Saturday, November 19, 2005

Murtha's Movement The members of the House were shouting at each other.  Jean Schmidt, a wet-behind-the-ears freshman from Ohio, spat venom and then, abashed, asked for her own remarks to be stricken from the record.  Democrats were described as "surging" angrily toward the Republican side of the chamber, yelling and booing.   So here's my understanding of what happened.  Representative John Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran, announced that he had changed his position 180 degrees on Iraq, and called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq as soon as possible.  A stunt?  I don't think so.  Murtha - who, at least in years past, has drawn bipartisan praise for his support for the military In return - has changed the entire tenor of the debate.  Suddenly, a leading Democrat - not a fringe-sitter like, say, Cynthia McKinney or Seattle's own Jim McDermott - was declaring that the war was a failure.  So Republicans attacked him and called him a traitor and a coward. Then they committed what, in my opinion, was a colossal strategic blunder:  they put what they called "Murtha's resolution" (really, a cheap one-sentence resolution calling for immediate withdrawal) up for a vote.   What did they want to do?  Well, publicly, the word was that they wanted to split the Democrats between those against the war and those who wanted to stay the course, or at least weren't ready to jump off the bandwagon.  That didn't happen.  Nancy Pelosi told her party to vote against the bullshit resolution in order to politically defuse it, and astonishingly enough, the party followed her lead.  The resolution failed 403-3.   As I said before, I think the Republicans made a strategic mistake.  Two, in fact.  They sent the pitbulls (Cheney, most notably) to attack him.   A year ago, this would have worked: Murtha would have been shouted down by his own party and the Republicans would have been able to wave their flags long enough to take the spotlight back. But this is not a year ago.  Dems are feeling stronger and more confident than a scant year ago, and Murtha growled back at Cheney:  "I like guys who've never been there to criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there, and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done. I resent the fact on Veterans Day he criticized Democrats for criticizing them." The big error was in trying to defuse Murtha's resolution (and as the history books may see it someday, Murtha's first blow in the battle to end the Iraqi occupation) with a political stunt.  (And contrary to some, I do not believe Murtha's speech and resolution were stunts in any way.)   There was an opportunity here for a serious discussion on the war's progress and possibly even a real debate on withdrawal.  Instead, the Repubs basically waved a middle finger at Murtha, and at the military, and by the way, at the American people.  "Oh, yeah?" they shouted, in their snottiest spoiled-brat voice. "So you want to withdraw, huh?  Well, fine then.  Let's vote on withdrawing right now, right this very minute, right now.  If that's the game you want to play, let's put it to a vote."  The American people don't want a staged vote, and they don't want bully politics right now.  They want a serious debate.  They want their sons and daughters to come home unless someone can offer them a real reason to be over there, being shot at every day, with no end in sight and no political progress on the horizon.  They want to know when their boys and girls are coming home - what the benchmark that will signal an end to the occupation.  And finally, America wants its politicians to take them seriously.  The Repubs, with their cheap stunt and childish behavior, just proved that they don't.  7:28:20 PM     Speak up!  []

Talking around the "Campfire" I'm so late to everything now.  If you're reading this blog to catch breaking news and stuff, you'd be better going to blogs that actually post more than once per week. Sorry.  Apologies.  Baby.   Etc etc, blah, blah blah.  Anyway, I was all excited to find this fascinating interview with the boys (brothers, as it turns out!) from Boards of Canada.  (It's not a new interview - it was posted in September.  Sigh.)  They offer tempting tidbits about projects in the works, or on hold (an acoustic version of Geodaddi!), some insight on the making of The Campfire Headphase and talk about some of their favorite bands.  Among the list of influences:  My Bloody Valentine, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, and Cocteau Twins.  That's an odd kettle of fish to draw from, but I guess it works.  Anyway, go here to find out more about the cult band.   7:21:39 PM     Speak up!  []