In case we've missed who the new "them" is...

...slurrin' them Middle Easterners is on the go. First it was President Bush, and then it was in my fantasy football league's chat room. Now it's politicians everywhere, and they ain't too shy to get in the occasional immigrant-oriented jibe, neither. From a great NYTimes article on political foot-in-mouths of recent months:

Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, said Wednesday that the United States confronts a “faceless enemy” of terrorists who “drive cabs in the daytime and kill at night.” Despite a hail of criticism on Thursday, Mr. Burns has not apologized for this remark as he did after complaining in July that a group of firefighters did not do a “goddamn thing” to stop a wildfire east of Billings.

Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, has been serially apologizing across Virginia since demeaning a man of Indian descent as “Macaca, or whatever his name is” at a campaign rally last month...

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, asked forgiveness after a C-Span microphone caught him saying “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent,”...

...Mr. Burns, the Montana senator, is both an accomplished apologizer and non-apologizer. He demonstrated as much in June when he joked that “the nice little Guatemalan man” working on his house might be an illegal immigrant. He has not apologized for the quip, as he once did after calling Arabs “ragheads.” “I can self-destruct in one sentence,” Mr. Burns, a former livestock auctioneer, recently told supporters. “Sometimes in one word.”

Another cool piece of street art...

...I saw earlier this month, on a footbridge at UW-Madison:

Here's George F. Will on the London plot...

...from a recent column in the Washington Post. I like his interpretation a lot. And I looked up farrago: it means a jumble, conglomeration, or medley.

The London plot against civil aviation confirmed a theme of an illuminating new book, Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11." The theme is that better law enforcement, which probably could have prevented Sept. 11, is central to combating terrorism. F-16s are not useful tools against terrorism that issues from places such as Hamburg (where Mohamed Atta lived before dying in the North Tower of the World Trade Center) and High Wycombe, England.

Cooperation between Pakistani and British law enforcement (the British draw upon useful experience combating IRA terrorism) has validated John Kerry's belief (as paraphrased by the New York Times Magazine of Oct. 10, 2004) that "many of the interdiction tactics that cripple drug lords, including governments working jointly to share intelligence, patrol borders and force banks to identify suspicious customers, can also be some of the most useful tools in the war on terror." In a candidates' debate in South Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry said that although the war on terror will be "occasionally military," it is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world."

Immediately after the London plot was disrupted, a "senior administration official," insisting on anonymity for his or her splenetic words, denied the obvious, that Kerry had a point. The official told The Weekly Standard:

"The idea that the jihadists would all be peaceful, warm, lovable, God-fearing people if it weren't for U.S. policies strikes me as not a valid idea. [Democrats] do not have the understanding or the commitment to take on these forces. It's like John Kerry. The law enforcement approach doesn't work."

This farrago of caricature and non sequitur makes the administration seem eager to repel all but the delusional. But perhaps such rhetoric reflects the intellectual contortions required to sustain the illusion that the war in Iraq is central to the war on terrorism, and that the war, unlike "the law enforcement approach," does "work."

Encouraging data on low Bush approval...

...indicate that Americans are increasingly fed up. From the NY Times:

Poll Shows a Shift in Opinion on Iraq War
By CARL HULSE and MARJORIE CONNELLY

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 — Americans increasingly see the war in Iraq as distinct from the fight against terrorism, and nearly half believe President Bush has focused too much on Iraq to the exclusion of other threats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll...

Public sentiment about the war remains negative, threatening to erode a Republican advantage on national security. Fifty-three percent said going to war was a mistake, up from 48 percent in July; 62 percent said events were going “somewhat or very badly” in the effort to bring order and stability to Iraq...

Mr. Bush recorded a gain of four percentage points in how the public views his handling of terrorism, rising to 55 percent approval from 51 percent a week earlier. This was his highest approval rating on the issue since last summer and followed the arrests in Britain in a suspected terror plot to blow up airliners...

Mr. Bush’s overall standing was nevertheless unchanged from the previous week, with 57 percent disapproving and 36 percent approving, far below the level Republicans in Congress would like to see as they prepare for elections in November. (full article here)

Cindy Sheehan's going strong again...

...apparently she led a group of protesters at a Karl Rove fundraising appearance over the weekend. Cindy's a big hero in my book - a vivid example of dedication and earnestness in the quest for peace.

Sheehan, Others Protest at Rove Event
By ANGELA K. BROWN, The Associated Press, Sunday, August 20, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas -- Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.

One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.

Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel lobby during the reception.

"I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son," Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004. (full article here)

"Support Our Troops"...

...typically strikes me as an empty statement, or even a thinly veiled means of stifling criticism of military action. But my friend Michelle recently put me on to a website that offers visitors an opportunity to support the men and women of our armed forces quickly but meaningfully: by sending them a thank-you note.

When you have a spare moment, visit Let's Say Thanks, a Xerox-sponsored page where you can select a free thank-you postcard - printed with your own personal note or a standard message you select - that will be delivered to U.S. servicemen and women deployed overseas. As the site explains, "the postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country." After you pick a card and a message, "the postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops."

It might not be as significant as a power hug, a pay raise, or a return trip home, but in my opinion, thank-you notes usually count for something - and can sometimes make a person's day. Visit Let's Say Thanks today.

Took a trip back in time yesterday...

...when I leafed through the July 4, 1994 issue of Newsweek, which I found on a shelf in an unused room at my grandmother's old house in Wisconsin. The cover story - "Living in Terror" - referred not to you and me and everybody else, but to battered women like Nicole Brown Simpson, whose ex-husband OJ's infamous trial had just started in Los Angeles. The mag also featured an interview with American-teen-caned-in-Singapore Michael Fay, highlights from the meetings of the House subcommittee investigating the tobacco industry, and a story describing how Bill Clinton used diplomacy to get North Korea to freeze its nuclear weapons program.

The most interesting article, however, was one called "The Bush Family Franchise," which detailed the gubernatorial aspirations of former President Bush's sons Jeb and George W. , the latter pictured in a spread eagle position in a seat at a baseball game, with large Texas Rangers logos brightly embroidered on each of his cowboy boots. There's a great baseball-themed quote on W from Ann Richards, who he would go on to defeat in that November's election: "He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple."

The article notes that both Jeb and W were heavily influenced by Lee Atwater, who ran their dad's '88 campaign and "preached a 'message focus' on cultural 'wedge issues' that separate white Democrats from their party." And despite the ultra-connected status of their family, both Jeb and W planned to run as "outsiders." As W's adviser Karl Rove noted, "There is an entrenched power structure in Austin, and that's what we're going after."

Ah, the good old days.