Misplaced Priorities

Double Standard on 'Victory Laps?' ... Hard Times in France ... Harder Times for the Greeks ... Whither the Eurozone? ... Russians Threaten to Get Jiggy with It ... Romney Camp Aiming at Wrong Target ...

Back in 2003, as the dust was starting to settle around the fallen statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the President of the United States decided to crow about how successful we were, and announce that "major combat operations" had ended.

So an appropriate venue was set, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and the aircraft carrier was moved about so that it had the correct backdrop and lighting.  When everything was ready, the President flew out to the ship.

The rest, as they say, is history.  George W. Bush, Republican of Texas, wasted hardly a waking hour after that storied 'Mission Accomplished' speech to crow about Iraq, coupling it with 9/11 so many times that to this day there are a few people who think Iraq had something to do with that event.

(They didn't.  Thought I'd remind you.)

Added to that was the failed meme of "Democrats stink at national defense," and you have pretty much the whole GOP strategy since 9/11/01, up to and including Dick Cheney's implication that if we didn't vote GOP in 2004, we'd all die in terrorist attacks.

Now, a year ago this past week, Navy SEALS were airlifted in to the Pakistani town of Abbotabad, where they surprised and killed Osama bin Laden.  That's right; he got deaded, and tossed into the sea after he was positively identified. 

That was on President Obama's watch.  He gave the order to send in the SEALS, aware of the risks if the team were ambushed or - worse - taken prisoner.  Pakistan is our ally, after all; true, a weak tea of an ally, but an ally nonetheless.

Last week, Obama took to the hustings and reminded people that he had ordered the hit on bin Laden.  He didn't strut out onto the flight deck of an aircraft carrier decked out in a flight suit like he had been one of the pilots over Iraq.  There was no 'Mission Accomplished' banner, and so far there's been no conflation of Osama's death with the recently-concluded war in Iraq.

Yet the chattering classes criticized Obama for "taking a victory lap," even going so far as to try and swift boat him.  It hasn't worked yet, as Obama's been careful to point out that the SEALS did the work, but as President he was the one who ordered the hit.

Oh, yeah - about that "Democrats are soft on defense" meme?

On Obama's watch:
1.  He ordered the hit on the Somali pirates who had hijacked the Maersk Alabama.
2.  He finished the debacle in Iraq and brought the combat troops home.
3.  He sent more troops into Afghanistan.
4.  He ordered more drone strikes (a LOT more) than his predecessor.
5.  He ordered bombings and drone strikes in Libya.
6.  He ordered the hit on bin Laden.
7.  He set a timetable to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.

***

Voting is taking place throughout Europe today and part of last week.  In the United Kingdom, it was local council elections, where the ruling Conservative Party lost seats and Labour started to claw its way back from its general election losses by gaining strength locally.  The major bone of contention is the austerity regime on the economy, which has lead to flatter growth and to Britain sliding into a 'double-dip' recession.


In France, it's a two-way race for President, with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy fighting for his political life against Socialist Francois Hollande.  Hollande was leading in the polls going in, but there were signs of the race tightening up.  The major bone of contention is the austerity regime on the economy, which has raised unemployment and has been dragging down the French economy.

Now, I'm not an economist, but history shows us that when there's a recession the central government has to step in and increase spending, because the private sector is either afraid or hasn't got the resources to keep the economy moving.  Yes, this increases the deficit, but as the Republicans will tell you, "Deficits don't matter."  Without that spur to the economy, you're not going to see much growth.  Britain's seeing that now.

Another country seeing that now is Greece, which is holding parliamentary elections today.  The population is pissed off at the austerity measures that have savaged the nation's credit and ripped holes in the social safety net, and they want to punish the two major political parties, both Right and Left.  Particularly disheartening in this election is the prospect of the Golden Dawn Party gaining seats in Parliament. 

Why?  Golden Dawn is a Nazi party - not merely an ultra-right party, but an honest-to-Cthulhu Nazi Party (they even use the Hitlergruss as a salute, if you can believe it).  Their book store sells Greek-language copies of Mein Kampf, they despise foreigners and those Eurozone countries that forced the austerity measures on them.  Like Germany, for example (and extra Irony points).

