Wozz: World Affairs from Wozz

Are Demos asking the right question?

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 03:14:40 GMT

When the weapons of mass destruction turned up missing, you knew it had to happen: Someone would ask the Watergate Question. Not surprisingly, it was feisty Howard Dean, who attacked President George W. Bush in Iowa the other day by demanding, “What did he know and when did he know it?” The implication: that Bush lied so he could drag us into a distracting, counterproductive war in Iraq.

I’M SURE DEAN felt good taking the jab, and his audience loved it. But if the Democrats want to beat Bush next year, they aren’t going to do it by turning him into Nixon of Arabia. If the president is vulnerable on terrorism — and he may be — the real question will be, “Are we safer than we were on 9/11?” If Bush can’t answer “yes,” then he’ll be in jeopardy and Iraq will look like a misadventure — no matter what the president knew when.

Howard Fineman makes an interesting point on why "Where's the WMD's" is the wrong question.

The China-Japan Economic Dependency Act

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:32:39 GMT

Everyone wants taxes to be cut, but no one wants services to be cut, which is why Democrats have to reframe the debate — and show President Bush for what he really is: a man who is not putting money into your pocket, but who is removing government services and safety nets from your life.

Ditto on foreign policy. As we and our government continue to spend and invest more than we save, we will become even more dependent on the outside world to finance the gap. Foreigners will have to buy even more of our T-bills and other assets. And do you know on whom we'll be most dependent for that? China and Japan. Yes, that China — the one the Bush team says is our biggest geopolitical rival.

"In the 1990's, Japan's and China's excess savings were financing our private sector investment, because the government was in surplus," says Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. "Now, with these looming deficits, China and Japan are being asked to finance our government's actual operations." That makes us very dependent on their willingness to continue sending us hundreds of billions of dollars of their savings. Should China and Japan not want to play along, your services will very likely be cut even sooner (unless you believe in "voodoo economics"). Which is why Democrats should rename this tax bill the China-Japan Economic Dependency Act.

An interesting (Krugmanesque in The Note's assessment) point of view from Tom. Considering our dependence on foreign investment, we might want to consider playing nicer with others.

[via The Note]

ePatriots

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 02:23:16 GMT

Daily Kos has worked with the Democratic Party to help narrow the GOP's massive cash advantage. Our nominee will emerge from the primaries bloodied and broke, only to run smack head into $200 million in GOP attack ads. The DNC recognizes the increasing power of the blogosphere, and was receptive when I approached them with a request -- give us the tools to help the party and our nominee defeat Bush. The end result? ePatriots. So donate now and help us retake our nation from Bush and his cabal. Your donations will be crucial to this effort.

The DNC is planning on making it easy for the blogosphere to put its money where its collective mouth is. Kos is testing it out and raised $4000+ in a few hours yesterday. The small individual donor is the big difference between the Democratic and Republican parties - the Republicans have them, the Democrats want them. This could be big.

National Security Homework

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 01:31:04 GMT

Rep. Ike Skelton, "an influential Democrat on military matters, warned Monday that American policy makers may be forgetting history's lessons as clashes escalate between Iraqis and American troops," the Kansas City Star reports. "As a remedy for that ignorance, the 14-term Missouri congressman is recommending a reading list of 50 books to U.S. military officers, members of Congress and anyone else who cares about national security."

