Holidays Begin

The week ends with a whimper inside the building and plenty of moisture outside. We're a little behind on the rain for this month, but we're on the way to catching up.

Tomorrow, we'll head up I-5 to my folks' house for the day. Sunday will be at our house with H and M. And that followed by a glorious Monday off. Ahh...

Gabriel Kolko sums it up

The dilemma the U.S. has had for a half-century is that the priorities it must impose on its budget and its plans have never guided its actual behavior and action. It has always believed, as well it should, that Europe and its control would determine the future of world power. But it has fought in Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq – the so-called "Third World" in general – where the stakes of power were much smaller. Its priorities were specific, focused on specific nations, but they also set the United States the task of guiding or controlling the entire world – which is a very big place and has proven time and again to be far beyond American resources and power. In most of those places in the Third World where it massively employed its power directly, it has lost, and its military might has been ineffective. Local proxies have been corrupt and venal in most nations where the U.S. has relied upon them. The cost, both in financial terms and the eventual alienation of the American public, has been monumental.

Impeach Bush

Ok, as far as I'm concerned, this is it. President Bush has admitted to authorizing spying on Americans without judicial authorization. He has also admitted to doing so dozens of times. And he vows to do it again. This is illegal, his excuses notwithstanding. Mr. Bush should be impeached.

This is a critical test. During the run-up to the war, there was a lot of noise about how the United Nations was irrelevant in this new era. As I watched the U S Congress struggle to figure out how to do its constitutional duty, I came to the sad conclusion that it was the Congress that had become irrelevant in this new era. Time to show us all that this conclusion is premature.

This is a critical test for our democracy and republican form of government.