The Bettys of the World and Other Thoughts

Is it possible for Bettys to Win?
After watching 'Clueless', I though a Betty was supposed to be a babe who got everything she wanted. Cher does point to her mother and call her a "total Betty". So you would think it is a good thing, but...

• Remember Betty? Cheerleader, honor student, blonde hair, great body (well for a cartoon character)? She was the All-American girl. Too bad she was always second best in Archie's eyes. Always second best to rich, snobby, pert-nosed Veronica. Instead of being the girlfriend, she was the girl friend. Archie's best friend, emotional crutch, and substitute date... and quite frankly she was second best in my mind. I always wanted to be Veronica. Betty while pretty and smart was boring, and she didn't get the boy.


• Apparently, things haven't changed that much because America's new, everywoman, (Ugly) Betty, can't seem to catch a break either. Her sister mocks her. Her crush has a girlfriend he won't dump. Her boss expects her to clean up all his messes. Her co-workers have a seemingly endless set of insulting nicknames they throw at her. To top it off, she isn't even as hot as cartoon-Betty. Not to mention Amanda ends up with all the best lines.

Early Onset Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that's most well known symptom is memory deterioration. It typically occurs in the elderly, you have to be at least 65 or so. Imagine my surprise when Alberto Gonzales, apparently manifested a complete and utter loss of short term memory. So my question is this - if the man cannot remember, recall, or recollect major incidents that occurred over the last six months and is clearly suffering from dementia, should he really be AG? According to Bush - YES! Apparently memory deterioration is something that gives Bush confidence in his appointees... dear Lord! Maybe he should hire the Jokers from Arkham Asylum.

Random Aside
I watched Bill Moyer's "Buying the War" show on-line. It was nothing new, but it did irritate me beyond belief!

• Was no one home at The Times or The Post? Maybe they were just out to lunch? A really long multi-year lunch? Apparently, the only people who really tried to report the news and inconsistencies on the evidence leading up to the Iraq War were the journalists at Knight-Ridder, who didn't even have a fair chance, since their papers don't release do major markets.


• Did Big Media basically black out anti-war journalists? It has been awhile since Hearst used his media empire to foment the Spanish-American War. But since then, American journalists were supposed to be about truth - Watergate (though Woodward turned out to be all sorts of louse recently), Edward R. Murrow. But it seems that things have changed. Looks like MSNBC could not take the heat of old Phil Donahue poking holes in the case of the president and fired him.


• Goddamn Judith Miller. She is everything a journalist should not be. She was Cheney's little lapdog. She makes me want to puke. She makes me want to discontinue my subscription to the New York Times. But then where would I go. Fox News? Hells no.


• Incidentally, the show made me miss Dan Rather. I don't mind Charles Gibson, but I did grow up watching Dan give the news.

The Five Point Campaign

So apparently, Obama announced his five point campaign a few days ago...

1. The first way America will lead is by bringing a responsible end to this war in Iraq and refocusing on the critical challenges in the broader region.


2. The second way America will lead again is by building the first truly 21st century military and showing wisdom in how we deploy it.


3. The third way America must lead again is by marshalling a global effort to meet a threat that rises above all others in urgency – securing, destroying, and stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.


4. That’s why the fourth way America must lead is to rebuild and construct the alliances and partnerships necessary to meet common challenges and confront common threats.


5. The fifth way America will lead again is to invest in our common humanity – to ensure that those who live in fear and want today can live with dignity and opportunity tomorrow.

I think this is a five point plan everyone can agree with, well maybe with the exception of the hawkiest of the hawks, and that is precisely the problem. There are no details here. And I am really very curious to know what Obama means with position point #1. What in his mind is a "responsible end to this war in Iraq"? Leaving? Hmm... I was taught responsibility is to acknowledge the results of the decisions I made and clean up the mess.

I could quibble with other points, but that would be petty and not really worth it. But I do think his choice of words in point #1 is intriguing.

Thinking About Iraq

If you have eyes and ears, it is hard to not think about Iraq. Here are some thoughts I have had over the past couple days...

• Yes, it is sad that 32 people died at Virginia Tech. But on a scale of relative "badness" what is worse? the isolated killing of 32 people in Virginia? or the daily death of at least 32 civilians in Iraq? I hesitate to apply a scale of moral relativity. However, if you look at the way the news was apportioned between Iraq and Virgina Tech over the past week, it would appear the press has. 32 American lives are worth more than 224 Iraqi lives.
  
• When will we learn pick and choose the strongmen we choose to topple. History has taught us bad things happen when heterogeneous populations lose their dictators. Half a million people died during the partition when the British Raj left India. We all know what happened when Tito was toppled in Yugoslavia. The trials are still running at the Hague. Thirty years after the departure of Belgians, Rwanda erupted in violence and genocide not seen since the 1940s. While the distrust and bad blood is rarely evident at the surface, it is always there. How we missed it is beyond me!


• Why is the world so unwilling to split Iraq up into three different countries? It's what happened with Yugoslavia, despite potential concerns of the Albanians and Greeks. So the Turks don't want Kurdistan, but they'll get over it. It's not like they are doing anything to help now. Can't we just be done with this?

The Iraq Conversation Extended and Continued

I have a hard time respecting the policy decisions of Democrats who call for a complete exit of US forces from Iraq. Sure you can pull an Obama... I never would have voted for the war or this war was launched with false evidence and the likes. But that does not change the fact that we are in war of our own making. We waged war on Iraq with essentially no provocation, and now we want to up and leave? It just seems wrong.

In the aftermath of World War II, when Europe was laid waste, we did not leave. We stayed. We gave them a Marshall plan. We rebuilt Japan. Why are the Democrats, historically the less isolationist of the two parties, so against fixing the mess we made? Or at lease trying to make amends? I am a firm believe that what goes around, comes around. And if that is true, something is going to bite us in the ass real soon.

Still my feelings on the positions of Obama and Edwards aside, John McCain's comments today were neither constructive nor well advised. It seems that the nonpartisan McCain of 2000 is forever gone, in his stead we have mini-Bush who can only pander to his "base" (and I use the term base loosely because it is unclear if he can truly convert the hardcore conservatives). After describing the Democrats as happy after passing legislation setting a timetable for with drawl from Iraq, he proceeded to say,

"What were they celebrating?Defeat? Surrender? In Iraq, only our enemies were cheering.”

You would think McCain would be suitably chastened after his "I'm a fuckwit" statement on security in Iraq earlier this week. Apparently not! If he's lucky, and I mean lucky, he may be able to secure his party's nomination. But as they say, it'll be a cold day in hell before he wins a general election... which reminds me, where does he stand on global warming?

Catching Myself Up

Is it just me or are you too getting bored of this never ending game of chicken between President Bush and the Democratic Congress? So I get that Bush doesn't take ultimatums well, wonder if there is some history there between him and Pappy Bush, but threatening to veto a bill to fund our troops seems ludicrous and more than a little petty. The repeated need to prove that he is the boss is getting old. Seriously, if I didn't know better I would guess he has all the insecurities of a short, pudgy, and balding middle age man. Still as much as I may despise GWB, he is not alone in this. The Democrats need to avoid squandering whatever advantage they have gained in these past elections by not turning into the Newt Gingrich congress of the late-90s. The rhetoric between the president and Congress is reminiscent of the Gingrich led government shutdown, only with much higher stakes. So instead of letting John Edwards and Barack Obama rant on about an immediate and complete withdrawal, Democrats should tone it down and develop a realistic solution that doesn't involve a massive showdown between the executive and legislative branches.

Apparently it is possible to swiftboat your way into an appointed office. Just ask Sam Fox. $50,000 worth of anti-Kerry swiftboating ads got him Belgium. Go Bush and the recess appointment. I wonder if I make a $1000 contribution to One More Term for Bush if he'll let me have the Congo... it's GDP is 1/20th of Belgium...

Some still believe the third time is a charm. Kirk Kerkorian first tried to take over Chrysler almost a decade ago in a buyout partnership with Lee Iacocca. When that failed he sold his shares. Then he bought a stake in General Motors, only to sell it, when his dream of created an automotive behemoth (e.g., the merge of Nissan, Renault, and GM) did not come to fruition. Gee, like that's a surprise. And now Tracinda is back at it again, looking to buyout Chrysler from its German parents for a mere $4.5bn. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the auto industry is troubled, but $4.5bn does seem absurdly low. The fact that Kerkorian was willing to offer over $20bn just 12 years ago only proves that he is low-balling DaimlerChrysler. That is $1.3bn on value disappearing on an annualized basis. It would be interesting to assess Chrysler's liquidation value, I would not be surprised if it hovered around the $5bn range.

Finally, A Little Honesty

A lot of people aren't huge fans of Hillary, and neither am I. She never seems real. She's always a little too stiff and a little to rehearsed. After hearing her talk, I always wonder what she's really thinking. Well today, she finally told us. She actually outlined a fairly detailed position on Iraq, and while it is likely to be immensely unpopular, and I am not in complete agreement with it, I do respect her for it.

Prior to today, Hillary was shades of Kerry with her double negatives in explaining her Iraq vote. Like she would not have not voted for the Iraq war if she knew what she knew now. But Obama and Edwards have been equally tired with their call for a unilateral pull out of Iraq. Sure we were wrong to go in, but we are there now. It's a cesspool of violence, and in going in, we have allowed Al Qaeda, who didn't have much traction with Saddam, to get in. So while Iraq did not originally pose much of a threat to the us or the rest of the world, it is safe to say that they do now.

I like Hillary's idea of maintaining some small presence in Iraq for the foreseeable future. It allows the US to have some eyes and ears on the ground to actively monitor the situation. The scaled down presence will also force the Iraqi government to get it together and start doing their job. Finally, it will prevent Iran from having a free reign in the country.

While I think Hillary may have shot herself in the foot with her statements, I do have to give her some credit! If the rest of the candidates would get a little real instead of pandering to their base, all this pre-election campaigning might actually mean something!