There is a possibility that the Eurozone might start to fragment.  It might indeed do exactly that, with a strong effect on our own economy as Europe is one of our biggest trading partners.  Having no real central economy or economic policy is proving to be the weakness of the Zone.

***

Back in the Administration That Must Not Be Named, we set up an agreement with two new NATO members, Poland and the Czech Republic, to build antimissile radars and establish a defensive missile system.  The stated reason for this was to knock down any Iranian ICBM launched at Europe.

This was total codswallop on its face, as the best missile Iran has can only reach Tel Aviv or Ankara, while Russia is but a loud shout away from these installations.  The Russians know who it's aimed at, and so do we.

The neoconservatives, of course, love it to bits - they've got their Cold War back!  They can talk about those dirty Commies with verve and panache, and without the embarrassment of having to have Allen West do his Johnny Iselin impression.

The Russians, however, have decided to lay their cards on the table.  Their Defense Minister and the Chief of their General Staff went public with a rather bald threat:  Build these installations, and at the first sign of a crisis between Russia and the West, they'll take those installations the fuck out.  Which means bombing Poland, which will piss off the Poles (although they should be used to the idea).

But in the middle of this kerfuffle, what are the GOP and their presumptive nominee Mr. Inevitable doing?

Not much apart from screeching blue murder at the affair of Mr. Cheng Guangcheng, a blind lawyer who is a Chinese dissident.  Cheng somehow got out of his house and - although blind - managed to evade the cops and end up at the US Embassy.  Right now there's a diplomatic solution in the works that would allow the man to go to the US to study, which enables both sides to save face.

A tempest in the chamber pot, but one the GOP seems hell-bent on pressing while ignoring all the other weirdness going on.

Oy. 

Naughty Friday Musical Interlude

Tom Lehrer's art - now 20% cooler!

Arise!

Arise, you prisoners of starvation,
Arise, you wretched of the earth,
For Justice thunders condemnation -
A new world's now in birth!
No more tradition's chains shall bind us
Arise, you slaves, no more in thrall!
The Earth shall have a new foundation!
We have been naught - we shall be all!

So, comrades, rally
And the last fight let us face!
The International
Unites the human race!

No savior from on High deliver,
No trust we'll place in prince or peer;
Our own right hands our chains will sever -
Chains of hatred, greed and fear!
Ere the thief is forced to share his booty,
And to all give a happier lot,
Each at his forge must do his duty,
And strike while the iron is hot!

So, comrades, rally
And the last fight let us face!
The International
Unites the human race!

So, comrades, rally
And the last fight let us face!
The International
Unites the human race!

Not Insane, But ...

On a nice day in July of last year, a truck bomb was set off in the government center of the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

Which, for the benefit of my readers in the USA, is in Norway.

Eight people died in the blast, and more than 500 more were injured to varying degrees.  Since it was summer vacation time in Oslo, the center wasn't as full of people as it usually is, which explains the low casualty rate.  The bomb itself was our good old friend ANFO (ammonium nitrate / fuel oil), the weapon of choice if you want to make a big boom for not a lot of money.

Surveillance videos showed a man walking away from the truck just before it went horribly nasty, and by reading the registration number on the vehicle the police determined that it belonged to a man named Anders Behring Breivik.  An immediate search was mounted.

They were too late.

Breivik had left the area and headed for the island of Utoya, where the ruling party's youth movement was having a summer camp - boating, group activities, just clean fun for kids.  When a man dressed as a police officer and carrying weapons showed up about two hours after the bombing, no one thought much of it.

Until he shot two off-duty cops who were acting as security (one of them the stepbrother of the Crown Princess).

When the smoke had cleared, Breivik had claimed another 69 lives before voluntarily giving up to police.  Over the course of his shooting spree he would call out that the police were here, that everything was all right, and the kids should come out of hiding - whereupon he started shooting again. 

His trial started several days ago, and one of things that surfaced as evidence was his psychological profile.  It said, perhaps not surprisingly, that he was insane.  Breivik immediately repudiated the study, claiming that he was most definitely not insane.

Of course, we remind ourselves that he planned and executed a killing spree, claimed that he was a crusading Knight Templar, and that he was trying to save the country from multiculturalism and "cultural Marxism."  Suggesting that he's insane is a way to put some kind of rational meaning on his acts.  If we can't understand his motives for shooting teenagers and trying to blow up the government, he must be crazy, right?

