Expanding the Size of the Military - About Time
Jesus Christ, about time the idea formed somewhere to increase the size of the military. It's 'news' that's just flashed across MSNBC and the Washington Post. 'Bush to Increase the Size of the Military' - you know, they have Air Force and Navy pushed into Army positions, there was a sailor whose funeral I saw on a newspaper who was killed in Iraq while doing convoy duty. A sailor, on convoy duty. It's all the need for soldiers being met through the use of contractors, navy and Air Force personel. It's criminal, it's a problem that's been there and hasn't been addressed and with the incompetent folks in charge you can guarantee the fact that they are addressing this problem years later than it should have been addressed. 

House "Merry Little Christmas"
Topic: Art and Poetry
I've got only a few television shows that I bother with these days, any days for that matter. Heroes and House are the two shows I don't miss. The other night the episode of House was called,  "Merry Little Christmas" but it was nothing like a Merry Christmas show. The story line with the angry angry cop named Tritter was moving along. They had put the squeeze on House and his friend Wilson had caved under the pressure and made a deal with the police. No jail time for House if he accepted the deal of rehab and probation. Of course House wouldn't even consider taking the deal. He didn't feel as if he had done anything wrong at all. I think Wilson asked House if his pride was worth going to jail for. Of course it was, Cuddy and everyone else knew the answer to that, was yes. Pride would overcome any sort of rational decision making. Rational for someone not under attack, Wilson thought in his rational train of thought that anyone would rationally choose the lesser of the two difficult choices. That's how he rationalized his conduct and his betrayal. The police of course, the experienced folks involved knew otherwise, they knew they had him, they knew House, like anyone else in that position would not yield and was therefore caught.  Prickly, principled, House wasn't going to change his position even if it meant personal and professional disaster. They aren't principles if you don't stand up for them, they don't mean anything then and anything that you stood for or believed would mean nothing if you chose comfort over principles. The smirking lawyers and police come to you and say 'plead guilty and you won't go to jail' - but if you don't feel you're guilty then it's not an option, if fact, House at that point was refusing to even acknowledge the police and the charges against him. If he had  maintained that  opinion, that frame of mind, he would have walked into the courtroom and not participated.  Doing anything at all would have denied everything he had thought and felt before that moment, it would have been the same as taking the easy way out - regardless of the consequences. In fact, the consequences would have been an affirmation of everything he had thought and felt and the pain would be confirmation and purification and ritual punishment all at the same time. But, House was an addict in flux, in panic and going through that whole mind altering brain storm. Unlike someone on an antidepressant whose mind would be mostly gone, unable to maintain a vast array of thoughts and to be able to think through various choices and who would lock into the one way of thinking, House's mind raced through the needs of the addict and the need to get a fix, then the knowledge that he was racing to the wall. He OD's, wakes up and in a moment where he is stripped of his self respect and the careful shield he had created to protect himself, he then goes to see the cop Tritter and gives up. Of course, Tritter doesn't let him give up and accept his humiliation. Tritter tells House that he has new evidence and that evidence lets him take the deal off the table. And we end the episode. When the next episode comes, House will have steeled himself, he will have built his walls back up and Tritter will ultimately have lost his chance to actually win. Not giving up is winning. It's a wait until the next episode, sometime in January. I love House, he isn't a Superman, he's in pain, he crashes and falls down but he continues and exists and sometimes that's the only victory you get.

Apocalypto
Now Playing: Bronco's game vs the Chargers
I went to the first matinee on Friday to see this movie. The buzz, the controversy, the online discussion and most of all the trailer and previews I saw with my own eyes led me to have a good deal of hope for this movie. I wasn't disappointed. A great movie is magic, it can transport you completely out of your body and into the heart of the movie itself. Apocalypto is a great movie and it did just that for me. It's a cross between the movies Braveheart and Naked Prey (1966 Cornel Wilde) and National Geographic if the National Geographic was able to bring those ancient cultures to life. The movie is one man against insurmountable odds and as it's happening you can't even begin to imagine how he's going to get through the next moment let alone how he's going to actually emerge victorious.

Mel Gibson takes you to a world of such beauty and horror that you've seen thin images of in National Geographic and you know about but which you've never actually seen. It's one thing hearing a quiet narrator on a PBS show point to the top of a Mayan pyramid and tell you about the human sacrifices and it's quite another to see Gibson's cinematic vision of that world. You've never seen it in a movie, you've never seen it anywhere. The lack of recognizable actors helps create a raw naked vitality which doesn't allow your mind to lose the illusion of  this world.

The movie is intense and bloody as advertised but not gratuitously so. I've seen movies with far more violence praised by the same folks bemoaning this movie. Which brings me to the reviews by the NY Times reviewer and so many others online which are to my mind biased and colored by intense dislike for Mel Gibson himself.  That really reflects more on the ability of the reviewer than of the movie. If you're reading this then I assume you can make up your own mind. If you don't like Mel Gibson and don't want to see anything that he does that's fine. If you want to see a outstanding movie, a movie that is adult fare - and you understand that, this movie will not let you down. I'm going to go see it again myself.

Nancy Grace is Still a Hateful Evil Bitch
Now Playing: Glen Beck Show
Yes indeed, you know it's always instructive to see where one corporate whore is following the instructions of his masters and providing a puff kissy ass episode whose only function is to try to rehabilitate the completely evil, nasty and sued Nancy Grace. Her karma is finally catching up to her as witnessed by the lawsuit against her for her part in killing that very troubled and disturbed woman who may or may not have killed her own child. The woman, whose son vanished and no evidence found of where or why, and who is suspected of murdering her own child, was taken apart by Nancy Grace on air and who afterwords killed herself. I don't believe that it's a single episode of behavior and destroying of human beings is likely something that Grace has done in her previous life as a prosecutor. But her attitude and behavior illustrate her hatefulness. I flip by the channel she is on as quickly as possible since she makes me so mad just looking at her. But seeing her on Glenn Beck's show was just over the top for me. The plastic and absurd effort to save her tattered reputation when after all, it's reputation that matters in tv and not the reality, - is beyond the pale. But Beck demeans only himself and the whole network. It's really sad, sad and amusing. But as I said, karma will catch up to everyone and her's is catching up to her. 

sinus headaches and other depressing things
Topic: Mysteries of Life

Well those antihistamines are doing not so well, it's always a test of fortune to try to determine the amount that helps as opposed to the amount that makes you sleepy and dizzy. What makes it worse is the football game results, Broncos losing to some team whose name I have already forgotten, - my mental defense is to forget that which pains me. That and turn the dial to ignor, so I won't listen to any sports reports or deal with any football information for a while. Like the head in the sand only less ostrich like since eyes and ears full of sand seems rather a waste of time and energy. Nope, occupy the mind with other things of interest, playing guitar, trying to read the foreign policy tea leaves to see where events will find themselves.

There is an interesting Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker that will probably set tongues a wagging for a while. The main bit that's being picked up by the liberal press is that he references a CIA report that says there is no evidence that Iran is trying to make a nuclear bomb. He says that Israel intelligence which has more of a human intel aspect unlike the satellite reading CIA, says that they are in fact testing triggers and are darn well trying to get themselves a nuke as quickly as possible. Also that Israel will go forth and do something about them but that Cheney says wait for us and we will do it when and if it needs to be done. That the Iranian leader, like Saddam, is happy to leave the impression that he's trying to get nukes when he's not, since it makes him look like a bigger and stronger dude for the mullahs and street people back home.  As always, various interests will cherry pick the quote that agrees with their own opinions and rail in whatever direction those opinions lead them. What is without doubt is that Iran is risking a bombing campaign and it assumes that the risk and possible bombing is worth the increased prestige and appearance of power in the region. A region it finds itself the biggest player in. And of course, because of the bubbling, inept foreign policy leadership in the Bush White House there is a good chance Iran will emerge stronger than when Bush started his ill advised and ill considered Mid East adventures. 

 

Benadryl as a food group
Topic: Mysteries of Life

Yes indeed, the constant need for benadryl for those pesky allergies makes me wonder if benadryl is in my own personal food pyramid. Watery itchy eyes so I can't see, runny nose and sneezing. Good times, good times. I'm vaguely aware that the food nazis have taken away the easy to understand food pyramid and have decided that there's some other division of foods we need in order to keep alive. I don't pay attention to that tripe. Eat lean foods, vegetables, fruits and the all the good stuff in moderation. If the food you eat makes you feel bad and makes you fat well then eat something else. It's not rocket science after all. And speaking of rocket science I've noticed the astronomy nazis have decided that Pluto isn't a planet any longer. Well fark those goobers, it's a planet, it's the ninth planet and the desperate attempt to change that fact is an attempt by a bunch of no name wanna be astronomers to be relevant in their field. A totally useless change only done in order to be strutting asses.  Same goes for the morons who decided that it was a good idea to change the name of the brontosauraus to something else. Another pointless, annoying change of names of something that was just fine the way it was. It's a mark of the stagnation of those fields of scientific inquiry when the best they can do is to go around changing the names and structures of things we already know. No other valid reason for it and bloody annoying.

