While I don’t expect to see Nancy Pelosi as a great political reformer, some credit is due. In honor of the first female Speaker of the House, a little School House Rock - Sufferin’ Till Sufferage:
-WKW
In a rah-rah blog at The Huffington Post, New Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi jotted down some words of positivity, leading with getting the hell out of the Iraqi death and money pit:
“I told my colleagues yesterday that the biggest ethical issue facing our country for the past three and a half years is the war in Iraq,” wrote Pelosi.
And while such words are pleasant, a final point she made showed that Pelosi is a politician who will gladly say whatever it takes.
“The new Democratic Congress will live up to the highest ethical standard,” Pelosi wrote.
While a change was mandatory, and while the GOP was selling off the entire nation piece by piece to friends and supporters, let’s not lose our minds. Democrats are politicians. There will be no great ethical changes. Ask pork king Jack Murtha about his ethical standards. Just because he knows when a war is a piece of shit doesn’t mean he’s some shining ray of ethical light.
They’re politicians, folks. Pelosi and the lot of them wouldn’t know proper ethical standards if they stuffed $20 billion in earmarks down their shorts. The fact that they’re currently perceived as more ethical than Republicans doesn’t make them any less of crooks.
-WKW
The Administration really is taking the “Right to bear arms” thing seriously. They’re letting Iran and North Korea get nukes. They publish nuke secrets on the Internet. Now, they give the stuff to India.
It’s the “If-everyone-has-a-gun-no-one-will-get-hurt” philosophy in action.
We just have to deal with the fact that every now and again, some kids will go nuts and shoot up the joint. With nuclear weapons.
From The Nation:
For decades, the official policy of the United States has been to discourage nuclear proliferation, particularly in southern Asia.
But the U.S. Senate now says: No more.
At the prodding of the Bush administration, the Senate voted 85-12 to allow the U.S. to ship nuclear fuel and technology to India as part of an initiative to encourage the expansion of nuclear programs in that country. At a time when the Bush administration is suggesting the U.S. might need to go to war to block nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea, the Senate has given its stamp of approval to proliferation in one of the most volatile regions of the world.
Yeah. This is all going to work out really well.
-WKW
Here’s a stellar comment to a blog at Unclaimed Territory, Glenn Greenwald’s blog:
##############################
Why aren’t pundits and journalists calling Bush on this?
• freedom takes time to trump hatred.
McNamara’s 11 lessons from “The Fog of War”
• We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
• We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
• We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
• Our judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
• We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine …
• We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
• We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
• After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening and why we were doing what we did.
• We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people’s or country’s best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
• We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
• We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.
• Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues.
“As I told you, I am not going to comment on President Bush,” McNamara said, patting his briefcase. “I refer you again to the 11 principles. You apply them! …You don’t need me to point out the target. You’re smart enough!”
#############################
-WKW
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist that helped put 16 percent of the nation’s wealth into 1 percent of the pockets of the U.S., died today at the age of 94.
Friedman leaves behind many large corporations, including Exxon Mobil, WalMart, Chevron and General Motors.
“He was like a father to us,” said Exxon Mobil, wiping it’s eyes with krugerrands.
While many large corporations feel a sense of gratitude toward Friedman, the majority of the U.S. could give a shit and just wish they had health care.
-WKW
There would be no such thing as Godwin’s Law if comparing things to Nazi Germany wasn’t commonplace. Nonetheless, this section from “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” struck me as eerily familiar:
No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a cafe, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.
Remind you of anything?
-WKW
Showing once again that when he says “We must work together,” what he really means is “Screw you, hippies,” President George Bush today continued on his attacks of Democrats who seem to object to the Bush Doctrine of endless, badly fought wars:
“We hear voices calling for us to retreat from the world and close our doors to its opportunities,” he said in a speech at the National University of Singapore. “These are the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and America must reject them,” said Bush in Singapore.
Because, hey, who doesn’t look back fondly to the Pre-World War II days, some 65 years ago, when U.S. Republicans were firm isolationsists. Since then, the U.S. has really just been minding its own business with the occasional imperialist action in Iraq, Iraq again, Korea, Colombia, Vietnam, Cuba, Bosnia, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Palestine, Libya, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, and a few dozen other nations we entered militarily for varying purposes and goals.
But don’t think for a second we’re going to go back to the way things were some seven decades ago. And don’t even get started on going back to Prohibition, either. Or the Whig Party.
-WKW
Many liberal blogs are up in arms about the new U.S. law, which will come into play in January, making it mandatory for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to review every U.S. passenger who will be taking an international flight. Basically, you need the State’s permission to leave the country in the U.S. now.
And while blogs like Crooks and Liars’ ““Vy Vould You Vish To Leave Ze Fatherland?” complain about this trampling on civil liberties, they go a step too far when they start comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany.
You see, the Nazis basically let people come and go:
From “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:”
“Nazi Germany permitted all but a few thousand of its citizens who were in the black book of the secret police to travel abroad … Nazi rulers did not seem to be worried that the average German would be contaminated by anti-Nazism if he visited the democratic countries.”
So see, sure they had a no-fly list, but it’s not like they had to check EVERYBODY before they got on airplanes, like the U.S. is going to do.
So please, enough with hysterics. The Nazis weren’t THAT bad.
-WKW
I hate to sound like the aging sportswriter that I am, but for the love of dog, are the Scoop Jacksons and Bill Simmons of the world really the future of the medium? Both can be somewhat entertaining, but Simmons and his 76,000-word narcissistic spewings, and Jackson’s hipper-than-thou nonsense get real annoying, real quick in my book.
Jackson’s effort today, a hysterical grouping of words regarding the Phoenix Suns starting the season 2-5, is a true monument to one-sentence paragraphs. Here are some actual paragraphs.
It seems like Jekyll and Hyde, the Britney and K-Fed, for the Phoenix Suns from last year to this year … damn.
2-5?
Then this.
So, what is wrong?
No pride.
Or am I reaching?
Or pride.
Maybe it’s just me. Perhaps I’ve become a creative curmudgeon. Personally, however, I can only think of one reason why ESPN highlights crap like this on a consistent basis.
No pride.
UPDATE: Appears ESPN hired another long-winded, one-sentence paragraph lover.
-WKW
A bit of what I’ve been doing at TravelGolf.com:
If O.J. Simpson can get iffy, so can a golf blogger
In a career full of glorious achievements, including gaining 2,003 yards rushing in 1973, the Naked Gun movies, the murders of his wife and her friend, and the O.J. Simpson Trial, O.J. Simpson is preparing for his next blockbuster smash - his new book “If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened.” Read more
De La Hoya-Mayweather bout will highlight how age matters more in boxing than golf
Having recently signed up a mega fight that will occur in May 2007, the Mayweather-De La Hoya bout will be a perfect example of how age is different in boxing than in any other sport. De La Hoya goes into the fight with edges in experience, quality of opposition and weight. He’ll leave the fight bloody, battered and stopped. Read More
An important tip for all golfers: Beware of rugby players
Up to 14 teams and 428 players can compete on the field at the same time during a rugby match. Read more
John Daly, Britney Spears get divorced: A new power couple awaits
On a day when election coverage should be the only news that matters, two massive events have shaken the United States, leaving the elections in the dust. Both John Daly and Britney Spears are getting divorced.
Read More
-WKW