Scrooge "Robbing Hood" McBush

We have a rip roaring deficit, pretty far into the billions of dollars. We are borrowing money from China, Korea and Japan. And our need for Medicaid is growing. We keep producing the old, the poor and the children. And don't tell me its their fault!
What do we do?

WASHINGTON - The House and Senate debated a budget Thursday that would cut spending on Medicaid health care for the poor for the first time since 1997 in an effort to trim federal deficits...

The budget would shave automatically increasing benefit programs by $35 billion over five years while also cutting taxes by as much as $106 billion over the same period (my emphasis).....

Medicaid gets marked for the single biggest change, a $10 billion reduction over four years.

Let me repeat: The Old, The Poor and The Children.

If you think the man running our country is anything but the biggest fucking hypocrite that ever lived, then may all the people who are going to die because of his insanity just fly down from Never Never land and smack you on the side of the head.

Alice, get out of the way, I'm coming down the Rabbit Hole. Its got to be better than this big ole place that looks like a bally waterhole in Texas.

Civilization and its Contents - IV

It will always be said that America brought technological advance to civilization. But the problem in assigning fame or blame for technological advance is that it can be duplicated. Although the transistor was invented in America, it was the Japanese Transistor Radio that made headlines. And now when one can make an atomic bomb in the basement, who cares who invented it. The difference between the Arc de Triomphe and and atomic bomb is uniqueness. Do we celebrate who invented the catapult? And, of course, the Italians would claim that Leonardo de Vinci invented everything. (Incidentally, he almost did.)

I think, in spite of its appeal, we can discard technological advance as our mark of civilization. That even includes going to the moon (The Union formerly known as Soviet was the first in space. What did that count for?)

We have breezed by architecture and technology. There is not much left. Certainly, those in academics will say, we should consider the contributions of Americans to literature, music, art and law. In spite of their awesome (for the times) military accomplishments, we learn in grade school that Rome should be known for its law giving. (Napoleon, also, was no small fish when it came to distributing uniform law).

O.K., then, let's look at this area. Quick, name one prominent 18th century American painter. (No, you can't Google it.) And no, I couldn't either. O.K., then, try the 19th century. Well, Eakins and Whistler and a bunch of others. But, can you honestly argue that even combining the whole raft of artists, poets (Emily Dickenson excepted), novelists, etc. can really outclass any other civilization of even half its size? Look what Greece did in the Golden Age. Could there have been more than several million that lived in the city states at the time of Pericles? And how many of them actually participated in the culture.

No, I am afraid that when compared to other civilizations, our arts are a little shabby. Yes, we have been on the forefront for the last 50 years, but, my God, what a forefront. Pollack splatterings and Warhol soup cans. This cannot hold a candle to the French impressionists. Not a candle.

So, if the Romans were known as the law givers, maybe we will be known for our government. How poignant to be talking of America's government now, when we are in our deepest crisis. When it is possible that a radical fringe will undo over 200 years of admirable example. Yes, I think our Constitution, as imperfect as it is, is still one of the greatest documents of all time. The very basis is that the government derives its right to govern from those it governs. All of us have been imbued with this since we were tots. It is what has set us off from the rest of the World, whether that exceptionalism was warranted or not.

But in the end, it is not our Constitution or Laws, as excellent as they are, that defines our civilization. It is something else.

To be continued.....

Civilization and its Contents - III

So where does our American civilization lie? Well, the obvious answer is in the technology that we have discovered and perfected. A lot of people will wonder if the trade off between all the good things we have found and nuclear weapons has been worth it. [There will always be someone to point out that the Germans or the Russians would have discovered them in any case. I am not so sure. (Read Richard Rhodes the Making of the Atomic Bomb).] In any case, America has certainly been on the forefront of technological advance in almost all fields. While many of the physicists on the Manhattan Project were from foreign countries (Fermi, etc.), and, of course, Einstein was also, others such as J. Robert Oppenheimer were home grown. Because of the devastation of WWII, physics outside the United States took years to recover. While Japan and Europe are now contributing, in my mind the US still leads in many areas. Unfortunately, physics hasn't brought us any useful goodies for a long time. While they probe subatomic particles and meander through 12 dimension string space, our world is in deep trouble.

Chemistry used to be the provence of the Germans. In fact, in the 50's and 60's US chemistry graduate students had to learn German. That has changed, but all that original work is still there.

It is in the Medical field that the US has appeared to excel. Most of the major advances both theoretically and practically have originated here. While this has been a boon for some few patients, the overall health of the planet has decayed dramatically. What good does an MRI do when millions of children die every year from diarrheal diseases that are both preventable and easily treatable? One could go on for a long time on the problems with US Medicine. But, the fact remains, from the polio vaccine to the human genome, we have excelled intellectually. If one is going to list our contributions to civilization, this may have to be near the top.

While many other areas in science and engineering have had their stars, for instance Henry Ford bringing an affordable automobile to the masses, it is possible that these advances would have been discovered in due time elsewhere. One can only speculate where Europe would have gone if it had not had WWI and WWII.

High on the list of inventions that have changed the way we live must, regrettably, be Television. Again, one could wax long and vigorous on this subject. And maybe even include personal computers and the InterNet. I am going to think about this for a bit.

To be continued.....

Lay Tommy Lay, Lay across ....

I really don't like cigarette smoking. But smoking guns, that's a different story:

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe....
Multiple sources, including DeLay's then-chief of staff Susan Hirschmann, have confirmed that DeLay's congressional office was in direct contact with Preston Gates about the trip itinerary before DeLay's departure, to work out details of his travel. These contacts raise questions about DeLay's statement that he had no way of knowing about the financial and logistical support provided by Abramoff and his firm.

When will the Republicans understand that running this story out is doing nothing but shooting themselves in the foot. Of course, smile, I'm all in favor of foot shooting. Here, Tommy, here's an AK-47. Go for it.

Civilization and its Contents - II

Back to bricks and mortar. I forgot that when I was in Milan many years ago I came across a mausoleum that had been constructed during Mussolini's time. It was really rather frightening. It was, of course, in the neo imperial style with very dark, metal eagles, guns and helmets sprouting all about. One descended into the mausoleum and I don't remember who was buried there. It was pretty scary. This brings to mind the architecture of Napoleon and Hitler. Napoleon was going to completely redo Paris. I am not sure what he did construct, it isn't his tomb in Les Invalides which was an old soldier's home constructed by Louis XIV:

In 1670, Louis XIV - the Sun King - founded Les Invalides near what was then called the Grenelle Plain. An old soldiers home, it was funded by a five year levy on the salaries of soldiers currently serving in the army at that time. The first stones were laid in 1671, for what was to become a complex providing quarters for 4,000. Construction followed plans drawn up by Libéral Bruant, and was completed in 1676. The Esplandade was layed out by Robert de Cotte.

Of course, I guess we have to include the Arc de Triompe:

The Triumphal Arch dates back to 1806, when Napoléon commissioned Chalgrin to build an arch to the glory of the French Army. Construction on the Arch began in 1806, restarted in 1825, and was not finished until 1836. The Arc de Triomphe is built on the model of ancient Triumphal Arches, but it stands alone because of its monumental size: 50 meters tall and 45 meters wide (164 by 148 feet).

But then:

it was completed in time for Napoleon's hearse to pass beneath in 1840.

In other words, Napoleon got a good view on his last journey. We should be so lucky.

It is something to ponder, this lack of grandiose architecture in the United States. Here we are a country with wealth beyond imagining, and we can't seem to build anything but starter castles. Oh, yes, there is the new Disney Auditorium in Los Angeles and the renovated Museum of Modern Art in New York. But these would be paltry memorials to the wealth that we have. Or do we? and they would crumble in a decent earthquake. Or, probably more likely go submarine.

As for Hitler's monumental architecture, we have this:

The Courtyard of Hitler's Reich Chancellery

I'm afraid I'm going to get sick....

Friday Curmudgeon Crab Blogging

Civilization and its Contents-I

"You work three jobs? Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that."
George W. Bush, to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

After you get to the airport 3 hours early; after you battle your way onto a sky bus; after you sit in a tiny seat for 10 hours; after you eat strange, plastic tasting food with plastic utensils; after you finally get there and out; you can look back on this country with a different eye. And, what you see at that point is devastating. In the city of Vienna, Austria, there is almost nothing to suggest that America is what George W. Bush thinks it is, the dominating player on the world stage. It is true, there are probably a half a dozen McDonald's, a Burger King and even a TGIF, but the cars on the street are all European, or Japanese. There are few American magazines on the newsstands. When one finds out that you are from this great country, the most common reaction is pity, or anger. So, I decided to look across the ocean and see what we really could offer as American Civilization.

Firstly, we should consider bricks and mortar. After all, when one considers the Mayan civilization, their pyramids are about all that is left. The Egyptians and the civilizations of Southeast Asia also seem to be known for their ruins. But I don't see anything in America to rival these architectural wonders. Skyscrapers just don't do it. The monuments of Washington, D.C., are paltry compared to those of, say, Vienna. We have added little of lasting interest. But, you might say, neither has England. I guess we could argue about it. But certainly the solidity of a civilization only seems to create paradoxically a sense of distant emptiness when viewed from centuries in the future. Again I would refer you to the Mayan and Aztec cultures of Central America. I don't think that it is in the now defunct World Trade Towers that we will find our apex, as iconic as those structures have become.

to be continued....

Casting the first stone

Is this any way for a Secretary of State to Act?

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin had too much personal power and that Washington was closely watching the trial of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Rice, ending her first visit to Moscow as Washington's top diplomat, said she had talked "pretty pointedly" to Putin about foreign investors' rights.

What is with Ms. Rice? One should not finish up a visit to a new found ally by slamming its Chief Executive. What would our response be if Putin said that "Bush has too much power?" We would impolitely ask him to mind his own business.

The only conclusion from all this is that Condoleezza Rice flunked International Relations 101 (along with the WMD seminar). It doesn't bode well for the future. Maybe she's been sitting on Bolton's knee.

Us and Them

I used to live in Europe, 1970-72. It was a mark of honor to be a Yank. Things have changed since then. It appears to me that the honeymoon is long since over. Yes, I have been back. But not since we became the new theocratic State. For crying out loud, even the Italians don't carry religion to the extremes that the current dispensation in D.C. does. But I digress.

You would think after all this time and all the hoopala about American culture taking over the World there would be more of it on display in Vienna. Yes, there is an occaionsal McDonald's and one Burger King. And, there's a Starbuck's across from the Sacher (as in Tort) Hotel (the gods of Culinary are frothing at the mouth). But there are no American cars (wasn't this what Havana was known for?) There were no American electronics in the shop. While the styles for teenagers are the same (all that midriff skin), I don't see the American logos that I expected (of course American clothes are made in China, so there.) It is almost as if we didn't exist. What's a few McDonald's? Certainly not a Cultural Revolution. In a contest between Snoopy Dog (whatever) and Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler and Shubert, its hard to imagine a rapper victory.

We had better wake up. The World is moving forward without us (Romania and Bulgaria have been admitted to the EU and the euro is surging). European cars get many kilometers to the liter whereas we continue to support SUV's. This is food for thought. American Civilization. Where is it on its trajectory?

Dateline Vienna

Blogging from Vienna. And that's not Vienna, Maryland or Vienna, Virginia. (I guess in the spirit of the times I could say not-MD not-VA.)

Don't take a transatlantic flight in "economy" class if you don't want to feel like an Irish immigrant. Steerage is more like it. Can't imagine how our forefathers first spent six weeks (sail) and then a week (steam) crossing. Can it be that long ago that even students on Icelandic Air had a good time? Lots of free food and booze. Now its plastic, plastic, plastic. That includes the food. You have to be an insurance executive to afford first class. One is smothered with envy when departing through the forward cabin to see the detritus of their revels. Champagne bottles, used blankets (probably discarded after one use), baccarat tables...I digress.

What do Austrians think about this thing called America? Hard to say. I think they are ignoring us hoping that we will go away. Hopefully with a whimper and not a bang. Hopefully not with the Big Bang. Its known as perspective, something that is hard to obtain. Do we really have a President who hears voices talking to him? That feels he's in touch with a higher power? Scary.

The Hapsburgs liked to build monumental building with lots of thingys way up high so everyone could see. Like eagles and chariots and war gods, you know. And, you ask, where are the Hapsburgs now? I can't answer that at the moment. Check back later this week. That is my project for now.

Friday Crab Blogging

Not-Not-Jenna (http://www.nypost.com/gossip/44048.htm)

Role Model?

Apparently not-not-Jenna was doing the butt dance this week and:

Jenna, who plans to teach school in D.C. next fall, wore jeans, moccasin boots and a midriff-baring, satiny blue top. She lit up a cigarette...

My local sparing partner, Rick Kollinger, will be delighted at this celebrity endorsement of the weed. I'm sure he'll throw it in my face in a cartoon.

The Rove Fix

I'm sorry, I can't stand it anymore. It appears that the defenestration of Tom DeLay may be orchestrated by Karl Rove:

...a prominent member of the Republican Washington establishment speaks on the record divulging information that can be harmful to the once dreaded House Majority Leader....

..........Long Quote...........

For you Kremlinologists, what is fascinating about the quote is that it is from a highly respected denizen of K Street and a former prominent staffer in both the Bush Administration and Capitol Hill. The Rove fix likely is in. (emphasis added)

I've said it before, this guy Rove makes Svengali and Rasputin look like pikers. I sure wouldn't want to be his grandmother.

Tom DeLay

From the NYT (via Atrios):

WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state of Texas.

And then there's this gem:

"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing individual events."

I'd like to give Mr. Delay the big picture and some guidance. As for personnel decisions, see my last post. and, of course, I'd do it for a lot less than $500,000. Maybe $499,999.

Try as I might, I can't come up with a good nick-name. (I probably need W's help.)

Tom DeLousy?
Tom DeLouche?
Tom DeDisser?
Tom DeDope?

Mirriam Webster gives me:
offensive, disgusting, foul, loathsome, nasty, noisome, repellent, repugnant, revolting, vile

Tom DisGusting?
Tom DeFoul?
Tom DeNasty?
Tom DeVolting?
Tom DeVile?

Tom DeParted is probably the best.

[Atrios has a lot more.]

Books - A Review

Recent Books (with * to ***** rating):

And Quiet Flows the Don - Mikhail Sholokov (The sequel is “The Don Flows Home to the Sea”) **
Written in the 1930's and winning the Nobel Prize (1965) for this Russian author.
(http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1965/sholokhov-bio.html)
A long story of Cossacks and the Russian Revolution. To be honest with you, it is really not that great. I much prefer Doctor Zhivago, though it too is also not that well written.

The Gnostic Gospels - Elaine Pagels **
Dr. Pagels develops a thesis about the early Christian Church based on information found in documents discovered in Egypt in 1945. You will have a much different conception of the Church if you agree with her. While well documented, I find her excrutiatingly repetitive.

Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell **
Mankell is sort of the Raymond Chandler of Sweden. A fairly good read.

Dirty Snow - Simenon ****
First of all, you got to like someone with one name. This is his noir novel, and noir is what you get. The whole weight of WWII wells up here. You will remember the characters for a long time.

Garden State - Rick Moody ***
This is a Clockwork Orange novel set in, well, you know where. Its full of reference to a world of rock music, drugs and sex. A little bleak.

The Night World, Kingdom of Shadows, Night Soldiers, etc. - Alan Furst ***
Good reads, these. Furst has done his homework and he recreates Europe in the late 1930’s and during WWII with a bunch of romantic spies, mostly European with the wierd American thrown in every now and then. A lot about Paris, if you like that.

The Siege of Krishnapur, The Singapore Grip - J.G. Farrell *****
I can’t recommend this author too highly. He is wity, historical and creates memorable characters. The Siege of K. takes place in a city in northern India at the time of the Mutiny of 1856. The Singapore Grip is set at the time that Singapore fell to the Japanese. Well worth the read.

The Romantics - Pankay Mishra ***
Mishra is a writer for the New York Review of Books. He has done some excellent things there on Kashmir, etc. This, however, is a coming of age novel set in north India (mostly). There are overtones of Indian fascination with European women as in Passage to India and the Raj Quartet. I read this to prep me for his recent book on the Buddha. We’ll see if it helped.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell *****
This book jumps around like a jumping bean. It is a mix of classic writing, fantasy, future world and I don’t know what. He is not as glib as Pynchon, and doesn’t have quite the breadth, but his characters are more memorable. Nothing is ever as it seems.

The Jewel in the Crown, The day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence and A Division of the Spoils - Paul Scott ****
The books to read to understand the British experience in India. Of course, who cares about this anymore. (Maybe we latter day imperialists should care.) Well written with themes and characters that run through all four novels.

