Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

Thud is questioning whether leaking a CIA agent’s information should be the thing that brings down George W. Bush.

Take a breath before you jump on me with claws bare. Think a moment: what two things threatened the Clinton presidency more than anything else? Whitewater and Zippergate. And what’s put the Bush presidency in a bind right now? One blown cover of one agent.

I don’t want to minimize the seriousness of blowing a covert operative’s cover for partisan purposes. But—and this is my point—even if he doesn’t survive this debacle, Bush’s credibility should have been mincemeat a long time before now.

As always, John’s bringing up an excellent point. Bush’s credibility should be shot, already. The man’s record is worse than just the Iraqi war – there’s the issue of tax cuts that weren’t really tax cuts, pork for corporate interests, and stories of petty squabbles with other politicians. And that’s just a taste of what he’s done since he’s been in office.

Yes, the man’s reputation should be shot all to Hell. And there are a lot of indicators that it is. Polls recently showed Bush would lose an election to two of the current Democratic frontrunners. People are not satisfied with the job he’s been doing. And there are more and more allegations coming out about how Bush has lied, cajoled, and threatened his way through his first term. And recently some magazines and papers have become a lot less shy of running unflattering pictures of the potus (the horror, the horror).

But, in all fairness, John does wind up “minimizing the seriousness of blowing a covert operation’s cover” – although not necessarily for partisan purposes. The CIA recently produced a sizeable report on the obvious results such a leak has in store, to say nothing of the covert actions taken on the intelligence that we may never know of.

And there’s the fact that leaking this kind of information is criminal, and for good reason. This leak not only threatens the life and security of a former agent and her family, but it also threatens national security. You don’t go around outing undercover agents over political vendettas. It will come back and bite you in the ass if you do – one way or another.

We need to know what happened. And we need to know if our President or his advisors – who have talked so big about making our nation safe – were willing to risk our national security in order to settle a personal score.

What does this all mean?

There’s plenty of reason to bring Bush down. This is only a part of the puzzle. However, this is a serious breach and deserves a lot more attention than it’s gotten.

A while back, I asked if anybody had ever heard anything about what happened with the various folks expected to give us “valuable intelligence” about Iraqi programs – including the much-ballyhooed Weapons O’ Mass Destruction^TM.

Just as a side note, I love it when I get the opportunity to use the word “Ballyhoo”.

Anyway, the New York Times today reports not on Mrs. Anthrax, Doctor Germ, Chemical Ali, or any of the other folks – many of them not included in the deck of Iraqi war chemicals – who were called the “most important captures” of their time. But they do report on a program to retrieve intelligence from Iraq. A program that spent millions of dollars to debrief Iraqis who pretended to be higher placed than they were, promised intelligence they didn’t have, and provided no useful information to American intelligence.

Intelligence provided by the defectors that could not be substantiated included information about Iraq’s suspected program for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as well as other information about the Iraqi government, the officials said. They said they would not speculate on whether the defectors had knowingly provided false information and, if so, what their motivation might have been. One Defense Department official said that some of the people were not who they said they were and that the money for the program could have been better spent.

Two other Defense Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, defended the arrangement. While the credibility of the Iraqi defectors debriefed under the program had been low, they said, it had been roughly on par with that of most human intelligence about Iraq. The officials also said the Defense Intelligence Agency had been generally skeptical of the defectors from the start, on the ground that they were motivated more by the money and the desire to stir up sentiment against Saddam Hussein than by a desire to provide accurate information.

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas provides a short, sweet dissertation on the sin of silence.

We have lost our halo, because we represented the…best hopes and ideals of mankind and we have disappointed the world. To be a military superpower does not arrogate to us the right to invade countries, defy laws and dictate to other people. That is not us. It never was. We have no choice—it is imperative for us to take back the dawn.

The Boston Globe takes the youth of America to task for not voting:

While youth are greatly to blame for limiting their own voice, they are not solely responsible for the problem. Politicians have added to the disconnect between youth and politics through the antics of exuberent partisanship. Politicians are no longer directing attention to particular voting groups; they focus on partisan agendas and defamation of the opposing party—a turnoff to the young.

Certainly. It might also have something to do with the (mistaken) impression pushed by the mass media that there’s no difference between parties. And it might have something to do with the fact that – despite being told throughout our youth that our votes make a difference – these past few years have been spent showing us just how little attention is paid to real election results. Then there’s the decreasing emphasis on the youth in politics. Does anybody else remember the MTV town hall meetings? The bump they gave Clinton and the dip they gave Dole? What about “Rock the Vote?”

