brainrow

An insurgency cannot be crushed. It has to be defused.
 —Anas Shallal, Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, on the PBS News Hour

There is no solution on the ground.
 —A retired general on the PBS News Hour (quoted from memory)

There is some hope, however faint, that elections later this month will help defuse the bloody insurgency in Iraq.

If the elections are seen to be fair and honest, the people of Iraq might finally rally behind the elected government. If Iraqis have confidence in their elected government, sympathy for the insurgents could fade. Without a sympathetic populace, the violent insurgents wouldn’t last long. We must hope for such an outcome.

Senate approval of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General might derail that hope.

The people of Iraq are not ignorant. They have radios and television sets. They have satellite dishes. They have electricity, sometimes. They know what’s happening here.

Gonzales’ diligent efforts to seek loopholes in U.S. laws against torture, and to place the United States beyond the reach of international law, may earn him the gratitude of his client, George W. Bush. But they do nothing but harm to the international reputation of the United States. Fairly or unfairly, Gonzales is seen as one of the spiritual fathers of Abu Ghraib.

The elected government in Iraq will have to work with the U.S.-led Coalition. Promoting Alberto Gonzales at this time sends the wrong message. It will undermine popular support for any Iraqi government that attempts to work with the United States. It will give fresh fuel to the insurgency.

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times:

The Associated Press headline that came over the wire yesterday said it all: “Gonzales Will Follow Non-Torture Policies.”

You know how bad the situation is when the president’s choice for attorney general has to formally pledge not to support torture anymore.

…

How are you to believe Mr. Gonzales when he says he’s through with torture? His mission is clearly to do whatever he thinks Mr. Bush wants.

Is it just me, or is this guy a dead ringer for George W. Bush?

Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales has called the Geneva Conventions “obsolete” and “quaint”. What do you guess he thinks about that old-timey scrap of paper known as the Bill of Rights?

You’re going to have to guess. According to CNN, “the White House has refused to provide copies of his memos on the questioning of terror suspects” to the Senate committee responsible for holding hearings this week on the Gonzales nomination.

Personally, I’m guessing that this refusal itself provides all the information we really need about Gonzales’ views. The Republicans have 55 seats in the Senate. The most vital thing for the Bush administration now is to keep the American people in the dark.

(You can find your senators here. The Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the Gonzales nomination starting Thursday. One of my senators, Mike DeWine, is a member of the committee. I’ll bet he’d love to hear from me.)

The Attorney General might be called the Chief Prosecutor of the United States. Some people think it’s appropriate for him to be focussed more on getting the bad guys and not so much on protecting the rights of the accused. After all, we have the courts and judges to look out for everyone’s rights.

George W. Bush will appoint many federal judges during the next four years. He will almost certainly name several new Justices of the Supreme Court. Surely they will protect what the Attorney General disrespects?

As Tom Negrino reminds us at Backup Brain, Bush’s model Justices are Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Tom points out this informative page about those two Justices, titled “Ten Things President Bush Doesn’t Want You To Know About Scalia and Thomas.”

Scalia opposes efforts to desegregate schools.

Thomas favors state-sponsored religion.

Scalia supports sex discrimination.

Thomas would allow the president to effectively waive due process rights.

Scalia and Thomas oppose Family and Medical Leave.

Scalia and Thomas support executing the mentally retarded.

Scalia and Thomas support brutality against prisoners.

Scalia and Thomas support criminalizing consensual sex.

Scalia and Thomas oppose federal environmental regulation of polluters.

Scalia and Thomas would allow states to discriminate against the disabled.

Details, and a printable PDF poster, at the site.

Bumper stickers, t-shirts, hats and such for the next four years.

www.dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com

www.beatbushgear.com

Anti-Bush products from CafePress.com. (Warning: some rough language.) CafePress is an internet merchant that makes and sells products for independent content providers. Some of those producers provide pro-Bush products.

I may need the American Traveler International Apology shirt. It says, in many languages, “I’m sorry my president’s an idiot. I didn’t vote for him.” So true.

Okay, I think I know what happened.

The Republicans sent out a flyer — or maybe it was a television ad — and it got a great response. It said something like this: “You can tell a lot about a man by the enemies he makes.” And then it showed Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and me.

They may have shown me wearing a John Kerry campaign button. If they didn’t have a photo of me with a button, they could easily Photoshop it in. They probably explained that I’d given money to John Kerry’s campaign and to the Democratic National Committee. Maybe they quoted some of my political blog entries.

Anyway, the flyer or ad or whatever must have been a huge success, pulling in big contributions from Republican fat-cats, or persuading undecided voters to vote for Bush because I was against him. That’s the only way to explain this letter I’ve received from George W. Bush, thanking me for my “great help on my campaign in Ohio.”

