Cluster bombs, Part Deux

Loyal readers may recall the Mandarin posted a mini-rant about cluster bombs not too long ago. He was not surprised to read today that, 1) a broad coalition of nations is moving to ban the use of cluster bombs, and 2) the U.S. and Israel did not attend the conference and absolutely refuse to join the ban. A U.S. government spokesperson said the United States "take(s) the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement."

In other words, "if nothing goes wrong, then everything will be fine." The problem is that cluster bombs are not precision munitions, and, according to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Handicap International, often everything goes wrong: the vast majority (they estimate 98%) of victims of cluster munitions are innocent civilians, many of them children who think the bomblets are toys.

Our tax dollars at work, unless we get our elected representatives to do something about it....

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Extreme Poverty at 35 Year High

McClatchy newspapers today reported that extreme poverty in the United States has reached a 32-year high. In every area measured, the poor have lost ground rapidly since 2000.



In fact, the McClatchy analysis found that the number of extremely poor grew by 26% between 2000 and 2005, outpacing the growth of the overall population of people living in poverty by a whopping 56%.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased significantly since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation’s 37 million poor people into deep poverty — the highest rate since at least 1975.

The share of Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily in the last three decades. But since 2000, the number of severely poor has grown “more than any other segment of the population,” according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began,” said Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, who co-wrote the study. “We’re not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we’re seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty.”

Remind me again - weren't the Bush tax cuts supposed to ameliorate these problems, because a rising tide lifts all boats? Instead, the poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer, and indeed the twain shant meet.

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Vilsack is out

One day after sparking a firestorm by ruminating about using the Social Security trust for other purposes, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (seen at right chatting with George Stephanopolous on ABC's This Week) will withdraw from the Democratic field.

In fairness, he just never caught fire, did he? Until he touched the third rail of politics, that is, and then he went up in flames. (If this seems short, heck, I just wrote as much about it as Chris Cillizza who writes The Fix for the Washington Post.)

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Ahmad Chalabi, Again

What is it going to take to kill this jokers political career and cease his machinations? Like the mythical Hydra that seemed impossible to kill, sprouting two new heads every time Heracles relieved it of one, Chalabi just keeps re-emerging.

Baghdad 'Surge' Returns Chalabi To Center Stage
Political Survivor Gets Post As Public Liaison; Does Bigger Role Loom?
(Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2007, Pg. 1)
In his latest remarkable political reincarnation, onetime U.S. favorite Ahmed Chalabi has secured a position inside the Iraqi government that could help determine whether the Bush administration's new push to secure Baghdad succeeds. In a new post created earlier this year, Chalabi will serve as an intermediary between Baghdad residents seeking compensation for damage caused by security sweeps, but he is already speaking ambitiously about playing a larger role in economic, health and reconstruction efforts as well.

Yes, Chalabi has been so staunch and reliable in the past that he should be rewarded with a high government position.

I want to say "Unbelievable!" but unfortunately it isn't. It's par for the course.

Folks, if we want to take our country back, more than six of us have to get pissed off.

(I'm looking for a link to the entire WSJ piece that isn't behind their subscription wall, and if I find it, I will link it. If anyone else finds it, link it in comments?)

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Has America peaked

I read bmaz's post, good job by the way, and realized that I too have been wondering if America is in a state of permanent decline. It could be that as a boomer, I am just feeling my own mortality. All of us boomers are in a state of permanent decline. Maybe I just can't imagine American greatness without us. I wonder? Have we taught our children well? Do they understand the value of hard work? Are they, like Britney and Paris, spoiled children absorbed in their own feelings of self-importance?

Since the beginning this site has not generated much in the way of comments. Please set that "tradition" aside and tell me whether you think America is irretreivably broken. Its Friday. A good day to reflect on the future of America.

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Willful Foreign Policy Malfeasance

Greetings fellow concerned citizens. I am new here, having been graciously invited to join by Blue Girl in a Red State. I am a bit new at this, so I will try not to screw it up.

Josh Marshall at TPM cited an article in Ha'aretz detailing how the United States has forbidden Israel to engage Syria in talks regarding normalization of relations. Not actual normalization understand you; just talks.


"The United States demanded that Israel desist from even exploratory contacts with Syria, of the sort that would test whether Damascus is serious in its declared intentions to hold peace talks with Israel.

In meetings with Israeli officials recently, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forceful in expressing Washington's view on the matter. ...

