WaPo: Bush is a big fat weenie liar

From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity (Milbank/ VandeHei)

The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.

Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts. Though stretching the truth is hardly new in a political campaign, they say the volume of negative charges is unprecedented -- both in speeches and in advertising.

Some people earn trophies, others just claim them

Bush keeps Saddam's pistol as trophy (AP)

President Bush (news - web sites) keeps in his White House offices a trophy of one his high points in the Iraq (news - web sites) war, the pistol that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) held when soldiers pulled him from his underground hideaway.

Who Lost Najaf?

Salon: The fake peace (Robertson)

An Orwellian "peace" has descended upon Najaf. On Friday afternoon, the day after a peace agreement with the U.S. forces was announced, armed Mahdi army fighters were occupying all their usual posts. The men had retrieved their rifles and grenade launchers, which they had hidden away when the peace deal was announced, and were carefully watching people move through the city, asking visiting foreigners for their documents. Failure to produce the correct document can lead to immediate arrest.

--snip—

With the pressure from the United States abated, the Mahdi fighters spent Friday acting as if they had just won a great victory.

And by their budgets ye shall know them:


Salon: Bush Tells Wis. Graduates to Help Others

President Bush implored college graduates Friday to offer a helping hand to down-and-out Americans, showcasing the kinder, gentler side of his agenda at a time when images of wartime brutality are pouring out of Iraq.

Conason: Cynical compassion

The 2005 budget provides increases in spending for popular programs such as education and nutrition. Next year, after the election, the White House will announce that they must be cut severely in the 2006 budget. This year, the administration increased spending on veterans by $519 million. In 2006, under the budget plan obtained by the Washington Post, it will cut that amount by $910 million -- clawing back the previous increase and almost $400 million more.

Substantial cuts are also contemplated for the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department's police assistance and crime prevention programs, the Small Business Administration, the Social Security Administration and every other aspect of federal activity that comes under the wonkish rubric of "domestic discretionary spending."

More lives and deaths to remember

Memorial Day somber as Iraq toll climbs (Salon/Wides)

More than 800 U.S. servicemembers have died in Iraq, and because most of the casualties were after May 2003, this Memorial Day will be a more somber one.

Down Mr. Bush’s Garden Path

Yesterday, Pudentilla put some gravel paths in her vegetable garden. This involved moving a ton (literally) of gravel wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow throughout the garden and raking the piles of gravel into the appropriate place. Pudentilla’s partner helped. She was bitter about it, but she helped. As she worked on this project Pudentilla had several thoughts. First, in her next lifetime, she will put the gravel in before the raised beds or she will use mulch. Second, if aWol says that he enjoys cutting brush, he is either an idiot or a liar. Good arguments could be made for either conclusion. Finally, Pudentilla has come to think of her little garden project as afflicted by the American “democracy in Iraq” propensity.

As a preliminary matter, Pudentilla realizes that there is no comparison between the garden path project and the suffering Mr. Bush’s war in Iraq has caused. She is trying to illustrate with this comparison a certain tendency in the American character – or at least a character flaw shared by aWol and Pudentilla. The idea of gravel paths is very good. Anyone who has had to regularly weeded dirt paths would agree to this proposition. So too, the idea of democracy in Iraq is good. Getting started on a gravel path project is quite easy. For about $115, a nice man will deliver a ton of gravel to your home and dump it at the side of your garden. Similarly, the American military is capable of defeating the armed forces of virtually any country in the world (or at least one that doesn’t have nukes). Knocking over Iraq proved quite easy. Making garden paths from the one-ton pile of gravel beside one’s garden, on the other hand, has proven to be a daunting task. Much labor is involved. Far more labor than Pudentilla imagined. One really cannot move a ton of gravel alone. One needs help. Creating democracy in Iraq, it seems, is also far more difficult than taking possession of Iraq. aWol needs help.

Asking for help in moving a ton of gravel is harder than one might suspect. While Pudentilla kept waxing poetic about how attractive and functional the garden paths would be, her partner kept pointing to the alarmingly large pile of stones that constitute a ton of gravel and saying, “it will be very, very hard to move a ton of gravel.” Pudentilla supposes aWol would find this attitude very French. Pudentilla ended up paying a high price (agreeing to stack the wood pile alone and to help her partner build a new perennial bed and to foreswear ever asking for any help on a vegetable garden project again). Pudentilla wonders whether American diplomats and political leader will discover that U.S. allies have a comparably high price for cooperation in further ventures.

Finally, Pudentilla notes that the paths are only half finished. She must spend today building the wood pile and working on the perennial bed. Graduation on Monday. Tuesday she takes her partner to the airport for a two week academic junket. Then it rains in central Maine for several days. Then she will finish the gravel paths alone. In retrospect, Pudentilla questions why she didn’t know what she couldn’t know, as Rummy would say, and use mulch. If only the costs of Mr. Bush’s war, many still unknown, would come as cheaply as Pudentilla’s garden path.

Maybe he means “know” in the biblical sense


NYT: Conservative Allies Take Chalabi Case to the White House – story

"I know of no inaccurate information that was supplied uniquely by anyone brought to us by the Iraqi National Congress," Mr. Perle said.

Making dust

Pudentilla's new lathe arrived. She will be turning today. For blog's sake, she wonders why her tax dollars are being spent to conclude that al-Q and Co. want to bomb U.S. targets this summer. Fire Ashcroft and pay Pudentilla, aWol. She worker cheaper and not destroy the Bill of Rights.

Another Mainer killed in aWol’s war

Another soldier from Maine died in Iraq. Beau Beaulieu, who was 20 years old, was killed in a mortar attack on Monday. It is a cruel irony of war that his stepfather’s brother was one of the soldiers killed in the “BlackHawk Down incident” in Somalia in 1993. His younger brother is currently in basic training. The Governor of Maine requested citizens to fly U.S. flags at half-mast on the day of Mr. Beaulieu’s funeral. Interviewed on the local public radio news this evening, Mr. Beaulieu’s mother expressed some unease with the war in Iraq, opining that it was being fought for the benefit of corporations.

Indeed.

Man on the Moon

Pudentilla listened to aWol on the road home from one of the last, lovely end of term events for students – talk about moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. From a rhetorical point of view the failure by the authors of the speech to define the term “enemy” lead to striking ambiguity and undermined what little effectiveness aWol’s address had. The absence of any new ideas other than the replacement of Abu Ghraib with a “maximum security prison” (hardly reassuring to any Iraqi’s who follow prison litigation in the United States) and the inability of aWol to read orally beyond a third grade level characterized the exercise.

Stopping to fill the tank and paying $2.00/gallon, Pudentilla wondered if John Kerry might consider giving a speech about alternative fuel engines. Pudentilla notes that fossil fuels are scarce resource from a dangerous part of the world. She wonders whether the United States might have national security interests in reducing the dependence of its citizens and industries on petroleum. Pudentilla is informed that use of fossil has had deleterious effects on the environment, and that the long-term consequences of these effects may well be quite damaging to the health of the citizenry and insurance companies of the United States.

Wherefore, Pudentilla wonders, why doesn’t Mr. Kerry campaign on a federal initiative to reduce American use of fossil fuels? Why not a commercially viable hybrid engine based fleet within 5 years and a commercially viable fuel cell based fleet within 20? If NASA could put a man on the moon for John Kennedy, couldn’t they put a hydrogen-based fuel cell in every car for John Kerry?

Pudentilla also believes that Kerry should support a luxury tax on automobiles based on their mpg. A $100 tax on a car that had a fuel economy rating of 25-30 mpg; a $500 on one that rated $20-25, a $1500 on a car with 15-20mpg and a $5000 on a car with less than $15 mpg. The money could be used to foster research on solar technology. Perhaps such a scheme wouldn’t sell in an election year. However, a promise to come up with a fuel that won’t send Americans to slaughter in the Middle East might have some political appeal. Hey, if we can put a man on the moon...

When is a lie more than mendacity?


Kos and corrente both comment on aWol’s bicycle tumble. The official but anonymous explanation from the White House? The soil was loose from days of rain. The odd thing is that readily available national weather service records demonstrate that it hadn’t rained in Crawford for a week. They lie because they don’t care what you think. Why should they care what you think?

Chalabai Cha-cha-cha

Why does everyone thing that aWol and his Merry Men (and Maids) did not know that Chalabi was an Iranian spy? Why don't folks consider the possibility that the Merry Men knew he was a spy but didn't care. "Oh Pudentilla," you say, "that would be treason!" Perhaps, gentle reader. But it would also be very muchlike starting a war because of WMD you knew didn't exist.

Prayer & Penitence

The newest WaPo stories and pix lead Pudentilla to conclude that it is time for a national day of prayer and penitence. Assume there is some manifestation of the divine that does not look upon American conduct in Iraq with contempt. Americans could pray to such a divinity to protect the soldiers and bring them safely home. We could simply beg the remaining expressions of divine animation, to be forgiven.

It would be nice to use Memorial Day as something more than a campaign event for aWol and his Merry Men and Maids. Pudentilla believes a famous blogger should organize this.

As Maine Goes?

NYT: Mutiny by 4 Republicans Over Bush's Tax Cutting Forces Delay on the Budget Vote [story]

Four Senate moderates - John McCain of Arizona, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island - had insisted on attaching a provision that would have applied pay-as-you-go-rules for the next five years.

Pudentilla often disagrees with them. She only voted for one of them. But she has on more than four occasions felt compelled to write both Senators Snowe and Collins and thank them for doing the right thing. The only down side in being represented by decent Republicans is that it makes it harder to make sweeping generalizations about “Republicans.”

On the other, hand, Pudentilla cannot resist the sheer pleasure of Eric Idle’s sweeping, yet lyrical, indictment of aWol and his Merry Men (link via Atrios)

Who will the Neo-Cons blame for the loss of Iraq?

a. Bill Clinton
b. Donald Rumsfeld
c. Paul Bremer

Michael Rubin of NRO says

The raid on Chalabi's house, personally approved by CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer, encapsulates what has gone wrong with the American administration in Iraq. Bremer came to Baghdad and planned to rule by dictate. He scuttled Jay Garner's desire for early sovereignty. In late July, Bremer vetoed a Governing Council proposal to create a prime minister, saying that this might undercut his power. Fearing any challenge to his authority, Bremer gave a series of condescending radio addresses mocked by Iraqis. Rather than promote the new generation of Iraqi politicians, Bremer put himself at the center of press attention. For example, Bremer decided that he, rather than an Iraqi official, would announce the new Iraqi currency. Iraqification became second stage to Bremer's desire to replace Secretary of State Colin Powell should Bush win reelection. There was no room for assertive Iraqis who refused to grovel.

But BeatBushBlog points us to Slate’s profile of Douglas Feith

Of all the revelations that have surfaced about the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal so far, the least surprising is that Douglas Feith may be partly responsible. Not a single Iraq war screw-up has gone by without someone tagging Feith—who, as the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy, is the Pentagon's No. 3 civilian, after Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz—as the guy to blame. Feith, who ranks with Wolfowitz in purity of neoconservative fervor, has turned out to be Michael Dukakis in reverse: ideology without competence.

And Josh Marshall atTPM brings us the press release from CBS regarding General Zinni’s analysis – it’s Feith and Wolfie’s fault: (you must read the whole thing)

He blames the poor planning on the civilian policymakers in the administration known as neoconservatives who saw the invasion as a way to stabilize the region and support Israel. He believes these people, who include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense, have hijacked U.S. foreign policy. "They promoted it and pushed [the war]...even to the point of creating their own intelligence to match their needs. Then they should bear the responsibility," Zinni tells Kroft.

Chicklets(*) having fun (linkvia Hesiod )

*Children of chickenhawks, who themselves have chosen to support the troops in ways that do not include serving in the armed forces.

Hyperactive and learning disabled

was the diagnosis given to Pudentilla’s cousin, Andy, who used to tear through family parties as if powered by invisible jet engines, always meaning well, sometimes wrecking havoc, never able to link his behavior to its consequences. After Pudentilla read today’s news stories about Chalabi, Karbala, and the new prisoner torture photos, she recalled Andy and marvelled at how much aWol and his Merry Men and their Iraq policy reminded Pudentilla of her cousin. To be fair to Andy, however, with lots of family and community support, medical care and special education, he grew up to be a good guy who can hold down a job and contribute to society. Would that we could say the same of aWol.

_ Salvage Job

Jim Hoagland: Iraq Salvage Job [link]

This sequence of failure and mishap has robbed the administration of the credibility abroad and national unity at home it needed to carry out its most ambitious regional goals. It must now be realistic and honest about what it can still salvage.

Indeed.


_ Bawk, Bawk, Bawk – Chickenhawks in the House Alert!
WaPo: House Speaker Criticizes McCain - Budget Flap Leads Hastert to Question Senator's GOP Bona Fides [story]

On Tuesday, McCain gave a speech excoriating both political parties for refusing to sacrifice their tax cutting and spending agendas in wartime. Hastert shot back: "If you want to see sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] and Bethesda [Naval Hospital]. There's the sacrifice in this country."

Mr. Hastert’s official biography does not mention any years of service in the armed forces of the United States. That is because he did not serve.

Mr. McCain’s experience with personal sacrifice for his country includes five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, during which he was subjected to torture.

Pudentilla believes that Mr. Hastert owes Mr. McCain an apology.

_ Boston Weather Report

As of 2:01 pm, from the weather channel: http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USMA0046?from=search_current:
67 degrees, F.
Dew Point: 44°F
Humidity: 44%
Visibility: 10.0 miles

No plagues of locusts or boils.

Pudentilla wonders, "what if the people who believe Jesus approves of their loathsome bigotry are wrong about everything?"

Says it all

NYT: Governor Moves on Non-Massachusetts Couples [story]

Mr. Romney's stance on out-of-state couples is based on a 1913 law, adopted in part to bar interracial marriages. The law says the state cannot marry out-of-state couples if their marriage would be void in the couples' home states. The governor has interpreted that to mean that since no other state will marry same-sex couples, Massachusetts can marry only its own residents or those who swear under oath that they intend to move here.

4/21/03: Romney Residency still an issue [link]

During the Massachusetts governor's race, there were charges that Mitt Romney was not even a resident of Massachusetts, after his foray to Utah for the Olympics. Now more controversy brews over Utah License Plates. Romney's truck still has them, despite a Massachussetts law requiring residents to register their vehicles within 30 days. Romney aides say he plans to return the truck to Utah. Romney's Deputy Chief of Staff and an aide also still carry Utah plates.

Men of Honor?

LA Times: 3 Witnesses at Iraq Abuse Hearing Refused to Testify – [story]

When the Graner hearing convened in Iraq, the first government witness to refuse to testify was Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who as director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the prison oversaw the military intelligence operations.

--snip –

The last prosecution witness to plead the 5th was Adel L. Nakhla, a U.S. civilian contractor employed by Titan Corp. and working as a translator in Baghdad. According to a transcript of the Graner hearing, Nakhla "elected not to participate in the proceedings and was excused."

NYT: Officer Says Army Tried to Curb Red Cross Visits to Prison in Iraq – [story]

Army officials in Iraq responded late last year to a Red Cross report of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison by trying to curtail the international agency's spot inspections of the prison, a senior Army officer who served in Iraq said Tuesday.

--snip—

On Wednesday, the first court-martial of a soldier accused of abusing Iraqi detainees, Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits of the Army, opens in Baghdad. On Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the American occupation authorities had denied Iraqi and international human rights groups requests permission to attend the trial.

Atrios leads us to TalkLeft who leads us to the Denver Post: Brutal interrogation in Iraq - Five detainees' deaths probed [story]

The deaths include the killing in November of a high-level Iraqi general who was shoved into a sleeping bag and suffocated, according to the Pentagon report. The documents contradict an earlier Defense Department statement that said the general died "of natural causes" during an interrogation. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the new disclosure.

Rummy: Goodness Gracious! Torture investigations are too much work [story]

Aides of Senator Cornyn said he was one of a dozen Republicans who met at breakfast Tuesday with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who expressed some frustration with the workload being imposed by the prisoner abuse inquiry.

Poor Rummy. It looks like there’s a lot of investigating left to do. Sometimes it’s not the coverup that kills you. Sometimes it’s the crime. But a cover-up at this point certainly doesn’t help.

ABC News: ‘Definitely a Cover-Up’ - Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse Scandal [story]

Fay started his probe on April 23, but Provance said when Fay interviewed him, the general seemed interested only in the military police, not the interrogators, and seemed to discourage him from testifying.

Provance said Fay threatened to take action against him for failing to report what he saw sooner, and the sergeant fears he will be ostracized for speaking out.

and a final note on the weather

No massive flooding, incidents of plague or other indicia of divine displeasure have been reported in Boston today. Apparently God does not hate queers. God, apparently, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about queer marriages either. What will the hateful Christians do?

Boston Weather

at 4:00 pm: 70 degrees F. 73% humidity. Visibility 8 miles. No fire. No brimstone. Perhaps God does not hate queer people or mind their marriages.

Brown v. Board revisionism

Pudentilla has been struck by the "integration didn't work" meme that has characterized SCLM coverage of the anniversary of the Brown decision. Now it is apparent to all that Americans have not achieved a race-blind society, or even, an integrated public school system. These failures, however, should not be attributed to Brown, in Pudentilla's opinion, but rather to decisions made by political leaders and private citizens to resist the spirit of the ruling. Those decisions are the misgided privilege of those who made them. The revisionism on Brown, Pudentilla believes, however, will be used by wingnuts to bootstrap anti-affirmative action arguments.

What cannot be disputed is that Brown was an important, extraordinarily important, step in the process which made it illegal for state and federal government to practice apartheid in the United States. Pudentilla believes this is an accomplishment of no little significance on both constitutional and moral grounds.

So, gentle reader, when you hear some ignormaous argue that Brown, "didn't work," Pudentilla believes you should answer, "Beats the hell out of apartheid, asshole,' or words to that effect.

Ripped from the Headlines

Massachussetts Weather Report: Sky Not Yet Fallen


Despite the issuance of marriage licenses to gay people, Armageddon has not broken out in the Bay State today. [story] People who claim that Jesus Christ has sanctioned their hateful loathing and bigotry are confused, but urge observes to "just wait."

Occupying Power Screws the Pooch

The President of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed today in Baghdad.[story] Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority blamed terrorists for the failure of the United States, the occupying power in Iraq, to fulfill its duties under international law to provide security for the people of Iraq. Observers have speculated since the invasion of Iraq that the failure of the U.S. to create and maintain a secure environment has cause resentment among the Iraqi population.

From a Bunch of SAPs: Code Name: Copper Green

"it is imperative that interrogators be provided reasonable latitude to vary their approach." [WaPo story: ]

Rumsfeld: "I've stopped reading newspapers.” [CSM story]. Now we know why.

Doug Feith, Steve Cambone and William Haynes were the civilians in the Pentagon who argued from the comfort of their D.C. offices that the U.S. should torture prisoners. Hullabaloo reminds us that White House counsel Gonzalez was also a supporter of the process that made torture legal. Military lawyers screamed no. [link: via Atrios: ]. Seymour Hersh's latest piece says that Condi and Rummy approved. [New Yorker]. Who would be doing the torturing? Not Feith or Cambone, but soldiers, C.I.A. and mercenaries. Who objected? Soldiers and C.I.A. Who dropped out? The C.I.A. Who gets stuck holding the bag? The soldiers. The mercenaries from Torturers 'R Us aren't accountable to anyone but the account managers back in Virginia. Who risks treatment in kind if captured by Iraqi insurgents? Not Feith or Cambone. Coverage:[LA Times; NYT; WaPo].


