The Fine Art of Persuasion

Ralph Nader gets a lot of heat on these pages - not so much for his ideas, but for the fact that he's disingenuous in trying to use the bully pulpit of consumer activism outside of the establishment rather than working for incremental change from the inside. His tactics were perhaps appropriate in the activist 60's and 70's; however, the strategies that Nader continues clinging to just don't work in today's government.

The Don Quixote-cum-Jedi force has always been strong in Ralph, but probably even more so in his legions of supporters. Tilting at windmills while you have the steering wind of a cheering section (no matter how small) at your back is also an ego stroking exercise. But Ralph's idealized notion of how the system is supposed to operate,“in the public interest”, just doesn't fit today's political memes.

It’s human nature that as time goes by, we learn from life’s experiences. It's part of growing up. Our ideals might not change, but our strategic approach evolves for achieving the goals that those ideals entail. A confrontational strategy (one that we might be forgiven for due to youth and inexperience) doesn’t necessarily translate to action as we gain real-life experience. Ralph Nader, for whatever reason, hasn’t embraced the need to modify strategy as both he and his causes have grayed.

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Criticisms of Nader aside, his argument that both Republican and Democratic party office holders are often times just two sides of the same, beholden, coin is most certainly true. Our elected representatives, regardless of party affiliation, don't even bother anymore to hide the obvious conflicts of interest in the "fuck Grandma Millie" era of big government. What's more depressing is the way that many people, inside and outside of Washington, have come to accept that this is just the way the people's business gets done.

Nader's activist group, Public Citizen, released a report yesterday on recent changes to the Medicare system, with a focus on the new prescription discount card program. From the very beginning of discussions on the new plan, it was obvious that such changes were being driven by both the pharmaceutical and managed healthcare industries. During the congressional debate on the prescription discount card program, I recall listening to a congressman on CSPAN, from the House floor, claiming that in advance of what was almost a guaranteed passage of the bill, pharmaceutical companies had increased prices 25% to 35% across the board. Interestingly enough, this is almost exactly the same average discount that was being touted in the prescription drug program. So in essence, prices were raised, the bill was passed, seniors now have to pay for the card, prescription prices are basically the same, and the bottom line of the pharmaceutical companies just grew fatter.

Beyond the real lack of help to seniors in the prescription drug bill, one significant administrative point really jumps out of the Public Citizen report:

At least 11 top staffers who left the Bush administration lobbied for the drug industry and HMOs in 2003. White House and administration insiders working as lobbyists on the Medicare bill included several former top advisers to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson. The exodus from the administration has accelerated since Bush signed the new Medicare law.

Bold. Brazen. Eleven top staffers who helped write the lion's share of the Bush Administration's healthcare and pharmaceutical legislation over the past three years now work for big pharma and managed healthcare organizations. $141 million in lobbying costs. And the list goes on and on. Yep, they know where their bread was (and is) buttered. Would the end result have been any different with a Democratic Party administration or congress? I rather doubt it.

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The Public Citizen report is the reason I began this posting by going off on Ralph Nader. This is important stuff, and could most certainly be used to advantage in Democratic Party campaigns this fall for both the presidential and congressional races (although part of the problem is that the Democrats are not clean on these issues, either). And in this respect, I fully support Nader’s ideology, if not his methodology.

In a utopian model of the political world, Nader would work for incremental changes to both the laws and the deliberative process that leads to legislation. The best way to do this work would be within the party that's most closely aligned with his goals, and certainly the Democratic Party fits this description. That he chooses to continue his Quixotic quest in the “margins”, so to speak, almost ensures that he and his supporters will remain marginalized by both parties. And because Ralph and Public Citizen remain marginalized, the import and impact of the report are marginalized.

It's easy to see, though, how even a veteran political operative like Ralph Nader can get jaded with an entire process that's supposed to make life easier for people, but more often than not results in day-to-day life being more difficult for the average person.

What is Nader up to?

