Sic Semper Tyrannis

"Sic Semper Tyrannis" Policy

This blog seeks to promote reasoned discussion on a wide variety of topics of interest to the proprietor.  All point of view are welcome subject to the following:

- Arguments must be well reasoned.

- Arguments must be supported by evidence if that is possible given the topic.

- Opinion is welcome if well argued.

- Insults are not allowed.

- ad hominem attacks are not allowed.

- Gross language is not allowed unless present in quotation or used in such a way as to not violate other SST policy.

- Excessive length is undesirable.

- SST is for orginal thought.  Do not use the blog as a bulletin board for other blogs.

These policies are subject to revision by the proprietor.  pl 

The TARP is welfare for Wall Street

"We are not on the verge of a new depression. The housing bubble collapse in California, Florida and a few other states is not enough to bring down the entire banking system. Investors who made mistakes in these markets should be held responsible and those who navigated the Fed-distorted market should be rewarded for their wisdom and prudence. Enacting the Paulson plan will not allow that to happen and our economy will suffer for it in the long run. The Japanese tried to prop up failed banks in the aftermath of the bursting of their twin bubbles and the result was 15 years of stagnation. Why are we emulating a strategy that is a demonstrable failure? A better alternative would be to allow capitalism to work as it should and stop the interventions of the Fed in the money market. Trust capitalism. It works."  Joseph Calhoun

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Amen.  The Wall Streeters like Paulson, the professors like Bernanke, and the true politicians like Pelosi have now managed to herd us toward a future in which government runs the private sector through "interventions" of the kind described in this article.

The members of the House of Representatives who have resisted this process of consolidation of the government and the plutocracy into one thing should be rewarded for their action.  Let us hope that a lot of them vote against the TARP.

Calhoun is right.  The markets will sort this mess out if given a chance to do so.  They are in the process of doing it now.   The TARP is the product of the desire of the wealthy to protect their equity in companies that have failed.  To some extent  the failure was caused by a misguided government policy of "guiding" banks to a policy of making foolish loans to people who had a low probability of success in re-paying them.  Cleverness and greed then played a large role in devising elaborate and fantastical schemes for securitizing "empty" loans, loan futures, and "slices" of loans into tradable junk.

Finance is a truly Darwinian "arena." If it is not, then it is merely another government department.  Is TARP a step on the path that leads to a planned economy?   pl

PS  Oil is at 101.15/bbl as I write.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2008/09/in_times_of_crisis_trust_capit.html

"ACORN" as code

Whoever it was that counseled McCain that he should deny Obama legitimacy by acting as though he were not there at Ole Miss did him a great disservice.  McCain's attitude is being interpreted as crypto-racism, and it may have been.

Now we have a similar sentiment being expressed in other kinds of code.  A particularly rabid exponent of this point of view wrote to SST to express surprise that after " all those years of service to the United States" I should now want to "give the country to an anti-American Marxist."  I think the code is rather clear there.  The only thing missing is the word "n----r" after "Marxist."

At the same time, blog posts and Fox News Sunday are "blossoming" with references to ACORN, the left wing coalition of descamisados involved in various efforts of a socialist flavor.

The claim is implied or stated that Obama is a Marxist black nationalist apparatchik because he has had some sort of connection to this group or to the "Weathermen" terrorist Ayers.  Having had many such efforts against the man fail, the effort will now be made by McCain's friends to use this claim to provide "cover" for a racism so deep that it does not speak its own name even in the hearts of many so afflicted.

I will not tolerate a lack of civility, but I invite a reasoned argument about Obama's character and his loyalty to the United States.  Bring your evidence.  Make your case.  Do not try to post here what has been posted elsewehere.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACORN

After the Oxford debate...

Having watched it, I would say that Obama wins on points as a gentleman and McCain loses on coming across as a victim of coaching by brutes like Rick Davis et al.

There will be those, like the oaf Chris Matthews, who will think that McCain's attitude shows him to be a leader.   I think it shows that he was not raised well.  His refusal to look at Obama throughout the debate, his dismissive tone of voice when continually speaking of Obama in the third person as though he were not there, his inability to say anything good about his opponent, all showed him to be a natural bully or someone who has been taught to be a bully.

I had hoped for a Queeg moment, but, it was not to be...  Maybe next time if he keeps sliding in the polls.

At one point he went on and on about his experience and how important that was in a president.  He must think that he is immortal.  Unlikely.  I suppose that he did not see the irony implicit in his choice of Sarah Palin as his designated successor.  pl

Vote for Obama/Biden

The time has come when I should say that I wll vote for the Democratic Party ticket and urge others to do the same.

Senator Obama is more to the left than I would like, but Senator McCain's patently erratic character and bellicosity are more risk than I can vote for in the context of the present world situation.  His discomfort with domestic issues adds to my conviction.

I think Obama has the intellect and the character to be president.

Sarah Palin?  She does not know enough to be trusted with the presidency any tme soon.

For what it is worth, I would like to see an Obama cabinet that includes Senator Hagel, probably at Defense.  At the same time I think Obama would be wise to appoint Bill Clinton to be ambassador to the UN and Senator Clinton to the Supreme Court.  pl

The political circus.

It is evident that Barack Obama does not inspire confidence in much of the electorate. Once again, his numbers should be higher than they are in the polls.  Is that crypto-racism at work?  There is probably a lot of that, but there is also unease at the "marble" quality of the man, his unflappability, his unshakable calm, his mastery of every situation.   Someone said yesterday that Obama becomes visibly calmer and more in control of himself as situations deteriorate around him.  It would seem that these would be desirable qualities in a president but it does not seem to work very well for Obama.  People clearly wonder what is underneath that stony surface.

At the same time, "Uncle" Joe Biden is on tape "remembering" that after the 1929 Wall Street crash, President Roosevelt went on television to reassure the American people.  Unfortunately, Roosevelt was not president until 1932 and television was not a feature of telecommunications until after World War II.   Wow!

On the other hand, there is Sarah Palin.  Talking to Couric yesterday she said some truly brainless things.  Among them:

- She implied that as governor of Alaska she somehow is involved in defense of American air space and territory against Russia.  Wow!  It is true that she is by state constitution, the head of the Alaska National Guard, but that power is not effective against foreign threats to the United States.  She could use the Alaska Guard against a natural disaster or a riot, but she has no authority at all to do anything about Russia.  The US armed forces have a "Unified Command" for Alaska.  The "Alaskan Command" with headquarters in Anchorage is altogether responsible for defending Alaska and Alaska's air space, not the state government.  She should know that.

- She also expressed once again the vague idea that Israel should not be "second guessed" in whatever Israel decides to do in the world.  When asked a question about the necessity for discussion between the US and Israel over future courses of action, she approved that idea as well.  She does not seem to have thought through the consequences of telling a foreign country that the United States will "back their play" no matter what they do and whether or not the United States has agreed to their action in advance.

