Ok, so I like watching NBA games. I have since I was a kid, enamored of the Celtics and the Knicks, and later, Dr. J, David Thompson, and a long list of amazing players and revered teams. The end of season playoffs to determine the overall professional basketball champion was a time to look forward to, and to treasure as the best battled the best for the crown.

Unfortunately, over the years, NBA officials have seen fit to include more teams in the playoff draw, watering down the competition and extending the playoff run to a mind dulling two months each year. Including teams that barely break .500 is absurd - only the National Hockey League, a tragic joke whose death draws near, held the distinction of including a majority of its teams in post season play.

An additional and cynical change was to convert the first round of series play to a best of seven format, as opposed to the earlier best of five. My memory may be fading, but I seem to recall somewhat distant past when best of three was the opening round format, but don't hold me to it.

On top of playing 82 regular season games, NBA players who make it to the championship series will have played over a hundred games,, and more if they are taken to seven games in more than one series.

Ridiculous, in my view. Sure, they make mad cash, but the point of post season play is to pit best against best to determine the king of the heap for that year. Watering it down with irrelevant early round series by adding teams who don't deserve a shot at the championship is nothing more than a ratings ploy that serves to undermine the credibility of the entire playoff system. It also serves to wear out the players, leading to sometimes uninspired play and multiple injuries.

Kinda reminds me of baseball, where teams used to have 162 regular season games to get their shit together to make it into the post season, and one step from World Series play. Now there are preliminary rounds of play, longer post seasons, and falling TV ratings. Sports are, by their very nature, an arena for competition, victory and loss. Those who excel in regular season play ought not to have to wade through a sea of also-rans just to get to one another to determine who is truly the best.

'Nuff said.

A Plague Of Stupidity


I believe stupidity is a disease, and it's spreading.

The wife and I were on a foraging expedition at Walmart. (okay, okay, I know they're evil, exploit workers worldwide, all of that. We are on the thin edge of poor, and they have too many things we need at far lower prices than anyone else). Rachel drives slowly in parking lots because other people often fail to pay attention when backing out or turning into an aisle.

Today, a different kind of inattention nearly resulted in severe injury to a child.

We were crawling down a row of parked cars to reach a space far from the store itself - we don't mind the walk and hate to cruise looking for that one car actually leaving to take that space. On our right was a railing behind which were paving stones and bags of fertilizer. At the end of that row was a bunch of shopping carts. As we approached the mass of shopping carts, a little girl came running at full tilt from behind them, chased by a boy of roughly the same age. She popped out right in front of us. Rachel slammed on the brakes, and the girl retreated, still laughing, saying "sorry!."

Her mother, loading groceries to our left, looks back over her shoulder and says, nonchalantly, "sorry," in a singsong kind of voice. I yell at the kid, "watch what you're doing! You're going to get yourself killed." We drive on to a parking space, exit the car, and start walking back

The mother has her kids in the minivan and is leaving the parking lot, As she passes us one row over, she says to us "You didn't have to yell at her. Now she's upset." We countered with, "She nearly got hit." The woman repeats herself, then drives on.

This is wrong on so many levels, I don't know where to begin. Had we been as inattentive as she was, and so many people driving in that parking lot often are, that little girl would have been struck, and likely injured, even though we were going slow. The mother didn't see it happen, she turned around at the sound of our brakes, and by then the girl had stepped back behind the shopping carts. She had no idea how close it actually was.

So, she yells at us.

Anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't let their kids run amok in a Walmart parking lot full of over sized trucks battling for parking spaces, a parking lot full of frazzled parents trying to manage a cart stuffed with groceries and a coterie of children, or just trying to get the hell out of there and go home. It is a definite recipe for injury or death. It is not surprising to me, thinking about it now, that the mother thought we were out of line, not for nearly hitting her unsupervised kid but for yelling at her out of our own terror over the sudden near miss. I chock it up to the the whole "my kid can do no wrong" attitude that too many parents seem to exhibit. I hold little doubt the woman would have sued us, our insurance company, and Walmart had we even nudged her child. The cynical side of me says "thank god" there are security cameras in those parking lots - we would have won the case.

A case that almost resulted in an unnecessary tragedy.

