FoggyViews

The Iraq War is going well and other lies

2006-03-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

My colleague and fellow cynic Skippy-san has of later been discussing the latest successes in our beloved and most lucid and logical leader (NOT) expound uopon how well the action is proceeding in Iraq.

If one were to even begin to consider Bush and his cronies have ever considered what they were doing or the ramifications of thier actions risks violent and extreme cognative dissonance. Skippy and I have been preaching the erros and perils of the Bush Doctrine. As far as I can see the basic pillar of the Bush Doctrine is act first, think never. Depend upon visons and revelations for insight. And above all else ignore the wisdom and experience of military commanders who would dare put forth an idea that differs from his ideology. A prime example is the repudiation of the Powell Doctrine.

On top tragic mishandleing of all thing Iraq Bush's disregard for American values lead him to not only spy on Americans without court sanction (sanctions were possible) but to publically acknowledge the wiretaps and spying and them claim his power is essentially limitless, No suprise there as has been his claim in all areas dealing with his actions and policies. Torture- no problem. Spy- no problem. Sign over ports to a foreign country; no problem. Talk about disregard for American values and sensibilities. Bush is a poster boy for hubris.

So I feel some degree of exoneration about Fiengold's censure motion and continuing falls in public support . Finally the public is taking notice. Maybe the accumulated lies and errors are catching up. As Skippy-san noted "........... Leave Bush to his own devices, he can do enough damage to himself. Wait till he gives his speech about "How all is well" in Iraq.......

Keep wondering how the Bush apologists who tend to deify ever thing he has done will respond when the whole Iraq sitaution descends into worse chaos. Guess they will blame everyone and everything except Bush and his ilk.

Maybe the God Bush invokes will see fit to out enough of the Bush crowd to effect changes this November. I see signs already. Republicans up for election are distancing themselves already. Self serving instinct for self-preservation push ot the fore.

Energy Oil and War

2005-11-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

This past week end I had the pleasure of visiting with an old friend I have not seen in years. The conversation eventually turned to his area of expertise -energy. Specifically the law and energy. Some 25+ years as an energy attorney.

As such he has extensive experience in the where oil is and how it is processed and transported. Most interesting.

He noted the cost of finding new oil keeps rising and the finds are smaller. Saudi oil is running out. Iraqi oil is critical to the US and western developed counties. Therefore the reason for the war in Iraq. To protect the oil supply in the short term. So far so good; but, the real problem is yet to come. There is very little effort being expended in developing alternative energy sources; at least not enough to make a significant difference. In short we are rushing head long into an energy crisis with huge consequences for the developed and developing world. Actually the developing world is the immediate cause of the crisis and not the cure the presnet administration heralds.

The idea that improving economies will spur growth in developed economies and thus save us all is suspect to say the least. More likely will incite wars and more violence. Why? Because the fossil based energy sources are already in short supply and will only be exacerbated by consumers in China and India to name only two huge markets demanding cars and other consumer items.

Result: Shortages, wars, violence on scale never seen before.

Shame because Bush is supposedly and Oil Guy who understands energy. He could have been the energy president; the one who had the vision to make us energy independant and the dominat player and supplier of energy in the future. However aswe know he opted for the short term "fix" rather than a cure.

Will affect mainly thoses generations beyond mine. HIs predictions are very gloomy.

CIA Outings

2005-11-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Ever since the Valarie Plame outing and the subsequent disclosures, indictments and lack of indictments I have struggled with the implications. Now we find the CIA has secret prisons in East Europe that have been outed.

Now one would think that logic and cohesion of cognative processes would be consistent. However, we find this is not the case.

The Bush team has consistently insisted ,more so since the outing of Libby and the implications that the outing most likley involved Karl Rove and maybe even Cheney, that outing a covert CIA agent was really no big deal and to lie about it to a Grand Jury of absolutly no significance. Never mind every time a spy has been caught there are claims covert agents have been compromised or even killed. The present case appears different at least as spun by the Bush team.

