Liberal and Loving It

It's time to leave Iraq

I am a liberal who supported the decision to invade Iraq (the why will be a future blog). And I supported the idea that once we were in there, it became our responsibility to make it successful. Not just that it was in our interest to do so - but our responsibility.

I also think we could have made our time there very successful. I have a lot of respect for what the military has accomplished there in impossible circumstances. And I have a lot of respect for what the Iraqis themselves have accomplished.

But the bottom line is that Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, & Rice are totally incompetent at managing this war. This is who we are stuck with for the next three years. So if the choice is Bush et al or leave - the better choice is to leave - by far. (And it's not just the civilians - General Franks made no plans for the peace. We needed a General Slim on the ground and a FDR in Washington. We weren't even close.)

Even if we put aside the gross incompetence of our civilian leaders of the war, there is still this. What is the fighting going to accomplish? Holding ground does no good in a war like this unless you can station a soldier every 10 feet across the entire country. Even in WWII, a war of invading and holding ground, the allies bypassed enemy strongholds from Rabul in the pacific to Brest in France. To fight everywhere is stupid.

And what is our goal in Iraq? The only argument I hear nowadays is to "stay the course." But to keep doing the same thing and expect different results is a form of insanity. Iraq has not progressed in terms of security on the ground, in terms of basic services, in terms of jobs. "Stay the course" is just ongoing carnage for all involved.

The other argument is we have to honor the fallen by continuing the battle. But that argument was used in Fredericksburg and all that lead to was more Union dead. We honor the dead by appreciating their sacrifice for us. We honor the living by not wasting their lives needlessly.

Finally, the Iraqi people need to decide what kind of country they want. Not decide where each has a vote and the protection of their own U.S. Army bodyguard. But decide in terms of putting their future and their life on the line. Will they step up to stop the insurgency or will they stay in their houses and let the bigger militia win.

If enough Iraqis want a civil war, there will be a civil war and we can do nothing to stop that. England has tried to force peace in Ireland for over 100 years and they are still there. You cannot force peace if enough of the populace prefers civil war for their aims.

On the flip side, after fighting a civil war, eventually enough people prefer peace to war that it ends. Lebanon seems to have reached that point. It took twenty years of civil war but they are now finding politics preferable to fighting.

As Gandhi said when told that the exit of the British would lead to civil war - yes but it will be our civil war. It is time to let the Iraqis decide their future. We were the catalyst that will let the Iraqis decide. But it is time for them to make their decision - and that means letting their actions, not our actions, make the decision.

And if Iraqi splits in to three pieces? Well Iraq's borders were Winston Churchill's invention - there was no "Iraq" before he invented it. If Czechoslovakia could choose to split in two (peacefully) and Yugoslavia into five (and counting), if the people of Iraq prefer to be three separate countries, that is their decision, not ours.

It's time to leave. Let the Iraqis choose their destiny.

Agree? Disagree? Please comment - I would like to get other viewpoints on this.

Balancing the Budget - No Pain, Today

Between a President who has approved the largest budgets ever (both percentage wise and total dollars), a cut & spend Republican congress (you know things are bad when the Democrats are the party of fiscal sanity), the Iraq war, and Katrina - we have to get our fiscal house in order.

I know George Bush wanted to have the chickens come home to roost after he left office. But he ran up the credit cards so fast, we can't wait until 2008 and leave the problem for whoever comes next. It has to be done now.

So here is my proposal for getting our fiscal house in order. And it requires very little pain for about 95% of the people in the country.

1. Remove every targeted item from the recent highway bill. This is pure pork and the items are not needed by anyone.
2. Remove every item in the energy bill that provides money to the large oil companies. Their profits this year are so large they probably won't notice the difference.
3. Phase out farm price supports at 20%/year over the next 5 years. These go to people who are much better off than the average American. And by reducing demand for food from the 3rd world, they presently reduce the standard of living for the very poor in the 3rd world. (Eliminate the sugar subsidies immediately - those are so indefensible that they don't need 5 years.)
4. Eliminate corporate welfare. Everyone knows what it is - the trick is to have a single bill that takes all of it out at once. Otherwise each congressperson is left trying to keep the pieces in for their companies, and they all support each other.

