Before we get too excited about Libya

Okay, so sure, Libya has been apparently liberated from it's dictator, Muammar Qaddafi (or however the spelling du jour is right now) and Democracy, with a capital D is going to break out there. Hip, hip, hooray, right? Except slow down, cowboys and girls. As was pointed out last evening on "The McGlaughlin Group" on PBS, Libya is home to no less than 140 tribes. Yikes. Anybody hear Iraq in this? So no leader, thus creating a power vacuum, 140 different tribes, all jockeying for power and then you have the Shiia' and Sunnis also wanting to be "top of the heap", in terms of power. More yikes. So what has been suggested, in light of all this information? It was suggested on that same show last evening that our President Obama send in US troops so Democracy breaks out. Ugh. Not good. Fortunately, it was also suggested that maybe England and France, etc., get their troops on the ground in Libya. Now THAT'S an idea I think has great merit. Let them have at it for once. Here's hoping.

I hate agreeing with Monica Crowley

But here's one time I think I must.

Having seen and heard Ms. Crowley yet again this weekend on The McGlaughlin Group" on PBS, I 'd have to agree with her prediction from the end of the show that if OPEC doesn't actively work to increase output--she thinks they won't--that we'll see $4.00 per gallon gas here in the States again and that that could well help additionally and significantly spell the end of Mr. Obama's term in office in the White House.

With what that price per gallon would do to the costs and production of so many things, I believe she's right.

There are far too many things stacking up against President Obama's possible 2nd term.

That said, the Republicans are unintentionally going to do a great deal in his favor to help him gain that same 2nd term.

We have no choice but to stay tuned, of course.


Have a good week out there, y'all.  Keep safe, warm and dry.

Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Crowley

Milestones, Sunday, June 26, 2010

--We've had a huge Gulf oil spill thanks to British Petroleum now for 2 months; --19 American soldiers were killed this week, according to the Kansas City Star, in our two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; --America has been sending soldiers to Afghanistan to fight and die for them and our country, if that's your point of view, for a ten years now--a decade; --George Will thinks President Obama did something very right, it seems, by dismissing General McChrystal this week and replacing him with General David Petraeus. Will wonders never cease?; --Same for uber-conservative Monica Crowley--she had nothing but good things to say about the President's handling of the leadership situation and his decisions. Surely hell is freezing over, right?; --Ditto for, again, ultra-conservative, 81 year old John McGlaughlin--he said the President did something--this exchange of generals--right. Will wonders not cease?; --So much meaty stuff happened this week, politically, that ABC's "This Week"'s round table discussion group had too many topics and so, couldn't get to the very important, significant and rather ground-breaking financial reform work put through Congress this week. That's a big news week, for sure; --ABC's "This Week" had at least some minority representation today, which was a nice change of pace, what with George Will, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, David Sanger and Robin Wright on the "Round Table" discussion. "The McLaughlin Group", meanwhile, whas lily-white but somewhat "saved" itself by having two women on, at least. It still stuns me how bleached white and unrepresentative our national media is. They don't even try to really represent the huge, "minority" viewpoints and solutions in this country. --George Will has come to the conclusion that the Iraq war is unwinnable. That's a stunner, folks. Take note. It's a snowball that's going to become an avalanche; --Same for John McLaughlin from his long-running PBS' news show. With this and the high cost of the Afghan war, both in terms of soldiers and money and materiel, it's only a matter of time before the American public insist we get out of Afghanistan. And thank goodness. Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

The number of Iraqis killed in this war?

Yesterday, I was watching the Sunday morning replay of "The McGlaughlin Group" (hey, I was relaxing and taking in all the news programs on a Sunday morning, sue me) when Mr. McGlaughlin showed statistics that 100,000 Iraqis died in this Iraq War, since 2003 since "W" and Co. began it all (arbitrarily).

I took note, obviously.

At the time I remember thinking two things.

First, "that's a lot of people to die" and second, "I wonder if I/we can trust that number."

Well it seems it's a good thing I was paying attention.

Check this out.