Not really.

Timothy McVeigh wasn't crazy, and despite whatever we might think Osama bin Laden wasn't crazy either.  While their world-view may seem skewed to us, they act rationally.  They make their plans carefully (Breivik began planning this in the early 2000s, and one of his ideas was to kidnap the former Prime Minister and behead her on internet video), and they carry out those plans without visible rancor - and without pity (McVeigh set off his bomb at the Murrah Federal Building even though he knew that there was a day care center with small children in the structure).

So, as the trial goes on, is Anders Breivik insane?

No.  He is rational according to his worldview.

How should he be punished for his acts?  Well, that's a poser; Norwegian law has no death penalty, and apparently the longest you can stay in prison for any offense is 21 years.  They might get around that by stringing all 77 sentences together consecutively, but even that may not fly.  In this country (depending on which state you live in) he would spend every day of the rest of his life in prison, or spend an average of twenty years on Death Row awaiting execution.

 

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Courtesy of Dr. Graham Chapman (deceased) and the Monty Python Singers:

Dumber Than A Second Coat Of Paint

That's Tennessee.

The Volunteer State - or, in this case, the "Volunteer for Stupidest Bunch of Cretins in Their State Legislature."

Okay, you ask, what's got his nickers in a twist now?

First, the State of Tennessee is now a state where the teachers are practically required to "teach the controversy" regarding such topics as climate change and evolution. Got that? Two subjects about which there should be absolutely zero controversy.

Of course, the evolution "controversy" is simply the resurgence of idiocy known as Intelligent Design, which is actually Creationism, which is actually Religion (specifically Christianity, so don't be bringing any heathen controversies, just good solid Christian ones) - which is, by an amazing set of coincidences, against the law for teachers.

Yes, the state which hosted the Scopes Trial decided to forget the facts that Scopes' conviction was overturned, that the anti-evolution law they had on their books was stricken back in 1968, and that the town of Dover, Pennsylvania had to pay out the ass for failure to rein in the assholes on their own school board.

But it doesn't stop there, no sir! Tennessee's legislature, a concatenation of complete coprophages if ever I've seen one, is also considering a bill that would restrict sex education. Now, they already had a law that requires teachers to tell students that abstinence is the best way to stop teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

But abstinence education doesn't work. How do we know? Look at Tennessee! Abstinence-centered sex education, and one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the nation.

Gosh, Cletus, think there might - just might - be a correlation here? Bear in mind that when kids get a shiny new toy (particularly one that stimulates the post-orgasmic production of hormones such as endorphins) they will simply fester to try it out!

The Stupid's so thick on the ground in Tennessee you'd think you were in Mississippi.

So Tennessee's making an effort to make sure that teachers double down on the abstinence crap, by also instructing people on the idea of "gateway sexual behaviors."

"Gateway sexual behaviors."

You hear about gateway drugs, substances that can lead to you taking harder chemicals in an effort to get high. Drink alcohol? That's a gateway. Smoke weed? That's a gateway.

So, what are the fine men and women installed in the State Legislature by the voters of Tennessee (who have no one to blame but themselves) describing as "gateway sexual behaviors?"

Holding hands, and kissing.

You'll notice they say nothing about masturbation, but apparently the progression would be:

1. Holding hands, and kissing.
2. Hugging.
3. Dancing.
4. SEX! NAUGHTINESS! SWEATY SNUGGLEBUNNIES!

And how do you enforce that? Do you accuse every parent who holds a child's hand as they cross the street of being a closet pedophile? Or do you simply brainwash kids that any body contact is so inherently dangerous that they'll spontaneously combust if they do so much as look at the opposite sex?

But never fear; it'll never work. Kids will be taught that you must abstain from sex, and that holding hands and kissing are gateway sexual behaviors that can lead to risky sex and teenage pregnancy. No mention of condoms, or the pill, or abortion, or responsible safe sexual intercourse (and recall that at least one political faction in that state refers to itself as "The Party of Personal Responsibility(tm)").

But kids are raised amid a tsunami of sexual images - TV, music, the Internet - and when the winds of puberty begin to blow and various secondary sexual characteristics develop, young men and women will start to touch themselves Down There.

And they'll decide they'll like it, and want more.

And they'll suddenly realize that they want to share their bodies.

