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It's been apparent for a long time that Iraq has served as a "stand-in" while the U.S. demonstrates its military prowess to impress the major Asia powers whose capabilities are, perhaps, a little less.
Now it seems to be South Ossetia's turn to bear witness to what happens when a U.S. client, in this case Georgia, decides to put the weapons and training it's been provided to the test.
But, South Ossetia is also different. It's proving to be a "stand-in" for all the ordinary people who've been getting bombed in Iraq for five years--a situation the electronic media have been prevented from showing us.
Apparently, Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church has a way with words. The Los Angeles Times, in a story on the upcoming Civil Forum for Obama and McCain at the megachurch, reports his assessment of the presumptive major party nominees as follows:
"America has a choice. It's not between a stud and a dud this year," Warren said. "Both of these men care about America. My job is to let them share their views."
Yeah, I know you don't want to hear it. Some people here would rather sit around and snicker at George W. Bush saying something else stupid--this time while he's in China. Think Progess has a pretty good summary, including the video that was pulled from YouTube because of a third party ownership claim.
Worthless stuff is usually not worth claiming. But, that's not the only reason I'm going to give you an opportunity to reconsider whether what Bush said was stupid or part of an orchestrated campaign. That NBC interrupted its coverage of the Olympics with this vignette may or may not be significant.
People on the internet are no different from others in jumping to the conclusion that when they consider something offensive, it was intended to offend them. So, for example, there's considerable outrage over the little video, attributed to the McCain campaign, which insinuates that the Democratic presumptive nominee for President of the United States is arrogant, while the Republican presumptive nominee presumes to know for a fact that the Obama campaign is playing the "race card." Many who have seen the video have been inclined to conclude that making sport of their candidate is designed to somehow dampen their interest and support.
But what if it's not? What if, what is often identified as a Rovian tactic, actually plays to the Republican base and whoever else is inclined to feel resentment?
Just because it's good to know what's being discussed, have a look at the video over the fold.
John McCain is a small, petty man who takes comfort in other people's distress. How do I know that? It's what I oberved during his so-called "Town Hall" at the Rochester, New Hampshire Opera House this week.
When Mike Huckabee was still an active candidate for the Republican nomination for President, it seemed worth noting that there was some controversy in Arkansas about him accepting free rides on a jet from a fellow who got lots of money from the State of Arkansas to run "The Lord's Ranch," a home for abused/wayward boys, especially since the subsidiary that owned the jet is/was registered as a New Hampshire corporation. That seemed sort of curious.
Now we have another instance. This time it's Jim Gilmore of Virginia who seems to have found it convenient to associate himself with a New Hampshire corporation, which, strangely enough seems to have no awareness of the relationship.
An epiphany of sorts is what I think I had after a brief conversation with a gentleman waiting to get in to see John McCain at the Rochester Opera House yesterday. It was a very ad hoc conversation and I don't even know how it started. But, for some reason, I voiced my agreement that it's important to conserve things--i.e. be a conservative--such as our natural resources and our individual rights.
While I don't think the location of this enterprise at the old Naval Prison in Portsmouth Harbor has a snowball's chance in hell, it is something to which our Congressional delegation should attend.
When it comes to the United States military, the line between defense and offense has been getting thinner all the time.
What prompted Harper's Magazine to publish a somewhat detailed analysis of the origins of Jeb Bradley's supposed wealth is just a tad puzzling. But, perhaps the political fortunes of the scions of wealthy families were of particular interest in 2006. Or, perhaps it was in connection with the provisions in the Campaign Finance law which sought to "compensate" candidates whose competition was self-financed by letting them collect more from individual donors than the $2300 cap allows (a provision which the Supreme Court found to be un-constitutional last month).
Certainly not me. If I thought about it at all, I figured that die-hard Republicans went for the least objectionable candidate on the Republican ticket in the primary. Now the National Journal tells me:
GOP Woes in 'McCain Country'
Arizona's senior senator got big boosts from New Hampshire's 2000 and 2008 primaries.
by James A. Barnes
Sat. Jul 5, 2008
Few places have been better to John McCain than tiny New Hampshire, which twice gave him huge victories in its Republican presidential primary. His first win made him a strong contender for his party's 2000 nomination. But it was his January 2008 comeback, after his campaign had been practically written off, that sealed his special relationship with the state.