I was minding my business. Well, not really. I had MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on in the background while reading an article linked off of Drudge about those torturous White House memos. (My dirty secret is that I also go to Drudge.) Anyway, Joe comes on and announces his guest, that Queen of Mean, Ann Coulter (who a friend of mine calls Skeletor). In a reaction almost as kneejerk as, well, a kneejerk, I got up and turned the channel to the Cubbies, where I can at least monitor whether we need to worry about the end of the world. (The Cubs winning the World Series, after all, is mentioned in the Book of Revelations, or so I am told.) My next thought was to immediately email Scarborough, and tell him why I turned off his show. Not an angry email, but just to let him know.

Anyways, as an odd internet caricature named "Stimpy" is wont to say (I'd give you a link to this delightful example of internet persona run amok, but you need to register to get into or view the Philadelphia Eagles Message Board.) What do I find on the MSNBC site but the following headlines right next to each other:

DEMOCRATS FILE CHALLENGE TO NADER

NADER URGES KERRY TO PICK EDWARDS

Now, the first article is careful to note that Arizona Democrats were the ones trying to decertify, and that the Kerry camp wasn't involved.

Pederson said, "we are not speaking for the Kerry campaign, we are not speaking for the Democratic National Committee. This is strictly an effort by Arizonans to make sure that our presidential election in Arizona is legitimate and it's legal."

Pederson said he had told some Kerry campaign officials that "we were filing the lawsuit.... They said, 'You're on your own.'"

So the Kerry camp, at the very least, does not want to appear to be against the presence of Nader in the race, and Nader? Well, he's advising Kerry on a running mate!

In an open letter sent Wednesday, the independent presidential candidate urged Kerry to choose John Edwards as his running mate, saying the North Carolina senator and former trial lawyer has been thoroughly vetted and is committed to protecting the right of consumers to sue corporations that harm them.

“(Edwards) has already gone through a primary campaign and has his rhythm and oratory (the "Two Americas" speech) all well-honed,” Nader wrote to Kerry. “After a slow start, Sen. Edwards closed fast and has won praise from the media.”

Edwards, the last Democrat to bow out after Kerry’s series of primary wins, won several large verdicts before he was elected to the Senate. Nader said Edwards is committed to preserving a civil justice system that is under attack by “corporate supremacists.”

LINK!

Is it true that Nader just wants to boost a fellow warrior against corporate America, or is Nader not long for this campaign, and ready to move his voters over to Kerry? Why an open letter, if not to show some kind of support for Kerry?

Anyways, as Stimpy would put it, it all looks good from here.

Woman's Womb and Politics

If the theocon-neocons have their way with us (pun absolutely intended), women in the US will be returned to those not-so-thrilling days of yesteryear. The Politics of Contraception, by Ruth Rosen at SFGate discusses the politicization of the FDA in the matter of birth control.

You'd think those who oppose abortion would embrace a safe method of contraception. A December 2002 study by the prestigious Alan Guttmacher Institute estimated that emergency contraception probably prevented 51,000 abortions in 2000. But many social conservatives support "abstinence only" as strongly as they oppose abortion.

We live in an excessively sexualized culture that uses sex to sell us everything from cars to clothes. Yet we are also heirs of a Victorian legacy that makes us uncomfortable teaching young people about sex and that insists that if nice girls and women "do it," they -- and not men -- should suffer the wages of sin.

And from the Lysistrata Project a link to many articles about the US government in women's wombs (all around the world, not just in the US), and another to how women's control of contraception might solve a multitude of problems on the Happy Planet.

Briefly

Just a few brief words on the document dump of torture memos by the White House:

Why aren't every one of these fuckers ladies and gentlemen who are in any way responsible for the "discussion" of torture in jail right now? These wankers represent America to the world, folks. I am literally agasp at the fact that the American people haven't yet seen fit to run these graduates of the Henrich Himmler School of Big Thinkers out of the White House, and frog march them down Pennsylvania Avenue in shackles.