The Shape of Water, The Snack Thief, The Terra Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri ***
I know nothing about Sicily. Now I know a little. These are detective/police novels with a randy hero and lots of reference to the Mafia. They are good reads.

The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomasen *
I found myself begging for this book to be over with so I could put it out of its misery. I never knew Princeton bred such prigs

The Hamilton Case - Michelle de Kretser ****
This is a sort of mystery novel. It is set in Sri Lanka and covers a fairly long time from the 30’s to the present. It has a murder mystery as its focus, but it is much more a pastoral novel describing the same changes as the Raj Quartet

The Root and the Flower - L.H. Myers *****
I don’t know why I am reading so many books about India. This one just sort of lay around for years and one day I said I had better read it. I think I didn't read it because the cover turned me off. It is an astounding read. The protagonist is the ruler of a small state in, you guessed it, north India. But the action takes place at the court of Akbar, the great Mogul ruler (late 16th century) and in the hill country. There is intrigue, beauty, Thugees and other nasties. You will not regret your time here.

The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith **
Better known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, this is a new series by this interesting author. He has an interesting way of writing that is different from others in the same vein. Interesting stuff about Edinburgh. A good way to wile away time.

For Love of Insects - Thomas Eisner ****
This tome tells you so many things about bugs that you never knew it almost makes you want to go back to graduate school in entomology. I like bugs because they are fiendishly clever chemists. We all know that bugs will still be around when we are long gone.

Buddha - Karen Armstrong ***
This is good information if you are going to read more of Mishra. Although the Buddha lived in, you guessed it, north India, around 500 BC, what he encountered in his life sounds pretty modern (war, poverty, greed, etc.). Armstrong, an ex-nun, writes well and seems to be very well versed on this subject. (I wish she would use “dharma” rather than “dhamma.” Its like Peking Duck. I just can’t get myself around Bejing Duck.) The Buddha isn’t somebody you really like. More like respect. Then, again, I probably wouldn’t have really liked Christ or Socrates, the other two greats of the Axial age. Not one of the three ever cracked a joke.

Attack on the Judiciary

Another ho-hum day in America, except it ain't. We are under attack and, no surprise Pogo, the "enemy is us." Rep. Conyers says it succinctly:

...things are very quickly spinning out of control.

First, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, made the outrageous statement, and apparent threat, that "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." When given repeated opportunities to disavow the interpretation of his comments as a threat or incitement to violence, DeLay has repeatedly declined to do so.

Tonight, my staff showed me a quote from Senator John Cornyn (found on Americablog) that speaks for itself: "And finally, I – I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news. And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in -- engage in violence. Certainly without any justification but a concern that I have that I wanted to share."

It used to be called "going postal," I guess the new term will be "doing a DeLay."

There are many precedents to this kind of behavior in the Congress. It used to be rather unsavory place to hang around and, back when men carried walking sticks, potentially detrimental to your health.

The Field of Blood: The Culture of Congress in Antebellum America
During the first half of the 19th century, violence erupted on the national stage. On the floor of Congress, brawls and fisticuffs, personal character attacks, shootings, and duels became almost commonplace. Some of these incidents have been studied individually, in clusters, or anecdotally. Some seem to have fallen through the cracks of the historical record - in several cases (particularly those that involved guns on the floors of Congress), because witnesses agreed not to discuss it. But the larger story of this pattern of political violence and its broader implications has not been explored. The Field of Blood will examine this pattern of violence, tracing the evolution and slow dissolution of national governance.

But hopefully we no longer settle our disputes at the O.K. Corral. In particular, we have judges and juries. These are dedicated professionals and if your ideas of morality clash with theirs, then that is your problem. To even suggest doing violence to them puts you in that Circle of Hell that Dante reserved for target practice.

Message to Mr. DeLay and Mr. Cornyn:

"I would like to humbly point out to you that you both took an oath of allegiance to the United States Constitution. Please uphold it in all its particulars. Furthermore, will you kindly shut the fuck up!"

You Gotta Lov our Gov

Got this message earlier today:

In today's Baltimore Sun, John Kane, Governor Ehrlich's hand-picked GOP Party Chair, called Democratic leaders in Maryland "left leaning liberal bastards" and "bozos," and suggested that they "grow up" rather than continue to explore changes to the state's election laws that include expanding voter rights and moving the primary election date.

For a Gov who took us all to task for dissing him when he gave the State of the State in January this is a little much.

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. used his annual State of the State address yesterday to urge the Democrat-led legislature to sweep from Annapolis a brand of "Capitol Hill assassin politics" he said has degraded state government.

But then, as the mailing I got reminded me, Bobby Boy got his start at the knee of Newt Gringrich.

"I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around a campfire but are lousy in politics."

Are we witnessing the coming apart of the Republican machine? Usually when these things happen, they find something to rally around (and not a poor, comatose Floridinian). They'll come up with some way to salvage this. Newt and Karl are just to evil to go down without a fight.

If you have any interest in Science at all, go to Pharyngula

Dear President Bush

I have some questions I was wondering if you can answer:

1. Whatever happened to the Plame affair? It has now been almost two years since a deep cover CIA agent was exposed as such putting numerous people at risk of assassination and decreasing our ability to detect and intercept weapons of mass destruction in rogue states. Could you please tell us who is responsible for this crime?

2. Who is responsible for the "intelligence failure" in Iraq. It seems to me that the CIA reports directly to the President of the United States. Do you not bear some blame for the ongoing fiasco in that woebegone country.

3. Speaking of Iraq, when will you withdraw American troops, dismantle the bases there and turn over the oil production to the Iraqi people. May I remind you that it is not the property of either Halliburton or, for that matter, the United States Government. An apology to the Iraqi people might be in order, but that is probably not forthcoming.

4. Why, when so much else is at stake, did you involve yourself with an issue, the case of Terri Schaivo, that was clearly something that was in the provenance of the State of Florida? (This does not excuse your brother for his behavior, but that is for another day.) Do you share Tom DeLay's reprehensible opinion of the judiciary that was involved in making those hard decisions? If so, have you ever read the American Constitution? (I'd sort of like to know that anyway).

5. If you ever realize how badly you are doing as President of the United States, might you consider resigning? (And asking your Vice President to resign with you.)

Just asking.

The Pope - R.I.P.

Billmon has a long piece on the Pope today. As usual, it is extremely well written. He uses it as a springboard to comment on the history and significance of the Church, in particular, the Catholic Church. If I had read his piece before I had read Elaine Pagels' "The Gnostic Gospels," I probably would have agreed with him wholeheartedly. However, once you find out about some of the machinations that went on in the first few centuries, and how it was that the current version of the Church was actually the winner in a Darwinian battle for memes, it gets you thinking.

Billmon claims that, on the whole, the Church has been good for mankind (marginally). He also has admiration for an institution that has lasted intact for almost 2,000 years. I guess I would share some admiration but disagree on the first part. The reason I disagree is because, as a result of those machinations that Pagels describes, rather than a Church that focused on implementing the teachings of its founder, Christ, there came about a Church that was obsessed with what happened to its founder, Christ. (This obsession with Christ's death, e.g. in "The Passion of the Christ" which I did not see, has important structural significance for the Church. But, read Pagels and others for this.)

Man is by nature aggressive. You don't have to subscribe to a Darwinian theory to agree with this, though it helps. At the same time, if we are to have civilization, we have to live together. While I respect that Christ is many things to many people, it seems to me that the central meme of his teaching was getting along with one another. Sort of an anti-violence regime. Where I part company with Billmon is that I do not think that the Church has ever had this as its central teaching. (when it did, those who did like the Cathars, or Huguenots they were deemed heretics; Julian Barnes also has written about them) In fact, I would even go so far as to say that, in spite of its longevity, that the Church is the longest running scam in history. It says that its adherents believe in one thing, when they almost universally do the opposite.

Now there is no doubt that there have been holy people in the Church. But there have been selfless people outside the Church at the same time. On the balance, belonging to the Church doesn't seem to have made much of a difference in the most basic of behaviors, that towards one's fellow man.

Examples? How many do I have to give? Let's start with Hitler, (see Anschluss below. Stalin was once a seminarian. The British are held up as paragons of virtue but the reality of the British Empire from Cromwell to Cruzon was one of brutality in the name of civilization. (there is a review of the the awful experience in Kenya during the "emergency" there in the 50's in a recent New York Review of Books). Our own treatment of Native Americans and Cortez's actions in Mexico as described in "The Conquest of New Spain" by Bernal Diaz are further examples of Christians acting like barbarians.

