Two Trick Thursday!

Alternate title:

Tink’s in Love

Katie performed a rare double today, although she didn’t break any new ground doing it. And of course, Tink gushes about it. Da Wege speculates that Tink might have a special place in his calcified little heart for Katie:

Maybe Katherine Kersten can explain all this away in her next column... [BTW, has anyone told Mrs. Big TCF about her hubby and Katherine yet?]

Who knows? Stranger things have happened. Well, maybe not.

Katie’s first trick was her column in the Strib today taunting Democrats with what are you afraid of? Let us vote on the gay marriage ban amendment. The Democrats who have kept this bottled up are not afraid of anything, you twit; they are the most courageous people in the Legislature, as Lori Sturdevant (you know Lori, don’t you Katie?) said in a recent column. Even Lori thinks you’re trying to give the state a wedgie, in spite of your protestation to the contrary.

Boys and girls, did you know that Katie gave over $1,800 to George Bush and the Minnesota Republicans in the 2004 election cycle? Yup; just go to www.opensecrets.org to check it out. Spotty says you have to take what a partisan hack like Katie says about wedge issues with a grain, nay a shaker, of salt. Actually, it is a good idea to take anything Katie says with a shaker of salt - and everything else that Jimmy Buffet says ought to go with it.

We don’t vote on a gay marriage amendment, dear Katie, for the same reason we don’t vote on racial discrimination or discrimination against, say, Catholics. It’s the civil rights, stupid. One of the enduring, Spot hopes, and maybe the most prominent, feature of the legal system in these United States is the enshrinement of equal protection under law. The principal genius of the Constitution is the promotion of democratic principles, in a republican form of government, with protections afforded to unpopular minorities against the prejudices of the majority, especially as fanned by whatever demagogue (think Katie here, boys and girls) that might come along.

The notion of equal protection evolves as we learn things, like the fact that homosexuality is something you are born with. Just like civil rights are things you are born with, not subject to Mother Katie Knows Best. Spot doesn’t claim to understand homosexuality, but then he doesn’t understand being black or a woman, either. But he’s prepared to believe they are viable options.

Last week at pre-session meeting with constituents, Minnesota Senator Geoff Michel, a supporter of the gay marriage amendment ban, said he thought that Minnesotans were ready to accept civil unions for gays, but not marriage. But Michele Bachmann’s bill last year – and which passed the Minnesota House - would ban civil unions, too.

Look, nobody is saying to the stiff-necked evangelicals that they ought to marry gays in their church if they don’t want to. But what needs to be remembered is that the franchise to marry people – legally, anyway – comes from the state, not the church. It may be a holy estate, but if you don’t get the license from the state and get married by an authorized official, you ain’t married. The church can’t grant divorces, either.

It is, therefore, a fundamental denial of equal protection under law to deny all of the incidents to a union between persons – yes, two of them, Katie – health care decision-making, inheritance, health insurance benefits, pension benefits, etc. and etc., on the basis of the sex of the partners. That defies Katie’s notion of the conventional, but undoubtedly the end of slavery or the grant of voting rights to women defied a lot of people’s notion of the conventional, too.

Katie’s second trick was a column in the WSJ’s Opinion Journal. The Wall Street Journal opinion editors are about the only group nuttier than Katie! In the column, Katie rehashes the most recent installment in her urination on the Minneapolis Public School system. Spot posted about it in Fact and fiction, part two. Katie’s repeats her quotes of the not-exactly-unimpeachable Louis King and extols charter schools.

The money bled off of the public school system (because of the fact that most school funding is allocated per-pupil) by the charter school system is one of the principal reasons that Minneapolis has had such a difficult time financially. And the state may have already cooked its own goose by failing to provide a uniform system of public schools. The lawsuit is ripe for the bringing.

Tags: Katherine Kersten gay marriage Geoff Michel Michele Bachmann Minneapolis Public Schools

Dogpile on Repya!

