Obama on Iraq in His Own Words

Today's NY Times carries an op-ed editorial by Barack Obama, himself, titled, "My Plan for Iraq." It's precisely stated and clearly reasoned.

Agree or disagree, when it comes to "straight talk" this is the real deal:

In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.

But the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200 billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.

The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready to assume responsibility for security in 2009.

Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.

But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

Read the rest here.

Privatization and How It Works

The conservative mantra for decades has been "privatization, privatization." Today, Princeton economist Paul Krugman tells us how it really works (emphasis added):

The case against Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] begins with their peculiar status: although they’re private companies with stockholders and profits, they’re “government-sponsored enterprises” established by federal law, which means that they receive special privileges.

The most important of these privileges is implicit: it’s the belief of investors that if Fannie and Freddie are threatened with failure, the federal government will come to their rescue.

This implicit guarantee means that profits are privatized but losses are socialized. If Fannie and Freddie do well, their stockholders reap the benefits, but if things go badly, Washington picks up the tab. Heads they win, tails we lose.

The only thing wrong with Krugman's description is that it's not "Washington" who picks up the tab for the lucky stockholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's you, me, and the rest of the taxpayers.

We're with Duncan Black on this one. He writes, "Both short and long term we might think that having such creatures exist to be mortgage backstops is a good idea. I probably agree with that. But there is no reason for them to be publicly traded companies."

Dept. of Amplification

Washington economist Dean Baker puts the issue more starkly:

We had to keep Fannie and Freddie in business, but we could have done this by putting conditions on the bailout. The government uses conditions all the time when it offers help to low and moderate income people. Unemployment insurance, TANF, food stamps, and even student loans come with all sorts of conditions.

It is only when it comes to giving money to extremely rich people that we find it impossible to impose conditions. Again, we could have told Fannie and Freddie that no executives will get more than $2 million a year in total compensation. We could have told their shareholders that they are out of luck, because that is what is supposed to happen when you invest in a bankrupt company.

Instead, we told the people who work as truck drivers, school teachers, and fire fighters that they will have to pay more in taxes to help some of the richest people in the country escape the consequences of their own stupidity.

Generation Kill

We don't recommend television as a rule, but if we did the only thing in that vast desert we would recommend watching at the moment is Generation Kill, which debuts on HBO tonight.

It's written and produced by Ed Burns and David Simon, the creative geniuses who wrote the superlative 'visual novel' titled The Wire. The new mini-series is based on a book with the same title, written by Evan Wright.

The NY Times recently ran a preview:

Generation Kill,” an HBO seven-part mini-series about the invasion of Iraq that begins on Sunday, is bold, uncompromising and oddly diffident. It maintains impeccable dignity even as it tracks a group of shamelessly and engagingly profane, coarse and irreverent marines, members of an elite reconnaissance battalion that spearheaded the invasion. The odyssey of these men from training tents in Kuwait to occupied Baghdad is laid out with brutal candor and without the aid of maudlin cinematography or emotive music. The closest thing to a thematic score is the starched, staticky clatter of radio traffic: “Roger that” and “This is Hit Man II, over.”

It is a true story of combat and male bonding, but it is told disjointedly and atonally, perhaps because it pursues clashing goals. “Generation Kill” tries to honor the ordeal — and the humanity — of its heroes while exposing the futility of their quest. It was written by David Simon and Ed Burns, the team behind “The Wire,” and was adapted from the prizewinning book by Evan Wright, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone who was embedded with Bravo Company for the duration of the assault.

The script is faithful to Mr. Wright’s account, respectful of the soldiers he befriended and as opaque and ascetic as “The Wire,” an opus that forced viewers to parse multiple plots and a huge cast of characters without directions or subtitles.

Two cautions: First, if you're going to watch it at all, start with the first episode and proceed chronologically from there. Given the writers' style, this is not likely to be the usual TV schlock you can follow while in a torpid state of low alpha wave activity.

Second, as several critics such as Maureen Ryan are warning, as with any great novel it will take a chapter -- or episode -- or two "to truly get into the action."

Blue Angels 2.0

The Blue Angels' annual air show on Pensacola Beach has been rescheduled for today, Sunday. "Today's show will have the same lineup of civilian planes ushering the arrival of the Blue Angels at 2 p.m.," the PNJ reports.

The weather is expected to be much like yesterday: partly cloudy and warm with a 60% chance of terrifying lightning storms and torrential downpours.

Video Report from the Beach

Pensacola News Journal reporter Sean Dugas was sent out to Pensacola Beach for what surely everyone assumed would be a routine tourist event assignment. Yaaaawwn.

Early in the day he filed a number of video reports about the traffic, parking, jelly fish, store sales, and the like. And then the storm hit.