Noted is the death of former football player and Arizona Cardinal's safety Pat Tillman, who walked away from a multi-million dollar career in the NFL to serve with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan. Tillman quit football in early 2002. He avoided media contact after his decision to join the Army became public, saying only that he felt he needed to give something back to his country.

Tillman's life is no more or less worthy than any other American soldier who is serving or has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is his willingness to give up fame and fortune to do so that strikes me as unusual in modern America.

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Speaking of the dead, a Freedom Of Information Act request has pried loose hundreds of photographs of flag draped coffins containing American military dead being transported back home for burial. These are the pictures the Pentagon and this administration have been keeping away from the public eye, claiming a right to privacy for the families and relatives of the dead.

It was once tradition to allow pictures and video to be taken from a distance of the coffins as they arrived at Dover Air Force base and were unloaded beneath the watchful eye of a full color guard. Unfortunately, the Shrubsters have denied any access to the pictures or the air base, turning what would have been low key, respectful coverage into a contested political symbol. Shrub's true rationale was to keep this aspect of war out of the newspapers, while gladly handing out positive pictures of beaming soldiers in the desert, or video of our end of firefights.

But this cynical mindset is nothing new, not for an administration who has lied it's way into this war, and cannot seem to lie its way out, not for lack of trying. Iraq is where they wanted to go from the start of their time in office, and so they have dragged the rest of us along for the bloody ride. I think it only right and proper that every American see the stark, undeniable photographic evidence of the true cost of this war, of the lives given freely by those who serve in our armed forces, forces intentionally sent to their peril to fight an unnecessary war.

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Quoted from the Washington Post about the Republican smear campaign concerning John Kerry's military service:

The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum has a tale of two soldiers:

George Bush, fresh out of Yale, uses family connections to join the Air National Guard in order to avoid serving in Vietnam. After serving four years of a six-year term, he decides to skip his annual physical, is grounded, and heads off to Alabama, where he blows off even the minimal annoyance of monthly drills for over six months.

Conservative reaction: why are you impugning the patriotism of this brave man? He got an honorable discharge and that's as much as anyone needs to know.

John Kerry, fresh out of Yale, enlists in the Navy and subsequently requests duty in Vietnam. While there, according to the Boston Globe, he wins a Purple Heart, and then follows that up with more than two dozen missions in which he often faced enemy fire, a Silver Star for an action in which he killed an enemy soldier who carried a loaded rocket launcher that could have destroyed his six-man patrol boat, a Bronze Star for rescuing an Army lieutenant who was thrown overboard and under fire, and two more Purple Hearts.

Conservative reaction: Hmmm, that first injury wasn't very serious. This is something that deserves careful and drawn-out investigation, and it would certainly be unfair to impugn 'craven or partisan motives' to those doing the impugning.

Are these guys a piece of work, or what?

Last night the Resident was trotted out for a dog and pony show to prop up the mountain of lies threatening to crumble down on his soft little head. Soldiers are dying in the highest numbers since this ill conceived war began and Iraq is edging closer to civil warfare over the assumption of sovereignty due to take place June 30.

Given all of the noise about the September 11 commission and the Shrub's own strategy of basing his re-election on his status as a "wartime president," one would think he has some sort of reflective answer to the following question:

Toward the end of the news conference, Bush was asked what lessons he had taken away from events since the Sept. 11 attacks. He stopped, shook his head, looked quizzical and then came up empty, although it was the kind of question he must have been told to prepare for.

"I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer," he said. "But it hasn't yet."

Holy Shit.

This will serve as my last post on Rwanda.

Read this.

Hard on the heels of my outburst about the Rwandan genocide of 1994, a principle player who sat on the sidelines while the wholesale slaughter went unopposed has written an editorial for the Washington post, "reflecting back."

Much as The Post can be useful, to avoid having you register, I've quoted the entire apologia on my own page. Notice he repeats himself several times, saying only "those of us who did not do enough." There are many reasons to find Bill clinton lacking in his performance as President, but none are so revolting as this.

Enjoy!

We recently traded in our standard cable box for a DVR box, one which allows the recording of programs and movies even while watching something else. (Cannot be done on a digital cable system with a VCR). Beats VCR tapes and hassles everyday of the week.

I can record programs I've not always been able to watch, especially programs considered too nerdy by my wife, like a recent NOVA program on tornadoes that centered on the University of Oklahoma and the National Storm Prediction Center, both of which are here in Norman. She actually wound up watching that one with me - tornadoes terrify her as much as they fascinate me, and I equate her sitting transfixed by the images of natural destruction with the look in the eyes of a mouse just before the snake strikes.

