(It bears repeating that a diary like this does not necessarily express the opinions of any front pagers but me…) If you hadn’t noticed, I’m frustrated. Frustrated at the fact that a clear, viable candidate isn’t stepping forward to challenge Jim Douglas. Frustrated that an anti-choice, anti-gay rights, scandal-plagued Republican is getting promoted for the post by our Senate President Pro-Tem. Frustrated because too many people are pretending that a credible campaign can still be run in this state by deciding to jump in sometime next May. So my wild and crazy solution? Drag internationally known author, activist, and Middlebury College Professor Bill McKibben into the fray (yes, possibly running as an Independent), even though I’m sure he’d rather spend the winter cross-country skiing.

The fact is that, of the rumored candidates, Sorrell is probably just messing with people’s heads (either that or he thinks you can play by the old calendar), and Dunne needs to beat Dubie first.

But consider what a Bill McKibben campaign would look like.

First off, he isn’t just more credible on the issue that many believe (including possibly the Governor himself) that Douglas is most vulnerable on – he’s a global leader on the matter. Douglas would pull his smarmy patronizing schtick on the guy at the risk of looking like a real doofus.

And McKibben is more than just a high profile author, he’s become an international celebrity. The introduction of an international celebrity into the race would not only open up unparallelled financial support, it would also give the race instant attention and credibility from a Vermont press corps which routinely gives Douglas absolute deference, while dismissing his opponents out of hand.

McKibben would also be uniquely able to bring in new voters. And the international attention brought to such a race would shine a positive light on the state.

There’s also the matter of McKibben himself. His style is not unlike the approachable, folksy demeanor of Douglas himself, but without the smarminess. McKibben can also speak in easy, matter-of-fact terms about how a statewide effort to encourage local economies that are less dependent on petroleum can be an economic engine for the state, encourage job growth and save taxpayers money. The image of McKibben walking the state and talking to regular Vermont voters is an appealing one that should be concerning to Douglas.

Although he’ll be labelled inexperienced, Obama supporters know that this charge can be made into as much (or more) of an asset than a liability. McKibben can guarantee the state that he will surround himself with Vermont’s best and brightest to put his vision of government into action.

Anywa, I could go on, but I won’t because this isn’t a “draft McKibben” website – this is: mckibbenforgovernor.org. Check it out, and sign the petitions encouraging Bill to take the plunge and pledging support. I hope to blogify the site soon enough, so keep watching it (and let folks know)

Homespun's diary from a few days ago, called “Terri Hallenbeck must go” brought to our attention, among other things, Peter Welch talking of a particular “earmark” (federal money allocated for a specific homestate project). Now, earmarks, also commonly derided as “pork”, generate a lot of controversy, such as AK Senator Ted Stevens infamous “bridge to nowhere”. Without a doubt there is much waste and abuse, but can one honestly find a problem when federal dollars go to expand a rural health center or another beneficial thing? And can you guess where Vermont stands in all of this? Go below the jump to find out… 

Regardless, my point is not to decry or defend earmarks at this particular juncture, more to point your attention to the fact that Vermont is one of the top receivers of earmark money, as illustrated in this picture, courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation, by way of Talking Points Memo. The size of the circles indicates earmarked federal dollars on a per capita basis by state (the green circle is Vermont, at $215.7:

Not too shabby, eh? As TPM points out, the smaller states tend to do really well, due to the influence in the Senate. And it doesn't hurt that most of the Senators from those states have some serious longevity:

Another interesting way to look at this is, look at the top three states: Alaska, Hawaii, and West Virginia. All smallish states but each also have senators that have been in office, respectively from 1968 (Stevens), 1963 (Inouye) and 1959 (Byrd).

And don't forget, Pat Leahy has been in there since 1974, as he rode the Dem wave in the wake of Watergate.

All in all, earmarks will remain a controversial topic for the time being, as talk of reform gathers some steam. They tend to be more controversial when other states get them. For the time being, Vermont is doing pretty good with them, and it's better to see the money coming here than going to, let's say, West Virginia, isn't it?

Update, 10:46 PM… I am reminded by Steve Benen of many things, perhaps most significant is that the reality of the Turk-Kurd dynamic is just too much to blithely gloss over. I try to slide over it below (while acknowledging it) to make this whole piece more thematically tight, but that’s just ridiculous. Any new borders would have to include a Kurdish state. And any Kurdish state would incur the wrath of the Turks – but that’s still a scenario more managable than a Turkey-absorbed Kurdistan, so try this map instead. Eh, I’ll stick with state, local and national politics…

(Please note: I am not promoting this as the solution, merely…making conversation… those who read this site know that I am not a foreign policy guy.)

