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Monday, September 13, 2004 |
Misperceptions
Yesterday we had the Solano Stroll in Albany & Berkeley, a big street fair that draws a good 10,000 to the two-mile long street fair. It's always fun, lots of good food, weather is almost always good, lots of people to watch. I spent an hour valet bike parking for the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.
Anyway, there was one funny thing along the way, and most people I spoke with had the same reaction. Two guys were walking along with big signs that said "Barbara Boxer Supports Gay Marriage." My first reaction was to think they were Boxer supporters, and as they walked by me, I said, "good for her!" Then I saw the back of the sign, and their t-shirts, adn realized they were condemning her! The other side of the sign said "Marriage = 1 man and 1 woman." What's funny was that everyone I spoke with had the same reacion.
Other booths I appreciated were the American Atheists, not getting a lot of attention, which figures. I mean, it's kind of strange to have an organization of those who don't believe in something. Can you imagine an organization of those who don't believe in Santa Claus?
10:22:33 PM Permalink
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RIP Kenny Buttrey
Kenny Buttrey played on such landmark albums as Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Harvest, and After the Gold Rush. Listen to the way the album John Wesley Harding, with just three musicians, rocks. It's a masterpiece, and Buttrey's playing was key to it.
9:31:27 PM Permalink
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U. S. News and World Report Is a News Magazine
U.S. News and World Report says the obvious about George W. Bush's slacking off at the Air National Guard:
USNews.com: A review of President Bush's National Guard years raises issues about the time he served (9/20/04): A review of the regulations governing Bush's Guard service during the Vietnam War shows that the White House used an inappropriate--and less stringent--Air Force standard in determining that he had fulfilled his duty. Because Bush signed a six-year "military service obligation," he was required to attend at least 44 inactive-duty training drills each fiscal year beginning July 1. But Bush's own records show that he fell short of that requirement, attending only 36 drills in the 1972-73 period, and only 12 in the 1973-74 period.... [H]e failed to attend enough active-duty training and weekend drills to gain the 50 points necessary to count his final year toward retirement.... Bush did not comply with Air Force regulations that impose a time limit on making up missed drills. What's more, he apparently never made up five months of drills he missed in 1972, contrary to assertions by the administration....
Some experts... remain mystified as to how Bush obtained an honorable discharge. Lawrence Korb, a former top Defense Department official in the Reagan administration, says the military records clearly show that Bush "had not fulfilled his obligation" and "should have been called to active duty."... [Bush] did no drills for one five-month period in 1972. He also missed his flight physical. By May 2, 1973, his superiors said they could not evaluate his performance because he "has not been observed."
Albert C. Lloyd Jr., a retired Air Force colonel who originally certified the White House position that Bush had completed his military obligation, stood by his analysis. After a reporter cited pertinent Air Force regulations from the period, he complained that if the entire unit were judged by such standards, "90 percent of the people in the Guard would not have made satisfactory participation."... [O]ther experts disagree. "There is no 'sometimes we have compliance and sometimes we don't,' " says Scott Silliman, a retired Air Force colonel and Duke University law professor. "That is a nonsensical statement and an insult to the Guard to suggest it." The regulations must be followed, adds James Currie, a retired colonel and author of an official history of the Army Reserve. "Clearly, if you were the average poor boy who got drafted and sent into the active force," he says, "they weren't going to let you out before you had completed your obligation." [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]
3:53:45 PM Permalink
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Creationism and the Presidency
John Dvorak wonders what the president believes about creationism? Creationism is, of course, the belief that the world was created just a few thousand years ago. Consequently, all the evidence we have that it's older is just stuff the creator put here to trick us, and is a test of our faith. I was hoping someone would ask that of Gore and Bush in 2000, and I'd like an answer to it now.
1:46:29 PM Permalink
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Homeland security?, Budget? No time for that,...
Homeland security?, Budget? No time for that, we gotta protect the flag!  Kerry, Edwards and Daschle May Face Vote on Flag by Helen Dewar
For some Republicans it is the perfect political storm: a Senate vote on a constitutional amendment to protect the U.S. flag that would put Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, running mate John Edwards and Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle on the spot just a few weeks before the Nov. 2 elections.