So I recorded Frontline last night without really reading the description of the show. Frontline is one of those programs worth watching, regardless of topic. "Ghosts Of Rwanda" is a two hour retrospective on the genocide of 1994 that annihilated at least 800,000 people in a premeditated mass slaughter. Western nations and the UN stood by as day after day, week after week, people were murdered, shot down, beaten, and hacked apart by machete. The interviews are gut wrenching, the pictures horrifying and sickening, and the response of the US nearly incomprehensible. I say "nearly," for in the news footage included on the program are clips of the State Department spokesperson giving the US government's take on the mounds of bodies piling higher by the minute. She contorts herself around the term "genocide," avoiding its use as long as possible, and finally caving as far as the phrase "acts of genocide."

"Acts of genocide."

As opposed to just plain "genocide."

I was reminded of Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's difficulty with the term "Guerrilla Warfare" in relation to the violent resistance to the US occupation of Iraq.

The term genocide carries specific legal definitions in the context of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which the US is a prominent signatory. Under the Convention, combined with the UN Charter, member nations are required to act to end genocide wherever and whenever it occurs in the world. By avoiding the word, the US and European nations could abdicate their responsibility to act to intervene in a situation that fulfilled all of the definitions of the term genocide.

I quote:

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The events that began on April 6, 1994, and continued until July of the same year could only be defined as genocide right from the start. In less than 100 days, greater than 800,000 people are destroyed, more than 8,000 every single day.

The Frontline program ends with clips of a series of visits by UN officials and US officials after the genocide was ended. It is nauseating in the extreme to watch as they expiate their own guilt by traveling to Rwanda to gaze upon the piles of bodies and scattered remains. President Clinton chose not to act, stating that the United States has no friends, only interests, and participating in international interventions will only occur in light of the extent of US interests. In 1998 Clinton traveled to Rwanda in a trip billed as an "apology" for choosing not to act. Not once in the brief speech he gave in Kigali did he use the word "apology" or the word "sorry."

I remember feeling sick at the time. Watching it all over again last night, I was very, very angry.

"Never again?"

My head feels like it might explode - I've had a four alarm banger going on all day. Seizures do this to me, casting a tight net over my brain, then drawing it close until gray matter begins squeezing out through the holes. This headache is exacerbated by the suspicion that the current anti-convulsant meds I'm eating are having little, if any effect on the frequency and severity of the seizures that routinely scramble my brain. Never mind those meds are costing me dearly, even at the deeply discounted and civilized prices available from our kinder, gentler neighbors to the north.

Following the news fuels the throbbing jackhammer. Not since Nixon has the White House used its considerable powers to savage a political opponent in the manner the Shrubbies are doing to Richard Clarke. Selectively declassifying documents to paint a very narrow, somewhat contradictory picture of Clarke is indicative of the overall desperation driving the Shrubites. This administration has consistently been one of the most secretive in US history, making classification of everyday documents into a normal procedure. To open the gates even a little speaks to their burning desire to crush this man who dare criticize policy decisions.

Most, if not all, of this blatant smear campaign has been carried out by the office of the National Security Adviser, Condoleeza Rice, herself willing to make time to appear on numerous television shows to excoriate Clarke while refusing to appear in front of the 9-11 commission to testify publicly and under oath, as Clarke has already done. In a crass political calculation Rice and the White House have tossed away their original rationale for her refusal, executive privilege, in favor of a public appearance where, by assertion alone, it is hoped she can either directly refute Clarke's testimony, or sufficiently cloud the waters. Though under oath, Rice has considerable leeway if she is careful - the commission has not had unlimited access to classified documents, not by any measure.

In other words, she can lie to her heart's content. Coupled with the selective declassification of a few documents, she ought to make short work of Clarke's testimony.

Understand I am no fan of people like Clarke, who is an old style Cold Warrior remade in the modern age (though not a Neocon, which is a completely different species), willing to use military force in secret to eliminate the enemies of the United States. In his testimony, I heard the voice of my father, a post World War II Republican and ardent Cold Warrior. Unlike my father, who saw everything in terms of the Soviet Union and the terrifying assumptions of Mutual Assured Destruction, Clarke has adapted to the more nebulous circumstances of stateless warfare. Some of his Republicanism is of the throwback variety - he made mention several times of the necessity of improved intelligence services that are restricted enough to protect civil liberties. This is in stark contrast to the Shrubites, who believe civil liberties are reserved for those who can afford to pay for them.

CSPAN is more than a little educational. Sure, those who watch it at three in the morning are often ridiculed for being nerds and policy wonks, but amazing things happen on CSPAN that are not seen or reported widely or accurately in the mainstream slap-dash corporate press. I happened to be watching the night the Medicare legislation came to the House floor for a vote, and wondered why it took three hours as opposed to the usual fifteen minutes to record all of the votes. Turns out administration officials, who have no business on the House floor during debates or votes, were twisting arms and the compliant House leadership kept the vote open far longer than is normal.

Come to find out the budgetary numbers were cooked and a Medicare actuary threatened with reprisal should he give to Congress the actual figures, as he is required to do by law. A Republican House member due to leave office after his current term was similarly threatened that his son, preparing to run for his father's seat, would face stiff opposition from his own party if he refused to change his vote so the measure would pass.

But that isn't why I laud the educational and public service functions of CSPAN. I sing its praises this night because it provides context for events later portrayed in the media stripped of same. I speak specifically about the case of Richard Clarke, formerly Counter -Terrorism Coordinator for the Shrub Ministries. Clarke held the same position for Clinton, Shrub the Elderberry, and worked in the Reagan administration as well. (A full video of his appearance can be found at CSPAN. Look for "Sept. 11 Commission Hearing, Day 2, afternoon" and click on the link.)

What transpired in open testimony and what has appeared in the news media are two very different things. In the latter, Clarke is framed as a man of questionable intent, perhaps a "disgruntled former employee" as Paul O'Neill was characterized by the Shrubbites. He is cast as a guy just trying to sell a book, to be famous, get his fifteen minutes, as it were.

The Shrubsters ran around all day Tuesday and Wednesday refuting anything and everything this man said, is alleged to have said, and might utter some day in the far flung future. To call their shrill denials desperate is to be kind. He is said to have been out of the loop, misinformed, and a liar. That last comes from the central figure who has steadfastly refused to answer in public for her role in the September 11 attacks, Condoleeza "oil tanker" Rice. She has played it safe, lobbing spitballs at Clarke every chance she gets, but only in forums where hard follow up questions cannot be asked. Unlike Clarke, she was not under oath when making her comments.

Watching the entire period of Clarke's testimony revealed to me several things. He is a serious and thoughtful man in his professional capacity, well spoken, and willing to admit not having answers to some questions due to a lack of knowledge. He strikes me as a hawkish, cold warrior type of guy, advocating the aggressive use of military and covert options in the fight against terrorism. I disagree with some of his assumptions and probably all of his methods, but I took him to be truthful and consistent in his testimony.

And in a classy move, he opened his remarks with a public apology to the families who lost people on 9-11.

Contrast his hours in front of the committee with the hatchet job being done on him by the White House in the form of Rice, Cheney, Shrub, and Scott McLellan, the press secretary who has led the charge. To listen to these people, Clarke was incompetent, lazy, uninformed, out of the loop, and disloyal. That last one stings the most for this secrecy obsessed crowd, that a former official cuts the cord and speaks his mind in public.

The Shrubministeries even went so far as to release Clarke's resignation letter, then fed the wolves at Faux News a briefing Clarke gave, on background (which means unattributed and unquotable), at the express request (order) of his higher ups. That it does not exactly jibe with what appears in his book casts a bright lie on the routine practice of trotting out officials to "put a good face" on lousy policies or mistakes. That the Resident's minions would feed this directly to Faux ought to enrage reporters everywhere, for background briefings are essential to their daily jobs, and no one is likely to perform even this off the record task if the risk of being named is so high.

It is a truism, that he who doth protest, and all that. In this case, the big guns are out in a way they have not been for anyone else who has publicly questioned the Shrubberites and their policies. A tip of the hat to Clarke for taking the heat, even though he already knew what was in store for him.

And for those who ponder such things, let us consider:

Outing Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, a CIA operative, then refusing to reveal who committed this crime.

Bashing Paul O'Neill, formerly Secretary Of The Treasury, for noting in his book that Iraq was in the cross hairs from the earliest days of the Shrubberites.

Intimidating and threatening at least two public servants and bending the rules to the breaking point in order to score a political victory in the Medicare legislation.

Refusing to allow key officials to testify in open session about the 9-11 attacks. In truth, what they could actually testify to in public is far less important than the mere act of doing so.

Manufacturing a war by intentionally lying about the nature and severity of the threat posed by Iraq. According to Clarke, this egregious action disrupted our declared war on terrorism.

The list literally goes on and on, and I contend that the viciousness of the Shrubberites is due in large part to their underlying belief that the American system of government, as described in our Constitution, is not a legitimate constraint upon their agenda to remake America into something it is not: a corporate dictatorship.

One of my brackets is completely blown up. Yes, the one where Gonzaga and Stanford play for the national championship. Sadly, they have both been booted from the tourney, and I should have known better. Gonzaga, while very talented, is a victim of parity. Stanford, well, I really should have known better. Yes, only one loss, but their schedule, compared to say, any team in the ACC, was weak, and those sorts of teams always get spanked come tournament time.

Alas!

I may still be ahead on that blown up bracket due to other picks made in it, and the collapse of several other high profile teams.

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The Shrub & pony show is underway on Capital Hill and the CableSpews channels. Colin Powell, who traded any shred of credibility he once had in exchange for our belief during his UN presentation before the Iraq war, is talking around the truth in front of the commission. No surprise, so is everyone else from the administration. Ms. Rice won't even be testifying, sending a deputy stand in to dodge questions. All of this in light of former Terrorism Czar for Shrub (and two other Republican presidents) Mr. Richard Clarke's allegations that the Shrubberies intentionally conflated Iraq with Al Qaeada to manufacture a war they wished to prosecute from the very day they took office.

The commission, hamstrung already by the Shrubsters' refusal to cooperate in timely manner, will wind up issuing a watery report stating that all recent administrations were unprepared for terrorist attacks upon the United States, and it was all due to a "failure of intelligence," the catch-all vague blame phrase these people rely on to get away with extraordinary lies.

Makes me want to puke.

The terrorists are coming. Daddy Dick Cheney says so. Shrub says so. Colin says so. And they all reassure me that John Kerry is unable and unwilling to defeat them.

Yes, they are coming. As they came to Turkey to bomb the British. As they came to Spain to bomb the Spanish. as they will to Poland, or to Japan, or to the Red Cross, or to poor soldiers in powder blue helmets when our lying leaders turn this mess over to them.

They will come strapped in explosive laden automobiles, flak jackets, "improvised devices" by the side of the road. They may come again in airplanes loaded with fuel and pilots content to burn themselves up to make a point we cannot understand.

They are alleged to have come to Iraq already. As if those who never threw flowers and candy could not elect to throw bombs instead.

The terrorists are coming. My esteemed leaders tell me so, night after night on the evening news.

They come as they once did to Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq...

"And when the band plays Hail To The Chief, ooh they're pointing the cannon at you."

(Fortunate Son
Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

I just finished my sheets for the NCAA tournament that begins on Thursday. I'd tell ya my picks, but then I'd have to claim them if they lose.

Ok ok, I took Duke on one sheet, and Stanford on the other. I'd love to see Maryland replicate their stunning success in the ACC tourney and win it all, but I think not.

And a note of television pique: During that extraordinary defeat of Duke for the ACC title, ESPN here in the southern plains chose to leave that game, just entering the overtime period, for the very start of the OK State game. I know how important OSU basketball has been in this part of the world this year in light of OU's total collapse, but I can't imagine that any other than the most die hard Okie fans wouldn't want to see the end of a stellar game. Coming on the heels of the amazing comeback Maryland pulled off against NC State just the day before, this was a matter of quality over loyalty.

At any rate, a two cheek moon to ESPN and /or Cox Cable for denying basketball fans everywhere (and especially me!) the end to a spectacular game.

Representative Barney Frank is one of the sharpest guys in Congress, a true parliamentarian. In a recent speech on the House floor, he dissects the current state of the American economy and the reasons recent growth has not, and will not translate into more jobs. The speech is a little long, but very well worth reading.

I was going to prattle on about college hoops, but I read this and thought it was a tad more important.

From a Washington Post article:

Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

"The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials.

