]> http://greasy.com/nickthink/index.html nickthink's Blog en-us © 2008 Greasy.com All rights reserved. Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:48:15 GMT 30 http://greasy.com/nickthink/guilty_sin.html The guilty verdict in 4 of "Scooter" Libby's 5 charges come as a bit of a relief. The information which has come out regarding the Bush administration's machinations to promote its agenda has been deeply troubling. Perhaps the reasons behind the plummet in support for the war as Bush is handling it are multifold: 1. Bush's policies from the last 4 years have been, it is shown, ineffective. Not only were they ineffective, but they led to problems which should not have arisen. 2. Bush's poli ... Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:37:31 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/hillary_chides_cheney_hiding.html It seems--"surprising" is not a strong enough word, but "bogus" seems over the top--of Hillary Clinton to chide Dick Cheney for not reporting his recent hunting accident that wounded a fellow hunter. The Vice President's glacially paced acknowledgement of the incident was frustrating enough! Do we really need the Clintons announcing what is wrong and defining which actions lack honesty?! Also, with so many Republicans faltering and the nation suffering painfully for those mistakes and gaff ... Thu, 7 Feb 2008 16:28:06 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/credit_due.html Kudos to Jim Lehrer tonight for once again ably conducting an interview with President Bush in a professional way. The interview did not brow-beat Bush and also forcefully pushed his questions. Important questions do need to be asked – and they need to be answered. Harping partisanship does not get questions answered or issues resolved. Praise is due to figures, such as Lehrer, who defy the general current of bitterness, suspicion, and partisanship which characterizes so much of both pol ... Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:36:03 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/irony.html Isn’t “Scooter” Libby’s defense ironic? He sure does seem to have a poor memory, not being able to tell his boss (VP Cheney) from Tim Russert. It’s so weird, because I confuse those two people all the time! Weirder still is that Libby is on trial for using the press to defaming a critic and betraying a CIA worker (and thereby endangering operatives’ lives). Yet his lawyers say that Libby can’t get a fair trial – because the media has spread the story and soiled his name and ... Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:37:31 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/moussaouis_lies_2.html Two Australian miners have been freed after being trapped underground for 14 days. Thank God. Speaking of being underground, where were all the TV reports about these two men? There was a lot of coverage of the Sago, WV miner debacle, and it was right to have a lot of coverage of that horrendous mess. Since Sago, there have been mine disasters in Mexico, China, Canada, and now Australia. Almost no coverage at all has been dedicated to even mentioning these events. Whatever happened to "saf ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:16:00 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/moussaouis_lies.html Yahoo! reports that now that Moussaoui has gotten off with a life sentence for plotting to murder, he wants even more. America has lost. Now he really wants to win. Moussaoui wants to take back with guilty plea because he claims that he was lying when he said he was to fly a fifth plane. That jury already let him off too easy for his treachery and hatred of mankind and civilization. Now he evidentally wants to be rewarded for mocking the justice system that inexplicably spared his life. I ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:15:50 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/decision_06.html Denis Hastert has apologized for Rep. Foley’s conduct not being punished, and Hastert claims that he and other senior Republicans were unaware of it. That may be, but on the heels of so many other painful Republican gaffs, it is, I think, unlikely to be seen as a credible response. Today, the Democrats could take the House standing on their head, unless they did something unbelievably stupid, and they even so they might still pull it off. That’s the problem. I’m not against Democrats ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:41:51 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/time_refrain_speaking.html Powell’s criticism of the troop shortage which existed at the outset of the Iraq campaign hardly surprised me. After all, he is a competent military mind, and even the most casual observer in 2003 likely wondered why the coalition would enter into a campaign broader than the 1991 war but with a mere fraction of the troops. The timing of Powell’s giving air to his doubts does surprise me, however. With the events three years in the past, why pick now to become vocal? A cynic might well ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:54:13 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/kim_jong_il--danger_underestimation.html Just a minor note on details. Mark Shields and David Brooks are political analysts who talk on the PBS program NewsHour, and yesterday they discussed Kim Jong Il and North Korea. Shields said that people don't fear Kim Jong Il because, unlike with Hitler, he has weird hair and is just 5'5" and he's "just seen as bizarre." They agreed that this underestimation makes Kim even more dangerous. Shields's statement about danger is insightful, but a WWII historian would recognize that in these re ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:10:25 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/take-backs.html I was surprised when I heard that State Department official Alberto Fernandez had bluntly mentioned on Al-Jazeera that, while “we tried to do our best in Iraq,” “I think there is a big possibility (inaudible) for extreme criticism and because undoubtedly there was arrogance and stupidity from the United States in Iraq." Now he’s telling Al-Jazeera that these statements reflect neither his own views nor that of the State Department. Suddenly