Dandelion fields forever.

Other voices, other mediums.

Tom Blackburn:

Now, the White House is fighting over the budget in terms of who loves the troops instead of over the usual subject of budgets, money. That's a sham battle to avoid a discussion of how what started out as slapping down a dictator descended into trying to police someone else's civil war.

In his oratory, the president hit a ludicrous low last week when he said, "I believe strongly that politicians in Washington shouldn't be telling generals how to do their job." Mr. Bush should stop believing that.

The Constitution makes him commander in chief and puts Congress in charge of military spending. That is called civilian control of the military. While it doesn't mean that politicians tell generals how to fight, they do decide when and where to fight and with what. Those are the things the debate in Washington is supposed to be about.

Mr. Bush and his politicians haven't been exactly hands-off with the top brass. There has been constant turnover...

Andrew Sullivan:

Conservatives don't like half-assed wars - and this one has been under-planned, under-manned and chaotically strategized.

Conservatives don't like losing wars; and this president has been overseeing meltdown in Iraq and war without end.

Conservatives tend to think armies should be about fighting and winning conflicts;* but Bush has forced the US military to be nation-builders, religious peace-makers, torturers, and civil war policemen.

Conservatives believe wars should be in the national interest;* and let's just say that grinding your military into the dust for the sake of "democracy" in a place where few even understand it and those who do have left is arguably not in the national interest.

And yet no major Republican candidate can yet express the sentiment articulated by William F. Buckley last week.

I like Sen. Hagel's honest foreign policy approach.
From July 2006:

America’s approach to the Middle East must be consistent and sustained, and must understand the history, interests and perspectives of our regional friends and allies.

The United States will remain committed to defending Israel. Our relationship with Israel is a special and historic one. But, it need not and cannot be at the expense of our Arab and Muslim relationships. That is an irresponsible and dangerous false choice. Achieving a lasting resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is as much in Israel’s interest as any other country in the world.

Unending war will continually drain Israel of its human capital, resources, and energy as it fights for its survival. The United States and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world. Neither can allow themselves to drift into an “us against the world” global optic or zero-sum game. That would marginalize America’s global leadership, trust and influence...further isolate Israel...and prove to be disastrous for both countries as well as the region.

It is in Israel’s interest, as much as ours, that the United States be seen by all states in the Middle East as fair. This is the currency of trust.

The world has rightly condemned the despicable actions of Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel and kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Israel has the undeniable right to defend itself against aggression. This is the right of all states.

Hezbollah is a threat to Israel, to Lebanon and to all who strive for lasting peace in the Middle East.

However, military action alone will not destroy Hezbollah or Hamas. Extended military action is tearing Lebanon apart, killing innocent civilians, destroying its economy and infrastructure, creating a humanitarian disaster, further weakening Lebanon’s fragile democratic government, strengthening popular Muslim and Arab support for Hezbollah, and deepening hatred of Israel across the Middle East. The pursuit of tactical military victories at the expense of the core strategic objective of Arab-Israeli peace is a hollow victory. The war against Hezbollah and Hamas will not be won on the battlefield.

Let's talk about Israel. This type of story might have a bit to do with the MidEast conflict or conflagration, if you prefer.

Imagine if all the time, energy and money we've wasted had been invested instead in a Palestinian state. Or better, if the world community led by the United States had said to Israel, "No. No more settlements until the boundaries are drawn. You don't get to continually "take" property that isn't legally yours.

The original Balfour Declaration warned:

An official letter from the British Foreign Office headed by Arthur Balfour, the UK's Foreign Secretary (from December 1916 to October 1919), to Lord Rothschild, who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people. The letter stated that the British government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".

Justice, justice you shall pursue. No one faith or peoples have a monopoly on justice. The laws of physics tell us for every action, there is a reaction.

A starved and beaten dog is to be feared more than one with a full belly. We don't get many mainstream tales of Palestinian suffering, but let's just call them dogs here for the sake of argument. Bombing alone didn't work in Lebanon. That war, in fact, undid all the good of the Cedar Revolution. Instead of letting the Lebanese handle Hezbollah on their own terms, the bombings (cluster bomb deaths continue to this day -- not the way to make friends among innocent civilians) STRENGTHENED Hezbollah.

Destabilizing countries is not a plan. Starving into submission won't work. Living next to neighbors with a hellish quality of life (undeniably contributed to by Israeli policies) is never never going to bring security, no matter how high you build that fence. Wait and see. (It's not a wish. Just a sad acknowledgment of reality. See history.)

