Initial Intervention for our Addiction to Oil?

Instead of turning the rest of Appalachia upside down or drilling in the rare wild lands we have left or ... Amory B. Lovins, CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute, a consultant experimental physicist educated at Harvard and Oxford, gives us an alterative via Tom Paine. Sure it costs money to save money or make money yet as a nation of allegedly sane people this approach seems to have merit. The way Mr. Lovins describes some energy policies as dumb as a possum makes me think he's spent some time here in the Highlands. Peace ... or War!

A Man of Peace in a Land of War

Eric Alterman gives us a link to the Israel Policy Forum where M.J. Roseberg reports on an Israeli father whose 19 year old son Arik was killed by individuals affiliated with Hamas in 1994. Rather than being consumed by hate he went to work on dealing with the root causes of Arik's death. The Arik Institute was established to do this work. Now that Hamas has won control of the Palestinian government, Yitzhak Frankenthal's words and actions seem especially relevant.

Peace or ... War will still often be how I close my posts yet this article reminds us on the dangers of not seeking reconciliation as these efforts, and it is hard and long work often, are truly the only way to avoid the failures of war. We've surely seen the damages done by projecting power when it was surely avoidable and how more harm than good often results. Mr. Rosenberg comments on and gives us this man's words as follows:

Frankenthal believes in communication. He thinks that both Israel and the United States should open up a dialogue with Hamas as soon as it “removes its covenant calling for the destruction of Israel. Israel should challenge the Hamas in positive and constructive ways." ... “My son, Arik, was born into a democracy with a chance for a decent, settled life. He loved his life and believed that we had to achieve peace with the Palestinians or we would not survive. Arik’s killer was born into an appalling occupation, humiliation after humiliation, ethical chaos. Had my son been born in his place, he may have ended up doing the same. Let all the self-righteous who speak of ruthless Palestinian murderers take a hard look in the mirror.”

Budgeting for (or of) a Civilized People?

Today I'll point you to Bernard Wasow, writing for The Century Foundation, who gives us Standing up to False Choices for a follow up on yesterday's comments on the Bu$hCo budget. Mr. Wasow writes,

The central issue in the budget controversy is not military increases versus cuts in social programs. The central problem with this budget—a problem that has marked every Republican budget since 1980—is that total spending is fundamentally out of line with total revenues. We will hear that the cuts in Social Security, medical care and the rest are “necessary” because we are fighting a war and we have limited resources. But resources have been squeezed, via unaffordable tax cuts, exactly to provide the excuse for slashing non-military spending.

Maybe Grover Norquist is going to be able to drown government in a bathtub after all? His old College ReThuglican buddy Black Jack Abramoff and his connection to Bu$hCo and ... have really paid off! The Century Foundation also recently gave us, via Lorelei Kelly, America's Broken Democracy where she wrote,

It is, after all, difficult to have a discussion about inherently government functions with a group of Americans who don't believe in the public sector.

There's the bottom line perhaps? So many Republicans truly don't see the public good as much if anything in the equation it seems. Of course, the government can apparently still serve the Big Mules up some measure of quality. That's just one example of what seems like several a day! WTF? Is this country really going to hell in a handbasket this quickly? A civilized people doesn't let a government stay in power that performs like this one does it? Yet I expect Jesus Land and the Big Mules will send another version of morality along for 2008! At least I can say that it isn't my fault since my candidates never win!

The Captain is tired. Lots of angst with my efforts at serving the public good today. I think a good Scotch might be in order. Peace ... or War!

Bu$hCo Budget

Bu$hCo recently released their proposed budget, such as it is since so much is off the books. A snowball's chance ... yet shows where their hearts and mind(s) are. Let's start with TruthDig, an investigative journalism effort that I'd discovered a while back, but only today added to my blogroll/links, where Robert Sheer asks,

Where would the Bush administration be without terrorism? Like the Cold War before it, the “war on terror” is a conveniently sweeping rationale for all manner of irrational governance, such as the ...