Spot had a long post yesterday (well long for Spot anyway) about Lt. Col. Joe Repya. CP at minvolved had some words for Repya, too. By the way, you military experts out there, if full colonel is a bird colonel, does that mean Repya is a half-bird colonel? Anyway, CP takes issue with Repya’s insinuation, nay statement, in his letter to the Strib on February 28th that you can’t support the troops if you don’t support the war. CP says:

The only lie that is contained in Repya’s insulting letter to the editor (which could only be hatched from the sick mind of a politically motivated mid-level commissioned officer) is that one that says it’s not possible to support our men and women in uniform while disagreeing with the manner in which they have been deployed.

You got that right CP! Spotty says that wanting our service people out of that useless meat grinder in the sand is supporting the troops, their families and friends, and the country. (Spotty does have a little higher lie count, though.)

Da Wege also comments on Repya’s letter. He discusses a Military Times poll that is at odd with Repya’s claim that four out of five people in the military think media reports about the war are inaccurate. Wege says:

If, as Col. Repya says, "four of every five respondents said they believe media reports often are 'inaccurate'," it would appear that the best interpretation of that in light of the more recent poll would be that our troops don't think the media is reporting the degree to which Iraq is a disaster in progress.

Read the whole post for a discussion of the Military Times poll and how support for the war has eroded in the last year among the military’s professional corps.

Spot is going to post more about this in the next couple of days, but it seems likely that next month we will be deploying about 2,500 members of the Minnesota Guard into the teeth of brutal, sectarian civil war. These people are our friends and neighbors, our cops and firefighters, our EMTs, our co-workers. Do you think maybe the State, and the governor in particular, ought to take some responsibility to find out if there is even a plan to keep our people safe?

Lt. Col. Joe Repya useless meat grinder in the sand

Repya's rantings . . .

Yesterday’s Strib (February 28th) featured this letter of the day:

Nick Coleman is at it again. His third column attacking Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans and Gold Star parents just reinforces the fact that he and his radical friends feel that "free speech" is only allowable if it attacks the war, the troops or the administration. Perhaps that is why in a Military Times Iraq Poll of service members (released January 2006), four of every five respondents said they believe media reports often are "inaccurate."

Too bad that our veterans and Gold Star parents have to purchase ad space to get their side of the argument out. However, veterans owe Coleman a debt of gratitude for one thing: He, along with the recent statements of Minnesota DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez, exposed the real "Big Lie" the radical left and some like Coleman in the media have been saying about the war in Iraq. That "lie" started at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom: "We support the troops but not their mission."

By calling the Midwest Heroes ad "un-American, untruthful and a lie," they have proven they support neither the troops nor their mission. I suspect they never have.

LT. COL. JOE REPYA, EAGAN; CURRENTLY ON CONVALESCENT LEAVE FROM DUTY IN IRAQ

Somebody at the paper added the gratuitously insulting headline: Letter of the day: It's strike three for antiwar Coleman. No, headline writer, you have it wrong. Coleman hit three of them out of the park. Spotty has written about this before. In responding to the pendant Tink, who huffed and puffed about the same columns, Spotty said:

In his columns, Coleman makes three broad points. In the first commercial, Coleman writes, misleading claims are made. Both WCCO and KSTP agree with that. In the second, Coleman points out that not all members of Gold Star families support the war. Also demonstrably true. In the third, Coleman basically quotes from correspondence he has received from vets expressing doubts or opposition to the enterprise.

Tink’s shuck and jive does not touch these basic points, because it can’t. The best Tink can do is give us an impression of a pettifogging lawyer singing a patter song in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

Spot recommends the whole post, boys and girls, because you can learn about the Texas cockroach defense.

And just who is Lt. Col. Joe Repya? Well, he isn’t a war-wounded vet who came home to nurse his injuries, that’s for sure. Repya is a cheerleader for the war in Iraq, just like Katherine Kersten. In fact, Spot understands that Joe and Katie chipped in together recently for a new set of pom-poms.

When Spot put Google to work, he found that Repya is 1) home for shoulder surgery for an injury unrelated to service in Iraq, 2) a lickspittle Bush and Cheney supporter and 2004 delegate to the Republican National Convention, and 3) often featured on Never Never Land.

Spotty thought it was customary and good journalistic practice to identify letter or opinion piece writers with a particular axe to grind by describing the axe. Apparently, this isn’t necessary if you are a friend of Peter, Wendy, and Tink. In a recent Never Never Land post, Tink includes an exchange of mash notes with Kate Parry, the Strib's readers rep. In one of them, Parry provides Tink with considerable information about sourcing and methods (proving herself an easier lay that Judith Miller), and ends by wishing Tink a “good weekend.”

