Bloodless Coup

Catching Up

Binky pointed out to me that we haven't done much on recent political stories (our bread and butter), concentrating mostly on music, infotainment and other sundries. While this is true, I suspect our excuse is related to the fact that the fall semester at WVU is ending, and (in what little time we have to blog) we prefer to think about fun things like music, movies and other (not the depressing state of politics).

So; you want political commentary? (I don't have many links for these - you can find them if you want, or if you demand them in the comments I'll go hunting.)

1. The ISG report came out (see Belgravia for a mulit-part series discussing exerpts). The report recommends: reduce our expectations, talk to Syria and Iran, and try to put less religious figures in power in Iraq. These recommendations are very well intentioned, reasonable, and logical. They are also pretty much DOA because (a) the situation on the ground in Iraq has gone beyond bad and (b) the Prez had already rejected these ideas. Thus, things will continue to get worse. How much worse, nobody knows (if you believe this guy, much, much worse).

2. The Republican Party, continuing it's spiral to assholeness (if not, hopefully, oblivion), has saddled the incoming Democrats with the responsibility of passing 11 of 13 appropriation bills that fund the day-to-day activites of the Federal government. All appropration bills are ugly: they contain pork and earmarks that no one likes to see. By pushing this off to the Democratic Congress, the Republicans hope to be able to start complaining about their faults earlier than usual. It may work (complaining about Congress isn't hard), but the Republicans remain assholes. Perhaps others may forget, but I won't (expect to see me discuss this heavily as the new Congress begins).

3. While no one seems to know exactly what happened, the best-guess is that the Russian FSR (successor to the KGB) whacked a critic of Putin with radioactive poison in London. While whacking critics of Putin inside Russia isn't really unusual, killing people outside of Russia is somewhat more direct and disturbing. I'll go on record as predicting that Russia will get less democratic before they get more democratic (if ever), and won't be surprised if Putin either changes or ignores the Russian Constitution that forbids him from running again.

4. The new SecDef (Gates) sailed through hearings in the Senate, and was confirmed almost unanimously (the only negative votes were from some die-hard Republicans). While I certainly hope that removing Rumsfeld will improve any aspect of Iraq or general US military policy, put me on record as somewhat skeptical of the new SecDef. Gates isn't a Washington heavyweight (in the mould of a James Baker, a Rumsfeld, or a Kissenger), and i'm unsure if he will have enough clout to make sufficient change at the Pentagon. The goes double if Bush won't back him up (actually, it goes more than double: Gates is dead in the water if Bush won't back up whatever changes he wants to make).

5. In little noticed news, the idiotic Republicans broke 40-odd years of precedent and passed a treaty with India that gives them US nuclear fuel, even though they are not signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Thus, India is bound by no treaty to refrain from turning US nuclear fuel into bombs. While I'm not thrilled with this deal with India, I can sort of live with it (I don't see India as a threat to proliferate the bombs or the techology to other states). The problem is the precedent this creates for negotiations with other states. I'll be very curious to see what Pakistan or Egypt asks for in the next few years (prediction: nothing good).

6. Recent photographs of Jose Padilla surfaced, courtesy of his lawyers, that showed him being transfered within the prison (from his normal cell to the infirmary). He was shackled, had noise-cancelling earphones on, and blacked-out goggles. Associated reports (again, from his lawyers) argue that his 3.5 years of solitary confinment (with associated loud-noise and sleep-deprivation torture) have more-or-less caused him to go insane (the lawyers are calling it "unable to participate in his own legal defense"). Remember: Padilla has never been convicted of any crime, and the most serious accusations against him (the dirty bomb charge) are not anywhere apart of the actual legal charges he faces. I think Andrew Sullivan had some sort of quote that noted that the death of habeus corpus (a legal tradition in Western society dating back over 800 years) was greeted with silence by the right-wing blogosphere. My only contribution is to note that the Main Stream Media seems to be complicit in that silence, as well.

7. Various Democrats (Clinton, Obama, some dude from Oklahoma (Vilsack?), and a few others) and various Republicans (Romney, McCain, Thompson, Brownback (shooting for the insanity vote, I guess), etc.) are manuvering to run for President in 2008. I'm having a great deal of difficulty getting excited by this.

8. After much delay, Pelosi has chosen the head of House Intelligence. While he does know the difference between Sunni and Shiite (a step up from the Republican), he does not know which Islamic sect Al Qaeda is. This is progress?

If anyone wants to argue about any of this, let me know in comments and I'll be glad to provide either some sort of linkage, or to help you understand why your opposing position is wrong. All part of our public service.