I’m writing to applaud the Obama administration in its decision to stand down the long range anti-missile defense deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic. Naturally that pillar of conservatism, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), lambasted the Obama administration for this decision. Playing to its fearful audience in the military-industrial-congressional complex, it pouted that

“The decision is a slap to America’s Polish and Czech allies, who had braved Russian intimidation in agreeing to host the sites.”  WSJ Sept 20, 2009.

Hmmm. Let’s see. The strutting roosters in the Bush Administration put Poland and the Czech Republic in the awkward position of hosting an American/NATO missile base within spitting distance of mother Russia. And who was surprised when Russia pitched a fit over this?  Irrespective of the stated purpose, real or not, the Russians went ape over the possibility of anti-ballistic missile capability being planted near its borders. Could it be that part of Russia’s strategic defenses include ICBM’s?

What tortured logic was used in coming to the decision that a missile base in former eastern-bloc countries would not set back US-Russian relations to 1960’s era levels of tension? Or did the Bush Administration people take this into account or even care?

“That is only one aspect of Mr. Obama’s mistake, however, because the Third Site was only partly about missile defense. No one ever believed that the basing of radars in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland was a masterstroke of defensive strategic geometry … ” [italics by Gaussling]

“Rather, a central purpose of missile defense in Europe, on the doorstep of Russia, was alliance building. Its virtue was that it persuaded America’s allies that our common defense included a global ballistic missile defense system. In the near term it was to demonstrate that when it came to the threat posed by Iran, the U.S. and its NATO allies would stand together: Iran—aided and abetted by Russia—would not hold Europe hostage and the NATO powers would confront the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of a radical Islamic regime. Mr. Obama’s biggest mistake is that, just as the Third Site was meant to build alliances, its cancellation will undermine them.”  WSJ Sept 20, 2009.

I am hearing consistently that the proposed missile shootdown capability is hardly robust or proven effective. So we proposed to put a questionable system on the doorstep of Russia in the hope that the payoff would be better relations with the former eastern bloc states? What if Russia put a similar system in Venezuela or Cuba to protect these states from hostile aggressors? Oops! They tried something like that in Cuba a while back and it went badly.

Notice how the WSJ even admits that the proposed placement of the missiles was less than a master stroke. The fact is that US forces can pound Iranian targets from offshore or other locations if it comes to that.

The WSJ then goes on (below) to tie in strategic questions in Asia, fanning the flames of fear amongst its legions of wealthy and Calvinistic  subscribers. The Iranian issue is a unique European strategic question so the connection with the Chinese power calculus in Asia stretches credulity. The WSJ has chosen to use the issue as a prosthetic with which to assert that this one decision collapses US credibility in general.  US credibility in power projection is afloat 24/7 in the form of the US Naval men-of-war, it’s long range airpower capability, and substantial military intelligence capacity. Nonetheless, the WSJ already extrapolates a US failure to control Asian security.

“The simple reality is that, absent a missile defense that can stop Chinese ballistic missiles, the U.S. will be hard pressed to maintain security commitments in Asia given the advances China has made to its offensive nuclear forces. The U.S. Seventh Fleet, however capable, cannot withstand the kind of nuclear missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that China could employ against it. And because America lacks adequate conventional military means as well, the U.S. would have to resort to full-scale nuclear war to defend its Asian allies from an attack by China. [italics by Gaussling] While no one would ever envision hostilities rising to this level, no serious policy maker can prefer this state of vulnerability to the kind of stability a robust defensive system provides. And this isn’t even to discuss the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the hands of an unstable, unpredictable regime like Pyongyang.”  WSJ September 20, 2009.

Good lord. What a bunch of cowards.

They’ve already predicted our demise in the Eastern Pacific.  I guess we have to increase military spending.  No wonder we can’t afford to tend to our own sick and infirm citizens. We have to prepare for an inevitable conflict in Asia.  Shit. What was I thinking?

I really do not understand the manner in which the Democrats are responding to the outrageous lies and fascist propaganda that the Republicans are dealing out. Democrats- WTF??

Democrats should deal with Republicans in the same manner that they were treated in the days of DeLay and Armie.  The Republicans of congress are egg sucking dogs who only understand one thing- the sharp crack of a 2×4 between the eyes. The ruthless application of blunt power. Rough ’em up while they’re down – metaphorically at least. Because the inglourious basterds will certainly not offer bipartisanship when they are the majority again.

American politics is disgusting sometimes.  Especially now.

In watching the political turmoil associated with health care, I’m reminded of how populations fall into bell-shaped curves. Some attribute sorted into some kind of frequency is represented as a distribution having a small population of outliers on either side of a larger population representing the mean.  There are normal distributions and distorted distributions. As you might imagine, the details and nuances require a good bit of coursework to comprehend.

So from between our bare feet on the Lazyboy recliner we can passively view on high definition television the spectacle of a kind of replay of The Empire Strikes Back. We can watch as a small cadre of elite influence workers (lobbyists) practice the art of propaganda upon a group of lazy thinkers. Dick Armey is still with us, but now he is stirring up the muck behind the curtains.

Some have cynically observed that what we are witnessing is one group of dumbshits rattling another group of dumbshits. A more polite description might be that it is a matter of the sly and conniving having their way with the analytically challenged. 

People who are vehemently against big government somehow find it acceptable to be shills for big business in this battle.  All in the name of marketplace economics. But the fact is that the medical industry “marketplace” is deeply distorted and is itself far from being a system that can respond to consumer demand. The supply and demand balance is not sensitive to the needs of the patient- supply and demand is a battle fought between insurance carriers (the economic consumer) and medical organizations (the supplier).  

Consumers of medical services have few real choices- be sick or plug into a complex, gold plated system. In order for the medical system to be a functioning marketplace, there must be lower octane choices for the consumer.

That part of the affluence bell curve that cannot pay for modern, high tech, and expensive health services really must have access to a form of care that they can afford. The health care “debate” should focus on new forms of affordable medical services rather than simply new mechanisms of payment for a system that is economically distorted and inaccesible to significant numbers of people.

Medical school needs to be cheaper so that more universities can train more doctors to feed into the market. This is a supply & demand question that we seem to be unable to even define. The professional and business elitism of medicine must be toned down a bit. It is not sustainable.

It certainly seems as though the GOP is orchestrating a pageant of contrived television events meant to draw in followers who may have gone astray. Tea parties and theatrical outrage over alerts issued from homeland security. Broadcasters find this kind of thing irresistable and, like stray cats, are drawn to lap up footage from a saucer of engineered controversy.

Tejas Governor Perry will probably have to eat his words about independence. If he is smart, he’ll realize that crow is best eaten while still warm.

What is striking about post-election GOP behavior is the magnitude of the mean spiritedness and the heat of the invective spewing from the right. These people are pissed off about their role as the minority party.

The fact of power is the act of power.  What is so telling about the character of the GOP core is that despite the mandate of the last election, GOP soldiers continue to vociferously spout expired doctrine despite the will of the majority of voters. Contrary to the interest of voting citizens, these people are gaming every rule, squirting glue in all the locks, and dropping flaming bags of political shit on every doorstep they can find.

This is a valuable insight into the party of “character and values”. Instead, they have betrayed themselves as the party of “win at all costs and take no prisoners”.