I’m less surprised. Regarding Iraq’s ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:59:59 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/boat.html News of the terrorist Zarqawi’s death must come as a relief to a world weary of zealous hatred and wanton maliciousness. It is regrettable that civilization must at times use the sword on those who come with the sword, and it is painful that there seems to be no other practical way to defend civilization than to actually battle its enemies. It is painful, too, to see the fate of civilization being used as some hapless soccer ball in a political game of kicking. CNN’s droning report Thu ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:46:41 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/trust_iraq_national_security_2.html A moment earlier I referred to the mishandling of the Iraq war and I will explain my view here. Going into Iraq with a “streamlined” force of 150,000 was an appallingly stupid blunder. Going in with few boots meant having to stay, having to bring more boots incrementally, making the populace resent us during an extended occupation. If the coalition had entered with, say, a half million troops in 2003, and immediately clamped down on looting, the environment might have been totally diff ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:49:26 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/trust_iraq_national_security.html National security is a ticklish topic, and conflict over it prompts depressing and muddled thoughts. The President has rebuked several media outlets for reporting on a government effort to track money and hopefully, too, track potential terrorist activity. The government asked in vain that the media not report on the actions because by uncovering it any information that it may be collecting could be made moot. It is, I believe, a sound argument that makes a good point, which Bush strained ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:49:12 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/smoke_gets_eyes.html Happy Anniversary! Three hundred ninety-three years ago tomorrow, on June 28, 1603, John Rolfe made his first tobacco export to the British Isles. Today, Surgeon General Richard Caroma announced that no amount whatsoever of second smoke is safe. I commend Caroma for pointing out this fact, which is an important one to take into consideration as we live our daily lives. He added that 126,000,000 Americans are currently being subjected to second hand smoke, and that their health is therefore ... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:42:06 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/magnifying_glasses.html On Wednesday, President Bush held a press conference. The focus was to defend his Iraq policy. He also touched on troubling economic news (0.4% inflation in consumer prices in May). He also made a brief comment about a reporter’s glasses. From watching the news, you’d imagine that the short exchange about the glasses was the main event in the conference. The reporter suffers from a rare eye condition that makes him very light sensitive, and (having not been briefed on the medical condi ... Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:56:56 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/better_late_.html President Bush's speech yesterday said some things I'd been waiting to hear. Notable was that he claimed ultimate responsibility for the mistakes which have been made during the Iraq War. And there have been some duzies. But the larger point is that Bush is connecting himself to them, which marks a change in the implications made by the administration. I think that change is a welcome one. Yet the Democratic response has been, I think, rather overly beligerant. In no substantial way does a ... Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:51:33 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/fresh_perspective_hopefully.html Yesterday President Bush has announced that it is time for Donald Rumsfeld to move on, and to cease serving as Defense Secretary. Former CIA Director Robert Gates is to replace him. It is time, Bush says, for a "fresh perspective." The removal of Rumsfeld is, it seems to me, an auspicious start to a real turning point in the war on terror. It is unfortunate that it took two years and a reversal of Republican fortunes in the House of Representatives to bring this about. War has been politic ... Wed, 7 Nov 2007 13:41:02 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/old_habits_abortions_india.html Sunday’s edition of BBC World News touched on a topic which disturbed me. A doctor had been arrested for telling a couple in India the gender of their as-yet-unborn baby: this is illegal because the parents were interested because they wanted to abort if it was a girl. It was, and they did. Indians are simply too poor to afford to provide dowries for their daughters so they see women as economic burdens in a poverty stricken land. As it is currently being practiced, the dowry system lead ... Sat, 6 Oct 2007 03:48:29 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/rumsfelds_job.html Despite Rumsfeld's assertions reported by NewsHour that "change is difficult. It also happens to be urgently necessary," it is evident that he does not consider his resignation to be an "urgently necessary" change. With the Internet, everything is urgent. An article in today’s Ft. Worth Star-Telegram called on Bush to find a way to remove Rumsfeld. The Christian Science Monitor ran an article today by Daniel Shorr of NPR which distributes the blame for difficulties in the Iraq war on a n ... Sat, 6 Oct 2007 02:52:50 GMT http://greasy.com/nickthink/drawing_perspective.html Considering how connected folks can be, sometimes they don’t make great connections. The shortcomings are not in the tools we use, but in ourselves and the way we use them. With April 15 bearing down imminently upon us, I am reminded of two things. One is how easy it is to want to complain about paying taxes, and the other is how easy it is to hear people talk mystically about “free money.” “Free money” is a common way to refer to windfalls of federal dollars into the programs or ... Sat, 6 Oct 2007 02:36:07 GMT