Month: October 2005

Matt Bai has an interesting piece in the New York Times Magazine. He discusses Hillary’s strategy for capturing the White House. But he also delves into our domain, and attempts to explain what we think, and how we feel about Hillary. I’m going to excerpt a large piece and discuss it below the fold.

Now that Judith Miller has testified before the grand jury, you would think that many of the questions that have swirled around her martyr-like trip to the slammer would have been answered — especially by Judy herself.  However, the NY Times and Judy remain mum.

Fortunately, though, for those of us held enthralled by this story, some interesting pieces of the Judy puzzle are beginning to become a little clearer, thanks in part to the acrimonious public battle between Libby’s lawyers and Miller’s lawyers over whether Judy ever really needed to go to jail in the first place.

And a couple of interesting snippets have left me speculating as to whether we finally know why Captain Mustache aka John Bolton visited our darling heroine in jail.

He finished his 10-decade cycle of African American life from 1900 to 2000.

August Wilson, 60, one of America’s greatest playwrights, died overnight in Seattle.

In May, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and in June his doctors determined it was inoperable. But in August he showed that he was indeed prepared, telling the Post-Gazette, “I’ve lived a blessed life. I’m ready.”

The end came overnight when Mr. Wilson died at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, surrounded by his family, said Dena Levitin, Wilson’s personal assistant.

Jeezus.  I saw him for the first, and last time at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2003.  What a loss.

I’m cross posting this from DailyKos since almost all of us know and love Raybin. He commented on this here.

Dear Raybin,

I know you wrote your GBCW diary, but I hope you’re lurking out there some where. If not I’ll email you the link. Also, check your email for an invitation from me. It’s the email that doesn’t invite you to buy porn or viagra or invest in the chance to earn millions.

Tonight I gave the girls a bath like I always do on Sunday nights while Ms. Carnacki’s at work at the salt mine earning us a few extra bucks to salt away.

When I got the youngest out of the tub, she grabbed her older sister’s panties. I picked her up and carried her to the bed and grabbed a fresh diaper to put on her. She shook her head and reached down to put the panties on. She’s 20 months old (or something like that, by the third child you stop keeping track) and she’s been doing pretty well on the potty of late so I thought, “What the hell? I’ll put the panties on her.” I grabbed a clean pair and put them on her and let her run around as I got the other two into their nightgowns. Then as they ran off to join their baby sister, I began to pick up the flotsam and jetsam that collects along the shore of the bathtub.

Then I heard a scream.

by Larry C. Johnson

Just like a doomed relationship between a wife beater and a woman knocked senseless too many times, the Kurds are discovering that they are in a bad marriage with an abusive spouse. According to various press reports Kurdish leaders, including President Talabani, have complained to Shia Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that the coalition’s Shia parties, known as the United Alliance, are welching on promises to start work on resettling Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk and to fairly distribute government positions between the coalition parties.

Gee whiz. The Shias promised to share and now they, by virtue of their status as the majority population in Iraq, are laying claim to their self-perceived right to rule the country as they please. It seems that the Kurds have fallen victim to the same fantasy based approach to policy and politics in Iraq that afflicts the Bush Administration.

Wait! It gets worse. Friends in the intelligence community tell me that some of the more moderate Shias are beginning to grumble because Shia groups allied with Iran are becoming more assertive. In short, Iran will do whatever it takes to ensure that it’s supporters in Iraq come out on top.

Notwithstanding the loud whistling past the graveyard of Iraqi democracy by Bush Administration offiicials and neo-con cheerleaders, the central fact is that the upcoming election to ratify the Iraqi Constitution will do nothing to solve the insurgency and civil war. In fact, regardless of the outcome on October 15, the Iraqi civil war will continue.

The reality of the civil war and the failure of the Iraqi Army to serve as a credible force for the security of the new nation trying to emerge will hit the world square between the eyes. Our senior political and military officials in the United States continued insistence on proclaiming that black is white and up is down is hurting both the American and the Iraqi peoples. We cannot keep saying the Iraqi military is getting stronger when the number of units capable of operating independently decline. We cannot keep saying we are winning the war on terrorism when the number of terrorist attacks keeps increasing and the number of jihadist terrorists expands. And, we cannot continue to describe what is going on in Iraq as the “birth of democracy.”

This kind of delusional mindset may be tolerated in the rubber rooms of psychiatric hospitals but it has no place in the White House or the Green Zone. It would appear that the Kurdish leaders are finally waking up to confront what has been the reality for almost two years–i.e., that the Shia are in a strong position to control the new Iraq and will assert their power in support of their own kind. Maybe President Talabani can talk some sense to President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, General Casey, and General Abizaid about the reality on the ground in Iraq. Until then, we’ll just have to grit our teeth as we watch the “wife beaters” run amuck while our leaders sing the praises of family harmony in Iraq. This is beyond sad, it is dangerous.

Larry C. Johnson
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