Political Blog—August 2010

August 1—Wikileaks

Today on Meet the Press, they discussed the safeguarding of classified information—regarding, obviously, the Wikileaks scandal. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange proudly described the scandal as on the scale of the Pentagon Papers, but I think that's a considerable exaggeration, especially considering the source. Nevertheless, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the leak endangered the lives of troops and civilians, and that those responsible had blood on their hands.

Then they discussed the economy with Alan Greenspan, who made a two-minute speech that didn't make a whole lot of sense and wound up with "it's touch and go." Nice. A lifetime of experience gives us that. Thanks for your expertise.

August 8—I hate slow summers with nothing but old news.

Today on Meet the Press, they discussed the oil spill in the Gulf. We are far from out of the woods; it's not really good news that we're not seeing oil in our marshes and on our beaches because it's still out there, duh.

Boehner was on Meet the Press and agreed the government should go after BP, holding them accountable for their criminal negligence regarding the disaster. And yet he said he felt the moratorium on offshore drilling should be lifted. Idiot. He called the spill a "mistake." Dude, switching the salt and sugar in your tea is a mistake. This goes way beyond that; this is a true disaster that will take years to mend.

Boehner also discussed the economy, saying he was "concerned." Thank you. He said the American people wanted jobs—again, really? He said people feared the spending coming out of Washington, feared taxes. He said raising taxes would risk causing a double dip recession, but he didn't answer the question about whether the tax cuts were paid for. Greenspan has already answered no on this, so the answer should have been obvious. Yet when pressed, Boehner accused David Gregory of siding with Washington. Well done, bonehead. He said the American people needed to have an adult conversation about entitlements, bringing Republicans and Democrats together—because he's done so well with both of those so far.

August 15—Afghanistan

Meet the Press featured the war in Afghanistan this morning, specifically, General Petraeus. The Afghans seem to like him; the provincial governor of Kabul greeted him warmly.

Petraeus talked about the concern and frustration accompanying the continuation of the war, and how an additional thirty thousand troops are supposed to help us get out of there sooner. He also answered the awkward question about whether Karzei is truly an ally: Kind of. Petraeus said it was natural that the U.S. and Karzei would have differences of opinion, but we were working with Karzei. David Gregory brought up Karzei's corruption, which Petraeus carefully avoided condemning; he said "we've talked to him" and "he's been elected to an office." Gregory asked if there were a cutoff point for him (meaning, I presume, a point at which we kick him out), which Petraeus denied. Then he briefly discussed the WikiLeaks scandal, saying that whoever released the documents was obviously guilty of extremely reprehensible behavior--I expect that nothing good will befall that person when they eventually find him, or them.

Petraeus talked about the Taliban as well; he pointed out that it's not monolithic but rather a syndicate. He pointed out its various factions on a map, demonstrating his expertise and also showing us that we frequently hear oversimplifications on the news. He talked about how the Taliban have used extremely egregious tactics, all the more horrifying in the context of their religion. It will take a "substantial, significant committment" to win, he said, later pointing out that it was a long war several years ago. *sigh*

Also, for those of y'all in Texas, I've been doing a bit of work on the Bill White campaign. That means you should donate to his campaign. You could also donate to my site.