John McCain, the other night on the Daily Show, said "a spokesperson from Hamas said they wanted Sen. Obama," for President. That's just ridiculous. That's as bad -- and as false -- as Republican claims that al-Qaeda supported John Kerry in 2004.

We all should know by now that al-Qaeda and Iran both publicly stated support for George W. Bush's reelection. And why not, as a recent National Intelligence Estimate revealed, George Bush did more for al-Qaeda than anybody else.

If anything, al-Qaeda is going to support John McCain. I'm sure they relish the thought of a one hundred year US occupation of a Muslim country. Nothing will galvanize al-Qaeda more than that. For John McCain to say terrorists are supporting Obama, he must be losing what's left of his mind. As the Iranian Security Council chief said of the 2004 election, "We haven't seen anything good from Democrats."

Train Wreck

The End of the Conservative Revolution
(and Not a Moment Too Soon)

By Bill Press

Well, this book was kind of a disappointment. Press tries to argue that the Bush administration (the "train wreck" alluded to by the title) is the culmination of conservative governing policy.

Press tries to make the point that, "when you start out hating government, you can't make government work," but the only place he really makes that case is when talking about how President Bush gutted FEMA in the run up to Hurricane Katrina.

Under George W. Bush, it was deliberately designed to fail, as part of his conservative determination to privatize and minimize the role of federal government.

So far, so good. But the rest of the book is just about how incompetent Bush is and how corrupt the Republican Congress is, leaving open the excuse that "ideologues will never admit their ideas are wrong, only that mistakes were made in the way their ideas were carried out."

It's the old Communist excuse that true communism was never given a fair chance.

Bill Press tries to deflect that excuse by pointing out that conservatives helped Bush every step deeper into the morass we're now in, but a "true conservative" would just argue that the Republican Congress wasn't truly conservative. I've heard that myself on conservative radio.

So, Press' book is a good reminder of all the bad things that happened under the Republican reign, but I was looking for something like how the Republican Party is tearing its own guts out over illegal immigration and the role of religion in government. There's nothing like that in this book.

Train Wreck is basically a "Hey, remember how f---ed up Bush's administration was?" kind of book. Kind of a jaunt down memory lane remembering how we got to this dismal point in American history.

Oil companies just posted record profits... Again. That must mean that gasoline prices are at record highs. Yep. They are. Which in turn has brought out all the crazies harping for drilling in the ANWR and off the coasts of this great country, saying the high gas prices are all the environmentalist's fault. Which, of course, is bogus.

Drilling in the ANWR would only decrease our dependence on foreign oil by 4%... 10 years from now. And the idea that oil companies even want new refineries was debunked by the oil industry themselves last week. They're only operating at 85% of capacity, and when asked, they said they'd prefer NOT to open any new refineries.

Besides, drilling in the ANWR isn't going to bring gas prices down. Which brings us to the Presidential candidates. Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain want to declare a federal gas tax holiday over the summer. Chances of this measure passing aside, it's not going to make much difference, and if McCain gets his way, we'll be borrowing the money to pay for it. Gas will never be cheaper than it is today, so get used to it.

Which means we need a comprehensive energy policy -- something the Republican President and Republican Congress have fought tooth and nail for years. We need to rescind the tax credits we give to the record profit making oil industry and use that money to commercialize alternative energy sources. Wind and solar power are mature industries and just need to be subsidized until they are competitive.

The Choice

Global Domination or Global Leadership

by Zbigniew Brzezinski

This was a hard book to follow. Mr. Brzezinski's prose is a little too high falutin' for me but I can distill the whole book in this one excerpt,

"What is the central purpose of America's unprecedented global power? The answer will ultimately determine whether international consensus legitimates and reinforces American leadership, or whether American primacy relies largely on assertive domination based on might."

Brzezinski goes on to argue that it's better to lead by example than to dictate by military-backed fiat, but, as Spiderman's uncle once said, "With great power comes great responsibility."

America views itself as the historical champion of democracy, and subliminally exports democratic values through the currents of globalization -- but this also generates world-wide expectations of America that do not accommodate the hierarchical demands of hegemonic power.

