thursday misc

via TalkLeft.Com

some bits from here and there in the blogosphere:

"...Gonzales said that it was impossible to answer such a hypothetical question but that it was "not the policy or the agenda of this president" to authorize actions that conflict with existing law. He added that he would hope to alert Congress if the president ever chose to authorize warrantless surveillance, according to a transcript of the hearing.'

For republicans "hypothetical" means "we have not been caught doing that yet".

-Jason of Delaware liberal.


and Bob says:

It seems pretty obvious to me that the most incompetent ruling party in US history gets to do everything it wants only because it exists contemporaneously with the most incompetent opposition party in world history. If you can´t oppose the war in Iraq or Scalito, you are incapable of opposing, period.

BBC/AP

and, Juan Cole's "top ten myths about Iraq in 2005"

which includes:

6.[the myth that] There is a silent majority of middle class, secular-minded Iraqis who reject religious fundamentalism.

I want to know, how does Cole know? Sure, he a respected mideast scholar and he teaches at Michigan, but has he even been to Iraq since 2003? I don't claim that I know the opposite to be true, but one of the reasons I mean to go to Iraq in 2007 is to investigate for myself. Eric Alterman wrote something similar in December at Altercation when he said

"I have always shared Peter Galbraith’s analysis that the only post-invasion solution to Iraq’s political problems is to split it up in three parts. So, too, apparently, do Iraq’s voters, here. Congratulations to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the liberal hawks on the strengthening of Iran’s fundamentalist, terror-exporting regime by giving it a third of Iraq as well, (and at the cost of only tens of thousands killed, hundreds of billions wasted, and who knows how many terrorists created)."

I think Alterman happens to be right about how BushCo desicions have helped to bring about the situation that exists today. Nevertheless, that doesn't make the implicit inevitability of a three-state solution valid. Alterman links to an LA Times article about the December 15th election, and proceeds to divine pearls of wisdom about the stirrings within Iraqi hearts, which happen, coincidentally, to align with what he thought would happen and should happen all along. How about that. I have a PhD and therefore, you should listen to me. Harrumph.