Of course, no diatribe on this site would be complete without mentioning our own beloved Christians in what used to be a government separated from the Church. When hypocrites start chiming in on moral values it is time to run for cover. Except, there is no place to run.

Friday Crab blogging

1938 - The Anschluss

Hitler absorbed Austria into the Third Reich. He apparently had some help:

"There is a higher ordering, and we are all nothing else than its agents. When on 9 March, Herr Schuschnigg broke his agreement, then, in that second, I felt that now the call of Providence had come to me. And that which then took place in three days was only conceivable as the fulfillment of the wish and will of Providence. I would now give thanks to Him who let me return to my homeland in order that I might now lead it into the German Reich! Tomorrow may every German recognize the hour and measure its import and bow in humility before the Almighty, who in a few weeks has wrought a miracle upon us."

As quoted in "Kingdom of Shadows" by Allen Furst.

Let me extract:

There is a higher ordering, and we are all nothing else than its agents.
I felt that now the call of Providence had come to me.
...only conceivable as the fulfillment of the wish and will of Providence.
I would now give thanks to Him...
...bow in humility before the Almighty, who in a few weeks has wrought a miracle upon us.

Doesn't this sound like someone you've heard recently?

I am sorry, I find this beyond scary.

I wonder if I could still get back in Ireland.

Kwashiorkor

Yanking the Tube in Iraq

(no pun intended)

Iraq war is blamed for starvation

Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Thursday March 31, 2005
The Guardian

Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children aged under five nearly doubled last year because of chaos caused by the US-led occupation, a United Nations expert said yesterday.
Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food, said more than a quarter of Iraqi children do not have enough to eat and 7.7% are acutely malnourished - a jump from 4% recorded in the immediate aftermath of the US-led invasion (emphais added) .......

Prof Ziegler based some of his analysis on a US study in October 2004 which estimated that up to 100,000 extra Iraqis, mostly women and children, had died since the invasion than would have been expected to before the war.

"Most died as a result of the violence, but many others died as a result of the increasingly difficult living conditions, reflected in increasing child mortality levels," he said.

Population:
24,001,816 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 41.1% (male 5,003,755; female 4,849,238)
15-64 years: 55.9% (male 6,794,265; female 6,624,662)
65 years and over: 3% (male 341,520; female 388,376) (2002 est.)

Let me get out my calculator again (hope numbers don't stun you):
Total population 0-14 years: 9,852,000; under five say 3,200,000

7.7% of this is: 250,000 children who are experiencing severe malnutrition.

Severe malnutrition can lead to death. Severe malnutrition frequently does lead to death (or permanent neurologic damage). Severe malnutrition is a painful way to die for a sentinent being.

To paraphrase Stalin, one death in Florida is a comedy; 250,000 children dying in Iraq is a statistic.

Bobby and Kids

The Gov is at it again. According to our local rag, The Star Democrat:

The future of Maryland's 12 regional child resource centers,..., is up in the air as state funding could be cut by $2 Million. ...
The 12 resource centers serve as the hub for child care services in different regions of Maryland...
Statewide funding was $3.8 Million a year in the past two years. Gov. Robert Ehrlich proposed $1.8 Million for fiscal year 2006...
...Ehrlich has proposed the resouces centers be switched from the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Resources to the Department of Education. Macsherry said services that go to young children are not social services or welfare services, but educational services.

In the current economic climate, most households have both Mom and Dad working; sometimes at two jobs. This is just to keep even. Agreed, we could live without a lot of "stuff" that we accumulate. But, if we did that, then the economy would really tank.

One of the things families need, then, is good day care. They frequently can't get it. Really good day care is over $100 a week. If you're working minimum wage, and the federal minimum wage for covered, nonexempt employees is $5.15 per hour, that means, hummm, subtract six and carry... alright, 19.4 hours to pay for day care for ONE child. If you have two children, 38.8 hours. That leaves 1.2 hours of salary, or $6.18 for food, transportation, housing, clothing, entertainment, and, ta ta, taxes!

While not day care itself, these resource centers make sure that the quality of those out there conforms to some kind of basic standard. In other words, they perform an important task.

One other thing, who out there thinks that day care is education? You can see where Ehrlich is going here. By doing that, he throws it back to the counties and the School Board. That saves more money for Bobby so he can pay off his fat cat supporters.

You wonder why we're going to hell in a hand basket.

Sent in by an alert reader

The Next Big Thing

I have contended for a long time that the next big crisis in the World will be the detonation of a nuclear weapon. It is inconceivable to me that States such as Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and probably Iran would practice restraint if those in power were threatened with oblivion. And for a small State, oblivion for its leaders threatens all the time. Why would they practice restraint? If Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapon, he would have used it. What did he have to lose?

With these thoughts in mind, a correspondent referred me to this quote by General Mirza Aslam Beg - former Pakistan Chief of Army Staff:

"If India and Pakistan want to dissuade Iran from going nuclear, then "out-sourcing a nuclear strike" becomes essential. Iran has the missiles, which can reach Israel. Iran fears nuclear capable Israel, and by outsourcing our nuclear strike to Iran, a credible nuclear deterrence will be established in the Gulf Region, the West and South Asia."

These are heady words. Many of us remember the clock that the Union of Concerned Scientists used to have during the Cold War with the hands closer and closer to midnight. It wasn't the approach of the Rapture that they were warning of, but a non biblical Armageddon. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon and lets loose on Israel, this might happen pretty close to the actual valley (or mountain, I can never remember). On the other hand, the Israelites might not be very happy about the outcome since according to our 21st Century Evangelists:

Apocalypse, Armageddon, and End Times are popular terms for what is thought to be the End Of The World. Not so. True, most of mankind will be destroyed. The Bible tells that two-thirds of God's chosen people, the House of Israel, and about 90% of the Gentiles will perish. The best of times will follow the worst of times. The end of the world is after, and not before, the Millennium.

I remember back in high school, there was some kind of prophet that predicted the world was going to end on Thursday. We were pretty worried. Thurday came and went with no problem.

I think there is a lot more possibility of a nuclear nasty this time around.

A final thought, doesn't it stike you as peculiar that Bush is outsourcing jobs to India and Pakistan is outsourcing nuclear weapons to Iran?

BobbyGate Redux

Oh, it is heating up. The WaPo weighs in with an editorial, no less. Tidbits include:

AS HUNDREDS of pieces of legislation head into the crucial home stretch of the Maryland General Assembly's 2005 session, one might think Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) would be busy fighting for bills he likes and against those he doesn't. Instead, he is engaged in scandal damage control. That's the impression the governor gave when he suggested to reporters that he is the victim, first, of an "orchestrated" Democratic campaign to leak embarrassing material about his Republican administration, and, second, of a former aide who he says tried to "blackmail" him. His extraordinary remarks reinforced the impression of an administration that veers from one bizarre gambit to the next, without much attention to the major debates facing the state.

We described below how one of the whistle blowers on Ehrlich, Nurse Lane, felt that Ehrlich was engaged in a "whisper campaign" to get her fired from her present job in retaliation.

(Nurse Lane) tried without evident success to highlight problems in the state's foster care system

She threatened to let loose if he didn't let up. But, the plot thickens:

The governor's implication that Ms. Lane was part of a Democratic plot to leak embarrassing revelations about Mr. Steffen is strange; for one thing, she is a Republican who worked for Mr. Ehrlich both before and after he was elected governor.

As the WaPo points out, this was the same Gov who stood in front of the Legislature on opening day and castigated them for doing the Rodney Dangerfield to him. Just who is dissing who these days?

As the Chinese curse says, "May you live in Interesting Times."

Ah, so.

Up, Down, Sideways, Back again

I'm sorry, there is just nothing in the current political landscape that is what it says it is. Why, Alice in Wonderland was a frigging Reality Show compared to this:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has helped lead a congressional effort to keep Terri Schiavo alive, joined members of his own family nearly 17 years ago in allowing doctors not to take extraordinary measures to extend his father's life, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Badr Bader Bad

From here via Juan Cole:

Guerrillas killed 16 persons in Iraq on Sunday, including three members of the Badr Corps in a drive-by shooting at Baquba. The Badr Corps is the paramilitary of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a Shiite party that is one of two big winners in the recent parliamentary elections. Badr itself ran on the United Iraqi Alliance slate as a political party, the Badr Organization.