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll admit that many people in my age range (18 – 24) don’t vote, and I find that shameful. But to claim that it’s solely because the youth are panting after “the buzz around Ben and J-Lo” or because the politicians are becoming “partisan” is to downplay just how serious the issue is.

In 2000, I voted via an absentee ballot. Days later, I was horrified to hear from the Florida recount that absentee ballots are rarely counted. A representative on CNN calmly explained that absentee ballots rarely made enough of a difference to sway a state, and that they generally just estimated the results of the absentee vote based on gallup polls. Then, he explained, those figures would be used to get the count in to the election commission on time.

So my 2000 vote for Gore/Lieberman (and, yes, I’m not worried about admitting who I voted for) did not get counted except in a vague estimate? What message does that send?

As for the “buzz around Ben and J-Lo”, who puts that information at the top of the half hour on Headline News? Why does the front page get dedicated to the media whirlwind around the Kobe Bryant case (note: not on the case itself, on the media whirlwind surrounding it), but political news gets bumped to page three? Without a picture? Or even one of those nifty colored charts? Why is it easier to find information about Keanu Reeves’ band than it is to find information about Dennis Kucinich? Why do we only get comprehensive coverage of political debates when a famous movie star is involved?

It is irresponsible and counterproductive to blame the youth and the politicians for the lack of a youth presence at the polls. It marginalizes the problem as a case “Those darned kids” working in tandem with “Those damned partisans”. The problem is larger than that. The problem is with the system and with all of us. And it will take all of us to handle it.

There’s a lot of buzz around the California recall election (“No, really?” choruses the crowd), and in particular around the candidacy of one Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger. And at least some of the buzz has been around foreign-born American citizens eventually being allowed to run for President. And, oddly enough, it’s the Republicans doing the buzzing.

For those of us on the left, we face a major dilemma. After all, it makes sense that foreign-born citizens should be able to hold office. There are too many dedicated foreign-borns living in the United States who have sweated and bled for this country for them not to have the right.

The questions we on the left face, however, are why now and why him? Any Republican proposal on the issue will push Arnold to the forefront and will carry with it the notion that it was passed solely for his benefit. But we can’t make that argument logically and reasonably. There’s only one solution. Be pro-active.

We’ve got to propose it first.

This is a Democratic issue, and we’ve got to hit it before the Republicans use it as part of their “Party of Inclusion” illusion. It’s the Democrats who should be pushing, now. We should be pushing for the Cuban immigrants who fought their way across dangerous seas to get here. We should be pushing for the children of migrant workers whose parents worked under horrible conditions and who now fight to make this country better. We should be pushing for all of the foreign-born people who love this country and who deserve the right to rise to its highest office.

It’s a battle that the Republicans will have lost the moment they begin to fight it. Too many people support the idea, and to oppose it will put them squarely against their gubernatorial candidate in California. Opposing it will put them on the opposite side of the Cuban population that helped to put Bush in office. They can’t afford to fight a Democrat-backed push on this issue. This is something that we can win, and we can win it the right way without favoritism or pesonal gain.

We can only lose by hesitating.

All right, so dig. The scene opens up in a thoroughly modern classroom as the teacher, Miz Snorkelwacker, introduces a special guest to the class. And this guest is real suit. I mean, we’re talkin’ the whole sharkskin with the Rolex and maybe a gold earring, just to show he’s hip. He’s got the earring, the pinky ring, and just a little trace of white powder under his nose – and I’m not insinuating anything, I mean, he could just love powdered doughnuts, right? So, dig.

Miz Snorkelwacker: All right, children. All right. Settle down. Julie, sit down. Bobby, put the knife away. You’re not impressing anyone. Class, today we have a very special guest. This is Mr. Graham, and he works A & M for RCA.

Graham: That’s A & R, kitten. A & M is Herb Alpert. I don’t dig that square stuff.

[Pause]

Miz Snorkelwacker: Right. Anyway, Mr. Graham would like to talk to you today about starving artists.

Graham: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Siddown, babe. You’re beautiful. All right, kids. Like the lady sez, I’m Jesse Graham, but you can just call me J-Dog, right? Right. So, I’m gonna need me a volunteer. How many of you came heavy today? No, came heavy. I mean, like with the guns and stuff – I know you kids are into that today. All right, the kid with the
Glock. I like that. Shows a sense of the classics. You play an instrument, kid? No? Perfect. You don’t have to. Know why? ‘Cause you’ve got a look to you. Plus, you got a Glock. And maybe something else – I ain’t gonna ask, I don’t want to know. You’re a bit young for it, but in a couple years we can get you a few baby mamas and you’ll be set. All right.