Now the presense of secret CIA prisons have been outed. This, by statements from the Bush team, is a matter of grave concern that endangers national security and must be addressed swiftly and vigorously.

Try as I might I cannot reconcile the two seemingly disparate positions. To out a covert CIA agent is of no concern and lying about is not an issue but outing the existence of secret CIA prisons is an event of serious consequence.

A cynical person would conclude the difference lies in self serving interest of the present administration and not in the interest of the security of the USA or intelligence agents of the US dedicated to protecting our security.

My Jennifer

2005-09-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today I read Helen's Everyday Stranger blog re: the loss of her child who would have been three today.

Reading her message I felt her grief and saddness. Actually I think I felt my own over the loss of Jennifer. Been 34 years since her death. Amazing how somtimes the grief never leaves. It morphs somewhat, becomes less omnipresent and less intrusive on daily life. But it does not actually abate or go away. It remains there always. Just beneath the surface letting you know it is there. Ready to surface at the slightest opportunity.

Still I welcome the grief as it keeps her with me all the time. I never want her to fade from my memory. I cherish the hours I held and feed and bathed and changed her. I cherish the memory of the last time I held and feed her. Little did I know at the time she would be gone in a very few hours.

I love you Jennifer

You DAD

Sealing Wax and Snacks & Iraq

2005-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Skippy-sans Blog always interests me. You see he and I share much in common. We both have miliatry background and graduated from the same small southern college with military aspirations. We both have a stronf cynical streak. Although I tend to thnk we are realist and not blinded by any particular ideology- except reason, Reason is not a commodity much in vogue in American politics these days.

But most importantly I think my ex-wife must be related to his ex. Or they attended the same classes. either way they graduated with highest honors. Reason, honesty, and all other virtues have been excluded from their armamentarum.

As far a Iraq concerned we have done the Irai people a great service. Instead of Saddma killing them they now have a choice of who kills them. The USA or any of a large and growing number of fellow Arabs and Muslims. As a side benefit the number of American men and women killed perpetuation this killing continues to climb. Seems to me they do not need our help in killing each other.

Considering all this ceertainly means Tea Time in Japan.
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Iraq stay or leave

2005-07-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

I must admit I'm in a quandry trying to understand what the policy of our country is regarding committment to Iraq. Firsat I hear we are there forthe long term and will not commit to or ever discuss a timetable for withdrawal of our troops. Seems the reason given was that would only encourage the "bad guys" to stay the course. That sounded logical to me. Us being there and all. Plus seems to reflect the truth of the statement attirbutred to Colin Powell to the effect that you broke it you own it.

But then I open the paper the other day and find, to my suprise, a statement from the top general in Iraq that a major troop withdrawal is expected by next spring. Announcement was almost coincident with a "surprise" visit to Iraq by Rumsfeld.

Wonder if related. Wonder if the timing of the reduction of troop strenght in Iraq is at all related to the mid-term elections? But I mainly wonder what happened to the we will not annouce or commit to any timetable for wiwthdrawal.

A life story writ large and well

2005-07-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Was directed by a extremely gifted and insightful blogger Skippy San to explore another website. I surfed over to Helen and was blown away but what I found.

Started with her letter to herself as a younger person. While lot of advice was expected ; the delivery and impact was not.

This letter moved me to surf her site. To say I was impressed and moved is an understatement.

Do yourself a favor and travel to Helen's blog you'll be glad you did.

Four More Days

2005-07-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Come Friday at about 5 or 7 PM a most interesting 2 weeks will, hopefully, end. One of my associates has surgery. She was expecting to be out a little over a week. Unfortuatley she had complcations and damn near bleed out. Change of plans and she will be out a little over 5 weeks. At least that's the plan.

Then over 4th week end my other associate gets admitted to hospital for indeterminate stay.

Result: I'm alone doing a VERY busy practice by myself. BTW we cannot schedule our worklaod. Just have to slog on and on and on.