Mr. Sheer(with my emphasis added) continues,

To begin with, we must remember that this “war” was launched against an enemy, still mostly at large, who on Sept. 11 accomplished phenomenal destruction and suffering with armaments no fiercer or costlier than some box-cutters. Their key weapon, in fact, was suicidal fanaticism. ... Yet, rather than sensibly investing in aggressive global detective work, collaborating with our European allies, engaging meaningfully with an independent and skeptical Arab world, and working to protect vulnerable U.S. sites such as nuclear power plants, our leaders decided to turn logic on its head and make ignorance about the enemy into a virtue, slash civil liberties and recklessly invade a major Muslim country that had no connection to the attacks.

The Captain has initially located commentary on the Bu$hCo budget at HuffPo from Katrina Vanden Heuval, Tom Paine from Robert L. Borosage, MyDD from Scott Shields, ... More to follow yet many real conservatives (I'll not link to these sources for the present time) are outraged, even if staying on the team, by many actions of the Preznit and his band of C-plus enablers. Progressives see the way this administration continues with carrying water for the Big Mules. Worst ever! Peace ... or War!

Jeffy B. Shillin AKA Jeff Sessions

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama (for the record Captain Plaid would not vote to have this man as his dog catcher or even pooper scooper) gave yet another wet sloppy kiss to Abu Gonzales yesterday at the NSA hearings. His adoration of Torture-R-US Alberto was nearly as bad as when Abu was going through his ordination.

During one recess Jefferson Beauregard version 3.0 allegedly trotted out Debra Burlingame, a former attorney who regretably lost her brother in the 9-11 atacks, as a bit of a prop. Or maybe Jeff was her tool? He looks the part. Ms. Burlingame's brother, Naval Reserve Captain Charles Frank Burlingame III, who had served the Navy well and proudly from all I've gathered, was piloting American Airlines Flight 77 that eventually was crashed into the Pentagon. Captain Burlingame, known as Chic, was a graduate of Annapolis. Ms. Burlingame seems to have appeared first on the national scene when she took on the Army over their initial refusal to provide burial space for her brother in Arlington National Cemetery.

I wonder if Stormie Janzen (try Wonkette for a small blurred image of the thong that likely set off a storm over Stormie in the polite circles of Senator Session's Alabama) schededuled Ms. Burlingame for Just Kill 'Em Jeff? Crooks and Liars has the video clip if anybody wants to see Alabama's junior Senator make Roy Moore look like an enlightened mind. Of course Senator Session is such a fine American that he was willing to exploit Katrina deaths to get estate tax issues off the table for his Big Mule backers.

Ms. Burlingame has recently offered her opinion (in that bastion of truth at the WSJ.com's Opinion Journal) with her missive telling us that Al Qaeda is a greater threat than the FBI. On Monday the 30th she wrote,

Furthermore, it was the impenetrable FISA guidelines and fear of provoking the FISA court's wrath if they were transgressed that discouraged risk-averse FBI supervisors from applying for a FISA search warrant in the Zacarias Moussaoui case.

Provoking the FISA court's wrath? Impenetrable guidelines? I'll confess she fully loses me with her reasoning. Silly ACLU it is the Court's fault! Or Clinton? Or liberals? Or James Madison and ... ?

Ms. Burlingame once shared her frustrations with the 9-11 Commission, again writing at the WSJ Opinion Journal, and she has also recently appeared on Faux News Hannity and Colmes. Originally frustrated with President Bush being hesitant to support the formation of the 9-11 Commission, Burlingame has clearly come to the aide of the Bu$hCo supporters. Yet now I fear she's being rolled out by various folks that frighten this Scot just a bit. Here's Mudville Gazette and The Moonie Times and Mad Malkin and Bu$hCo 2004 and ... You get the point I reckon.

We've heard tonight that Karl Rove had a black list threat held over certain GOP Senators to keep them in line with Bu$hCo but I expect Jeffy B was easy.

Peace ... or War!

Glenn Greenwald on NSA Spying

Great video at Crooks and Liars of Glenn Greenwald taking down a lightweight wingnut (Faux News might want to give her a show?) question when appearing on C-Span this AM with Bu$hCo apologist and neo-Con Committe on the Present Danger Professor Robert Turner of UVA. Glenn's calm, reasoned approach to the issue is as solid a statement as one could want. He speaks as well as he writes! Kudos! Peace ... or War!

Broke Back Army

Larry Johnson, with a seemingly serious pedigree on security/intelligence issues, is a new discovery that I've added to my blogroll/links. Cruise by the above post (or here) and his blog No Quarter. Indeed a coup might be looming. Mutiny? Save the Republic? Worst administration ever! Peace ... or War.

Scotland's Sunday Herald gives us Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's recent A Man Without a Country, which I've already devoured, appears in part in Scotland's Sunday Herald. Blues for America and A Requiem for America are segments of the book that I think many Plaidsters would enjoy. Peace, but no War this time, in honor of Mr. Vonnegut.

Fight Another Day I Hope

In the New York Times, James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy Under Ronald Reagan, recently questioned Bu$hCo's tactics of attacking veterans like Jack Murtha, Max Cleland, John Kerry, John McCain, ... when the going gets tough, all the while using "support" the troops to lay down cover for the many mistakes of Rummy and Dick and ... James Webb also seemed to strike some middle ground in the run up to the 2004 election with recognition of the conundrum veterans faced in pulling the lever for either major candidate. Apparently deciding to pass on the Virginia Senate race against George Allen, one can hope he'll stay in the arena. In the meantime, head to Amazon for his book Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.

Bu$hCo - Like a Rock

As in dumb as a rock! Chevy slogan yet applying to Ford slashing jobs recently despite the fuel Bu$hCo and the ReThug Congress provided in the form of the American Jobs Creation Act, possibly one of the most improperly named pieces of legislation this cabal has created. Of course there is the Healthy Forest Initiative and ... Plaidsters should scope out George Lakoff at Rockridge Institute on his ideas on framing debates with language that is direct and authentic while it confronts ReThug agendas. Returning to my rant... Ignoring his own economic advisors, Bu$hCo signed off on the legislation allowing Big Mule Pharma and others to slip in overseas profits at a small rate of taxation. Ford took advantage of the law and still dropped thousands of jobs. Drop by Allan Sloan's Newsweek piece titled Tax Holiday : How the nonsensically named American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 allowed Ford to slash jobs while reaping huge job-creation tax benefits to get the full scoop. This is from the Department of WTF as best as I can tell. Good Grief what are they thinking in DC? Peace ... or War!

Nosy Neighbor - Uncle Sam Funds Farming

Recognizing that Big Mule agriculture can at times be a mixed bag, this Scot supports the average family farmer trying to make a living on the land. I generally support the idea of our all helping the little man/woman contribute how they can to place quality foods and other agricultural products in local and even international markets. Yet, I also find it ironic to hear rough rural stock screaming about welfare when they are also being given a hand. Seeing how subsidies work is helpful in understanding the policies that might in fact work against the branchheads. Here's a link to the Environmental Working Group's database, allegedly based on USDA data, showing subsidies paid over recent years.

Beads Buy Branchhead Billions

Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake cites the work of Mary Beth Williams at Wampum and an occasional diary at Kos on the nasty dealing of Casino Jack and how they radiate all through DC and … WTF! OMG! The real focus on how Native Americans and much of the branchheads get hosed might begin with The Gipper, the original and admittedly addled (Is there a pattern here?) tool of the Right Wing Big Mules. Reagan’s James Watts begat Gayle Norton who begat …

$150,000,000,000.00 is a lot of beads! Oil/gas, mining, forestry (and likely agricultural if the Captain is guessing) Big Mules have been able to delay (Delay indeed!) an accounting of the Indian Trust Fund land issue (via access in part to the actual industries books since many Department of the Interior documents have been destroyed) to check for underpayment, fraud, and other nefarious deeds. Courts have ordered this yet the Big Mules have Richard Pombo and John McCain and others to try to force a settlement.

Casino Jack could have worked both ends on this one! Peace ... or War indeed! It seems like war is about all to do as this is hardly peace. I'm about ready to go all Billy Jack on these folks.