Then there is John McCain.  There will be something in this space about him tomorrow.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Command

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_debate

Let's see the two cabinets.

This presidential election is going to be a close thing.   Many are skeptical about McCain and others do not trust Obama.

It might be helpful at this point if the two candidates would make it clear whom they intend to nominate for the various cabinet posts.

This will be difficult because of promises made on the order of the grand scam in "The Producers," but a disclosure would nevertheless be helpful to the electorate.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cabinet

No Paulson bail out!

“I think what Paulson hopes to do is say, ‘If you don’t do exactly what I want you to do, the whole world’s going to collapse on Tuesday’,” Gingrich said.

The former Speaker, talking to reporters at a lunch, added that he expects Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) to back the plan. He predicted that, if Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) ends up opposing the administration proposal, there will be an overnight “emergence of a McCain/reform wing of the Republican Party.”  The Hill

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Gingrich is right.   He may back down, but he got it right in these statements.  Paulson and Bernancke are trying to "bulldoze" the Congress and citizenry into accepting this plan.  They are doing it in just the same way that the Bush Administration "bulldozed" the people and the Congress into both the Patriot Act and war against Iraq.  The broadcast media are cooperating in this.

Well... There wasn't any Iraqi nuclear program left.  There was no cooperative relationship between Saddam's wretched government and al-Qa'ida.  There will be no "end of days" if Wall street is left to stew in its own broth.

Our friend, "WP," wrote to suggest an alternative way of dealing with the present economic crisis.  He writes that, at root, the crisis rests on the issue of defaulted and soon to be defaulted mortgages, mortgages that for the most part should not have existed.  Bad credit card debt is another big piece of the problem.  The huge structure of bubble debt created by unlimited trading of derivatives rests on consumer defaults.  "WP" suggests directly funding the consumers so that they can pay their debts.

Let the rest "Go South."  The worthwhile bits of the companies will be bought by other firms.  The death of the rest will serve as an example for the foolish and greedy.

American society in recent years has moved steadily in the direction of becoming one in which there are two classes, "les nobles," and everyone else.   That process will be slowed up for a few years by this disaster if the American taxpayer refuses to fund the nobles' grandchildren's trust funds.  pl

Download national_relief_program_for_consumer_mortgages_and_credit_card_defaults.doc

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gingrich-urges-vote-against-stupid-paulson-plan-2008-09-23.html

The big states and the liitle ones.

"But while the Senate simply requires a majority of its 100 members to select the vice- president, the House must vote by states, with each state delegation having a single vote, and a majority of the states (at least 26 of 50) required to agree on the winner.

This is called "the unit rule". The founding fathers centred the idea on the fact that the nation was a confederation of states rather than a pure democracy of individual voters. Just as the electoral college is state-based, the House selection of the president in the case of deadlock revolves around the states.

The unit rule has been employed twice in US history, in the long-ago elections of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson emerged as president, and 1824, when John Quincy Adams was elected. "  Larry Sabato

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Larry Sabato, then a little known political science professor at the University of Virginia, was a "talking head" at the Republican state convention that nominated George "Macaca" Allen for governor of Virginia.  Sabato confidently predicted that Allen would never be elected.   Somehow, Sabato has come to be an authority on many things.

This article is quite entertaining.  It puzzles over the intricacies of US election law in the eventuality that there is a tie vote in the Electoral College. What fun!  The federal nature of the US union is always the subject of complaint in election years.  The basic issue is that the little states (in population) have, in many ways, the same political weight as the big states.   In the US Senate, this factor is always with us, the product of the Great Compromise that made the union a possibility in the first place.  A lot of people do not like that.  I suppose that they live in big states.  Sabato makes the statement that US "values" are different now than they were....  I doubt that.  Perhaps political science professors have different values than they once did, but, then, there were no political science professors on hand when the constitution of the United States was written.  Thank God.

The futility of the discussions concerning American federalism always impresses.  The little states are clearly not going to accept any constitutional amendments that deprive them of the division of function and power that was the basis of the union to begin with.  A bargain is a bargain.

How about a constitutional convention?  Yes, how about it?  Could the scope of the changes wrought by such a convention be limited in advance?  The first constitutional convention seized control of the process and created a new kind of government.  It had been called to modify the Articles of Confederation.  Would the new document be subject to ratification by the states?  What would happen if some states did not ratify?

Let sleeping states lie.  pl

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7626471.stm

Revolution Anyone?

"Last week Barclays paid $1.75 billion to buy Lehman’s North American investment banking and capital markets business. It emerged over the weekend that Barclays had agreed to pay $2.5 billion in bonuses to Lehman bankers in the United States in a move that has angered stricken staff in London."  London Times

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So.....  While we have been told by the future tumbril riders (Paulson et al) that we all should agree to cough up 700 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street, the British bank, Barclays made a deal to pay off the people who wrecked Lehman Brothers so that they won't suffer the consequences of their own greed and stupidity....

I never really appreciated before what this country and Britain as well, evidently, have become.  pl

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4799674.ece

Paulson's Plan

I listened to Treasury Secretary Paulson a lot this morning as he explained the "plan."   Under his concept, the federal government will buy a great deal of presently worthless securitized mortgage debt, hold it for years and then sell it to someone who wants it, presumably because the value of the underlying real estate has gone up.  The institutions from which the federal government will buy the debt will play a large, perhaps decisive, role in setting the price at which they "are willing" to sell the now worthless debt to the federal government. 

Paulson hopes that the institutions that will be unburdened of this worthless paper will once again soar like eagles (wasn't there a song?).  This would seem likely to lead to high profitability for the unburdened institutions with lots of money for all.

Wait!  Not so fast!  Paulson is not enthusiastic about requiring the "unburdened" to give the government warrants for future stock sales to the government.  Such warrants would enable the tax suckers (us little people) to buy the companies at distressed prices (like, now prices) and sell the stock at later higher prices so that the Treasury of the United States (us tax suckers) could make money out of this whole thing.

Paulson also does not think that in return for the US government buying the nearly worthless mortgage securities, the "unburdened" should accept restrictions on executive compensation.  Why?  He believes that such a restriction would cause the presently burdened institutions to refuse to sell the government their "treasured" worthless paper.  Hmmm.

When asked why he thought the presently worthless mortgage "bundles" will become valuable some day "over the rainbow," he expressed faith in the future of America.  Bless him!  pl

If I do not understand this, explain it.  pl

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atwDaTfVQX64&refer=home

Saving the Yuppies

"Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."  NY Times

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What is it about these Republicans that makes them think they can dictate to the Federal Courts and Congress?  Is the passage in red not a challenge to the Supreme Court?

