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Thinking it Through on the Bush administration’s attitude towards “homeland security”:

Isn’t it pretty outrageous that the Republicans ran that reprehensible campaign for the midterms in November accusing Democrats of not doing enough to support homeland security?

It is even more outrageous since it is becoming increasily obvious that the true culprits for undermining our safety are the Republicans who’d rather cripple the federal budget giving out tax goodies to their rich supporters than help fire and police departments prepare for the next terrorist disaster.

rc3 on “supporting our troops”:

Here in lovely North Carolina, a country club has tossed all its French and German wines because they’re not “supporting our troops.” Is it just me, or is accusing someone of not supporting the troops the lowest refuge of people mentally incapable of formulating a coherent argument in favor of their opinion? As I’ve said a million times, if I were a soldier, I’d want to be sure that there were people back home who are making sure that I’m putting my life on the line for a good reason. Soldiers are obliged to follow their orders regardless of what they think of them — it’s up to us civilians to make sure that we’re not using the military in a stupid fashion. In any case, this sort of halfwitted jingoism is to be expected in times of war, but is still distressing.

Hullabaloo takes eternal optimist
Thomas Friedman to task:

It?s too late to be wondering whether this amateur hour of a foreign policy team is capable of handling so many crises? at the same time, seeing as they ?don?t even like to travel.? And the fact that they ?spend so much time infighting over policy? is a direct result of not having a real President who guides policy, but one who is guided by whomever is in favor or has his ear at a given time.

It is too late to be wondering whether a party that would spend 100 million dollars to install a callow, empty suit like George W. Bush as President of the United States purely because he had ?brand name recognition? is serious enough and smart enough to be leading this country into war. It certainly appears that the rest of the world is very, very nervous about the caliber of our leadership.

It?s too late to be asking the Bush team to ?shape up, start dialing down the attitude, start selling this war on the truth, give us a budget that prepares the nation for war abroad not a party at home, and start doing everything possible to create a global context where we can confront Saddam without the world applauding him.?

Beyond the Wasteland discusses whether Bush’s punishment of Germany for daring to disagree with him would be effective:

I would answer no for a number of reason. Almost every German I know talks about growing up seeing foreign tanks and troops on the roads, near their villages, on the autobahns, in the airports, and they say that although they understood why they were there, and that the troops were as polite and respectful as possible, that Germans saw those foreign troops as a symbol of the past failures (quite correctly) of Germany. My suspicion is that the German people will welcome the departure of American troops despite the financial loses. The German government actually has to pay for housing and feeding these troops, I have no idea if this matches the amount of money these troops bring into the country, I suspect not, but it will not be a total loss in any sense. The Pentagon taking this approach makes me wonder if they are not really treating the German government like a wayward congressman, removing some pork from his district. Is this an intelligent approach to take to foreign policy, or is it a sign that Americans have become so dense that they see the whole world through a blindly American perspective. Has there been any thought about the long-term effects of such a move? To the Germans, this signals the end of the post-war period, Germany will be no longer under the benign occupation of America. I am sure they will welcome this, Mr Schröder will be seen as the leader who made Germany German again.

San Francisco

From the bitter shack of resentment: