bustardblog

Primarily Fatigued

A few minutes ago, at about 4:30 , a reporter on channel 13, New York's Pubic Television outlet, complained of the "compressed" primary schedule in Iowa - this despite 3,000,000 inches of newsprint and 37 debates.

Clearly I live on a different planet.

Steroids

In a response to Bob Dole's insistence on fairness, he has been appointed chair of the commission to investigate steroid use in table tennis - which is at least as important as the invauable service rendered by George Mitchell today.

Who's The Fool?

Larry O'Donnel has a sense of humor. The folks on the right do not.

The good folks at Hot Air ranted today on the shockingcowardice of hypocritical liberals, basing their argument on O'Donnell's comm ents as to why he was brave enought to criticize Mormonism, but refrains from criticizing Muslims.  I have not actually heard the tape of O'Donnell's appearance on Hugh Hewitt - but somehow I don't think he would confuse strudel with Mormonism. It should be interesting to see how this one plays out ...

I'm betting that the funny guys at the Weakly Standard and the Ace of Spades were taken is as well.

Otherwise.... the fool is I.

( memeorandum)

Time's Washed

Again, apologies for not blogging. Mme Bustard remains in the hospital, probably for the balance of the week -

Memeorandum, which normally guides me to great places, failed me.  It's like Tonto died. Today they led me to an oped in the Washington Times. Admittedly, it was my fault that I followed.  I was seduced by the title -"American Troops are Winning." I hoped for an answer as to what is being won. It didn't happen

The "troops" did their job long ago - we all remember codpieces and "mission accomplished." Ironically, the author of the piece doesn't seem to understand that if what Bush said four years ago, and what he is writing today, were true, we would not need to sympathize with soldiers "in harm's way."

Like so many supporters of the war, the author's concept of time is skewed - he wonders "how members of Congress, sitting in their air-conditioned offices, can consider cutting off" funds for the fruitless battles of Iraq. For an argument that is based on the difference in Baghdad between June and December, you'd hope for an awareness of the season in Washington

P.S. The writer considers opposers of war a special "interest group."

Cancerous Romney

       The Big C gives another day of reprieve to the Giulianis, Goldbergs, and especially today to Mitt Romney, whose divisive speech on Religion was about as un-American as you can get. Anyone who confuses slogans adopted while Joe McCarthy was at the apex of his power with the writings of Jefferson and Madison deserves to be driven from the public square at the ballot box.  He'll probably win.            

Light Day

Happily for those on the right, the Bustard had to take today off, due to complications with  Mme Bustard's chemo treatments.

The Giulianis, the Podhoretzes and the Boltons have narrowly escaped decimation today. With a little luck, tomorrow will not be so kind to neo-conism, the religion of destruction.

Lucianne's Disappointment

I remain undecided of the import of the NIE on Iran, (at least I know that it exists, better than the GOP front runner in Iowa) but I do know that Jonah Goldberg is a moron.

• He accuses the Washington Post of saying that the revised intelligence was proof that reforms had worked. The first to say this was none other than George W. Bush, who took credit for said reforms in yesterday's news conference.
• He argues that in the case of Iraq "'European governments' were often even more convinced of Saddam's WMD programs and capabilities than US intelligence was." It is conceivable that there were moments over the decades of Saddam's reign when this was true. But at the critical moment, when Bush was urging war, Germany, France, Russia, and others made it perfectly clear that they considered the intelligence insufficient to justify war. Bush claimed that the intelligence was abundant. More important than comparing intelligence findings between Europe and the U.S. would be contrasting  U.S. and Israeli intelligence. Goldberg fails to do so. He continues his dishonesty when he says that the IAEA's "findings also sometimes helped the argument for war."

Commenters on Goldberg''s post include Matthew Yglesias, who was dead on by responding to Jonah's notion that it would be better if the NIE erred in telling us that Iran has WMD than for the opposite error to be made, writing that "the notion that alarmism is a form of caution should have died in the sands of Iraq."