U.S. Constitution.
"Sun Tzu: The Art of War." Samuel B. Griffith, translator.
"On War." Carl von Clausewitz. Peter Paret and Michael Howard.
"Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought." Michael I. Handel.
"The Book of War." John Keegan, editor.
"Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo." Edward Sheperd Creasy.
"Alexander the Great." Peter Bamm.
"Hannibal." Sir Gavin De Beer.
"The Face of Battle." John Keegan.
"Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754 - 1766." Fred Anderson.
"Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer." John Mack Faragher.
"Washington." Richard Barksdale Harwell and Douglas Southall Freeman.
"Tecumseh: A Life." John Sugden.
"Undaunted Courage." Stephen Ambrose.
"Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography." Vincent Cronin.
"The Military Maxims of Napoleon: The Principles of Warfare by Napoleon." Napoleon Bonaparte, translation by George C. D'Aguilar.
"Nelson: A Personal History." Christopher Hibbert.
"The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare." John Keegan.
"The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation Under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879." Donald R. Morris.
"Lee." Douglas Southall Freeman.
"Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant." Ulysses S. Grant.
"Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865." Richard S. Brownlee.
"Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era." James M. McPherson.
"Son of the Morning Star." Evan S. Connell.
"A Message to Garcia." Elbert Hubbard.
"Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I." John Eisenhower, 2002.
"Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing." Frank Everson Vandiver, Two Volumes.
"Churchill: A Biography." Roy Jenkins.
"A War to be Won." Allan R. Miller and Williamson Murray.
"Reminiscences." Douglas MacArthur.
"Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." William L. Shirer.
"Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II." John Prados.
"Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission." Hampton Sides.
"Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle." Richard Frank.
"The Victors: Eisenhower and his boys and men of World War II." Stephen Ambrose.
"Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen." Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny." Frank Freidel.
"Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution." Maj. Gen. Jeanne Hold, USAF, Retired.
"Defeat Into Victory." William Slim.
"Truman." David McCullough.
"This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History." T.R. Fehrenbach.
"Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War." Robert Coram.
"We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway.
"Gulf War: The Complete History." Thomas G. Houlahan
"Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos." Robert D. Kaplan.
"Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military (Role of American Military Power)." MG Robert H. Scales Jr.
"Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime." Eliot Cohen.
"From Vietnam to 9/11: On the Front Lines of National Security." John P. Murtha with John Plashal.
"Making the Corps." Thomas E. Ricks.
"The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy." Russel Frank Weigley.

[via Political Wire]

John Dean: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?

Sat, 07 Jun 2003 19:39:12 GMT

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.

Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case.

Former Nixon attorney John Dean on the possibilities facing President Bush.

[via DrudgeReport]

Flying Toasters and Democrats

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 04:32:40 GMT

In the season of their discontent -- out of power and on the defensive -- Democrats are looking for inspiration and leadership. A bunch of them found it yesterday in the unassuming figure of Wes Boyd, the man who gave America the flying toaster.

An interesting profile in the Washington Post about Wes Boyd, founder of Berkeley Systems (the folks behind the Flying Toasters - which any old-school Mac owner should recognize) and MoveOn.org, one of the fastest growing online progressive political organizations around.

The Return of Class War

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 02:22:13 GMT

Separation of the spheres also depends on an unspoken deal, a nonaggression pact, between democracy's political majority and capitalism's affluent minority. The majority acknowledge that capitalism benefits all of us, even if some benefit a lot more than others. The majority also take comfort in the belief that everyone has at least a shot at scoring big. The affluent minority, meanwhile, acknowledge that their good fortune is at least in part the luck of the draw. They recognize that domestic tranquility, protection from foreign enemies, and other government functions are worth more to people with more at stake. And they retain a tiny yet prudent fear of what beast might be awakened if the fortunate folks get too greedy about protecting and enlarging their good fortune.

Michael Kinsley in Slate on the Bush-coordinated breakdown between the opposing (but equally necessary) spheres of Capitalism and Democracy.

In a similar vein, Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics comments on this TAPPED post regarding the motivation behind Republican tax policies and how similar idiocy brought down Margaret Thatcher and made the Tories effectively un-electable to the present-day in much of the UK:

Apparently Rep. DeMint has argued that it is necessary to make the tax system more regressive. DeMint said that "unless something is done, most people will have no reason not to keep voting for more government, because they won't be paying for it." Exempting too much of the low-income groups would give them little reason to vote for a smaller government - others would be paying for it. Tapped also published a letter from Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist, who argued that the evidence seemed to show that narrowing the tax base tended to help the Republicans, since it increased the voting levels among the rich, rather than widening it as the Republicans have recently done.

The Tories tried to increase the regressivity of the tax code about 15 years ago in order to ensure that every one would want to vote for a smaller government. And that was at the heart of why Margaret Thatcher lost her job and why the Tories remain unelectable across much of London, Scotland, Wales, and within much of the educated middle class.

Mayor Hickenlooper

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 03:09:27 GMT

Brew pub owner John Hickenlooper cruised to victory tonight in the race to be Denver's first new mayor in more than a decade.

With about 103,000 ballots counted, Hickenlooper has nearly twice as many votes as city Auditor Don Mares.

Hickenlooper had 65 percent to Mares' 35 percent. All but one precinct has been counted.

Hickenlooper, who rebounded after losing his job as a geologist in the 1980s oil bust to launch a Lower Downtown brewpub and open a string of restaurants, was the favorite heading into today's election to succeed Wellington Webb, whose 12 years in the mayor's office end on July 21.

Beer for everybody!

Watch the results live...

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 03:09:15 GMT

You can watch the results 'live' starting when the polls close at 7pm.

For those in Denver

Tue, 03 Jun 2003 02:22:42 GMT

Don't forget to vote tomorrow! I saw Don Mares running around 16th St Mall with a pack of sign-wavers this afternoon (after a fine lunch at Mt Everest) looking for people to vote for him. Make sure he doesn't find enough ;)

Mark Bowden says it...

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:54:06 GMT

I trusted Bush, and unless something big develops on the weapons front in Iraq soon, it appears as though I was fooled by him. Perhaps he himself was taken in by his intelligence and military advisers. If so, he ought to be angry as hell, because ultimately he bears the responsibility.

It suggests a strain of zealotry in this White House that regards the question of war as just another political debate. It isn't. More than 100 fine Americans were killed in this conflict, dozens of British soldiers, and many thousands of Iraqis. Nobody gets killed or maimed in Capitol Hill maneuvers over spending plans, or battles over federal court appointments. War is a special case. It is the most serious step a nation can take, and it deserves the highest measure of seriousness and integrity.

When a president lies or exaggerates in making an argument for war, when he spins the facts to sell his case, he betrays his public trust, and he diminishes the credibility of his office and our country. We are at war. What we lost in this may yet end up being far more important than what we gained.

Mark Bowden - author of Black Hawk Down and a very interesting profile of Saddam - on the problems resulting from selling a war on false pretenses.

On Starving the Government

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:11:58 GMT

In other words, the GOP has to starve the government to stay in power. (Which is the opposite of FDR aide Harry Hopkin's mantra, "tax tax tax, spend spend spend, elect elect elect." ) It's far easier to cut taxes than to cut government programs. So the GOP will try to cut taxes every year that George Bush is president, without cutting many programs whole hog. The debt will pile up, of course, and eventually, it'll bankrupt the government, especially the two most popular entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare. Since conservatives hate those programs, they don't mind, especially if it precipitates them being privatized. And they probably won't be held responsible by voters for the country's fiscal disaster, because Democrats will be trying constantly to restore federal spending -- so it'll look like it's at least partially their fault.

TAPPED nicely sums up the Republican strategy behind the tax cuts.

Not So Threatening Storm

Thu, 29 May 2003 01:26:29 GMT

Go listen to Kenneth Pollack, author of "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" retract (with plenty of qualifications) his Case for Invading Iraq.

Don't feel too bad Kenneth. A lot of folks fell for it, myself included.

[via Metafilter]

Today's Friedman

Sun, 25 May 2003 19:04:51 GMT

If we were telling the Saudis the truth, we would tell them that their antimodern and antipluralist brand of Islam — known as Wahhabism — combined with their oil wealth has become a destabilizing force in the world. By financing mosques and schools that foster the least tolerant version of Islam, they are breeding the very extremists who are trying to burn down their house and ours.

But we also need to tell ourselves the truth. We constantly complain about the blank checks the Saudis write to buy off their extremists. But who writes the blank checks to the Saudis? We do — with our gluttonous energy habits, renewed addiction to big cars, and our president who has made "conservation" a dirty word.

In the wake of the Iraq war, the E.P.A. announced that the average fuel economy of America's cars and trucks fell to its lowest level in 22 years, with the 2002 model year. That is a travesty. No wonder foreigners think we sent our U.S. Army Humvees to control Iraq, just so we could drive more G.M. Hummers over here. When our president insists that we can have it all — big cars, big oil, lower taxes, with no sacrifices or conservation — why shouldn't the world believe that all we are about is protecting our right to binge?