Needless to say been arriving home beat to a frazzel. Could not have succeeded so far without help of my wife who agreed to come to work to handle lot of the rote, routine, work. She has been wonderful.

As an aside the squirrels continue to find ways to steal the birdfood. Most amazing creatures. Very persistent.

July 4th & War of the Worlds

2005-07-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

A moist interesting analysis of the two "War of the Worlds" this 4th of July season. From the "New York Times"

The Two Wars of the Worlds
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By FRANK RICH
Published: July 3, 2005
ON the morning after George W. Bush spoke to the nation from Fort Bragg, Americans started marching off to Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." Both halves of this double feature invoked 9/11, perfectly timed for this particular holiday. Ever since "Jaws," a movie set on the July Fourth weekend, broke box office records 30 summers ago, Independence Day has come to stand for terror as much as for freedom.
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Decide for yourself if "War of the Worlds" is more terrifying than "Jaws." Either way, it's scarier than the president's speech. Yet the discrepancy between Mr. Spielberg's ability to whip up fear and Mr. Bush's inability isn't merely a matter of aesthetics. On Independence Day 2005, this terror gap is an ideal barometer for gauging the waning political power of a lame-duck president waging what increasingly looks like a lame-duck war.
As we saw on Tuesday night, doomsday isn't the surefire hit it used to be for Mr. Bush. Now that the rhetorical arsenal of W.M.D.'s and mushroom clouds is bare, he had little choice but to bring back that oldie but goodie, 9/11, as the specter of the doom that awaits us if we don't stay the course - his course - in Iraq. By the fifth time he did so, it was hard not to think of that legendary National Lampoon cover: "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog."
Planned or not, the sepulchral silence of Mr. Bush's military audience was the perfect dazed response to what was literally a summer rerun. The president gave almost the identical televised address, albeit with four fewer 9/11 references, at the Army War College in Pennsylvania in May 2004. It's so tired that this time around even the normally sympathetic Drudge site gave higher billing to reviews of "War of the Worlds." Fewer TV viewers tuned in than for any prime-time speech in Mr. Bush's presidency. A good thing too, since so much of what he said was, as usual, at odds with reality. The president pledged to "prevent Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban" a full week after Newsweek and The New York Times reported on a new C.I.A. assessment that the war may be turning Iraq into an even more effective magnet and training ground for Islamic militants than Afghanistan was for Al Qaeda in the 1980's and 90's.
"War of the Worlds" makes as many references to 9/11 as Mr. Bush did. The alien attack on America is the work of sleeper cells; the garments of the dead rain down on those fleeing urban apocalypse; poignant fliers are posted for The Missing. There is also a sterling American military that rides to the rescue. Deep in the credits for "War of the Worlds" is a thank-you to the Department of Defense and some half-dozen actual units that participated in the movie, from the Virginia Army National Guard to a Marine battalion from Camp Pendleton, Calif. Indeed, Mr. Spielberg seems to have had markedly more success in recruiting extras for his film than the Pentagon has had of late in drumming up troops for Iraq.
That's not the only way that "War of the Worlds" shows up Mr. Bush. In not terribly coded dialogue, the film makes clear that its Americans know very well how to distinguish a war of choice like that in Iraq from a war of necessity, like that prompted by Al Qaeda's attack on America. Tim Robbins - who else? - pops up to declare that when aliens occupy a country, the "occupations always fail." Even Tom Cruise's doltish teenage screen son is writing a school report on "the French occupation of Algeria."
Mr. Spielberg's movie illuminates, too, how Mr. Bush has flubbed the basic storytelling essential to sustain public support for his Iraq adventure. The president has made a tic of hammering in melodramatic movie tropes: good vs. evil, you're with us or you're with the terrorists, "wanted dead or alive," "bring 'em on," "mission accomplished." When you relay a narrative in that style, the audience expects you to stick to the conventions of the genre; the story can end only with the cavalry charging in to win the big final battle. That's how Mr. Spielberg deploys his platoons, "Saving Private Ryan"-style, in "War of the Worlds." By contrast, Mr. Bush never marshaled the number of troops needed to guarantee Iraq's security and protect its borders; he has now defined "mission accomplished" down from concrete victory to the inchoate spreading of democracy. To start off sounding like Patton and end up parroting Woodrow Wilson is tantamount to ambushing an audience at a John Wayne movie with a final reel by Frank Capra.
Both Mr. Bush's critics and loyalists at times misunderstand where his failure leaves America now. The left frets too much that the public just doesn't get it - that it is bamboozled by the administration and won't see the light until it digests the Downing Street memo. But even if they couldn't bring themselves to vote for John Kerry, most Americans do get it. A majority of the country view the Iraq war as "not worth it" and going badly. They intuitively sense that as USA Today calculated on Friday, there have been more U.S. military deaths (roughly a third more) in the year since Iraq got its sovereignty than in the year before. Last week an ABC News/Washington Post survey also found that a majority now believe that the administration "intentionally misled" us into a war - or, in the words of the Downing Street memo, that the Bush administration "fixed" the intelligence to gin up the mission.

