Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

As you know I’m on something of a hiatus, but I just saw something on Altercation that I wanted to share with those of you who may have missed it. No, it’s nothing to giggle about, but I’ve never been good at appropriate titles.

First off, have a look at the biographical blurb that appears at the bottom of this Martin van Creveld piece in the Forward:

Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of “Transformation of War” (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army’s required reading list for officers.

Pretty decent credentials - the only non-American author who is required reading for officers serving in the United States army. If I was to guess, I’d probably say that he must be a pretty serious guy with something more than a decent understanding of military history. So what to make of this?

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

Damn. That’s pretty harsh. I’d like to add that I think the Iraq War is the most batshit crazy war since Emperor Caligula sent his legions to war against the sea god Neptune, returning to Rome with a bounty of sea shells.

Moving right along, have a peek at this rather bleak assessment:

Confronted by a demoralized army on the battlefield and by growing opposition at home, in 1969 the Nixon administration started withdrawing most of its troops in order to facilitate what it called the “Vietnamization” of the country. The rest of America’s forces were pulled out after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated a “peace settlement” with Hanoi. As the troops withdrew, they left most of their equipment to the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam — which just two years later, after the fall of Saigon, lost all of it to the communists.

Clearly this is not a pleasant model to follow, but no other alternative appears in sight.

Whereas North Vietnam at least had a government with which it was possible to arrange a cease-fire, in Iraq the opponent consists of shadowy groups of terrorists with no central organization or command authority. And whereas in the early 1970s equipment was still relatively plentiful, today’s armed forces are the products of a technology-driven revolution in military affairs. Whether that revolution has contributed to anything besides America’s national debt is open to debate. What is beyond question, though, is that the new weapons are so few and so expensive that even the world’s largest and richest power can afford only to field a relative handful of them.

Therefore, simply abandoning equipment or handing it over to the Iraqis, as was done in Vietnam, is simply not an option. And even if it were, the new Iraqi army is by all accounts much weaker, less skilled, less cohesive and less loyal to its government than even the South Vietnamese army was. For all intents and purposes, Washington might just as well hand over its weapons directly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Clearly, then, the thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.

To be sure, there is plenty in the article to piss off just about everybody and I’ll freely admit to a little cherry picking. What the hell? This is Dick Cheney’s America and I’m just trying to do my part. Silliness aside, the article is really quite devastating and well worth a read, so get to it.

Anyway, back to my hiatus for a bit.

If you have tried to email me in the last three or four weeks, I’m really sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. At the moment I’m getting just about 300 emails a day which is making rational communication complexly unreasonable.

For the most part those emails seek to inform me that some parts of my body are too small, while some others would like to sell me an odd product named “Vliagro|” at very low prices. Such are the giggles of posting a link to your email address on your website.

The great majority of the remaining emails come from hard up candidates running for every sort of office imaginable, in every corner of the country. For the record, I can’t do of you a bit of good for any of them, but I should thank them for writing (over and over again). I do treasure the attention.

Anyway, I’ll catch up very soon.

…you should listen.

I feel remiss in that I completely failed to note the occasion of Above Average Jane’s one year anniversary just a few days ago. Such are the dangers of a hiatus from blogging and the internet.

Jane covers politics, and Pennsylvania politics in particular, in a wonderfully wonkish, detailed and sober manner that is so refreshing and a real credit to political blogs. One need only read one of her weekly legislative roundup’s to get an idea of what Jane adds to the political blogosphere in terms of quality, depth of research and content (here’s the latest). I should also note that Jane has been a great friend to me and to this site over its short existence, something for which I am extremely grateful.

On to the listening bit. I was intrigued by one of Jane’s recent posts in which she discusses social norms and privacy as those terms and concepts apply to internet generally and the blogosphere specifically. Here’s a little of what she has to say:

We as a society have come to some general understanding of personal space in a public setting. Unless an elevator is crowded we don’t stand close to each other. Smoking is prohibited in many public spaces. We have decided it violates our privacy when our social security numbers are used on everything from student id cards to health insurance cards.