So, this kid here – what’s your name? Hugo? What kind of a name for a gangsta thug is Hugo? All right. So, like, dig it. “Murda H” here is a rapper, okay? Now, Murda and his posse get a few gigs playing in town. A few people get shot at his concerts, some parents get angry, and that’s about when I show up. Now, Murda, your Glock is, like, your act, dig? So, you’ve got the Glock. But I’ve got this one-thousand dollar bill. Now, I’m going to offer to trade you this thousand dollar bill for your Glock, see? Here. Now, I’ve got your Glock and you’ve got the thousand dollar bill. When you give me the Glock, you give me the exclusive rights to it. Whatever you have that goes with the Glock, I get to take from you and keep. If I like it, then I can sell it to everybody and you get some of the money. But I’m the only one who can sell it. You can’t sell it, and you can’t give it to anybody else. In exchange, I give you complete control of that thousand dollar bill.

No, don’t put it in your pocket, Murda. Keep it out. We’re trying to prove a point, here.

Now, I’m looking at the Glock, right? And I can see that it could use a bit of work. I mean, it’s nice, but you need to spend some time working on it. maybe get like a laser sight or some cop killer bullets. At the label, we would love to help you out, all right? Matter of fact, that’s part of why we gave you the thousand-dollar bill. So, I’m going to take these scissors here, and I’m going to cut an inch off that bill. Don’t worry, you still got five inches of it left, which is more than you had before, right? I’m gonna take this inch of the bill back, because we have somebody on staff who’ll help you with this. They’re going to give you the clothes and the look and they’re going to work on your music and your image.

Now, you’re going to need to actually put some of those bullets in this thing – by which I mean you’re going to have to go into the studio, dig? By the way – kids, don’t play with guns. This thing is a tool, okay? Not a toy. Right. Murda, we’re going to put bullets in the gun. Now, it just so happens that the label owns its own studio. We’re gonna let you use it, and you don’t have to pay. Much. I mean, we still have to get some money on the deal, right? So, we’re going to have to take another inch of that bill from you. Don’t worry, you still got four inches of it left. Four more inches than you had before, right? Now, I’m going to take that inch and put it with the other inch of the bill I already took from you.

But there’s a problem with the bulle—Don’t worry, Murda. I’m not going to pull the trigger on you. But that’s the thing. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter, because the first bullet you gave us for the Glock is a dud. It looks nice and all, but you need to spend a bit more time on development. So we’ll just keep the bullet, and you’ve got to go into the studio again. I’m going to need another inch of that bill from you. Matter of fact, give me two inches of that bill – the second one’s usually a dud, too, so we’re gonna go ahead and say that you had to go into the studio again.

Now, this third bullet’s a killer. We’ve got something here. I mean, this is a teflon-coated, hollow-point cop killer of a bullet right here. So we’re gonna sell these. All the kids are gonna get these bullets. Congratulations, kid. You’ve got yourself an album out. You wanna have a release party? Yeah? Maybe get some ads in the trades, make you some airplay? I mean, these platters don’t spin themselves. You’ve got to get the DJ’s interested before they put you on their playlist. We’d love to help you out. In fact, we’ve got our own agency that’ll handle that for you. So if you just give me that last inch of the bill, that’ll cover it. Actually, it’s a bit over an inch – but you’ve got to spend money to make money, y’know? Don’t worry, kid. You’ve got royalties coming your way. You’re gonna be a big hit. I can feel it. Number one with a bullet. That’s an industry joke, kids. Laugh a little.

Now, usually, we’ll give you one cent off the sale of the album as your royalties. But I like you, Murda. You’ve got style. You’re gonna be a star. So I’m gonna give you an extra half cent. That’s one and a half cents an album. Trust me – when you go platinum, it’ll add up. That thousand dollar bill will seem like nothing.

You’ve got your album out, the promotion is going good, and the radio’s playing you non-stop. You’re hot, so we’re going to take these first two bullets you gave us and put them out. Now, technically, they’re still duds. They’re worthless, so you’re not going to get any royalties off of them, no matter how much they sell. But you shouldn’t let it get you down, Murda. After all, your good bullet is top of the charts.

Okay, so you’ll start getting your royalties in a few years. We’re going to have to take your royalties for a while so you can pay us back for that thousand-dollar bill we loaned you. Yeah, it was a loan. But don’t worry. I figure one cent an album, you’ll get it back once you’ve sold… let’s see… sixty-six thousand, six-hundred and sixty-six copies plus change. Hm. Funny how that calculation works out. Anyway.

