Olmert Decides He Wants Peace

Far, far too much has been made of Ehud Olmert's outgoing comments as prime minister that appear to favor withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory. As I have mentioned before, when Olmert was first elected to pursue a pro-disengagement agenda, he responded by invading Lebanon and reinvading Gaza. He also presided over an acceleration of settlement construction, and he leaves office in the wake of rising settler violence against Israelis.

It's easy to say you're pro-peace when you no longer have to confront your own radicals. But when the man was actually in a position to do something, he balked.

There's nothing admirable about that.

Slime me in Spanish II

The plot in this week's Spanish soap opera thickens, as Obama responds to the McCain smear with a nasty ad of his own. As far as I can tell, the Obama ad is equally full of it. This is great if you're a left wing hack and you like Obama because he is going to give it to the right this November. If, however, you like Obama because you believe he offers something more honest in our political dialogue, it's rather disappointing. It would have been enough to point out, once again, that the McCain smear was inaccurate, and perhaps hit back by noting the truth, which is that the GOP has fully embraced xenophobia.

Instead Obama opted for a personal smear of his own. That may be tit for tat, and few will feel bad for McCain, but the truth would have been far more effective.

Slime me in Spanish

Much has been made of John McCain's campaign of lies this week. In fact, while campaigns are full of little lies, the past four to five days has seen an explosion, one could even say a surge, of lies. The latest, a Spanish-language attempt to portray Obama as anti-immigration, strikes me as the worst of the lot. Put aside the fact that Obama and McCain both voted the same on this issue (they were pro-migrants), and put aside that it was the Republicans who ultimately killed the immigration reform effort. In other words, put aside the fact that the ad is a smear and a lie. Just ask yourself a simple question: what kind of sleaze ball does it take to scare up a few votes by playing to the fear of their family's deportation?

Now to me this campaign has been a no-brainer ever since McCain demonstrated an inability to differentiate between Sunnis and Shiites (remember that?). Anyone who is actually serious about foreign policy, or who payed even the slightest attention while visiting Iraq, wouldn't make a mistake like that. He certainly wouldn't do it repeatedly. After eight years of incompetence, I want competence. It's straightforward and non-ideological.

But I have to say, watching this guy run through the absolute basement of human behavior, while all the time maintaining that crisp little grin on his face, and constantly bringing up his honor as if it's the 51st star on the American flag, is more than I can take. It's infuriating. It's unjust. It's anything but Country First.

The man must be stopped.

Writing About Nothing...

David Brooks shows that it's possible to fill an entire op-ed space in the New York Times with trite psychoanalysis. But I agree with Kevin Drum that along the way he slips and lets out a damning truth:

"The Republicans are intellectually unfit to govern right now..."

That's quite a confession for a conservative, no? It might lead one down a more intellectual and self-reflective track, perhaps ending in the conclusion that, "I shouldn't be voting for Republicans." But no, instead we're treated to a gleeful play-by-play of the political cycle that ends in the revelation that "[w]eirdness wins."

And thanks to guys like Brooks, it just might.

I See Your Moose and Raise You a...

Ruggedness - the politically staged variety - has long been a growth industry in America. But the spectacle of Putin shooting a tiger kinda makes Bush, Cheney, and Kerry look like a bunch of JV sissies. As an American aware of my second ammendment rights I have to say it's shameful to be outclassed in this way. From now on, whenever a politician in America wants to show how tough he or she is by taking a bunch of reporters hunting, I say the minimum has got to be a tiger.