Best of the Blogs

Confessions of a red diaper baby who bought the JFK myth…

In the Fall of 1960 my father, who was a Democrat and a labor union official, brought home a big campaign button that read “if I was 21 I’d vote for Kennedy.” He told me to wear it to school and I did. Lots of kids in Shaker Heights wore campaign buttons to school and the administrators didn’t seem to mind.

Three years later I was in English class when the announcement came over the public address that the president had been shot and that he was dead. I was in disbelief then as much as I was when I learned that it was Saudi fanatics and not right-wing militia types who downed the twin towers.

What I knew of JFK at that time and what I liked about him was the product of his public relations apparatus. His passion for football. The president who could read 1800 words a minute thanks to the Evelyn Wood speed reading course (which turned out to be a lie). The vague notion of the New Frontier, Kennedy’s youthful image that was packaged with it. And the great visionary organization of its time, the Peace Corps.

At Shaker High School the buzz among my black schoolmates focused on Kennedy’s commitment to civil rights. When I look back today, I don’t think of JFK in terms of Cuba, or the missile crisis, or Viet Nam or womanizing. On a more personal level, I remember that while Kennedy was president, my father’s union, Plumbers Local #55 in Cleveland, Ohio admitted its first black members. AFL-CIO president George Meany had been a plumber and there was plenty of resistance. Thanks in part to Kennedy’s labor secretary, Arthur Goldberg, blacks in the north were able to work in high wage craft union jobs, helping organized labor to be more inclusive.

Living for many years in Europe and South America and traveling back to the United States, I juxtaposed the emotions of Germans and Argentines, French and Uruguayans with the myriad of conspiracy theories and right wing revelations designed to discredit the Kennedy presidency and the Kennedy family. Mythos or not, from Berlin to Buenos Aires, millions of the “Kennedy generation” wonder what the world might have been like had he not been lost. Ask someone on the street in Buffalo, New York or Birmingham, Alabama and they probably wouldn’t give a hoot. Other folks hooked on right-wing talk shows might say his sex life was a threat to national security.

Over the years I’ve determined that Kennedy wasn’t a great leader not because of the sexual profile he and his brothers inherited from their father, but because he didn’t really have enough time to consolidate power and lead. Nor did he pretend to lead, like our current leader does. Not every speech was a fund raiser or a photo op. When JFK went to Dallas, he walked into opposition territory…into the valley of the shadow of death.

All the talk about mobsters fixing the West Virginia primary, rigged vote counts in Chicago, Dr. Max “the speed doctor” who accompanied Kennedy to Vienna, Sinatra and Giancana and Cuba and the secret documents that will be classified long after most of us will be dead. All the TV documentaries and books and articles, and websites and newsgroups. And then there are Doris Kearns and Dick Goodwin who attempt to set the record straight.

Several years ago, a few weeks after Oliver Stone’s JFK came out, I was having drinks with Sid Zion at the bar of the Yale Club, just below the photo of Poppy Bush in his Yale first baseman’s outfit. After a few drinks the subject turned to the movie. Sid puffed on his Macanudo and said “you know, old lady Schiff chartered a plane and the night he was shot I was sitting in the plane with the rest of the New York press corps. We were all going down to investigate. There we were, ready to taxi out to the runway and then the plane turned around back to the gate. Somebody made a call.”

And, here, on the 40th anniversary of his death, it seems that there is still more information out there telling us why people would want to kill JFK instead of telling us who killed him…

posted by Groom 5:29 AM

Friday, November 21, 2003

What If JFK Had Not Been Shot?

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of JFK's assassination, Nigel Hamilton, author of "JFK: Reckless Youth" has a thumbnail sketch in today's New York Times of what politics and history could have looked like it JFK had not been shot. [Note: if you go to the link you will need to click again on the story in order to get to the op-ed because of the nature of its design and layout.]