A report out today I just saw on the After Downing Street blog (AfterDowningStreet.org) tells the following:

"The former head of the UN’s chief nuclear agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, said in an interview with the British newspaper Guardian Wednesday that those who launched the war in Iraq were responsible for killing a million innocent people and could be held accountable under international law."

A million.

A million Iraqis killed in this war since 2003.

Hmmm.

Sure gets you to thinking.

And I have to tell you, I'm inclined to trust the former head of the UN's chief nuclear agency before I do right-winger, flag-waving John McGlaughlin. He seems to always be sticking his right-wing opinions on his show lately, in particular. (Or maybe I just wasn't either paying attention or that aware, before now).

With 4,385 American Soldiers being killed to date, this 100,000--or a million--Iraqis killed, 2 to 4 million Iraqis displaced (McGlaughlin figures yesterday, again) and $700 billion American dollars spent so far on this debacle/quagmire/clusterpuck, how can anyone conclude that attacking Iraq in 2003 was a good idea? (Even Pat Buchanan has said--several times--that it was a bad idea).

But they do.

Tragic in so many ways.

And we're still deeply engaged, with no end in sight.

Thoughts on a Sunday morning

It happened again. Thomas McClanahan and I agree on something.

Whenever that happens, I'm a little stunned. This is the 2nd time I can think it's happened.

Mr. McClanahan points out that eliminating the e-tax would be irresponsible if it's not replaced with some other tax of some kind, so the $200 million raised by this tax is done away with.

But his bigger point is that a "land tax" would make much more sense because it rewards development in the city, instead of pushing people out of the city, like the e-tax, and the property tax, which punishes and disincentivizes (I think that's a word) even the purchase of property, let alone development of it.

Good on Mr. McClanahan. This is a really eye-opening and educational column.

It would be great if a representative or better yet, some representatives in Jeff city would study this land tax option.

--Donna Brazile is terrfic.

She's most usually seen and heard, if at all, on ABC's "This Week" news program on Sunday morning.

She's smart and gives terrific, intelligent insights on American politics and society.

What's sad and unfortunate is that she's also one of very few people of color who are on the weekly sunday morning news shows. To my knowledge, she may be the only one.

--John McLaughlin (of The McLaughlin Group on PBS) is losing it, it seems.

Out of the blue this week, when they were discussing the Tiger Woods' apology this week, he asked his guests if they thought Tiger might one day run for political office.

Wth?

Seriously, John?

His guests paused at first, then laughed off the question.

Oh, and his show covered Tiger's apology before addressing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement from earlier in the week that suggested Iran is becoming a military dictatorship.

Great priorities, Mr. McLaughlin.

Not.

--The Tiger Woods apology this week is the biggest non-story of the week, at least, if not the year.

The interest in it stuns me.

Other than his family, friends, golfers and people in the golfing industry, why the interest? It seems clearly purient.

--I was watching the Sunday morning news shows, obviously, with its scroll at the bottom, given our ice/snow storm, when I was reminded of one of my favorite abbreviations.

It's COGIC or Church of God in Christ.

I've always thought that was cute, downright funny and a great counterpoint of simple, clear, unemotional and rational thinking or

LOGIC.



Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.

The importance of this acknowledgement can not and should not be overlooked

A quote from far-right-wing Pat Buchanan from The McGlaughlin Group, earlier this evening:

"The Iraq War was a war of intervention, it was a war of choice, it was an unnecessary war."


The admission of this is such a blatant indictment of the George W. Bush Administration, it should not be overlooked or under-considered.

But it will be.

This makes me nearly weep for the over 4,000 soldiers, their families, friends and loved ones who lost their lives in this admittedly big mistake called the Second Iraq War.

Our spending total

According to the McGlaughlin Group this evening and the figures they show, the United States' total taxpayer outlays since March 2008 for the financial crisis we're in is 5.32 trillion dollars.

Holy cow, people.

All of a sudden, we're talking about a ton of money.

Are we sure this isn't going to cause inflation?

LBJ's deficit spending for the Vietnam War sure did.