Perhaps there's hope yet.

King Fahd's War on Terra

Saudi Arabia has been in the news quite a bit over the past few weeks. There's been a lot of speculation on the future of the current monarchy and the House of Saud. Here's an interesting tidbit that came across the wire today:

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia announced an amnesty Wednesday for Muslim militants who surrender in the next month, saying they will not face the death penalty and will only be prosecuted if they committed acts that hurt others.

I'm not quite sure what to make of such an offer. My guess is that it's little more than a bit of P.R. window dressing. I mean, does anyone really expect al Qaida operatives to walk into a local Riyadh police precinct and turn themselves in?

This move doesn't even make the situation look better, much less actually make any sense. The cultural and social issues that directly led to the rise of al Qaida and anti-Western views in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to fester for many years, and have become largely unmanageable for the Saudi government (and by extension, the U.S. government). The Saudis created the problem. Any window there might have been to solve the problem closed long ago. The upshot becomes that the House of Saud must coexist with the radical clerics and groups like al Qaida simply to stay in power.

The mixed messages from both governments show neither the ability or will to effectively end the reign of al Qaida attacks in Saudi Arabia. If we can't fight Dubya's "war on terra" with a "cooperating" government, how the heck can we expect it to be fought elsewhere in the absence of cooperation?

Update, 7:15PM: Driving home tonight, two thoughts occurred to me:

1. Why 30 days? Why not the next 48 hours? The wording of the statement from King Fahd boiled down to, "Turn yourself over in the next 30 days, or we're going to get tough. Really really. We mean it this time. Not like the other 20 times we said we really mean it. We really really mean it this time. Grrr." ABC News reported tonight that 'amnesty' has actually been in effect for over a year now. Not one jihadist has repudiated his/her evil ways and reported to the local constable.

2. What the hell do the jihadists care anyway if King Fahd promises not to execute them? The jihadists (by definition) are just waiting for the opportunity for martyrdom and to have their shot at their own 72 virgins. Or whatever the lucky number is this week.

All in all, it looks like the amnesty announcement today was simply a staged event by the Saudi government, calculated to take some heat off of Prince Bandar (and our own boy king) back here in the good old USA.

FBI Probing Anti-Bush Teddy Bear

Evidently going all out, the Bush Administration terrorist task forces have focused on this notorious weapon of mass destruction in a case in Detroit. It is unclear from what has been uncovered so far by thesmokinggun.com whether this is the break in the case needed to tie Saddam and Osama together.

Tune in at 11 for a full report.

OK, this is too ludicrous for words. I would love to just leave the story there with no comment, but you guys won't click on the link and see that IT IS NOT A JOKE! The FBI really hunted down the person who bought this Teddy Bear and the case is evidently before a Grand Jury.

I will sleep well tonight. Yeah, sure.

Har De Har

Joke.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States plans to turn over legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein and some other prisoners to the Iraqi interim government soon after it takes over on June 30, a senior official said on Tuesday.

So, how does that work? Wouldn't that fall under the heading of unlawful detainment, if the U.S. no longer has jurisdiction over him? I told you, my brain isn't big enough for this shit.

Get Involved

This is becoming like a weekly post for me. There's a little more than five months left until the general election. I know, the dog days of summer haven't even hit yet. But those five months will sneak up on us quickly.

And the question I'll have for you then: what did you do to run the Bush administration out of town? Did you hook up with like-minded locals in your area and hold a voter registration drive? Did you do any voter outreach? Pass out absentee ballots to those who needed them? Put a bumper sticker on your car? Wear a button to work? Talk to at least one person a day who was on the fence? Pump up five people a day who are already on board with the program? Hold up a sign at a busy intersection?

I ask the question because if we don't' succeed in running the squatters out of the White House, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves for whatever happens over the next four years.