He admits it's "quackery," but it's fun to read. Among other things, JFK completes two terms, LBJ wins in 1968 with Bobby as VP, LBJ dies in office and Bobby picks Martin Luther King as VP, Reagan wins in 1972, etc.

Powell becomes president under this scenario in 1991 and Clinton is not elected until 2001.

The best part? There is no Bush redo, since Bush senior had to resign from office because of the Iran-Contra scandal, which is how Powell becomes president.

posted by Josh 8:47 AM

Johnny got his gun

Overshadowed this week by the Shrubby-Pinnochio love fest in London, the legal offensive to pardon Ronald Reagan would-be assassin and Bush family friend John Hinckley.

In another testimonial to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “the rich are different” factor, doctors for Hinckley now say his depression and psychosis are “in remission” and that he should be allowed to leave the mental hospital for unsupervised visits with his parents. Never mind that his oilman father was a big contributor and fund raiser for the Poppy Bush presidential campaigns. Shrubby’s brother Neil Bush was scheduled to have dinner with Hinckley’s brother in Colorado the night Johnny’s hit on the prez came down.

Contrast this with all the men and women victimized by jacked justice who rode the Huntsville bull during Shrubby’s reign in Austin. This is the stuff that West Wing episodes and tv docudramas are made of. The story line is a lot more interesting than Mark Fuhrman having a hard on for Kennedy cuz Michael Skakel.

posted by Groom 5:06 AM

Bush--All Bully, No Pulpit

General Clark made a dynamite address to the Council on Foreign Relations last night in which he nailed the Bush administration for its "all bully and no pulpit" approach to foreign affairs. He accused the Bushies of "wrecking" NATO and pledged to make rebuilding our relations with traditional allies a major part of his presidential agenda.

Restoring our alliance with Europe is the first essential part of my broader strategy for American national security. President Bush has created a go-it-alone approach and declared the use of preemptive military force as the defining characteristic of his national security strategy. A Clark Administration would place our work with Europe and a reinvigorated NATO as a centerpiece of US policy - and then seek not to rely on preemptive force, but instead to use diplomatic, political, economic power and international law in support of preventive engagement. We would reserve the use of force for an absolutely last resort and then act together if possible and alone only if we must.

Clark pledged to launch a new Atlantic Charter with European allies "to meet the new threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction as well as to strengthen our response to the old threats that are still with us."

The bottom line is this: The Bush administration is not interested in permanent alliances. It treats them, even NATO, as obstacles - a limitation on America's freedom of action. Instead of enduring partnerships, it prefers to build temporary coalitions of the willing, consisting of nations, however weak, that are willing to do exactly what we say. That is the reason why America is in Iraq facing a growing insurgency, with so many of its longtime allies standing on the sidelines.

Clark said alliances are difficult but they are worth the effort.

I believe that, even in this age, we can fight and win wars through collective action. I believe alliances are indispensable, not inconvenient. And I prefer coalitions of the committed rather than coalitions of convenience. I would rather have capable European forces in Iraq with a say in making decisions, than to have Tonga and the Marshall Islands with no strings attached.

The General summed it up for an awful lot of us when he said: "Our friends want this long international nightmare to be over. And America will see an outpouring of support from around the world when it is."

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:13 AM

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Just Beat It

The nice folks at IndyMedia@UK smell a rat in the timing of the Michael Jackson arrest right in the middle of the big BushBlair protests in London. Afterall, the cops have had the warrant for a long time and the new GOP Kalifornia governor knows a thing or two about publicity and timing. Everyone knows that the American public has the attention span of a flea at a dog show and is much more interested in stuff like who (besides Kobe) put those pubic hairs in that silly girl's undies or what suddenly outraged parents allowed their children to sleep over with a 40-year-old man than why we are in Iraq.