And back to the benadryl. You know there are precious few things that actually work to help with allergies. Dristan cold works for me, tylenol sinus makes me groggy and disoriented so that one sucks. Benadryl works a bit, makes me a little groggy but I don't start to feel a drift from reality taking those. But now, thanks to all the crack heads and meth do it yourself factory entrepeneurs, the government has persuaded the cold medication makers to take out whatever it is in their medications which work and which unfortunately are used in the recipe to make meth. They advertise that they have 'new formulas' which hopefully can't be used to make meth. Unfortunately the new formulas suck. It's all very annoying.  Well enough ranting for the moment. 

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Lordy me. One browser won't let me insert pictures, none of them will let me put one of those utube videos in here although I should be able to.  Watching the democrats fight in the Congress, no Murtha for second in command, the second in command Hoyer,  is an enemy of Pelosi. Ah, politics, it's all good. Interesting in the way a really good mystery is. You don't know for sure what is going to happen, who's going to be victorious, who's going to flame out, who's going to entertain us the most. The race for President in 2008 is on and watching 
the front runners Clinton, Obama, McCain, Gingrich, Gulliani, Romney, Thompson, Kerry, Edwards and others working their way out 
of the underbrush is wonderful. Each one positioning themselves, posturing. I've seen Senator Clinton acting stern and strong when questioning General Abizaid. I've see Edwards everywhere getting his face up there and being interviewed by Jon Stewart. Gingrich being interviewed
everywhere as well. McCain up there sternly talking to Abizaid, Obama being charismatic and being gazed at adoringly by Oprah. It's bizarro Kabuki theater meets Monty Python. So cool. So unreal.

McCain starting his run for President
Topic: Politics

Now that President Bush has begun his long walk into the night and into the unending ridicule that he has undoubtedly earned and  history will judge him as guilty of, the crown is up in the air and a couple of contenders have already stepped forth with their first salvo's. Senator McCain is the 900 pound gorilla in the room and is the front runner and by merely forming a presidential exploratory committee he has hit the front page of the network news. Network news and cable news cannot report or examine these issues beyond the soundbite level but they do know that when the 900 pound gorilla moves then people notice.

The other person who made a bit of news in the Republican nomination hunt is Newt Gingrich. Newt threw his first gauntlet down by attacking the President for announcing the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld after the election. He said, and I agree, that by waiting until after the election he effectively made sure that the Republican majority would be lost. This analysis is based on the judgment that the democratic victory was made by a segment of the Republican voter group changing their votes to Democrats because of the administration's tone deaf response to everyone screaming that the policy in Iraq is unacceptable. Iraq, the Iraq War, is the issue that drove people to reject the Republican Party. All other issues that Republicans and conservatives care about took a secondary role to the Iraq War and the high handed, arrogant and unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration. If you listen to Republican talking heads this last day you will hear a denial of this and instead the delusional talkings points about corruption. Liberal commentators also have their reasons for denying this fact because of course they want to promote the idea of a liberal mandate where one does not exist. The mandate, if one exists is to get the United States out of Iraq. Both sides are perfectly willing to assume that voters could not intellectually divorce one issue from another or decide that one issue was important enough to otherwise vote against their various issues that they care about. 

Rutgers undefeated?
Topic: Mysteries of Life
I wasn't really watching the game but was vaguely aware of it. I flipped over near half time, they were suitably behind as you would expect on the basis of oh, all of recorded history of the school and said to myself, well the bubble has popped and that's the end of that magic. Flipping through the news sites after the game was long over it said they had won. Won? Louisville didnt' score another point in the game. Very odd. Well, as a long suffering east coast team there will be talk until they get beat. Everyone loves the Gonzaga, tiny unexpected winner where before there was only a loser. It's always cool. And a welcome change from the politics which will of course keep bubbling up the next two years at full force. 

Kicking a Rumsfeld when he's arrogant

I heard this quote from Rumsfeld when Bush was introducing the CIA fellow gates.

 These past years, six years, it's been quite a time. It recalls to mind the statement by Winston Churchill, something to the effect that: I have benefited greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof.

The great respect that I have for your leadership, Mr. President, in this little-understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century -- it is not well-known, it was not well-understood; it is complex for people to comprehend.

