“Here in Washington, it seems that after every losing election, there’s a consensus reached among decision makers in the Democratic Party that the way to win is to be more like Republicans,” Dr. Dean said, adding: “If we accept that philosophy this time around, another Democrat will be standing here in four years giving this same speech. We cannot win by being Republican-lite.”

—Howard Dean, from a speech at George Washington University on Wednesday

Or better yet, blame both.

There’s been a fair amount of coverage in the media over the last few days of a series of fires set in an upscale Maryland housing development. In nearly every news report I’ve read or heard, the term “eco-terrorists” comes up pretty quickly.

Now, me being the silly person that I am, I assumed at first that there was actually evidence that eco-terrorism was involved. However, so far as I have been able to tell, the eco-terrorism claims are based solely on the facts that the development in question is next to an environmentally-sensitive area, several environmental groups have objected to its construction, and somewhere, sometime, an environmental activist group claimed responsibility for a similar (but not even remotely related) incident.

So once again, we are presented with a news media buying into the easy-sell, prefab story, a narrative that plays to a) the general public’s unreasonable fears of Terrorism^TM, and b) the bogeyman of wild-eyed ecological anarchists who Love Spotted Owls More Than Jobs For Americans (or whatever). As the facts of the case come out, it’s entirely possible that the culprit could be an individual or group misguided enough to believe that burning down a bunch of vinyl-sided McMansions will stop exurban sprawl. The point here, however, is that this narrative is being put forth (wittingly or unwittingly) long before any facts at all have come out, the end result being that all environmental activists are painted with the broad brush of terrorism for no good reason.

So far, I’ve only been able to find a few reports of it on, but US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited soldiers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait yesterday. Following his “pep talk,” soldiers began asking him a number of questions that didn’t fit the mold of the canned publicity events that the Bush administration is in the habit of holding.

Among other topics, there were repeated questions about how long the Pengtagon would continue using its stop-loss policy to extend soldiers’ terms of service, as welll as why soldiers were forced to dig through Iraqi dumps for scrap metal to provide extra armor for themselves and their vehicles

“You to go war with the army you have,” Rumsfeld replied, “not the one you want.” His answer regarding the body and tank armor? “All the armor in the world won’t prevent a tank from being blown up.” (Sources here and here. More seem to be cropping up around the web, so try a Google search for more info.)

Paul Krugman has a great op-ed piece in today’s New York Times about plans by the Bush administration and its surrogates/supporters to “reform” Social Security.

Aside from the fact that Krugman is a good writer, what I like about the piece is that he first provides a brief, clear, yet thorough background on what the Social Security is and was intended to be. As he goes on to point out further down, arguments for and against changing the program as it currently exists to often obscure or just plain get wrong the intent and purpose of Social Security.

Frankly, it’s a complicated subject, and while Krugman clearly has an opinion about the merits of Social Security “reform” (this is, after all, an op-ed column), he separates them from the the facts of the current situation.

According to this article in the New York Times, the CIA’s Baghdad bureau chief warns in a recent cable “that the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy.”

I predict that the White House’s response will be some combination of the following:

• Insinuating that the negative assessment is the politically-motivated work of disgruntled “bureaucrats” within the agency.
• Issuing a couple of bland talking points about how freedom is on the march, and “No one thinks it’s going to be easy… Democracy is hard work.”
• Accusing anyone who gives credence to the CIA’s report of thinking that “some people can’t be free.”
• Claiming that the intelligence reform bill currently in the Congress, which the President was, as usual, dragged kicking and screaming into supporting, will resolve this problem.
• Proclaiming that this report clearly demonstrates the need for immediate passage of Social Security privatization, more tax cuts, “tort reform,” and/or a national ballistic missile defense program.

Lest I forget, I’m pretty excited about the fact HBO begins re-showing the first season of Carnivale tonight, and that the new season starts January 9.

While the show definitely takes its time telling the story, it’s worth sticking with. If you’re not familiar with the basic premise, it takes place in the American Dustbowl of the early 1930′s, focusing on a young man who throws in with a traveling circus following the death of his mother. A concurrent storyline focuses on a priest and his sister.

While it may not sound like much from that brief description, suffice it to say the whole thing is drenched in disturbing dreams and visions, sideshow freaks, Good v. Evil mythological struggle, flowing blood, and copious amounts of good old American gothic creepiness.

Good stuff, and some of the most disturbing television I’ve seen since Twin Peaks and the devil-teacher and “Home” episodes of the X-Files.

So let’s see… The Bush administration is pushing vaguely-worded notions of “tax reform,” as well as floating proposals for the partial or complete privatization of Social Security. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are busy rewriting the rules to protect their leadership, to push through massive appropriations bills with little to no debate, and to exclude Democrats from any meaningful participation in the drafting of legislation. Iraq is a mess, Afghanistan has more or less been forgotten about, and now we’re rattling our saber towards Iran.

Fortunately, John McCain, every Democrat’s favorite Republican (“He’s so independent! Such a straight-talker!”) is here to save the day, proposing vital legislation to… wait for it… crack down on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in major league baseball. Yes, that’s it—that is the crisis that is tearing the country apart. Overpaid celebrities taking steroids in pursuit of statistics not only threatens global geopolitical stability, but undermines the very bedrock of our society.

Alright, that was me being sarcastic.

Frankly, I got pretty sick of McCain early in the 2004 election, where, despite all his bluster about being an independent-minded Republican, he turned into a consistent shill for George W. Bush. Sure, you can say it’s all politics, that at some point one puts personal differences aside for the good of the party, but this is the guy whose campaign and its surrogates, during the course of the 2000 Republican primaries, variously insinuated that McCain was insane due to his time as a POW in Vietnam, accused McCain of forgetting about his fellow Vietnam vets despite that he led the fight in the Senate to track down POWs, suggested that he was “the fag candidate,” and implied that he had illegitimate children.

Despite the mugging he received at the hands of the Bush campaign, to which he responded at the time with “I don’t know if you can understand this George, but that really hurt. That really hurt… You should be ashamed,” McCain jumped on board with Bush in 2004, and now that the election is over, he’s wasting time and attention with bloviations about steroids.

A conservative friend of mine who is equally tired of McCain’s politically-convenient shifts suggested that Bush should give him a cabinet post to shut him up or make him actually pick a side to be on. Not such a bad idea, as I think about it.

I’m all moved-in to the new place, and mostly unpacked. Surprisingly, my IP address didn’t even change, which makes me very happy.

Amongst the boxes remaining to be unpacked are the several “random crap” boxes, one of which contains my digital camera. When I dig it out, I’ll take some pics of the new apartment and its surroundings and post them here.