Perhaps I should be clearer that government needs attention, not destruction.

Posted at April 12, 2008 11:16 AM in response to Bush: Yeah, We Signed Off on Torture. So What?

A lot of people feel this way. When their apathy and fear of repression can be overcome, perhaps something will change.

For many years the stranglehold of "democracy" with it's apparently indefatigable hydra of government tentacles to control public dissent and actionable opposition has been carefully refined.

If anyone has read Pirsig
they cannot escape the conclusion that Government is an entity unto itself. It sets its own rules and rides atop the people. No one person controls its direction. It no longer serves the people (if it ever did - as Mark Twain observed) except to give them space to generate revenue then farm their energies to feed itself and grow larger, more powerful and oppressive. But any farmer will tell you that if you farm too aggressively, the system will collapse.

Come on you doctoral PoliSci candidates, don't you have some ideas?

Posted at April 12, 2008 10:35 AM in response to Bush: Yeah, We Signed Off on Torture. So What?

What made Blackwater the choice ab initio? Prince is an ex SEAL so he might know what he's doing in protective roles but he's apparently just watching the govt drive dump trucks of taxpayers money up his driveway.

Doesn't the military have a role in protection - Delta, Rangers? Or how about the Secret Service? So instead they tried to do it on the "cheap". This whole private-sector army system is dangerous. Why does it remind me so strongly of OCP's police force in RoboCop?

The reason Prince is smiling is that his company will net almost $1bn from another year of contracting. That kind of loot buys a lot of expensive and proportionately exciting diversions.

Posted at April 5, 2008 11:24 AM in response to Blackwater: Still in Business in Iraq

Dear Cynical Jim:

Now that is interesting. So let's see if I've got this straight: pardons are to right wrongs but if a right is wronged with a pardon (i.e. justice is cheated of its raison d'etre) then the pardon system eats itself. I'm assuming that a pardon cannot be rescinded even if it's considered questionable.

\\

Posted at April 1, 2008 7:39 PM in response to Siegelman: Rove's Fingerprints "Are Smeared All over The Case"

Everything this admin has done is primarily to protect them from future repercussions of their (at best) highly questionable activities. Cheney's office has classified more documents during the last 8 years than any other VP in history. Quite an achievement.

Posted at April 1, 2008 7:32 PM in response to Today's Must Read

In Dec 2008/Jan 2009 the pardons will be piling up I suspect. I'm not well up on the US political system; I don't really understand why pardons are even permitted. Doesn't such a mechanism circumvent the necessarily ubiquitous application of law?

Posted at March 28, 2008 7:25 PM in response to Siegelman: Rove's Fingerprints "Are Smeared All over The Case"

Quite. What was it Orwell wrote...
He who controls the present controls the past

Posted at March 28, 2008 9:17 AM in response to New National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to Remain Secret?

Perhaps that's the idea... nothing like a distraction from the collapsing economy to yesterday's news. Hands up anyone in the US who still thinks al-Quaeda and Saddam had any kinds of links or that Saddam had WMDs beyond mustard gas shells. No takers? QED.

Posted at March 28, 2008 9:12 AM in response to New National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to Remain Secret?

So much for the mission statement. Perhaps before he starts outreach to other nations he can get his sh*t together back at home. Never hurts to have some experience of negotation.

Posted at March 28, 2008 9:04 AM in response to Johnson's Spring Break

IAF, not meaning to jump on you. I guess I'm over-sensitive about the predisposition that age is an excuse. I just read an article in the Guardian (UK) about a 15-year old thug who kicked a girl to death (and put her boyfriend in hospital) because of her choice of dress. It's funny how the "age of responsibility" line can be blurred by the heinous nature of a particular crime.

To me these young men (but men nonetheless) may be carrying on Pop's business but they're old enough to know that corroded ammunition won't always fire when it's needed to, nor be as accurate, and that to send it into a war zone is effectively creating a disadvantage. All for a bit of money.

Anyway, pax.
:-)

Posted at March 28, 2008 8:44 AM in response to Today's Must Read