I wondered if the Badr Corps is related to the Bader-Meinhof gang? I Googled "Bader-Meinhof Gang" but couldn't get a good definition; just passing referrals such as:

The Marxist Bader Meinhof gang was terrorizing West German society in the 70's, and the right-wing law and order forces were cracking down hard on that gang and those considered sympathetic to them.

How can such prominence disappear so easily from History?

Sic Tempus Fugit

DickyGate

Any news is good news in the modern media. People forget that someone is a mass murderer and would probably go to his franchised restaurant if they thought they could meet Jeffrey Dahmer (they might not eat there). With this in mind, the Maryland Republicans threw a sacrifical lamb onto the pyre trying to distract the press from BobbyGate. Our local State Senator (Dorchester County), Richard Colburn was outed by a former employee. Academically outed that is. Although Dicky Colburn is of a ripe old age, he still was trying to get a degree at a local college, for "personal enrichment." (I won"t delve into the irony of a politician trying to personally enrich themselves.)

This aide-de-camp has now come forward and confessed that he wrote Dicky's term papers for him. This included five for a sociology course (maybe Dicky was doing a case study in the abuse of power).

Dukes, 36, said he felt obligated to complete the papers to keep his job.

He also seemed to be indentured to the old codger:

Dukes said Colburn also asked him to do personal tasks such as help arrange the resale of the senator's Orioles season tickets and help move furniture in his home.

Dicky withdrew from the college, but has denied all. Denied all, I say.

Stay tuned.

Fallout, Backspin and the Strangeness of History

Who would have ever believed that Terri Schiavo would have become the fulcrum around which swung an entire country. If the Beatles claimed to be more famous than Jesus, surely this woman will glean at least a footnote when the annals are written (or blogged). Billmon got me to thinking this morning. He refers to Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle" which was written in 1936, and Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia," which was written after the end of the Spanish Civil War (actually, it was published in 1952 after his death.) Both involved Communists, and, in both the Communists were the nasty players. Not because of what they believed in (and both Orwell and Steinbeck sympathized with the goals of their characters) but with their methods. While Steinbeck's is set in the US and involves machinations of a Communist organizer against the goons of corporate America (hard to pick a winner there), Orwell was describing the effect of blowback from the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union on the Communist factions in Spain. A particular gruesome experience, if I remember the book. (Allen Furst describes it as well in "Night Soldiers" ).

The point here is that History is written not by the victors, but by the survivors. Spain continued under the victors of the Spanish Civil War, the Falangists, until the death of Franco in 1975. Until that time, the Spanish people, I assume, labored under the Falangist's history of the Civil War. One can imagine how that was described. (For an interesting historical experience, go to this page and see how many of the links are no longer functioning. Is this not like what Winston Smith did in Orwell's 1984 (I had originally written George Winston)? By erasing links we may be changing History. Of course the blogs do not have the same "reality" as a written book, or oral history. Or do they?) However, even during the 1960's when my classmate was reading "Homage to Catalonia" (he was a liberal when we were all J. Edgar Hoover anti-communists), the real history of that civil War was known. Of course it was history that was interesting to us, maybe not the Spanish people. Maybe both sides exist now.

But back to this unfortunate drama in and out of a hospice in Florida. By seizing on this for political gain, a number of actors may find that they have rechanneled the flow of History into areas that they didn't really want to see watered (c.f. the Milagro Beanfield War, now that we are talking of Wars). In particular, it is quite possible that many Americans will begin to wake up and see just how disastrous this right wing juggernaut could be to their lives and livlihood. If the polls are any indication, George Bush is in deep trouble. And those poll numbers tanked when his chicanery in the Schaivo story became obvious. (As did the poll numbers of Congress, but then, as Mark Twain said, "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.").

The point here is that we have no idea how History will write itself. And trying to alter History by killing off the players, as Stalin did such a great job of in the 1930's, eventually comes out in the wash. Is it possible that there was one Russian in the early 1950's who could have imagined that Stalin would someday be known mainly as a butcher? He and Hitler and Mao were the sun that never sets whilst they were alive.

Is the country finally coming to its senses via the unusual situation of a dying woman? If it does, she should become one of our civil Saints. But for sure, we have absolutely no way of knowing how History will be written. On either side of the divide. I have said this before, no novelist could have concocted the drama that is playing out. The editor would have told them that the plot was just unbelievable. History has its zingers. Our day and age provides an abundance. Who would have known that Paul Wolfowitz wanted the job at the World Bank so he could be getting a little nookie.

The Nurse, The Clone and the Prince of Darkness

BobbyGate

You have to love Maryland. Not only do we have crabs, we have a crabby Gov, Bobby Ehrlich. (A friend of mine rates his totalitarian tendencies by how far up his sideburns go. At the moment, they are near the top of his ear. He hasn’t got much room to go.) Bob is involved in a scandal. From the State that brought you Spiro Agnew and Marvin Mandel, we now have BobbyGate. I will try and recapitulate this juicy tale, if I can.

First of all, we had a dramatic show and tell by Martin O’Malley, the mayor of Baltimore on 10 February:

“For months now "it" has hovered in the shadows of Baltimore politics, emerging occasionally on partisan radio shows or in questioning calls from constituents, a frustratingly persistent annoyance for supporters of Mayor Martin O'Malley and his staff.

Until yesterday morning, when the mayor, standing in front of City Hall before rows of reporters and some of those staff, finally denounced "it," the longstanding rumors that he had been unfaithful to his wife………..

The news had broken that a campaign operative of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. resigned his state job yesterday after admitting he had posted the rumors about O'Malley's marriage on a conservative Web site.”

This guy is named Joseph Steffen and , though denied by our Gov, was a close ally (see picture above). His major job was to slice out state employees who didn’t buss the behind of the Gov:

“A month and a half ago, one of Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s employees, nominally appointed to be the spokesman for the Maryland Insurance Administration, resigned after the discovery that he had been propagating rumors about the state of the marriage of Mayor Martin O’Malley, the front-runner in the race to unseat Ehrlich in the 2006 election. Joseph Steffen, who claimed that no lesser a personage than the governor himself dubbed him the “Prince Of Darkness,” moved seamlessly through the offices of state government, leaving behind a trail of pink slips.

Steffen was one of Ehrlich’s original political hires, having worked for the governor back when Ehrlich was one of the bright-eyed boys of Newt Gingrich’s so-called “Republican revolution” in 1994, when the GOP took control of the House of Representatives back from the Democrats for the first time in 40 years. This would make Steffen one of a very small number of people who know Ehrlich well, and vice versa. That Steffen e-mailed the governor’s wife for advice and counsel should he get into trouble is not that hard to conceive.”

This guy Steffen is reminiscent of the unsavory types that Richard Nixon employed to do his nasty work (and who wound up in jail). (Unfortunately, they are like vampires and seem to be able to come back from the dead, c.f. G. Gordon Liddy who is now a right wing code talker.)

The plot thickens and thickens. Now we have a nurse who was, at one time, the executive planning director at the Department of Human Resources, who who was fired in June, probably because she rocked the boat, coming forward with unsavory eMail’s from this slimy guy.

Lane wrote the governor that she would release more damaging messages between her and Steffen - the first few were the "tip of the iceberg," she said - if the governor and his staff did not stop trying to implicate her in how the Steffen story wound up in The Washington Post and later in other news outlets. She said she was the subject of a "whisper campaign."

Ehrlich doesn’t cut himself any breaks. He stonewalls and accuses people, like Lane, of blackmail. Just like Richard Nixon. I wonder if the Republicans are against stem cell research because they have already cloned Tricky Dick?

Molly Ivins frequently talks about the politics in Texas. I know that Tom Delay is from Texas, but I think that we have all the fixin’s for a big broughaha right here in Bay City.

Stay Tuned.

What would Jesus say?

Friday Crab Blogging

Bolton and the Bloggers

There is a strange assymetry when it comes to politics. On the one hand we can have John Bolton engage in tacky hijinks:

In 1995-96 Bolton served as president of the National Policy Forum (NPF), which, according to a congressional investigation, functioned as an intermediary organization to funnel foreign and corporate money to Republicans....

When John Bolton became NPF president in 1995, the forum began organizing “megaconferences” as a hook to raise money for the party. These conferences brought together Republican members of congress, lobbyists, and corporate executives to discuss matters that were frequently the object of pending legislation. An NPF memo laid out the funding strategy: “NPF will continue to recruit new donors through conference sponsorships. ... In order for the conferences to take place, they must pay for themselves or turn a profit. Industry and association leaders will be recruited to participate and sponsor those forums, starting at $25,000.”