The Senate GOP leadership has not scheduled a vote on the proposed amendment, but Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) noted last week that it is a high priority for veterans groups. Other Republicans say a vote is likely before the Senate's Oct. 8 target date for adjournment.
(...)
Some Republicans believe the three Democrats' votes against the proposal -- or absence when the roll is called -- can be used against them effectively at a time of war, terrorism threats and heightened patriotism. If Kerry and Edwards vote against the amendment or fail to show up for the vote, "they're going to have to explain why," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a key backer of the proposal.
But Democrats describe the GOP strategy as a cynical ploy that could backfire among voters who are fed up with "gotcha" politics and congressional inaction on other issues. They also say such divisive initiatives could dash any prospects for serious business being accomplished over the next month.
"All they're doing is setting the stage for 30-second ads for the campaign," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), a foe of the measure. [more]
[Craig's BookNotes]
1:09:19 PM Permalink
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It's All Good
Once I've applied the conservative New York Times filter to this article, I'm left with the unescapable conclusion that it's a good thing that Afghan citizens are rioting against their government, because it shows that they're paying attention, and that riots wouldn't have been possible under the Taliban (which, by the way, is totally eradicated).
On a more serious note, it's imperative that we start focusing on Bush's botched adventures in democracy and nation building. After flip-flopping on the entire idea, it would have at least behooved him to do it competently. [Pandagon]
1:04:53 PM Permalink
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How to Lose a War
Andrew Sullivan writes:
Here's a quote that unnerves me. It's from a Sunni insurgent who was once, he says, pro-American. What turned him into an enemy? The incompetence of the occupation, in part, beginning with the post-liberation looting: "When I saw the American soldiers watching and doing nothing as people took everything, I began to suspect the US was not here to help us but to destroy us ... I thought it might be just the chaos of war but it got worse, not better." My own hope a year ago was that the sheer amount of reconstruction money that would be spent in Iraq would surely win over the population. But I was dumb enough to believe that the Bush administration was competent enough to spend it. Barely five percent of reconstruction funds have been disbursed. I wish the blogosphere would focus more on this particular scandal than on the provenance of type-writers in the 1970s. And what's worrying about this particular ramshackle terrorist is that it appears he has taught himself. He isn't sponsored by Iran or the Baathists or al Qaeda. I guess the Observer could be peddling propaganda, but the story reads persuasively to me (the terrorist reveals his own racism, for example, hardly an interpolation by his p.c. British interpreters). We have to face facts, I'm afraid: we have helped create a classic guerrilla insurgency in Iraq in which the U.S. is struggling not to be defeated politically. The consequences of failure are exponential. And yet I see no awareness in the administration - or even among many of their supporters - that they even have a problem.
There was never any reason to believe this administration had the sense, the will, or the ability to pull this off. To make this work, everything would have had to have gone right. It looks like now we're killing and killing. Maybe it'll work, and we'll kill the bad guys, but it sure looks like we're creating more enemies instead of getting rid of them. And, as Sullivan says, the campaign hasn't been about this at all.
11:04:41 AM Permalink
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the rich are different from you and me
Gets to decide which orders to obey
White House spokesmen said there was no point in Bush taking his required pilot's physical in 1972 because he had already decided to move to Alabama, where there were no F-102 planes. To fly another plane, he would have had to undergo extensive retraining.
Doesn't
Mejia, a 28-year-old Iraq war veteran, was convicted in a Fort Stewart military court of desertion on May 21 after refusing to return to his Florida National Guard unit after a two-week leave in October.
He was sentenced to a year in a military prison, received a dishonorable discharge and was reduced in rank from a staff sergeant to a private.
In his conscientious objector application, Mejia claims he saw Iraqi prisoners treated cruelly while he was overseeing the processing of detainees at al-Assad, an Iraqi air base occupied by U.S. forces. [Sisyphus Shrugged]
8:56:03 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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