But the issue that Pudentilla is most concerned about? – The communion wafers! Why are there no stories about John Kerry’s attendance at Mass and taking of the Eucharist today? Has the SCLM lost its commitment to the story? Pudentilla knows that Sunday Mass stakeouts are demanding, but surely the electorate needs to know.

Tin Foil Hat Time

So, aWol and his Merry Men are getting creamed in the polls. Indeed the story, which the SCLM has been reporting as "Why isn't John Kerry doing better?" has been obvious for several weeks - aWol's numbers recall the defeat of famous one-termers. Indeed, Kerry's performance relative to other challengers of incumbents has been stunningly good. Alternatively, if you accept the proviso that second elections are always about the incumbent, aWol's performance has been stunningly bad.

First, the cautionary notes - it is still very early. Events rather than consultants might actually drive this campaign (will we ever stop and marvel at how fat, dumb and happy we were in 2000?). While the public seems to have read the horrible murder of Nick Berg as a symptom of Bush's inept conduct of the war, another atrocity or two could easily encourage an intifada response by normal citizens who have resisted the wing nuts racism and hatemongering. We know how intifadas go.

Second, the Merry Men are clearly going for broke against al-Sadr. If they pull it off, they will claim (falsly as Juan Cole notes) a major victory (if they fail, all hell is going to break loose in the south). Moreover, it is not unreasonable to assume that the Merry Men are counting on Osama's capture (the timing of which will no doubt be completely fortuitous) to give them a bump in the polls.

Nevertheless, if the current numbers harden, the question will be, just how big a blowout could the election be. Are we talking Senate? Fantasies of retaking the House? Before we go there, and just thinking it is almost as much fun as a Maine Bear Tracks ice-cream cone after mowing the lawn (Pudentilla speaks from personal experience), we should stop and ask the question - how far will they go to keep the White House? We saw how far they went to seize it in 2000. Be cautious, be circumspect, and be ready. And remember, they're reading the blogs now.

On a happier, note, it is time to take the prince of pups out. This will no doubt involve a walk into town for an ice cream cone. He is happy. Pudentilla is happy. Of such synchronicity is summer in Maine composed.

And a question for the ages: would you rather spend eternity listening to Cesaria Evora or Astrud Gilberto on your ipod?

This Week, Pudentilla is Officially Pissed at Heterosexuals

Every year about this time, Social Security sends Pudentilla a letter about her benefits. Included in their description is the amount of money Pudentilla’s partner won’t receive if she dies, because the State of Maine will not let Pudentilla marry her partner and the U.S. government wouldn’t recognize the marriage for the purposes of Social Security, even if the did. Pudentilla and her partner have been together for more than a decade; share a home, a career and a life together. They love each other very much. They pay taxes and their employer withholds Social Security from their checks every payday.

Now, if Pudentilla’s partner were a heterosexual male whom she had married, Social Security would give him the money even if he beat her six ways to Sunday and sexually abused her children twice a week. All the feds would care about was that he was married to Pudentilla at the time of her death. Such commitment to the sanctity of marriage makes Pudentilla positively quiver.

So, this week, Pudentilla is pissed at straight people. And before you tell her that she is over generalizing, answer this question. Did you call or write your congressional representatives when DOMA was passed? If not, and you are married, you are one of the people who is ripping Pudentilla off. And she is pissed at you.

But she will get over it in a week or so. Some of Pudentilla’s very best friends are straight.

Dear Senator Inhofe,

Military intelligence officials told the ICRC that 70-90% of the prisoners in detention in Iraq were innocent. Even if 90% were guilty of some crime as a matter of fact, however, as a matter of law, none had been the subject of judicial process. This brings to mind an old American cliche - innocent until proven guilty.

Your comments are obviously following the wingnut approach to the prisoner torture scandal, which has been to attack Americans who object to the torture of detainees by the soldiers of the United States Army. Your comments, in fact, appear to follow a set of talking points shared by Lawrence Eagleburger, Rush Lindbaugh and a host of Republican-friendly media commentators.

I think America is worth fighting for, Senator Inhofe, even if it means fighting against people like you and Rish and the Sunday morning talk show brigages fielded by a rather desparate White House. I think it is worth fighting for an Americ that stops torture, rather than perpetrate it. I think it is worth fighting for an American that insists on standards of judicial integrity and simple human decency, rather than an America that trades away its moral values for the sake of expediency when confronted with difficult times or choices.

I think Senator Inhofe, that you wish to make America a worse place, and to make the ideals America stands for a bit cheaper to obtain. I am sorry you wish to sell your country so short, Senator Inhofe. I do not wish to do so. And I am happy to trumpet both my outrage at the prisoner torture scandal, and my sorrow that men such as you hope to make my country less than what it should be.

Pudentilla’s Questions on Monday:

• Is Vietnam the right analogy? Perhaps we’re acquired our very own infitada.?
  
  
  
  • The LA Times story on the ICRC report offers these observations>
    
    
    
    • between 70 and 90% of the detainees were arrested by mistake
    
    
    • arresting authorities came after nightfall, broke down doors, herded family members into a room, and busted up the house while they searched
    
    
    • sometimes the arressted all members males of the house, including the sick and the elderly, beating them up and insulting them in the process
    
    
    
    
  • WaPo: As Insurgency Grew, So Did Prison Abuse - story
  
  
  • Israeli Troops Demolish Palestinian Homes - story:
  
  
  
  
• Has a new age of neologism finally begun for liberals?

cheap labor conservatives: looking for an epithet you can spit out with the same disdain that Rush uses when he says, “liberal.” Look no further. It’s “Cheap Labor Conservative.”

Scorpio , the blogger who brought us Republi-can’ts got this from Conceptual Gorilla – it’s brilliant.


• What are we going to do about Rush?


This is not a rhetorical question. Pudentilla thinks history will judge us on this. Torture is wrong. It shouldn’t be that hard to sign up for that proposition. Rush could well be the Right’s Father Coughlin. Just as the Democratic party and Roosevelt in particular were able to exploit the popularity of his social justice radio sermons, the Republi-can’ts have embraced Rush for his 20 million ditto heads. But the New Dealers and the Catholic Church finally silenced Coughlin when his anti-semitism became intolerable. The Right’s leaders and media types need to condemn Rush’s remarks quickly and loudly. The Centrists and the Liberals need to force them to do it.

Otherwise, in a generation or two, people (like “our children”) will say of all of us – “Why didn’t they respond to this man. It was torture?” Their puzzlement will be just like that puzzlement you felt about the Germans in the 30s when you were taking World History in highschool or college.

We really can’t afford to screw this up.


• Do you think the Republi-can’t will declare martial law to avoid losing the election?


Pudentilla has on occasion pondered this question and then felt a little silly for doing so. So she was surprised to learn that Scorpio contemplates this question from time to time as well. How widespread is this concern? Is it our paranoia – or should we remember that sometimes even paranoids have enemies.