And finally, no tax cuts until the budget is balanced. There can be balancing where one tax goes up and another goes down in a revenue neutral matter. But it has to be revenue neutral every year - no one tax down this year and some other tax that "will" go up in the future.

And no tax cuts against spending cuts - especially unspecified future spending cuts. The income stream holds steady or goes up until the budget is balanced.

And for most people, and even for most corporations, this is to their benefit. Because if the deficit continues, there will be a recession and interest rates will rise. Because the market will force us to get our fiscal house in order if we don't do it ourselves.

But if there is a recession and high interest rates, that will hurt more than the steps above. All it takes is for some of the people in Washington to act in a grown up fiscally responsible manner.

An Effective Foreign Policy - Tax Oil

There are a number of major factors driving our Foreign Policy, Islamic terrorism, WMDs (Iran & North Korea especially), and globalism.

But there is one other factor equally as large - oil. Oil provides Islamic terrorism with massive funding. Oil makes Iran untouchable. Oil allows corrupt dictatorships to continue. The demand for oil and the money paid for oil cause immense harm to our foreign policy.

This country uses 25% of the world's oil. And this country also domestically produces 40% of it's own oil. If we could drop the usage here by 20%, we would cut our oil imports by 1/3 and we would reduce world usage by 5%. And that drop would lead to an tremendous drop in the price oil would sell for. It's the scarcity that drives the price up.

We don't do this with CAFE standards on cars. We don't do this with alternative energy programs.

Instead we use the free market. This country always does best when it harnesses capitalism for a job. And the way to do this is very simple.

All petroleum has additional taxes added to it, at $1.00/gallon/year over the next 5 years so that we end up at $5.00/gallon. And while the tax is set so it equals $5.00/gallon at the pump, it is placed on the oil coming out of the ground. Any use of oil - for plastics, for lubricants, for jet fuel - all is taxed.

And any energy source that does not come from oil - ethanol, coal, oil shale, anything else, is not hit with the tax. This way the financial incentive is to find alternatives to oil be it energy efficiency and/or alternative sources. The bottom line is that the market will find the best way to reduce oil usage.

And the poor will get hammered by this tax. So there is a tax credit equal to the taxes on 30 gallons/month that goes to each taxpayer. Anyone driving an average amount breaks even. Those who drive less, get hybrid cars, or use mass transit end up with money in their pocket. While those who drive a hum-vee will be paying and paying - but they have that option if it is worth it to them.

And this tax would really be one of the most virtuous of taxes. Because those paying it would be reimbursing the government for the costs of their oil usage - little things like the war in Iraq. (The war in Iraq may not be because of oil - but it is definitely due to oil.)

Don't fight John Roberts

When Eisenhower was asked if he made any mistakes as president, he would answer yes - two of them. They were his two appointees to the supreme court. The point is that no one knows what kind of justice John Roberts will be - not even President Bush.

And everyone has one or two or twenty litmus tests that they use to weigh any justice. These are different for each person. And add to that that each person is then left looking at John Robert's record and trying to guess how he will rule on those litmus items.

But here's the bottom line. Bush is president, not Kerry, not Hillary, not anyone else. And so the nominees are going to be conservative. If you want a liberal nominee the first step is to elect a Democratic president (please, please, please).

And John Roberts appears to be a thoughtful restrained judge. He also appears to be a consensus builder and that is critical for the chief justice since they are trying to manage eight totally independent individuals.

For those who are bothered by the idea of Roberts as chief justice, just think for a moment about Scalia or Thomas - either of whom Bush could have nominated. Now there's a nightmare. Not just for their extreme views, but in Scalia's case the court would have divided into waring camps while under Thomas there would have been no real leadership.

So those Senators who are strongly opposed, state your reasons and vote against. But lets not turn this in to a giant fight. And lets not have slime-ball ads. And lets not have attempts to find irrelevant reasons to oppose him.

Let's keep it on target and professional. Fighting a war over his nomination does no one any good and debases all involved.