Sean was driven by the lightening, thunder, and torrential rain to take shelter in a nearby, ah... err... libation establishment. Below is the last more or less sober news report he has filed, at least for now. It may not be Pulitzer Prize material, but it's a worthy scoop for this cub reporter, nevertheless.

Tragedy at Blue Angels Show

UPDATED BELOW
The Blue Angels Air Show on Pensacola Beach was canceled early Saturday afternoon as "a severe thunderstorm hit Pensacola Beach" and lightning reportedly struck beach visitors. Early news reports quote Escambia County sheriff Ron McNesby as saying three people, as yet unnamed, were rushed to the hospital.

"We do not know the condition of the individuals as of yet," McNesby told the AP.

Inclement weather is rare for Blue Angels weekend. On one or two occasions in the past fifteen years, there have been enough clouds that the Blue Angels had to resort to their "low show." But this is the first complete wash-out in memory.

UPDATE
7-12 3:26 pm

The PNJ is reporting "at least four people" were struck by lightning.

UPDATE II
7-12 3:45pm

Island Authority Buck Lee tells the PNJ efforts are underway to try to reschedule the air show for Sunday.

Current weather forecasts call for much the same on-again, off-again stormy conditions.

Blue Chickens Air Show

You'll find today's Blue Angels show schedule in Saturday's Pensacola News Journal. Oddly, the paper doesn't mention the post-show Pensacola Beach fly-over by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is planned for 3:30 to 6:30 pm.

Apparently, this will be the first time PETA has taken to the air anywhere -- physically, that is -- in its nationwide campaign against KFC's alleged cruelty to chickens:

Towing a banner reading, "BOYCOTT KFC CRUELTY," and a billboard featuring a demonic, blood-soaked "Colonel Sanders" in the act of stabbing a chicken, an airplane hired by PETA will make several passes over Pensacola's crowded beaches tomorrow after the Blue Angels show.

Sounds like fun, eh? We can hardly wait to watch the Youtube film clips while munching our deep-fat fried chicken strips.

Joking aside, this PETA initiative is serious enough that KFC Canada, an independent corporation, recently agreed to undertake a series of reforms in how its suppliers keep and slaughter chickens:

[T]he deal obliges KFC Canada to begin buying from suppliers who use gas to kill their chickens painlessly, considered to be the least cruel method of slaughter.

The company is also promising to insist on other “animal-welfare friendly” measures relating to how the birds are kept, including a maximum on crowding and phasing out non-essential growth-hormones and other drugs.

Customers of the popular restaurant chain will also be able to order a vegan “chicken” item, according to the deal that followed almost seven months of at-times “sticky” closed-door negotiations.

News accounts relate that the video by Baywatch TV star Pamela Anderson, which went viral a year ago, had a lot to do with pressuring persuading KFC Canada to mend its ways. Here it is for your consuming pleasure -- and pass the tofu, would you please?

Condign Consequence

Pensacola News Journal, July 12:

"A man accidentally shot himself in the leg Friday evening in the Wal-Mart on Pensacola Boulevard south of West Nine Mile Road, authorities said. * * * The man, whose identity was not available Friday evening, had a concealed-weapon permit, and the weapon accidentally discharged, a Sheriff's Office dispatch supervisor said."

Feel safer, now, Walmart shoppers?

'Little Old Librarian' Fights Back

Carol Kreck, the "little old librarian" who was ticketed and thrown out of a public square in Denver earlier this week, is fighting back with her pen.

Someone's also hawking "McCain=Bush" T-shirts for fun, profit -- and Ms. Kreck's defense fund.

As our Irish brother-in-law says, "Is this a great country, or what?"

Barrier Island Girl's Blue Angels Photos

Barrier Island Girl snapped some terrific Blue Angel photos during Thursday's practice session on Pensacola Beach. (Click the photo on the left for an eye treat).

These and other photos can now be purchased off the shelf at "Tiki Jake's" in Gulf Breeze, located in what locals persist in calling the "Publix shopping center." Officially, the name of the new shopping center is the unmelodious "Sea Shell Collections Shopping Center," apparently honoring the ancient Allan Davis Sea Shell Souvenir store that for decades fronted the Gulf Breeze site, but is no more.

Or, save on gas and order photos directly from Barrier Island Girl's on-line virtual sales shop.

McCain's Hole Card

"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President"

-- Article II, Section 1, U.S. Constitution

It is doubtless true, as Daniel Tokaji tells the Times, that "a federal court would look for every possible way to avoid deciding the issue" of whether John McCain, having been born in the Canal Zone, really is eligible to serve as president under the U.S. Constitution.

But not for the absurd reason Lawrence Tribe gives, that Congress would never have approved legislation with a "crazy design" that "would create an irrational gap." Congress does that kind of thing rather often, as Prof. Tribe surely knows himself.