From other talk in the media it seems that it is at least being discussed that these defaulted mortgages shall be purchased by the federal government (us) by a process of "reverse auction" (???? say what?).  This is reported to be a method by which the banks would sell to the federal government at the "lowest price that they are willing to accept?"  That can't be right.  Sort it out for us all someone.

It is being said by some that these mortgages that we will own shortly, might be worth a lot of money someday and thus the tax stiffs (us) might be repaid with interest?  Does anyone understand how that would happen?

All in all this sounds like a scheme designed to save the hides of the semi-rich, and newly rich Yuppies on Wall Street, they who live by the lever.  I speak not of the truly rich.  They covered their asses against this possibility long ago.

What was it that Leona Helmsley said about the "little people?"  That was before she took up her new vocation as a laundress.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

All politics is tribal?

"Our brains tend to remember facts that accord with our worldview, and discount statements that contradict it. In one Stanford study, 48 students, half of whom said they favored capital punishment and half of whom said they opposed it, were shown two pieces of evidence. One confirmed the claim that capital punishment deters crime, and the other contradicted it. Both groups were more convinced by the evidence that supported their initial position, a phenomenon known as biased assimilation.

This is one reason that propagandists can be effective simply by creating confusion. Unscrupulous campaign strategists know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked."  Nieman Watchdog

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People believe what they want to believe.  If you live in a community where the shared belief is that dark skinned foreign people are all part of a threat to your own community, then the idea that the world is more complicated than that is easily rejected in favor of a generalized hostility to the outside world.

The same thing applies to dark skinned foreign people.  In their communities it is easy to suggest that light skinned foreign people are a threatening force in the world.

Basically, we are all just tribal animals looking for an excuse to hate the opposition, whomever they might be.  pl

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00275

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells....

"Just like a child wishing for a Wii or an Xbox on Christmas Day, the market was hoping for some sort of RTC [Resolution Trust Corp.] type of arrangement, and there it was underneath the Christmas tree," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of the U.S. equity group at Deutsche Bank.

"It was the booster shot that the market was looking for," he added. "This was what we needed to happen, to remove those assets dwindling on balance sheets. And the short-sale rule, for the sector that it's targeting, will also help near term."   Marketwatch

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Does anyone think this is anything like over?  No?  Good, because it is not.  The "kiddies" on Wall Street and their playmates on 24/7 cable financial news are pathetically eager to believe that they will now be rescued by the grown ups so that they can go back to playing with the world economy as though it was the game of "Monopoly,"  but, in fact, someone is going to have to absorb the cost of all that rotten paper that the US Government is now going to buy.

The costs of this are being understated.  Anyone who thinks that this is going to cost less than a trillion dollars is smoking something reeel goood.

Then, there is the necessity of stopping these mischievous children from playing with the derivative Lego set again.  Right.

Joe Scarborough had a great thinker from CNBC on his morning fandango today.  This pompous bloviater went on and on and on about how this had all happened and guess what! None of the causes placed any blame on any of his playmates.  It just happened....

I would say that we are going to see a temporary recovery in the stock market which will last until the novelty wears thin.  Then we will see another plunge as people realize that nothing much has changed.

Oh, yes.  Oil!  That will start back down shortly.  How long shortly might be... We will see.  pl

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-stock-market-welcomes-bailout/story.aspx?guid=%7B06F0711D-301E-4184-BFE9-95960019D4B6%7D&dist=msr_5

'29 = '08 ?

"As for Wall Street, Mr. McCain blamed the meltdown on “unbridled corruption and greed.” He called for a commission to find out what happened and propose solutions. His diagnosis and his cure are misguided. The crisis on Wall Street is fundamentally a failure to do the things that temper, detect and punish corruption and greed. It was a failure to police the markets, to enforce rules, to heed and sound warnings and expose questionable products and practices.

The regulatory failure is rooted in a markets-are-good-government-is-bad ideology that has been ascendant as long as Mr. McCain has been in Washington and championed by his own party. If Mr. McCain adheres to some other belief system, we would like to hear about it."  Editorial   NY Times

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End of the world?  End of days?   The Manhattan Syndrome?  Soup kitchens coming?  Swan diving Wall Street grubbies?  Ragnarok?  The Rapture on the way?  A chicken in very few pots?

It looks bad folks, really, really bad.  Show me the way to go home.  Show me....

pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/opinion/17wed1.html?em

Massive new registration in Virginia

"More than a quarter-million Virginians have registered to vote since the beginning of the year, and jurisdictions that have traditionally voted Democratic are registering voters at the fastest pace, according to statistics released Tuesday by the State Board of Elections.

Virginia does not have party registration, but in almost every county and city with a history of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, the number of registered voters has increased by about 10 percent since Jan. 1.

Counties that have voted Republican recently are registering much lower percentages of voters, the statistics show.

In addition, 62 percent of new voters are younger than 35, and 42 percent are younger than 25, according to the state numbers.

The statistics suggest that Democrats could have a bigger base this year than in the 2004 presidential contest if they can get newly registered residents to vote on Election Day.

Since the start of the year, 283,695 people have registered to vote in Virginia, including 33,175 during the first half of September. And with the Oct. 6 registration deadline approaching, elections officials expect a crush of new applications."  Tim Craig

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I think "The Old Dominion" may go Democratic in the presidential election. 
Contrary to the out of state babble heard in the 24/7 news this chance for Obama does not seem to be based on the fabled "demographic shift"  in the commonwealth.  That plays a part, but the real problem for the Republicans is that they continue to think Virginians are the same as everyone else.  In fact, people in the commonwealth have a general tendency to think for themselves and a weakness for "common sense."

For a number of past elections, the Republican Party has tried to import party leadership from elsewhere in the country for a takeover of the Virginia Republican Party.  These leaders have a national party agenda involving "outreach," "inclusiveness," "multi-culturalism," and all the other baggage of the national party.  They have generally had a tendency to think that they, personally, would be acceptable and that their agenda would carry the day.  From the time that the party nominated Earley for governor until today, the belief has been widespread in party circles that anyone could be run as a Republican in Virginia and be elected.  Defeat after defeat has proceeded from this belief.

The Republican ticket teeters on the brink of defeat in Virginia.  Why?  Virginians are not so foolish as to want to elect an "old coot" who has sold out to the "branding" philosophy of the merchandisers.  At the same time, that "old coot" (McCain)subscribes to the political and economic philosophy of one of the most egregious and unpopular administrations in the history of the US.

Are Virginians mad for Obama?  No, but they are more unhappy with the national Republican Party and Mr. Bush.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603152.html

Open thread on the Economy

We are more or less standing on the edge of eternity in this economic and credit crisis.  The institutions that are dying in New York are the "connective tissue," the infrastructure of modern life.

It is time to declare an open thread for the discussion of this threat.  pl

"An Existential Crisis" de Borchgrave

"Alarm bells suddenly went off in government offices from Washington to Ottawa to London to The Hague when Pakistan's newly minted democratic government, after almost nine years of military rule, suddenly closed the border to all NATO resupply traffic to Afghanistan.

NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan are resupplied by endless convoys of trucks that snake over 1,200 miles from Karachi on the Arabian Sea to Peshawar and the Khyber Pass to reach Kabul and points north and east, and more than 600 miles for the more direct route through Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, and Chaman on the border to reach Kandahar and points south and west in Afghanistan. Oil, food, heavy equipment, hospital supplies, all are trucked at a cost of $1 million a day in Pakistani road tolls. "

de Borchgrave

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In the Washington Post today, Fred Hiatt, the neocon editor of the Post's editorial page is busy trying to make a case for the unique brilliance of the "surge."  I suppose that is an effort to counteract Woodward's latest book "The War Within" and Gellman's expose of Cheney's efforts to destroy the Constitution of the United States.  Both of those were serialized in the Post.  Hiatt must feel a bit put upon some days.  No matter.  He manages to pack the editorial page of the Post with his neocon brethren, Dennis Ross, Dr. Krauthammer, etc.

Meanwhile, Arnaud de Borchgrave, a man who served in the invasion of Normandy and who stood on the field of Dien Bien Phu the day the French took the place by airborne assault, is telling us that the supply crisis that has long been dreaded in Iraq is upon us in Afghanistan.

NATO forces in Afghanistan are inadequate.  The outgoing NATO commander says that 400,000 men are needed.   Where such forces would be found is anyone's guess.  Pakistan is a state built as a compromise among those Indian Muslims who could not reconcile themselves to life among a Hindu majority.  Is it a surprise that such a state is torn by the most extreme kinds of Islamic fervor?  American relations with Pakistan have always had a tentative flavor, even as we supported the various governments there.  Now, the counter-terrorist fervor of the United States has led us to stoke the fires of internal division in Pakistan to such an extent that the survival of the state itself is in question.

Russia has deliverable nuclear weapons.  So does Pakistan.  pl

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/15/an-existential-crisis/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401639.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

Put the VP back in the box!

"David Addington, the vice president's lawyer, kept in his office controlling documents that gave strategic direction to the nation's largest spy agency."

(By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

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"Addington's behavior with the NSA auditors was "a wake-up call for me," Goldsmith said. Cheney and Addington, he came to believe, were gaming the system, using secrecy and intimidation to prevent potential dissenters from conducting an independent review.

"They were geniuses at this," Goldsmith said. "They could divide up all these problems in the bureaucracy, ask different people to decide things in their lanes, control the facts they gave them, and then put the answers together to get the result they want." " Gellman

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"Comey found Frances Townsend, an old friend, waiting just outside the Oval Office, standing by the appointment secretary's desk. She was Bush's deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism. Comey had known her since their days as New York mob prosecutors in the 1980s. Since then, Townsend had run the Justice Department's intelligence office. She lived and breathed surveillance law.

Comey took a chance. He pulled her back out to the hallway between the Roosevelt Room and the Cabinet Room.

"If I say a word, would you tell me whether you recognize it?" he asked quietly.

He did. She didn't. The program's classified code name left her blank. Comey tried to talk around the subject.

"I think this is something I am not a part of," Townsend said. "I can't have this conversation." Like John Gordon and deputy national security adviser Steven J. Hadley and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, she was out of the loop." " Gellman

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I wrote recently against the de facto recent elevation of the position of vice-president of the United States.  This story in today's Washington Post reinforces my position.

Gellman  makes it clear in his piece that the weakness of George W. Bush and his apparent preference for conspiratorial action within his own government enabled a more or less silent putsch within his administration against the principle of the legal assignment of function and powers.   Cheney and Addington, the true "evil doers," were allowed by the president to "game the system."  Instead of seeking to do their duty to the Constitution, these men sought to use the good nature and gullibility of most Americans against them to seize a degree of usurped control over the intelligence community that is reminiscent of the way in which totalitarian regimes sought unlimited power throughout the 20th Century.

Addington wrote the key presidential directives for the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" (TSP), kept them in his private office safe, got them agreed to by Yoo, his stooge at the department of Justice, and then fought savagely to conceal the program of internal surveillance by confining key government officials to "their lanes" (his words) believing that they could thus be prevented from understanding the scope of its illegality.

For those who will respond that internal (in the US) communications surveillance was necessary after 9/11, I would agree, but the means for doing that already existed in the mechanism of the FISA court.  That means was not good enough for these men.  They now make a silly argument that these courts do not function fast enough.  Nonsense.  Under the FISA law they were allowed to begin surveillance operations while waiting for a writ from the FISA courts.  That was not good enough. They wanted to have unfettered access to every American's telephone calls, e-mail, etc.  They wanted to own their fellow citizens in the way that autocrats always want to own everyone and everything.  The vice-president's office did all this and concealed what they were doing from nearly everyone in the White House except GW Bush himself.

According to Bob Woodward in "The War Within," the same group conspired with GW Bush to bypass the statutory chain of military command in dealing with Petraeus over the head of Secretary Gates.

The irony lies in the bald fact that the vice-president of the United States has virtually no legal power at all except that which the president loans to him/her.  On Fox New Sunday today, a nameless woman interviewed about Palin, described the office of vice-president as "the second most powerful job in the world."  Some have said that the public now expects the vice-president to be a kind of deputy president...  Absolute balderdash.   Again!  The vice prsident has NO functions or constitutional or statutory power other than as presiding officer of the senate.  Biden or Palin will have what power the president bestows.

Let us be warned by what has passed the last eight years.  The next president should put the VP back into the box.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302284.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401974.html?hpid=topnews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_electronic_surveillance_program

The SIOP and the Red SIOP

Her tutors really should tell Sarah about this soon.

Maybe they don't call it this anymore.  I am getting out of date.  Nevertheless, it still exists.  There was also the "Red SIOP,"  or more formally the "Red Single Integrated Strategic Plan."  (RISOP)  Perhaps the Russians now call this the "Muscovite Tango?"

Once upon a time I was involved with review of this kind of planning.  Back then it was estimated that execution of a complete "laydown" on both sides would result in the first days in 40 million dead in North America and 60 million dead in Eurasia (USSR basically).  These estimates did not include later death from radiation poisoning, starvation, etc.  Ah, yes, and then there would be the end of civilization as we have thought of it.

All that should be considered by the president before asking for "the football."  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Integrated_Operations_Plan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_warfare

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/napb-90/index.html

Stand by for a McCain Administration

The following is analysis, not advocacy.