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:25 PM

Who Lost Turkey

You don't hear a lot these days about the "demonstration effect." For those of you with short memories, that was the pre-Iraq invasion theory advanced by neocons and fellow hawks that once the Islamic jihadists (the people our administration labels "terrorists") saw that the U.S. was really willing to stand and fight they would slink off somewhere and lick their tails. Under this dubious reasoning, a "muscular" display of the ferocity of our fighting boys and gals and the beauty of our weapons would shock and awe the Arab world into submission. "The power of the Iraqi example may cause them to rethink the costs of supporting terrorism and other mayhem," wrote the editors of the Wall Street Journal. "One benefit of liberating Baghdad is that we may improve the behavior of rogue regimes without having to fight."

Alas, like preemption, the demonstration effect is a theory that has failed its lab tests. In the wake of the ongoing bombings in Saudia Arabia, Iraq and Israel and the growing destruction and disorder in Turkey, we need to ask some tough questions of those who guide our foreign policy:

Has the invasion of Iraq in any way made United States citizens and property less vulnerable to terrorist attacks at home or abroad?

Has it changed the behavior of any Arab state in a way that is beneficial to the U.S.?

Has it produced a backlash that could destabilize Turkey, one of the few Islamic success stories?

That would be a catastrophic consequence of our cowboy imperialism.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:57 AM

Bush's Excellent Publicity Stunt

Our National Guard deserting commander in chief met with families of British troops killed in Iraq for about 20 minutes today at the intimate Westminister Abbey. Perhaps, now, he'll meet with some of the families of the more than 400 American troops who have been killed in that unnecessary war.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:33 AM

Old Folks Backlash

If you need a little bile with your coffee this morning, hop over to AARP's community message boards and read some of the posts. Start with those under "AARP Sellout" or "I May Be Old But I'm Not Stupid." The old farts are plenty pissed about the Gingrich Medicare Bill.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:10 AM

Republicans Back E-Vote Bill

As criticism of electronic voting systems heats up across the nation, three Republicans have signed on to support a bill that would force e-voting machines to produce a paper trail. Previously only Democrats had vowed to support the bill.

Republican congressmen Tom Davis of Virginia, Christopher Shays of Connecticut and New Hampshire's Charles Bass have agreed to co-sponsor the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003, which was introduced to the House in May by Rush Holt (D-N.J.).

See the rest of this Wired News Report here.

posted by John 5:34 AM

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Turning Weaknesses Into Strengths

A new poll from the L.A. Times shows Shrub on the short end of the "deserves re-election" stick, 46% No, 42% Yes. That's great news, of course. But, the most distressing finding: "Voters appear to be weighing generally positive assessments of his personal characteristics -- from likability and leadership to honesty -- against a more ambivalent view of his policies and their impact on the country."

And if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass so much.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:00 PM

Howard Dean's Southern Strategy--As Jesse Jackson, Jr. Sees It

Here's what Jackson has to say.

posted by John 9:31 PM

Light Touch (Typing That Is)

An item of interest for those who now struggle with tiny buttons on cell phones and PDAs. From this morning's IHT/Asahi Shimbun.

Here to lend a hand is a prototoype virtual keyboard designed for both personal computers and handheld devices.

Co-developed by Tokyo-based Pin Change Co., a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial co., and Delaware-based venture business VKB Ltd., the keyboard--which is beamed onto any flat surface by a red semiconductor laser--is the size of a typical PC keyboard.

An infrared beam sensor in the device detects the user's keystrokes.

The picture shows a gadget about the size of a cell phone projecting the keyboard onto a table. I'm imagining one built into a cell phone or PDA, so you just stand it up on the table in front of you (probably need a little holder for that), turn on the keyboard and start typing. Way cool.

posted by John 9:14 PM

Play Misty For Me

Matt Drudge is putting out the word that General Clark gets teary during his interview with Dan Rather on 60 Minutes II tonight. I don't know...the sensitive male is so, like, pre-9/11, you know. We're into suck it up working class heroes (like Shrub) again. Or, maybe not.

posted by Jerry Bowles 6:30 PM

It’s not Passchendaele… not yet

During “the war to end all wars” the preferred method for killing off millions of working class heroes and avoiding Russian-style revolution was trench warfare in the killing fields of Europe. In 1917, between the months of August and November, 245,000 Allied troops died in and around Passchendaele, Belgium.