I'll give my one vote (for what it's worth; I fear the politicians have to make promises just to get in the campaign money game) to the first politician who recogized that finding an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should be priority number one. American and Israeli interests are not necessarily the same here. We need American leadership, for the sake of ourselves and yes too, for the sake of Israel's continued existence. Sometime a good friend has to offer harsh advice but in the end, they turn out to be a better friend than one who encourages or downplays your mistakes.
----------
*whistle minor foul:
overuse of semicolon where a comma would do just as well. Eliminate the "ands" and "buts" for a truer use of a semicolon there?


ADDED: For all those who say Israel needs to build this border for security reasons, fine. Let them build it on their own land, and if any displacing needs to be done, displace Israeli's to build it. Might cost more, take more enginering know-how, but taking away the homes and rich farmland of innocent Palestinian families is not an option in resolving this ongoing conflict. Collective punishment does not work. It will only breed honest enemies, eager to pursue justice in whatever way they can. Not justifying, just explaining, encouraging a fresh approach that might sustain true success in the long run. "Shock and awe" and all this expensive technology will not win the wars alone, nor make anyone safer or more secure. Some peoples might accept that; some do not.

Americans should not have to live like Israelis. It's not our way. We're just too big to adopt the same tactics as Israel is now: walling herself up in an us vs. the world approach.

Amazing...

OAKLAND, Calif. - A gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Sunday, creating such intense heat that a stretch of highway melted and collapsed. Officials predicted a traffic nightmare for Bay Area commuters for weeks or months to come.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash, which officials said could have been deadly had it occurred at a busier time.

"I've never seen anything like it," Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. "I'm looking at this thinking, 'Wow, no one died' — that's amazing. It's just very fortunate."

And caused by accident, thankfully.

The tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline ignited after crashing into a pylon on the interchange, which connects westbound lanes of Interstate 80 to southbound I-880, on the edge of downtown Oakland about half a mile from the Bay Bridge's toll plaza.
...
Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.

The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete. Officials said that altogether a 250-yard portion of the upper roadway was damaged.

What American accent do you have?


I'm with the 14% who have a Northern accent.

If I didn't know someone who mispronounces, I wouldn't believe "cot" and "caught" could sound the same... and I can't stand it when people say "melk" for "milk". (That one's not in the quiz, just a personal pet peeve.)

Hello, did you sleep through the soft vowels class?

Accountability.

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly.

Are we really helping the people? Is the cost in terms of lives worth this kind of progress, and who decides?

Maybe we just need to have a purple finger-painting party and pretend we are still helping to sow democracy? You know, when they throw candy to the kids, they get smiles. Of course, the kids are warned because many have died from collecting the sweet treats. Still, some just want smiling kiddies, convinced that our little candies are helping better their futures. How arrogant.

Consequences in human lives.

Why, here's another real-life military leader -- not a Dem or a Repub even, but a neutral -- offering advice to the president:

WASHINGTON - President Bush should sign legislation starting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Oct. 1, retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom said Saturday.

"I hope the president seizes this moment for a basic change in course and signs the bill Congress has sent him," Odom said, delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address.

Odom, an outspoken critic of the war who served as the Army's top intelligence officer and headed the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration, delivered the address at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. He said he has never been a Democrat or a Republican.

The general accused Bush of squandering U.S. lives and helping Iran and al-Qaida when he invaded Iraq.

"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place," he said. "The president has let (the Iraq war) proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued. He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies."

Odom said he doesn't favor congressional involvement in the execution of foreign and military policy, but argued that Bush had been derelict in his responsibilities. This week Congress passed an Iraq war spending bill that would require Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq on Oct. 1.

Say, how's that smear job working for ya, pundits?
Gonna accuse this guy of losing it for us too? Heh.

Somehow...

I don't think they'll be any more secure.
Call it a hunch:

JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) - Israel is to confiscate 23 hectares (57 acres) of Palestinian farmland in the occupied West Bank for its controversial security barrier, according to a military order seen by AFP on Saturday.

The army on Friday told the village council in Bardaleh, north of the city of Jericho, that the land would be confiscated "for security reasons" in order to extend the barrier Israel says stops suicide bombers.

Those who own or use the land are invited to apply for compensation, said the order, a copy of which was given to AFP by Bardaleh council.