When Israeli officials asked Secretary Rice about the possibility of exploring the seriousness of Syria in its calls for peace talks, her response was unequivocal: Don't even think about it."


If there was any question about the obstreperousness of the Bush Administration as to meaningful foreign policy, that should be laid to rest. I am fairly pragmatic, and understand full well that the depths of ignorance can always be plumbed further by our politicians, especially the Bushies, but every now and then I am still stunned. Not only do our leaders refuse to engage in meaningful diplomacy, the opportunities for which often appear to be served to them on a silver platter, but they also strong arm other countries to refuse to make peace as well. This is no longer mere incompetence, this is willful and wanton refusal to act in the best interests of the United States and the world as it relates to the United States. Yet, we have become so anesthetized to poor leadership that this will undoubtedly not even register a blip on the outrage scale nationally.

I want my country back; thing is, time is fleeting. Demand is already being formented for the end to the Iraq war and for better domestic poicies; concurrent with those priorities, however, must be a demand for immediate enlightenment of diplomatic policy not just in the middle east, but across the globe. The 06 elections were a turning point, and it appears that prospects are good that we can build on that successfully in 08, both as to Congress and the Executive. I have, however, a deep concern that the damage that has been done over the last six years, and that looks to continue until January 2009, can become so pervasive, so deep, that the upward arc of the United States will be irretrievably altered for the worse. History teaches that all great civilizations have a zenith; let us work together to insure that we have not yet reached ours.

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Senator Johnson Update

Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, has been discharged from the hospital and moved to a private rehabilitation facility. The location of the facility was not disclosed, that the Senator may focus on his recovery.

He is spending a lot of time in Speech, Physical and Occupational Therapy sessions, with a key focus of his treatment being strengthening his right side, which was compromised by the time he reached the hospital emergency department on December 13 of last year.

The Senator underwent emergency surgery to repair an Arterio-Venous Malformation (AVM) that had ruptured. An AVM is a congenital circulatory defect, and most people who have one never know it. Most are discovered when another condition is being treated. An AVM is basically a tangle of oversized arteries and veins. Most don't rupture and cause no difficulty, but some do. Senator Johnson's was a pretty severe case.

In 1988, Senator Joe Biden suffered an aneurysm (different etiology, but very similar in consequence) and was absent from the Senate for six months. He recovered and returned and no one even thinks about it today. We have gotten a lot better at treating these things in the last 20 years, so I optimistically look for the Senator to return to the Senate at least part-time and to cast key votes by mid-April.

Now, the Senator just needs time and therapy, and he is getting both at the rehab facility he has selected.

An aide to the Senator was quoted as saying the Senator was working hard at the physical aspect of his recovery with the intent to run for and retain his seat in 2008. Some time back he began resuming some of his senatorial duties from his hospital bed.

I wish him a speedy and thorough recovery and look forward to his triumphant return to the Upper Chamber.

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Oooh! Georgie boy is under siege.

Via the Daou Report, Gina Cobb has this to say:

The immediate implications of the endless partisan attacks on George W. Bush are
obvious. It becomes harder for him to accomplish anything in the war on
terror, either domestically or internationally, no matter how much it needs to
be done. Keep in mind that America has only one chief executive and only
one executive branch that can actually take action on behalf of the federal
government. Congress can only pass laws; the judiciary can only apply such
laws to individual cases that happen to arise. If our commander in chief
cannot function, we cannot function as a nation, and least not in matters
military.

So, because we're speaking poorly about the President, he can't do his job. If this were really true, then the Republicans have certainly made sure that Bill Clinton has secured his place as the Greatest.President.Ever.

When they weren't making any progress hamstringing him with idiotic attacks, they were investigating every little things he did. We all remember Lewinsky, but let's not forget Travel-gate, Whitewater, Vince Foster. The list of real attacks - more than mere words - was endless from the beginning of his Presidency to the end.

Yet, in spite of that, he delivered welfare reform, true economic growth and prosperity, and a truly contained Iraq Dictator who was left with NO way to attack American interests, just to name a few of very long list of accomplishments.

Georgie has left us with Iraq, Katrina, torture, no habeas corpus, illegal wiretaps - just the tip of a very big iceberg representing the disaster that is his Presidency. Well, his attention span is a little small. Maybe we really did distract him.

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The Brits are Abandoning the "Mission"

Both the BBC and CNN are reporting that Tony Blair has announced that approximately half of the British forces deployed to Iraq will be pulled out by the end of 2007, and the British forces will be completely withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2008.