There's a lot of work to be done between now and November 2nd. I don't believe that one person in the progressive camp can take a Bush defeat for granted, even though he's trailing in the polls. Circumstances change, and the polls become very volatile in the fall. So, the more momentum we build right now, the harder it's going to be for the Rovians to reverse course on their fate.

Take a few minutes and get involved today. There's many, many worthy organizations out there that need your financial support and your boots on the ground. Here's a couple that carry the Richard Cranium Seal of Approval™ :

America Coming Together : a grassroots organization whose sole purpose is canvassing and registering voters. Every dollar contributed is expensed on just that task - getting boots on the ground with clipboards in hand. If you don't have a spare buck to contribute, call the local office and ask how you can help.

Wellstone Action Network: Camp Wellstone is an exciting and energetic 2.5 day program that trains participants in the philosophy, strategy and tactics for winning grassroots political and electoral campaigns. This national program teaches a distinctive approach that integrates electoral politics, issues advocacy community organizing and leadership development.

Verified Voting: The Verified Voting Foundation and VerifiedVoting.org champion transparent, reliable, and publicly verifiable elections in the United States.

The bottom line - I feel that everyone who takes the time to read All Spin Zone, as backwater a political blog as there is, are truly committed to regime change. You probably wouldn't waste your time here otherwise. But as I've said before, we all need to do more than sit on our asses in front of the monitor. While the keyboard is powerful, personal outreach is even more so. Plus, you get the added health benefit of fresh air and walking. :-)

Ok, I've Got a Beef

Driving into work this morning, I was listening to the local "all news" radio station. Their lede at the top (and bottom) of the hour was, "Despite panning reviews, Bill Clinton's new book, My Life, hits the street today. The New York Times book critic said, 'eye-crossingly boring'..." And, of course, the host delivered the piece in the snarkiest tone possible. Then, the station proceeded to a local report from Borders where people were lined up to buy the book, even though the store didn't open for two full hours.

Huh?

Ok, so the book may stink. Don't know. Haven't read it. But I'm getting sick of this particular "all news station" in an urban area being decidedly slanted toward the conservative side. The whole point of the lede was simply to frame the book (and the former president) as badly as possible.

How did I get all of that out of a two sentence lede? Because I know the station and their editorial slant. Their ombudsman will be receiving a testily worded email later today, because I've had it with them.

Bummed

Sometimes I feel like such a gomer. I should write more about things I actually think I know something about.

Hmmm. That would limit the field severely. And not allow me to chide intellectually proposed anarchy.

Ramblin' Man
(Apologies in advance to Duane Allman.)

This is what military insurgency looks like. I guess we can't call it "war" anymore, because the term "war" denotes armed conflict between two nation-states. We're not battling a nation-state. The U.S. is battling an insurgency largely of its own making due to poor pre and post invasion planning.

Yes, those are American soldiers lying there on the ground. Yes, they're dead. And yes, more continue to die because of the arrogance of a few powerful guys in a few powerful places. The Bush administration is more focused on nuancing the meaning of the word "collaboration", and desperately trying to spin the news in their direction, rather than doing any meaningful conflict resolution.

One of the refrains I hear from the LGF'ers of the world is, "Well, give me your solution you whiney, liberul, traitorous scuzzball." I don't have an instant fix or magic wand. My brain isn't big enough. But my brain is big enough to know that the theocons don't have one either, other than pointing the fingers at whiney, liberal, traitorous scuzzballs or something that ends with the rapid splitting of atoms.

I apologize for getting off on several tangents here, but I'm going to ramble for a moment. Here's how AP characterized the story of the dead American soldiers:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents gunned down four U.S. service members west of Baghdad on Monday, and South Korea said it would go ahead with plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq despite a threat by Iraqi kidnappers to kill a South Korean seen pleading for his life on a videotape.

Elsewhere, Iraq resumed oil exports Monday, six days after attackers blasted pipelines carrying crude oil to the Basra terminal on the Persian Gulf. Iraqi officials have announced stepped-up measures to protect the oil industry - the foundation of the nation's economy.