The blogosphere, though, is still sorting through these things. A sense of what is private and what is public blurs in online journals. Where does someone’s virtual smoke end and where does our personal space begin? We’ve all read about people who lost (or found) jobs by virtue of their blogs. Many of us have heard about people who lost friends or significant others because of something written on their blogs. This isn’t really new. I remember Ma telling me never to put anything in print that I wouldn’t want to see in the newspaper the next day. When I was in college the student newspaper ran a photo of an elected student government official nude, from the back. It was taken and published with the man’s permission. Stories circulated about him nearly (or actually) losing a job when someone mailed the photo to his post-college employer.

There is quite a bit more discussion, so be sure to read the whole thing.

This issue is something which has been of interest to me for some time and which I have discussed on any number of occasions with friends who were jumping into the internet or into blogging. My advise to anybody who has a website, or is considering getting one, is to keep the words, actions, thoughts and feelings of private citizens, who haven’t given their explicit consent, as far from the content of your site as is humanly possible. Keep your impressions of the same even further.

The reason for this is simple, and I’ll spell it out in the most direct way possible. People don’t like seeing their shit displayed for the whole world to see all over the internet. People don’t react well to seeing their shit displayed for the whole world to see all over the internet. People who thought well of you yesterday, won’t think so well of you today, if just last night they saw that you were spreading their shit all over the internet.

You may have thought the discussion was benign and the words were kind, but just about everybody who is caught off guard will have a very seriously bad reaction. This I promise. Unless you intend to post anonymously until the end of days, or password protect all of your content, you should keep it in mind as it can have an adverse effect on nearly every aspect of you life.

Since I’ve made jokes about it in the past, I want to be clear that I’m not talking about mentions of me. While I don’t get why my presence at certain events merits mention, it has been mentioned quite a few times over the past year for whatever reason. Not only that, but the condition of my roof deck, the number of stairs leading to my appartment, the fact that I (used to) smoke too much for anybody’s good and even the contents of emails I thought were private have been published for all to see. Here’s the thing; I’m a non-anonymous political blogger (very part-time these days), who is well aware that when he is in the presence of anybody who has the ability to publish anything anywhere, that whatever I do and whatever I say is fair game. I knew that getting in and that was my decision. Any discussion of the poor condition of my roof deck or the poor condition of my lungs by a well read political blogger (no links to be sure) under any other circumstance would have been different to be sure.

Needless to say, one danger for a blog like this one, which relies more heavily on raw emotion, gut reaction and personal experience than it does rational analysis, is crossing the line in a heated moment and disparaging a non-public figure from your own personal life. Referring to the President or to your state representative by disparaging names is quite a bit different than referring to your butcher, cousin or boss in the same way. One is direct, if not polite, political discourse in the best tradition, while the other is something altogether more difficult.

Whatever. Those are just a few of my, not so grand, thoughts on just one Above Average Jane post. Do yourself some good by taking your vitamins and visiting Jane every day.

I’ll be with you shortly.

I can’t image that people who are not freak show political junkies wind up on this site and actually read anything. Just in case, I’ve been blathering about this. Context is good for acne, but bad for killer robots. Embrace context.

This is the conclusion of a letter one of Josh Marshall’s readers sent to him.

Seeing the way the government is currently operating makes me think the most hardcore Libertarians have a point. Why have a government if this is how they’re going to spend their time?

The letter writer is referring to tonight’s debate and turmoil over the Republican proposal that was intended to mock Murtha. The letter writer has a good point to be sure. It reflects, in a way, my own confusion about why anybody would vote for a government, or be a part of a government, that subscribes to the Grover Norquist notion that all government is evil. Why bother? Get a tent a few hundred miles from nowhere and be happy already.