How hard would it have been for the Strib to find these things out about Repya before printing Repya’s letter, making it a Letter of the Day no less?

Let’s take another look at the letter itself, boys and girls. Here’s another take on the war from another vet, responding directly to Repya a few months ago. Most of the country, and not a few vets, think the war was a mistake; Repya’s questioning of the motives of anti-war sentiment is just ignorant demagoguery. As Spotty has written before, it is just a tawdry attempt to take the issue of the war off the table, to make it beyond discussion or debate. Because the debate is a loser for Repya.

And how is it that an active duty soldier is such a mouthpiece in favor of the war? Here are just a few of the Department of Defense no-no’s for active duty service personnel:

E3.3.6. Allow or cause to be published partisan political articles signed or written by the member that solicits votes for or against a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.

E3.3.8. Speak before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.

E3.3.9. Participate in any radio, television, or other program or group discussion as an advocate for or against of a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.

Do you suppose that the Administration would permit an active duty service person with anti-war views to be so outspoken? Heaven forefend.

A recent Zogby poll shows that most service persons in Iraq want out. Repya has written several times that there is no substitute for victory. Oh yes there is, as we’re about to find out.

Update: Don't miss Spot's latest post about Joe Repya: The shoes of the fisherman.

Tags: Lt. Col. Joe Repya Minneapolis Star Tribune Kate Perry Nick Coleman Never Never Land

Credit: link to Zogby poll post via Norwegianity

Middle-aged guys in letter jackets . . .

You know how there are always guys who run around in their old letter jackets because they went to the state tournament in baskeball once and it's the most memorable thing they ever did - or will ever do, for that matter? Boy these guys are sad sacks. Keep the image in mind and consider:

Bush Hails Blogosphere

Until now, I don't think President Bush has commented publicly on the 60 Minutes/National Guard story. But the Drudge Report has excerpts from Bill Sammon's new book, Strategery, in which both Bush and Karl Rove talk about the document scandal: . . .

So begins another bit of wankery at Powerline. The boys love to live in the thrilling days of yesteryear. Ok, let's have a show of hands: who thinks that Powerline's big break is still remotely interesting? Let's see, there's Peter, Wendy, and Tink. That's three. Anybody else? Spot didn't think so.

Spotty would much rather hear you fellas own up to recent comments by Francis Fukuyama, William Kristol, and William F. Buckley about the failure of the Iraq war. So far, nothing from you.

If a neo-con falls in the forest, and it doesn't get reported in the echo chamber; it still happened.

You mean it's not over?

Francis Fukuyama wrote a book The End of History and the Last Man in which he argued that historical development of the world was over, and guess what? We won! Liberal Western democracy would be the dominent philosophy of government for, like, forever! Neo-cons, of course, loved the book and used it as their testament for an interventionist foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq.

Now Fukuyama says well sorry, I may not have gotten that exactly right. In fact, a lot of people misunderstood me, and they have made a terrible mess.

The way the cold war ended shaped the thinking of supporters of the Iraq war, including younger neoconservatives like William Kristol and Robert Kagan, in two ways. First, it seems to have created an expectation that all totalitarian regimes were hollow at the core and would crumble with a small push from outside. The model for this was Romania under the Ceausescus: once the wicked witch was dead, the munchkins would rise up and start singing joyously about their liberation. As Kristol and Kagan put it in their 2000 book "Present Dangers": "To many the idea of America using its power to promote changes of regime in nations ruled by dictators rings of utopianism. But in fact, it is eminently realistic. There is something perverse in declaring the impossibility of promoting democratic change abroad in light of the record of the past three decades."

This overoptimism about postwar transitions to democracy helps explain the Bush administration's incomprehensible failure to plan adequately for the insurgency that subsequently emerged in Iraq. The war's supporters seemed to think that democracy was a kind of default condition to which societies reverted once the heavy lifting of coercive regime change occurred, rather than a long-term process of institution-building and reform. While they now assert that they knew all along that the democratic transformation of Iraq would be long and hard, they were clearly taken by surprise. According to George Packer's recent book on Iraq, "The Assassins' Gate," the Pentagon planned a drawdown of American forces to some 25,000 troops by the end of the summer following the invasion.