The total number of “coalition” forces presumed killed-in-action in the current Iraq campaign hovers around 500. But consider the potential loss in human life when a born-again Christian US president tries to con a mature and historically savvy Europe into providing troops and money to support the “work of democracy” in Iraq when he really means god’s work, and the work of a fundamentalist Christian god at that.

One would think that retired General Wesley K. Clark might step forward and remind us that, if anything, the main lesson of Vietnam suggests that the West can’t “church” the Islamic world into American-style democracy. Clark’s experience dealing with the religious dynamics in Kosovo can only underscore this point. But the general seems intent to buy the lie and continue the high dollar presence. Gulf of Tonkin redux.

In the volatile world of Islam, the best it gets is corrupt governments elected in sham elections, praised and nurtured by the apologist class within the US foreign policy establishment and dominated by strong military cultures: witness Turkey, Indonesia and Nigeria. And as American-style democracy with its Patriot Act continues to devolve into an adjunct of the corporativist surveillance state, where is the “hope” that William Safire says we carry the torch for?

With all the economic goodies, 40,000 Bell Helicopter "employees" and a US-backed police state, Iran under the Shah was a showplace of what the petroleum-based economy could do. Notably, spawn revolution and more killing.

When nothing happened at the dawning of the new millennium a lot of born-again Christians (and their leaders) had to revise their agendas for the apocalypse. It’s too late to stop Jihad. Like George Kennan said about Communism, we can only hope to contain it. But we can avoid the next Passchendaele.

posted by Groom 4:45 PM

Eisenhammer

Hamed Hmode, a member of the U.S.-appointed Tikrit governing council, on Tuesday condemned the demolitions and said the council is considering demonstrations against them.

"How can a great state like the United States be so shallow?" Hmode said. "We are wondering why they stooped to this level. It is winter, and they are putting innocent women and children in the street." Knight-Ridder, November 19, 2003

* Eisenhammer

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:53 PM

Where Is Newt When We Need Him?
Dusting Off the Contract With America

No, not the content, the process. Newt got one thing right and Dean, Clark and the DNC (or DLC) should listen up. The 1994 Contract With America was first and foremost a declaration about accountability! It simply said here are 10 things we will do in 100 days or you should fire us. It was the boldest political statement and process of the past 70 years (some say past 200 years) and it put the Republicans in control of the House for the first time in 40 years, with the Senate soon to follow. Remember, every Republican candidate for national office ran on the Contract, among other issues. And when they won the majority of House seats, they then got 9 out of the 10 items by cramming it down the Democrats throats, a successfu--though questionable--process they have been using ever since.

The idea was not original with Newt, the history professor. FDR is the politician associated with a 100-day quick agenda . So there is a Democratic precedent for the process.

Thankfully, Newt made one of the biggest mistakes of his career: he did not have a follow-on contract for the next 100 days. We have had gridlock ever since.

What is so magical about 100 days? Based on research I did with Wirthlin Worldwide, it turns out that a majority of Americans (55 percent) think about change in gradual terms, but a stronger majority (68 percent) of Americans expect things to change in about three months (100 days). The business world, with its required quarterly earnings statement, operates on a 100 day cycle. No complaints except a few HR consultants who whine about too much attention to the bottom line interfering with slower development processes. Mother Nature operates on the same general time frame, and most of us cannot wait for Spring, or Summer, or Fall, even Winter. Why can't politicians do the same?

While we are obsessed with the presidential race, who is giving thought to the bigger agenda--control of one or both legislative branches of the federal government? Whatever Dean and Clark have, it ain't coattails, not even Clinton had coattails! We need a broader agenda, a Democratic Contract With America--and we need it now. (Of course, we won't call it that.) And rather than cramming everything into a single 100 day cycle, spread it out over successive 100 days and thereby create a new rhythm for governing.

posted by Josh 11:18 AM

Over on DailyKos, there is now a discussion of branding the Democratic Party. Someone nicknamed Pyrrho came up the words "Strong Infrastructure." Set me to thinking. Came up with this.