Totally Tanned Though Tainted Tool

With a name like Boehner there is a certain toolishness to the new House GOP Majority (I hope soon Minority!) Leader. Tainted with his ties to K Street, yet tanned from his frequent shuttles to Florida courtesy of various Big Mules, the guy is admittedly known to give great party. The Captain has yet to be invited! Drop by Newsweek’s latest from Holly Bailey and Eleanor Clift titled Reform, Washington Style. Surely not the boldest statement from the ReThugs that they have seen the evil of their ways.

I do like two things the Ohio Congressman is reported to suggest. As I understand it, he urges the following: Stop the budgetary earmarking at the eleventh hour plus have full disclosure of the ways lobbyists, engaged to a point in activities protected by the First Amendment, gain influence. It is not the lobbying that should be the focus but rather the way our representatives focus on interests that are seldom that of the branchheads back home.

Efforts like Open Secrets from the Center for Responsive Politics are useful yet having things even more open seem wise. I still think having some mechanism for elections being publicly funded might be a good start, especially given how expensive, plus sound bite and horserace oriented, a campaign is in our current system.

Colbert Goes Newsweek

If you are a John Stewart and/or Stephen Colbert fan you might want to visit The Truthiness Teller at Newsweek. Peace … or War.

Bu$hCo Breaking FISA Laws > No Bang for Buck

Barton Gellman, Dafna Linzer and Carol D. Leonnig give us, in today’s WaPo, another look into the NSA warrantless surveillance program. They write,

The scale of warrantless surveillance, and the high proportion of bystanders swept in, sheds new light on Bush's circumvention of the courts. National security lawyers, in and out of government, said the washout rate raised fresh doubts about the program's lawfulness under the Fourth Amendment,because a search cannot be judged "reasonable" if it is based on evidencethat experience shows to be unreliable.

While I appreciated a need to work on some approach to connect the “degrees of separation” it does seem that this approach is far too intrusive and certainly very ineffective to justify. The reporting ends with Jeff Jonas, now chief scientist at IBM Entity Analytics, who invented a data-mining technology used widely in the private sector and by the government stating, “so far from reaching the level of accuracy that's necessary that I see them as nothing but civil liberty infringement engines.”

Georgia10 at Kos has a nice take on this for Abu Gonzales as he prepares to fake (not a typo) the Senate at hearing tomorrow.

Silly Saturday

The lovely and talented Georgia10 at Kos gives us three links that made even this surly Scot chuckle. Got to laugh to keep from crying! Peace ... or War.

Big Mules Drive Bu$hCo Domestic Policy

"President Bush's proposal to accelerate spending on basic scientific research came after technology industry executives made the case for such a move in a series of meetings with White House officials, executives involved said Wednesday. ..." begins John Markoff's Behind Bush's New Stress on Science, Lobbying by Republican Executives in the New York Times from yesterday. Good ideas perhaps from the SOTU yet the taint of the Big Mules makes me nervous. Of course it seems to take money and power to get access to the Mayberry Machiavellis. Maybe their motives are "pure enough" that good can come even from the "Education President".

Rantings of a Scot?

So why fool with this "work" might be a question? Partly a chance to vent that is admittedly a bit therapeutic. David Neiwert at Ornicus offers up some of his ideas on blogging yesterday. I figure this blog might be a way to grow my practice and maybe even make some money. Could maybe use the blogging to meet "the one" and in the meantime have some fun through meeting new people. Surely I need practice in my writing! May eventually try a local or regional approach to try to do something for my area, and admittedly there is much to be done. Yet mostly expect I'll share this effort (and others that may follow) and certainly my blogroll (to the right) with people I know as a salon of sorts for busy people that are making their way through our world. So much never filters through the mainstream media into our busy lives.

Here's an example of the stuff I want to share from TPM Cafe via Greg Anrig Jr. following up on a report that suggest that kids in regular old public schools outperform those in charter or private schools in standardized math testing once the data are adjusted for family income and ethnicity and ... No surprise to this educator and yet I want to read a little closer before I am prepared to comment. Anrig points out nicely the reactions for various "experts" to the study might need to be taken with a grain of salt. It hard to imagine money having a role!