Anyway, Pudentilla was relieved to learn that she was not terminally unique.

Shiftless Paradigms

Matt Yglesias (link) posted yesterday on the apparent shifting paradigm of the Weekly Standard neo-cons (link: ) on Iraq. Both Kagan & Kristol of the Standard, and their protégé, David Brooks, of the NewsHour and the New York Times (link: ) have trumpeted the call for retreat in response to the prison torture stories. Both note that aWol is on the verge of losing popular support for the war in Iraq. Both complain of the incompetence aWol and his Merry Men have displayed in managing the war (Brooks more explicitly than Kagan/Kristol). The WS solution is to have hurry-up elections and get the Europeans to help. Babbling Brooks’ nostrums are quite general:

We've got to reboot. We've got to come up with a global alliance of democracies to embody democratic ideals, harness U.S. military power and house a permanent nation-building apparatus, filled with people who actually possess expertise on how to do this job.

Both Kagan/Kristol and Brooks (especially last night on the NewsHour) adopt a tone of weary, sophistication; one might call it French, in treating the issue of torture. “Ah Cherie, you poor, naïve liberal, America’s soldier’s are no different than any soldiers since war began. There are always atrocities in war, Cherie – this story of Abu Ghraib, it is a very old story.” This war/world weariness, however, is but a breath (a soupcon) of complexity in service of their primal instinct to preserve the dream.

The neo-cons want to use the military to dislodge the governments of countries they don’t like (often for very good reason) and to democratize these countries by installing leaders the neo-cons do like, and they want make their markets free. This is their cherished ideal and they cling to it with an earnestness that it is not at all French. You, gentle reader, might wonder that the neo-cons and their apologists cling to their idealism so fiercely in the wake of a year of utter failure in Iraq. That is because you are too French. You don’t get it. You are letting the evidence contradict the hypothesis.


Pudentilla believes that the Abu Ghraib story signals not a shifting paradigm, but a desperate effort to save the neo-con paradigm. Iraq was to be their first experiment. They’re retreating. Brooks and Kagan/Kristol are showing them how to lose Iraq, but save the paradigm. For them Iraq was merely the first battle.

For the neo-cons, if Iraq is lost, it will not be because the dream was, in fact, a nightmare, properly and democratically rejected by the citizens of the United States. Iraq will be lost because aWol and his Merry Men were incompetent in their pursuit of the dream. Iraq will be lost because the American public is feckless in the face of difficult, but noble endeavors. Iraq will be lost because John Kerry undermined American confidence in its military. Iraq will be lost because of European anti-semitism or liberal racism. If Iraq is lost, it will be he Clintons’ fault.

Nothing will ever shake the neo-cons confidence in their dream. Not facts, not casualties, not military defeats like Fallujah, nor scandals like Abu Ghraib

They will be back. For them this is war.

Rumsfeld's math

Pudentilla fears this may sound trivial, but she found the tricky math of the prison numbers yesterday a bit confusing. Of the 40,000 detainees, 27,000 have been released? i.e., The military determined that 67.5% of the people in detention should not be in detention. Pudentilla knows that life in Iraq is far more complex than life in the academy, but if 67.5% of her students flunked a test, she would question her own pedagogy.

The number also suggests that there is an insidious assumption with part of the rhetoric deployed by Rummy in his own defense: i.e. all those in detention are terrorists or criminals whom the military can't afford to treat with constitutional kid gloves. Perhaps things went badly wrong, but the victims were bad guys to begin with. If the military released 67.5% of these detainees, however, surely the military's judgement was that they were not terrorists and criminals. And therefore, the great majority of detainees subject to the military "treatment" in detention wretched innocents. I suspect folks will start making such arguments when the video the guard took of the rape of a young boy becomes public.

And another thing, why do media reports refer to pictures of a military guard having sex with a female Iraqi detainee? Under what circumstances could the woman in question be construed to have given consent?

And another thing, someone tell Joe Lieberman that no one expects al-Q to issue apologies, and every citizen has a right to expect more from their leaders than they do from Osama.

You know what’s wrong with this country?

It’s not so much Limbaugh and O’Reilly, who are simply the tawdriest of media whores. To be fair, the Democrats have their own – although they dress better and tend to possess better mastery of the nuances of the standard grammar of American English.

It is not even the horrifying spectacle of aWol’s presidency: which the accounts of O’Neil, Clarke and DiIulio characterize as a political operation in search of a policy. We have had and survived presidents like Nixon and Bush and political impresarios like Karl Rove before.

It is not the utter absence of any sense of political honor among aWol’s Merry Men and Maids. If we are to be fair, Clinton’s notion of political honor was less than fully formed. aWol, however, promised to restore “honor and integrity” to the White House. Pudentilla believes a sense of political honor should have compelled Condi Rice to offer her resignation on September 12, 2001. This is not to say that aWol would have been compelled to accept it. The offer, however, would indicate that Ms. Rice understood the enormous failure in national security that 9/11 represented at a time when she was in charge of the country’s national security apparatus.

Pudentilla believes a sense of political honor should have compelled Tommy Thompson to offer his resignation to Mr. Bush this week. Tuesday, the Congressional Research Service determined that a Medicare administrator’s efforts to prevent a Medicare budget analyst from providing members of Congress the information they had requested, violated the spirit and intent of laws written to ensure Congress legislates upon the best information available. The adminstrator worked for Mr. Thompson. The effort to subvert the process by which citizens are ensured effective legislation happened on his watch.

Pudentilla wonders what animates Secretary Rumsfeld’s sense of political honor. His aides have said he will apologize to Congress for failing to inform them of the prisoner torture story. However, he will not offer his resignation.

One wonders, what exactly would compel one of aWol’s Merry Men (or Maids) to conclude, “I have failed. A matter or policy for which I am responsible has failed so miserably that the country could legitimately question Mr. Bush’s commitment to this matter or policy if I remain within the government. I am part of the problem and my departure is part of the solution.” One shudders to think how awful the disaster would have to be to prick the conscience of one of the Merry Men (and Maids). Nevertheless, even this is not what is wrong with this country.

It is the almost complete lack of political integrity to be found in the Congressional Republican party. How far would aWol and his Merry Men have gone if there had even been five or ten men or woman like Hegal or McCain, who find it possible to say publicly, “the administration is wrong.” Senator Lugar, for example, has refused to use the extraordinary reservoir of respect his years of service on foreign policy issues have earned to correct White House mistakes before they become disasters. If one of these party elders would come out and say, “Mr. Bush’s loyalty to Sec. Rumsfeld is excessive and mistaken, and does not serve the interests of the armed forces of the United States and does not enhance the nation’s national security,” Rummy would be gone in an hour.