Another point is that the certain programs that have been implemented by the Bush administration, and a compliant Republican congress, are very real attempts to destroy the intuitions they are advertised to reform. A good example is No Child Left Behind. That program, as implemented by the Bush administration, seems to be intended to destroy public education. If it is not repealed or amended it will serve that purpose quite effectively.

I shouldn’t get into intent. It’s a tricky thing because there is nothing at all objective about it and bad intentions are easily denied while good intentions are easily impugned. Intent is only known to those who intend. Nevertheless, one can stare certain things square in the eye and get a feeling about what the true intentions were.

Listen to this; A veteran special education teacher, whose job is to teach middle school aged children with Down’s Syndrome and autism life skills, is required to pay $150 to take a test which measures comprehension and knowledge of everything from Shakespeare to Vonnegut to Fowles in order to become “highly qualified” and keep the job. Failing that, the special education teacher, who generally needs to have at least a masters degree in education to get the job, needs to go back to college and take literature classes that don’t relate in any way to teaching children with severe disabilities much of anything. Down’s Syndrome and Macbeth don’t really gel. Given that the child in question will never read Macbeth, but really needs to be taught how to identify a fire exit. Different skill sets, to be sure.

If you scoff at the price of the tests (more than one if a teacher teaches multiple subjects ), or the price of putting yourself through several college courses, you probably get paid quite a bit more than the average public school teacher (even the ones with the PhD’s).

I’m not a tinfoil hat kind of guy so I won’t talk about intent, but I will say that No Child Left Behind will destroy public education and I do think there is some intent. Just that simple. I mention special education, but the problems stretch from the very low functioning to the brilliant. Sadly, everybody fights.

Back to the start of this mess - I wish I could write and reason as well as some of my favorite blogger’s readers. Ug. I don’t even have to agree to feel it.

Enough for now, I’m getting sleepy, drunk and even more stupid than normal. TaTa.

Just to be clear, as I’m sure the last post was not, the sham GOP proposal mocking Jack Murtha’s proposal was a complete and utter backfire. As you know, I’m totally partisan so take what I say with a handful of salt, but tonight was a total disaster for the Republican party. They are quite lucky in that this happened on a Friday and it’s unlikely that nobody but the political junkies will even know.

Today’s sham was meant to divide Democrats and I’m pretty sure it fell flat on its face. That it was a shameless bit of hackery aimed straight at the deadly serious issues of war, troop deployment, the safety of the armed forces and national security makes the sight of that fall less than not satisfying. Quite a lot less.

More later.

I had a very strange Friday evening. I’m not one to forgo a nice dinner out and a trip to the bar on a Friday night for much of anything, let alone watching C-Span. As you might have guessed that’s just what I did tonight and something very odd happened. I may be delusional, but I think I just saw the moral authority of an entire nation transferred, however briefly, to a single congressperson. I’m not really in any condition to give sound analysis of what just happened in congress. You may have noticed that I gave up the trip to the bar, but I never mentioned skipping the drinks.

Anyway, I’ll start by saying that the biggest mistake that congressional Republicans made this evening was allowing Representative Jean Schmidt from Ohio to say a single word, let alone allow this very green congressperson to call a very well decorated Marine with over three decades of service a coward. Whatever you think of his positions and his congressional record, I doubt anybody with a sane nerve cell in their cranium would look at that man, listen to him speak, review his service record in the most cursory way and call Murthra a coward.

Not that I think it was going anywhere anyway, but that’s where the whole effort to fuck over the country with smiles and glee sunk. Not only did that forced Schmidt to attempt to appear contrite and ask that her words be struck from the congressional record, it also forced the party in power yank every decorated veteran in their caucus from their comfortable Friday evening routines to give speeches on the house floor.

While nobody with a sane nerve cell in their cranium would ever question the patriotism of a Republican congressperson who is a veteran of foreign wars, one might question, without a hint of guilt, whether or not they are all the most articulate spokespersons for any policy, let alone a failed one in desperate need of spin. Not only that, but it forced Curt Weldon, of all people, to get up and talk about what a noble human being and public servant Jack Murtha is, gently trashing the rhetoric of some of his fellow Republicans.