The trisection of Iraq into three states – one each dominated by Kurds, Shia and Sunnis – is a notion that never quite goes away, but is never quite seriously addressed either. Even it's high-profile proponents such as Senator Joe Biden hardly seem to mention it anymore. Iraq, which was carved into a state arbitrarily in the post-colonial era, never truly gained the sort of national identity that the secular baathists were trying to create, and it can certainly be argued that now is a less than ideal time to somehow make it work – especially since it's now being suggested that hardwiring these underlying divisions into the nascent, dysfunctional parliament may have only served to exacerbate the friction.

But it always does raise one question for me. If the geographic carving knife is on the rhetorical table, instead of making one problematic state building project into three, is it worth considering going the other direction? For example:

Problem:

Solution?

Again, I'm not proposing it, but it's an interesting point of conversation (including some very big associated problems)…

The big advantages are obvious; it becomes a Middle East management problem, rather than an American one. We’ve also traded in a crumbling, unstable non-state in the heart of the most volatile region in the world for more-or-less the old status quo, as far as stability goes – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and Syria are stable and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The biggest problem is also the most tantalizing one – that Iran and Syria would have to be full partners. In fact, Iran in particular would be given a great big bonus in the form of much of the Iraqi oilfields they’ve coveted for so long, in the process of absorbing the mostly shia south (including critical Shia holy sites). This would not only make Israel uncomfortable, but neighboring Saudi Arabia as well, which has been leery of the influence of non-Arab Iran in the Middle East. Syria also would see a boost in stature. In fact, states like Jordan and Syria might want no part of such an arrangement, inheriting as they would the least commercially viable portions of old Iraq, but the argument could be made that they are receiving the lion’s shares of refugees already, so the infrastructure burden is largely foisted on them regardless, and the pot could be sweeteened with additional foreign aid.

But it’s tantalizing because it forces friend and foe to the table in the interest of making a stable situation for all. The battleground becomes the common ground.

Then there’s the other big problem – the north. It would be highly problematic for Turkey to functionally govern across its southern mountains, and the Kurds would be none too happy – explosively so. Turkey has repressed its own Kurdish population for some time, and native Turkish Kurds have responded violently. Indeed, this is the flip side of the biggest problem with the “three states” scenario promoted by Biden, as the Turkish military would not abide an independent Kurdish state on their borders that they would see as a safe haven and a base of operations for Kurdish resistance fighters in Turkey.

But there may be a window of opportunity for a change in the dynamic. The secular candidate for Turkey’s top political spot just lost while running on a platform meant to rally popular support around the idea of the Kurds as a threat. That political failure could open new discussions with Kurds and – again with promises of foreign aid – there may be an opportunity to discuss such a Kurdish province in the context of new human rights understandings.

Yeah, yeah I know – all this: not bloody likely.

But since the whole place is going to hell in a handbasket since we stepped in and busted it up – and there doesn’t seem to be anything to be done about it – might as well throw every option on the table, eh?

Did The Rooster Call Up the Sun or Did Rove Get the Last Laugh?
The only certainty my grasshoppers is that the cherry blossoms of spring will become the turd blossoms of summer

Karl Rove also known as “Turd Blossom” in that colorful native patois spoken by the Texas Chicken hawks announced today that he is leaving the rapidly sinking Scow of State that is the Bush administration effective the end of August.

His reason for leaving, taken verbatim from the official Washington departing rats exit speech is of course, to spend more time with his family.

When asked by one of the fully interchangeable talking heads of the White House press horde if he was being forced out, TB replied, “that sounds like the rooster calling up the sun” which I believe is another expression in that curious Pecos dialect that these birds use among themselves. Only Molly Ivins could decipher and translate the curious Texas Pig Latin these guys speak in private. I miss Molly.

In the weeks ahead there will be endless testimonials to Rove as the master architect of two successive (if not successful) terms in the White House and hundreds of references to his intellect and political genius. Genius, when used to describe any aspect of the Bush administration, in any context, I feel, seriously dilutes the term.

Whether he is departing to spend more time barbecuing, dove hunting and billing and cooing with his Texas Rose while writing his memoirs or scurrying out of town under a cloud of suspicion, subpoenas and potential indictments is open to argument. Perhaps, with all the other foul public relations odors wafting around the White House these days they may have decided to set this particular sack of scent outside the door and some distance downwind before the congressional recess is over.