However, Senator Lugar dare not speak, lest he undermine aWol’s chance to finally be elected. Mr. Lugar wants a conservative to be President. (Pudentilla wonders what definition of conservative Senator Lugar is using, because by any standard in the American political lexicon, aWol is not a conservative.) So to secure a political victory, Mr. Lugar, and Mr. Hastert and a range of Congressmen and Senators will not speak when the administration stumbles.

Nor will they speak when the Republican’s media whores stumble badly. Surely there is some Skull and Bones alumnus in Congress who would dare to say to Mr. Limbaugh – you are wrong, and you demean what conservatives and Republicans stand for when you try to spin torture as a fraternity prank. However, they dare not speak. They want a conservative or at least a Republican to be president. Rush can help them get elected. So they dare not decry the brown-shirt sentimentality Mr. Limbaugh peddles.

The wise men and women in the Republican Party and the rank and file Republicans in Congress want the power aWol’s victory in November would represent, far more than the want what is good for the country. And that, Pudentilla believes, is really what is wrong with this country.

Update - Sunday, May 9: Pudentilla just watched Russert's show. To her great surprise, she must add Lindsay Graham to the list of Republicans who care about the United States. Now there are three.

He will stay in my Cabinet

Anthony Cordesman’s commentary in the L.A. Times this morning (link: ) had a chilling cautionary note, reminiscent of the Vietnam years:

One of my biggest concerns is that American officials simply don't seem to recognize that U.S. tactical military "victories" are often, in fact, political defeats. The Iraqi insurgents do not have to win battles in a tactical sense; they merely have to put up a determined, courageous resistance against the world's only superpower.

The NYT has a disturbing story (link: )on the mercenary interrogators your tax dollars are paying for:

The military's reliance on civilians to serve as interrogators and translators in Iraq is now so great that many people are being sent abroad without complete background investigations or full qualifications for the positions, government officials and industry experts say.

Once on the job, several experts said, many of the contractors are barely supervised.

The Brits were torturing too. (story:). Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term “coalition of the willing,” doesn’t it?

Pudentilla’s local paper has the pithiest summary of events: (link: )
It’s time for someone to be held accountable.

And a touché from aWol: "He will stay in my Cabinet."

Time to buy a hybrid?

Angry Bear notes that oil prices keep rising and don't look like their coming down any time soon. At the risk of generalizing, Pudentilla doubts that oil-producing countries in the Middle East will feel compelled to cut production any time soon. Indeed, Pudentilla wonders whether there is some risk of an oil-embargo in response to the prisoner torture stories. aWol's losing gamble on Sharon might also inflame feelings in this regard.

Pudentilla wonders whether important people might want to contemplate a real energy independence strategy for the United States. Perhaps, we could revive the Clinton-era program (which aWol killed) that helped “car-makers develop high-mileage, family-size hybrids.” (Skippy takes you to left is right who gives you the Hartford Advocate story).

You might also want to look into a wood-stove.

After the Apocalypse

Tom Regan’s Terrorism and Security column in the CS Monitor (link:) catalogues worldwide reaction to the prisoner abuse story. Short version: we have lost the war in Iraq; we have lost the war on terrorism; Arabs observing the war in Iraq will now perceive the U.S. as a legitimate target of opposition. We have lost an entire generation of the Arab street. The White House agrees.

According to the NYT (link:) (via Roger Ailes – link:) “Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, has told one Bush adviser that he believes that it will take a generation for the United States to live this scandal down in the Arab world, and that one of the dangers of basing a campaign on national security and foreign policy is that events can be beyond the president's control.

Pudentilla asks her readers to remember September 12, 2001. All over the world people demonstrated in support of the United States. Remember Chirac (the President of France) proclaiming, “We are all Americans.” Here’s a question for aWol: If al-Q takes down the Sears Tower next week, what do you think world reaction will be? Pudentilla suspects, with deep sorrow, that many will say, “they brought this on themselves.” To be fair, it will have been more accurate to say, “Bush brought this upon them.”

Nevertheless, Pudentilla doubts that anyone will say, “We are all Americans,” on the day after the Apocalypse.

The Rush Limbaugh Torture Meter

Yesterday, Rush opined that the pictures released thus far didn't depict torture so much as fraternity initiation rituals (failing to note that civilian detainees in the prison did not join this particular fraternity.

Perhaps Rush can opine on the new pictures in todays WaPo (story):

• Is dragging a naked man on the ground by a rope tied around his neck torture or a Rush approved frat prank?


• Is cuffing a naked man, whose head is shrouded in a black hood, torture or a Rush pproved frat prank?


• Is cuffing a naked man, whose head is shrouded in woman's underwear, and whose arms are "his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched", torture or a Rush approved frat prank?


• Is placing a donkey harness on the back of a 70 year old woman and forcing her to crawl on the ground (story via BeatBushBlog) torture, or a Rush approved frat prank?

Tell us Rush, where do you draw the line?

How To Apologize

Yesterday, during interviews with Arab-language television networks, Mr. Bush made the following statement:

I apologize to the people of Iraq, and indeed the world, for this failure in my command. As the Commander-in-Chief I bear responsibility for the actions of all soldiers who report, ultimately to me. Because these soldiers have committed these appaling deeds, I have failed in my command. For this I am deeply sorry. I will, as Commander-in-Chief, undertake the following steps to insure that no such event ever happens agina while I bear the weighty responsibility that command of the military forces of the United States of America entails.....

WAKE UP, Pudentilla, YOU'RE DREAMING! This is aWol we're talking about. He can't accept responsibility, because he is utterly irresponsible.


[UPDATE:!! Pudentilla was wrong. aWol did apologize. "I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families.

"I told him I was as equally sorry that people seeing those pictures didn't understand the true nature and heart of America," Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden alongside Abdullah.

Memo to Rummy: The Cover-up Just Got a Lot Harder

AP: Red Cross Sought Action on Prisoner Abuse (story)

The international Red Cross said Thursday that it had repeatedly asked U.S. authorities to take action over alleged prisoner abuse at Iraq (news - web sites)'s Abu Ghraib prison before recent revelations about the way detainees were treated.

--snip--

Doumani didn't say specifically when it gave its first warnings, but that it was over a period of months.

Pudentilla Writes To Her Senators

Feel free to borrow it.

Dear Senator,

I write to express my outrage over recent media accounts of the torture and abuse of Iraqi and Afghani prisoners in the custody of U.S. forces. I am particularly concerned about several aspects of these reports. First, the conduct in question is criminal. The fact that troops wearing the uniform of our country would engage in such activity with the knowledge or willing ignorance of their officers horrifies me. Mr. Bush’s repeated claims that the U.S. has closed Saddam’s torture chambers and rape rooms ring so hollow in light of these events that I fear his administration has not merely undermined any chance the U.S. had for success in Iraq, it has increased the threat to the national security of the United States.