A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill.

Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered."

Somebody needs to take the car keys away from these guys.

{See also a CNet article.}

Candidate John Kerry tells it like it is. A supporter urged him to take on Shrub, and Kerry replied into a still-open microphone:

"Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."

This is a straightforward assessment of the Republican Party as presently constituted. Too bad the only time Kerry has said this is when he didn't realize the mic was hot.

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This Washington Post article is worth reading, even with the hassle of free registration. The subject is the small but growing minority of families of service members killed in Iraq or serving there currently. The central focus of those beginning to speak out against the war is the complete lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the original and central focus of the Shrubster's campaign to invade.

An organization of military family members opposing the war can be found online. They are organizing a number of protest actions, including a " Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession: A trail of mourning and truth to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq" on March 14 & 15, which will begin where US soldiers killed come home - Dover Air Force Base.

I'll miss Spalding Gray. A guy who made a sly joke out of his own life has come to an uncertain end, pulled from a river after going missing for almost two months. If the concept of seeking the "perfect organic moment" intrigues you, rent Swimming To Cambodia and drink your fill of Gray's peculiar humor.

Thank God for the wisdom of the Supreme Court. The judges who brought you election-by-judicial-fiat have acted to further expand the rights of defendants.

Not!

Little by little, in dribs and drabs, the Supreme Court and our esteemed legislators are tightening the noose around our collective necks.

Another book well worth reading - I'm on a tear lately. This time, economist and New York Times op ed writer Paul Krugman has gathered many of his columns thematically into a book length critique of the Shrubster's administration. It is entitled "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century." In some ways this book is especially instructive in that each column is reproduced and dated as it originally appeared in the newspaper, giving us little windows of Krugman's thinking on Shrub-o-nomics, politics, and social policy. I have to confess to being tickled by an economist describing the current crop of Neowackos as a "revolutionary power."

He isn't wrong about that, by the way. Read the book and find out why.

Joe Conason has written two books well worth reading. The earlier of the two volumes is entitled "The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." It covers the decade long assault upon Clinton by right wingers intent upon destroying his presidency. I have a lot of trouble with Clinton, as does Conason, which makes this even more eye-opening. The events and hectics outlined in this book make even more sense given the current administrations operating procedures.

The second book is "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." Lots of little media gems in this one, plus a straightforward and coherent defense of liberalism.

The Resident, Shrubmeister himself, is predictably and revoltingly kicking off his re-election campaign with a glossy ad extolling his virtues as Leader against a backdrop of images of destruction and death on September 11, 2001. It has been no secret that the Republicans intended to work 9/11 for all they could, scheduling their national convention in New York very late in the campaign season and appropriating the anniversary of that awful day.

From September 12, 2001, Shrub has been exploiting the gruesome deaths of nearly 3,000 people and the terror all of us experienced in order to drape himself and every single one of his regressive policies in the warm wrappings of the American flag. The war in Iraq was predicated on false assertions about weapons of mass destruction (-program related activities and so on) and an unproven link to Al Qaeda, and finally, when all else was failing, on September 11 itself. Time and again administration officials drew a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 they knew to be false, so they could pursue their war of vengeance and oil.

Sickening, no?

And if that isn't enough to condemn these ads as the basest of political propaganda, consider this: Shrub opposed the 9/11 commission charged with finding out what our intelligence services and political leaders were, or were not doing about terrorism prior to that day. Shrub, under pressure from the surviving family members, finally did allow for the creation of the panel, then stonewalled it by withholding mountains of documents, encouraging administration officials not to testify, and when the commission complained they were running out of time because of the Resident's obstructionism, opposed an extension. Further pressure and the coming campaign forced Shrub to relent, and a two months extension is in the works.

Firefighters have come out in force to condemn these ads, as have many surviving family members. A few find no problem with the ads, saying they are happy the events of that day are out in front of the public, lest we forget. I don't know about you, but I haven't forgotten. Nor am I likely to for the rest of my life. Respectfully, I find that reasoning hollow in the face of the naked political opportunism these ads represent. They are not history, they are advertising on behalf of a pathological liar seeking to remain in power.

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Ok, so I was wrong, and my house is still standing. :)

But there were spectacular storms across northern Texas and all of Oklahoma, spawning several tornadoes in both states. Lucky for me, none of them occurred in my neighborhood.