One third of one sentence on four U.S. soldiers being gunned down - shot in the head repeatedly, according to other accounts. Two thirds of one sentence devoted to showing South Korea "is not capitulating to terrorists". And two full sentences on Iraq resuming oil exports. Look, we already know where the priorities reside, AP. Why rub it in?

And this whole sham with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi? Just that. Every day, his words seem handpicked to juxtapose quite well with the party line of the Coalition Provisional Authority. It's looking like Jerry Bremer couldn't have picked a better lackey:

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has promised to crush the terrorist threat and said Sunday his administration was considering martial law in some areas to restore law and order.

"They are trying to destroy our country, and we are not going to allow this," Allawi said Sunday.

I'm sure that Iraqis who have lived "in country" over the course of their lifetimes would find Allawi's statement quite laughable. An ex-pat, 25 years removed from living in the country - threatening martial law - and cracking heads in the process - I'm sure this guy is going to go over really well with the locals. Iraqi viewpoint: the occupiers have appointed Saddam 2.0, only without the Iraqi-led goon squads. On the other hand, Allawi doesn't need them. Americans are doing the heavy lifting. (Free-associating here...I wonder if Mr. Allawi has ever ventured to poke his head outside of the green zone blast walls?)

(Sorry, I warned you I was going to ramble.)

After all of that, how's this for a shorter news blurb of the situation in Iraq today?

4 GI's dead, the oil she is a-pumping PRAISE JESUS, S. Korea stands firm, Bremer's Chihuahua barks.

Look! It's the Goodyear Blimp!

We pointed to the sky with happy surprise on our faces. It's what we used to say jokingly when I was a kid when we wanted to "change the subject" or distract.

Now we have other more contemporary references for the "distraction du jour". Like: Look! It's Osama bin Laden! Look! It's Weapons of Mass Destruction! Look! A terrorist! Look! A beheading! Look! A tax rebate!

" It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry"
Paul Simon - "The Boy in the Bubble"

I find myself sometimes longing nostalgically for the Goodyear blimp days, but you can't always get what you want, eh? And we don't have Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine any longer. We do have the days of miracle and wonder -- instant "news" -- when we are directed to look at ourselves looking at ourselves... and encouraged to wonder what we look like to distant places and people and planets who are also looking at us.

Here are some heady psychological musings on dissonance, distraction and manipulation.
Here is TV News Lies, which is a pretty good regular read.

Mother Culture's loudspeakers blare at us daily and hourly to stay distracted. I see the challenge is to stay focused -- to filter out the obvious, purposeful and accidental distractions. Stay in the here and now. Feeling my feet on the planet. Sometimes distraction is a good thing. Hopefully, we'll come to know which is which, and when such discrimination is necessary.

Here's a Gain in the Senate for the Dems!

Barack Obama. An up and coming black man running for Senate in Illinois and he's ahead by 16% in the polls. On top of that, his opponent has just given up on blocking the release of court documents concerning and evidently highly unseemly divorce.

Hmm, wonder if any more seats in the Senate are ripe for the picking. One thing you can be sure of, the conservative attack machine is already out there trying to tear down Obama.

There's something to look forward to for the future of progressivism and the Democratic Party, and that something is Obama!

The Call

If I'm a rabid sports fan, it's because of one guy's influence. He grew up a Tigers and Red Wings fan. At UW, he became a Badgers alum, and bled red and white for the rest of his life as much as I bleed midnight green. His loyalty was rewarded in his later years. When I was in Madison on business a few years back, I bought him a bunch of UW stuff, including a Badgers slammer (you whack it on something and it proclaims, "Go Badgers!"). It was still on his end table next to the lounge chair the last time I was in his house, and now occupies a place of honor in my home.

As I was growing up, I became (to his everlasting chagrin) a Yankees fan in one season, even though we lived in the Southwest. Though I was a young pup at the time, I lived through the classic Maris / Mantle battle - and he was as excited as me. I was hooked on baseball forever, even though baseball wasn't hooked on me as a fan. I sucked at the game, but he never missed one that I played in during several seasons with the Goens Garage team.

And then he taught me football. I wasn't a fast learner, though. Baseball always had more appeal to me, but he suffered that indiscretion with me, and somehow knew that I'd catch on eventually. Like most things, he was right. There's no doubt in my mind that he was secretly thrilled when I embarked on my journey through higher education at the first college Roger Staubauch played for (if you thought it was Navy, you would be wrong). He was thrilled because he was a Cowboys fan, back when someone like Staubauch could make a person proud to be a Cowboys fan. And so I became one, by default or inheritance, I'm not so sure.

But I learned the error of my ways quite a few years ago. I married a Cardinal Dougherty lady, and would not be let into the family until I swore my allegiance to the Eagles green and Phillies pinstripes. Maybe it was just karmatic, but when the Eagles whipped the Cowboys in the 1980 NFC championship to get to the Super Bowl, there was a measure of sweet filial justice - but that justice started a tradition, at least twice per year. The loser made the call. In the subsequent 23 years, I made many more phone calls than he did.

They say that with age comes wisdom. So, it kind of surprised me several years back when the die hard Cowboys fan began to see the error of his ways. I could probably trace the falling out back to when the Cowboys unceremoniously dumped his icon, Tom Landry. "The Cowboys organization lost its star when they dumped Tom," he groused to me. So he kind of adopted my team, although the phone calls still continued. His phone bill mounted in the last couple of seasons. So did mine. We commiserated when the Birds lost; we cheered beer-induced chants when they won.

A year ago this month, he delivered some bad news to me in his usually stoic and strong tone. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but told me he was optimistic. He was always the optimist - it was in his nature. On reflection, I think it's the nature of every sports fan. But I suppose I knew the deal even then. When he entered the hopsice program last August, I was emphatic that I expected a phone call from him after the Birds whipped the Cowgirl's butt in their first meeting season. I was even more insistent that he be around for the Eagles parade at the beginning of this year. Ok, so the parade never happened. Perhaps I inherited my optimism from him.

On an early morning in mid-September last year, after enduring the remnants of a hurricane that dumped a tree in my yard and brought police to my house at 3AM telling me a voluntary evacuation was in effect because the river was rising, I received word from my sister that Dad had passed away. He went strong, and raged against the disease that took him. We had talked last the prior Sunday about the Eagles getting whipped by the Patriots, and he assured me that the season would turn around. Even in his obvious pain, it turned out he was right, sort of.

I'll still be waiting for the call after the first Dallas game this year. Happy day, Pop! Love ya!

(PS - Dad was a raving lunatic Roosevelt Democrat. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh? ;-)

Well Spoken, Mate

Especially Update #2.

Why Ith It Hard to Thspeak with My Tongue In My Cheek?
Th-elebrate the TholStice!

I know about the Summer Solstice because it's often the day before my birthday. According to my calendar at home, this year it is Monday, 21st, 3:10 PM EST. My husband's birthday is two days after mine. We are solstice babies. We often celebrate, sorta, for three days including what we call the "Inbetween". Today I mentioned that it's getting to be about that time, and wondered aloud if we shouldn't sacrifice some small, vile vegetable and dance around a fire naked this year, and he replied as I thought he might.......... that particular vegetable is too well-guarded. (Thsee what I meant about that pethsky tongue and cheek thing?)

But if you're getting ready for your annual summer solstice celebration, rest assured that no sacrifice is necessary. ;-) Here's a blurb on some traditions. And for the Stonehenge lovers, a link for great photos.

Happy Summer. Live long and prothsper. Blessed Be!