Squrrels 12: me 1

2005-07-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been striving valiently to feed the many birds that frequent our home. Cardiunals, finches, goldfinches and many others I am trying to identify.

Enter the little rodents. They empty my feeders almost as fast as I can fill them. Not to mention they tend to dissuade the birds from feeding. Therefore I have engaged in battle with the pesky litte rodents. A battle they seem to be winning. Although I do claim victory. From time to time.

I learned that trick from my President.

As from the above photo one can see my victory celebration was a little premature. But in the true American tradition I will continue in my victory until I achieve final victory.

Bush and Iraq

2005-06-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

After careful considerationI have concluded Bush is not the Anti-Chirst. The idea is appealing and does have some merit but it just does not bear up under careful thought and analysis.

What I think we have in the middle east is a direct confrontation of fundamentalists. The Christian fundamentalists againt the Islamic fundamentlaists. A conflict I fear both sides are fueling for their own purposes. At least I think we understand the Islamists goals: retain power and advance Islam which mean destroy us. Our goals, as a county, are somewhat more opaque to me. Oil certainly plays a major role. I tend to believe the other gola is to secularize the USA. Why I do not fully understand. Every theocracy, of which I am aware, ends up destroying itself and its people. But then I suppose the theocrats reap the benfits.

At the core are we witnessing the inevitable result when two opposing extreme views collide with neither side able or willing to discuss and compromise? If so God or Allah please help us.

The Anti-Christ

2005-06-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today I was walking thru our local book store. Books and bookstores are a weakness of mine. Anyway my path took me thru the section dealing wiht the Iraq war and the war on terrorism and then thru the religion section.

As I perusedthe titles and read the covers I was struck with an epiphany: Is George Bush the long anticipated anti-Christ? The constant steam if "all is great in Iraq" that flows from the Bush adminsitration does not seem to square with comments from the local Generals or the world press. The religion books varied from the right wing evangelical that supports Bush to the moderate, No liberal religious books in SC -at least in our small town. But seems except for the evangelical right wing the view is US policy is not conducive to reconcilliation with Islamic fundamentalists.

Therefore the question is Bush the Anit-Christ who will bring devastation.

Flat World

2005-06-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Been reading a most interesting and thought provoking book. "The Wrold is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.

Friedman explores what he call the flattening of the world. The "leveling" of the playing field for commerce enabled by several factors. Mainly by communication. The internet allows instananeous communication by anyone anywhere. This is really what allows outsourcing and offshoring. When one adds the education factor- the US is lagging the rest of the world ,mainly Asia, in producion of scientists and engineers our ability to compete in this "flat world" will become severly compromised.

All is not lost. However, our politicians must reverse the lack of incenitves to those interested in a scientific or mathmatic or engineering career. And reverse the continued cut in funding of basic research.

As long as the present adminsitration and its policies remain in control I fear the situation will continue to degrade.

New Blogger

2005-06-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Trying to get Blog established. This is test to see if I have done anything right.