"New Hampshire is McCain country," says former state Democratic Party Chairman George Bruno.
and goes on to predict that:
Barack Obama will work hard to discredit McCain's maverick image, which has played well in the state.
Getting a first-hand look at another part of the country is instructive and I intend to check in with the Los Alamos Monitor on a regular basis from now on. After all, this county is supposed to be one of the wealthiest in the nation, as well as the locale for the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons.
The extent to which the people of New Mexico benefit from the "Discoveries" on which Los Alamos prides itself is questionable.
As historians ponder George W. Bush's disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.
Over the last several months, I've made an effort to pay some attention to the United States Air Force as an institution that's very much involved in the continuing aggression on Iraq but whose activities are rarely covered on the evening news.
What I discovered was an organization that seems to have significant internal problems--a conclusion I reached on the basis of the fact that only a disfunctional organization would challenge budgetary allocations in public with the assertion that it would get the planes it wanted, regardless of what the civilian leadership considers prudent.
Now that the filing period for the September primary for federal (other than President) and state offices has ended, the Secretary of State compilation provides a few interesting tidbits.
There's no doubt that Mike Huckabee is as busy now as he ever was while still compaigning for the Republican nomination for President. Ostensibly, he's out on the hustings in support of the presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain, but his efforts, as mirrored in his Huck PAC, are more diverse. Indeed, as he reports himself, his visit to New Hampshire on behalf of Bob Clegg, just after his visit to North Carolina where he "saved" a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, gave him a great opportunity to tout John E. Sununu at the same time.
Personally, I don't think John McCain is going to last as the Republican nominee for President past Labor Day, when the Republican National Convention convenes. However, while the epistolary exchanges between Senators McCain and Obama really speak for themselves, the McCain missive is in a class by itself. And, although we might be tempted to dismiss this rudeness, I think it important to note it was committed by a member of the United States Senate and at public expense.
Sixty eight thousand dollars is the latest estimate of the cost of a hellfire missile, the preferred weapon with which the Air Force "takes out" hostile pick-ups and the hapless Iraqis whose heat signature has been detected by the hunter drone.
That's not what the hellfire was designed for. This video purports to demonstrate what one does to a howitzer. Problem is, Iraqi insurgents ride around in pickup trucks.
BY: Bob Perry, Democratic Representative from Strafford, District #3 and posted at the author's request.
My seatmates in the house are Naida Kean, Chair of the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee; and Bill Chase, member of the same committee. It has been my pleasure to share the floor of the house for two session years with such good and committed Democratic state representatives who have worked in concert to succesfully pass important environmental legislation. Naida invited me to tour the above-entitled facility knowing of my lifelong interest in environmental matters. It is safe to say green technology is booming around the globe, in no way attributable in the United States to the leadership of Mr. Bush, but driven only by the record-high cost of crude oil, offering enormous opportunities for employment and profit in green technologies. The tour consisted of a slide show and physical tour of the new plant.
While I, personally, happen to think that the United States Air Force plans to set up a cyber command is a bunch of hooey, it seems worth noting that, in addition to our own Congresswoman, the Governor of Massachusetts is lusting after the location of this enterprise in his bailiwick.
It's been my considered opinion that much of the saber rattling against Iran has been prompted by the reasonable fear that the missiles China has sent to protect Iran will be aimed at the U.S. Air Force bases in Iraq, where our troops, and all the military equipment and arms we've shipped in, are like so many sitting ducks.
Indeed, the presence of USAF bases is the only fact that's consistently indisputable in the supposed "conflict" with Iran. There's no evidence of nuclear weapons being built and the most recent claim that Iran is supplying conventional arms to the resistance forces has again been proven wrong in that, upon close inspection, the most recent cache turned out not to be from Iran at all and the press demonstration had to be called off.
If we don't want to assume the US military is making up false reports, we could just conclude that Iraqis refer to their compatriots, whose religious affiliation aligns them with Iran, as Iranians--not unlike JFK referring to himself as being from Berlin.
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