An army spokesman confirmed the confiscation of the land, but stressed that "all owners of seized property will receive appropriate compensation."

A senior Palestinian official criticised the order.

"We strongly condemn this decision and we call on Israel to cancel it immediately," said Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Israel says the 700 kilometre (435 mile) long barrier, made up of concrete walls and razor wire fences, is necessary to protect the Jewish state against terrorists.

Palestinians say the barrier is a land grab which eats up chunks of their promised state, separates farmers from their land and splits families.

The International Court of Justice, in a non-binding decision, ruled the barrier illegal in 2004. Israel has pressed on with construction, which is 65 percent finished.

It's like an Israeli Kelo -- we need to take your private land, for our better private interests. (here, the "security" catch-all for one set of peoples) Why negotiate or buy at market price when the government can claim a pressing local interest and "take" ?

"Why's everybody always pickin' on me?"

WASHINGTON - Paul Wolfowitz encountered stiffening opposition Saturday to staying on as World Bank president amid allegations he showed favoritism in arranging a promotion and pay package for his girlfriend.

European countries led by Germany and France want Wolfowitz to step down, while support for the embattled president has eroded in Nordic nations and elsewhere, according to bank officials and others close to the situation.
...
Critics, including World Bank staff, former bank officials, the European Parliament, aid groups and some Democrats say the controversy has damaged the development institution's reputation and may hobble its ability to fight global poverty. They are pressing Wolfowitz to step down on his own.

Wolfowitz has said he made a mistake, and he has apologized. He plans to make his case before the special panel on Monday.

"It's only one win. We know we have to win four instead of three," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "But in a game where we weren't playing that well and things weren't going our way, we were able to overcome it."

Maybe it is for real...

Chicago leads the series 3-0 — a cushion no team has ever wasted in NBA history — and will go for the sweep in Miami on Sunday afternoon.

And he fights... just like a woman.

But he breaks just like a little boy.
-------------
Specialization is good when it advances efficiency. But one drawback is that many specialists don't have real-life experience outside their specialties. Would I want a brain surgeon teaching my kid to play baseball, if he knew nothing about the game? No. But he's a brain surgeon! But this is baseball, not brain surgery. The expertise doesn't carry over. Unfortunately, the specialists don't seem to know where their expertise ends, and where the working people have a better grasp on the score on the scoreboard. Those suiting up to get in the game know better; they can't weasel out of their mistakes like the spectators, cheering and jeering loudly.

Pundits know how to grow interest. Glenn Reynolds (of the "Heh" and "Indeed" mentality) and Eugene Volokh, former Supreme Court clerk and computer whizkid, are good at what they do = Chattering. But they don't know war, and if they think we're winning over there, they're in .... denial.

Look at today's military: how many officers are enlisting from the military schools after serving their time? It's down*. By lowering standards to fill uniforms, and by politicizing the war for short-term interests, you lose the men who fight for tradition, honor and excellence. ... Some know how to win elections, but not wars. Such winning tactics ultimately breed losers where it counts. Divided we fall. This isn't news to anyone I hope.

So go ahead, chattering experts. Smear this guy, and pretend it's the Democrats who are making us lose by waving the white flag, and conceding "game over". I don't know any sport where you get to go extra innings without having earned it, proved yourself worthy of staying in the game. (Maybe the chattering boys didn't play physical sports, though?)

BAGHDAD - An active duty U.S. Army officer warns the United States faces the prospect of defeat in Iraq, blaming American generals for failing to prepare their forces for an insurgency and misleading Congress about the situation here.

"For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq's government and security forces, and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq," Lt. Col. Paul Yingling said in the article published Friday in the Armed Forces Journal.

Several retired generals have made similar comments, but such public criticism from an active duty officer is rare. It suggests that misgivings about the conduct of the Iraq war are widespread in the officer corps at a critical time in the troubled U.S. military mission here.
...
He said Congress must reform and better monitor the military officer promotion system it has to choose generals. The Senate should use its confirmation powers to hold accountable officers who fail to achieve U.S. aims, he said.

"We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policy makers on the preparations needed for our security," he wrote.

Most Americans agree that accountability is something that's been missing for far too long as too many have been given a free pass for the work that's not getting done. Accountability -- who knew it could strike fear, even in a brain surgeon up to bat for the first time ever? Maybe where you're at nobody keeps score, but most folks I know have been filling in their scorecards all along. They're not in denial about players, performances or success either.
------------
*West Point grads exit service at high rate
War's redeployments thought a major factor
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | April 11, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Recent graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point are choosing to leave active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, a sign to many military specialists that repeated tours in Iraq are prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers.

According to statistics compiled by West Point, of the 903 Army officers commissioned upon graduation in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service last year -- 35 percent at the conclusion of their five years of required service, and another 11 percent over the next six months. And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show.

The figures mark the lowest retention rate of graduates after the completion of their mandatory duty since at least 1977, with the exception of members of three classes in the late 1980s who were encouraged to leave as the military downsized following the end of the Cold War.
...
The rising exodus is blamed on a number of factors, including the economic lure of the private sector. But interviews with former West Point superintendents, graduates, and retired officers pointed to another reason: the wear and tear on officers and their families from multiple deployments.

"Iraq is exerting very strong influence on the career intentions of junior officers," said retired Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, a former superintendent of West Point, who recently outlined the war's toll on young officers in a speech to West Point alumni in North Carolina.

See, there's no such thing as a never-ending war. There's a reason the longrunning Cold War was "cold" you know. Intensity, unlike spectating, is not highlighted in a war of attrition. Perhaps if you've ever had a physical fight in your life -- and won -- you'd know that. Quick, overwhelming, decisive. This never-ending stuff is really a long-range blueprint for creating a messload of casualties. Our casualties.

If your head was in the game, and not chattering in the stands, perhaps you'd know that. It's easy to play a risky (and ultimately unsuccessful game) when you don't have to pay a damn thing for losing. That's why working folks get pissed when managers whose foresight runs the company into the ground walk away with golden parachutes. No accountability = losing, more often than not. And some of us out here... HATE losing, and understand that it's not really the Democrats to blame after 4+ years of Bush/Cheney/cheerleader military leadership (They got rid of all the guys in the administration with fighting experience for offering contrary views. Again, wins elections but not wars.)

But shhhh.... the chatterers chafe at true facts, choosing to believe only those that fully support their misguided opinions. Brain surgeons teaching baseball... and losing and denying. Say, what is their plan now? Oh yeah, cheer louder. Heh. In deed.

Maybe they could run those early debates like Thursday night Survivor? See who rallies together, maybe give a little physical fitness/mental puzzle challenge, hide an immunity idol, and start to cull the herd? Just kidding. No cable here (hey, I'm cheap) so sadly, no debates and only weekend basketball too.

Speaking of, is this for real, the running of these Bulls? Nice when everybody is a threat to score, and you don't lean too heavily on one or two, no? Let's see if they can play like they're at home when they're not at home. Never too late to adjust and win more away...

What... no Amazing Grace?

That's like a Thanksgiving table with no sweet potatoes.
(Now I'm thinking, Amazing Graze -- that's inspirational.)

When we've been here 10,000 years
Bright shining as the sun...
We've no less days to sing God's praise
As when we've first begun.

And they say Heaven'd get boring after awhile...

Have a great day.

Because it's not going away anytime soon.

Step aside sooner rather than later, Mr. Wolfowitz:

Graeme Wheeler, the bank’s managing director, said at the meeting that the fight over whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank amounted to the “the biggest crisis in its history.”

He said it arose from a range of issues, including fears that Mr. Wolfowitz and his aides were trying to impose Bush administration ideas on family planning and climate change at the bank and worries over a possible conflict of interest in the bank’s hiring of a Washington law firm, Williams & Connolly, to investigate leaks. A partner at the firm had earlier negotiated Mr. Wolfowitz’s employment contract with the bank.

Mr. Wheeler also said Mr. Wolfowitz’s staying on would cause “fantastic damage” to the bank’s reputation and effectiveness.

Thoughts?
1) Only a fool would sink the whole to save one man.
2) Denial makes a fool out of many a man. In-deed.

Say it again...

“The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideas of heroes, and they don’t need to be told elaborate tales,” she said.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy is my favorite Halberstam book. Here's a snippet from Victor Navasky's* 1969 NYT review, which included another book on Kennedy.

Pulitzer Prizewinner David Halberstam's "The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy," is better written, more analytic and more judgmental than "85 Days," but ultimately it is less successful. Partly this is because many of Halberstam's perceptions, first unveiled in Harper's Magazine profiles on Robert Kennedy and Allard Lowenstein (to whom Halberstam assigns a more significant role in the Robert Kennedy story than does Witcover) are by now familiar elements of public discourse.

It is also because "Unfinished Odyssey," as a comparison of titles suggests, is more ambitious and experimental. For example, Witcover's organization is chronological, predictably proceeding from top-secret deliberations in New York through campaigning in Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, California, the murder, the memorial service, the train, the funeral and the aftermath. Halberstam starts with Allard Lowenstein's anti-Johnson movement, takes Kennedy through the Indiana primary, then flashes back over his career before his campaign, picks him up again in Nebraska, rather sketchily follows him through Oregon and California and there the book stops. It doesn't finish, it just ends, as Kennedy ended, abruptly, on election night. His structure--unfinished, incomplete--is his metaphor.

The final sentence reads: "Then he descended to acknowledge his victory, to talk about the violence and the divisiveness, and to let a nation discover in his death what it had never understood or believed about him during his life." It didn't quite work for me on first reading (in fact, I thought my copy was missing the concluding chapter) but the more I think about it, the more I find it provocative.

-----------
*Navasky's Naming Names -- about Hollywood's blacklist-- is also on my shelves. Another quality work.

RIP David Halberstam.

One of journalism's best and brightest, snuffed out too soon.

In 1964, at age 30, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Vietnam.
...
Speaking to a journalism conference last year in Tennessee, he said government criticism of news reporters in Iraq reminded him of the way he was treated while covering the war in Vietnam.

"The crueler the war gets, the crueler the attacks get on anybody who doesn't salute or play the game," he said. "And then one day, the people who are doing the attacking look around, and they've used up their credibility."

In-deed.
In other news today:

BAGHDAD — Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

The attack occurred in Diyala province, a volatile area that has been the site of fierce fighting involving U.S. and Iraqi troops, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

And Mr. Wolfowitz is lawyering up for a fight. Girding his loins, so to speak. "Total good faith." Heh. ("Send lawyers, guns and money; The shit has hit the fan.")

WASHINGTON — World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has hired a prominent attorney as he fights to keep his job, in jeopardy for arranging a generous compensation package for a bank employee with whom he has been romantically linked.

"I want to be sure that he receives appropriate treatment and fair treatment," Robert Bennett, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, said Monday.
...
"I've reviewed all the material — all the relevant material — and it is absolutely clear to me that he acted in total good faith in this," Bennett said.

Crow to Rove: Mind your place... peon!

I heard on the tv this morning there was no joking this year at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on account of Virginia Tech solemnity. Still, this bit has me feeling mild sympathy for Karl Rove -- nobody likes a party harpie.

When environmental activist Laurie David was introduced to Karl Rove, (a guest at one of the Times’s tables though this conversation was out of our earshot) during the dinner, she confronted him on global warming. The brief discussion quickly turned, well, heated — so much so that Sheryl Crow walked over in a show of support. They said Mr. Rove surprised both of them with his reaction, as they wrote in a blog on Huffington Post this morning. Ms. Crow reportedly told him: “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.”
“I don’t work for you, I work for the American people,” came the reply. And that was that.

In the long run...

Probably the most important news last week was the Court's abortion decision.

Who decides? Whether male, post-menopausal, celibate, smart, or one who knows the richness of embracing fertility, abortion doesn't affect all that many people percentage-wise. But the principle here should not be overlooked.

Let's take a minute:
It's not shocking to say that you'd prefer medical decisions to remain in the hands of the individual, with high regards to the opinions of chosen medical advisors/providers, is it? That was the (admittedly flimsy procedurally) foundation of Roe, right? Respect the doctor and the individual woman over the goverment. She has that individual right to bodily integrity.

To ban medical procedures for everyone because so few will be affected*... and to leave a crack as Justice Kennedy purportedly did for those few to further pursue their rights, it can just slip by. But the principle... that slipperly slope technique that advocates drag out so fondly in warning us to look ahead...

Is it rude to write that looking at their principles in practice, it's not wise to trust the government to be the decider -- that we're better on the road of encouraging people to think for themselves? Maybe that is egotistical, accepting responsibility for your own choices, but it makes for a much freer place in the long run. For all of us.

ADDED: Another interesting medical story last week was news of technology that a woman might be able to prevent monthly menstrual bleeding. Thinking ahead, someone suggested that convenience might lead to less recognition of early pregnancies -- many are not planned, they say. Might the government have an interest here too? Where does the reach into regulating technologies begin and end?
-------
*If puncturing the skull inside the woman to kill the fetus there before delivery causes chipping and possible bone fragmentation in the woman's womb, it's possible to imagine a scenario ** where a capable and medically trained doctor might wish to recommend this "partial birth" procedure for his patient. To clear the fetus skull from the womb where it can be cleanly punctured. Coldly but rationally acknowledging, either way the fetus dies.

** As in the case where it might affect whether she later could bear a healthy pregnancy and child. Rare admittedly, but repugnance -- religious or otherwise -- should not override the potential advice a principled OB/GYN can offer his patient. IMHO.

Everybody's on the Virginia Tech Hokie story: angling for the best policy advantage, annointing heroes, and amazing that death can touch us here too, apparently. (God bless the living.) Like Columbine, a generation of students will be swept up. The passivity saddens me. Naturally you wonder how other people in other times would respond; we're truly a led rather than a leader culture it seems. Conditioned to accept that there can be few leaders, and maybe even losing that understanding that of course you lead yourself. Even today.*
---------------

Onward...
Mr. Gonzales got the day off for the emergency cancellation;
Mr. Wolfowitz does not:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department ordered a contractor to hire a World Bank employee and girlfriend of then-Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 for work related to Iraq, the contractor said on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, said the Defense Department's policy office directed the company to enter a subcontract with Shaha Riza, under which she spent a month studying ways to form a government in Iraq.

Wolfowitz, a key Iraq war architect who left the Pentagon in 2005 to become president of the World Bank, is already under fire for overseeing a high-paying promotion for Riza after he took the helm of the poverty-fighting global lender.

Drezner's taking bets now to see which one will go first. Me? I'm just waiting for the next of these two to go-- got an applicable hockey cheer on ice. Wait and see.


-----------
*Myself, always been surprised @ how many folks think they're a leader because someone told them so. Nope, look around. People following your lead? Voluntarily? Run with it...

Nice warm palm, eh?

Some dos and don'ts for dealing with abandoned or injured baby animals

.

Paddling and Tilling.*

(Create your own thought caption** on this one.)

...





...





...
Time!

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*A: What I did "Sun"-day, both for the first time this year.
**Points for creativity though if your answer was kinda sick,
in healthily perverted kind of way. (And they wonder @ there's no comment section here :)

Realizing Vienna awaits...

Caravans of buses carry commuters daily in and out of Vienna -- the city is just an hour's drive from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and closer as the crow flies to Ukraine than to Austria's western border with Switzerland.

The coming wave will change the face of Vienna's immigrant population, currently dominated by Turks -- many of whom came for work in the 1960s -- and people from the former Yugoslavia, both seeking work and fleeing the 1990s civil wars.

However, while the Turkish community is visible in parts of Vienna like the Ottakring district where Turkish fruit stalls dominate the market, eastern Europeans tend more to blend in -- much as they did in the past.

The new forecast puts Vienna among the 10 fastest-growing European regions, in a league with flourishing areas in Ireland and parts of the Netherlands and Spain, ahead of the shrinking countries from which many of the new Viennese originate.

The expected shift in immigration comes after Austrian companies, especially banks, acquired a series of firms in eastern Europe and have transformed Vienna into a regional commercial hub over the past 15 years.

Austria shielded itself against a glut of cheap labor with transient quotas for workers and bans on self-employed craftsmen when eight eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004, followed by Romania and Bulgaria this year.

But those restrictions are due to expire by 2011, and have not stopped Austrians from stealthily hiring Czech nurses for their elderly relatives, Slovak cleaners and Polish builders.

"Future immigration will to a large extent come from EU member countries, and therefore be hard to contain, even if you wanted to," says Thomas Madreiter, head of urban planning at the city of Vienna, which commissioned the as-yet unpublished study.

How many chances does one man get?
Isn't Paul Wolfowitz ready to retire already, and stop serving the public at such great cost? Talk about track record. And no, I didn't see the comb footage, so really it's nothing personal. It's just the free passes,

I mean, have a little shame buddy?

The scandal centers on the pay of people around Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president. Kevin Kellems, an unremarkable press-officer-cum-aide who had previously worked for Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, pulls down $240,000 tax-free -- the low end of the salary scale for World Bank vice presidents, who typically have PhDs and 25 years of development experience. Robin Cleveland, who also parachuted in with Wolfowitz, gets $250,000 and a free pass from the IRS, far more than her rank justifies. Kellems and Cleveland have contracts that don't expire when Wolfowitz's term is up. They have been granted quasi-tenure.

Then there is the matter of Shaha Riza, a long-standing bank official who is Wolfowitz's romantic partner. She went on paid leave (seconded to the State Department) after Wolfowitz arrived; her salary has since jumped from $133,000 to $194,000. When questions were first asked about Riza's rewards, a spokesman declared that the matter had been handled by the bank's board and general counsel, implying that the bank president himself had not been responsible. But the truth was that Wolfowitz had been closely involved, as a contrite Wolfowitz admitted yesterday.

Treating an anti-poverty institution this way would look bad under any circumstances. But the scandal is especially damaging to Wolfowitz because his leadership had generated questions already. He has alienated the staff by concentrating too much power in the hands of Kellems and the abrasive Cleveland; he has alienated shareholders by presenting half-baked strategy ideas; he has alienated borrowers by blocking loans, sometimes capriciously. Moreover, Wolfowitz has made the battle against corruption his signature issue.

(Highlight: His lady made more than Sec. of State Rice. Makes the Lewinsky/Revlon et al set-up interviews seem like small potatoes, eh?)

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Don Imus
Jon Corzine
a 17-year-old from Oakdale, MN...

There's a lot of pain out there today -- mental, physical, and God-we-can-only-imagine. The only common denominator here is they're all human. Somehow that feeling of human pain gets left out these days in the recounting of life interest stories.*

I wish our world had more big picture thinkers, like the 81-year-old quoted at the end of that last one. People today think empathy shows weakness; I think empathy shows the powerful cost of life. In the end, it ups your respect for the circular life cycle. Sow/Reap/Repeat.

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*re. human interest stories:
For example, it doesn't matter to me so much that Rudy Guiliani doesn't know that a gallon of milk is well above $1.50... it's that he doesn't seem to realize that a lot of people know exactly how much a gallon has risen in recent years. You'd think they'd bone up on the costs of household items and consider how regular folks budget and prioritize to keeps things balanced. Empathy

Dry Minnesota humor...

Kron v. Nelson:

"If the people in my district had voted for slavery, and if the vast majority had, and I was representing them, the answer is 'yes,' I would have voted for it," Nelson said at a Feb. 27 board meeting. " 'Cause that's my job. My job is to represent the people in my district."

The video was posted to YouTube late last week, prompting four citizens to speak out against Nelson at a board meeting Tuesday, and spurring the commissioner to apologize "if I offended anyone in any way," Nelson recalled in an interview Wednesday night.

He said that he remained committed to heeding majority will, but added that if the people in his district advocated slavery, he would have no choice but to resign. "That is a hypothetical that everyone knows would never occur," Nelson said. "But, absolutely, I could no longer represent them."
...
Nelson's comments came during a board debate over a proposed county smoking ban. He said then that he opposed the ban because most of his constituents wanted him to -- and that he had always followed the will of the people he represents.

It was a philosophy that he had espoused many times before, said Commissioner Bill Kron, who, emboldened by a then-recent viewing of the anti-slavery film "Amazing Grace," decided to pose the slavery question. Though not captured on the YouTube clip, Kron recalls saying to Nelson: "There are some issues of conscience where the majority may not be right; for example, would you have voted for slavery if the majority of your constituents would have?"

Asked to describe the immediate response at the Feb. 27 board meeting, Kron said that he and his colleagues were "stunned into silence."When we broke for lunch," Kron recalled, "we said, 'Did he really say it?' "

On Wednesday night, Nelson accused Kron of drawing parallels between smoking and slavery.

Vincentian personalism at DePaul.

Answer: Scoring standard in Finkelstein v. Dershowitz

Playing your own game.

They were not mean, they were not vengeful, they did not look to knock Imus dead in the public square. They wanted us to see exactly who had been insulted and how. This they did with great style.
...
By saying what he said, Don Imus had not just insulted women in this fashion, he had insulted a bunch of wonderful kids. He hadn't gone after Al Gore or Dick Cheney this time, but people's daughters.

Precipitation.

or...

"Put the Storms Down."

Some folks just learn faster than others.

"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that."

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine spoke to Rutgers players Monday and said later that he strongly condemned Imus' words.