Barring a poor performance in debate or a sudden disclosure of grossly damaging information, it seems to me that the presidential election outcome is now clear.

Obama made a fatal error in not putting Hilary Clinton on the ticket.  She is strong in parts of the country where he is weak and will remain weak.  Her presence on the ticket would have reassured some who might have made a difference.  The unfortunate truth is, as I have said before, that there remains a lot of racist sentiment in parts of the United States.  It is vice that will not name itself, and it certainly is not all in the South.  Appalachia generally, the Mid-West, the Great Plains, and the Mountain West are full of it.  Polling has revealed this clearly for all those who do not indulge themselves with wishful thinking.  Obama's obvious status as a member of the intelligentsia exacerbates that prejudice in the "minds" of many.  In addition, Sarah Palin's appearance on the ticket as "just plain mom," churchgoing, ill informed and earnest summons forth a new demographic.  That demographic is women who are; not feminists, who cling to traditional values and for whom she is a shining justification of their own lives.  In the context of "corporate" politics, and the long standing close red/blue division of the country, these things add up to "a win."

John McCain will be the 44th president of the United States.  His need to feel the equal of his "fathers" will be assuaged for at least a few months.  Sarah Palin is likely to succeed him as president.  He is elderly, fragile, physically much abused in life, choleric, and seemingly in decline.  His belligerence grows.  He is under the influence of the Jacobin neocons who know no limits to the possibility of the fulfillment of their dreams.  Who can say where that influence will take us?

Governor Palin is yet unreadable.  Charles Gibson's first interview with her established that she is teachable, or at least coachable.  Gibson tried rather hard to test her.  Some of it was ridiculous.  "What do you think of the Bush Doctrine?"  Come on, Charlie.  That's just chicken shit.  You probably had to look that up.  More interesting were her responses to the questions about NATO membership for the Ukraine and Georgia.  She was unreservedly in favor of that, and, in response to a question as to whether or not it might be necessary to fight Russia over these places she provided her seemingly coached high school Civics class answer.  She said it might be necessary to fight Russia.  This was later modified somewhat by the rest of her "catechism" answer,  She said that it would not be necessary to fight Russia if such things as sanctions or diplomacy worked to dissuade the Russian aggressors.  She has a great deal of "catching up" to do.  People spend their whole lives studying the subject matter that she must master if she is not to be a menace to the world.  She needs to have someone explain the consequences implict in the acronym SIOP.  Perhaps she can "catch up."  Perhaps she will be a kind "Princess Hal," a marvel for us all.  I do not imply that she drinks or carouses.

In the context of a McCain/Palin Administration, the division of the next Congress becomes very important.  Not much is being said about that.  There has been a kind of assumption that the Democrats will increase their majorities in both houses.  That is a result for which to pray (or whatever you do).  A veto proof majority in the senate would be a good thing.  It would be a bad thing for any party to have as much power as the republicans might have otherwise.  The McCain/Palin ticket might have more coat tails than has been thought.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102840.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091201086.html

Ask the Iraqi government.... Ha'aretz

"The security aid package the United States has refused to give Israel for the past few months out of concern that Israel would use it to attack nuclear facilities in Iran included a large number of "bunker-buster" bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, an advanced technological system and refueling planes.

Officials from both countries have been discussing the Israeli requests over the past few months. Their rejection would make it very difficult for Israel to attack Iran, if such a decision is made.

About a month ago, Haaretz reported that the Bush administration had turned down an Israeli request for certain security items that could upgrade Israel's capability to attack Iran. The U.S. administration reportedly saw the request as a sign preparations were moving ahead for an Israeli attack on Iran."  Ha'aretz

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"Harper" pointed out this article in today's Ha'aretz. 

We have repeatedly made the point that Israel lacks the capability to make an effective set of air strikes against Iran without American help.

Among the elements of help they would need:

- USAF air refueling tankers.

- Enough heavy ordnance.

- Enough attack airframes.

On the political side they need

- Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) boxes and code settings to avoid being engaged by US aircraft.

- Overflight clearance for Iraq if they are taking the shortest routes.

When they asked for overflight clearance for Iraq they were recently told to request it from the sovereign Iraqi government.  The request for IFF codes got the cold shoulder as well.

Needless to say, this reponse came from the military and Gates.  Cheney must be enraged by his lack of control over this.

Until the Russioan intervention in Gerogia, the Israelis had been trying to devise an alternative to an Iraq route.  The alternative was to use Georgian airfields as staging points.  They were undeterred in this scheme by the prospect of overflying SE Turkey to get to Georgia.  The Russians have frightened them out of that idea.  Even the Likud knows that Russia is more important than Georgia, or Iran.

If you have been following the series of articles in the Washington Post about Bob Woodward's newest study of the Bush White House, you should have noticed that retired Army general Jack Keane has been running his own foreign and military policy at Cheney's behest.  To do such a thing is deelpy subversive of the statutory chain of command.  This is astonishingly bad behavior.  In this particular case he does not seem to have been an effective "player."  pl

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019989.html

The Big Red One - A Sears Property

"From Cantigny, France, and the Argonne Forest to North Africa, Normandy, Vietnam’s Iron Triangle and Iraq —and now hauteconcept.com?

Foreign battles aren’t new for the 1st Infantry Division, but this firefight is from another world, a clash between the New Army and Old over plans to commercialize the 1st Division’s historic “Big Red One” insignia in a sportswear line at Sears.

After days of questioning, the Army confirmed Monday the arrangement was first reached in June 2007 on the advice of an outside licensing agency, The Beanstalk Group in New York, but the full scope of the royalties to be earned has yet to be disclosed." 

politico.com

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What collection of soulless swine did this?

Please tell me it was not anyone who ever wore the US Army's uniform.  Unfortunately, it may have been.  In recent years I have been depressed to hear senior officers babble about business science, systems analysis, weapons design and the social sciences to the exclusion of all else.

Semiotics is a "science" that is concerned with symbols.  The thinly disguised Walmart managers in the military like to talk about semiotics.  The 1st Division's shoulder patch is a symbol.  It has meaning for those who have worn it.  It may still have some meaning for the family survivors of those who wore it.

I used to listen to the voices of the First Division's "grunts" as they passed in the red dust of Vietnam bearing their burden, their clothing soaked with sweat in the miserable heat.  "It don't mean nothin'," they would often mutter.  "It don't mean nothin'."

There is a recruiting commercial on television now that depicts a young man who has recently joined the Army.  He is a farm boy.  He is a fine looking soldier.  His farmer parents are in the commercial.  His father wears a cap on the front of which is sewn the First Division's shoulder patch.  It is dirty.  It is faded but it is there because this division was the Army's premier unit for many years.