Either way, August is adieu for Turd Blossom, the administration, today, is publicly mourning his loss while beatifying his holy name and as I listen with half an ear the media “analysis” of his departure drones steadily on in the background, as it probably will for days unless Paris Hilton goes on another toot.

My personal favorite memory of Turd Blossom comes from reports of the White House Correspondents Dinner last April when he recoiled from Sheryl Crow. When she and Laurie David tried to ask him if he might consider taking a fresh look at global warming science in light of the reception of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Rove fled, he fled from Sheryl Crow, I will remember him that way scurrying across the room like Little Miss Muffet, in terror of Sheryl Crow.

Before he leaves town there will of course be a round of going away parties in his honor, and he’ll probably be invited to about half of them but I don’t think he will be absent from Washington long, he leaves behind his shield of executive privilege and I seem to remember that there are a few folks in the House and Senate who really want to talk with him.

In his goodbye photo op on the White House lawn this morning it struck me that Turd Blossom, the boy from the west, born in Denver and raised in Sparks, Nevada, has almost none of the drawl one might expect while the guy next to him, scion of eastern aristocrats, born in Connecticut, product of Skull and Bones, has cultivated a Texas two step drawl so dense you could whet your pocket knife on it.

Bush called Rove his friend, in fact, he said, “you could call him my dear friend.” Rove is if anything, the ultimate Bush loyalist, first as an assistant to GHW Bush after having being investigated as a minor player in the Watergate affair. When he was dispatched by Poppy to deliver car keys to Junior in November of 1973, Turd Blossom reportedly fell in love with the Shrub at first sight (politically speaking). “Huge amounts of charisma, swagger, cowboy boots, flight jacket, wonderful smile, just charisma – you know, wow” he recalled years later.

He’s had his chubby little fingers in everything in the administration for the last seven years without getting seriously burned and may have been the only person that Dick Cheney was wary of. There are many, myself included who would love to see him in handcuffs and that may yet happen but I’m not betting on it.

He’ll be around, there will be subpoenas to fight and a book to write, which I think that he should title “Reality is What You Say It Is” the ultimate Rovism, and I wish I could say:

Thank God and Greyhound he’s gone but I’m afraid that it’s not true, we’re stuck with his legacy, pictured below:

News flash: Karl Rove is jumping ship as of August 31.

Draftees At Drill Preparing For The War To End All Wars 1917

Lieutenant General Doug Lute, the “War Czar” known around the White House as the “General of least reluctance” is talking “Draft.” Expressing his concern at the stress and strain of repeated lengthy deployments on the troops as well as their families the General said:

As an Army officer, this is a matter of real concern to me. Ultimately, the American army, and any other all-volunteer force, rests with the support and the morale and the willingness to serve demonstrated by our ? especially our young men and women in uniform. And I am concerned that those men and women and the families they represent are under stress as a result of repeated deployments.

General Lute, who accepted the position of War Czar after the rest of the General Staff either fled in stark terror at the prospect of accepting such a potentially career ending position or simply hid out in the Senior Officer’s head in the Pentagon until the position was safely filled, did not actually use the “D” word, but, in response to questions from National Public Radio’s Michele Norris on Friday in an interview for “All Things Considered” he definitely left the door wide open in this exchange:

Norris- You know, given the stress on the military and the concern about these extended deployments for an all-volunteer military, can you foresee, in the future, a return to the draft?

Gen Lute- You know, that’s a national policy decision point that we have not yet reached, Michele, because the ?

Norris- But does it make sense militarily?

Gen. Lute- I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table, but ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another. Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well. It would be a major policy shift, not actually a military, but a political policy shift to move to some other course.

Norris- Do you agree with that assessment that there is a real pressure point in the spring ? that that’s when the Pentagon will face some tough decisions about either extended deployments or reducing the time spent at home?

Gen. Lute- Yes, I do agree that come the spring, some variables will have to change ? either the degree to which the American ground forces, the Marines and the Army in particular, are deployed around the world to include Iraq, or the length of time they’re deployed in one tour, or the length of time they enjoy at home. Those are, essentially, the three variables.

Personally, I read that to mean that there have already been discussions on this at the “policy” level ( else the General would not have let it pass his highly skilled Czarist lips ) and it will likely become Bush’s next “Plan B” in the spring. The Republicans will tag along as will the acquiescent Democrats after a few obligatory public tugs at their Master’s sock, because none of these people want out of Iraq as long as they are being paid so handsomely by those who will ultimately profit from American hegemony in the oil rich region.

