Rumsfeld v Allawi

I'm sure that when Donald Rumsfeld wrote his latest rah rah piece for the Iraq war he didn't expect it to be buried on page B07, but that is how far he has sunk. (I couldn't even find it online without using their search engine)

This morning, former Iraqi intern Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the BBC that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. From the Houston Chronicle:

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Ayad Allawi told the British Broadcasting Corp. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

At least someone is telling the truth about Iraq.

Judge Conner

I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of days, but technical difficulties have made it impossible. It's kind of funny that the controversy solved itself while I was away.

I don't think it was correct to sentence a sex offender to probation, but I'm not a judge. The fact of the matter is that the a republican prosecutor signed off on the deal, and yet Ron O'Brien has escaped public scrutiny for it. I want to know what Bill O'Reilly thinks about O'Brien's actions in this case.

Of course, the whole thing is dead now that the GOP smear machine has realized that many of their own judges has done the same thing, and since they pretty much hold a stranglehold on judgeships in Ohio, they won't go there.

This is probably an excellent opportunity to have a discussion on policy though. What to we do with sex offenders? It's a tough question. Everybody is in favor of tougher sentencing, including me, but how do we do this? Mandatory minimums are never the answer in my opinion, as they are to rigid in any application of the law. However, certain types of sex offender have some of the highest instances of recidivism.

I think we have enough history of these offenders to know that what we are doing now isn't working. Many of the ones who manage to run the gauntlet of prison to be released still have the same problem they went in with.

A new solution must be found and I have had some conversations with a few people lately about it, and I don't necessarily have an answer. Locking them up for life is certainly an option, but that must be not mandated, it should be judged by a group of experts. If fact, perhaps a governor appointed body of experts on the matter should determine the sentencing and treatment of these individuals.

Working

If you've tried to access this site in the past few days and received some sort of error message, I apologize. Blogger has been really fucked up, but the problem seems to be solved.

Also, after yesterday, I believe Mr Shreddie now gets to eat my bracket. 25-11 along with losing two Elite Eight teams in the first round doesn't bear well.

Blogger Down

Blogger is replacing a filer today, so you can't read this right now, unless of course they've fixed it which they have or you wouldn't be reading this now would you.

Day Two

Well, I went 12-4 yesterday with my picks. The upsets I have today are Bucknell, Kent St, UAB, and Wisconsin, so again, I have a pretty much went with the chalk. Ohio st plays at 12:15 today so it's probably going to be a long lunch today.

Day One

The NCAA tourney is finally here, and I can't help but notice that I've got a lot of chalk today. I only have four upsets today. They are Texas A&M, San Diego St, Utah St, and Wisc-Milwaukee. It seems to me that the committee gave the mid-majors much love this year in the seedings, so most of the teams that would normally pull off upsets actually got higher seeds this year.

Of course, I as I'm writing this my shredder is smirking at me in a way that tells me he is quite ready to eat my bracket. We'll find out later if Mr Shreddie gets a bracket in his belly today.

Maintenance

This blog hasn't been working very well lately, but the good people at Blogger had the site down for maintenance today so we'll have to see if it works better now.

Brackets

So, who do you have in the Final Four? I just completed my bracket and I have Duke, UCLA, Connecticut, and Ohio State with U Conn beating UCLA in the final 86 - 83.

Also, can somebody e-mail me a copy of Billy D's pool?

March To Death

Well, it looks like the Moussaoui death march will continue. Although prosecutors say that the banning of a key witness guts their case, with the death penalty still on the table, I don't see any way he gets out of getting it.

That's one of the problems with tackling the issue of suicide bombers, or really anyone who kills somebody, then themselves. Americans still have a perverse need for blood atonement, and that's simply not possible in these cases. The perpetrators are already dead.

That's really what this case is about. Look, we've caught some people who had a lot more to do with 9/11 than Moussaoui, who probably had little, if anything to do with the plot. They're people you've never heard of and we're holding them in places you've never heard of, but Moussaoui is the one who ended up with the nickname "The Twentieth Hijacker." That personalizes him in a way to Americans that the others do not. A large number of Americans still feel the need for blood atonement for 9/11, and since this administration is too inept to get the big boogeyman bin Ladin, Moussaoui will be the one to pay the price for their sins.

I'll really be surprised if he ends up with life in prison. For the record, I don't really care one way or the other, but one of the things we must do if he does get life, and this goes for any of these guys we incarcerate, we have to keep them out of general population. That's for our sake, not theirs.

Zacarias Moussaoui

You can think what you want about the death penalty, I'm generally against it for reasons that don't apply to this case, but what TSA lawyer Carla Martin has done in the Zacarias Moussaoui case is beyond ridiculous. From the Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, clearly exasperated by the new problems in the oft-delayed case, called the conduct of Carla J. Martin, a Transportation Security Administration lawyer, "the most egregious violation of the court's rules on witnesses" she had seen "in all the years I've been on the bench."

Even prosecutors were stunned by Martin's actions, calling them "reprehensible" in court papers and adding, "We frankly cannot fathom why she engaged in such conduct."

What's even worse, Martin is not a part of the prosecution team, she is simply there to serve as a liaison between prosecutors and witness that need to testify about airport security. She has compromised this case and should not only be fired from her job, she should lose her license to practice law. It should also be noted that Martin served as a TSA attorney in a 9/11 civil case (Mariani vs. United Airlines) in which TSA officials were indicated in evidence tampering.

Look, I always thought this case was a slam dunk not matter how weak the prosecution's case is, and from Martin's e-mails it looks to be weak. From the Post:

Further embarrassing the government, Martin's e-mails sharply criticized prosecutors' case, saying, among other things, that their opening statement "has created a credibility gap that the defense can drive a truck through."

and

Martin's e-mails were highly critical of the government's case, especially an assertion by prosecutors that the government could have stopped the Sept. 11 terror attacks if Moussaoui had not lied to the FBI by, among other things, having the FAA focus airport security on short-bladed knives. The Sept. 11 hijackers used such knives to take over four airplanes.

"There is no way anyone could say that the carriers could have prevented all short bladed knives from going through -- Dave [Novak] MUST elicit that from you and the airline witnesses on direct, and not allow the defense to cut your credibility on cross," Martin wrote.

That's pretty damning, so, what do we do now. The judge could issue a mistrial, but I don't know if that's the way to go. The same witnesses would have to testify again and the damage has been done. The judge should end this case, give Moussaoui life and prison, and move on.

Tired

With scandals abounding in DC, the White House needs a boost. The Washington Post says they are suffering from the inevitable fatigue that comes with working at the White House. Most of the core group of Bush's staff have been there since day one. From the Post:

But at a time when Bush needs his staff to be sharp to help steer past these political shoals and find ways to turn things around, he still has the same core group working since he turned his sights toward the White House. That group includes Card, deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, senior adviser Michael J. Gerson, counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Joshua B. Bolten, press secretary Scott McClellan and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

Sounds like the boys need a good fluffing. Time to call in a pro. Luckily, porn star Mary Carey is coming back to town this week for the United to Victory Dinner. Her itinerary will include lunch on Wednesday with Karl Rove and dinner with President Bush on Thursday. Don't worry, Bolten only wants to watch, oh wait, I'm thinking of John "Stache" Bolton. [ed note: Even I won't get into the perversities of Michael Bolton here] You may wonder what else Carey will be doing in town. From PM&C:

Carey, who was also a Republican candidate for governor of California, is going to Washington at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). She will meet and interact with key Congressional leaders and Administration officials to discuss advancing powerful pro-business, pro-family agendas and meeting positive legislative goals.

Pro-family agendas? Like what? Which lube is better to go up your wife's ass with, Astroglide or Anal Ease?

Let The Madness Begin

Ah, It's time for March Madness. Makes it tough to think about anything else. In fact, it's the reason that while I created this blog on Feb. 22, 2005, I didn't really start posting anything until after the first weekend of the tournament.

Censure

Tommorrow, Sen Russ Feingold will introduce a motion to censure George Bush over the illegal wiretap program he has been running through the NSA. I'm not sure what Feingold is trying to accomplish. It's an obvious attempt to pander to the left leaning base of the Democratic party, but I feel that he is already their man for 2008. Maybe he thinks that needs some cementing, I don't know.

The whole thing seems like a waste of time to me.

John McCain

At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, John McCain impressed the Washington Post a lot more than the participants. From WAPO:

No one stole the show at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here this weekend, but Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) demonstrated why every other prospective 2008 presidential candidate must figure out how to get around him.

More than any of his potential rivals, McCain found a way to balance embracing a weakened President Bush -- at a time when many Republicans are running away from the president -- while appealing to those in and out of his party who believe Bush and other Washington Republicans have lost their way. No other candidate could claim to offer continuity and change almost simultaneously.

For the record, Hotline sponsored a straw poll at the conference in which McCain finished fifth behind Bill Frist, Mitt Romney, George Allen, and a write in George Bush. Supposedly, McCain asked his supporters to write in Bush, but most of these write ins were not McCain supporters.

It should be noted that even if you throw out Frist's home state voters, he still won the straw poll. Although I don't think Frist has a chance in hell to win the nomination, I do implore republicans to vote for the senior robot from Tennessee. Please, please, give Frist the nomination. This guy is as stiff as they come, and as George Bush proved twice, even stupid beats stiff.

Claude Allen

Now we know why Bush's Domestic Policy Adviser Claude Allen resigned on February 9th. He had been moonlighting as a shoplifter to supplement his $161,000 White House salary. From Slate:

News today may shed light on the mystery of Allen's resignation. According to the Montgomery County Police Department, Allen was arrested yesterday and charged in a felony theft and a felony theft scheme. According to a department press release, Allen conducted approximately 25 fraudulent "refunds" in Target and Hecht's stores in Maryland. On Jan. 2, a Target employee apprehended Allen after observing him receive a refund for merchandise he had not purchased. Target then contacted the Montgomery County Police. According to a source familiar with the case, Target and the police had been observing Allen since October 2005.

He had ran this scheme to steal over $5,000 worth of merchandise. Funny, he was arrested on January 2nd, yet stayed on to collect a few more paychecks before he resigned.

Iraqi Civil War

Oh Donald Rumsfeld, how did a man so dim get so far. Yesterday, Rumsfeld and Gen John Abizaid were asked by the Senate Appropriations Committee about the prospects of an Iraqi civil war, and what we were going to do about one should it erupt. The Washington Post brings us their reply. From the Post:

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee when pressed to explain how the United States intended to respond should Iraq descend wholesale into internecine strife.

If civil war becomes reality, "it's very clear that the Iraqi forces will handle it, but they'll handle it with our help," Abizaid said later when asked to elaborate on Rumsfeld's remark.

Only an idiot believes that. The Iraqi security services are in no way, shape, or form able to deal with a civil war. To understand why, let's take a look at a similar situation from recent US history.

In the Spring of 1980, Fidel Castro declared the port of Mariel an open port. That Summer, 125,000 Cubans made the trip from Mariel to Miami in what came to be known as the Mariel Boatlift. The influx of refugees into an already depressed economy ultimately led to a major crime wave, so the city of Miami did what any city would do in that situation, they rapidly beefed up their police force immensely.

The problem was that everyone from major drug cartels to street gangs sent their loyalists with clean records to the police academy, which resulted in a very corrupt police force. Eventually, 10% of the force ended up jailed, fired, or disciplined; and that's just the ones they had hard evidence against.

Fast forward to Iraq. We have just done the same thing that Miami did in the early eighties. We have built up roughly 240,000 security forces in just a couple years. If we are as lucky as Miami, that means about 30,000 corrupt forces, and I doubt we're that lucky.

Thus the security forces in Iraq have loyalties that are divided between clan, religious, and business interests. Take a look at what happened the other day. Forty-seven Shia employees of a brick factory were drug from buses and executed.

A lot of people saw this as an example that a civil war was already underway. It looked to me like a plain and simple protection racket. I'm sure that the executions were carried out by some form of militia that is probably also members of the Iraqi security forces. Someone has probably already contacted the factory owner letting him know that he can fill those jobs, and also make sure nothing like this ever happens again, for a price.

That's the problem we face, there is sectarian violence taking place, but there also a lot of people using that violence as a cover for advancing their own criminal agendas and parts of the Iraqi security forces are probably taking part in both activities. That being said, how in the world are we to expect the Iraqis to deal with a civil war in any meaningful way? The realistic answer is that they can't.

Dubai Deal Dead

I was wrong, the Dubai ports deal is now seemingly dead. DP World has announced that they will turn over management of US ports to an American company after Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert told Bush that they veto proof majorities in both the House and Senate.

Damn, I really wanted to see if Bush actually knows how to veto a bill.

Vanity Fair

I just read an advanced copy of the upcoming Vanity Fair interview with Jack Abramoff. There's not a lot of damning new stuff in the interview, it's really more of a man behind the mask type interview. I did get the idea from reading it that Bob Ney is definitely toast, and Conrad Burns might not be too far behind.

Vanity Fair is pretty strict with exceptions, so I won't put anything from the article up here, but if you want to read it here is a link. It's a crappy pdf and a pain to read.

Endorsements

Jean Schmidt has US Rep Tom Tancredo's endorsement, only she doesn't. While Schmidt's website claims Tancredo has endorsed her, he hasn't. From Openers:

''We do not customarily endorse congressional candidates and we did not endorse Congresswoman Schmidt,'' said Will Adams, who added that the Schmidt camp has been asked to pull the claim off its website.

This must be a chronic problem for Schmidt. Last year, when she won the primary for the special election which put her in the US House, one prominent Ohio republican that I know of refused to send her a letter of congratulations saying, "if I do, that lying bitch will go around saying I've endorsed her."

I kind of shrugged it off as a joke at the time, but he must of known what he was talking about.

New Logo For South Dakota

Fetus Fever. Catch it! (Or in this case, hook it)

Found via a long list of links ending here.