Huckabee

Is it apparent to anyone else that the reason Mike Huckabee is suddenly rising in the polls is that Fred Thompson has been such a flop. It has been well publicized that conservative evangelicals are been waiting for a candidate that they can support with some sort of enthusiasm and that neither Guiliani nor Romney fit the bill. Then there was the stirring of excitement that Fred Thompson, an plain-spoken good ol' boy from Tennessee was entering the race. Another Ronald Reagan, people whispered. Unfortunately, Thompson's campaign has struggled to reach lack luster and Fred has turned out to be something less than a fire-breathin', Bible-thumpin', pew-jumpin' True Believer.

Enter Huckabee. Sure, the ConEvangels all knew that Huckabee was an ordained Baptist minister but they really wanted something more sexy, something straight out of Hollywood casting. They didn't get it. With no other alternative in sight, the man-on-street conservative Christian is gravitating toward the former Arkansas governor. Whether he keeps them or not remains to be seen but the progression seems perfectly natural to this novice political observer.

Doing Their Work For Them

The revelation in the latest National Intelligence Estimate that Iran abandoned it's nuclear weapons program in 2003 leads me to several questions, the principle one being; Why 2003?

The answer that leaps to my mind is that Iran was rushing toward a nuclear weapon because Bush had declared that our invasion of Iraq was to prevent just such a development by Saddam Hussein. When Iran heard this, it would not be able to help noticing that no one was invading North Korea which was believed to already possess such weapons. The obvious conclusion of everyone in the world except George Bush was that countries opposed to the US were in danger of invasion unless they figured out how to build the Bomb, and quick!

Come Fall 2003 and the invasion of Iraq is in full swing. Bushies might claim that we had frightened Iran into abandoning their WMD program by the shear awe of our military operations. That of course would be assuming that our military operations, however brilliant, were successfully controlling the country and overcoming the Baathist Plan B - guerrilla warfare. By that time, it was becoming clear that the US occupation was inept and the US military incapable of threatening any other country for a good long time.

If you are not convinced that the US struggles in Iraq were discernible in 2003, then you must admit they were glaringly obvious by 2004/2005. If Iran had been frightened into abandoning nuclear ambitions by Shock and Awe in 2003, then they would have been able to start back up in 2005 with no fear of invasion by the US. On the other hand, if, based on the evidence on its doorstep, Iran calculated that the US was not a military threat to the regime then the urgency to gain nuclear weapons disappears and other means for regional influence and protection become more attractive priorities.

What this NIE shows most of all is that the Crazy Man theory of international diplomacy is bankrupt. If it can be applied to Kim Jong-Il, that is its limit. As for the rest of the world, even the meanest despot is working from a position of self-interest that may be potentially understood and influenced. We will not always win or get everything we want in the world but basing policy on the proposition that our adversaries are "crazy" is a recipe for unmitigated disaster, failure and decline.

A Virtue

"What on earth gives Christians [the] right to assume that love and self-sacrifice have to be called Christian virtues? They are virtues, full stop."

Philip Pullman, quoted in Christianity Today

A Clone By Any Other Name

It looks like promising news, human skin cells have been coaxed into growing human neurons.

Of course, social conservatives are gloating. They knew all along that we didn't need to Play God in order access the potential cures hinted at by stem cell research. We liberals need to just shut up and take their word as gospel in the future.

We don't know whether embryonic or the newer model of stem cells will revolutionize medicine - it's just too early. Leaving the vagaries of scientific research aside, there is another issue that most of these culture warriors haven't hit upon yet. What happens when you create a perfect stem cell without destroying an existing embryo? Mission accomplished, right? I don't think so.

It seems to me that the perfect stem cell would be so close to the hallowed, one-cell fetus that the technology to create an new embryo from it would be well within grasp. It seems inevitable that some lab, somewhere in the world will make the attempt, no?

If life starts at conception, is a lab-produced, pluripotent cell a human life as well. This is a really big question that the conception-equals-baby crowd needs to start thinking about.

Great Quote

“When you mix politics and religion, you get politics.”

Rev. Gene Carlson
former Pastor of Westlink Christian Church, Wichita, Kansas

Where Does It Say That?

Via Dan Froomkin, Washington Post:

Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush's nominee for attorney general, was asked whether the president is required to obey federal statutes. Judge Mukasey replied, 'That would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country.'

Back up the Unitary Executive Bus! Where in the United States Constitution does it say that the President has the authority to "defend the country." The Constitution provides the following role for the President vis-a-vis National Defense:

Article II, Section 2 The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;...

That's it - Nothing more.

The Congress, on the otherhand, is given responsibility to "provide for the common Defence... declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;... To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces ... " (Article I, Section 8).

Seems pretty clear that the Founders intended Congress to have an active, if not dominant role in defending the country. The President's role as Commander-in-Chief is a command role. Period. He is the top, albeit civilian, General Officer with all the boundaries on authority that any commander faces. There is absolutely nothing in the President's warrant that provides him the arch responsibility for "defending the country." In fact, the text can be "strictly constructed" to provide no strategic or decision making role whatsoever.

This power grab by the current President not only poses a clear and present danger to our democracy but paves the way for further erosions of our birthright by future residents of the White House. Our predecessors had the unique wisdom to construct a government based on the mistrust of accumulated power. Let us not trade this gem for the illusion of security.

This is Cool!!

The story goes that the other great apes, gorillas, chimps and orangutans, possess 24 pairs of chromosomes. Humans possess only 23. This situation suggests that, if we share a common ancestor, humans probably lost one pair instead of the other guys all gaining one. When the human and chimp genomes were sequenced, scientists were able to poke around and see if the genes on the extra ape chromosomes appeared somewhere in the human DNA.