This is so obviously against the spirit of the campaign finance laws as to be laughable. These are the same clowns who want to make sure that bloggers can no longer post freely on political issues:

The End of the Internets
I do think there are ways that some campaign finance law provisions can be reasonably extended to the internet, but what they're talking about now would essentially put an end to all political speech on the internet, with the exception of "established" media organizations.

You know, eventually the worm turns. Eventually all of this Bush, Negroponte, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz nightmare will be a thing of the past. The problem, as I see it, is what kind of country is going to come out the other end of the tube, and whether the change will be a revolution.

We are about due for a breakthrough scientific discovery. No one can predict what this will be anymore than someone in 1900 could have predicted antibiotics, atomic weapons or space travel (there were some glimmerings in the writings of Verne and Huxley). I guess I could imagine a breakthrough in fusion research or gravity.

What if any country, using some technology we can't imagine, could challange the United States and its hedgemony? In addition to chaos, we would be in for a bad time. Many people out there cannot forgive us for our arrogance. Its not just Al Qaeda that has it in for us.

And Bolton continues to throw things in the international face. He dislikes the UN, the International Criminal Court, and all the treaties that have produced so much of the real progress that our planet has made.

I think we are in for a few hard years.

I say, could the answer be horse sock?

Sent in by S. from guess where

Who said politics wasn't theatre

Firstly, I feel a little sad about Terri Schiavo, but not much. As best one can tell, she's not feeling any pain or saddness.

Now the good part. The publicity and actions that this broughaha have excited will make it much easier for those of us who need government action on other, more complex cases.

Let me explain. A child who has a profound encephalopathy is being kept at home but only with the help of a part time nurse. If the nurse is not provided, then the child will have to be placed in an institution. This is the underlying justification for the nurse. This works for the family. It may work for the child at some level. Along comes a governor who wants to "save money." He cuts the funds that supply the nurse and the child winds up in an institution where his life span is very short. Probably weeks. (If there is even an institution that is available).

Now, at least, if we want to make an argument for some medically useful modality in these cases we can use Tom Delay as precedent.

Smile.

The Herd

Albania,
Armenia,
Australia,
Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria,
Czech Republic,
Denmark,
El Salvador,
Estonia,
Georgia,
Italy,
Japan,
Kazakhstan,
South Korea,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Macedonia,
Moldova,
Mongolia,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Poland,
Portugal,
Romania,
Slovakia,
United Kingdom,
United States,
Ukraine, and the
Kingdom of Tonga.
Fiji is also present but under the United Nations banner.

Leaving the Herd
Poland,
the Netherlands,
Bulgaria and
Ukraine
have announced plans to withdraw.

Candide Camera

The New Yorker for March 7 has an interesting piece on Voltaire, sort of an 18th century Abbey Hoffman*:

"Enligntened times will only enlighten a small number of honest men," he wrote. "The common people will always be fanatical." He coined his most famous phrase, Ecrasez l'infame-"Crush the Horror"...
The horror was the alliance of religious fanaticism with the instruments of the state, and the two combined for torture and official murder.

Sound familiar?

*Abbey Hoffman said something you couldn't get away with today in a New York Microsecond:

"Avoid all needle drugs. The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon."

Oh, Oh! Get the Lawyers

From Nur al-Cubicle we get the following:

The Hague. Dutch national on trial for complicity in genocide. Frans Van Anraat is accused of complicity in genocide for the sale of chemicals necessary for poison gas to Saddam Hussein. Van Anraat, a 62 year-old businessman, was arrested 7 December 2004 in Holland as he attempted to leave the country. His lawyers say he worked for AIVD, Dutch Intelligence. In addition to the gassing of 5,000 Kurds in Halabja, he is held responsible for the gassing of the Iranian city of Sardasht in 1987 and 1988. Dozens of Iraqi, Turkish and Iranian Kurds were present in the courtroom. The prosecution demands $10,000 euro indemnity payable to three survivors who were also present. The trial itself will begin in November 2005. Van Anraat testified that he did not know the use for which the chemicals were destined.

This means that Donald Rumsfeld and Bush I can be tried for genocide since there is absolutely no doubt that they were both privy to this same gassing.

Interesting.

She also finds:
Rumsfeld says number of US troops in Iraq may be gradually reduced, but will be again increased during the Iraqi elections in the fall.

The guy is a Major League switch hitter. Amazing.

Vee vill bomb them to Smithereens....

Just When You Started to Get Some Sleep

Pakistan Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable Missile

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan Saturday successfully test-fired a long-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile, the latest in a series of tests in one of the world's flashpoints.
"Today, we carried out a successful test-firing of the indigenously developed Shaheen II missile," a military official told Reuters.
The missile could travel up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and carry all kinds of warheads, he said.

Rice: N. Korea Must Stop Stalling on Nukes

SEOUL, South Korea - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said an international coalition remains committed to negotiating an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but warned Saturday that North Korea cannot stall forever. (emphasis added)

Remember when Kinda Sleazy said this?

To those who say, we want more evidence that there's a real threat, the Administration says, we can't wait for a smoking gun to turn up. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said on CNN's Late Edition recently.

Nuclear Bunker Busters, Mini-Nukes, and the US Nuclear Stockpile

Congress is currently considering legislation that would authorize the US nuclear weapons laboratories to study new types of nuclear weapons: Earth-penetrating nuclear bunker busters designed to destroy hardened and deeply buried targets, and agent-defeat warheads intended to sterilize stockpiles of chemical or biological agents. In addition, the Bush administration has requested that Congress repeal a 1994 law, banning research that could lead to development of mini-nukes, low-yield nuclear warheads containing less than the power equivalent of a 5-kiloton chemical explosion, one-third that of the Hiroshima bomb. (emphasis added)

I don't know about you all, but I'm a firm believer in confluence of events.

Yes, You read it right:

Apparently the clear view of history is opening up the IraqGate (yes, that is IRAQGATE):

...former CIA officer Melissa Boyle Mahle, a Middle East expert, stated flatly in her new book, Denial and Deception, that in the mid-1980s, “the United States was already deeply involved in providing weapons and other military support to Iraq.”

You know, Josh Marshall was right, it is "up is downism." This arming of Iraq, along with Iran-Contra, was the work of Saint Reagan along with the vice-Saint, Daddy Bush. When will we wake up?

Friday Crab Blogging

Coalition of the Will.... - Oops

In the Senate:

...rebellious moderate Republicans joined Democrats in voting 52-48 to eliminate all $14 billion in Medicaid savings that chamber's budget had proposed. Senators also voted to roll back Bush's plans to cut billions of dollars from education, community development, water projects and other programs.

Kudos-

Ultimately, seven Republicans -- Smith, Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.), Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minn.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), and Arlen Specter (Pa.) -- joined all 45 Senate Democrats to block the Medicaid cuts.

Oops-

Unexpectedly, the Senate voted to almost double the budget's tax cuts to $134 billion over the next five years. That is even more than Bush and the more conservative House have sought.

Horsefeathers, thought we won one.

The Big Bloggers

The Big Bloggers are all atwitter today about the difference between Democrat and Republican “framing.” [I confess to a certain fondness to the term “Big Bloggers.” It is sort of 1957ish and makes me think of Buddy Holly and the Night the Music Died.]

For openers, there is Digby. He writes very well and is always a pleasure to read. But he is referred to by South Knox Bubba who, I think, does a great job of putting the situation in perspective. [I am also partial to Tennesseans, having a bit of the blood in me myself.]

In brief, we Democrats are getting the shit kicked out of us because Republicans are more disciplined. They stay on target and they have a simple (I'd say stupid) message. Over and over again Karl Rove trots out the same talking points. All one has to do is read the comments of the trolls on any liberal blog. They are all the same. Not a great showing of Betz Cells.

In any case, go read SKB. He thinks "we get it right every now and then" but I'm not so sure. The worm will eventually turn in our favor, but it won't be because of anything we do. That's what is so ironic about politics.

I haven't posted a lot recently because I'm working on a big project involving health care costs. I'll post it when I'm through.

Wants to take the top ten floors off the World Bank Building

Go to Jail; go directly to Jail; do NOT pass GO; and, for God's sake, do not collect $200

Images

Apparently Karen Hughes got tired of spending more time with her family and was called back as minister of propaganda:

Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world ...