On the other hand, what Murtha did this evening was brilliant. He stood in the face of an onslaught of used car salesmen and rhetorically challenged Republican veterans and didn’t blink. Not only that, he really didn’t even do so much as to acknowledge their arguments. He didn’t stoop to that level. The used car salesmen and their bullshit rhetoric seemed beneath him. He said exactly what he thought without hesitation. He advocated for the military, he advocated for the men and women in service, he advocated for his constituents and he advocated for his country.

Clean, straight, powerful and from the heart. Not a used car or a bit of lime green polyester in sight. Stand and deliver. More like that please.

More on the actualy policy when I sober up….That could be a while.

I’ll be back shortly.

That’s just about all I have to say tonight. Well that, and a very enthusiastic ‘damn’ as well. I doubt I would have called it this way a year ago.

Whatever…

Until my party gets out in front of the detainee crucifixion issue, I don’t know that I’ll feel especially enthusiastic about much of anything political. Sure, the other cats have all of the balls, but I still expect the elected members of my party to make some noise about whether or not crucifixion is an appropriate interrogation technique. My own thought tends quite strongly towards not.

Not to get picky or anything, but I’d sure as shit like a little more noise. This seems like as good a time as any to throw a little shit and make the case.

Just to be clear, when I say that I’m not really all that enthusiastic about politics, it doesn’t mean that I support either political apathy or the party of crucifixion. I do, however, support off topic bitching about whatever the hell I want on election night.

Update: This is just the sort of “go fuck yourself” message I’d like to see a lot more of in the months and years to come. Say it loud and say it proud.

Just a reminder that it is and that you should vote. Unless you plan on voting for the wrong things, in which case I recommend you enjoy a good stiff drink and a shower. Do the right thing. I have some thoughts on the two posts below, both of which I updated this morning to better reflect just how badly informed I am this time around.

Should you need to find your polling place and you live in Philadelphia, you can visit the Committee of Seventy’s Polling Place Locator. As an added bonus, the Polling Place Locator has been redesigned and now features a lovely picture of handsome young models frolicking and smiling in front of the Art Museum. Some of them appear to be so young that were they to vote in today’s election, it would probably constitute a crime. As a side note, I wonder how likely it is that anybody hackish enough to be voting in today’s election would not know where their polling place is?

According to Dan, from Young Philly Politics, there will be a victory party tomorrow night at North by Northwest in Mt. Airy to celebrate what will hopefully be the passage of the ethics charter change measure on the ballot in Philadelphia. Drinks will be free from 8:00 to 9:30.

Why should we celebrate the charter change? Because it will add transparency to the process of awarding of city public service contracts. Transparency is all the rage with the kids these days because it reduces the chances of pay-to-play corruption or, perhaps, even the use of crucifixion.

I should be clear that tomorrow’s ballot question has nothing to do with crucifixion and will do nothing to prevent its use. You might imagine, however, that a little transparency at all levels of government might go a long way towards addressing any number of problems.

Like a woodpecker with a headache. The bigger the headache, the bigger the pill. Something like that.

Oh crap! There’s an election tomorrow and I have nothing to wear. ACM, as per ACM’s usual, has actually had a look at the local races and ballot measures and has some recommendations. I recommend all of these recommendations, though I won’t be voting for either of the District Attorney candidates myself, as neither one belongs in that office and at least one is pure evil.

I should also note that you should have a look at what Clean Sweep has to say about voting “no” on the retention of justices Newman and Nigro. I have some questions about how non-partisan this non-partisan group is, so it would have been wise to look into their recomendations, motives and fund raising before today. Alas, I did not, so I’m just passing it along. While the organization lays out a pretty compelling case against Nigro, their case against Newman is a little thin - a taxpayer funded Cadillac and saying nothing about the legislative pay raise.