Strong Infrastructure
-->Natural as well as man-made. Thus, our stands on the environment, plus strong support for teachers, cops, firemen, and national defense.

Real Opportunity for All
-->No more two-tier education, no more two-tier law enforcement. No more discrimination based on age, race or gender

A Solid Middle Class
-->An end to winner-take-all, devil-take-the-hindmost market fundamentalism.

For me, that's that's being a Democrat in a nutshell.

posted by John 12:47 AM

What Foreign Fighters?

You know how the White House keeps insisting that foreign fighters are pouring into Iraq and are behind many of the recent bombings and attacks? Might be as many as 1,000 to 3,000 of the nasty devils, officials estimated a couple of weeks ago. The point, of course, is to link the war in Iraq to the global campaign against terror. Well, the generals who are policing the borders and running the operations against insurgents say they've captured about 20 foreign fighters so far and they believe that only a handful of outsiders are involved in the insurgency. Damned generals, they have an annoying habit of telling the truth sometimes.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:16 AM

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Former Air Force chief backs Dean candidacy

Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff who endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, has left the Republican fold and is backing Democrat Howard Dean in the 2004 race for president.

What's all this that we have been hearing about Republicans being solid for Bush? For the rest of this story go to The Oregonian.

posted by John 6:16 PM

Another case closed...by voice vote

Pilot "mishandling" and not bad weather conditions, apparently... yes, apparently, caused the private plane crash that last year killed Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), according to a "ruling" by the National Transportation Safety Board. The Washington Post says the "ruling" was a "voice vote."

posted by Groom 5:01 PM

The Rotweiller Factor

Another one of those oh-my-goodness-Dean-is-going-to-get-the-normination-and-take-down-the-party-with-him articles in the Christian Science Monitor this morning. Linda Feldmann writes "...there is a growing sense of inevitability among many political observers that, barring some unforeseen event or revelation, Dr. Dean will win the Democratic nomination" and this prospect has "sent some party members into paroxysms of private hand-wringing. Not only do they see him losing badly to Bush, they also see Dean hurting Democratic candidates further down on the ticket - rippling into congressional races, and possibly even boosting Republican control of the 100-seat Senate close to the crucial threshold of 60 seats, which would make it filibuster-proof."

The usual beefs are trotted out: he is too much of an outsider, he's too angry and can be painted as too far left. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), who has not endorsed any candidate, is quoted as saying if Dean is nominated, he will have to work hard to show that he's as tough as Bush in handling the war on terrorism.

I think Hans Kaiser and Bob Moore, the Republican consulants who said Dean can win "because he believes in what he is saying, because he can semi-legitimately spin his record as governor into one of fiscal conservatism, and because he comes across as if he actually cares about people" are a lot closer to the mark.

Among the swing voters, there is a lot of nervousness about Shrub and his scorched earth approach to the rest of the world. The economy may be recovering but it still feels shaky. And Iraq is still going to be there like a giant albatross. Maybe Shrub is one of those guys who only talks tough.

In fact, all Dean may have to do to demonstrate to independents that he's tough enough to take any little brown guys who mess with us is to rip Shrub a new asshole and sent him running home to mommy in the one-on-one debates. DLC Democrats and others with delicate sensibilities will think it's tasteless but they'll vote for him anyway. The Bubbas will respect it. Let's not forget how the alpha dog gets to be the alpha dog.

