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September 09 Rumsfeld original "Cut-and-Runner"!Material is finally coming out that in detail shows all the different bureaucratic failings of the administration in it's Iraq war planning.
I'm through Part I of Fiasco, an excellent in depth accounting, and it's appalling how much the civilian heads of the Pentagon turned that place upside down. Cooking the books on intelligence, ignoring the lessons the career military professionals had learned time and time again and vowed never to repeat, and caring more about winning a bureaucratic struggle with State than winning the war in Iraq.
Anyways, we may now finally have the "smoking gun" quote on Rumsfeld from a retiring brigadier general, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan (who got it from Kevin Drum, who got it from a Virginia newspaper).
Doesn't this make Rumsfeld the original cut-and-runner? Not allowing his staff to create a plan. The firing threat is huge! It's clear now that Mission Accomplished was supposed to be the end of the war. Let's see if this quote gets some larger play today. July 11 Pictures of DoggiesMy boyfriend Lance's hobby is photography and he takes some amazing pictures. He's been taking pictures of the dogs lately and came up with this geat batch of photos. Check them out. March 31 Deconstructionism taken too far?A reader writes in to Andrew Sullivan with a fascinating hypothesis: namely, the challenging of authority in the 60's and 70's has led to today's anti-intellectualism. Now, the worst of talking-heads, left and right, can take their arm-chair opnions, absent due-dilligence and intellectual reasoning, and sway public opinion and even run the country. And, anyone who tries to use intellecutal reasoning in their arguments can be dispatched as elitist or an intellectual snob.
In this light, one can see how tactical Stephen Colbert is being, shaking truthiness to it's roots. (Funny aside, congressmen, despite being made look like idiots, are asking to be on the show)
March 30 Re-examination the current meme?I have noticed across the blogosphere the last month or so a focus on re-examination of stances and the world we're in 5 years after 9/11. Maybe it just takes that long for the U.S. culture to process. Andrew Sullivan, my blog crush, summarizes it quite nicely here. Excerpt:
There's been some recriminations between the left and right, but hopefully, people can get their "I told you so's" out, politicians can stand up to the intidimations of the fear-mongers, and our country can get back on track.
By the way, I saw a great South Park last night that tore up the left, as hybrid drivers cause a Smug Storm across the west coast! Humor is a great salve! Search for Smug Alert!, and don't worry, I'll have it saved on my DVR indefinitely :-).
The Debt Clock is running out of room!Check this out. Please, please, please add the extra digit to the end as a temporary addition (the more haphazard, the better) and make sure the press films every second of it!
March 13 Abortion - The Next PhaseI haven't blogged about politics in a while; I've just been taking all the current events in. I'm going to jump back into things now with the next phase of Abortion politics!
Several articles I've read about the abortion movement have espoused that Roe v. Wade wasn't just a weak constitutional decision; it also cut off the legal and political processes that would have brought this country, through the laboratory of 50 states, to a reasonable compromise on the issue. Instead, with abortion protected by the Courts, the pro-life movement has had 32 years to steer public opinion without the due dilligence of crafting laws; it has become the biggest wedge issue of Republicans and the religious right.
Now that the court is swinging over to the right and we're getting to see some abortion ban laws crafted, aka South Dakota, the responsibilities and requirements of crafting laws are showing the holes in the Pro-Life movement. Forget about the rape and incest exceptions for the moment (the South Dakota bill does not have these exceptions). The South Dakota bill has no penalties for the women who has the abortion; it just penalizes the doctor. Digby found this great link where pro-life marchers were asked what they thought should happen to the woman who commits the abortion and it's amazing to watch. They really have never though through the punishment, which is an essential component to making something illegal. After all this time, will we really reach a point where abortion is "illegal" but anybody can have one, because they won't be punished? And won't this cause woman to try to abort themselves or go towards back-alley abortions, because legitimate doctors won't perform the operation. Women throughout South America resort to pills like Cytotec or pretend to have been raped. Isn't this an all new set of pictures ready to be waved by marchers of a different sort? The pro-choice movement has been pushing these arguments for years, but most people couldn't visualize them until they're actually enacted.
Anyways, a graphic this Sunday on This Week showed several states trying to follow South Dakota's lead. I think this will finally knock some sense into suburban woman across the country when they vote and is a blow to yet another of the Republican party's legs. How they're still standing is beyond me; I guess we'll know better in November!
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