In other words, to whom much is given, much is expected. And Brzezinski makes that point clearly,

Only if it places a higher premium on the emerging awareness of a shared global interest will America derive any political benefit from its globally radiant cultural appeal.

As I said this book was written in an ostentatious manner, but the points Brzezinski makes are thoughtful and thought provoking.

Ex-President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders in Damascus recently and came away convinced that they could be negotiated with. Carter says "They (Hamas) said that they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbor next door in peace." I say, Why not?

The Bush administration State Department came down hard on Carter for his meeting, but I think he pulled off a remarkable thing. He's right when he says, "We do not believe that peace is likely and certainly that peace is not sustainable unless a way is found to bring Hamas into the discussions in some way. The present strategy of excluding Hamas and excluding Syria is just not working."

That's true. And the fact that Obama is on Carter's case for doing what he himself said he'd do -- talk to all parties in the Middle East -- doesn't bode well for an Obama presidency. What kind of hypocrisy is that?

A series of new studies on the effect of a cap and trade system on greenhouse gasses conclude that they are cheap and won't have any effect on jobs.

Despite what critics of environmental conservation say, a cap & trade system will not break America's economy -- it won't even make a dent!

Now that they have lost the debate on the science of global warming, [Peter] Goldmark [director of the Environmental Defense Fund's climate program] said, opponents of a cap on greenhouse gases have shifted gears and are spending millions to try to “scare the public into thinking this will put scads of people out of work and damage the economy.”

The bottom line ... is that the United States could continue its economic growth over the next decades while making “ambitious reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions.

What would this cap & trade system cost Americans in energy bills? About $3.30 a month. Money well spent, I say.

The Government Accountability Office just released a report that states the Bush administration has NO PLAN to defeat al-Qaeda in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas. NO PLAN!!! What the hell have they been doing since 2001? Just playing politics, apparently... It just kills me how clueless these guys are.

The same day, a new report says that the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Iraq -- the one thing that I thought the Bush administration was doing right over there -- are operating "as ad hoc 'pickup games' with no clear direction." That's just great... The single most important thing we could be doing for the Iraqis, and the Bush administration has no plan for them, either.

I think Colonel Joseph Collins (Ret.) is right, "Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle ... Despite impressive progress in security, the outcome of the war is in doubt," as he states in a new National Defense University report. And Senator Barak Obama was right to ask Ambassador Crocker if the messy "status quo" would be an acceptable outcome in Iraq.

Memo To The President Elect

How We Can Restore America's Reputation And Leadership

By Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright is one smart cookie. This book really held my attention all the way through. She concentrates almost exclusively on foreign policy, but that's easy to forgive since that's her area of expertise.

From picking a vice-president to the qualities to look for in the rest of the president-elect's cabinet, Albright has an opinion. For example, she half-heartedly advocates picking a vice-president from the opposing party,

The most likely candidate for a bipartisan appointment, therefore, is a person with moderate ideas and no future political ambition. Such an appointment will provide more the appearance of bipartisanship than the reality. Too bad, but that is why we have elections.

Before going into specifics about how to deal with each world region, she also makes some general points about American leadership,

To argue that international law is useless because it is not always enforced is no different than suggesting that laws against murder are without value because murders are still committed. No country gains more from a strong international legal regime than Americans do, precisely because we have so many interests to protect.

She goes on to offer the president-elect region-by-region advice on how to handle existing and potential foreign policy crises. And it's all good advice. This book is definitely worth a read in order to evaluate how a new President will do by how he/she picks a cabinet and says he/she will deal with different countries.

Over the weekend, our ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said that Iran was waging a proxy war with the United States in Iraq. Duh.

There are literally millions of Iraqis who want the US gone from Iraq and Iran is only too happy to help them, but given how the Iranians brokered a peace deal between al-Maliki and al-Sadr it seems like Iran isn't too keen on a civil war next door. They just want the US gone.

Just like al-Qaeda wasn't present in Iraq before the US intervened, Iran wasn't a player in Iraq either. Now, both al-Qaeda and Iran are waging a proxy war against the US in Iraq. I think that the withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq will also see the drawdown of both al-Qaeda and Iran from Iraq.

At that point, we can concentrate on the true central front in the war on terror: the Afghan/Pakistan border. And we'll probably have Iran's support, like we did when we started that conflict.