. . .

"The End of History," in other words, presented a kind of Marxist argument for the existence of a long-term process of social evolution, but one that terminates in liberal democracy rather than communism. In the formulation of the scholar Ken Jowitt, the neoconservative position articulated by people like Kristol and Kagan was, by contrast, Leninist; they believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

These quotations are from a New York Times Sunday Magazine article by Fukuyama a week ago.

Spotty says when the rats start donning life jackets you know the ship is going down.

Tags: Francis Fukuyama laments the war in Iraq

Let the revisionism begin!

Commandante Kristol Unholsters His Cap Pistol by James Wolcott.

Second team Spotty is awarded . . .

Three letters in the Star Tribune today, February 28th. Together, they earn the second team Spotty awarded in 2006.

Enabling hate

So Gov. Tim Pawlenty attended a funeral and "was appalled by the behavior and message and insensitivity of the protesters" (Star Tribune, Feb. 24), yet he sees no connection between his support for the constitutional amendment to ban marriage or civil unions for gay couples and the division and hatred it promotes -- such as the antigay picketers at the soldier's funeral last week in Anoka.

Maybe if we called it a fee rather than a marriage or a union, he'd support it.

TROY TEPLEY, MINNEAPOLIS

Sharing a message

Outside a military funeral, they chant "God hates America." We easily recognize the hate in the actions of this antigay group from a Kansas church. Jesus weeps.

Those wanting the gay-marriage-ban amendment are more subtle in their approach. Though our law already prohibits gay marriage, they tear apart churches over this amendment issue, all the while claiming not to hate gays. Jesus weeps.

NANCY LEWIS, BLAINE

This is nothing new

I applaud the state governments that are taking steps to outlaw or limit distasteful funeral protests.

However, I would like to point out that the Westboro Baptist Church has been protesting funerals for more than a decade and has visited Minnesota before. Families that have lost a gay son or daughter have had to deal with this group's demeaning tactics while they said goodbye to their loved ones.

Unfortunately, it took the picketing of military funerals before any legislative action was considered. Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, should be afforded the right to pay their final respects to the people they love in peace.

RYAN BOLIN, MINNEAPOLIS

Ryan makes an especially interesting point. The Westboro Baptist protesters have been around for a while. They were going to picket the Eden Prairie high school graduation at Northrup last year but got mixed up and went to the St. Paul campus; the chickens laid no eggs for a week thereafter.

Eden Prairie High's sin? It has a gay and lesbian student organization.

Tags: gay marriage Westboro Baptist Church

An open letter . . .

. . . to Peter, Wendy, and Tink. When are you guys going to discuss William F. Buckley's comments on NRO saying (what a lot of people have said for a long time) that the war in Iraq is lost? You've been talking about everything but this, like a bunch of school boys whistling past the graveyard.

He was called to the bar . . .

The always hysterical and sometimes entertaining Tink starts a post today:

Nicking

Yesterday Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman published his third column on the two Midwest Heroes ads that give voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Coleman criticizes the advertisements as "propaganda" and heaps abuse on them, although he has yet to demonstrate anything more than his disagreement with their message. Let's name the rhetorical device "nicking," in tribute to the closely related devices of "borking" and "milbanking." "Nicking" combines the two, consisting of someone with no particular knowledge of a subject opining about it based on abusive attacks rather than relevant facts.

Tink goes on to whine at considerable length about Coleman's (and other's) criticism of the commercials.

Boys and girls, Spotty wants to tell you about the “Texas cockroach defense.” It is a tactic in litigation that says If you don’t have a defense, just crawl all over the plaintiff or the prosecutor. And that is what Tink and the rest of the crew in Never Never Land are trying to do. Tink even writes to Kate Parry, the Readers Rep. at the Strib, with his ankle biting.

In his columns, Coleman makes three broad points. In the first commercial, Coleman writes, misleading claims are made. Both WCCO and KSTP agree with that. In the second, Coleman points out that not all members of Gold Star families support the war. Also demonstrably true. In the third, Coleman basically quotes from correspondence he has received from vets expressing doubts or opposition to the enterprise.

