Good Night, Lou

Lou Dobbs of CNN has shared dinnertime with me – via TV - for several years. I found him fearless in the face of presidential double speak on issues such as free trade, port security, and illegal immigration, but over the past months I’ve found myself disagreeing with him more and more on the question of immigration.

First, he took on the Catholic Church for preaching that Good Samaritans should continue to help the poor and others in need despite their immigration status which is unlawful under the bill that has passed the House of Representatives. And he has twisted Cardinal Mahoney’s (the Archbishop of Los Angeles) statements to the point that the prelate appeared to be advocating open borders with Mexico – something that I have never seen alleged elsewhere.

Now Mr. Dobbs is resurrecting Theodore Roosevelt to admonish all immigrants – past and present - for cultural and political support of their former homelands. The old TR canard of no hyphenated Americans may have had relevance a hundred years ago but it doesn't in today’s situation. For the last sixty years, we have encouraged national origin and ethnic pride without serious damage to our way of life. While I find the student demonstrations in Los Angeles disturbing with the featured waving of Mexican flags, youths must be given some leeway in expression – even if it is damaging to their own cause

While my own ties to Ireland are non-existent, it is with joy that I hoist a beer (or two or three)and shout `Erin go braugh’ on St. Patrick’s Day. My oath of `Ireland Forever’ is heartfelt but carries no intent of support for the Irish nation, government or people. With multi-ethnic friends with equal – or even greater – feelings toward Lithuania, Quebec, Japan, Lebanon, Scotland, Italy, Israel, and dozens of other lands and regions, I found myself forced to turn off the TV in the face of the nativism exhibited by Lou.

This is not to say that I’m comfortable with today’s situation. I’m convinced that we must seal our borders from illegal immigration, open ourselves up to much speedier inflow of legals, and to deal humanely with those illegals here now. I find the proposals by Senators McCain and Kennedy a reasonable starting point. But we must defend the borders more aggressively.

I am also fearful that we are in danger of becoming a `cleft nation’ as defined by Samuel P. Huntington in his book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. If Mr. Dobbs shares this concern that the states that were part of the old Spanish Empire are in danger of reverting in culture and loyalty to Mexico, he should state his fears directly and not lash out at illegal immigrants everywhere with code words.

As I had to admit in the case of President ____, I voted for him the first time and was inspired by his initial responses to 9/11. Only when he shifted his attention from al Qaeda and Afghanistan and shifted his focus to Iraq did I break with him - but I have a great deal more to argue with since the attack on Iraq. So it is with Dobbs, initially I found his evening broadcast to be very refreshing, but his nativistic embrace of the immigration issue has driven me away. Good night, Lou.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

We're On Our Way

Doesn’t it give you a warm fuzzy feeling that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked the Russian Foreign Minister to look into the accusation that the Ruskies had a mole in the U.S. Southern Command who relayed all of our tactics during the Shock and Awe period right into Saddam’s ear? Well that’s the way to the bottom of that nasty little story. And if Russia tattles on itself, good ol’ Vlad Putin will be sorry and ashamed.

It’s nice to know that the administration of President _____ _ ____ that prides itself on defending the nation is outraged by the possibility that Russia has amole in our midst. It would be awful to think that we’d take a penetration of the heart of our war machine lying down. Secretary Rice who’s four heartbeats from the presidency and is oft mentioned as a possible GOP candidate to succeed Mr. ____ certainly has me convinced of her passion to out that damn spot.

And thank goodness that President ____ heard the clamor and shook up the White House. Andy Card walked the plank for the team. He’s truly a decent sort and I wish him well. Sadly, he’s an innocent and thinks he’s going to be ____’s friend now that he’s no longer staff and is blowing bubbles for him. Andy doesn’t realize that just because ____ plays a regular guy on TV that at heart he’s still an elite snob from Connecticut and Yale and really doesn’t want to spend time at the barbie chawin’ dawgs an’ suckin’ Buds with poor boys from Holbrook, MA. He's just a tad more comfortable hangin' with the likes of those boys from Enron.

The big surprise was Andy’s replacement. Josh Bolten while an insider and, as Democrats are already chanting, the author of this year’s $350 billion deficit is apparently qualified for the job. Wild Bill was taking bets on Harriet Miers since she hasn’t been rewarded for playing a constitutional scholar on the long running soap opera, All My Cronies.

Remember, while everybody hates the Congress everyone loves their own rep, so keep in mind that we’re not just firing these Republican ____ brown nosers, we’re starting them on the fast track on K Street where they’ll really be able to feed at the trough.

Gotta go! I’m playing a nurse at home in hopes of getting a spot on the communications staff on `Cronies’. Me an’ Andy, dreamin’ large.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

And the answer is:

Who was George Mason? Nobody knew two weeks ago but now the word has spread across the land. I won’t bore you with stuff about the real guy; nobody cares that without George our constitutional system of government which is the envy of much of the world might be quite different. He’s the fellow who could not in good conscience support the great document because in it’s original state it failed to provide the protections he had championed all his adult life and which he authored as the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Based on his drive and work, the Bill of Rights came into being in the form we know it.

George Mason is now the answer to an even greater trivia question. The question is: what university was represented by the best college basketball team of all time? You scoff? The question wasn’t which was the greatest? Nor was it which had the most talented players? No, George Mason University’s basketball team which is headed for the final four in Indianapolis this week is simply the best team ever, far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not the tallest or close to the best by position. Each team that it faced in this improbable run through the NCAA tournament had faster, taller, more talented players, but none of them played with the precision team work, dedication, and heart of the Patriots.

Knocking off Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and UConn simply could not have happened, but it did. And now the conquerors of these high powered programs move on with a chance – still outside – of becoming national champions. This is a great tribute to the coach and players on this wonderful team, clearly the little engine that could.

Never heard of George Mason University? You have now and you will again. It’s the largest college in Virginia and it is gearing up to challenge the more senior members of the higher education clique in the Commonwealth. Most of you know of the great reputations of the College of William and Mary, The University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech, academic and research powerhouses all. But Mason that began as simply a branch of The University (of Virginia) didn’t become an independent school until the early 1970s.

Its professors have won two Nobel prizes and it has recruited several other Nobel laureates to the faculty. The president and governing board are committed to making it a major research university on a par with the University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech and other world class institutions, and as with the basketball team, don’t sell this engine's effort short

Disclaimer: in addition to being a neighbor to the school – it’s right up the road from me, I’m the proud Dad of a GMU Ph.D. in economics – one of the truly outstanding programs at the university.

Never heard of George Mason or his University? You won’t be able to say that again.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Hail and Farewell, President ____

I came up for air this morning. My little bit of contractual business on my new novel, Murphy’s War, is finished and my wife, champ that she is, came through her medical ordeal extremely well, if not without great discomfort. Still, I will be unable to write my daily dollop of medicine for the readers of this ethereal rag for another week or so. While I’m a hell of a novelist, I love being a polemicist and can’t wait to get back at this.

Let’s see, when last we passed in the night, the Republican coalition was fraying at the edges as the major member parties were turning on each other. President ____ was the subject of intra-party attacks and the GOP was doing its damnedest to forget ____ and to set itself up once again as the party ready defend us from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

In just those few short weeks much has changed. The knock down drag out fighting among Republicans has spread like a wildfire in a Santa Ana wind. No longer content with blaming the other major members of the cabal and denouncing President____, each segment is now acting like a gut shot hyena and is devouring its own intestines.

A major rift has appeared among the Neoconservatives with Francis Fukuyama – a major player and an initial supporter of the Iraq War – now saying the Neocons didn’t follow their own precepts and is in a war of words with folks like the Kristols and Charles Krauthammer. Goodness gracious, how these intellectual heavyweights can parse; they’re wonders to behold. No wonder that poor ____ bought into their sophistry.

The Christian right is splitting over issues as diverse as the war, global climate change, and immigration and many now find President ____ an untrustworthy person. Can you believe it?

But the bottom line is that the Republicans on the Hill must be fired. They bought into the ____ baloney and lashed the wimpy Democrats – at least the wimpiest of them - into going along with this war. I won’t bore you with there were no WMDs found and that Saddam had no connection with al Qaeda. Today’s New York Times (Monday, March 27, 2006) has an article describing a secret British memo detailing the prewar maneuverings of Prime Minister Tony Blair and President ______ ____. Reading it, there can be little doubt that the pre-invasion intelligence was being cooked in a super hot pre-heated oven.

Remember, the Republican coalition was waving the flags and beating the drums for this fiasco and they’ve got to be taken to the wood shed in November and again in 2008.

So just because they’ve forgotten their kow-towing and brown nosing of President ____, it doesn’t mean that we should. Remember, be strong, you’re not bringing your buddy home to Kansas you’re starting him on a new career on K Street.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

See You at the Chapter 11 Hearing

Ciao! I have to take leave. Contractual obligations relating to getting my new novel, Murphy’s War, into print will occupy me for the next few weeks. Shortly after that, non-life threatening medical problems impacting a dear one will place a call on my time and service, and I’m sure that any of you would respond in the same way.

All will be well during this short sabbatical. Since this electronic rag first appeared in August 2004, much has changed in the political landscape that impelled this railing against the present administration and its lackeys in the Republican controlled Congress. While pleased that well over 600 readers check in from time to time, I won’t claim credit for more than a smidgeon of that change. Obviously, most of you are like minded and tune in only as part of choir practice.

The height of my frustration was focused on President Bush’s Second Inaugural Address and the weeks that followed. I was extremely upset that he took his narrow margin of victory in the November 2004 election as a mandate for anything that he’d even mentioned during the campaign – and before. The course in Iraq would not be changed. The people had spoken on the need for a one hundred and eighty degree change in the Social Security system, etcetera, and etcetera. He had political capital and was intent on spending it.

Today, as the president meets daily with his bankruptcy lawyers concerning his Political Chapter 11 filing, and those of us whose hair was on fire in early 2005 relax and observe the leaders of the Executive and Legislative Branches and their ever loyal supporters feed on each others’ entrails, life is better. The Republicans in the House overwhelmingly stuck their tongues out at George over the ports deal while the pres lobbed grenades at those same hyenas on the Hill for failing to fully fund the levees in New Orleans.

My buddy John Merck could barely control his glee at the Dana Milbank article in yesterday’s Washington Post in which a one way food fight between conservatives at the Cato Institute and the absent George W. Bush slobbered on endlessly. Read it for yourselves, but please wear slickers and have many napkins at the ready:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701403.html?referrer=emailarticle

Let’s get real; George has been telling the American people that he’s the guy defending them against the terrorists all by his lonesome. In the meantime, his sycophantic Republican leaders on the Hill who thought he meant them too when he took his bows on national security found out differently when the ports deal hit the street and the public felt more than a little anxious. The party folks sought a little executive protection, but George responded with the usual, “Trust me; I’ve got it covered.” Not to dwell on his Chapter 11 brief, but for the first time the boys and girls from the red states rejected his credit application.

The president has faced us for last time, but a lot of those folks on the Hill don’t feel fully vested and a few of them are more than a little insecure over their prospects on K Street, especially if the government opens under new management, so they began to munch on George’s intestines and intimated that he’s not really looking out for us.

Back at the five sided funny farm across the river, Don Rumsfeld’s making a strong point on Iraq. The media has blown out of proportion the whole series of incidents since the dome was blown off of the Holy Mosque and things are not nearly as bad as CNN and the liberal press would have you believe. Now Don, the matinee idol of the Shock and Awe period, has suffered some credibility problems of his own since the president declared, “Mission Accomplished,” and this latest assertion puts us between a rock and hard place: who’re we gonna believe: Don or our own lyin’ eyes?

In any event, it’s time for me to sign off for about a month, but there’s more than enough to keep you entertained as the fat cats devour each other in the Washington Coliseum.

“Good night and good luck.”

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Impeach Bush - I think not

Readers of these musings are bombarding me with calls to blog for George Bush’s head. “Impeach Bush,” is becoming louder background noise as his poll numbers head for the range of sub zero frigidity. A number of my independent, moderate and libertarian friends indicate that they are facing this increasing buzz as well.

I hope that I’ve established my anti-Bush bona fides sufficiently that my readers do not think I’m going soft, but the president’s done nothing that I’m aware of to warrant impeachment.

Harold Meyerson took on the subject in a column in today’s Washington Post, and his well stated views go directly to the heart of why we can expect to watch George satirized by comics for another three years. He has committed no high crimes or misdemeanors. Here’s a link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701200.html?referrer=emailarticle

Failure, stupidity, lack of comity, rigidity, and looking at the world through rose colored glasses are not high crimes. Incompetence in policy execution is may be maladministration but it ain’t a misdemeanor. Looking like a deer in the headlights plays well on late night monologues and may be funny, even hilarious, but it’s constitutional. “No one could have anticipated…” may not be true and might even be a lie, but after a failure to convict his predecessor for telling whoppers while under oath leads me to conclude that there’s nothing there to call upon The Donald to bark, “You’re fired!” at our leader.

Even the disaster in Iraq, while a calamity for the nation, contains no seeds for changing horses in midstream. Favoring big business to the point of being tone deaf to the plight of poor Blacks in New Orleans or the nation’s seniors as they wend their ways through the ridiculously rococo regulations of Medicare, Part D, means nothing when it comes to bringing the president to the well of the House for an accounting.

I hate to say it (no I don’t) but the answer lies in rising up in the next two federal elections and throwing the bums out. Let’s make sure that my preaching – and that of thousands of others - for divided government becomes so ingrained in the electorate that, except in times of extraordinary national emergency like the Great Depression, we never again invest power over both chambers of congress and the White House to the same party at the same time.

The Republicans were corrupted by their power over the past five years just like their Democratic counterparts were in similar circumstances in the past.

There’s but one solution: make your poor congressman rich. Elect somebody else and send your favorite incumbent to riches beyond his dreams of avarice on K Street.

Oh, and a final tip to make you feel better two ways: buy stock in companies producing antacids! Why should your representative be the only one getting rich?

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Never Mind

While it won’t be confirmed until the species is extinct, there is a rampant rumor that Wild Bill, his readers, and all of the other homo-sapiens are going to die. This regrettable, unproven, yet persistent hypothesis has been circulating for some time, but journalists - health journalists - and the biomedical industry are working feverishly to put an end to the canard.

Wild Bill, like many well past the age of Medicare entitlement, has with the passage of time come to consider the possible impact of the axiom, much like the fabled condemned man climbing the gallows steps is thought to be able to focus on his short term prospects. Over the years, Bill, like so many Americans, has obsessed on how to postpone the need for such consideration to a more opportune time.

Bill jogged for years and now walks to the point of breathing like a sex obsessed teenager. He gets seven hours of sleep and stretches his aging connective tissue semi regularly. He supplements a halfway decent diet with multiple vitamins and a heavy dose of vitamin C, and… Well, you get the picture; Bill is doing his damnedest to make a liar of those who insist he’s mortal.

Among the health habits picked up over the years is an inability to ignore all of the health information in every newspaper and magazine that comes to his attention. For instance, each Tuesday, Bill reads the Health Section of the Washington Post line by line and article by article. In recent months, Bill’s natural skepticism of everything except longevity education has crept even into the area of vital statistics.

Can you imagine that low fat foods really don’t do much for your long term prospects? And after eating all that high priced cardboard for decades, can you believe it? Glucosamine, which has been working wonders on the aching joints of Bill’s life partner, turns out to be but a placebo. Running your buns off for twenty miles a week is now shown to be not a lot better for your heart than walking thirty minutes several days a week, and it’s a lot tougher on the knees. And on and on it goes.

But today’s Health Section in the Post put an end to all that obsessing. There is an article – rather a book review or analysis – that shows the way to live to be a hundred years old. It’s not the first such book and article to cover this ground, and there was nothing new in it, but it is the last such piece that will focus the mind of Bill.

The bottom line – really there are fifty bottom lines - for increasing the odds of surviving past the century mark includes: eating your veggies, fruits and nuts, stay away from eating too many cows – especially overweight ones, don’t you dare go back to the fridge for another cold one, and remember what happened to the Marlboro Man. With the exception of resisting return trips to the cooler, so far it’s not too onerous.

But then the going gets tough. Bill must move from one of the world’s nuclear bulls’ eyes, Washington, DC, stop his worrisome and aggravated blogging about the incompetence of George W. Bush, and move to a tranquil non-strategic Greek isle fishing village and take up dancing and martial arts.

Maybe all this all still works for you, but for Bill as Rosanne Rosanna Danna would say, “Never mind.”

Blog on!

Wild Bill

The Die is Cast

As the allies planned the invasion of Europe in the spring of 1944, the most important actor in the preparations was General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the West. After many discussions, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agreed that Ike was the man for the job.

The planning for the invasion was done over many months, and as June 1944 approached, preparations neared completion. Everything that could be conceived of by the minds of military strategists and logisticians was built into the process, and, as the days dwindled, Ike was satisfied that all that could be done had been completed.

In the days prior to the ideal tides for a landing in Normandy approached, foul weather intervened and the possibility arose that the entire invasion might have to be postponed for two weeks, a horrible prospect. But the boats and ships were loaded and the guns prepared. Allied soldiers took their places aboard ships in English harbors. Would the signal to attack come?

Eisenhower was the man who would decide. The best weather experts in the allied forces were consulted, and they suggested that it was possible that a minor break in the storm pounding the French coast might occur and that the winds and rain might abate sufficiently for the invasion to take place. The eyes of the staff, all of the subordinate commanders who would lead their units into battle, and all the naval and air support groups were focused on one man, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the most powerful man in the world at that moment.

After much deliberation and soul searching, Ike decided; the invasion of the European Continent would take place on the morning of June 6, 1944. The most crucial decision ever made by a commander in World War II had been made. In that instant, Eisenhower went from being the most powerful man in the world to an anxious bystander. It would be months before he would be called again to make earth shattering decisions.

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush assumed a similar position in world affairs as that of General Eisenhower in 1944. He ordered that plans for the invasion of Iraq to begin. He sought and received pledges of military aid from a coalition of nations.

The build up to the attack was no secret nor was there a paucity of advice, much of it public. The U.S. Army Chief of Staff testified before Congress that a force of a magnitude larger than being assembled would be required to satisfactorily occupy the country. Leaders of many nations protested the proposed war as morally wrong and legally suspect. A minority of Americans, but still a huge number, opposed the war for a wide variety of reasons. But the president sold most Americans, much of the media, and a majority of both Houses of Congress on the need to topple the Iraqi government.

At the moment of decision to invade Iraq, George W. Bush was the single most important leader in the world and certainly the most powerful person on the planet. While the vast majority of nations in Europe, old Europe, our oldest allies almost begged America not to attack, and while a huge number of Americans – admittedly a minority – pleaded that Iraq did not pose a threat to the United States, the president pondered and made his decision. He unleashed the forces of the coalition into Iraq.

The decision by General Eisenhower was one that had to be made sooner or later if the war was to terminate as the allies had agreed. When he made the determination to invade, he delegated his power and the rest is history.

When President George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, he delegated his power to an extraordinary military coalition and within weeks, for all the world it looked is if success had been achieved. But it was not to be nearly as easy as it appeared. Everything to win the war had been perfectly planned, but little thought and scant resources had been given to the occupation and the aftermath.

Franklin Roosevelt committed the nation to destroying the Axis powers. A grand coalition was assembled and total war, including asking the citizens of all the nations of the allies for great sacrifice, was prepared for and waged. The war would be fought and the allies would occupy the losing nations for as long as it took to assure a lasting peace. With sound advice, FDR delegated his authority to Eisenhower to make the fateful decision upon which victory hung and the war would be waged to the finish.

Through bad advice, poor intelligence, and poor use of staff, the United States believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it threatened America and its allies, that it was cooperating against us with those who had attacked us on 9/11, that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators, that democracy could be imposed on the three major and many minor tribal and sectarian groups, that we had sufficient forces to occupy the newly freed nation, and that we would be out of there in relatively short order.

Ike’s decision was essential. The nation’s resources – blood and treasure – were cast in Normandy and the rest is history. When I walk in the Roosevelt Memorial and the World War II Memorial and read the words of FDR and Ike, I give thanks for their having been. Plans are under way for a personal memorial to President Eisenhower, and I hope I live long enough to see it completed.

President Bush has not yet won his great wager of soldiers, marines, flyers, their equipment, and the national prestige. I do not think he will. I hope that I am wrong.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

The Golden Rule and Natural Law

Lou Dobbs, CNN’s bad boy on Globalization, the Dubai ports deal, and illegal immigration, often rubs me wrong even though I watch his diatribe most evenings. The issue that is sticking in my craw today is his accusation that the Catholic Church – in the person of Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles – is preaching disobedience to proposed legislation in Washington that is intended to stop the illegal breaching of our borders.