NYT Editorial, Redux: Blind Faith

Another smokin' editorial today from the New York Times (registration, yada yada). The end cap:

Mr. Cheney said he had lots of documents to prove his claims. We have heard that before, but Mr. Cheney always seems too pressed for time or too concerned about secrets to share them. Last September, Mr. Cheney's adviser, Mary Matalin, explained to The Washington Post that Mr. Cheney had access to lots of secret stuff. She said he had to "tiptoe through the land mines of what's sayable and not sayable" to the public, but that "his job is to connect the dots."

The message, if we hear it properly, is that when it comes to this critical issue, the vice president is not prepared to offer any evidence beyond the flimsy-to-nonexistent arguments he has used in the past, but he wants us to trust him when he says there's more behind the screen. So far, when it comes to Iraq, blind faith in this administration has been a losing strategy.

A. I really don't think Monkey Boy™ and his handler want to get in a pissing contest with the New York Times. But then, maybe they do. The Rovian Gambit behind such a move would be obvious - New York City (and it's environs) is pretty much a lost cause for them, anyway. But the NYT, being arguably the most influential newspaper in the country, could be cast in the heartland by Rove and crew as "elitist East Coast fishwrap".

B. Here's what I really don't get. Why did it take the New York Times editorial board nearly two years to articulate the "blind faith" concept that folks like me have been saying since the winds of war started blowing toward Iraq? Back in the 2002 runup to Iraq, I was telling anyone who would listen (precious few folks) that these guys were spouting a lot of sabre rattling words but providing not one shred of proof for their claims. Or, as I put it more succinctly on January 30, 2003:

If there is a demonstrable threat to our sovereignty or health / well being as a nation, we have an absolute right to use force. The obligation of our government leaders is to we, the folks who write the checks -- that obligation is to prove the threat exists. That hasn't been done. All we've gotten is a lot of "trust me on this one" coming from Washington. A lot of accusations and harsh words have been forthcoming, but not enough evidence to convict Saddam of enough malfeasance to support even a traffic ticket.

So, thanks for having my back, NYT! I wish you would have stepped up a little sooner, though. It might have saved us all a little heartburn.

Welcome to The Happy Planet Cafe!

Hi! My name is Kate, and I'll be your server. Today's special is fillet a la Gregory Bateson and studies connected to 2004 in a delicate hypertext sauce.

"Oh, Paladins, the lesson for today"... (Robert Frost)

"The myth of power, is of course, a very powerful myth; and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it... But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to all sorts of disaster... If we continue to operate in terms of a Cartesian dualism of mind versus matter, we shall probably also come to see the world in terms of God versus man; élite versus people; chosen race versus others; nation versus nation and man versus environment. It is doubtful whether a species having both an advanced technology and this strange way of looking at the world can endure...

The whole of our thinking about what we are and what other people are has got to be restructured. This is not funny, and I do not know how long we have to do it in. If we continue to operate on the premises that were fashionable during the Pre-Cybernetic era, and which were especially underlined during the Industrial Revolution, which seemed to validate the Darwinian unit of survival, we may have twenty or thirty years before the logical reductio ad absurdum of our old positions destroys us. Nobody knows how long we have, under the present system, before some disaster strikes us, more serious than the destruction of any group of nations. The most important task today is, perhaps, to learn to think in the new way." Gregory Bateson (Bateson quote essay)

The last link above has the following Batesonian analysis of the War on Terra:

"The US government's so-called "war on terror" is perhaps the most outstanding example of a total lack of Cybernetic wisdom. Rather than examine and change its brutal foreign policy which, as Noam Chomsky so exhaustively documented, has repeatedly attempted to control other nations – and nourished the resentment and Islamic fundamentalism which apparently resulted in the destruction of the World Trade Center – the US-led wars on Afghanistan and Iraq are certain to produce precisely the opposite of the results intended, increasing the support for terrorism whilst simulataneously degrading the democratic principles of the USA itself and of the United Nations system so painstakingly built up for the sake of peace." - Michael O'Callaghan

For dessert you will be asked to show how the state of the world in 2004 and YOU fit in with Bateson's statement, and the rest of the accumulated knowledge associated with it. I will take your check to the cashier. Here are your after dinner mints. Thank you for your patronage.
;-)

Do Overs

Other commission officials disclosed on Friday that the White House had sent a letter to the commission — stamped "secret" — on the eve of this week's hearings that demanded a variety of changes in its staff reports this week. But the officials said the White House letter did not seek any changes in the portions of the report that dispute any relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

NY Times, June 19, 2004

CLARKE: Yes. The president -- we were in the situation room complex -- the president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said 'Iraq did this.'