Well well, see you Americans are simply too stupid to understand the Iraq War. See Mr. Rumsfeld doesn't have to sugarcoat his opinion of everyone now. It's much the same way that Rumsfeld is too stupid to consider that anyone but him has any clue that it's not going well and that anyone who had any knowledge of history or military warfare would have been more than happy to mention the difficulties that we would run into. At no time in the number of years since the Iraq War has been engaged has the Secretary of Defense stopped to consider that he is in error in what he is doing. It's a fact, he can't see it, he couldn't see it, he will never ever see the truth of what he has done. He has pushed the military to the breaking point and kept on pushing. He has shrunk the military while extending the operations that the military has had to perform. Arrogant, asinine and history will not be kind in any fashion. It will say that Rumsfeld is someone who locked into the idea of a type of military that is a response to the fluid of nature of war in some circumstances and he attempted to apply that type of military to every military situation. The military situation in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't the future-high tech war he envisions but rather the pedestrian 'boots on the ground' kind of war that requires those types of solutions. More soldiers, military instead of political decision making in order to win the war. We're talking 4 to 5 hundred thousand soldiers, actual bombing, blowing enemies up and all the rough horrible parts of war that Rumsfeld has avoided and thereby avoiding any sort of victory. Instead thinking that the people would stand for the slow, continual drip drip of casualties to no apparent purpose other than to simply 'hold' a center hoping that political and economic circumstances chance and magically dry up the supply of young Iraq and muslim men who want to fight against the American goliath. The only problem is that the American Goliath is individual young men and women who do not deserve to be pawns in an incorrectly assesed geopolitical chess like battle.

Cheney rumors
Topic: Politics

Alright, I just heard a fellow on MSNBC mouth my theory for the future of Cheney. It made poor ol Pat Buchannan sputter in disbelief. Well, it is far fetched but not out of the realm of possibility. Pat said and it's true enough that the Vice President can't be fired by the President since it's a Constitutional position. Well, you know, there is the possibility that he can be persuaded to move on, in a mix of what's in his own interest and what's in the interest of the Republican Party. He might be reminded that the position of Vice President is not sacred and (I'm looking at you Spiro Agnew) is vulnerable to attack and conviction. 

It is interesting to think that the younger Bush has messed up and looking to the older Bush to save his arse. Specifically the old guard people like the new potential Secretary of Defense  Robert Gates. A big time, long time, government person who has ominiously enough been  with the CIA for 26 years.  What does this mean for policy though? What does this mean for the pressing and stressing of the military in general? Rummy was busy cutting the military while increasing it's workload and nevermind that he was stretching the military to the breaking point. It's two issues, the strategy and policy toward Iraq and the simultaneous drawdown of the military.  I can hear McCain right now calling for a change in the Iraq policy and an increase in the numbers of the military. Exactly what I was just saying the problems are. Now the issue, and McCain is putting some of his cards down on the table, now the issue is enjoined. McCain is positioning himself and should be listened to. I'm liking what I'm hearing from McCain. He's saying we also need to get that bastard al Sadr- the fat little bearded cleric who is busy killing americans. McCain is strengthened in all of this, his word has great meaning and he's signaling the President what he needs to do to keep his support. 

And now the clock is ticking on Dick Cheney - tick tock
Topic: Politics
If you'll recall the full vote of confidence went out to Rummy and to Cheney. I'm looking for Cheney to also resign before too long. A number of reasons for this thought. First of all, Dick Cheney isn't going to be running for President and it does him no good to be there as a punching bag for the Dems to whack at. He might escape the coming investigations into his behind closed doors energy policy discussions and other things if he's gone to Wyoming. Possible but unlikely. It would also be one less lightning rod in the White House. Also, and less likely, is the idea of giving a chosen one a head start in the run for the White House. Whoever might be brought up as Vice President would have a chance to start running for President almost immediately. Humm, almost too complicated. 

Boom Goes the Dynamite - Rummy Gone
Topic: Politics
Wow, I had just written that I think Rummy is gone and see how fast he really is gone. The little bees over at FOX News are buzzing away. Surprised. I don't know why. President, on advice from his people has thrown the red meat out for the folks. The speed of it means that the Pres is going on the offense. He's not waiting for Pelosi to come and dictate to him, which of course, makes it all the cooler to watch. 