Second, while some enlisted soldiers appear to be subject to criminal proceedings, I have not heard any accounts of criminal proceedings against officers. The sentences against enlisted soldiers, moreover, appear to be appallingly light. The sentence of demotion and removal from the ranks, in the case of a soldier who murdered an Afghan prisoner, for example, is an insult to any American’s sense of justice.

Third, there have been no reports of either civilian or criminal proceedings (or even investigations) against civilian employees of U.S. contractors who are alleged to have taken part in, if not directed, the torture and abuse. It is unconscionable that the United States, as the occupying power in Iraq, has failed to hold these individuals accountable, in any way, for their violations of Iraqi, U.S., and international law. Why have the authorities failed to arrest these men, and turn them over to either Iraqi, U.S. or U.N. authorities for investigation and trial?

Fourth, I find the Defense Department’s handling of this matter to be utterly inept. If, as Sec. Rumseld claims, investigations of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody have been ongoing for almost a year, how is it possible that no senior officials (including President) have read or at least been briefed about the investigations’ reports? In particular, I find the claims of senior officials not yet to have read Major Taguba’s report, which has been available on the web for days, alarming. Either these men are utterly incompetent and derelict in their duties, or they are lying.

Finally, I find the failure of Congress to exercise its constitutional duty to oversee the executive branch’s exercise of its authority gravely troubling. Did no one (yourself included), think to ask Sec. Rumsfeld or his representatives about reports of abuse and indeed murder of Iraqi prisoners in the custody of U.S. forces? How is it possible that the Secretary of Defense failed to brief the appropriate Congressional committees on these investigations and reports? Why have you tolerated such contempt on the part of the administration for your Constitutional prerogatives and duties?

Sincerely,

The Economics of the New Republi-cant* Draft

Disclaimer: Pudentilla is 45 and wouldn't be subject to the new draft. Furthermore, Pudentilla is as queer as a three-dollar bill and aWol wouldn't have her in his army. Oh well.

Why would aWol and his Merry Men want to increase the age of draft eligibility to 35? One answer might be demographics. That is, Rummy anticipates a need for troops so large that generations x and y won't be able to satisfy it. While Pudentilla is perfectly willing to be paranoid about what the wingnuts hope to do if the fall of the Republic is finally made obvious by a second aWol term, even she suspects this is unlikely.

Instead, she believes that the increased draft age, in combination with the identification of specialty draft needs (arabic languages, computers, etc.) represents, in part, a desire to shift the cost of the United States' specialized military personnel needs to the private and state universities (and the pocketbooks of private citizens). Well, they never liked academics anyway.

How so? Well, the military could meet its specialized military personnel needs in a number of ways. It could develop the resources in-house to develop the talents and skills it requires - i.e., the military could train its people itself. Alternatively, the military could identify personnel who had the ability but not the training to meet its specialized needs, and outsource their training - i.e., pay universities for them to obtain degrees in the specialized areas. Finally, the military could wait until citizens who are interested in a field in which the military has a need - say arabic languages - obtain graduate education in arabic langugages. [Pudentilla suspects that acquiring oral, reading and writing fluency in arabic languages would probably require a committment of the time and intensity to one's studies that the comboniation of undergraduate and graduate education requires.] Then the United States could draft them. Thus, the cost of obtaining the personnel skills the army needs would be transferred to the state and public universities which offered the students funding to pursue their studies (or to the students who paid for their own studies).

There are two odd things about these economics. First, it is not clear to Pudentilla that drafting someone who wrote their dissertation on classical arabic poetry or medieval islamic taxation will immediately satisfy a specialized military personnel need. Second, Pudentilla suspects that the economics of the new draft might actually create a dissencentive to study arabic languages. Some students might decide that the risk of being drafted outweighs their interest in arabic studies (or computer studies) and choose to pursue classical Greek and Latin (which will not fulfill a specialized military personnel need). Perhaps this disincentive will only operate at the margin - but the way aWol et al has mismanaged the war in Iraq has hardly created an environment in which college aged students might decide in increasing numbers to increase the likelihood that they will be drafted.

If the United States has a national security interest in increasing the number of citizens who are fluent speakers, readers and writers of arabic languages, or in increasing the number of citizens who have a sophisticated knowledge of computers and their programming, wouldn't it make more sense to offer direct scholarships and grants?

*Scorpio's wonderful new term of art, which Pudentilla is stealing.

Pudentilla reminds her readers:
1) Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11;
2) There were no WMD in Iraq;
3) aWol had not released all of his military records.

How, then, shall we judge anyone?

Reuters: U.S. Probe: Two War Prisoners Murdered by Americans (story)

An Army official said that a soldier was convicted in the U.S. military justice system of killing a prisoner by hitting him with a rock, and was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any jail time. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a private contractor who worked for the CIA was found to have committed the other homicide against a prisoner.

AP: Doctor: Hamill Had Surgery While Captive (story)

Hamill was shot in the arm and struck in the head with a rifle butt when his convoy was ambushed on April 9. He underwent surgery that cleaned away dead tissue after about a week in captivity, though it's unclear whether he was taken to a clinic or a doctor came to him, Jepsen told reporters. His bandages were changed daily and he got antibiotics. His English-speaking captors initially "left him with some water and a couple packages of cookies," Jepsen said. "He did say he was fed regularly."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." Luke 10:25-37

But would you want to go?

Apparently the Cardinal in NY is threatening not to invite Kerry to the Al Smith dinner this year (it's a Catholic political thing to which virtually everyone is invited every year) [story].

If any of Ohio's bishops are invited, you wonder why Kerry would even want to go - satanic sexual rituals and all. Oh, right, the tax collecters and sinners thing.

Daddy, What did you do when you were in the GOP?

What's the difference in the GOP from when you were growing up?

If you're fiscally responsible, this is not your party. If you believe in a moderate foreign policy characterized by alliances, free trade and the ability to operate in an international environment, this is not your party. If you believe in limited federal government, this is not your party. If you believe that the government should stay out of your bedroom, this is very definitely not your party. In fact, I would argue that unless you believe in the American imperium, imposed on the world by force, or unless you believe in the literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations, this is not your party.

From Joe Conason's Salon interview with Joseph Wilson.

How to Regain Moral Authority

According to media accounts and an internal Army investigation, aWol et al. have allowed mercenaries to torture Iraqi prisoners of war under U.S. military control. While the Army has disciplined some soldiers and officers involved in the crimes under the UMCJ, apparently the mercenaries have got off untouched. The mercenaries, apparently, aren't subject to the UMCJ.