STAHL: Didn't you tell him that you'd looked and there'd been no connection?

CLARKE: I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.' He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean, that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report.

STAHL: In other words, you did go back and look.

CLARKE: We went back again and we looked.

STAHL: You did. And was it a serious look? Did you really ... ?

CLARKE: It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and down to FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report and we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer.'

STAHL: Come on!

CLARKE: Do it again.

STAHL: Wrong answer?

CLARKE: Do it again.

CBS Sixty Minutes, March 21, 2004

From the Alternative Press: Bush and the Religious Right's Holy Crusade

Neal Pollack. Where do I recognize that name? I'm not at all sure where. This bad boy of the body modifications and outspoken sexuality really skewers the Bushies and their ties to the whacked out religious right (as opposed to the sane religious right). He does so today at www.thestranger.com. It's a good read, though it is pretty much over the top for my taste. Still, I'll give a couple excerpts from this very long article.

Writers for alternative newspapers on the West Coast generally aren't prone to making hyperbolic, paranoid statements, but I'll smash the mold: Our country is being run by a lunatic Christian cult. The evidence grows tumescent. Example one is General Jerry Boykin, a deputy undersecretary of defense who, after September 11, started making the rounds of evangelical churches preaching that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein would "only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus." The U.S. is in a "holy war," he preached, against Satan, who wants to destroy our "Christian army." Guess what work Boykin was engaged in while making those speeches on the weekend? That's right. He was helping Donald Rumsfeld craft the specifics of Operation Copper Green, that top-secret Christian program that got us into so much trouble at Camp Redemption. At one of his preaching sessions, Boykin established the pecking order of moral authority. "George Bush was not elected by a majority of voters in the U.S.," he said. "He was appointed by God." Yes, sir! God approves of making prisoners masturbate each other, sir!

Hah-hah, you say. This is just one crazy general, an aberrational escapee from the lost reel of Dr. Strangelove. I mean, a guy who throws a retreat at Fort Bragg for Baptist preachers, like Boykin did in April 2003, must be one of a kind. One reverend wrote in an invitation letter, "It is believed by you, me, and others that we must find a group of men who are warriors of FAITH, pastors who have the guts to lead this nation to Christ and revival!" But still, this isn't the kind of country where preachers go to military bases to watch a demonstration of "today's war-fighting weapons" with a high-ranking federal military officer.

Actually, it is. This is also the kind of country where the president meets with the members of a radical, far-right millennialist Christian sect three weeks before he counteracts all known international law and opinion regarding the Israeli-Palestinian situation. That sect, known as the Apostolic Congress, opposes any deal with the Palestinians because it believes that Christ won't return to Earth until all of Israel belongs to the Jews and Solomon's temple is rebuilt. To those of us who like a dose of sanity in our morning coffee, such ideas are anathema, but to President Bush, they're a daily briefing. Even Ronald Reagan, that holy-rollerist of presidents, didn't give apocalyptic Christians weekly telephone briefings on White House policy. It's almost impossible for Kofi Annan to get a meeting with the president, but Robert G. Upton, of the United Pentecostal Church, can say, as he did a couple of weeks ago in that house organ of fundamentalism, the Village Voice, "We're in constant contact with the White House."

This article makes just oodles of connections of how Bush is beholden to the religious right, yes, that section of it that believes in creation science and also that the End Days are upon us. Let us pray, as does Pollack, fervently and constantly, that the Bushies are only in there for a few more months.