Planning continued to be a challenge.

"The secretary of defense continued to push on us ... that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay."

Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation.

Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said.

"I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.

"He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."

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.

Both writers go on to criticize the right, or aspects of the right. Fine. But what we are beginning to see on the honest right and honest left is a genuine attempt to re-think the world after the last five years. It needs rethinking; both "sides" have an internal accounting to do for their positions; and the calcified rhetoric on both extremes is an attempt to stop it.

Who knew I'd get to blog about politics here in India? There's two stories I'm following, both heavily influenced by family connections and India's star obsession.

First up, we arrived in Hyderabad just in time for the Congress Party's Plenary (planning meeting), being held here. This party leads the coalition in the national Parliament as well as those of many states. The country's obsession? Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi. This woman, Italian born, married into the Gandhi political dynasty. (note: This political family descends from India's political founder Nehru, not it's spiritual founder Mahatma, although pictures of Mahatma are frequently used). Although she holds a seat in the national Parliament, she is not Prime Minister. No matter. She runs the country and is a star among stars here. In fact, if you think about it, she's threaded the needle quite nicely. She placed a competent bureaucrat in the Prime Minister's job but doesn't get blamed if things go wrong. She talks about the empowerment of women and the ending of poverty. She wears saris and speaks in her learned Hindi.

Once we left the airport, we immediately noticed thousands of  signs and banners celebrating the party meeting, all with pictures of Sonia. I've included some photos. The city is spotless and there are police guards at every corner, making sure nothing goes wrong. There is a younger party member who's star is rapidly exploding. His name? Rahul Gandhi, Sonia's son. He came to the U.S. to study at Harvard and worked in finance in London, but is back and was elected to the national Parliament. People at the Plenary were begging him to take a leadership role. He responded with a firm no. He had to get up every hour to the podium to settle the audience members who began chanting his name. He spoke for 2 minutes and I've seen it on every channel on the TV. He stated that someone once asked him what his religion was, and he responded that his religion was the Indian flag. If he wasn't handsome, I'd barf.

Meanwhile, as we left Bangalore, news came that it's state government of Karnataka (pronounced like Gattaca) had fallen. Congress and Janata Dal were the coalition in power with Congress holding the leadership. The head of JD, Deve Gowdy, was trying to resolve managing his party's discontent with Congress and was refused a meeting with Sonia. As a result, a large part of JD, led by party member Kumarswamy, decided to break off and join with rival party BJP, which will provide a new governing coalition. So where's the real intrigue? Kumaraswamy is Deve Gowdy's son! So, did Gowdy and Kumaraswamy coordinate this rebellion? Gowdy must maintain his bond with Congress to have a future career in national politics (he briefly once served as national Prime Minister) and denies any part of the rebellion. And now, Sonia will meet with him. Meanwhile, when asked if Gowdy would meet with Kumaraswamy, he said "Do I need permission to meet with my son?" They were last seen meeting at a 2nd son's house.

• Locale:  Top floor of a department store!  We rode the escalator up, through cosmetics, underwear, toys, etc... :-)
• Cover Charge: 500 rupees ($11) gets you 500 rupees worth of tickets you can use inside. Drinks are american priced so this isn't hard to hit.
• Food/Drinks: Excellent. Paneer Tikka, Tofu sate and veg gyoza rocked!  I had a fun blue cocktail.  They make everything really, really sweet here by default, which Sean & Sheila hate (and I love :-)).
• Service: Awful.  Very slow and we had to push hard on them to get the check and get out of there.
• Kids:  Can you believe this?  Kids are allowed in clubs here.  This family near our table had these 4 little girls who were running around and screaming at the top of their lungs.  It instantly made me feel like I was at a wedding.  Ugh!
• Music:   They played lots of top 40 from 2 years ago through today (the crowd went nuts for Drop It like It's Hot and they turned the music down during Dontcha on the line "Don't you wish your girlfriend was HOT LIKE ME!"  :-))  This then segued into really cheesy techno.  The dance floor was packed and everyone was having a good time.
• Closing Time:  The dancing stopped at 11pm.  The ministers keep closing times very early and the club itself closed at 11:30pm.  It totally sucked, as we had just been dancing for 10 minutes!