. How, you may ask. The budget allocates absolutely nothing to wars in Afghanistan or Iraq after 2009. I guess the President is confident that peace will break out in two years and that our permanent military bases will sustain themselves by opening brewpubs and selling surplus ammunition.

This whole budget looks a little shaky considering that the Administration said it would need $117 billion to fight in Iraq this year, but has ended up asking for a little over $170 billion. It is also a little shaky given that this Administration predicted that the Iraq war would last "maybe six weeks..."

But at least none of our money is going toward nefarious stem cell research.

The New NIE

Today the government released its newest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. (The NIE represents the consensus of all our intelligence agencies.) Two conclusions stand out. First, the term "civil war"doesn't really apply to Iraq becuase it does not capture the depth and complexity of the animosity and bloodshed in that country. Second, it is doubtful that Iran's influence is having any significant impact on events in Iraq as the situation has so far deteriorated.

It seems both of these contradict key assumptions of the President, and if I am not mistaken, the idea that Iran was stirring the pot in Iraq, has been the subject of much tough talk by the White House -- the type of tough talk many viewed as laying the groundwork for war with Iran.

There is Hope Yet

Barak Obama says the suburbs bore him. Maybe there is hope for this guy yet....

My bad...

My bad. I did it again. I checked out USA Today's reader's blog. It can really get you down and lead you to question the quality of education in America. Today's topic was whether US companies should, like companies everywhere else, provide paid maternity leave.

Most of the responses were along the lines of "if you want kids, why should I pay for them" variety. A host of small business owners wrote in, aggrieved at the very idea that they would have to provide some benefit to the workers and society that make their business possible.

Sometimes it seems as though the American middle class is chock full of individuals that look down, see second base beneath their feet and are convinced they hit a double. The very idea that we live in a society that creates the conditions that makes the success of some possible, and in turn demands they we return the favor, just has not penetrated the popular consciousness. It is as though, we have overdosed on the Horatio Alger myth. We think any level of success we enjoy must be the result of our own innate pluck, intelligence and hard work.

Trouble is, those qualities usually only tell half the story. The circumstances of birth and the web of support our society gives us tells the rest of the story. We have all been warmed by fires we did not light and we have all drank from wells we did not dig. Maybe instead of patting ourselves on the back and worrying that someone is taking our precious treasure, we should try to repay the favor.