Say Goodbye Rummy?
Topic: Politics
Humm, I'm thinking as I watch Nancy Pelosi give her press conference that they think they own the stage and the President will have to follow their lead. I love this part of politics, it's no longer so boring as it was, it's a fight on and we get a front row seat to it. Will Bush pull back his horns? Will the Dems charge forward with hearings and investigations? Will they work together? The answer is yes, all of the above. It's a serious possibility that the most unpopular man in Washington other than President Bush - Rumsfeld will face the axe in short order. It's a sign of good character that you stand up for your friends and for a President to not fire someone when the lynch mob is at the castle gate is fine up to a point. Rumsfeld should look at the scene before him and offer up his resignation. The President should regretfully accept it. The crowd wants blood, the crowd wants to hang someone and they want to see something done. The least that the President can do in that regard is to give them someone to hang. That gives them some time to do nothing much while appearing to do something. It would be sad if that is what happens - the not doing anything other than accepting Rumsfeld's resignation.  Otherwise it could be an opportunity, and making a retreat look like a victory would be standard procedure; it would be an opportunity to actually change things. To win in Iraq they need nearly 500 thousand troops. The chance of them actually doing what it takes to win is slim, so it's some variation of retreat. Call it what you want, that's the only decision that 'The Decider' would be willing to make. As  important a fight as he speaks of to others, if he does anything less, and less is what  he has been doing from the beginning to include the war plan in Afghanistan, then he doesn't really think it's that important. Actions speak louder than words after all and the actions of the Bush administration with regard to the war in Iraq is that we don't want to win the conflict but are willing until now to stand there and bleed to no end. And of course, the people of America will not stand for that as a policy. They didn't stand for that as a policy in Vietnam and they have demonstrated at the voting box that they will not stand for it in Iraq. Win or get out. 

Allen of Virginia goes to bed

Well, it looks like George Allen of Virginia has gone to bed defeated. Defeated as in they'll go through the process of recounting and spending two weeks with lawyers and spokesmen trying to get the results changed. Once a probable candidate for the Republican nomination for President in the upcoming 08 election cycle, now he's a wounded and exposed beast whose further asparations have been clipped.  Harold Ford Jr, in Tennessee has lost his bid for the Senate but has earned the sympathy and admiration of every liberal leaning news anchor and  commentator I've seen who has anything to say about the matter. His future is looking bright. The House has gone big for the Dems, and the Senate is still in play and even if it doesn't pass under control of the Democrats it's still a new game in town. The laws of unintended consequences will spread their tendrals out and touch the political landscape in ways that we might not be able to imagine right now. Perhaps the control of the House by the Democrats makes things more difficult for the Democratic contenders for the Presidency. It's easier to run against something than to have to enbrace and explain something and Democrats will have two years of control to defend and explain. Consequently, Republicans running will be able to talk about a 'do nothing' Congress whether or not they do nothing or a lot. But one thing we can count on, it'll be interesting. How will the President, a President who has shown himself to be incapable of adaptation, adapt. The 'Decider' will have to sit down and listen to other folks now. And they aren't happy, and they want things done that he doesn't want to do. Perhaps they might demand he give back the Constitution. Perhaps the President will continue to rule by executive order and ultimately by fiat. 

Personally I think we are in for the most dangerous time of our Republic coming up in the next two years. I know the slippery slope is already being slid down, the erosion of the Constitution in the name of safety continues and with minds that can excuse the end of the Geneva Conventions and which allow torture of prisoners who have had their judicial rights stripped away at the whim of the 'law' which decides if you are a enemy combatant or not and if you are so decided you have no rights other than to sit in a cell without a trial, a lawyer, a hope of defending yourself. That slippery slope, passed I wonder how many more slippery slopes will fall in the name of keeping us safe for our own goods.  How will the laws of unintended consequences roll? 

Who else seems to be happier? Well, Iran can be found dancing in the streets and continuing to build their missiles and nukes. Israel can be grimly gassing up the jets and getting ready to take care of keeping nukes away from Iran by themselves. The nations in the Middle East and the nations in Asia are seriously considering building their own nukes.  How long before this possible proliferation gets out of control? How long before someone or some group that hates us explodes a nuclear bomb or three in our cities? 

You can't begin to blame the Democratic win for the future. That won't stop Shaun Hannity or Rush Limbaugh from doing it of course. They will predict the dire future and pull those predictions out when they come true. The real blame will be with an inept President who attacked a country without such weapons and without any likelihood of getting them while leaving the real evil empire nations out there now immune from any actions from us. It's a big mess and our government has made it worse and it will get worse and in short order at that.