Of course, in the real world, it’s not just a thousand dollars. Let’s see… for an advance of one-million dollars at a royalty of 1.5 cents, we’re going to need to sell… sixty-six million, six-hundred and sixty-six thousand, six-hundred and sixty-six copies – plus change. Once you hit that mark, we’ll start getting you your one and a half cents for each copy after that. That is, if you’re lucky enough to be one of the few acts out there that will actually sell over a million copies. Of course, if you don’t sell that many copies, we’ll take an IOU on what you owe us. Or if you want, we can lend you a bit more money to make another album. It’s okay, we’ll just take it out of the royalties that album makes, too. So, it’s gravy. Dig?

Now, this is the first time we hear Murda actually talk. So for the first time we hear that Murda’s got this real drawl, like a Cambridge voice, dig? And he says:

Murda H: So, I don’t get any money?

Graham: No, man. Not from us. As a matter of fact, you owe us. If you want to make money, now, you’re going to have to go out there and hit the road. That’s where you make all your money – playing live gigs. And those shows better sell tickets. We’re not going to help you out with it, because we’re already selling your album. We’ve got our money. You have to make your own way out there.

Murda H: I’m never going to see any royalties, am I?

Graham: Not unless you get crazy large, Murda. Now, what we don’t tell you is that this whole online trading thing really does hit our CD sales, but it actually seems to increase ticket sales to live events. The acts that get traded the most are the acts who sell out every venue they play – and some of them couldn’t sell tickets before Napster put their music in everybody’s hands.

Miz Snorkelwacker:Um, I thought this was supposed to be anti-file swapping?

Graham: Hm? Oh, yeah. Probably. Maybe that’s why the real A&R guy struggled so much when I stuffed him the trunk of his Jag.

Murda: Solid.

That’s a scene from What I Learned from the Entertainment Industry, coming soon to a classroom near you.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on yet another great invention from a fast-food industry dedicated to healthier eating:

Meet cheeseburger fries, a deep fried mixture of ground beef, cheese and breading that tastes, well, like a cheeseburger.

The cattlemen are hoping their invention will do for beef sales what Chicken McNuggets did for chicken.

And for those of you who have missed the other big news, Kellogg’s is inviting people to lose weight by replacing two meals a day with a bowl of Special K each. Wow. Forget “part of a complete breakfast,” let’s just make it breakfast and lunch all in itself. Will you lose weight? Probably. But malnutrition generally leads to weight loss, anyway.

Media Whores Online points us toward this poll which drives home an interesting point. It seems more and more like the question is less “How can the Democrats win?” and now more like “How can the Democrats keep from winning?”

It may sound flippant, but it’s actually an important question. The Bush administration is on the run with diminishing public support and the presence of strong players in the race to the White House. Coming up on the fast track are General Wes Clark and Senator John Kerry, both of whom definitely have Bush trumped on his war hero playacting. And while he didn’t do quite as well in the poll.Howard Dean has been making great strides (and would probably do a lot better if the media would stop describing him as “the angry one”).

Against just those three, Bush is facing some tough competition. They’re smart, quick on their feet, and charismatic (granted, some more than others).

Of course, Gore had intellect, a wit, and a record to make up for his lack of charisma.

The Democrats are ready to come from behind and hit hard in the upcoming elections, and the Bush administration may have their work cut out for them if they hope to stay in office for a second term. However, history has taught us that there has never been a lower snake-in-the-grass in American politics than George W. Bush. With the Democrats making their presence felt, it’s only a matter of time before the dirty tricks squadron gets up and running. They’ve already started with Clark.

To the new Presidential front-runners, I would just like to say: Gird your loins, screw your courage to the sticking point, and get out your butt-whippin’ sticks. ‘Cause we’ve underestimated Bush once before, and we won’t get fooled again.

I feel more and more like updating my wardrobe these days.

The big news all day was Bush’s speech to the United Nations in which he asked for help in Iraq. Bush? Asking for help in Iraq? Could the big guy be feeling – y’know – a little contrite? Perhaps regretting the bravado that led him to believe we could go it alone?

Of course, this is Bush we’re talking about. We’re not nearly that lucky.

Weapons of mass destruction haven’t been found, despite Big Dubya’s claim that we knew exactly where they were. We haven’t found evidence of terrorist activity, and we certainly haven’t found any link to Al Qaeda. With more and more of Bush’s argument for the war disappearing (he can’t even say he did it for the oil, now), it’s nothing short of disturbing to hear Fearless Leader get up on his soapbox and shout about how he was right all along.