The organizational men and women in the Pentagon today care little for such sentiment.  They think that "divisions" are an outmoded form.  Why not sell the symbols of the past?  Indeed.  Why not?

"It don't mean nothin'."

pl

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13276.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPNt6W86aIA

PS.  The pictures are of the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division before, during and after the landing on Omaha Beach.  pl

PPS.  Someone writes that the person at Sears to discuss this with is:

Mr. Corwin Yulinsky
Exec. VP of Customer Strategy and Insight

Sears Holdings Corporation

3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
(847) 286-2500

Oil - Down, Down, Down.

No comment needed, but....  Seems like this is a predicted Black Swan.  Musta been dumb luck on the "Casenova the Turkey" model. pl

"Corporate" politics and the Republic

"Palin's handlers are being hypocritical: They want to focus on her family life and her identity as a hockey mom when doing so helps them and to push aside any story that mars this perfect picture. Conservatives are always against identity politics until they are for it.

Nonetheless, what matters is not Palin's personal life but whether she is prepared to assume the presidency if called upon. The actions of McCain's lieutenants suggest that they know the answer. And they are doing everything they can to keep the media from finding it."  Dionne

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Rick Davis likes to talk about the '04 Bush Campaign as having been run in the "corporate" style and of himself as being the CEO of the McCain Campaign.

Am I surprised?  No. As a rhetorical and pedagogic device I sometimes feign surprise, prior ignorance, etc.  "Socratic Method?"  If you like that formulation, fine.

Davis is what is known in the gadfly trade as a "K Street lobbyist."  Perhaps he is a "former" lobbyist, having given up that life of shame for the prospect of marble pastures to come.  In fact his firm's offices are on Union Street a few blocks from here rather than in that den of ultimate iniquity, the true K Street in the District of Columbia.  No matter.  The Capitol Grille is never far away.

Davis is an honest, if indiscreet man.  He has come to think of government as a business, nothing but a business, a business where "greed is good, and the  spoils are "where its happening."

Our Commonwealth participants in this exercize in civic conscience (SST), will rub their hands together and lecture about the evils of America.   They need to look in the mirror before they get too preachy.   In any event, the scale of events here dwarfs whatever happens in Ottawa, Canberra or wherever.  The best argument against the current size of the United States is an argument against gigantism itself and the mess it makes of representative government.

Back to Davis and company.  It is not an accident that the media mediocrities (not all of you) are talking about the president of the US as CEO of the country and the "branding" of this or that.  Parties, people, toothpaste - brand is the biggest buzzword of the day.  MANAGEMENT- CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS - MARKETING - ADVERTISING.  We used to talk about Montesquieu, Locke, Rousseau.  Now we talk politics as business.  Nothing more, especially on the Republic Party's side (turnabout is fair play).  The Democrats are still a disorganized mob.  Obama sounds like he is interested in issues.  Perhaps that is the ultimate ploy.

Your political Brand is fading in Market share?  Mount an advertising campaign!  Your candidate does not titillate the herd?  Find something outrageous to do that will appeal to their more simple minded tendencies.

I am reminded of the Cary Grant character in the film, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House."  Ah, Myrna Loy....  Who could forget her?  In this epic, Mr. Blandings (CG) is a Madison Avenue advertising man who has to devise a slogan with which to sell "Wham" a kind of pork based canned meat.  He suffers mightily with this until his cook inadvertantly suggests "Wham! The Ham What Am!"  All is saved! The world devours mountains of these slaughter house scraps and Myrna gets the house of her dreams in Connecticutt. You should see it (the film).

The American peple are being sold a lot of "Wham."  They seem to like it.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090801907.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Blandings_Builds_His_Dream_House

Is the president a kind of king?

"Colonel,
How about a thread on the role and function of CiC? It's a central theme in this election yet nothing substantive has been written.

It seemed to me self evident that the president was CiC of the Army of the US to assert ultimate civilian control over the military, keeping power answerable to the citizenry, not to make the president some kind of super general, as seems to be implied these days. I though Obama's statements at the outdoor press conference after the Iraq visit showed a good grasp of this--undoubtedly Hagel had many intelligent things to say along the way.

Re: Unitary Presidency-as I understood the Calabrese paper which originated the concept (co-author Yoo, of DOJ-White House legalized torture fame) it's not the CiC 'duty' which give the pres. 'unitary'  power in wartime (which the Jacobins seek to make permanent), but the very nature of the Executive Branch as the sole actioning and implementing agent in the government. This is to say that all actions of the Federal Government must emanate from the will of the President, and that anything which goes against this is unconstitutional. This hierarchical 'godhead' concept probably comes from deep within the Strausian neo-platonism. It boils down to a government 'Of the President, For the President, and By the President'."  Florestan

--------------------------------------------------

I don't think the basic issue here is civilian control of the military in the United States.  This concept is so bred into the US Military that it is not even remotely in question.  Everyone understands that the president of the US is the CIVILIAN head of the armed forces.  Does he, none the less, have operational control of the armed forces?  Yes, he does.

IMO, the issue is whether or not the citizenry is being seduced (not necessarily deliberately) into thinking that the president is sovereign.  As I have tediously said before, "commander in chief" is a pretty close rendering of the Latin word "imperator."  Imperator-emperor, get it?  If the view takes hold that the president is a temporary, elected king, the "CEO of America," then we will be living in the hollowed out shell of the "Great Republic." (Churchill) The forms of republican government will remain, but we will then be "subjects."

It should be clear to all that both parties are prone to this kind of creeping Caesarism.  "A pox on both their houses."   Personalities do not matter in such issues.  I don't care if Marcus Aurelius returns.  He would still be an enemy of Republicanism.  pl

Rick Davis - War against the media.

"He left the Reagan White House to work with longtime lobbyist Paul Manafort, in founding the lobbying firm Davis, Manafort. In their political work, Davis served as Manafort's deputy in orchestrating the 1996 Republican National Convention; both would later join Dole's presidential team. While working for Dole, Davis told a reporter that he was "blown away" by McCain's unconventional politics, and joined McCain's first election bid in 1999.

When McCain started the Reform Institute in 2001 to promote campaign finance reform, he turned to Davis. Davis would earn $395,000 in salary and consulting fees from the Institute, which he headed from 2003 to 2005.

In 2006, Davis helped plan McCain's next White House run, envisioning a corporate-style campaign modeled after President Bush's 2004 bid."  Wiki

-----------------------------------------------------

According to this Wiki, Rick Davis lives here in Alexandria.  He looks vaguely familiar, but, I don't believe I have had the pleasure...