For more info on the ballot question, have a look at this post by Friedman. If you needed any reason to get your lazy butt out of bed sometime before 8:00 PM tomorrow and haul your unwashed self down to the polling place, voting “yes” the ballot question should be it. Hell, even if your personal grooming habits and hygiene are exemplary, the ballot question is still a good reason to head out and vote. I’m sure the poll workers will appreciate your fresh breath and distinct lack of body odor. They may even compliment you. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

Can a lack of odor be distinct?

If I’m not mistaken there is a gubernatorial election happening in New Jersey and if elected, both of the major party candidates will spend their time in office slaughtering cute little puppies and kittens, sleeping with your spouse and getting pumped up on bovine growth hormones. At least neither of them has advocated the crucifixion of prisoners, which is more than can be said for some.

On a related note, isn’t it about time that New Jersey got its own TV and radio stations? Is there some way we could insist on this? Philadelphia politics may be repugnant and corrupt, but the shit New Jersey politicians put in their advertisements would scare toxic waste. I’m a bit worried that being exposed to these ads on a daily basis has corroded my own moral fiber. For instance, just the other day I spotted a cute little puppy dog in the park and I called it a spineless, baby killing, bloodsucking motherfucker just out of spite. That never would have happened before being exposed to 400 hours of political advertising from New Jersey candidates. This, I swear, is true.

I would be remiss as a Philadelphia blogger if I didn’t mention the Terrell Owens situation and give my heartfelt opinion on this crucial matter.

1. Considering Owens’ removal from the Eagles, I must conclude that that the organization has given up on getting to the Super Bowl this season and probably won’t even make the playoffs.
2. The Eagles could not have made the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowel, with Terrell Owens on the team and it’s a happy day now that this cancer has been extracted from the team.
3. I don’t give a fuck.

Other bits of tid were boned and ready to be served up with a side of bioluminescent sea slugs. Sadly, they were all knocked to the floor by an irate rhesus monkey and are no longer fit for consumption by man or beast. Incidentally, the rhesus monkey in question has since been cut into bite sized pieces, which were in turn covered with a hard candy coating. Run along now.

Another Update: As ACM point’s out in ACM’s post, be sure to have a look at what Ben has to say about judicial retention.

(Via Lutton)

On the subject of hacks, these assholes don’t even pretend to pretend. National security issues no less (or is it “of course”). Link.

President Bush last week appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts. After watching the fate of Michael Brown as head of FEMA and Harriet Miers as Supreme Court nominee, you might think the president would be wary about the appearance of cronyism—especially with a critical national-security issue such as intelligence. Instead, Bush reappointed William DeWitt, an Ohio businessman who has raised more than $300,000 for the president’s campaigns, for a third two-year term on the panel. Originally appointed in 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, DeWitt, who was also a top fund-raiser for Bush’s 2004 Inaugural committee, was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Read the whole thing, it’s quite something. Just to make it a little more interesting, take a shot of tequila every time you lose a little more respect for our government.

(Via TPM)

There really are no words for this sort of thing. I can think of a few involuntary intestinal functions that might be fitting however. Link.

“In the midst of the overwhelming damage caused by the hurricane and enormous problems faced by FEMA, Mr. Brown found time to exchange e-mails about superfluous topics,” including “problems finding a dog-sitter,” according to Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Louisiana, who posted the e-mails on his Web site. (Copies of e-mails — PDF)

Some of the e-mails from Brown indicate he may have been overwhelmed by his responsibilities, Melancon said.

In an e-mail he sent the morning of the hurricane to Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of public affairs, Brown wrote, “Can I quit now? Can I come home?” A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, “I’m trapped now, please rescue me.”

…

Melancon said that on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: “Tie or not for tonight? Button down blue shirt?”

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: “Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working.”

The “rescue me” bit is just heart warming isn’t it? Just think, nearly every government agency, from the critical to the pointless, has an unqualified Bush appointed hack like Brown presiding over it. Be sure to roll up your sleaves and have a look at the PDF as well.