The draft legislation, among its provisions as it wends its way through the Capitol, would make it a crime to assist a known illegal alien in any way. I heard Cardinal Mahoney discourse on the subject and came to an entirely different conclusion from the telecaster’s. Lou is chewing out the Cardinal for opposing illegal immigration. I, on the other hand, heard the Archbishop saying that he could not support legislation that would make it a crime to assist any person in distress regardless of his or her immigration status.

I’ve been watching Dobbs long enough to know when he is demagoging a subject, and he is doing a dance on this one equal to any of his favorites. The Cardinal may or may not oppose closing the border; I haven’t heard his views on the matter. His message to his flock was clear, however; when the sick, hungry, homeless and downtrodden appear at your door, to be a good Catholic, Christian, or human being, you must offer help.

Any law that would prohibit aiding or succoring those in human need can be – even should be – disobeyed. Civil disobedience and natural law trump such draconian nativist provisions under consideration.

That the Congress believes that the borders of the nation should be strengthened gets no objection here. From all that I can see it is possible for terrorists and law breakers of all kinds to have easy access to this country, and we should be checking illegal immigration. Obviously, the cliché of being a nation of immigrants is true, and we should be welcoming as many newcomers as are needed by our great economic engine, keeping in mind the needs of the citizens.

But Cardinal Mahoney is right; anyone must be able to help a person in need who appears before them without regard to citizenship, known or not by the potential Good Samaritan. Anyone acting in imitation of the life of Christ in implementing the Golden Rule has obeyed a higher law. The Congress should take heed of what the good shepherd is preaching. So should Lou Dobbs.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Nativists

Dana Milbank’s column in today’s Washington Post compares the apples and oranges issues being opposed to illegal immigration and the transfer of ports management to a Dubai owned firm and comes up with a whopper; members of congress and citizens for stronger measures on immigration and against the UAE deal are nativists. Having spent my entire adult life on what I consider the side of immigrants and the last several years worrying about port security, I resent being lumped with nativists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201702.html?referrer=emailarticle

While one may be sympathetic to immigrants and in many cases to even employers who hire them, surely one can be for controlling the borders of the country and for severe restrictions on guest worker and amnesty programs without being racist or nativist. Mr. Milbank’s knee jerk liberal thrust to the gut that those in favor of any strengthening of borders and restricting illegal entry are nativists is grossly unfair.

Without regard to the merits of the security issues raised in the Dubai ports deal, many members of congress and thousands of citizens – including me - have been worried sick since 9/11 about the vulnerability of our ports to terrorist attack. Both the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have commented on such vulnerability and have moved within their limited resources in the area to rectify the situation. Only in the last days have many learned that communist China has a stake in port management on our West Coast. Now we know that transfer of responsibility for ports management from a private British firm to a state owned company from the UAE.

As stated by the administration, the UAE may well be a strong ally on the war on terror and a valued partner in the Middle East, but there are many legitimate questions that have not been aired, and to have Mr. Milbank label anyone who poses them labeled a nativist certainly call for an apology from the columnist.

The UAE does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. The UAE was one of the very few nations that recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan. While this was prior to 9/11, are there still some out there who remember the horrible policies of that regime even before the attack? The UAE recognizes Hamas, an organization labeled by our own government as a terrorist organization. Did not the president himself set the national course with regard to governments with these characteristics? It went something like: you’re with us or against us.

I am not an admirer of Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa or of Congressman Duncan Hunter of California who Mr. Milbank singled out for special identification as nativists, far from it. But I think that Mr. Milbank’s next effort should make mention of his intemperate charges.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Medieval Philosphy 101

Goodbye Dubai and farewell Frist. At the end of the 45 day review, cooler heads are likely to prevail and, for the good of all parties, this ports operations deal will sink into the massive national sink hole that is swallowing all things Bush. And by flip flopping on the issue, Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist with a perfect swan dive has sent his presidential aspirations into that same bottomless pit

The actual merits of the ports deal are inconsequential. The Republicans outside the White House moat and away from the Majority Leader’s radioactive cave in the Capitol instantly sensed that ignoring this deal would cede the national security and defense leadership card to the other side. Adept at reading polls even if the White House is totally blind, astute Republicans saw that jettisoning the fast sinking Bush, Cheney, and Frist would serve them better in November than playing along with the charade.

