Nobody # 658

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Nobody Asked Me But:

Procrastinator: One who lives each day as if it’s his next to last.

Here is the easiest test question of the year:
Do you think the Israeli military response inside Lebanon is justified?

Yes XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
No

I have been critical in the past of Israel’s “land grab” policies, but the bottom line is that, except for its few religious fanatics, Israel wants only to be left alone and live in peace. It is the Islamic world that will not allow this to happen.

From the New York Times: The European Union criticized Israel on Thursday for “the disproportionate use of force” in Lebanon.

There are things that I greatly admire about many European nations. Their consistent pro-Arab, knee-jerk response isn’t one of them.

From the LA Times: “Despite Hezbollah's Ties to Iran and Syria, it also acts alone.”

Like any parasite, a terrorist organization can’t live without a host.

“A beautiful day in San Francisco is the most beautiful day on earth.” Walter Mosley, speaking through his protagonist, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins.

I include this line from “Cinnamon Skin”, not because it has any relevance to the rest of my essay, but because, in the midst of remodeling a bathroom I yearn for us to get away. And what better place than the city where every hill comes with its own unique and beautiful view, and where nature’s artist paints sky and water with her best paint and brightest colors. Among larger cities, its only rival for my affection is Seattle with its blue lakes and green foliage, but to get the green, one has to put up with the weather, and something about that dampens my enthusiasm.

Ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to the “Fight Between The Right,” the Republican version of the battle of the century.

In this corner: the traditional red conservatives - “Government is the enemy and any piece we can dismantle is good except the part where we rob the poor to help the rich who will then give back to the poor in low-paying jobs while amassing huge fortunes.”

And in this corner a tag-team red, composed of neo-conservatives - “the United States is exceptional and must use its power to spread Americanism around the world,” and the Religious Right – “the righteous (that’s us) shall inherit the world – starting with America.”



George Will, representing the traditional red fired a verbal shot across the bow of the tag-team red in last week’s Newsweek: “Conservatives might say that while Democrats, whipsawed by Republicans wielding the power of big government, are getting what they deserve, Republicans do not deserve the dominance they are thereby achieving.”

At the same time the neo’s were also on the attack, the target, their President:

Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute wrote, in The Wall Street Journal, after North Korea's missile tests last week that North Korea had achieved more "strategic successes" under the Bush administration than it had under President Clinton.

This weekend in The Weekly Standard, William Kristol, wrote, "The red lines, pink lines, and mauve lines of U.S. foreign policy seem increasingly to be written in erasable ink. What was 'unacceptable' to President Bush a week ago (a North Korean missile launch) has been accepted." He called the current policy "Clintonian."

And where is our president in this fight? Mostly bouncing back and forth, as he is pummeled on all sides. This past week when he wasn’t diddling over a nuclear Iran and dawdling over North Korean missile launches, he was surrendering (rightly so) to the Supreme Court on Guantanamo, which is bound to make all three groups see red.

Could it be that the president has discovered that even superpowers have limits, and his “think tank boys” don’t like it. That’s the difference between sitting in the Oval Office and writing about it.



Just so you know that disunity is not the exclusive domain of the Republicans, I give you Connecticut and the problem that is Joe Lieberman, or - should a political party purge its dissidents?

First a bit of background: Lieberman is, of course, a Democratic Senator from that state and the party’s ineffective candidate for vice president in 2000. He is being heavily challenged by Ned Lamont for the party nomination in his 2006 reelection bid. Here are two comments on each side of the issue and then my tiebreaker.

Suzanne Nossel of the group blog Democracy Arsenal writes - “The crux of Lieberman’s problem is his unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of what’s happened in Iraq , and to demand accountability for it. Given the severity of the consequences of the war, the public is right to demand a sharp focus on what went wrong, why and who bears responsibility.”

“Lieberman professes no interest in these questions, seeming to believe they should all be subsumed by overriding loyalty to the president amidst the threat of terror.”

In his Los Angeles Times column, Jonathan Chait calls the Lieberman-Lamont race “a full-scale Democratic civil war,” and he thinks the Nedroots are making a tactical error by attempting to oust Lieberman: “Although I’m no Karl Rove, it seems to me that turning a rock-solid Democratic seat into a potential Republican pickup represents something less than a political masterstroke.”

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus thinks the campaign to defeat Lieberman is “disturbing”: “His bipartisan instincts should be commended, not pilloried. His refusal to back away from his convictions on Iraq deserves admiration even from those who disagree.”

“Wait a minute,” writes Matthew Yglesias at Tapped, The American Prospect blog: “The war is, a big deal and Lieberman’s views on it are ridiculous. Why can’t the campaign be about the war?”

Me: Anyone who feels an overriding loyalty to the president on the Iraqi War should be challenged and hopefully defeated. Contrary to what Ms. Marcus writes, bipartisan instincts are not commendable traits when American’s are dying in and for a mistake.

And while on that subject -

You know that we have been in Iraq too long when 50 more people are killed just in Baghdad and only the NY Times fronts the story. When death has become so commonplace as to be shoved to the inside pages it’s time to Come Home America.

Political speak: When politicians “address a problem,” it means either that they have no solution or no solution that would not lose them votes.

The first complete treatment for AIDS that is taken once a day as a single pill is expected to be available soon.

This begs the question to the Religious Right: Did that same God whom some of you claim sent AIDS as a punishment, send this pill to offset the punishment?

This week’s questions for yours truly:

Have you ever won a contest? If so, what was it for and what did you win?

Other than sports and courting, I don’t do well in contests. As best I can recall, my record is about 2 wins and 3,245 losses. The wins - a cake in a cake walk when I was a kid and $84 on a lottery ticket. I am sure you do not want me to spell out the 3,245 losses.

How often do you need solitude, and how and where do you find it?

How often? Most every day.

How? By letting Barb sleep every morning until 8.

Where? In my study with my computer.

Barb and I spend a great deal of time together and everything from work and play to simply being quietly together in the same room brings us both joy. But having those 2+ hours every morning with no needs to fill but my own is very satisfying. Throw in an occasional trip to Starbucks to drink black and either read or simply sit back and contemplate life’s possibilities, and my alone time is complete.

From the (formerly) highly respected (if conservative) Wall Street Journal:

“The ‘Clintonian moral climate’ of the 1990's was a root cause of Enron's problems.”

Right! And Monica was so hot that she probably caused global warming.