Where the politicians are grownups

You see all of the examples where the politicians automatically align into opposing camps, in Washington, in California, even in the case of Katrina where most politically active people can only see the mistakes made at either just the federal level or just the state/local level.

So when you don't get this knee-jerk reaction, the people involved should be congratulated.

Here in Colorado the state budget has been squeezed between the Tabor amendment which basically reduces the state budget in real dollars each year and various funding referendums - particularly one that forces an increase in real dollars for K-12 education.

The last two years forced some pretty bad spending cuts along with playing every game possible to put off further cuts. But another year and the cuts will be horrible.

So what happened?

The liberal and conservatives, the Democrats and Republicans, the governor (Republican) and legislature (majority Democrat for the first time in awhile) got together. And they hammered out a compromise.

Is anyone happy? No. But it is something they can all live with. And you now have most of the political leaders supporting an amendment for the upcoming election. And it provides a workable solution.

(You still have the nutso right against it. But they won't be happy until taxes are reduced to zero.)

So instead of each side posturing to it's base. Instead of promising the electorate the services they want and no new taxes. They did the grown up thing and came up with a real solution to the problem

So thank you to those who delivered this compromise. And thank you to all that are supporting it, even if it's not exactly what you want. Because at it's best, politics is the art of coming up with something workable that everyone can live with.

A beautiful inside slideshow of the hurricane

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1

Wednesday was a fun day - Operation Teddy Bear

In all the bad news coming from Katrina, I thought I would share a story of good news.

Months ago adayiniraq posted a suggestion which I think was brilliant. To get a soccer ball in the hands of every kid in Iraq. So we did our part and sent our spare soccer balls and some stuffed animals to SSGT Steven Kiel.

He sent back a message that included this:

"There are some Iraqi soldiers training in a building right next to us, many of them live in the nearby town and get a few days off every few weeks. While talking to one of them, he showed me some pictures of his family. He had a daughter that looked to be about six or seven, so I ended up giving it to him to give to his daughter. He was very thankful. Please let your daughters know that it found a good home. Seeing some of the pictures he showed me, I'm sure it's the best toy that his daughter has.”

This really struck a chord with me and my daughters. So we decided to go all out. We emailed all of the teams in the B.C. Force soccer club (which both of my daughters are members of), asking for old stuffed animals and soccer balls.

I figured we would get a fair number. But I underestimated. Girls were bringing large trash bags filled with stuffed animals. And we're not talking old worn out second-rate toys. There were numerous Build-A-Bears that looked brand new. There was a total of 2 stuffed animals that we did not send.

And how many? On Wednesday a bunch of the kids came over to help pack and we filled 12 boxes that were at the post office maximum of 108" girth + length. The kids had a great time packing and I had a great time going to the Post Office and shipping them out. And today we packed the rest - another 8 boxes.

We are sending 20 boxes of stuffed animals and soccer balls to Iraq to be passed on to kids there. Those kids get some toys that will mean so much to them. I think the love a special stuffed animal can give to a child is universal.

And the kids here opened up their hearts and gave away stuffed animals that they love, because they know how much it will mean to a child in Iraq that has nothing. And we shipped enough soccer balls to outfit all the teams in a small town.

And that was my terrific Wednesday afternoon. What we are calling Operation Teddy Bear.

Oprah to head FEMA

My wife told me about Oprah's trip down to interview the refugees from Katrina. And this got me thinking.

Throughout this disaster the press consistently got in there first. FEMA found out about the 20,000 people at the convention center from CNN (see Soledad O'Brien interview with Mr. Useless, aka Michael Brown).

Oprah went down there and brought food, water, and hugs from media stars to some of the hardest hit places. She reunited families. She brought out people and their pets that were stranded. She did more with less than anything I've seen from FEMA to date.

So, why not put Oprah in charge of FEMA for the next 3 months? And have her bring her staff in as her department heads. She clearly can do a better job than FEMA is at present. And she brings some tremendous assets that no political appointee can bring.

She can get the CEO of any company in the world on the phone and get anything she needs from them. She can bring enormous pressure to bear where needed to get roadblocks out of the way. And she could be running things effectively within hours of being given the job.

All it takes is for George Bush to ask her. Because I don't see how she could say no facing such a horrible situation where the present top people not only have horribly mismanaged things so far, but clearly will continue to do so.

It's not "black" and "poor", it's "black and poor"

A lot of newscasts have discussed how those left in the city were black and poor - meaning both African-Americans and poor people of all colors were left.

But what it looks like to me, with some exceptions, is that the ones left in New Orleans were the poor African-Americans. You weren't left if you were black, you weren't left if you were poor - you were left only if you were both black and poor. In other words, our most marginalized citizens.

There are a lot of poor white people in New Orleans - yet the crowds of refugees were almost entirely black.

There are a lot of middle class black people in New Orleans, yet the crowds of refugees were consistently described as composed of the poor.

And then there was the reaction to the looting. Across the board there was not statement from the politicians that if someone has no food or water they need to loot in order to survive. Instead it was a discussion of bringing back "law and order." There was no discussion of getting food and water to people, instead it was issuing orders to "shoot to kill."

In short, there was no compassion, just a move to bring the "untamed masses" back under control. (Yes, looting for items other than food & water occurred and there is no excuse for that. But there was no discussion of the difference.)

In short the government failed its most helpless citizens. And it clearly had a gigantic racial component in that decision to abandon them. Because I think the response would have been a lot different if the tens of thousands were middle class whites.

Was anyone doing their job in New Orleans?

First off, I do not mean to denigrate those in New Orleans who did their jobs in the midst of total anarchy. The doctors, nurses, police, and others who stayed on the job are the heroes of Katrina. Especially the police who tried to control the anarchy when many of their fellow officers either left or joined in the looting.

But as to the rest...

Ok, New Orleans clearly could not handle a disaster of this magnitude by itself. But while Mayor Nagin was quick to call for Federal help, that was all he did. Why not tell people to hot wire any school bus they could find, drive it to the superdome or convention center, and then drive people out? And this is just one example. Yet he did nothing but ask for help. (I did appreciate his suggestion that there be no more press conferences until help started arriving.)

And Louisiana could clearly not handle it by itself. But again, why didn't the governor grab all semi-trailers in the state, load them up at every food warehouse, and truck food and water in to New Orleans? And again, so much more than this could have been done. The fact that Louisiana has a very corrupt and inefficient government is no excuse. It may be an explanation, but it is no excuse.

And then we come to the feds. The federally government was totally out of touch. At least in Louisiana. while they were doing nothing, were aware of the scale of the damage. At the federal level they spent the first couple of days congratulating each other on how well it was being handled while doing nothing. Just some examples:

• FEMA found out about the 15,000 - 20,000 people at the convention center by watching CNN. I can understand CNN discovering a stranded family FEMA doesn't know about - but 15,000 people?
• An Air Force unit called and called for over 24 hours before they finally got permission to send in helicopters to assist in rescues.
• The Secretary of Homeland Security said that this was totally unforeseen - when the federal government had run a large simulation of exactly this type of hurricane hitting New Orleans. Basically everything happened as predicted in the simulation.

The U.S. responded quicker to the tsunami than to Katrina. Yet the tsunami was half way around the world and there was no advance warning. (The reaction to the tsunami shows what the military can do when given permission to help.)

What we had was a total freeze at all levels of government. And the only explanation I can see for this is rank incompetence. You hear numerous politicians saying we need to wait to determine what went wrong and then "take appropriate action."

I totally disagree. We need to fire the obviously incompetent today. Not tomorrow, not next month - today. Because we need competent leadership immediately to start rebuilding. If we keep someone like Michael Brown in charge of FEMA now, while FEMA remains critical to the recovery efforts, we insure that reconstruction will be as slow and badly implemented as possible.

And it's not just Michael Brown. It's every person who should have done something, anything, and instead sat on their ass or just asked others for help. But Michael Brown is a great place to start.

Update:

There were buses - tons of buses. Take a look at http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/18976/