Our major ally in the region is withdrawing from operations and pulling out their troops, even as United States forces escalate their presence and increase engagements with hostile forces.

The cause is, quite simply, lost. When the WMD's became histories first proven negative, the possibility of anything resembling "victory" evaporated.

It is patently absurd and the height of hubris to think that an outside party can win another countries civil war. As objectives were never clearly defined, they are, by (lack of) definition, unachievable. IT makes about as much sense for the dead-enders to insist on victory in Iraq as it would have made for the Italians to insist they would win this countries civil war in 1865.

The very notion is patently absurd, to the point it's just surreal.

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Spouses Serve and Sacrifice, too

A group of military retirees is taking their case to the Supreme Court, attempting to overturn a 25-year-old statute that allows for the former spouses of military retirees to receive half of that retirement benefit when the marriages dissolve. The court has agreed to hear the case. I am watching this one closely, and I feel that it will set the timbre for the Roberts Court as it sits today, with the current cast of characters.

The retirees argue in their petition that their retirement is an exclusive and privileged entitlement, and former spouses are not entitled to a share of the retirement largess.

Bull. The spouses earned their share. It's only right they receive it, and I think I can make you see my point without beating you over the head with a multi-page rant. Military spouses sacrifice and serve along side their spouses. Military spouses keep the family functioning, and usually do it on less money than the family would realize in the civilian sector.

But lets forget the emotional appeals and reduce it to what it's all about...the money.

Military spouses make career sacrifices in support of their spouses and the mission. It is the rare military spouse indeed that gets vested in a retirement plan. While we bring diverse experience, adaptability and flexibility to the table, and generally prove to be ideal employees, advancement is stunted, and we usually have no choice but to accept an initial set-back wage-wise when we relocate to a new billet with our spouses.

The retirees are thinking about their own comfort in their retirement years, but so are the spouses, who as a general rule have little or no retirement funds because we are never in a job long enough to participate in the matching contributions, and sometimes we can't even participate and pay our way. Our 401 K is what we can afford to take out after we buy cars and insurance and school supplies and groceries and mortgages and clothing and school uniforms and tuition to parochial schools and rent and utilities and new tires and tune-ups and all the other things that every other family has to pay for - with one glaring exception. There is never any free childcare because grandma isn't close at hand.

We don't advance at the rate our skills and experience would dictate. I have known military wives who, by the time they graduated from college, had transcripts from 10 or 12 schools.

The sacrifices the spouses make are worth recognition. I hope that point is not merely brought up, but driven home, when the case is argued. Spouses serve and sacrifice too, and they deserve to benefit from the rewards they helped their spouse to reap. With this conservative court, I worry about the outcome.

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Floridians have McBush's Number

Well, thankfully, even the folks in Mark Foley's old district know the true John McCain. The headline of the article:

McCain dispells flip-flop claims

That's what the editor chose but I don't think the good folks in Vero Beach (a red city in a blue area of the state) are buying it. From the comments:

"McCaine flip-flopped within a 60 minute time frame on Hardball in front of a college audience. I used to like McCaine, but when he sold his soul to that fat pig Jerry Fartwell, he totally lost me then."

And that commenter is almost always in favor of anything not Democratic. They really are not buying it.

"Ah - excuse me - can someone explain to me how can you be anti-abortion and pro-stem cell research???

A woman is a murderer for having an abortion, but the use of embryos for scientific research is not?? Where is the logic there?? How does he justify this distinction?"

McCain's mantra about the war is that "In Vietnam, they did not follow us home." Two commenters take him to task for that.

Terrorists won"t follow us home if we close the door. Lets leave Iraq and spend those resources to secure our borders. What good does it do to fight a war which cannot be won, when all the while our borders are so wide open that a terrorist could walk right in. Priorities.

Yes, even the hard-core anti-illegals get how stupid that is. And so do others:

So, they're not coming here because we're in Iraq? The terrorists in Saudi, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, and other nations CAN'T come here because we're in Iraq?

Someone PLEASE explain the logic here.

Even if you don't like their reasoning, this is how Jeb Bush Republicans see McCain. Of course, McCain left open the possibility of picking Jeb as a running mate. McCain cannot win Florida without him.

Don't be fooled. Jeb is every bit the profiteer that GWB is and he's a lot smarter about doing it.

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