Coddling Terrorists?

Apparently these days its considered defeatist and cut-and-run and really lame-o to defend someone else's rights.
Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post 28 Sept

"Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." - Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945.

One Would Suppose

"Earlier this month, in describing how CIA questioning had loosened the tongues of 14 high-profile suspects captured after 9/11 and imprisoned abroad, Bush insisted that they weren't tortured. Yet in the same speech, he worried that U.S. interrogators 'could now be at risk of prosecution under the War Crimes Act — simply for doing their jobs in a thorough and professional way.' "

Thorough. Professional.

It's hard to imagine a more "thorough and professional" organization than the late unlamented Gestapo. The efficiency with which they carried out their perverse acts was unprecedented. And rarely matched since. Certainly not by the CIA. Or the FBI. While those organizations are now pretty much dedicated to presenting a shiny unsullied facade to the public, their effectiveness at the supposed tasks they were created for is at a sad ebb.

Meanwhile, one would suppose, and certainly wish, that George W. Bush had finally awakened to the fact that he has acted so wrongly and so despicably, that he is now engaged in trying to A: Hide his criminal activities, or B: Maneuver himself into a position to recieve a complete pardon from his predecessor.
History suggests, however, that he is still unable to connect with reality sufficiently to understand that what he has done, is doing, and likely plans to do, is not only immoral, but also totally counterproductive in "Promoting the General Welfare" of the country.

Clueless In Bangkok

I guess this has gone on a lot here in Thailand. I, as is generally the case, was completely clueless. There hasn't been a real government here since the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, resigned in a fit of pique last February.

Here's some background from BBC.

The "caretaker government" however, seemed to be doing fine. Even managed to add an entire new layer to the bureaucracy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Probably at other ministries as well, but MFA is the parent of the Immigration Department, where I go quite often and generally find out I've done something wrong, again. There hasn't been a coup here in The Kingdom since 1992, a long time as such things go around here. Since the first Constitution in 1932 (in which the King ceased to be a God and became a constitutional monarch), there have been 17 coups. Eighteen now. The constitution, the new one (1997) has been suspended. It's going to be given an upgrade.

General Sondhi and Admiral Satiraphan

Thaksin Shinawatra

Army Tank at Government House Bangkok

While I have been clueless, My Students

seem to have known something. Yesterday I was asked by some of them what I thought of PM Thaksin and of General Sondhi. I think (hope) I navigated the suddenly stormy waters all right. I don't believe it was a loyalty test.



It's enough to make one wonder; is this the first of many military takeovers? How long will it take for the United States Army to realize that it need not fight an endless series of lost wars overseas - it can fight one short sharp winnable war right at home? Not that I believe for a moment that is going to happen. I think the United States Constitution is more likely to suffer the death of a thousand cuts, as has been happening lately, than to be tossed on the rubbish heap of history by a group of disgruntled Generals.
But then, as I have already admitted, I am clueless!
I have to go to school now. It's the last week before

Final Exams

Off With Their Heads

It occurs to me that the President shares some characteristics in common with a famous ruler of an earlier

non-reality-based Realm

"Now for the evidence," said the King, "and then the sentence."
"No!" said the Queen, "first the sentence, and then the evidence!"
"Nonsense!" cried Alice, so loudly that everybody jumped, "the idea of having the sentence first!"
"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen.



But I had never thought of Alice as one of the Supremes before.
I was pondering earlier today if George W. Bush would be upset if he himself were to be denied access to the evidence against him, if he were to be on trial for, Oh, Lets just say,

"High Crimes and Misdemeanors"

e.g.
But then I realized that, yes; this man is so reality-averse that he would indeed not wish to hear any evidence brought at his own trial. After all, as the decider he can veto anything the Senate passes, and perhaps even have the "ayes" rendered to some overseas CIA "facility".
The people of Rome once thought Marius was a great leader. Until they discovered he was not only mad, but blood-mad. (See Maunders Corollary to Santayanas Conjecture)

OH GOOD

"I thought we were in trouble"

"On Thursday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told the Security Council that Iraq's sectarian killings and kidnappings had increased in the last three months, along with a rise in the number of displaced people.He said ethnic and sectarian violence was 'one of the most significant threats to security and stability in Iraq.' The average number of weekly attacks increased 15 percent in the last three months, and Iraqi casualties rose by 51 percent, Bolton said." (AP News)
It's disheartening to think that all that security and stability we have helped the staunchly Democratic Republic of Iraq to establish is now in jeopardy!
It's going to work out all right though. We have George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice's word on that.

Butch Cassidy thought he was in trouble too, before he and Sundance took out all those troops that had them cornered. Good thing he was wrong about the situation.

How Dems Can Win the Midterm Elections

By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Friday 08 September 2006
What the Democrats should do to win the midterms - and the '08 race for the White House.

Eleanor Clift on Truthout.org

I'm sorry, but I have to say

I hope they don't!

"Why is that, you ask?" Two reasons, I reply:
Reason one - I don't want the congress all balled up in More In Sorrow Than In Anger hearings about every hangnail displayed by the present administration. That's a lotta hangnails. To say nothing of all the other little blemishes on the body politic. It would be even less edifying than the spectacle of the rabid Republican hypermoralistas lewdly eyeballing a smudged velvet dress.
Reason two - I want it made Rub Your Nose In It Clear that the credit due for the present and soon-to-be-future state of affairs belongs entirely to the children of the night er, right, that is.
Speaking of the right; did anyone remark on Presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich's

American Eleven - A Values Led Plan for Victory in November?

My own personal favorite is number 8: Control Spending and Balance the Budget, but it beats out number 7: Achieve Sustainable Energy Independence by a mere whisker.
Clearly, Newt is more of an Idea Man than a Details Man. It's pretty bold of him to claim that this congress (or any forseeable congress, of any major party makeup) is about to balance the budget, or take any substantive action on energy issues, other than giving money to big corporations to "research" energy efficiency. Most of the government giveaway money is funged into the pockets of the corporate heads who managed to get their hands in the governments pockets.
At any rate, I am somewhat, or slightly, or hopefully, confident that Newt will end up alongside Bill Frist as an embarrassed alsoran. But then, if the present President could get elected, and then re-elected, perhaps you really can fool all the people all the time.

Not Just A Liar

The President has been making the hustings trying to get people back on board his disastrous War On Terrorism train.

New York Times Sept. 8.

Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, Troops are flooding into the city, and they're going to build a

Moat!

That's sure to keep the terrorists and bombers out! Or in! Or something! You can already see the

"enhanced security measures"

working.
Bombings: up.
Killings: up.
Dismembered bodies: up.

It's a good thing the enemy is in his "last throes", or we might be in some measure of difficulty here.

Here's a Stumper

"KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 — Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul."
This speaks volumes for the superiority of the free market approach to economics so raptly advocated by western economists. One has to ask though; if the United States can restore the principal industry in Afghanistan to such a robust state, why can it not do the same for the principal industry in Iraq? The demand for oil is certainly as great as the demand for heroin;
"We are addicted to oil."(G. W. Bush, 2006)

So what's the problem? The markets are there, the demand is there, but our occupying forces in Iraq seem unable to match the economic renaissance brought about by our occupying forces in Afghanistan. Why doesn't the president send the Afghan economic restoration team to Iraq, to bring their oil industry up to snuff?