Why we fight

Because George W Bush, despite his initial appearance as a mediocrity on about the same level as Al Gore, is undeniably the worst President in American History.

The last 7 years have been the steepest cumulative decline in American power, prestige and prospects for the future in its history.

And John McCain, who has spent most of his life being the maverick he claims to be, has clearly decided in recent weeks to be the standard bearer of the Bush era’s most crucial and harmful errors.

You can give GWB Year 1 the benefit of the doubt. An ineffectual first 9 months, followed by a surprising and inspiring month after Sept 11 as the world united around the horror and outrage presented a mixed bag under increasingly difficult circumstances.

But the key moments in late 2001/early 2002 where the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld incompetence let Al Qaeda principals escape from Afghanistan into the Pakistani tribal areas, and the later revelations that they had dusted off the gratuitous and dangerously distracting Iraq agenda as early as the afternoon of that tragic day, marked the clear beginning of a ruinous folly.

The failure to prosecute the War in Afghanistan.

The unprovoked war of aggression on Iraq, certainly an appalling regime, but one of maybe 40 such monsters around the world. And not a clear threat, let alone an aggressor.

The lies about the foundation for that war. Weapons of Mass Destruction, visions of democracy flowering, the shameless lies linking Iraq and Al Qaeda and the terrifying gullibility of those who facilitated.

The complete lack of any preparation for Iraq after the month of war.

The suppression of American’s rights through the Patriot Act(s) and the shameful abdication of moral leadership through a formal protocol of torture.

Turning the horror of most of the world at an atrocity committed against Americans into a broad contempt and increased hatred for America.

Funding the Iraq folly through deficits financed by China, and feeding off the blood of America’s courageous volunteers and – most shamefully – the feeding of the Reserves into the maw of combat.

The abdication of responsibility for repairing America’s infrastructure or taking care of the basic needs of all of its citizens in efforts deemed “too expensive” that would have cost less than this unnecessary war.

Now the very economic foundation appears to crumble, the military is worn out, America’s enemies abroad are emboldened and her friends besmirched.

Osama bin Laden in his wildest dreams could not have inflicted the damage on the United States that George Bush has.

Which is why we fight.

I’m just sayin’

The whole story of “hey I’m 7 months pregnant and haven’t told anybody, and I don’t look at all pregnant, and not even my closest staff noticed” seemed kind of odd. The details were even more implausible.

My first thought was “either she was not actually pregnant or she was trying to cause a miscarriage”. Admittedly the former seemed more likely to me. Maybe it was really her daughter’s baby. But maybe I was just not attuned to the perversely hypocritical possibility.  What do you do with an unwanted pregnancy if you are a confirmed public anti-choice hypocrite?

What does this sequence suggest:

• Having an amnio at 13 weeks that discovers the baby has Downs even though you are opposed to abortion. What is the point of the amnio if you are not doing anything based on it’s results? Any amnio adds to the chance of miscarriage and 13 weeks is awfully damned early (10 times the risk of miscarriage)
• Flying to Washington while 6.5 months pregnant and not showing. Flying to Texas when 8 months pregnant, not showing. Most airlines prohibit third trimester mothers from flying except in case of emergency, and even those that do require waivers.
• Having previously had 4 children – which tends to result in quicker labors -her water breaks and she waits around for a few hours then delivers a speech.
• Instead of going to a fine Texas hospital (they have some of the finest in the world and Austin is a college town), she flies 11 hours back to Alaska, stopping in Seattle for an hour, switching planes.
• Instead of going to a good hospital in Anchorage, drives an hour to her one horse Duckberg to deliver this high risk Down’s syndrome baby.

Going back to work three days later, still looking fresh as a daisy.

That story is complete bullshit.

So, at the risk of being indelicate, was Sarah Palin trying to kill her baby in utero because she could not accept the conscious choice of abortion?

The gloves came off in this one as soon as McCain picked this ticket, demonstrating that even he does not have the judgement to be president. This is about avoiding a very dangerous fate.

In sanity

On the bright side, more sanity from the conservative perspective:

and this from American Conservative:

Regardless of whatever trepidation the Democrats may feel about appearing mean, you have to call lies what they are. Lies. I am slack jawed at the repetition of insane lies (bridge to nowhere, Alaska national guard, fully vetted, more experienced than Obama or Biden) or non sequiturs (Bristol made a “decision” to keep the baby but no one else deserves the “Choice”, pumping Track and Trig for political advantage and hauling redneck baby daddy out for show is fair, but anyone mentioning Bristol is “out of bounds”, not questioning impact of “abstinence only” policies especially and it relates to the above)

And the entire universe has to with one voice explain to the media usual suspects that campaigns and candidates have to be held to some account. You have to call a lie a lie, You have to ask a follow-up to a non answer. You have to ask the question in the first place. There is such a thing as objective reality. You don’t have to pretend that its just “two sides to every story”. Qualifications matter. You need to be a serious person to lead America. It is more than just reading one speech. The horse race is fun but this is more than a horse race.

It very well could be the fate of the world.

And speaking of the apocalyptic, have you read the details on the particularly nutty offshoot of Pentacostalism that she belongs to? Apparently she is part of a sect so nutty that it was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God, who are themselves among the nuttiest segments of Pentacostals, who are the nuttiest of all the Evangelical Christians.

She was born Catholic but her family converted to this even nuttier stream. End times, demons, speaking in tongues. I realize that a disturbing number of Americans think Armageddon, demonic possession and snake handling are just another day at church and that they are all voting for Palin anyway. (Yes, voting for Palin not McCain).

But surely there are fence sitting, socially conservative, Reagan Democrat types who are horrified by this.

And will stand up and be heard.

And will vote.