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:09 PM

Case Not So Closed

You would think that in the interest of moving his boy closer to those famous "swing voters" as the election year nears, Karl Rove would want to clear the Pentagon and the Veep's office of the nest of lying vipers who keep leaking spurious information that the White House knows is false and has to deny. Only a few weeks after Shrub corrected Dick "Him Before He Dicks You" Cheney's implication of a link between Saddam and al-Qaida, Douglas Feith, the man most in charge of the non-planning of the Iraq occupation, leaked (or arranged to have leaked) a 16-page memo he had sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee which laid out a sewer pipe full of "raw" (i.e., unverified and probably unverifiable) turdlets of intelligence purporting to show repeated attempts to get Saddam and al Queda together. (If you call a girl 10 times and she's busy or washing her hair, that means it's never going to happen.)

Somehow, Feith's memo found its way to the money-losing Rupert Murdoch publication Weekly Standard which was moved to announce in an article titled "Case Closed:"

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al-Qaida training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Great story. Unfortunately, a total lie. Who says so? The Pentagon:

News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.

The press release goes on to say that "the classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions." In other words, the report that this "information" established a working relationship between Saddam and al-Qaida is a lie, the leaker knew it was not credible and the reporter probably knew as well. This is an administration with absolutely no regard for truth.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:54 AM

Health care holocaust

When the "power to make it better" becomes the power to make it worse

Six million human lives times six. That’s how many members the “non-partisan” AARP has betrayed by backing the Bush-GOP prescription drug plan designed to help destabilize Medicare. Effectively, this is a drug pork bill that amounts to a $400 billion pass through from taxpayers to the US pharmaceutical industry, insurers and managed care operators. Employers will be provided with $70 billion in subsidies to jump start the program.

Earlier this year the AARP acknowledged how much damage the Bush-GOP drug plan would do to America's low income families and those living below the poverty line. But under intense political pressure from the White House and lobbyists the leaders of the organization flipped.

Reducing health care and associated medicine costs has more to do with procuring cheaper drugs than it does with penalizing low income Americans. It's common knowledge that the very same drugs that are manufactured in the US and Puerto Rico and sold at extreme markups are available in Canada and Mexico for far less, which is why the Bush-GOP plan makes them "illegal.". Just do a "google" search on AARP and notice how many paid advertisments pop up on your results offering drugs for less than AARP endorsed outlets do. Thanks to lobbying by crony capitalist friends of AARP- many of whom are big contributors to the Bush 2004 campaign- Americans have developed the perception that drugs made in Canada and Mexico are "substandard" and "dirty." Pure urban myth. The same Swiss-owned pharmaceutical companies that manufacture or license in Canada and Mexico demand the same standards of quality there as they do in the US.

Behind the innocent, Mr. Grocer face of John Deetz, the AARP was viewed as squeaky clean, politically correct and beyond reproach. Now, with the betrayal by AARP CEO, former PR agency owner William Novelli, one wonders whether the organizations 36 million members will start to question whether their annual membership fee gives them much more than a bunch of marketing newsletters telling them how to spend their retirement money and a bucket of benefits that aren’t much different from what’s offered by their local auto club.

Porter-Novelli, the world-wide PR agency that Novelli ran, has spun a few government clients into a vast, incestuous web of corporate, not-for-profits and government accounts. It's easy to fix things when your client list includes major pesticide manufacturers and the American Cancer Society. While senior citizens in Ft. Lauderdale and Sun City play Slingo by the millions on AOL, Novelli quietly took over at AARP just last year and in less than 18 months he's been able to jack Medicare.

If it is anything, the AARP is a shill for the insurance industry and its actuaries who are terrified about spreading the risk for a generation of baby boomers- who in spite of such class warfare schemes as managed care- are destined to live longer than any other age group in history. Maybe this is why Joe Lieberman, with his links to the insurance industry, is the only Democratic presidential candidate backing the Bush-GOP healthcare holocaust.

Thirty six million members pay roughly $180 million a year for membership (about $5/year for each individual membership), giving the pro-Republican AARP probably the deepest pockets of any lobbying group.on the US political scene. Ironically, they are only planning to spend $7 million of the annual booty to pimp the Bush-GOP drug pork bill. Maybe it’s time for the organization to change its name to the American Association of Republican People.