Another commenter was Hot Air, whose internally contradictory post can only be an attempt to confuse matters. He agrees with Goldberg that all assertions that the revised NEI could be the result of reforms made by Bush are patently ridiculous, unless of course it is Bush himself making the assertion. He goes on to focus on neo-con hero John Bolton who personally knows how venal and corrupt are those in the intelligence world. Proof positive is offered by Bolton's recounting of an error made about the wife of the foreign minister of Mexico back in 1986, Republican Ronald Reagan's fifth year in office. It seems the intelligence agency had said that the minister's wife had been a Soviet Citizen!  In fact, says Bolton, she "was a nice Jewish lady who lived in New York and grew up in Brooklyn." (Bolton does not seem to understand that to the CIA under Reagan any 'nice Jewish lady' from Brooklyn was a Commie) This mistake proves to Bolton and HotAir how dangerous the NIE is to national security. HotAir goes on to support Bolton's theory that the new NIE was the creation of pinkos at The State Department, especially a man named Thomas Fingar.  Despite Republican dominance at State for the last 50 years, shameless Joe McCarthy's narrative of commies in the Department still works.
A promoter of Thomas Fingar is none other than the liberal, death squad lover, Negroponte, so you know Fingar must have trained with Che Guevara. In fact he earned Bolton's enmity when he supported an underling who "could not concur" with Bolton's hallucinatory claims of bio-weapons programs in Cuba.  Fingar is entirely a creation of the Bush administration.
My uncertainty about the meaning of the government's release of the NIE has only grown by reading The Corner and Hot Air. My confidence that Jonah Goldberg is a moron remains unchallenged.

Chimps: Very Intelligent Designers

I don't mean to dash your hopes, but don't expect to ever beat a young chimpanzee in a game of concentration. It's not because the animal could not learn the card game - they can. They just have a far better and faster memory than you do.

BBC radio reported on a study in Japan showing both their speed and accuracy was far superior to us humans. See the Video here.

Mike Huckabee, who does not believe in evolution, is in the lead to win the Republican caucus in Iowa.

When running for President, George W. Bush said

"I'd make it a goal to make sure that local folks got to make the decision as to whether or not they said creationism has been a part of our history and whether or not people ought to be exposed to different theories as to how the world was formed."

He personally feels that the "Jury's still out" on evolution.

Meanwhile, in Texas a science teacher for 27 years who then became the Texas Education Agency’s director of science for nine years, was fired:

She "is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism — “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral,” according to a dismissal letter last month that accused her of various instances of “misconduct and insubordination” and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the product of “intelligent design.”

Be sure to see the video.

(memeorandum)

Reading and Weeping.

Please follow this link and read the op-ed by attorney Sabin Willet about her client in Guantanamo.  If there was not one other reason to fight as hard as possible for a Democrat to take thee White House next year the Republicans' promise to keep the prison open is sufficient.

The client is chained to the floor of an isolation cell, similar to ones used by North Koreans against our pilots during the Korean War.  He has been imprisoned for six years. Yet

"No one alleges that Joseph was ever a terrorist, or a soldier, or a criminal. The military told him in 2002 he was innocent. Again in 2003. Again in 2006. "

Still, the U.S. government uses legal gimmickry to keep him chained and locked up.

When you wonder how accurate are estimates of the degree to which the civilized world holds the U.S. in contempt,  please ask yourself if you would have even believed such  a story ten years ago.

We have much to be ashamed of.

(memeorandum)

Driving Miss Judi

Rudi seems to be getting a free pass from the press. The New York Daily News has announced that "New Hampshire, Iowa Republicans Care More About Terror than Rudi Giuliani'sTrysts."  It's an article that may as well have been written by Rudi's campaign; one of those 'man in the street interview' pieces', and in this case it's a grand total of three people in the street, and one former Governor. We are never informed of what the exact questions were. But the answers suggest they could not have been mushier snowballs (we are talking New Hampshire) - you know, the ones that fall apart before they get close to the target. Parts of the answers:

"He's not the first President to have affairs, and hell's bells, he won't be the last"

"I guess I don't really care so much about that when I look at the progress that was made in New York" said a 19 year old

"Anybody who is a Mayor or President, they always have security"

Apparently Rudi himself was quizzed at a Town Hall meeting, and answered that "All this has been answered, I think all of it was answered four or five years ago."

The reporter allows this wholly dishonest response pass without comment. The questioners do not seem to have been asked:

• Should the Mayor use unusual accounting practices, ones that he cannot explain to this day,  to establish a personal slush fund  that enables him to spend money however he feels like it?
• Should the taxpayers of the city of New York pay for policemen to walk his girlfriend's dog?
• Should City policemen be paid overtime while they are charging the price of a tank of gas to the City at an Exxon station in Hazleton PA, where the Mayor's mistress has gone to visit her parents?
• Should the City of New York pay for a car and driver for both the Mayor's wife and his mistress?

Diana Taylor is the girlfriend of divorced Mayor Bloomberg. She receives no security from the City. She gets on a subway or a bus all by herself, even though she is far more recognizable than Judi Nathan ever was.

Unlike many large cities, New York's crime rate has fallen each year since 2001 - the year Rudi left office. I'd guess it's because of all the extra time the police now have to patrol the streets, instead of driving Miss Judi. This scandal is not about what an elected official does in private - it is about what he doing to the public trough.

P.S. Rudi in fact has no record, none, of fighting terrorism.

(memeorandum)