Before finally being deposed and right up to his final moments, Donald Rumsfeld frequently argued that those who did not support the war in Iraq had failed to learn the lessons of history. He said that it had been a mistake to appease Hitler in 1938 when the Germans retook the Sudetenland, and that it was a similar mistake to treat with Saddam Hussein. The problem, of course, is that Rumsfeld takes one example from history, and a more ambiguous example than many think, and makes it a universal principle of statesmanship. That wouldn’t be so bad if Rumsfeld hadn’t been in a position to persuade the president and others and, in fact, might not be that bad if there had been a little analysis of the idea itself. Since I’ve been preoccuppied with other things lately, I haven’t written about this, but just because Rumsfeld is gone, the Rumsfeld mentality is not and it bears some examination.
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Popularity: 23% [?]

I sent the following letter to my representative asking him to look into the Charles Swift situation. Swift, a military lawyer, mounted a serious defense of an accused prisoner and may have been the target of retribution for having done so. (more…)

Popularity: 31% [?]

600,000 Dead FRom Iraq War

This made big headlines – “600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion,” 56% of them from gunshots. There is a wide range in the estimate (from 426,369 to 793,663 with 600,000 simply being near the middle of the range).
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Popularity: 25% [?]

President Bush, addressing the United Nations, said that American forces and interrogators were being hampered by the vague language of the Ten Commandments and added that he did not wish US forces to be bound by them. Democratic leader Harry Reid accused the president of trying to “reinterpret” the Decalogue.
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Popularity: 36% [?]

The Bush administration responded forcefully today to critics of “aggressive interrogation”, known euphemistically as “torture lite.” Critics, including the FBI, have alleged that torture is ineffective and does not elicit quality information from suspects. The Bush administration has pointed out, however, that these techniques have been extremely effective in the past. Notably, press secretary Tony Snow said, torture saved Europe from witches in the past and can save us from terrorism today. (more…)

Popularity: 29% [?]

I have just learned of a group calling themselves the Revolt of the Elders. The group consists of retired Republican members of congress who are organizing against the current house leadership and calling out members of their own party who have abandoned their ethics and principles to partake in the lobbyist fueled, corporate run, no holds barred down and dirty politics of the day. It’s an interesting bunch for sure. Check out their Open Letter to House Leadership and Pete McCloskey’s letter on the Goodstorm blog.

The amazing thing about all this is that Newt Gingrinch and Barry Goldwater, both vilified for their arch-conservative politics and, in the case of Gingrinch, attack politics and general nastiness, come off looking like heros. Who would have guessed. Like the bumper sticker says, “I Never Thought I’d Miss Nixon…”

“I Never Thought I’d Miss Nixon…” bumper sticker

Popularity: 6% [?]

Now that we’re looking at building a house, we’ve entered into the “per month zone”. This is the zone where nobody ever tells you how much something actually costs, but gives youthe price per month. So in Home Depot, you look around and see tags that say “Only 16.99 per month” on a dishwasher. Great. For how many months? At what interest rate? At what total cost? It can take some hunting to find the price. I was thinking that, given the huge credit card debt that most Americans carry, this practice should be illegal. It’s like reverse compoung interest. I buy something today that’s only $16.99 per month. That can’t hurt right? Then I buy one tomorrow. And the next day. And so on, once per week for two years. Now I owe $1700 per month. Ouch! By taking large numbers and making them small, they don’t seem so frightening.

But then it occurred to me that since Americans seem to think in terms of cost per month, maybe we could use this to encourage responsible government. When we have fully electronic voting, we can integrate some simple caclulators. Before voting, everyone inputs their income and how many deductions they have, and then it takes them to a ballot and they get to vote:

• Prescription drug benefit. Your cost: only $14.99 per month.
• War in Iraq. Your cost: only 49.73 per month
• Safe drinking water. Your cost: only $0.76 per month
• Corn subsidies. Your cost: only $2.23 per month. But wait! Rebate at the checkout on your food and fuel: $0.23 per month!

Congress and lately the courts have struck down a presidential line-item veto and perhaps rightly so. Perhaps with improved voting technology, however, we could create a line-item veto for the citizenry. The key would be to have all of the items tallied at the bottom. You want to help out those poor Iraqis and all those family farmers Archer Daniels Midlands, then go ahead and vote yes on all measures. Your cost: only $1543.29 per month!

Popularity: 13% [?]

According to the latest buzz, the future of American energy lies with biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. According to the Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM) commercial, somewhere in Kansas a farmer is rising at 5:00am to plant the corn that ADM will turn into ethanol and the soy that they will turn into biodiesel that will save the environment and get us out of Iraq. Biofuels can be produced domestically and they are net carbon zero fuels, meaning that they sequester as much CO2 during production as they give off when burned, so they don’t make a net contribution to greenhouse gasses. In addition, they burn relatively cleanly so they should have a postive impact on air quality. In the case of biodiesel, furthermore, it can be made from cast off vegetable oil, so the jillions of gallons of deep fry oil from MacDonald’s can find a second life powering Willie Nelson’s bus rather than just going into the waste stream. Reduce, reuse and recycle, right? What’s not to love? Several things actually.
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Popularity: 16% [?]

In the summer of 1959 there occurred a series of events which demonstrated our national ignorance in a shameful and nearly fatal manner. Briefly, the United States threatened intervention in a foreign country for reasons which, it turned out, had no basis in fact… Our Secretary of State called the situation grave; our ambassador to the U.N. called for world action; our press carried scare headlines; our senior naval officer implied armed intervention and was seconded by ranking Congressmen, including the Chairman of the National Committee of the Republican Party, which was then in power (p. 12-13)…. In the eyes of the world, the United States looked very foolish at best, and very dangerous at worst (p. 28)…. We have thrown away our good will and political strength by an ignorance which led to false confidence and corruption. We have clumsily alienated potential supporters by neglecting them for a few “pets” and have repelled others by maladroitness (p. 30).

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Popularity: 18% [?]

During today’s press conference, Bush was asked what his biggest mistakes and regrets were with respect to Iraq. Of course, even I wouldn’t fantazise that he say “Going there in the first place” or “Lying to the United Nations” or (to be more charitable) “Not vetting our intelligence better”. I was surprised that he actually was willing to admit some errors at all since in the past he has refused to do so. This time he said he regretted saying things like “Bring it on” and “Wanted dead or alive” and he regretted what had happened at Abu Ghraib. I suppose if you were George Bush, it might be hard to come up with a short answer to the question “What are some mistakes you regret from your administration.” First off, though I don’t think the mistakes Bush mentioned even scratch the surface, but I do appreciate the fact that at least he answered the question straight up and picked some pretty serious mistakes. The things he chose to mention say something about Bush, though I’m not sure ecactly what. A few things come to mind though. First off, he sees what happened in Abu Ghraib as a mistake made by his administration. That’s not an unreasonable accusation, but it would also be reasonable for a politician to shirk responsibility for that and say that it wasn’t really an error on the part of the administration. It is also a bit different from being asked whether the administration takes responsibility for Abu Ghraib and responding in the affirmative. In this case it was picked more or less out of thin air and it does show that Bush takes responsibility for mistakes that were not directly his fault. Though it’s obvious to some of us that Abu Ghraib was indirectly Bush’s fault on so many levels, it surprised me that Bush sees it that way.

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Popularity: 10% [?]