I hadn't paid a lot of attention to Davis until I saw his reaction to rather tame questioning from Joe Scarborough and Mika (Zbig's daughter) in St. Paul.  Wow!  He told the two of them and all others present that the GOP has accepted the idea that the media are deeply unfair to their candidates and that the McCain campaign would make Palin available for interview when AND IF it chooses to do so.  He was quite hostile in the way he said this, bristling and interrupting constantly, speaking louder and louder to drown out voices he did not want to acknowledge.  It was quite a performance.  It was basically a declaration of war against the 4th Estate in all its manifestations.

This morning I listened to him on Fox News Sunday.  To my surprise he was just as hostile and aggressive with the host (Chris Wallace) as he had been with the poor schmucks from MSNBC.   When a right wing party apparatchik like this man has become tries to shout down the host of a right wing Sunday network news show like FNS, then something interesting is happening.  A great many citizens who will vote for McCain/Palin were watching this attack on Fox News.  What must they have thought?  Fox News is the source of "news" for McCain's base.  Wallace had just finished administering a thorough verbal "thrashing" to Axelrod, Davis' opposite number in the Obama camp.  In spite of this, Davis' habitual scowl was the first thing one saw when Wallace began his interview.  It went downhill from the scowl.

The Republicans are running against the press, including the Murdoch Press?  If so, this something new to American politics.

Are they going to succeed in putting McCain in the White House as a kind of interim figure using this approach?  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Davis_(politics)

SOF or Surge - pick a side

Ah, the "Surge."  This is a bumper sticker "tag" that has launched a thousand empty diatribes.  The political "back and forth over which efforts in Iraq have done what have now slopped over into the grubby world of intra-service and inter-service rivalry.

There are now effectively five US military services; Army, Marine Corps; Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Forces (SOF).

The SOF "service" is still somewhat dependent on the older services for personnel and other residual support, but increasingly the money is contained in their own appropriations, their equipment is procured in their own channels and the people think of themselves as SOF "operators," rather than soldiers, a breed apart from the common herd.  The marines have finally been pressured into creating a marine component of the SOF, but are trying hard to keep their men from being absorbed into this new thing.  I wish them luck.  The process of the SOF service absorption of those parts and people that are wanted from US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) has been underway for some time.  There is little doubt as to what the outcome will be in that process.

The SOF "service" had its origins in the creation of anti-terrorist commando forces in the '70s.  At about the same time, Congress created "Special Operations Command," a headquarters built to advocate the cause of those same anti-terrorist commandos.  That heaquarters has now become a center of operational control. This "pairing" remained a small and little employed creation until 9/11.  That event caused the sunlight to shine on these "plants," and they have grown enormously ever since.

The SOF forces operate on a largely stove-piped (vertically integrated) basis around the world with a single minded mandate to hunt down and kill terrorists and terrorist leaders and that is very largely all they do.  They have no other function.  War is more than that, but they seem blind to that fact.  "Special Operations" used to encompass a whole panoply of sophisticated approaches to conflict.  There seems to be little left of that other than lip service.  Think about that before you "sound off."

This set of giant "plants" has become self aware like the monstrous toothed green thing in the "Little Shop of Horrors."  The "plants" have now become jealous and resentful of praise and attention when these are given to the traditional services.  Like the CIA and the marines, they have become active in the self-promoting business of managing press contacts.

Focused altogether on the business of destroying terrorist groups, they are increasingly dismissive of the "contributions" of the traditional services.  Example:  You thought the 4th Infantry Division captured Saddam Hussein?  From the beginning the SOF people have whispered that it was they and not the ham-handed "grunts" who did that, and virtually everything else of value in Iraq.

This Washington Post article, and Woodward's latest book are examples of the gullibility of the media when confronted by mustachioed (or not), hard muscled characters in a briefing van at Balad or a bar somewhere.

The SOF task forces and their CIA, etc. accretions have done good work in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere?  Of course they have.  Have they made ALL THE DIFFERENCE in Iraq?

No.     pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/05/AR2008090503933.html?hpid=topnews

Cheney in the Caucasus and Ukraine

"Speaking during a closely watched trip to this US-allied South Caucasus nation, Cheney also assured Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that the United States was "fully committed" to his country's efforts to join NATO.

"Georgia will be in our alliance," Cheney said.

The trip signals that the United States intends to continue cultivating close ties with Georgia and its neighbors even after Russia's short war with Georgia last month - a demonstration by Russia that it is not afraid to use military force in what it considers its sphere of influence.

The United States is at Georgia's side, Cheney told Saakashvili, "as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force, that has been universally condemned by the free world."

"Russia's actions have cast grave doubts on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner," Cheney said."  Jerusalem Post

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Was there an agreement between Georgia and Israel for the use of Georgian airfields in strike(s) against Iran?  Did the two Israeli or former Israeli ministers in the Georgian government have anything to do with that if it existed?  What was Cheney's role in this?

Cheney was in Azerbaijan after his visit to Georgia.  He got a chilly reception.  Annoyed by that, he declined to attend a dinner given in his honor.  How rude is that?  Rude.

Several people have written to state that my insistence on the virtual absence of constitutional power in the office of vice president of the United States is antiquarian at best, fantasist at worst.

I don't think so.  The argument has been made in these pages that history has moved on in the last twenty (?) years and now, irrevocably, the vice president is endowed by popular expectation and the demands of modern life with a magically enhanced role.

Rubbish!  We don't actually need a vice president.  The presidential succession is well established in law.  There are cabinet officers in charge of Defense and State.  There is a foreign policy section in the NSC.  There is not enough time on the president's day?  Rubbish.  The incumbent spends half his day working out in the gym.

Paln is already talking about the McCain/Palin Administration.

Cheney is "cruising" the Caucasus looking to see what he can still do to promote the apocalyptic dream in his head.

This vice president has tried to make the argument that his unique office stands outside the normal tri-partite structure of the federal government, neither Executive nor Legislative.

Do we need this office?  pl

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220444328624&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/world/06cheney.html?hp

http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Vice_President.htm

Tom Brokaw and the emperor.

"In the War on Terrorism President George W. Bush has used these war powers to justify several controversial acts, such as the NSA electronic surveillance program and enhanced interrogation techniques. The administration, on several occasions, has promoted a legal theory known as the unitary executive theory, to explain that in his duty as Commander-in-Chief the President, with his inherent powers, cannot be bound by any law or Congress. Advocates of this theory opine that since the primary task of the President, during a time of war, is protecting US citizens, anything hindering him in that capacity can be considered unconstitutional. In the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy this was used to suggest he was not required to abide by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The same rationale was used to deny detainees in the War on Terror protection by the Geneva Conventions resulting in a global controversy surrounding apparent mistreatment. Also it is thought that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which was adopted to address prisoner abuse, might be ignored after President Bush added a signing statement, invoking his rights as Commander-in-Chief, to that bill"  Wiki

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Brokaw made a reference on MSNBC today to the "commander in chief of the United States."