“Your state played a critical role in this election, and the Vice President and I were fortunate to have your help in campaigning in Ohio.” Bush writes. Gosh, this looks hand-written. He addresses me as “Dear Michael E.” George W. and I are on a first-name-and-middle-initial basis now.

This explains the White House Christmas Card. I feel sick that Bush carried Ohio, and even worse to think I might have played a role. And yet, it’s nice to be recognized as a major player.

There’s only one other explanation I can think of for George W. Bush sending me a letter of thanks. Incompetence. But these are the folks shaping the nation’s defense against international terrorism. They’re the people selecting federal judges. They’re the people shaping national health, educational, environmental and science policies. They’re the people making the key decisions about when and where to send American soldiers into harm’s way. They’re going to reform the tax code and fix Social Security. Surely, such people can maintain an accurate database of the names and addresses of their political supporters.

So let me apologize to my fellow Kerry voters for my role in getting Bush elected. I’m so very, very sorry.

But if, by some strange chance, I should soon be appointed to a federal judgeship, then it wasn’t my fault. (I’ll try hard to do a good job.)

Lists of relief organizations providing aid to tsunami victims:

From MSNBC: How to help.

From the Christian Science Monitor: Where you can donate.

From Google: Tsunami Relief.

I have great confidence in the Red Cross, so I went straight to their website, www.redcross.org.

A total of 66 television stations refused to air “Saving Private Ryan” this past Veteran’s Day. They were running scared over possible sanctions from the FCC.

In a court case, the FCC is claiming its jurisdiction extends well beyond broadcast TV and radio, and includes cable TV, satellite broadcasts, and the internet.

Mediaweek reports that FCC Commissioner Michael Powell told a Senate committee in February that indecency complaints were rising sharply.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal — apparently because he was unaware — was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 — 99.8 percent — were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

With the First Amendment under seige by a focused and determined enemy, “The First Amendment Project” seems well-timed. It’s a four-part TV series produced by Court TV and the Sundance Channel. The first two episodes air tonight.

I’ve had the experience, occasionally, of saying something that gave deep offense when I had no such intention. So maybe Clear Channel had only the best of intentions when they posted this billboard. (Found via Hetty Litjens, again.)

Innocent or not, it gives me the creeps.

My earlier link to the “Followership Logo” is no longer valid, but here’s the image:

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: There is nothing wrong with that lightbulb!

(Joke swiped from The Bush Survival Bible and hacked up by me. It seemed appropriate in light of the recent news that Donald Rumsfeld would be staying on as Secretary of Defense.)

The message “you’re welcome here” is not welcome at the major U.S. television networks. The story from Alternet, via Hetty Litjens.

The Rev. John Thomas, who serves as general minister and president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), is having a hard time figuring out why the same broadcasters that profited so handsomely from airing the vicious and divisive attack advertisements during the recent presidential election are now refusing to air an advertisement from his denomination that celebrates respect for one another and inclusiveness.

…viewers of the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks won’t see it because, in this age of heightened focus on so-called “moral values,” quoting Jesus on the issue of inclusion is deemed to be “too controversial.”

The UCC ad shows black-shirted bouncers on a rope line, deciding who gets into a church, then shows the text “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.” Apparently the networks feel more affinity for the bouncers.

I got a White House Christmas card yesterday. Quite a surprise — I’ve never received one before. It’s a pretty card, with a painting on the front depicting the Red Room of the White House decorated for Christmas.

The card was mailed from Crawford, Texas, and paid for by the Republican National Committee. I’m sure they mail out millions of them, but I don’t think everyone gets one. So, why me?

Have I ever, by word or deed, given the RNC any reason to believe that I would want to hear from them? What have I said or done to lead anyone to believe I’m a supporter of George W. Bush?

I feel dirty. I have some dreadful sin on my conscience, and I don’t even know what it is.

Via Hetty Litjens: here is Dubya, the Movie.

Only one actor can play him.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. Then you’ll really cry, when you realize that this is our president.

Thomas Friedman on Thanksgiving Day:

In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

…I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for…

If I can’t be …, then I want to be just a simple blue-state red-state American. I want to take time on this Thanksgiving to thank God I live in a country where, despite so much rampant selfishness, the public schools still manage to produce young men and women ready to voluntarily risk their lives in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to spread the opportunity of freedom and to protect my own. And I want to thank them for doing this, even though on so many days in so many ways we really don’t deserve them.

Predictions: Colin Powell will write a book.

Shortly thereafter, the White House will launch a program of character assassination against Mr. Powell. They will object to certain passages in his book. What those passages might contain, no man can say.

My mystic psychic prognosis: the objectionable passages will raise doubts about George W. Bush’s honesty, his competence, and/or his intelligence.

Okay, I confess. I’m not really psychic. I’m just imagining a repeat of the White House response to books from former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and former anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke. This White House has a limited playbook, and they always go back to the classics.