Memo to D-train... a lot of NASCAR dads and grandpappys won't like going out of pocket if this puppy makes it through Congress.

posted by Groom 12:27 AM

Monday, November 17, 2003

When Will They Ever Learn?

In a tactic reminiscent of Israeli crackdowns in the West Bank and Gaza, the U.S. military has begun destroying the homes of suspected guerrilla fighters in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, evacuating women and children, then leveling their houses with heavy weaponry. Knight-Ridder, November 17, 2003

The biggest, baddest army on earth is now reduced to terrorizing women and children. Can we sink any lower as a nation?

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:06 PM

Back Home Again in Indiana

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development, which is responsible for helping unemployed residents of that state find work, is launching a systems redesign project with help from a company that plans to import up to 65 programmers from India to work on the project.

posted by Jerry Bowles 3:14 PM

The new target... terror at sea

As London prepares for its worst traffic jam, the security nightmare for the lame-duck lovefest between Shrubby and Pinnochio, the Straits Times is way ahead of the curve, issuing a reminder about terrorism along the world's major shipping lanes, and just how easy it is. The navy quietly took a powder after the "end to major conflict" was declared. This is not the ground forces type of operation that the talking heads can jabber on about on CNN. Are the UN, the US and the "coalition partners" out in front on this one? Rummy... Kofi...sink or swim.

posted by Groom 2:24 PM

Blogrolling Baloney

Don't know what happened with our Blogroll but it just went phloooey this morning. All the recommendations disappeared except for someone named Lara. I'm trying to remember who was on it but, alas, it's Monday and I am a gentleman of certain age. Leave a comment below if you were on and I'll put you back. If you want to recommend some likeminded folks, feel free to do that too. And, don't forget to add us to your own Blogroll if you enjoy our little rantings.

UPDATE: Never mind, as Gilda Radner used to say. Looks like Blogrolling fixed whatever the problem was.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:10 AM

No Spark in Clark

The litmus test for a successful presidential candidate is having “fire in the belly.” In Clark’s case there isn’t even a spark in the eye. I watched the good general more than holding his own for an hour with Tim (Bulldog) Russert on Meet the Press yesterday. Practically all of the discussion was on foreign policy. He dodged no questions and when asked at the outset for one word to describe the current situation in Iraq, he did not go on a monologue as others would have done, he just said, “A mess.” He was impressively articulate. He has a specific plan for how to move on in Iraq and the war on terrorism, a plan he can articulate well with conviction and details, unlike anything else I have seen from any candidate or any one of the Bushies. He showed an impressive command of the big picture and small details of foreign policy, taking on, dispassionately, a relentless series of baggering questions from the Bulldog. Clark was not on the defensive at any time, even though Russert kept trying to pin his past praise of the Bushies on him. To Clark’s credit he said he had no problem giving credit where credit was due, thereby dramatically demonstrating that comity is possible in politics. This gave him a lot of credibility when he pointed out that the Bushies, on the flip side, do not take responsibility when things go wrong. And there his concept of leadership won the hour.

But, there was no passion in presentation. He monotoned his way through the entire hour. The only momentary drama was when Russert tried again to pin something else on the general by selecting some quotes from an article he had written. Clark replied, “Do you have the rest of the article?” And stopped. Silence. A power pause! It would have been a show stopper if the general had held his patience and waited for Bulldog to reply, but he rescued Russert with a reply a moment or two later, still managing to make Russert look like a fool.

The show ended with a reminder of why I no longer watch these kind of lap-dog shows regularly. After the interview was over, in a sophomoric display of some of the most biased editing I have ever seen, Russert trotted out two old black and white TV interviews with Carl Sandburg and some long-forgotten general saying that generals don’t make good presidents. The new motto of NBC’s owner, GE, is “imagination at work”—but there was none on display yesterday.

posted by Josh 9:54 AM