Of course, it wouldn’t do for Bush to go crawling to the U.N. with his prehensile tail between his legs. But there’s bravado and there’s stupidity. And Bush prefers to err in favor of the latter. Bush’s much-anticipated dramatic presentation before the U.N. could have been summed up in a letter like the ones he used to write home. “Dear Mom and Dad. I don’t want you to come visit, but I’m still your son. So, send money. Lots of it. Love, Dubya.”

No, Bush was far from apologetic. In fact, he wasn’t even civil. In fact, he made Ted Kennedy seem like Miss Manners.

Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, 24 months ago—and yesterday in the memory of America—the center of New York City became a battlefield and a graveyard and the symbol of an unfinished war. Since that day, terrorists have struck in Bali, in Mombasa, in Casablanca, in Riyadh, in Jakarta, in Jerusalem—measuring the advance of their cause in the chaos and innocent suffering they leave behind.

Last month, terrorists brought their war to the United Nations itself.

Quick – can you spot the two errors in the paragraph above? One: To the uninformed, Bush would suggest that terrorism began on September 11, 2001, ignoring decades (even centuries) of bloody history just because they didn’t effect Dubya’s tiny little beer-soaked corner of the globe. Two: Where were the American forces that should have been protecting the U.N. compound? Well, they were making certain nobody destroyed the oil wells. Those would be the oil wells that have been proven to be practically worthless, now. Bush put tanks around the oil fields, but couldn’t spare one for the U.N.

How about in the following?

Afghanistan’s president, who is here today, now represents a free people who are building a decent and just society. They’re building a nation fully joined in the war against terror.

The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It used those weapons in acts of mass murder and refused to account for them when confronted by the world.

One: According to most sources, Afghanistan isn’t much different now than it was under Taliban rule – in some cases, it’s worse. The only positive difference is that there currently isn’t a state-sponsored terrorist organization. Two: Is Bush still working from an old script? Ixnay on the weapons of mass estructionday, already.

But by now we’re used to Bush’s lies, damned lies, and poor excuses for statistics.

What really takes the cake is Bush’s stance that the U.N. can provide money and soldiers, but shouldn’t expect to do much more. Oh – and while they’re at it, they should also put a stamp of approval on Bush’s decision to go ahead against their wishes.

Bush has yet to learn – if Kofi Annan says that you’re being a jerk, you’re probably a jerk.

I’m printing out an 87-page PDF document that came on the disc with my Coldstone software. The document is the complete user manual – a print edition was not included.

Of course, it’s the lack of a print edition of the manual that enables Ambrosia Software to sell the Coldstone Game Engine at the low price of $49. All they have to send you is a single CD-ROM. No bulky cardboard boxes, no heavy paper manuals – just one single disc of plastic and a tiny postcard with your registration number on it.

The last time I purchased Microsoft software, it was handed to me in a plain jewel box without so much as a paper insert. It cost upwards of $100. It didn’t come with a manual, either. Not even a quickstart guide. Not even a postcard. All of the documentation was in PDF format.

See, Ambrosia actually passes savings on to the customer. Microsoft pockets them.

Then it occurred to me (after inspiration from John’s latest entry at Open Source Politics that Microsoft is a perfect illustration of the way trickle-down economics really works.

Consider: The savings from not providing a paper manual are astronomical. We’re talking more than just printing and binding, here. We’re talking a fortune saved on shipping as a paper manual frequently weighs more than ten times the weight of the software. We’re talking packagng that can be smaller and simpler. In Ambrosia’s case, the savings are passed on to the customer.

Microsoft, however, enjoys a larger profit margin because of their decision to distribute digital manuals without print copies. And they continue to gouge the customer for all they’re worth.

The problem with trickle-down is that, when you think about it, very little trickles down that you would actually like to get on you. Trickle-down economics is based on the theory that if we give the money to the rich, they’re more likely to turn around and hire the poor. The money then “trickles down” to the poor. Of course, just like water getting sloshed out of a bathtub, it winds up in a diminished portion, it’s filthy, and it runs right through the floorboards before you can catch it.

Which would be the case in an Ambrosia world. But in Microsoft land, not a single drop of that water gets out of the tub. More money is more money, and the rich didn’t get where they are today by spending more money when they had it. Give the corporations more money back, and they’re more likely to report bigger profits than they are to report more hirings.

And this, my friends, is the general way of the world.