Braganza

No Foolin'

Mr. Bush ought to pay attention to the powerful advice just offered by a group of 49 retired generals and admirals who say he should shelve his fantasy start-up plan. [emphasis added]

Does Bush pay attention to the advice of anyone outside his small coterie of family and maybe a half-dozen advizors and puppet masters? Speaking of advice, I think it would behoove Mr. Kerry to repeatedly bludgeon Bush with this--money & attention given to missile defense and Iraq at the expense of the terrorist threat-- and hopefully he can enlist Generals Clark and Zinni to shell Bush with Richard Clarke's bunker-busting charge that Bush undermined the war on terrorism.

The Pentagon is foolishly racing to deliver on President Bush's grandiose 2000 campaign promise to have a still unproven, money-munching missile defense system deployed in time for the November election. It's supposed to provide protection against incoming ballistic missiles. But, so far, the rush into the old "Star Wars" dream amounts to an extravagant political shield.[yet more added emphasis]

That sort of sums up the whole Bush administration, doesn't it? Foolish Pentagon endeavors, grandiose and unproven (or proven false) Campaign 2000 and Campaign Iraq promises, money-munching budgets and extravagant gifts to and from the wealthy . . . all of which is intended for the singular purpose of building an unassailable political fortress against the the progressive force of liberalizing change.

As things stand now, the administration is again looking for showy but questionable ways to reinforce Mr. Bush's identity as a wartime president, while ignoring sensible and effective low-tech strategies to reinforce homeland security.

If only the NYT's editorial page would influence its news coverage as much as Fred Hiatt and his fellow hawks appear to influence the WaPo's news coverage.

I've said my piece about the mind-blowing missile defense boondoggle. If you're in need of more substance, via Orcinus, here's the article on this latest expert recommendation to be ignored by Bush.

Considering the day, I suppose I should have tried to make this funny somehow. Of course, the Bush administration's actions and lies are so outrageous that they almost defy satire. I can't even muster dark humor today. For that you'll have to turn to the likes of Marke Fiore.

Air America Dissing DC?

While I'm encouraged by what I've heard about the debut of Air America, I'd be much happier if I could actually hear it with my own ears. I'd also like to hear the reason why such a potentially important political media effort is mute in Washington, DC. I have neither satellite radio nor can I listen to streaming radio at work. I realize we're talking baby steps here, but launching such an endeavor without including a DC outlet is getting off on the wrong foot. This article notes a similar failure to secure a spot in Chapel Hill, NC.

WCHL wanted to broadcast only "The O'Franken Factor," with Al Franken, and "The Majority Report," featuring comedian Janeane Garofalo.

"We obviously can't just disregard all of our local programming," Jones said.

Until Friday, WCHL thought it could come to an arrangement with Air America, but the deal fell through.

Jeezum Pete! Aren't two sales keys 1) getting your foot in the door, and 2) giving the customer what she wants? By not compromising, they're allowing the competion to maintain a monopoly:

Curtis Media Group, which owns the Triangle's top-rated news/talk station WPTF 680 AM, never planned to seek Air America programming. Phil Zachary, the company's executive vice president, said he has doubts about it.

"It seems like it is programming that is created in response to programming that was created [sic] in response to a liberal media that I'm not sure exists," he said.

Apparent typo aside, at least I'm in agreement about the questionable existence of the mythical "liberal media".

WPTF airs 10 straight hours of conservative and libertarian talk, starting at noon with Rush Limbaugh. But Zachary said he isn't closed to liberal programming -- or, at least, programming hosted by a liberal. He is interested in commentator Alan Colmes, who hosts a syndicated nightly current affairs radio show as well as co-hosts Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" with conservative Sean Hannity.

The fact that he's interested in punching bag Colmes shows how uninterested he undoubtedly is in liberals who fight back.

But Zachary is most interested in radio that entertains. "Some of the really good conservative talk show hosts -- Limbaugh, Hannity -- they're such good entertainers that they keep you engaged in the programming even if you don't agree with it."

"Good entertainers . . ." ::gag!:: But in a twisted sense, he's right in so far as it's hard to argue with their relative success. Clearly they benefit from having a captive audience and having no competition. Get aggressive and be flexible Air America--make it happen! The hearts and minds that we need to win aren't in NYC, LA, Portland, and San Francisco.

Those Fallujah Photos

As revolting as the photos--warning: the last two image links are very gruesome-- of the ambush and subsequent mutilation of the victims' corpses in Fallujah are, they should not be surprising. Overwhelming and despicable use of conventional power inevitably causes the despicable use of unconventional power. This is the nature of asymmetric warfare, whether it be in Israel, Somalia, Russia, Iraq, or New York and Washington. And what is more despicable, the strong killing the weak, or the weak killing their oppressors? Our method of killing may superficially be more discreet or seem less barbaric, but it's still killing. For every burnt, blown-up, or shot American or Israeli, there are at least 10 burnt, blown-up, or shot Iraqis and Palestinians.

Caught Cheating Yet Again

Governing, the GOP way:

The degree to which the political price of President Bush's huge budget deficits is starting to dawn on moderate Republicans was in abundant evidence yesterday in the House of Representatives. Mr. Bush's loyalists had to bring to bear the full arm-twisting might of one-party government, and break House rules, to eke out a defeat of a perfectly sensible plan to impose some budget accountability.

The stage for this political spectacle was a vote over a Democratic proposal to counter Mr. Bush's demand for unaffordable tax cuts by requiring offsetting savings in spending if the president's "temporary" cuts are to be made permanent. The vote was supposed to last five minutes, but it was held open for 23 extra minutes in a clear abuse of House rules.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall of our national den of inequity to hear what bribes were offered and threats were made this time. Representative Nick Smith, come on down and play the price is right!

Jeeze, was it really less than 10 years ago when the Gingrich Rethugs were demanding a balanced budget amendment?

Bill Keller's NYT catches a lot of flak, and rightfully so, for more often being accomplices or timid stenographers rather than investigators when it comes to the crimes and lies of Bush and other Rethuglican machine components. Similarly, Gail Collins, the Times' editorial page editor, is cursed for allowing the likes of Brooks, Safire, and Friedman to fabricate, prevaricate, and propogate GOP spin. But thankfully there are still a handful of reasons to still read the Old Gray Lady; namely: Krugman, Rich, the Science page, occasional guest op-eds, and unattributed editorials such as this one.

Bitter & Sweet

This latest consequence and morbid milestone of the Iraq debacle: 600

Yet another stark reason why all the money in the world isn't going to help Dubya pull out of the nose dive depicted in this encouraging graph of his declining approval ratings:

Source (Via Crooked Timber and Kevin Drum)

Only 91 days until Iraqis supposedly regain their sovereignty, 216 days until America repudiates Dubya's radicalism, and 291 days until regime change.