No, the real reason is that here you have one of those rare instances where the common law curtain of respectability has been torn completely away and we see revealed behind it the Wizard of Laws for what he really is: "a lawyer who knew a dead governor," in the timeless phrase of one prominent critic of the judiciary.

An honest reading of past statutes and case precedents such as Prof. Gabriel J. Chin has done might well lead to a result that would embarrass nearly everyone in the political world and outrage many who aren't. In such circumstances, it's "To hell with stare decisis and all that legal reasoning mumbo-jumbo. Just skip to the result we want."

Even so, Prof. Chin's meticulous legal research may not go to waste. There's one person on Earth who could be persuaded, with effort, to rely upon it: John McCain himself.

If, as seems more plausible with each passing week, "GOP insiders unhappy with McCain" grow ever more alarmed about his poor campaign style, organization, and finances, McCain could come under intense pressure to step aside by the time the GOP convention opens on September 1.

Of course, he'd need a graceful way to exit. Until now, poor health has been the only hole card. And that one leaves an unpleasant odor no matter how much perfumery is used.

Now, Prof. Chin has given new life to another ace up the sleeve: John McCain was born in the Canal Zone and naturalized by statute only after birth. Therefore, the Constitution and case precedents say he cannot take the presidential oath of office. All he'd have to do is click his heels and repeat, "I want to go home, I want to go home."

The major difficulty with all of this, of course, is that before anyone in the G.O.P. tries to strong-arm McCain, they would have to have someone else -- someone who'd make a better Republican candidate -- waiting in the wings. The G.O.P. doesn't seem to have anyone. The Republican primaries already decided that.

Or, did they?

Further Amplification Dept.

The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes
Max Bergman:

During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail... [more]

Are Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae Toast?

Martketwatch asks, "What if mortgage giants Fannie Mae... and Freddie Mac were to fail, thus requiring a massive taxpayer bailout to keep mortgage lending from completely collapsing?" (See their off-the-cliff stock charts here and here).

The Bush administration answers, "The government doesn't expect the entities to fail and no rescue plan is imminent."

Marketwatch's reaction is, Oh no, the kiss of death! They're toast.

It adds, "Here are a few other things the Bush administration didn't expect:

• Terrorists to fly airplanes into buildings.
• Saddam Hussein to have been telling the truth about not having any weapons of mass destruction.
• Iraqis to object to a long-term occupation by a foreign power.
• Hurricane Katrina.
• People in New Orleans to object to the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
• The Democrats to take control of Congress.
• The Democrats to cave in so easily on important issues after they took control of Congress.
• Scooter Libby to get caught.
• Jack Abramoff to get caught.
• Abu Ghraib to be discovered.
• Scott McClellan to smell the coffee.
• The housing bubble.
• The credit bubble.
• The housing collapse.
• The credit squeeze.
• Bear Stearns to fail."

And that's the short list. Think oil nearing $150 a barrel... deepening recession... 4,100-plus dead soldiers in Iraq... Tom Delay arrested... the VA's Walter Reed hospital exposed... brother Jeb schlepping Wall Street's toxic derivatives to his pals in Florida... Arctic ice melting... yadda, yadda...

Well, you get the idea. With this administration's powers of foresight and knack for maladministration, by the end of the year George W. Bush will be making Herbert Hoover look good by comparison.

The Straight-Talk Belarus Bus

The contrast today between Barack Obama and John McCain while sparring over the state of the U.S. economy is truly striking. Compare and contrast:

Obama

McCain

Do we have this right? Did John McCain just throw his national Campaign Co-chairman, Phil Gramm (R-Enron) under a Belarus bus?

Blue Angels Weekend

It's that time of year on Pensacola Beach, again: the annual Blue Angels Show.

Thursday, July 10: Practice session (2 pm - whenever)
Friday, July 11: Full Dress Rehearsal (~ Noon)
Saturday, July 12: Air Show (12:05-3:00)

In anticipation, everybody is running photos of the Blue Angels in the air. Maybe one in a hundred obsessed fans could tell one from another, but we doubt it.

Here's a challenge: can you identify the year these snapshots were taken on Pensacola Beach?

(click each photo for a closeup)

In Respect of Congress: The Impossible Idea

Stanford University law professor Larry Lessig is disgusted with Congress. As well he should be.

Lessig wrote a few weeks ago:

I can't begin to understand why in a war where soldiers go to jail for breaking the law, the US Congress is so keen to make sure telecom companies don't have to fight a law suit about violating civil rights.

More recently Lessig had a "Huckabee moment." (Go ahead -- guess what that is.) Then certain polling data brought him to his senses.

But it wasn't the data you might think. Here's the story, both entertaining and profoundly discouraging: