Saturday

I need to get more work done today than I will. Sigh. But it is a good day for football. As much as I love the bowl games, NFL playoff games are my favorite. For one thing, no Brent Musberger....

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Yesterday, SOF and I drove to Pepes (our favorite restaurant in town) for lunch and nearly ran over Barry Switzer. He was jaywalking. We let him off this time.

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I am really curious to see what investigations into the President's administration reveal. I hear that Pelosi is urging restraint, but that there are investigations planned into the no-bid contracts (among many other issues) and that alone could cause incredible headaches for the administration.

I have said it before, but this administration is a marvel, wrapped in the flag and Bible, yet more corrupt than any administration in recent memory. Or any. I can think of other administrations that lacked competence, but none who were as active in trying to undermine the constitution or who undertook such foolhardy foreign policy.

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The dirty tricks, however, are not new, though some of the same people are involved in this administration. Former Chief Justice Rehnquist's papers reveal not only was the former justice addicted to prescription drugs, but that the Republicans used the FBI to investigate witnesses who might undermine Rehnquist's nomination to be chief justice. The Assistant AG under Reagan? John Bolton.

I remember fondly when Republicans were shocked, SHOCKED, I SAY that the Clinton administration had requested FBI files on some of his critics. That bothered me then and does now, and strikes me as something that Clinton should have been hassled about. Not the meaningless crap that they impeached him for.

But the Republicans have used this tactic many times. And the guy who did it for Reagan is a favorite of the Republican right. Just file that away the next time a conservative Repub complains about executive power or invasion of privacy.

*****

I keep saying that I am done talking about it, but Saddam's botched execution is hard to put behind us. My first objections were to the braying Americans telling me how this was "justice" and that he needed to die. But now it is clear that this execution was so horribly managed by this new Iraq government that it was really a Shiite lynch mob. I resisted that term, but it seems clear now. The timing was meant to offend Sunnis and the taunts by witnesses reveal further Shiite connections.

And the result? As the link above shows, Saddam has gone from ranting crazy and defeated dictator to a respected martyr. The video (which I will not watch) now has made him a hero among many in the middle east for his bravery in the face of the noose. Bravo, Iraqi and American government! Bravo.

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And as Marty commented in the "surge" post, our "brave" war President will soon pledge to send more actually brave Americans to Iraq. That 40,000 troops are not sitting somewhere in a magical troop closet, but will be pulled from those who have already served through stop loss and tour extensions. The worst president in American history and, I think, the most tragic administration in American history.

New Years Day

All in all, a good day, even though the Sooners lost to the upstart Boisie Staters. Very entertaining game if you could drown out the play by play people. Fox is so very, very bad. They did have Barry Alvarez who I thought was quite insightful and I would have loved to hear him more. But Charles Davis kept talking. And talking. And talking. And explaining that because player A stepped out of bounds one yard short of the first down marker, THAT MEANT THAT THEY DIDN'T GET A FIRST DOWN.

Sigh.

I was also a little annoyed with the constant "run with the big dogs" mantra and then noting that Boisie State didn't have to run trick plays to win. Well, they did at the end. Trick play after trick play. But they won. Fair and square.

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In other news, I decided to turn on comment moderation. It is really aimed at the troll, so please, please keep them coming. Perhaps he will go away. I am tired of it, and I know from my emails and conversations that others are tired of it too. Time to move on. I don't really want to censor things and won't based on content. But enough.

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While this is not moving on exactly, one more on the Saddam debacle. Baghdad Burning calls it a lynching, as I noted in the comments. I don't know about that, especially given the historical nature of lynching in this country. But it sure looks like a calculated and choreographed event, calculated to incite sectarian problems, rather than to defuse them. She also notes that Maliki chose to have the election during a religious holiday.

Josh Marshall has been pretty good on this one. I will end this post with his thoughts on the entire event.

Plenty of people deserve to die. And Saddam Hussein ranked very high on that list. And there was more than a little poetic justice in the way Saddam met his end.

But if justice were simply a matter of bad men meeting bad ends, then Iraq today would be awash in justice.

Vengeance isn't justice. Vengeance is part of justice. But only a part. I understand the need for vengeance. I appreciate and I've felt it -- for wrongs to myself, to my loved ones, probably most of all to groups I identify myself with. But I've always thought there was something cowardly and insecure about people who get too vicariously involved in other people's righteous desire for vengeance. And that is how I would class a lot of the folks I see today getting all jonesed up about Saddam's hanging when they probably didn't even know the first thing about the guy's record until a few years ago. Perhaps it is excessive to note that a lot of the same folks now endorse flattening the same people Saddam was butchering fifteen or twenty-five years ago.

The good

I didn't really want to talk about the good while discussing the other. But we went to that store to shop for a practice amplifier. See, Streak has decided to go electric and is now trying his skills on a Telecaster, which of course, requires amplification.



So far, so good. Still a lot to learn about the fretboard, but I do love this guitar.

This makes me sad

Peter Boyle Dies in NYC. I have always liked him. Not only his performance in "Young Frankestein" but I remember seeing him in a small film, called The Dream Team (1989). Not really that good of a film, but in one amazing scene some asylum inmates are on their way to a ball game. On the radio is "Hit the Road Jack" and the inmates join in. But it is Peter Boyle's character who turns it into comic genius.

He will be missed.

Some days

I wonder if me teaching is such a good idea.

I work at it. I really do. I craft lectures. I try to fix the bad ones. I try to incorporate interesting material. I try to make connections across time and space.

I have a couple of lectures that I truly love giving. I love the one on Abolitionism in the North and the beginnings of the "lost cause" in the South. I like my lecture on the 1950s family mythology and the origins of the modern feminist movement.

I know that my good students care about it. I usually have students tell me after the class is over that they had never approached history in this fashion before.

Then there are days like today. One couple has demonstrated their fondness for each other every damn day. Little touch on the elbow and some googly eyes (technical term). Or, because of the classroom, a touch on the leg and a knowing look.

I feel like I am in a Seinfeld episode. Not only do I have goddamn Shmoopies in my class, but I have given them the half turn as well as the full turn with the eye roll!

Sigh.

Sigh

A few notes and then off to work. I am sure volfan will hate this, but yeah, I am annoyed at our President. And his supporters. I read over at Andrew Sullivan's blog (page not coming up right now) that Mary Cheney (Dick's gay daughter) is pregnant and living with her partner. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, but as volfan has made it clear, the administration's stance against the "gay agenda" is part of their deal. (I have no idea what the gay agenda is, btw).

It is fascinating to consider just how much evangelical conservatives fawned over Bush for his putative faith, yet said nothing about Cheney. Here is the most powerful Vice President in history (arguably) who says nothing about faith or the Bible or God or, well anything along those lines. Can you imagine James "gays are a bigger threat than poverty and the environment" Dobson's response to a gay Chelsea Clinton? I would imagine some comments about family disfunction and lack of moral guidance, blah blah blah.

Cheney gets a pass from them and it puzzles me. Perhaps while Bush can tap dance the "compassionate conservative" (whatever that means) lingo, Cheney is the real face of conservative belief. He doesn't care about the poor and makes no pretense that he does. He cares not a bit about the environment except as a way to make money. He is as unfeeling as Karl Rove, and has more power. From a basic evangelical perspective, he should not be popular, but he is.

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Then this story about our President and Senator-elect Jim Webb.

At a recent White House reception, President Bush asked Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D-VA), “How’s your boy?” referring to Webb’s son Jimmy, who is serving in Iraq. Webb answered, “I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” to which Bush responded, “That’s not what I asked you.” Webb then replied, “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President.”

The right wing has been attacking Webb for his reaction to Bush’s question. Last night, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Webb was “rude,” “inappropriate,” and “disrespectful,” because Bush was merely trying to extend a “nice gesture.” The National Review’s Corner called him “classless” and conservative columnist George Will labeled him “a boor.”

But according to Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bush was told that Webb’s son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and was warned to be “extra sensitive” when talking to the Sen.-elect. ThinkProgress yesterday spoke with Moran’s office and confirmed the congressman’s statement, first reported by hcc in VA:

"Not only did Bush know about it, he was specifically briefed on the incident before meeting with Webb, and was cautioned to be extra sensitive in speaking with Webb about his son."

After such a briefing, Bush perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised about Webb’s unwillingness to chit-chat about his son."

I wonder if Bush has so internalized his war President identity that he forgets the effort he took to avoid service in the 60s. Personally, I don't blame him for not wanting to go, but that should give him a sense of humility about people who actually served.

Dogs are funny