Al Gore: Quixotic?

Heard Al on the radio tonight. He was pushing his new book, The Assault on Reason. Al may be stiff and wooden, but he is still a breath of fresh air. He spoke in complete sentences, making every word count. He skillfully danced around the interviewer's suggestion that he was calling Current Occupant a liar. And he used words like quixotic.

Although CO probably doesn't know the meaning of that word, and wouldn't use it if he did, it could apply to him if he actually had any whimsy about him. But he doesn't. We are locked in a trial by fire and sand organized by ideologues who are unable to say why we are getting blown up in the desert. They have dug us a hole so deep that no one can figure out how to climb out. That is not quixotic. That's stupid.

Wolfie

Unbelievable! One of the main promoters of the disaster in Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz, has been brought down (finally) by penny-ante corruption. The fact that in some countries he might be considered a war criminal is unimportant. But cronyism--now that's serious.

And the pronouncements by Current Occupant on the matter reinforce my impression that loyalty to one's friends is the most important value, even if those friends are venial, arrogant, and corrupt. Heckuva job.

Ground Zero from the 37th floor

Another trip to New York, this time courtesy of those nice folks in Eagan, where I was accomodated at a fine Hilton hotel abutting Ground Zero. From the 37th floor, the hole in the ground was filled with little ants, toy PATH trains, and Tonka trucks pointlessly moving earth around in anticipation of another monument to capitalism.

And that is the point. Current Occupant shamelessly used the events of September 11, 2001, to give himself a free ride for the next four years, telling lies, invoking false memories, and playing to the worst in the American psyche. We are better than this, and should not be goaded into war by toys and by boys like the Current Occupant who play with them. The number who want to play with him is diminishing, but he does have all the marbles, so there are some who will continue to play just to stay in the game, engaging in the military-industrial equivalent of tearing the wings off flies.

Joe College Grad visited briefly, after telling me he was not feeling well and was going to bed. I returned from a lovely evening with the client to find, like Goldilocks, that someone was sleeping in my bed, watching my TV, and eating from my minibar. He was feverish and should not have come, but it was great to see him. He's counting the days until his gig at PS107 ends. Getting through the University of Chicago in four years is nothing compared to the challenge of teaching in the NYC public schools.

It is easy to focus on the personal and local, ignoring the damage we have wrought throughout the world. But when I remember those middle class Iraquis who are living in squalor in Syria, and whose dreams for their own children are now unattainable, it doesn't bear thinking about. They don't have the luxury we do, of ignoring the disaster that is the Middle East, complaining about the price of gas, and scheming to get our kids into Duke. This is not a game to them, and it should not be to us.

Irangate. part deux

One question: Why in hell should we believe anything this man tells us?

In addition to demonstrating his reading skills with My Pet Goat, this guy could be the star of a morality tale in which a boy who lied was ultimately not believed when he told the truth. Sound familiar?

Reuters photo

Swimming upstream

What a choice. I can talk about Current Occupant and his deer-in-the-headlights look last night as he tried to look presidential. Or I can tell you that Joe High School broke the pool record at a swim meet at the Buffalo Middle School, population 15,000. He was 10 seconds off his usual time, due to a nasty cold. But they probably don't get too many 500 freestyle swimmers at the Buffalo Middle School. Joe's name will be listed on the side of the pool until another record-breaker comes along.

And speaking of record breaking, Current Occupant only came alive during the tugging-at-the-heartstrings portion of his State of the Union speech. Otherwise he was completely wooden and totally inarticulate--for example, his explanation of the tax savings that his health insurance scheme would provide was incomprehensible. He must have skipped a sentence on the teleprompter. You almost feel sorry for the guy. And that's what's record-breaking. But remember, I did say almost....

Happy New Year

2007 begins with a grim contrast. On the one hand, there is significant and genuine appreciation for Gerald Ford's nice-guy demeanor. He appears to have been godly, upright, and more or less sober. He is applauded for being "normal". I was around during the Ford era. I remember him as boring, the 1974 incarnation of Babbitt. But that was then... Now Babbitt looks great.


And on the other hand, there is Current Occupant. Even though no one says it, he is infinitely smaller by comparison with former President Ford. He is definitely not upright, his godliness is circumscribed, and even though he no longer drinks, he is far from sober. The concept of "normal" does not arise when describing the CO. The sight of him delivering a tribute to his predecessor is almost too much to bear.

Holiday prep, or how to avoid reality

It's discouraging. There is no snow, Joe College Grad won't be home until December 24 ("those tickets are so expensive, Mom"), and the Current Occupant seems to have no idea of the hole he has dug for us and for the world.

The CO even had a way out--the Iraq Study Group--but chose to dismiss their recommendations out of hand. I feel as if we are in an episode of the Twilight Zone or a Greek tragedy. I'm waiting for the big recognition scene, when Hamlet or Lear or George realizes what he's done and throws himself to the wolves waiting in the snow outside the White House.

But I forgot. There is no snow because of global warming. And that is just one more thing that GWB chooses to ignore. When the curtain finally comes down on this amazing period of history, the Current Occupant will still have no idea how he has disappointed his audience. He had the biggest stage in the world, and he used it to show cartoons.

James A. Baker: not just for Florida anymore

I do find it interesting that people seem to be giving the Current Occupant a free ride on the James Baker appearance. This is probably because JB is more or less smart and politically aware, having served a number of Republican pols over the years. This seems, to us in the hinterlands, as a major improvement. You can hear the folks in flyover land whispering, "Well, at least there's someone in DC who knows the score." We feel this way because it's so apparent that the Current Occupant doesn't know the score, or even that there is a score. As Garrison said in today's column, the CO has the attention span of a 12-year old. Frankly, even 12-year olds with ADD have a better attention span.

Anyway, here we are, giving the Current Occupant a free ride because James A. Baker has flown to the rescue at the behest of Poppy. Have we forgotten already that it was JB who engineered the "election" in 2000 in Florida? Not so fast, folks. Let's keep on paying attention. We're not out of the woods just becuse the Dems won Congress.