She's going to have a tough time in Iraq. Here are some photos from a collection on the Web. Please notice the great respect we show people in the Muslim world. I didn't have the heart to print the captions on this photos.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

A Tale of Hubric Cities

From Geov Parrish for 10 March 1945:

During World War II, 300 U.S. B-29 bombers drop almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, Japan, destroying large portions of the Japanese capital and killing 100,000 civilians. Early in the morning, the B-29s dropped their bombs of napalm and magnesium incendiaries over the packed residential districts along the Sumida River in eastern Tokyo. The conflagration quickly engulfed Tokyo's wooden residential structures, and the subsequent firestorm replaced oxygen with lethal gases, superheated the atmosphere, and caused hurricane-like winds that blew a wall of fire across the city. The majority of the 100,000 dead perished from carbon monoxide poisoning and the sudden lack of oxygen, but others died horrible deaths within the firestorm, such as those who attempted to find protection in the Sumida River, and were boiled alive, or those who were trampled to death in the rush to escape the burning city.

The Sack of Rome 410 A.D.

The sack, although short-lived, had a profound effect on Rome. There was no food in the city, and a chaotic situation prevailed. The Roman slave economy had also finally collapsed, because almost any slave could afford freedom in the glutted and depressed slave market. Roman population numbers, already reduced since the departure of the government apparatus with Constantine ninety years earlier, again fell precipitously as droves of Romans quickly dispersed into the hills and countryside. Additional waves of barbarians, interspersed with outbreaks of plague and wars, ensured that Rome's population would not again meet its highest imperial peak until the 20th century.

Mr. Tamborine Man

My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,

And I am weary. I'm weary of War, and weary of all the lying. All I see stretching out ahead of my Country is more of the same. An endless War in Iraq, an hypocritical attack on Social Security, promises of cuts in Medicaid and other services for the poor, more accretion of money for the wealthy and stiff the middle and lower class, the insurance-pharmaceutical company juggernaut rolling over health care providers and patients, the environment in shambles, our foreign policy in shambles, and so many other screw-ups one can't begin to count them.

Many of us pledged ourselves to the Democratic Party in the last election. When Joe Biden votes for a credit card bill that benefits MBNA, we know what little difference the rank and file mean to the fat cats of both parties. Damn the proles; full speed ahead.

There is a story I heard recently that dates from WWII. Storm troopers are marching off a cliff because the command structure was so rigid they had to have a order to stop and that had gotten lost in the shuffle. The punch line was that the captain, who didn't have to march over the cliff, was still upset, because he didn't get a chance to say "goodby."

Sometimes I think that we are trapped in a long farewell.

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Friday Crab Blogging. Daddy crab, mommy cr..., you know

Delta's Credit Card

Oh, Oh. I wonder if Boy George is going to bail his friends out?

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation's third-largest airline, said Thursday it expects to report a "substantial" loss this year and warned it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if its financial situation worsens. Its shares tumbled 9 percent.

I bet that they declare before the new bill goes into effect. I also bet that the executives get their bonuses this year.

Bobby Ehrlich

Well, in addition to screwing over the medical malpractice bill, our dear gov isn't doing so well in other areas:

At the mid-point of his term in office, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters gives Governor Robert Ehrlich an overall grade of D+ for his environmental actions to date.

Why does this not surprise me? He gets an F for "transportation." The infrastructure in our State is crumbling. The roads around here after a bad winter are full of potholes. We have traffic jams in a town of 8,000.

By the way, Maryland's corporate tax structure is such that a number of large companies don't pay any tax at all. I'll post on this later. Of course, they could always go to Delaware (Joe Biden Land) where MNBA Credit Cards are going to abolish the lower class. (They'll all die of starvation.)

That's Ken Lay in the front

The Maryland Scam

So, instead of implementing the famous Medical Malpractice Savior Bill that we had to have a special session of the legislature to pass (in the week after Christmas 2004) and a veto by Bobby Ehrlich and an override by the leg, we now have to have an "implementation" bill before we get some financial relief.

I'm holding my breath.

But wait! There's more. Much ballyhooed in this legislation was an increase in Medicaid payments to physicians. I was all in favor of this until I realized who the physicians were.

Here's the language:
16 (ii) in fiscal year 2006:
17 1. $40,700,000 to the Rate Stabilization Account to subsidize
18 agreements for calendar year 2005; and
19 2. $39,300,000 to the Medical Assistance Program Account;

Well, who are the physicians in the Medical Assistance Program?
It includes obstetricians. This is o.k. In fact, this is great because they are experiencing the brunt of the malpractice crisis.

But, according to the "implementation" bill now before the legislature in Annapolis, the only other specialties that are going to get a payment boost are:
Orthopedic Surgeons
Neurosurgeons
Emergency Medicine Physicians

The reason for this is that Orthopedic and Neurosurgeons won't take Medicaid patients because the reimbursement is so poor. In our area there is a monopoly of orthopedic surgeons and they can stonewall on Medicaid. (For a while, we had to send kids 50-60 miles away just to get a fracture set. This is not a good thing when I can spit out my door and hit the local orthopedic office.)

And orthopedic surgeons are very well compensated. One estimate of their annual salary is $354,495. This may be five times what a pediatrician or family practice doc makes.

But family practice and peds aren't going to get any relief because orthopedic surgeons are starving to death. Give me a break.

I am sorry, but "fixes" like this drive many of us up the wall. It used to be fun to practice medicine. It is rapidly becoming a job few people want (unless, of course, you are an orthopedic surgeon).

Everybody wants quality medical care. Pretty soon, only George Bush and Co. will be able to afford it.

My Utility Bills; The Bush Revolution

The Hardline

Stirling Newberry gives us our marching orders:

What is the hardline?

The Republicans are always wrong, even if they are worried about the right thing. The Republicans have a perfect track record of being wrong. Remember all the jobs Bush predicted from the revenue reductions? Remember how global warming wasn't happening? Remember flowers in Iraq? The Republicans have only been right about one thing: how to borrow a lot of money and throw it at states they need to carry in elections.

Everything is the Republicans fault. The only crisis is that the Republicans are in charge. There are no other problems. Period.

It's that simple. The Republicans are wrong, and the Republicans are the problem. There is nothing wrong with this country we can't fix with our hands.

Alright, first fire all the consultants (including my old classmate Bob Shrum). Go for the jugular in the next election. Hammer away on jobs, the rich, and Alan Greenspan. Yes, Alan Greenspan, the world's greatest phoney.

What are the prospects the Dems will do this? I don't know. I want Howard Dean to comment on this hardline. I want him to say, "Yes. We finally got it."

From the Man who brought you WMD

Juan Cole reports:

In a development that many observers considered a surprise, it was announced Friday that Ahmad Chalabi, Shiite secularist and head of the Iraqi National Congress, met a few days ago with members of the Association of Muslim Scholars, who had boycotted the political process. He discussed with them "The possibility of beginning the stage of dialogue among those who desire to fight the Occupation." Chalabi said, "We had several meetings with the rebels, and there is a real desire to work and coordinate in order to end the foreign presence in Iraq, which will convince them that there is no necessity to fight." (emphasis added)

There is no novelist out there that could construct a story along the lines of Ahmad Chalabi's career and sell the book. It is just too unbelievable. This is a man who sat behind Laura Bush at the State of the Union address. Isn't a statement like this akin to treason? I thought Bush borrowed from The Boss: "No retreat, no surrender." (and no negotiations)

Ken

Yellow Robes, Once Again

As picked up by Pharyngula:

Amnesty International, the international human rights organization, noted that the Bush administration has turned over prisoners arrested in the battle against terrorism to the same countries it cites in the report for torturing prisoners.

As I have said, torture degrads us to the level of terrorists and we become the very people we despise.

Not Ken

Friday Crab Blogging

Back in the Shire (click for link)

It is less of a stretch to envision a population of Homo erectus evolving into the Hobbits. After all, its brain has the strongest overall resemblance to that of Homo floresiensis. And Homo erectus have been in southeast Asia for at least 1.8 million years. Perhaps a few Homo erectus individuals were swept onto Flores hundreds of thousands of years ago and gradually evolved smaller brains.

Blimey, Gandalf, the little buggers are everywhere. Hide the textbooks.