Well, it turns out that they do indeed exist. It is quite clear that two pairs of chromosomes merged sometime after humans and chimps diverged from their common ancestor. You see, not only did they find the gene sequences from the missing chromosome but they found the original telemeres (bits of DNA that form a sort of "cap" on the ends of chromosomes) right in the middle of the human chromosome 2. Plus, they found the extra centromere (a bit of DNA at the center of the chromosome), deactivated, sitting exactly where it was leftover from the extra chimp chromosome.

This way cool. If God did it, he was very messy, leaving extra bits in their like some sort of appendix - but that's another story.

Check out this video explanation

No Business Being There

I listened to a follow up report by a journalist returning to a village in Diyala province Iraq. Us troops had moved in to quell insurgent activity and secure a bridge across a canal. When she returned, the town was nearly deserted. The only two-story building in town faced the bridge and The soldiers had commandeered the as their headquarters. Although there had been attacks and a building had been rigged as an IED against the military force, insurgent activity had ebbed somewhat.

Unfortunately, because the road leading from the bridge crossed in front the headquarters, in the name of force protection the US officer would not let anyone cross the bridge. Business dried up and most of the town was leaving.

The journalist recorded a conversation that he commanding officer had with an Iraqi man who was packing his belongings to move away. This man made some statements about how the Americans had moved in and were thus responsible for security and how they were not living up to their responsibilities. Through an interpreter, the American starts to complain to the Iraqi man that the US can not do it for the Iraqis and that they need to take some responsibility for their own security. His frustration was extremely obvious. It seems every time I her the actual voice of a soldier on the ground, this edge is glaring.

I do not blame these officers. They have been put to a task that America has not built it's military to perform. It may even be an impossible task. I do not blame the Iraqis. I imagine their history has been such that individuals are not encouraged to take initiative on security issues - it is the job of the tribe, warlord or strongman.

The simple fact is that our men and women are not trained nor psychologically suited to a colonial or imperial enterprise. Americans do not have the patience or tolerance to operate in such an different culture. Yet another reason that our mission is likely doomed to failure. Pull 'em out. They can do no further good.

The Drums of War - Jerusalem Edition

In some quarters Debka is considered a super-secret destination for real intelligence news. Their confidential sources in the much vaunted Israeli intelligence and defense establishment is hinted at as the source of their credibility.

Now, compare this

DEBKAfile Reports: Two US carrier-strike groups are bound for Persian Gulf region, bringing number back to three

September 18, 2007, 4:18 PM (GMT+02:00)
USS Truman Strike Group heading for Gulf

USS Truman Strike Group heading for Gulf

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that from the third week of July, the only American strike force- carrier in the Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea region was the USS Enterprise. By the end of September, it will be joined by the USS Nimitz and the USS Truman Strike Groups. Our sources note that with their arrival, three American naval, air and marine forces will again confront Iranian shores at a time of crisis in the military and civilian leadership of Iran - signaled by the abrupt change of Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, rising Israel-Syrian tensions and a troubled situation in Lebanon.

The Nimitz left the region to take part in large-scale Malabar 2007 II exercise with five Asian nations, termed by Indian military observers “the first step towards establishing Asian NATO. Since the maneuver ended Friday, Sept. 7, the Nimitz has been on its way back to the Persian Gulf. The Truman group, made up of 12 warships and submarines, including a nuclear sub, with 7,600 sailors, air crew and marines aboard, has just completed a long series of training exercises and is preparing to set out for its new posting. It carries eight squadrons of fighters, bombers and spy planes.

The Truman force’s battle cry is: “Give ‘em hell”.

The combined naval strike groups include the Monterey-CG 61 guided missile cruiser, the USS Barry DDG 52 and USS Mason-DDG 87 guided missile destroyers, the USS Albuquerque-SSN 706 fast nuclear strike submarine and the combat logistical USNS Arctic T-AOE 8.

In the last week of August, the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group took up position opposite the Lebanese coast amid trepidation over the September presidential election. Our military sources reported that aboard the group’s vessels are members of the 22nds Marine special operations-capable Expeditionary Unit, who are ready to execute landings on Lebanese beaches.

with this


Nimitz to return home Sunday

6:44 p.m. September 25, 2007

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego-based aircraft carrier Nimitz has left Hawaii for the final stage of a six-month deployment that will bring the ship, its air wing and its strike group home Sunday, Navy officials said.

The carrier left the island Monday. It is carrying more than 4,000 sailors, plus 1,295 of their friends and family members who climbed aboard at Pearl Harbor and will stay until the journey's end.

These guests will get to watch demonstrations of air and sea operations, take tours of the ship and join in a shipboard talent show.

The Nimitz left San Diego on April 2 along with Carrier Air Wing 11, the cruiser Princeton and the destroyers John Paul Jones, Higgins and Chafee.

This contingent traveled to the Persian Gulf and operated alongside the John C. Stennis carrier strike group. Their joint presence, double the usual number of carrier groups in the region, reflected the United States' heightened tension with Iran at the time.

It's going to be hard to fool those sailors' families into believing that their fathers and daughters are finally home safe in California when they are really in the Persian Gulf.

Is Glory Cheap?

We have shed our blood in the glorious cause in which we are engaged; we are ready to shed the last drop in its defense. Nothing is above our courage, except only (with shame I speak it) the courage to TAX ourselves.

--James Madison, 1782

How much more satisfying to sacrifice one's life (or the lives of others) on the field of battle than to sacrifice one's comfort and excess at home. No draft. No war bonds. Just keep on shopping.