And the Tennessee Legislature will wake up, turn around and realize that they've been, quite literally, dumber than a second coat of paint.

Mister Inevitable and Crunching Numbers

The Rise of Mittens ... Santorum Stays the Course As the Band Plays Nearer, My God, To Thee ... Gingrich's Sugar Daddy Blues ... Paul Who? ... Obamacare and the Ryan Budget: Both Better and Worse Than You Think ...

The polls had barely closed in Maryland and the District of Columbia tonight when the media declared the races for Mittens "Put Another Dog on the Car Roof" Romney. Wisconsin took a bit longer, as there is that pesky time zone difference. The upshot of it is that Mittens pulled a hat-trick.

I can hear you sighing from here. "So what?" I hear you say, gentle reader. "I mean, seriously? So effing what? Everyone knows that Romney's going to be the nominee; why do you keep on torturing us?"

Hey, I reply, I feel your pain. But I watch this dreck so you don't have to, then sanitize it, whip it into a fondue and serve it to you lovingly garnished with lark's vomit.

Romney is inching closer and closer to the Magic Number he might need to get the Great Green Weenie of Nomination in Tampa, as well as picking up more and more tepid endorsements from such authoritarian Conservative luminaries as Martin Bormann and Rush Limbaugh. But what are the others doing? Have they, like Rick Perry, sobered up from their doses of painkillers?

Not a chance, people.

Ayatollah Rick Santorum (R-Gilead) is determined to stay in the race, despite coming in a poor second in tonight's races (he wasn't on the ballot in DC, I believe). His main money man has said that he'll keep on cutting the checks in hopes that Santorum will win and force every virgin to hold an aspirin between her legs. You know, to prevent pregnancy.

Newton Gingrich's sugar daddy, Sheldon Adelson, has stopped cutting checks. Gingrich would logically drop out, right?

Wrong.

Logic is not part of the Republican agenda this cycle, so Newton is staying in the race. He economized by getting rid of a third of the lower-echelon campaign workers (they will probably be rendered into 'pink slime' for barbecued pork), his campaign manager, and is charging everyone who wants a picture with him $50. I'm waiting for him to start pimping Callista to keep the campaign bus gassed up.

Gingrich was stuck with Ron Paul in either third or fourth place in all three contests, a position in which they should feel quite comfortable. Matter of fact, Ron Paul is staying in; as he put it in a Sunday appearance on Bullshit the Nation, he's trying to save the Republican Party.

That actually cheered me up. I, too, want to destroy the Party in order to save it.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Obamacare v Freedom, and may be resolved to strike down the individual mandate portion of the law. There's no Plan B to bring it back, although the GAO has determined that our debt as a percentage of GDP may exceed the historical maximum of 109% set back in 1946 if the Affordable Care Act is negated. However, taking out the mandate might not cripple the rest of the law.

A historical parallel can be drawn from the 1930s, where the Supreme Court struck down the National Recovery Act (the linchpin of FDR's New Deal). FDR retaliated by trying to pack the Court, raising it from nine to sixteen. I'm not sure Obama even considered that route, but he might campaign on it - something like, "This was an originally conservative and Republican idea, and my de facto opponent (who put together the same thing in Massachusetts) has nothing to replace it with."

Crippling the health care system is small potatoes, though, compared to the hideous abortion known as the GOP budget plan for the fiscal year 2013. It's appropriate that the hatchet-faced Whiny Ass Titty Baby Paul Ryan (R-WAHHH!) brought this out in 2012, as it's little short of apocalyptic.

Pretty basically, it fixes all government spending at 3.25% of GDP. The 3 is for Defense; the 0.25 is everything else - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. etc. etc.

His plan sets the top tax rate for the richest Americans at 25%, which is lower than at any year since Hoover was President (not a President the GOP should point at with pride). It also sets up a Medicare voucher program, and would change Medicaid into block grants given directly to the states to mismanage as they see fit.

But, I hear you ask, what about Education? Job Training? Research and Development?

Sorry. The Ryan Budget doesn't give you shit for any of that.

A Chinese analyst told the New York Times recently that China already views the United States as a superpower in decline - declining politically, militarily, economically and socially.

The Ryan budget will only reinforce that, which makes you wonder which members of the GOP caucus are paid agents of the People's Republic of China.