NO!

The president is commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States, not of the country.  We have no emperor.  To think of the president of the United States as commander in chief of the country is to make this person the sovereign and we his subjects.

Tom Brokaw has made himself press agent for the veterans of World War Two.  Did they struggle for this, Tom, to be "subjects?"  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_in_chief#War_on_Terrorism

"Biden: Israel's decisions must be made in Jerusalem, not D.C." Haaretz

"Israel must remain a strong ally of the United States, however its decisions "must be made in Jerusalem", said Delaware Senator and Democratic Party Vice Presidential nominee Joseph Biden during a teleconference held with members of the Jewish press on Wednesday.

Biden also expressed his support of Israel's right to protect itself, saying, "Israel has the right to defend itself and it doesn't have to ask, just as any other free and independent country.

The Vice Presidential nominee vowed that the U.S. will "always stand by Israel, without telling Israelis what they can and cannot do." "  Haaretz

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe Biden has an undeserved reputation as a deep thinker.  You have to wonder if Joe thinks that the US is obligated to go to war in support of Israel under any and all circumstances.

For example - If the Israelis decide to attack Iran without our agreement, are we obligated somehow to go to war against Iran as well?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017891.html

France, Turkey, Qatar and Syria at the summit

""We are awaiting Israel's response to six points submitted through Turkey," Mr Assad said, promising Syria would respond positively to Israel's answer.

Direct talks could happen once a new US administration "which believes in the peace process" takes office, he said.

Syria has remained in a state of war with Israel since its 1948 foundation.

Mr Assad was speaking at a four-way summit with the leaders of France and key Middle East mediators Qatar and Turkey.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the revolving EU presidency, said he hoped France and the EU could rank alongside the US as a Middle East peacemaker."  BBC

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Some years ago there was an attempt to involve the EU in negotiations between Israel and various Arab parties.  It failed because of US resistance to the idea.  Put plainly, the US and Israel did not want the Europeans involved because Israel would lose its negotiating advantage if that occurred.  The Europeans were seen as excessively unbiased. 

Has anything changed since then?  Yes.  The Bush Administration is even more inclined to follow the Israeli "lead" than the Clinton Administration.

Nevetheless, the clear intention of Bashar Assad to negotiate a settlement with Israel should be a hopeful sign.

Would a Palin/McCain Administration follow this line of development to a succesful conclusion giving Israel a better long term chance for life?  I doubt it.  Why? Just too "bloody minded" for that I think.  McCain is in search of enemies against whom to vent his stored up pain.  Syria, Iran, the takfiri "boogy men" in South Waziristan, they are all candidates for "bad dog" status.

Would an Obama Administration be any better at finding a future for the Jewish state?  That is hard to say.  Biden is as much an Israelophile as McCain.  Obama?  That is an open question.  pl 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7597956.stm

The Sarah's moment

I watched the Sarah speak tonight.  She is formidable.  Very calculating.  An excellent speaker.  She created a moment that had to be more than the McCain handlers had bargained for.   Her management of her family as props was impressive.  The boy-girl hand holding, the manly man husband, not afraid to hold the infant.  (Why was the infant there at all?)  The truly lovely little girl, given the infant by the fisherman father.  Anyone who watched this charming child smooth her brother's hair and was not moved.....  Well, you know who you are.

Chris Matthews has a certain basic instinct for politics.  He said after the speech that this was a declaration of war against all the city stuff that the Obamas represent.  That was correct.  Sarah's banner will be carried in a war on behalf of small town America, its values, good and bad, and its people.  Jeff Foxworthy says that "redneck" connotes "a glorious absence of sophistication."  Sarah is not in any way unsophisticated but for the vast number who are, her speech tonigtht was a Princess Diana moment. 

Joe Biden will have a tough time with her.  She is smart, pretty, tough and a great speaker.   McCain and his wife should start to have doubts soon about their future centrality in what Sarah called the "McCain/Palin Administration."  pl

The bridegroom to be with Uncle John

Ah, togetherness...  As Eleanor of Acquitaine (the character) says in "The Lion in Winter,"  "Every family has its ups and downs..."  pl

NY Times

Open Thread on the Democratic Party ticket.

To get a balanced picture of what the choices are for the American electorate, we need to look at the record on;  previous behavior, service, evidence of character, etc. for the Democratic ticket.  pl

Open thread on the GOP ticket.

There seems to be a lot of "evidence" concerning the prior career, beliefs and character of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin.  pl

Should there be military chaplains?

I was baptised by a US Army chaplain who was later captured by the Japanese Army on Bataan, confined at Camp O'Donnell, PI and then executed by the sword there.  So, I have a point of view.

Nevertheless, the scattered negative reaction from various people to my post of a public prayer for the Gulf South inspires me to invite comment on the proper role, or lack of it, of religion in public life, with some focus on whether there should be military chaplains.  pl

Palin, Buchanan and Israel?

"Rep. Bob Wexler, D-Florida, took the AP report, and said "John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage.' At a time when standing up for Israel's right to self-defense has never been more critical, John McCain has failed his first test of leadership and judgment by selecting a running mate who has aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics. It is frightening that John McCain would select someone one heartbeat away from the presidency who supported a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments.""  ABC News

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Well, I don't think that Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer, but it is clear that he thinks Israel has had too much influence on American foreign policy.

The Palin/McCain campaign is now doing its best to minimize the degree of Sarah Palin's past support for Pat Buchanan's Quixotic attempts to run for president.  They point to her later (?) support for Forbes as an antidote to the notion that she was a serious Buchanan supporter.  A "pitchfork" mom? 

It will be hard to make that work for a lot of hard core Zionists.  Palin's support for Buchanan was more than casual.  He is quoted in this piece in such a way that he appears to think she was a serious supporter.  You may not like Buchanan but he is not delusional.  In fact, his lack of delusion on many subjects has caused him a lot of trouble.

The big question about Palin and "foreign" policy ought to be how she can have supported Buchanan's view that Israel is a small, foreign place, far away that costs the US more than it is worth.  Now she is the running mate ("soul mate" as well?) of John (Ich bin ein Tel Aviver) McCain.

The cynicism of the people running the McCain campaign will allow for an easy amnesia of her earlier position if the Democrats allow that.  The possibility of relentless questioning on this point beckons.

McCain does not deal well with frustration.  He does not deal well with opposition to his judgment calls.  There is a real possibility that he can be provoked into a moment... "You want the truth, you can't handle the truth.  They stole my strawberries.  They stole my strawberries...."  That would be "The End."

And then, there is Joe (sledgehammer) Biden on the other side... pl

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/mccain-camp-den.html