Now It's Cheney's Turn to Laugh at You

Dick Cheney, desperately searching back
issues of Martha Stewart Living for
instructions on how to remove
bloodstains from paper money

Give Dick Cheney the benefit of the doubt for just a second. Let's assume that the $178,437 he received from Halliburton in 2003 really was deferred compensation for his services rendered in 1999. Let's also assume for the time being that his claim that this compensation is not tied in any way to performance is also true.

Does that change the fact that Halliburton and its subsidiary, KBR, are still under investigation by military investigators for overcharging the government for oil and meals served to U.S. troops in Iraq? No, it doesn't. At worst, Cheney's compensation is dirty money. At best, he doesn't seem to care about the risk of the appearance of impropriety.

Even if you do take what Dick Cheney says as gospel, the facts clearly show that he has no qualms about taking money from a company that may very well have defrauded the government. Especially when your family has taxable income of over 800 grand, wouldn't it make sense to refuse the $178K from the potentially dirty company?

What this tells me is that Cheney doesn't give a shit what we think. Evidently, he thinks nothing of putting his personal gain above the principles that all government officials should adhere to. Let's toss this asshole and his blood money out of office in November.

Personifying the Enemy, Continued

Kos has a piece posted on his blog about Personifying the Enemy. I agree that it's depressing that so many people believe that our problems would be solved if we simply killed or captured the enemy's leaders. It's even more depressing when you consider that this tactic works for our political leaders.

I'm in an OBL pool with some of my friends. I think Bin Laden has already been captured and the Bushies will likely trot him out just before the election - most likely dead. (My WAG is 9/24 in the pool.) I think that such an event would ensure Bush's re-election, and if Bush knows that capturing OBL would ensure victory, that he's likely already taken steps to make sure this happens. But why does capturing OBL put a lock on the election for GW?

Because Bin Laden is the face of Al-Qaeda for so many Americans. It would make Americans feel better to see OBL dead. A moment's thought would reveal to Americans that Al-Qaeda is a terrorist network of which OBL is a founder and facilitator. Given that we know Bin Laden is most likely in poor health and has not likely been able to manage the day-to-day operations of Al-Qaeda, we should know that his death, especially at the hands of the United States, would turn him into a martyr.

I'm not saying that Bin Laden shouldn't be brought to justice. I think we should do our best to capture him and bring him to the U.S. for trial. But what happens if/when the Pakistanis find him in the badlands, turn him into chopped liver and send him to the U.S. in a Tupperware container? You'll see radical Muslim fundamentalists mobilizing all over the place, in record numbers. You'll see additional attacks carried out in his name. All of this to make us feel better that we "got" the leader of Al-Qaeda?

I'd rather see OBL brought back to the U.S. alive, where we can hold a very public trial, convict the crazy bastard, interrogate him about Al-Qaeda and stick him in a very small, very dark cell for the rest of his life.

Alas, most Americans are living in denial, believing that the killing of OBL should be the main goal of the War on Terror and not the systematic dismantling of Al-Qaeda. And if you think the Bush administration isn't going to leverage this sad fact for all it's worth in the months leading up to the election, just wait and see.

What Makes Something "Actionable?"

Evidently, the President requires the 5 Ws and 1 H to be fully explored and articulated before a terrorist threat merits action.

"There was not a time and place of an attack," Bush said yesterday. "It said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to."

Well, let's see. The PDB memo mentions the possibility of planes being hijacked in an attempt to bargain for the freedom of Islamic militants. The memo mentions that Bin Laden was hell-bent on attacking within the U.S., and it mentions the potential use of explosives. We're not missing the "who" - obviously we're talking about Al Qaeda. We're not missing the "what" - the possibility of hijacked planes and explosives was mentioned. "Where" could have been more specific, but it's clear the memo was talking about attacks on U.S. soil. "When" was also non-specific, but is it asking too much to step up security at our airports if there's a threat specific to airplane hijackings?

I think Bush and Rice were simply asleep at the wheel here.

You Owe Yourself a Castle

My baby, in front of one of the castles at Sands Point

My geocaching expedition yesterday took me through parts of Queens and Nassau County. After finding a cache less than a stone's throw from my old place in Bayside, I cruised out to Sands Point near Port Washington. I'd never been there before.

Here's the history...Railroad heir Howard Gould built the estate in this picture around the turn of the century. There's not one, but TWO castles on this property. The one in the picture was built in 1902 and across the Great Lawn (on which my car is parked) is another castle built in 1912. The whole kit n' kaboodle was sold to Daniel Guggenheim shortly thereafter. It is rumored that Sands Point is the "West Egg" described in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Nassau County acquired the land in the early '70s and turned it into a nature preserve and museum.

Personally, I think if you're filthy rich enough to buy up a bunch of waterfront property and build multiple limestone castles on it, you should go all the way. Where's the moat filled with alligators, piranhas and sharks with lasers strapped to their heads? Where are the trebuchets hurling Volkswagen-sized boulders at ships in the harbor? The jousting tournament in the front yard? If I had a castle, such things would be commonplace.

Wealth is totally wasted on the rich. Snotty rich people build snotty, ostentatious castles. Give me a few hundred million and I'll build the world's first castle with both functional trebuchets and a video arcade.