A Maryland Perspective

George W. Bush wants to cut $60 Billion from Medicaid. This will amount to $623 Million that does not go to the the State of Maryland over 10 years.
$62 Million a year

Currently, the Cost of War calculator is set to reach $152 billion at the end of January 2005 and continue to advance at $6 billion per month..... The amount is based on the National Priorities Project analysis of what Congress has allocated for the Iraq War. $72,000 Million a year. Maryland has 1.9% of the population so this is:
$2,500 Million a year from Maryland for the War

Medical Mutual, the company that insures most of the physicians in Maryland, reports that:
In 2002, the total annual amount paid by MEDICAL MUTUAL on claims, including paid defense costs, was $56 million. This number soared to $93.2 million in 2003.
$56-93 Million

Let's see, let me get out my calculator:
The cost of the War That Will Never End is about 40 times the amount that docs pay out for malpractice claims which is equal to what Bush is going to cut from Medicaid.

Damn.

For those you you who are not following Maryland politics, the governor called a special session of the Legislature to deal with the malpractice crisis in the week after Christmas. After finally hammering out a bill, the governor, Bob Ehrlich, vetoed it. The veto was overridden but, to date, they haven't changed a thing. (I just got my malpractice insurance bill and it is exactly the same as the one I got in December.)

The Lawsuit Against Donald Rumsfeld

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody, the ACLU and Human Rights First charged in the first federal court lawsuit to name a top U.S. official in the ongoing torture scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan that has tarnished America's reputation.

Let me once again state my unequivocal opposition to torture in any form. Torture does not extract useful information. Torture does more to harm the perpetrators. Torture is morally wrong. By adopting torture as an accepted practice, the United States has placed itself in the company of moral giants stretching from Pharoah's Egypt to Nazi Germany to the Khmer Rouge.

It is likely that some "information" used by George Bush and Colin Powell to assert that Iraq had WMD was extracted by torture from prisoners in Afghanistan and Cuba.

No matter what a human being has done to you, you are not justified to torture that person. This is, to me, part of being civilized. When one sinks to the same level as a terrorist, then one becomes a terrorist.

I feel the same way about the death penalty.

There is a cancer in our polity. It is deep and abiding. The only question is whether the means to remove and cure it might not lead to the death of the patient. Us.

Sez it All

Jesus, D-Nazareth


Thanks to http://eruditeredneck.blogspot.com/

Dinner Time!

Of the Needy, by the Seedy, for the Greedy

There is nothing that points up the tragedy that is infecting our Country more than the current ballet (cancel that, substitute "slam dance") in our Capitol over "SS" (here you can substitute whatever you want for SS: Social Security, Smoke Screen, Same ole S---, whatever.) I prefer Smoke Screen. Josh Marshall has taken the lead online in reporting the Social Security fiasco.

While the AARP has come under laughably vile attack for resisting Georgie Boy's illogical rhetoric on privatizing Social Security, there is actually a much more vulnerable group that is under attack from the flank. These smelly vultures are going right after the throat of our most innocent population, children. Let me see if I can demonstrate that for you.

George Bush wants to "save" $60 Billion by cutting Medicaid. Get this straight, he wants to cut money from a program that is designed to help the old, the disabled and, most of all, children.

WASHINGTON Feb 28, 2005 President Bush promised on Monday to work with governors to restrain soaring Medicaid costs and revamp the health care program for the poor, but he also indicated he would keep trying to eliminate some federal aid. (emphasis added)

At the risk of boring you, let me briefly review some facts about Medicaid in the US and Maryland:

Medicaid is a very large program. I now quote from and Analysis from the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute:

Medicaid is a safety net program that provides health care services for certain low-income individuals. Approximately one in ten Marylanders receive their health care through this program.

Federal law requires that state Medicaid programs serve poor children (and parents if they qualify), pregnant women, and low income individuals who are aged, blind, or have a severe disability. More than 80 percent of the state's Medicaid spending provides health care for these groups.

The program also provides for a lot of nursing home care.

I know you hate statistics, but you have to go through these to see the perfidy.

FY2000 USA
Total Population- 281,421,906
Total Medicaid enrollment- 44,297,290
% Total Population- 15.7%
Enrollees through age 20- 24,187,576
% Population that age- 30.7%

Expenditures- $168,307,000,000

% Births paid for by Medicaid- 37.4%

Through age 5- 9,215,600
% Population that age- 40.3%

Infants <=1- 1,803,047
% Population that age- 47.5%

Enrollees >20- 20,109,714
Population >20- 202,635,013
% Population >20- 9.9%
-------------------------------------
Enrollees through age 20- 24,187,576
% Total Medicaid enrollment- 54.6%
% Total Expenditures- 22.9%
Per Enrollee Payment- $1,590

Enrollees >20- 45.2%
% Total Expenditures- 73.2%
Per Enrollee Payment- $6,153

Enrollees >64- 11.2%
% Total Expenditures- 29.6%
Per Enrollee Payment- $10,027

1. 16% of the population receives Medicaid. That's a disgrace. We are the richest Nation in the world and one out of every 6 of us is on the dole! Shame. And a lot of this is for the elderly; i.e. nursing home care. Not only does Bush want old people to starve by trashing Social Security, he wants to make them homeless.

But, wait a minute, maybe we are moving towards national insurance for the young and the old. I'd be for that. It works in Canada in spite of what your rich insurance company says.

2. Medicaid is clearly not a single program. There are two major chunks: children and not-children. Thus, while enrollees < 20 y.o. account for 54.6% of the total, they only account for 22.9% of the expenditures or ~$1,600 on average per year.

Compare this to the $10,027 for the over 64 y.o. enrollees that only account for 11.2% of all Medicaid receipients. The taxpayer is paying far more for nursing homes than it is for childhood healthcare. Lots more.

3. One out of three births are covered by Medicaid. That means that our young population is poor. Not a good omen.

4. 47% of children under the age of 1 y.o. are covered by Medicaid. Tell them Bush wants to cut them off from medical care. Go ahead, I dare you.

We have a President who doesn't blink at spending $200 Billion on a War That Has No End yet can't raise enough to provide health care for children.

I can guarantee that I am not happy about this. Why? Because implementing draconian cuts in Medicaid will be my responsibility. I will have to refuse to care for children who are sick because they can't pay.

Oh, my God, doctor. How can you do that?

Well, do you go into a grocery store and pick up a can of beanie weenies and not pay? What am I going to use to pay the rent (always going up), electricity (always going up like a rocket), phone, heat, salaries, vaccines, etc. etc. and etc. as Yul Brynner once said.

But, as I said, these are going to be "tough decisions" made in the legislature of the States and Congress and implemented on the backs of poor children. We're supposed to be impressed with governors like Ehrlich who make "tough decisions."

Finally, Medicaid has an overhead of 4%. United HealthCare has an overhead of 20-25%. Much of this goes to:

William W. McGuire
Chairman and CEO
United Health Group Inc.

In 2002, William W. McGuire raked in $37,888,157 in total compensation including stock option grants from United Health Group Inc..

And William W. McGuire has another $501,556,217 in unexercised stock options from previous years.

Sunday Hippo Blogging (just this once)

A Fable

Once upon a time there were two boys, we’ll call them Dickey and Georgie. Dickey was the smart one. Georgie was, well, challenged. Dickey had some friends, Rummy and Wolfie. Dickey, Rummy and Wolfie had a gang they called the Gang of Three. Georgie wanted to be in the gang but they said he was too dumb. Truth be told, he was. The Gang of Three used to meet in their club house. This was a little shack they built along the river that was sort of unusual in that, when they finally finished it, the shack had five sides. Go figure.

One day the Gang of Three stole a book from the Big House in the valley. This was a very old book that told everyone how they were supposed to behave. It was called The Constitution. At first the Gang of Three was very pleased with itself for having carried off such a daring adventure. But then, the reality began to hit them. There wasn’t anybody in the whole, wide world that would buy The Constitution. It was too hot.

Now Georgie really wanted to be in the Gang of Three, but Dickey, Rummy and Wolfie still thought he was too dumb. They hit on a brilliant idea. They would let Georgie in if he would find a buyer for The Constitution. But, since everyone in the Big House in the valley knew what was in The Constitution, and someone might discover that they were the thieves that stole it, they changed it. Yes sir, they got out their pencils and changed The Constitution. In any case, The New Constitution would be easier for Georgie to sell

And Georgie was delighted. He also made them change their name to The Gang of Four. And he already had a buyer for The Constitution (he didn’t know it was changed). But we all know who the buyer was, and what happened then, so we won’t go into it. It gets a little bloody.

And Dickey was delighted too, because that’s how The New Constitution was foisted on his own retard.

Friday Crab Blogging