Tink’s shuck and jive does not touch these basic points, because it can’t. The best Tink can do is give us an impression of a pettifogging lawyer singing a patter song in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

Spot is actually disappointed in Tink. Spotty thought that Tink would have picked up on the William Buckley talking points about why the US failed in Iraq by now.

Is Sticks a Cubs fan?

Spot has figured out that Captain Fishsticks reprints his columns from the Pioneer Press in his blog. That’s so sad, a real cry for attention. Sticks had a recent column/blogpost on, what else, school vouchers. He writes about the fact that Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, and state Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan intend to reintroduce their education bill to, inter alia, establish a scheme of private school vouchers.

Sticks is so excited he can’t keep his hands off himself.

From the column:

Last week, as point person for the Republican "Students First" initiative, Buesgens stood flanked and supported by more than a dozen Republican legislators, including House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon. He addressed not just Capitol reporters, but a room jam-packed with private school students, interested parents, movers and shakers from conservative coalitions, and a whole lot of people of color. [ed: how many Sticks?]

Remember, these are among the bright lights who brought you the “health impact fee.” Sticks blithely asserts that private school vouchers – including those used for religious schools – do not violate the establishment or free exercise clauses of the federal constitution. We can just lay that aside because, boys and girls, a voucher program can’t even get out of town in Minnesota. Spot has written about Article XIII, Secs. 1 and 2 of the Minnesota Constitution many times; vouchers are not constitutional in this state. There are so many links that Spot will not bother to provide them; just run a search on “school vouchers” in the search box above, or try it at Retire Geoff Michel.

On top of that, this year’s session is a short one, and not a “funding” session. Legislators from both parties will have little patience for the religious fundies or the social Darwinist hunter gatherers like Sticks.

Sorry to disappoint you Sticks, but you’ll have better luck rooting for the Cubs.

A team Spotty . . .

Lotsa good letters today (Friday) in the Strib. A team Spotty is awarded for these three letters, the first one is the “letter of the day.”

In the middle of World War II, his country locked in a real war with a real "evil empire," British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote in a telegram:

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government."

George W. Bush was not yet born when Churchill wrote those words, but for once he seems to have taken a lesson from history. From the wrong side. His "war on terrorism," which will probably see victory about the same time as we win the wars on drugs and crime, promises to construct the foundation of a new totalitarian government.

DAVID GARLAND, MINNEAPOLIS

Here’s a letter picking up on something missed in Spot’s commenting on Katie’s last column.

Thanks to Star Tribune's Katherine Kersten for a rare moment of honesty about the way Republicans think. In response to DFL criticisms of the TV ads run by Minnesota Families United, Kersten says in her Feb. 23 column: "The DFL isn't bothering to present its version of the facts in an ad of its own."

There are facts: like scientific facts and the facts on the ground in Iraq -- where we are on the verge of civil war. And then there is the Republican "version" of the facts. In total honesty Kersten can ask: Why can't DFLers just make up their own version of the facts, too?

JAY H. STEELE, BURNSVILLE

And finally, one that addresses the fruits of five-years of fear-mongering.

Is the xenophobic response to the ports plan racist? Clearly. But what can our government expect? Politicians on both sides have spent five years creating this racism in order to scare the American people into voting not with their brains, but with their fear. Specific language has been systematically used by our president, his adviser and some in the opposition party to erode the lines of delineation between a few really bad apples and all Arabs.

We see results of this effort in letters decrying media bias in favor of Muslims, or blurring "opposition" and "treason." Local Muslims tell us that this effect has, in fact, come home to roost. As television ads remind us, it's easy to use language that may not be completely honest in a persuasive way to accomplish your goals. Just don't blame anyone else when it comes back to bite you.

PAUL PIRNER, MINNEAPOLIS

Tags: civil liberties Katherine Kersten Dubai Ports World

Dictatorship of the Dead

Katie has had some time off, but she is back today, all vinegary and refreshed. It’s Katie’s first weigh in on the Progress for American Voter Fund commercials, the ones with the Iraq vets and the relatives of dead soldiers exhorting us to “complete the mission” in Iraq. Spot has commented before here.