And so the circle is complete: President Bush won't tell Americans the truth, so we won't tell Saudis the truth, so they won't tell their extremists the truth, so they can go on pumping intolerance and we can go on guzzling gas. Someday, our kids will condemn us for all of this.

Tom Friedman on hard truths that aren't being told.

G.O.P. Dominance?

Sun, 25 May 2003 07:09:20 GMT

Yet Prof. John J. Pitney, a Claremont College political scientist, said: "In the past couple of years, I think we've seen a shift from rough parity to a slight Republican advantage, which I think reflects a shift in public interest to national security, which Republicans own. If you think about bombs and rockets most of the time, you're probably going to vote Republican."

A very good article in the Times about the Republican plans to sew up long-term dominance in the 2004 election. If the concept presented bothers you, it's time to get involved! Don't let the Republican's own national security!

Torturing The Cat

Sun, 25 May 2003 04:55:34 GMT

The great struggle being waged by President Bush and his supporters is not really about making "the world a safer, better place." It's not even really about an imperial "Pax Americana." It's about the search for meaning by a people so bored, complacent, comfortable and desperate for significance that for them war gives birth not only to terrible beauty but to terrible joy.

This is why even dispassionate, prudential questions about foreign policy provoke outraged invective. Such questions are not merely seen as a threat to a policy position, but as a threat to a metaphysical, religious belief system.

"There comes a time in the late afternoon, when the children tire of their games," G.K. Chesterton wrote. "It is then that they turn to torturing the cat."

It is late afternoon in America, and tired at last of our meaningless games, we're looking for a new source of excitement.

An interesting commentary.

[via Matthew Yglesias]

Democrats and Defense

Thu, 22 May 2003 02:24:28 GMT

The American people agree with us on many vital issues--but they believe that we Democrats are weak and indecisive when it comes to standing up to dictators and terrorists, and when it comes to the primary responsibility of government: defending the nation. No matter how compelling our positions on the economy, health care, Social Security, the environment and privacy, if voters continue to see us as feckless and effete they will not listen to our message next year and they will re-elect Mr. Bush.

As we prepare to mount our challenge in 2004, Democrats need to return to the muscular national security principles of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and the other Democrats who understood that only by confronting threats abroad could our party achieve its other great mission of expanding equality, opportunity and progress here at home

An important "call to arms" for the Democrats in an op-ed from Donna Brazile - Gore 2000 campaign manager, and Timothy Bergreen - founder of Democrats for National Security.

That Voodoo That They Do So Well

Wed, 21 May 2003 03:16:09 GMT

Supporters of making dividends tax-free like to paint critics as promoters of class warfare. The fact is, however, that their proposal promotes class welfare. For my class.

Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, calls a spade a spade in a Washington Post editorial.

Oh yeah, George Soros, one of the other richest men in the world, is pissed too:

"I have to disclose that I now have a short position against the dollar because I listen to what the Secretary of the Treasury is telling me," Soros said in the CNBC interview.

He was referring to recent remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has recently suggested that he was unconcerned by the dollar's sharp decline. Soros criticized Snow's apparent shift away from the strong dollar policy as a "mistake."

Finally on the economic front, The Daily Kos thinks that the Democratic Party should be the party of the socially liberal/fiscally conservative center of the country - those currently pulling the Republican's to the left and the Democrat's to the right:

I've made hay about how the GOP is actually BAD for fiscal responsibility -- how both Bush presidencies have been marked by record deficits. How GOP governors are currently leading the way with tax increases while most of their newly elected Dem counterparts avoid raising taxes. How the stock market performs best during Democratic administrations.

But the myth persists that the GOP is a better steward of the taxpayer's money. Reality is quite different. Those days are long past, the roles reversed.

Operation Abandon Iraq

Mon, 19 May 2003 22:25:28 GMT

At long last, the military brass, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his civilian advisers at the Pentagon, and even the State Department agree about U.S. policy toward Iraq. They all support an administration plan that calls for a fairly rapid drawdown of American forces there: Whereas the United States currently has 130,000 troops in Iraq, by the fall it intends to have just 30,000.

Don't miss this month's issue of TNR. Iraq is rapidly falling apart, and the administration seems to show no capability or interest in fixing it. All of the "Balking Hawk" concerns seem to be coming to fruition and we've found no sign of WMD. Now, I was one that bought Powell's presentation to the UN hook line and sinker, so I still think there were WMD's in Iraq somewhere, but if we're having this much trouble finding any evidence of them, were they really the imminent threat they were presented as? I don't think so and, needless to say, neither does the rest of the world. And if we can't find them, where did they go?

Subscribe to TNR Digital, or pick it up at a newsstand near you.

More Texas Fun

Wed, 14 May 2003 02:30:50 GMT

Ha ha! Texas governor Rick Perry, desperate to drag hiding Democrats back into Austin to pass DeLay and Rove's re-redistricting plan, asked New Mexico for permission to send in Texas rangers to arrest those Dems hiding in that state.

From the Daily Kos, it looks like some of the Texans have fled to New Mexico. Democratic state officials in both NM and Oklahoma are refusing to help get the legislators back to Texas. New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid:

"Some are speculating this request from the Texas Governor's office concerns an effort to locate missing Texas House Democrats," Madrid wrote. "If so, Texas should understand that since ski season is over, the Santa Fe Opera has not begun and President Bush was just in town, I don't think they are in Santa Fe now. Nevertheless, I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the look out for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy."

Only in Texas

Tue, 13 May 2003 16:32:20 GMT

The Texas Department of Public Safety is asking the public for assistance in locating 53 Texas legislators who have disappeared. Anyone who has information regarding the current whereabouts of the legislators listed below is asked to call 1-800-525-5555.
Under the Texas Constitution, the majority of members present in session in the House can vote to compel the presence of enough members to make a quorum. Members of the House did so this morning and directed the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House and the DPS to locate the absent members and bring them back to Austin.

DPS troopers and investigators are searching for the absent legislators.

Following on the tail of Colorado's own Karl Rove inspired GOP-friendly redistricting comes a similar attempt by the GOP controlled Texas legislature. The Democrat's aren't taking it though. They're preventing the quorum required for a vote on the plan by hiding out en masse in a Oklahoma motel just across the border. The Texas Rangers are looking for them. More coverage at Political Wire.

A letter to liberals...

Sun, 11 May 2003 01:33:02 GMT

Perhaps the most disheartening development of the war -- at home, anyway -- is the number of liberals who have allowed Bush-hatred to take the place of thinking. Speaking with otherwise perceptive people, I have seen the same intellectual tics come up time and time again: If Bush is for it, I'm against it. If Bush says it, it must be a lie. Their opposition to Bush has made liberals embrace principles -- such as the notion that the United States must never fight without U.N. approval except in self-defense -- to which the Clinton administration never adhered (see Operation Desert Fox in 1998, or the Kosovo campaign in 1999). And it has made them forget that there are governments in the world even more odious and untrustworthy than the Bush administration.

Amen. Assuming that anything Bush is for must be bad takes the exact amount of brain power the left accuses the right of using when taking everything Bush is for as good. At one point, the left appreciated nuance - what's happened?

Hart Decides Against 2004 Whitehouse Bid

Wed, 07 May 2003 01:14:48 GMT

"I've concluded that I do not have sufficient enthusiasm for the mechanical side of campaigning, the money, the media and the polling and so forth to go forward with a campaign," Hart said in a telephone interview.

This is disappointing. I guess I'm going to have to settle for second-best. Now I just need to figure out who that is.

The Grassroots Politics of Hezbollah

Sun, 04 May 2003 01:38:39 GMT

If Syria is ever expelled—a big if—and Hezbollah is allowed to set its own agenda, it may well moderate considerably and invest in the future an independent Lebanese state. Moreover, if the U.S. is successful at integrating disenfranchised Iraqi Shiites into the nascent government—another big if—the Iraqis could provide a model for Shiites in multi-ethnic Lebanon.

A very interesting article in the Columbia Political Review on Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and the future of Lebanon in a post-Saddam world.

[via Matthew Yglesias]

A Kumbaya kind of loya jirga

Sat, 03 May 2003 23:11:26 GMT

Enough already! It's time to end all the bickering and back-stabbing about our war against Saddam Hussein.

Jeffrey Shaffer of the Christian Science Monitor has an interesting suggestion for our own national reconciliation.