Moreover, there is no credible government in Iraq to hand the mercenaries over to for criminal investigation pursuant to Iraqi law.

Pudentilla observes that this leaves aWol et al., with only one credible option: the U.S. should arrest the mercenaries for crimes against humanity and turn them over to UN's International Criminal Court. Some have argued that the army can't arrest the mercs because they aren't subject to U.S. law for crimes committed in Iraq. To which Pudentilla says, "balderdash." The U.S. is the occupying power in Iraq and has the authority to arrest these war criminals. Failure to do so would amount to a failure to fulfill its responsibilities under the Geneva Convention as an occupying power. The U.S., accordingly has the ability to arrest the war criminals and the U.N. Criminal Court has the jurisdiction to try them for their war crimes.

Unless, maybe, aWol et al. care less about the "moral" than the "authority" in "moral authority."

A reminder:

1) Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
2) No one has found any WMD in Iraq.
3) Bush, unlike Kerry, has refused to release all his military records.

Do you feel a draft in here?

Scorpio had a post last week on the draft to which I provided the following comment. He suggested I blog it. Since the new draft proposals have excited a lot of comment (243 at Eschaton - with the link to the democratic underground story; BeatBushBlog has the link to the Toronto Star story; Political Animal has the link to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer), I've decided to take his advice.

Pudentilla notes, as a preminary matter that she's 45, so the new 35 year old age limit would not affect her. Pudentilla is also as queer as a three dollar bill, which means aWol wouldn't have her in his army. Oh well. The post (with some typos corrected):

I was preparing for my Latin 101 class on 9/11 when the planes hit the towers. The administration decided that those scheduled to teach should go to class and offer students the chance to talk about what had happened. Later in the day we would hold a campus wide meeting.

So I went to class and explained that while I knew a fair bit about Latin and ancient Rome, my expertise in international terrorism was no greater than theirs. Nevertheless we could and should talk. Did anyone have questions. First question. "Will there be a draft?"

My answer: I don't know. The military in my observation has come to prefer the volunteer army because a draft subjects military actions to intensely interested scrutiny by citizens with loved ones in the army.

Second question. "But a draft won't affect us, right? We're in college."

My answer: I don't know. It seems to me, however, that one of the greatest problems with the Vietnam draft was that, especially in its early years, it disproportionately affected poor and minority communities. So it wouldn't surprise me if there was intense political pressure to fashion a draft that did not create all the college deferment exemptions.

Third question: "Will they draft women?"

My answer: I don't know, but I suspect, yes. As a feminist, even if I supported a draft, I could hardly support a draft that precluded women from the opportunity to serve their country.

Fourth question: I never got around to filling out my draft registration. Will I get in trouble if I do it now?

My answer: I think the FBI has bigger things to worry about than you right now.

Silence. Fifth question. Can we just do Latin?

Pudentilla's conclusion: Middle class college kids will be radicalized by the draft in about 36 seconds - as will their parents, who become irate if Johnny gets a B, much less a humvee without armour plating.

If Rummy had wanted a draft, he should have done it in November 01. But he didn't want a draft because he had a theory about war he wanted to test. The generals who opposed him were all wet ninnies. Well, the wet ninnies have turned out to be right - he's stuck in a political and military mess of his own making and a lot of American kids, drafted or not, are going to die or be maimed for life because of his arrogance and stupidity.

He may have to institute a draft - but if he does, aWol and his Merry Men will have to create an environment of extraordinary fear in the political community. Those who think aWol and his Merry Men are truly dangerous should be prepared to suffer for opposing them.

On Getting What You Deserve:

NYT today on Richard Lugar:

He has not spoken at any length to the president in nearly eight months, he said.
--snip--
He is personally a conservative person, and he doesn't want to undermine Bush's re-election.


Is this why Republicans hate college professors?

Software within electronic voting machines had been corrupted with malicious code squirreled away in images on the touch screen.

--snip--

Luckily, the setting was not an election but a classroom exercise; the conspirators were students of Aviel D. Rubin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. It might seem unusual to teach computer security through hacking, but a lot of what Professor Rubin does is unusual. He has become the face of a growing revolt against high-technology voting systems.

--snip--

Typically, Professor Rubin decided to confront the issue of whether he had experience with elections by taking part in one.

--snip--

Over the day, he wrote, "I started realizing that some of the attacks described in our initial paper were actually quite unrealistic, at least in a precinct with judges who worked as hard as ours did and who were as vigilant. At the same time, I found that I had underestimated some of the threats before."

--snip--

Ultimately, he said, "I continue to believe that the Diebold voting machines represent a huge threat to our democracy."


Prisoner Abuse Begins At Home for aWol's Merry Men

The inspector general mentioned no specific names and cases, but now, in a federal lawsuit to be filed today and in telephone interviews from Pakistan and Egypt, the former cable technician and the former restaurateur have provided the most detailed personal accounts yet of the unit's brutality and the first to accuse specific corrections officers and wardens of abuse. The accusations are similar to those now being made against military officers guarding prisoners in Iraq.

--snip--

The inspector general's report said last June that Mr. Ashcroft's policy was to hold detainees on any legal pretext until the F.B.I. cleared them, even though such clearances turned out to take months, not days, because they were given low priority. It said little effort was made to distinguish between legitimate terrorism suspects and the many people picked up by chance during the investigation.

--snip--

When the inspector general's investigators interviewed corrections officers, all but one or two denied that any detainees were abused. But according to a supplemental report issued in December, investigators later recovered videotapes that showed some of the same officers engaging in abuse.


Maybe he should clean out his inbox

General Meyers, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has not read the army report about, published in February, said abuse in was an isolated incident. The report said the abuse was the result of systemic problems (story).

At first, General Myers insisted that the instances of mistreatment were not widespread and were the actions of "just a handful" of soldiers who had unfairly tainted all American forces in Iraq. But when pressed, he acknowledged that he had not yet read a classified, 53-page Army report completed in February by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, first reported in the May 10 issue of The New Yorker, that chronicled the worst of the abuses at Abu Ghraib. General Myers left open the possibility the abuses could be broader, saying, "We don't know that yet."


Do Ya Think?

Meyers, however, does recognize that the prison abuse story, may have set back efforts to cultivate a positive image for the U.S. military in the region.


Remember to tell everyone you know:

1) Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11;
2) We have found no WMD in Iraq
3) Mr. Bush, unlike Senators McCain and Kerry, has refused to release all of his military service records.

Catalogues

Pudentilla reminds her readers that since Homer the recitation of a list of items which share a salient characteristic (the catalogue of ships, the catalogue of women, etc.) has been a performative (and literary) technique of profound effect. Nightline reaffirmed it the power of the genre last night. The pictures took the genre of catalogue to a new level.