Katie’s bleating today is about the DFL’s reaction to the commercials. In particular, DFL party chair Brian Melendez comes in for criticism. Here’s what the DFL website reports about his comments:

DFL CHAIR CALLS FOR MISLEADING AD TO BE TAKEN OFF THE AIR

ST. PAUL (2/16/06) – Today, DFL Chair Brian Melendez called on all Minnesota TV stations to follow the lead of KSTP TV and pull the ‘Midwest Heroes’ ad off the air. He was joined at a press conference at the State Capitol by Congressional candidate and veteran Tim Walz.

The ad states that the media only reports negative stories, a comment that is patently untrue. As reported on WCCO’s ‘Reality Check,’ 4 out of 10 news stories are positive and the majority of Sunday political news show commentators are conservative.

The ad then states that the enemy in Iraq are the same terrorists responsible for 9/11, and images of Saddam Hussein are shown along with the Twin Towers. This tactic is misleading at best, as the 9/11 Commission Report states that there is no connection between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attack.

“Minnesota has the chance to take a stand against this kind of misleading propaganda,” said DFL Chair Brian Melendez. “Right now, our state is a testing ground for this particular ad, and we can be sure that many more will follow this election season. Minnesota TV stations should pull this ad and send the message that we will not tolerate this kind of swiftboating anymore.”

“WCCO has called this ad ‘misleading’ and only ‘partly true,’ said Chair Melendez.“ Well, partly false advertising insults Minnesotans intelligence. We won’t stand for propaganda that can’t be backed up with fact.”

Spot also read the email that Melendez apparently sent to DFL activists; it is reprinted by Tink; you can read it here. Spot doesn’t see the term un-American used by Melendez in either place as Katie and Tink claim he did, but Spotty did not see the press conference. Whether Melendez said it or not, Spotty will: the commercials are un-American. That’s not the ground that Spot would have chosen to fight on, but if Katie and Powerline want to rumble there, fine.

Katie and Tink feel all, like, wounded over the criticism of local boy Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson who appeared in one of the commercials. In Katie’s column, she wants us to believe that the commercials are the effort of a “grass roots” organization called the Minnesota Families United. But the people who produced and are running the very expensive commercials, and the full color mailings that have gone with them, are from (ready?) Washington, D.C. There is a website called www.MidwestHeroes.com (that Spot cannot get to load at present). But as Spot has observed before, however, the people behind the Progress for America Voter Fund are guys like Ken “Cakewalk” Adelman.

These are the same folks that brought you the commercial during the last campaign of President Bush hugging the child who lost her mother in the WTC bombings. As USA Today said, it was a pure emotional play. And these two commercials are, too. The purpose of the commercials is to short circuit the viewer’s ability to think rationally about the war, how we got in it, and how we’re going to get out.

Spotty says the commercials are un-American because they try to sand bag opponents of the warwith emotional arguments that try to cut off debate. As the old bromide says, Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Actually, on second thought, maybe Katie and Powerline are right. Maybe astro-turfing and misleading appeals to emotion are now part of the American political landscape, at least for some people.

The events of just yesterday and today should tell us that Iraq is not getting better; it is perched on the verge of brutal, sectarian civil war, a war that will leave the country a far more effective breeding ground for terrorists than before. And it’s about time we ‘fessed up to having a role in igniting it.

And our service personnel who have been killed? Tragic, grim, heart breaking. But they are not martyrs. The dead and those who mourn them cannot control the living. That would be a dictatorship of the dead.

Tags: Katherine Kersten Progress for America Voter Fund

Take another look . . .

There is a sentence at minvolved's Morning Read today that says Spotty agrees with Bush. Jeebus, not so loud, CP! Spot is not angling for memebership in MOB. There were a few DLers, well probably more than a few of them, who disagreed last night with Spot's view of the Dubai Ports World kerfluffle.

It is true that Bush's handling of the approval of the takeover - including his threat to veto any efforts to quash the deal - was inept and ham-handed, but that is hardly a distinguishing factor in the pantheon of Bush decision making. It is also true that a lot of Bush's "base" is enraged, which Spot supposes is a good thing.

The latest things that Spot has been hearing on the breezes is the ports operation approval was just tit-for-tat with the UAE because of of the extensive use of port and other facilities there by the US military. So let's see, the UAE is permitting the US to be a coaling station in its supply line to our troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. And in exchange for that, we'll permit the UAE to do some business in the US. Works for Spot.

The second-to-last thing that Spot wants is troops in Iraq. The very last thing he wants is poorly supplied troops in Iraq.

Update: Spotty says go read this article in the Notion by the Nation.

Kum ba yah . . .

Ok, boys and girls; this is a tough one for Spot to write. People all over the political spectrum are going crazy over the fact that a company out of Dubai is set to take over the operation of six major ports in the United States.

The reason this is tough for Spot to write is not because of the proposed management takeover, but rather because he agrees with George W. Bush on this one. Spotty is not sure that has ever happened before, and it is a frightening prospect to face.

It is a mark of how xenophobic and fear-ridden we have become – for which Spotty does blame George W. Bush – that the announcement that Dubai Ports World would, upon acquisition of a British firm, operate these ports has created such a knee-jerk firestorm of opposition.

Even Al Franken got into the act today. When the administration said that Dubai Ports World was being held to a different standard than the current operator, Franken said Yes, but that’s because it’s a Middle Eastern country! Yuk, yuk.

The United States has long had a regime of regulating and limiting foreign investment in industries sensitive to national security, including maritime interests. This transaction was examined and approved by the Treasury Department, just as the one putting the British company in as an operator would have been.

What people are complaining about, and what Franken meant, is that Dubai, part of the UAE, is in an Arab country, or even worse, a Muslim one. Frankly, this is just bigoted. There are perhaps reasons to second guess the administration on its call, but not simply because Dubai is a Middle Eastern country.

Boys and girls, we don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of having better relations with Middle Eastern countries in this generation or the next if decisions are made on the basis of the public’s xenophobic hysteria. Come on liberals, where is your nuance?

By the way, it will still be the Keystone Kops at the Department of Homeland Security (actually that’s not fair; there are a lot of really good people working border enforcement, customs, immigration, and Coast Guard) in charge of security. The real problem is the administration’s inept efforts to beef up port security in the first place.

And don’t worry, the ports will not be overrun by a bunch of Ay-rabs. US immigration law will limit labor immigration for ports work to Dubai Ports World managerial people and perhaps some specialists in port operations.

Settle down; take a pill; get some rest.

Update:

Spotty heard a couple of more points on the radio: Jonathan Alter says that UAE ports were used to transship nuclear material. Nothing has ever been smuggled in or out of a US port? How about a little condemnation of the source of ther material, our buddy Pakistan? And there were a couple of hijackers on 9/11 from the UAE. How about the two US citizens and the permanent resident who were arrested this week on terrorism charges? Bullshit generalization are just that: bullshit.

Tags: Dubai Ports World Al Franken

The Green Fields of France

A poem/song by Australian Eric Bogle, written in the 70s:

Well, how do you do Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

And I see by your gravestone, you're only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
Well I hope you died quickly, I hope you died clean
Or poor Willy Mcbride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in nineteen-sixteen
In that faithful heart are you always nineteen?

Or are you a stranger without a name?
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered, and stained.
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

Well the sun's shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
There's no gas, no barb wire, there's no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard that's still no-man's land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
The whole generation was butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

And I can't help but wonder young Willy McBride
Do those that lie here know why that they died?
And did they really believe you when you told them the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?

Well the suffering, and the sorrow, the glory of pain
The killing and dying they were all done in vain
For young Willy McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again...

Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

It made Spotty think of his post earlier today about the recent pro-war commercials running on Twin Cities television.

Thanks to Desi at Mia Culpa for the reminder.

Update: Be sure to check out the e.e. cummings poem in the comments.

Peter, Wendy, and Tink

In Never Never Land, where Peter, Wendy, and Tinkerbelle live, the United States is winning the war in Iraq. How do they know? Why, it’s plain from listening to the television commercials by the Progress for America Voter Fund. There are two of these commercials you know, the first one involving some returning vets who tell us that the US is “making progress” in Iraq, and the second featuring parents of some of the soldiers killed in Iraq.

