Sunday, March 1, 2009

Three or Four Things

The editor of The Nation appeared with Karl Rove this morning on Stephanopoulis, as did global warming-skeptic George Will and Clinton strategist Stan Greenberg.

We have had our president for all of 5 weeks, and people appear to be serious when they try to compare outcomes of programs. Outcomes! All that we have, really and truly, is our guesses about new ideas. These guesses can be based on outcomes of old ideas, but they are significantly flawed by that reality. We all =know= this, right?

George Will actually said, I don't think George Bush intended to spend so much of his tenure on Iraq (or words very close to that). I clearly recall reading in the The New Yorker the document outlining our Iraq plan, developed in the few years subsequent to Desert Storm (Bush Sr.). No way did Junior fail to understand his stratum's 'need' for the Iraq operation - unless he was considered too stupid to be in the loop.

Which brings up another point: Who (besides Limbaugh) are the goons expressing their hopes that Obama will =fail=? I deplored W, make no mistake. But each time some horrifying new policy was introduced, I experienced fear and dismay. I would think, "Oh my God, I hope that doesn't destroy [x] or [y]." I saw W as failing pretty constantly, but not once did I =hope= for his failure. I hoped against hope.

What I'm hoping right now is that Obama's announced intention to cut defense spending (by our investments in outdated weaponry) turns out for the good. The military-industrial complex is as real as it gets, and much too frighteningly powerful.

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