Month: July 2008

The gamblers are betting against the anti-gay initiative:

How conveeenient:

On a conference call today, McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin hinted that the onus would be on Democrats to cooperate with McCain on entitlement reform, implying that if they don’t, the Democratic Congress would be to blame for the deficit, not McCain.

The latest from the mullahs in Tehran:

On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.” The text of the bill would add, “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” to the list of crimes punishable by death.

A law against "disturbing mental security." It’s hard to sum up the core objective of theocrats better.

The military develops a scary new technology that

uses the so-called "microwave auditory effect": a beam of microwaves is turned into sound by the interaction with your head. Nobody else can hear it unless they are in the beam as well.

Where were the Iraqi refugees?

Justin Gardner:

After talking with many Republicans who just can’t or won’t get excited about McCain, they’re willing to give somebody like Obama, a guy who seems reasonable, a chance. And let’s be clear…we’re not talking about a massive party swing here. That’s not needed for him to win big. More like a 10% shift and you’re starting to get into landslide territory.

Eight hundred candles are lit to draw a portrait of John Lennon as part of Candle Night 2008 at Saitama Shin Toshin on July 7, 2008 in Saitama, Japan. Seven thounsand candles are lit in total in the city in an attempt to increase awareness of global warming and deliver the climate change message to the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido. By Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images.

A World Bank Report, leaked to The Guardian, claims that biofuels pushed global food prices up 75%:

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

“While the Old Guard are now calmly re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, the younger staffers involved in the RNC/John McCain campaign are just collecting a paycheck and going through the motions. The McCain campaign is merely a resume-builder for them. None of these young staffers really believes in John McCain and none really expects him to win, and the honest ones don’t mind saying so — privately. Most importantly, none of the Beltway conservatives, young or old, can give you a conservative argument in favor of McCain’s election other than (a) "Obama would be worse" and (b) "What about judges? … The GOP is already psychologically defeated. John McCain’s campaign is a symptom, not a cause, of this mindset,” – Robert Stacy McCain.

A reader writes:

You have raised the point that McCain was right about the surge and Obama was wrong.  I do not totally disagree, but I believe the situation is far more nuanced than your post suggests.  The question is, what was the surge going to accomplish militarily?  To the extent it was viewed solely as bringing stability to Iraq, then I believe your conclusion is correct.  But to the extent it was viewed as helping to win the war against terrorism, then I think your conclusion is largely incorrect.  The surge has been successful in helping to control a civil war we precipitated by our intervention into Iraq and prosecution of the war.  But as many predicted at the time of the surge, the terrorists simply took their efforts elsewhere.  Note recent events in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Iraq has never been ground zero in the war on terrorism, and terrorism was never the principal source of the carnage which ensued after our invasion.  The distinction is absolutely critical if we are to understand the plot of the story of Iraq.  In five and one half years, there are now signs that we may have finally subdued a country which posed no threat to us, and harbored few if any terrorists.   By any of the rationales used to launch the war in Iraq, we have hardly won anything.

But then, the real rationales were never stated honestly. 

Oil and military bases were always the objectives.  The rest was just one big lie, a lie which has cost over 4000 American lives and probably more than 200,000 Iraqi lives.  The real story of the Obama equivocation is that as he approaches the Presidency he may well be willing to abet the lies which he initially understood by his opposition to the war.  The harsh reality of the war in Iraq is that controlling the oil supplies and having bases in the Middle East may well be to our long term strategic interest, notwithstanding the moral turpitude of those who launched war on false pretences.   As Obama has the advantage of  the moral high ground given his initial opposition to the war, he now faces the difficult task of dealing with the loot we gained by our pillage of that country.  I doubt that he will simply give it back.  He will draw down forces faster than McCain as you point out because his rhetoric and our economy will practically demand as much. And he will do it in a way that puts pressure on the Iraqi government so that he has a fall guy if everything collapses.  But no one should expect that he will give up the advantages gained by the surge he opposed.  Morality is easily tarnished in the secular world of politics, and Obama has far better cover to get the job done in Iraq than his opponent.  I can think of no greater act of justice than Obama ultimately getting the credit for a wise, even-handed wind down of an immoral war in Iraq in a way that secures the very advantages that Bush and McCain sought from the beginning.  Divine justice I would say.