Just a couple of days ago, Spot got a full-color flyer in the mail from the same group, making the same claims: a mass murderer is in prison (true enough, but remember he was our thug up to the time Iraq invaded Kuwait), thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists have been captured or killed (well, the US has captured and killed a lot of people, but it is pretty clear that some of them, perhaps most of them, weren’t al-Qaeda), Iraqi hospitals and schools have opened (Halliburton painted a few school buildings, big whoop; it’s a good thing those hospitals are open to treat the wounded from all the sectarian violence!), an new constitution is in place (virtually guaranteeing further sectarian violence and the ultimate disintegration of Iraq), and eleven million people have voted (ditto).

The human capacity for self-delusion is breathtaking. And you won’t find a better exemplar than Tink. Tink writes hysterically about Nick Coleman’s two “hysterical” columns about the commercials. Hysterical laughter. Sorry. Tink doesn’t really rebut any of the assertions made by Coleman; Tink just mostly makes ad hominem on Coleman. Coleman points out that in the second commercial, one of the Gold Star mothers pleading that we send more meat into the grinder (Spotty’s words, not Coleman’s) is a step-mom, and that the biological mom is opposed to the war. The best that Tink can do is spit and sputter and tell us, well, there were real moms in there, too!

Coleman said plainly that he didn’t intend to denigrate or minimize the suffering of any family member, step or otherwise, that has had someone killed in action.

Focusing on the second commercial for a moment – the one with the grieving families – Spot is going to be a direct as he ever has been. No one wants the tragic or untimely death of a loved one to seem random, senseless, or unnecessary. That’s why some people talk about it being God’s unknowable plan (and for whom God must be a mean sumbitch), why foundations are formed and scholarships established to memorialize the lost loved one.

That is exactly what the people in this commercial are trying to accomplish; one of the mothers says so explicitly. But heaping more bloody corpses and maimed lives on the pile will bring no honor to the deaths already mourned. It is just more death and maiming. It is very difficult to accept that your child was killed by mendacity and ineptness. But there it is.

And what of the Progress for America Voter Fund? Well as Coleman points out, its first chairman was Ken Adelman. Adelman, Adelman. Where has Spot heard that name before? Of course! It’s Ken “Cakewalk” Adelman, that same Republican operative who told the Congress that the war in Iraq would be, well, a cakewalk. With leadership like that, the PAVF has got be purveyors of solid information. Right?

Tags: Progress for America Voter Fund Never Never Land

thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa . . .

Here's Uschi Disi, the German biathlete, and her American admirer Mark Yost. In his last post, Spot discussed Yost's "guest column" at Captain Fishstick's place describing the biathlon. Yost also says this:

Not only do the biathletes ski as fast as their cross-country counterparts, but they have to be in good enough shape to slow down their heart rate, steady their hand, and shoot a target 25 meters away with a .22 caliber rifle (in other words, this is not a sport for Mitch Berg or David Strom).

Damn, now that's funny.

Social Darwinist hunter gatherers.

Boys and girls, you have undoubtedly heard Spotty refer to conservatives or libertarians as social Darwinist hunter gatherers. But Spot didn’t realize that it is literally true. Here’s Mark Yost, Captain Fishsticks’s confederate at the Pioneer Press, in a guest column over at Stick’s place:

What will I blog on? Biathlon, of course. It’s the only sport that really matters during the Winter Olympics. And because it involves guns, the MSM can’t be counted on to give it the coverage it deserves.

Yost goes on to wax orgasmic about the biathlon competition at the Winter Olympics. Yeah, scuttling through the woods and periodically stopping to shoot at stuff is the absolute zenith of the Olympic ideal! No need, really, for any other events. It’s just too bad that the competitors don’t shoot at each other, giving new meaning to the term “elimination round!” The US Olympic Committee could hire the veep as a coach.

Spot is soliciting nomination for liberal Olympic events. Spotty offers short track relay speed skating.

Tags: Mark Yost Captain Fishsticks Winter Olympics

Once upon a time . . .

Okay boys and girls, has a sitting Vice President of the United States ever shot another person before? If so, who and when?

Update: The answer is all over the newspapers this morning: Aaron Burr. But CP does pose a good follow-on question in the comments. Readers?

Vice-president Elmer Fudd . . .

. . . shoots a hunting companion. That 's a shameless rip-off of a James Wolcott headline. You can read the Wolcott post here.