Certainly a work in progress and mostly practice for now. Peace ... War.

"Broad Deception" ... Isn't That Bu$hCo Basics?

At times I admittedly see the highball as half empty. I was a bit saddened to see that Team Scooter had stalled his trial until after this fall’s elections. It might have helped knock off some ReThugs to have had the first of what might be many court proceedings involving Bu$hCo’s dirty dealings in the news. I think it half full however after reading in the WaPo this morning of The Wall Street Journal obtaining a sealed opinion Circuit Judge David S. Tatel issued in February 2005 when it was Miller Time. Analyzing the memo and doing some more scratching about, Carol D. Leonnig gives us More Allegations of Libby Lies Revealed: Judge's Report Shows Cheney Aide Is Accused Of Broad Deception.

Dick may be especially grumpy these next few days yet Lynne can remind him that Scooter will not be in the dock until January of 2007. I know delays are part of the practice yet can’t help but think of my old Daddy’s saying, “Two continuances are as good as an acquittal.” In this case, as long as it is past November of 2006, at least the Preznit can perhaps pardon with less damage. David Johnson of the New York Times also has a take on the article that doesn’t bode well for The Architect.

Also, Plaidsters might want to read Murray Wass of The National Journal for a recent summary (February 6, 2006) of the whole mess of PlameGate. Wass is also blogging over at HuffPo. And then we have Downing #2 that seems to suggest Bu$h and his BFF Blair were talking about invading Iraq regardless of what the Un inspectors reported.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get Snotty Scotty or Our Leader or Big Bad Dick to respond to real questions about all of this! Dan Froomkin of the WaPo offers his own fantasy via his “White House Briefing” titled It’s the Credibility Stupid on this ... on plenty of others.

Here’s hoping Joe Sixpack can find time during Stupor Bowl weekend to notice some of this mess. Give them bread and games! The Captain gives you “Peace … or War!”

"Heck of a job Bushie"

Christopher Dickey's Shadowland via Newsweek has helped this country Scot understand much about our international world. Today he tackles the Arab response to last night's "speech" with an entry begining with, "Bush’s State of the Union Message confirmed the Arab world’s view of the U.S. president as a caricature who talks about strength and determination while projecting an image of stubbornness and confusion."

What I take out of the article is the damage this administration has actually caused to the legimate (that's a reality-based word for any Bu$hCo apologists that are still angling toward what has lately been labeled by Colbert as "truthiness"!) goal of spreading democracy. Mr. Dickey writes (with my emphasis supplied to what I think is worthy of note) the following:

"Journalists from the region are trapped in a sort of twilight zone between these two relentlessly opposite versions of the past and proclamations about the future. "You are caught between two extremes and neither is right," says Ayman Safadi, editor in chief of Jordan's Al Ghad newspaper. The United States comes with its agenda, but with no real understanding, while the old guard in the Middle East is unwilling to admit it has failed, decade after decade, to deliver on its hollow promises of dignity and progress. In the midst of contradictions, people cling to traditions "in their bubble of anachronism," says Safadi. Those who are attacked or denigrated by the Bush administration, like the Baathist regime in Syria, find themselves lionized by the Arab public. Those applauded by Washington are dismissed as pawns. The result on the ground is often the opposite of the Bush administration's stated desires. "Democracy has a new enemy in the region, which is the support [for democracy] by the United States of America," says Safadi." .... "Ultimately, democracy is taught better by example than by declaration, and here, too, the Bush administration has failed in the eyes of many Arabs and Muslims. It's not that people in Iraq or Lebanon, Iran or Egypt do not want a voice in their governments, clearly they do. And they want change. They pray for it. But none of the changes they've been shown so far have been adequate to their hopes. Nor has their ever-growing contact with truth and justice the American way led them to see it as a shining example. The essence of democracy is public accountability. Bush famously said after the 2004 elections, when the Iraq debacle was clear for the world to see, that he'd had his "accountability moment" and been vindicated by popular vote. Perhaps so. But since then, tolerance in the Middle East for his preaching, or that of the American public, is very low, leaving Arabs and Muslims to continue searching elsewhere for the answers to their prayers."