"There is absolutely no excuse for his conduct, and he is right to apologize," Corzine said. "Only the Rutgers women's basketball team, however, can decide to accept his apology. If Mr. Imus really wants to go and learn from this, he should watch how these young ladies carry themselves. He might just learn from their example."

Give the people ...

what they want.

"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people,'' said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched.

"After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded." A senior official in al-Sadr's organization in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a "call for liberation."

"We're hoping that by next year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty," he said. Al-Sadr did not attend the demonstration, and has not appeared in public for months. U.S. officials say he left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the Feb. 14 start of a Baghdad security crackdown, but his followers say he is in Iraq.
...
Al-Sadr, who commands an enormous following among Iraq's majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government, urged his followers not to attack fellow Iraqis but to turn all their efforts on American forces. "God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them — not against the sons of Iraq," it said.

Al-Sadr had reportedly ordered his militia to disarm and stay off the streets during the Baghdad crackdown, though he has nevertheless issued a series of sharp anti-American statements, demanding the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

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Give the People
What they Want,
II.

As Congress investigates the politicization of the United States attorney offices by the Bush administration, it should review the extraordinary events the other day in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin. The case involved Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges just as her boss, a Democrat, was fighting off a Republican challenger. It just might shed some light on a question that lurks behind the firing of eight top federal prosecutors: what did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?

Ms. Thompson, a purchasing official in the state’s Department of Administration, was accused by the United States attorney in Milwaukee, Steven Biskupic, of awarding a travel contract to a company whose chief executive contributed to the campaign of Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. Ms. Thompson said the decision was made on the merits, but she was convicted and sent to prison before she could appeal.

The prosecution was a boon to Mr. Doyle’s opponent. Republicans ran a barrage of attack ads that purported to tie Ms. Thompson’s “corruption” to Mr. Doyle. Ms. Thompson was sentenced shortly before the election, which Governor Doyle won.

The Chicago-based United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit seemed shocked by the injustice of her conviction. It took the extraordinary step of releasing Ms. Thompson from prison immediately after hearing arguments, without waiting to issue a ruling. One of the judges hinted that Ms. Thompson may have been railroaded. “It strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin,” Judge Diane Wood told the lawyer from Mr. Biskupic’s office.

Ms. Thompson’s case is not the only one raising questions about whether prosecutors tried last year to tilt close elections toward the Republicans. New Jersey’s federal prosecutor conducted an investigation of weak-looking allegations against Senator Robert Menendez that was used in Republican ads.

Congress should look into both cases to determine whether partisan politics played a role — and whether they were coordinated with anyone at the Justice Department or the White House.

The list of things to investigate keeps growing. A federal agency that protects the rights of military employees is now investigating the firing of David Iglesias, the New Mexico United States attorney. Justice Department officials said he was fired in part because he was out of the office due to his commitments as a Navy military reservist. If so, the firing may have been illegal.

There is also trouble in the Minnesota United States attorney’s office, where the administration recently installed Rachel Paulose, a 34-year-old with scant management experience. Three of her top assistants have resigned their management positions, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that they did so out of dissatisfaction with her. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, said the resignations were more evidence of the attorneys’ offices being “deprofessionalized.”

The White House is resisting making Karl Rove; Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel; and other top officials available to Congress. Mr. Schumer proposed last week that their testimony could, at least as a first step, be taken in private, but with a transcript. Clearly, he made the offer to move the investigation forward. But any agreement to conduct such interviews should make it clear that they would be followed by open testimony before Congress. The integrity of the Justice Department is a matter of overriding importance.

Voters should be able to see and hear the testimony for themselves.

My job...

is an awesome job!*

Is there anything wrong with a Bush administration that disproportionately uses graduates from Christian law schools to fill its staffing needs? Not that I see. It's a shorthand, no better or worse than cherry-picking the Federalist Society or the American Bar Association. I can't even get exercised over the fact that Gonzales, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers had their baby lawyers making critical staffing decisions. The baby lawyers had extremely clear marching orders.

No, the real concern here is that Goodling and her ilk somehow began to conflate God's work with the president's. Probably not a lesson she learned in law school. The dream of Regent and its counterparts, such as Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, is to redress perceived wrongs to Christians, to reclaim the public square and reassert Christian political authority. And while that may have been a part of the Bush/Rove plan, it was only a small part. Their real zeal was for earthly power. And Goodling was left holding the earthly bag.

----
*Lyrics.

"This pardon is a gift...

to the British people."
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Oh and the games people play.

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