The Republican base is cracking and crumbling faster than an awkward Humpty Dumpty landing, and the long time party enmity for all things Bush is resurfacing. The realpolitik foreign policy types broke with the president when he went into Iraq and only their fear of his clout kept them relatively quiet these past three years. Bret Scowcroft and James Baker did their best to save him, but he was completely in the thrall of the neocons and they were sent on their unhappy ways.

The fiscal conservatives have been grumbling for years as the deficits ballooned, and the Libertarians have been frothing over the NSA spying and The Patriot Act. So George is left with the neocons and the Evangelicals. And deep in their hearts, the Republicans know that they’ve been conned by the neos who are really Democrats dressed up in elephant costumes and by making hay with the Evangelicals who are intent on selling Creationism which looks more like a loser every day.

I’ve enjoyed running errands since the ports deal surfaced. While in college so long ago, I was taken with Medieval history and culture, and now listening to the right wing pundits on talk radio brought me back to the days of: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? I don’t know how many times I heard that the deal with the UAE company is a direct violation of the Bush Doctrine that states that we will not deal with governments that recognize terrorists, and Dubai supports Hamas and everything else Bush said he stood for.

In the end the deal will be aborted because the Republicans know that even a firecracker going off in a port will spell the end of them forever. They say they’re tough on terrorism but have been gambling by under funding the security of our ports since 9/11. They know they’ve been wounded by this issue and if it goes through they’ll be held responsible for anything that goes wrong now and evermore. So lashing lead weights to Bush, Cheney, and Frist and tossing them over the side is really giving them warm fuzzy feelings

So it’s goodbye Dubai and farewell Frist, the tinniest ear on the Hill. That’s FLIP FLOP Bill. Surely the Democrats will point that out to you in the months ahead.

Oh, Jeb, there's no harm in going ahead with that kitchen makeover in Florida; the flight to Washington's been overbooked.

Blog on!

Wild Bill

Where Are The Swift Boats Now?

I supported John Kerry for president in 2004, and, in retrospect, I’m pleased that he did not win. The smearing of Kerry because he would be weak on defense and would precipitously withdraw from Iraq was sad to watch and truly outrageous.

But the calamity that George Bush created in Iraq had to become far more apparent to the American people before we could ever hope to change course. It’s the old adage: things have to get worse before they get better. Had things not become catastrophic under George W. Bush, there would be no hope for release from the war’s deadly embrace. Virtually everything that has come to pass under Mr. Bush would have happened under a Kerry presidency, and the howling from the right wing cheerleaders would have been deafening, and his impeachment would be demanded.

Bush salivating apologists like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Oliver North, and a hundred others would be frothing at the mouth at the stab in the back by Kerry and his liberal ilk. Even now they tell us how well things are going and how rapidly the Islamic world is leaping to join us in a liberal capitalist dream world.

But daily it is blowing up in their faces. Horror stories abound. American enlisted personnel are charged, convicted and jailed for torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners while their superiors walk away unscathed. One third of returning soldiers and marines are being treated for psychological problems caused by the stress of serving in Iraq. More than a thousand Iraqis were killed this week alone in sectarian violence.

On and on the stories roll over us like surreal revisitations of Vietnam, but each day Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, the talk show claquers, and the neocons tell us that the insurgency is in its last throws. Except for the feeble minded, even those viewing the situation in Iraq on FOX News can see that things are not going as we are told in that sad land.

And all of this would have been Kerry and the Democrats’ fault because they’re weak on national security.

Yet even as the Republicans rail that the Democrats care little for defense, the administration permits operations of our largest and most important ports to pass from one foreign company to another, but this one is not a private company but rather one owned by a national government. The president threatened to veto any law stopping the deal even as it was admitted that he knew next to nothing about the deal.

The Congress has been deceived; it was told that there were no security concerns raised during the review by federal agencies. Yet we find out that the Coast Guard did raise questions. The administration explains that these questions were resolved but won’t share the basis for that stance in open hearings or why they didn’t answer forthrightly.

Now the Republicans on the Hill are turning on their president and their leaders. George W. Bush and his close advisors led us into this mess and they were cheered on by the Republicans in Congress.

It is too late for the Republicans to backtrack. We must fire them all. Vote these slackers out in November; they’ve led us to tragedy.

Thank goodness John Kerry was smeared into defeat!

Blog on!

Wild Bill