I would like to think that drafting a hundred thousand college age children of the wealthy to serve in the Mesopotamian morass would hasten the end of the war but it probably will not. The younger generation of chickenhawks will receive the same deferments as their fathers and the children of the working class will slog off to die in a civil war that will continue into the next decade, probably embroiling Iran in the hideous stew because we want control of their oil as well.

We’re not building the Disney World of embassies in Baghdad to fix traffic tickets, run consular affairs or replace lost passports for the occasional hapless tourist and we’re not building extensive permanent military bases all over Iraq to turn over to the tenuous control of Iraqi security forces who will likely surrender to the first Jihadist who points a weapon in their general direction.

I am being unfair to the War Czar though because he doesn’t like that title, preferring instead the title of Deputy National Security Adviser (Asst to Stephen Hadley) or Assistant to the President (Junior):

Norris- I’m just curious, What do you think of the term war czar?

Gen Lute- It’s actually an unfortunate term because it doesn’t describe my job at all.

Norris- But it’s often how people describe you.

Gen Lute- That may be, but it wouldn’t be my choice of how I describe the job. What I’m trying to do here is actually facilitate the very hard work that’s taking place on the ground and link it to the very hard work that’s being done here in Washington across the departments of the executive branch with the priorities of what’s required on the ground reflected in the efforts here in Washington. I’m in charge of about 15 people. Now that’s not exactly very czar-like, but what I am able to do is make sure that efforts are aligned properly.

Editor’s note: HUH? Is that a job?

Norris- Well, you know what they say in Washington sometimes ? that power is concentrated.

Gen Lute- [Chuckles.] Well, I have 15 very qualified people, and we’re working very hard to do our best to contribute to this effort.

All of this I take to mean that the draft is coming, and Canada had best be prepared for another influx of young American expats, possibly beginning next spring.

I also learned that it only takes two months for a highly trained General Officer to pick up the irritating habit of using the words “hard work” in nearly every paragraph if you place him in the company of those who spent their Vietnam years as Yale cheerleaders, members of the Cornell Glee Club, or simply having “other priorities.”

Bob Higgins

Worldwide Sawdust

‘War Czar’ Concerned over Stress of War on Troops

Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look

Selective Service plans “readiness” tests for military draft

Bush War Czar Considering Military Draft

Throughout the war, the reporting in The New Yorker, both by Sy Hersh and Jane Mayer, has been indispensable to understanding what is actually going on.

In this week's New Yorker, Jane Mayer has a great piece about  how the CIA has used torture to extract confessions from people it has decided are terrorists. The things that are being done in our name, with no assurance that they are gaining useful information or protecting the American people, are nothing short of shocking.

What may be newer is the way Mayer documents the manipulation of intelligence “disclosures” by the government, and how credulous the American press has been in swallowing whatever the government has decided to dish out.

Read this article today:

In March, Mariane Pearl, the widow of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, received a phone call from Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General. At the time, Gonzales’s role in the controversial dismissal of eight United States Attorneys had just been exposed, and the story was becoming a scandal in Washington. Gonzales informed Pearl that the Justice Department was about to announce some good news: a terrorist in U.S. custody—Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda leader who was the primary architect of the September 11th attacks—had confessed to killing her husband. (Pearl was abducted and beheaded five and a half years ago in Pakistan, by unidentified Islamic militants.) The Administration planned to release a transcript in which Mohammed boasted, “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”

Five years ago: Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, told the Arabic satellite television station Al-Jazeera that there was no need for U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad and branded as a “lie” allegations that Saddam Hussein still had weapons of mass destruction.

Thanks, Ralph.

per the Rutland Herald:

Vermont’s senior senator is coming to a theater near you.
Patrick Leahy has landed a speaking part in “The Dark Knight,” the latest in the Batman movie series.

Apparently, Leahy will be donating the proceeds to a local library.  Very cool.

“Man,” I cried, “how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!” – from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Translation: the most dangerous thing in the world is being a smart guy who isn't actually as smart as he thinks he is.

Why? Hey, this is Frankenstein we're talking about – because you might end up creating monsters that come back to haunt you later. Today's example? This quote from the Burlington Free Press:

Kurt Wright is the man on the spot. He is the Republican City Council president of one of the most un-Republican cities in the country.

It's old news, but in light of recent conversations about backing anti-choice, anti-gay rights Republican Senators as de facto Dem candidates, it bears repeating. Rep. Kurt Wright is playing savvy politics in positioning himself as a real threat – not simply in the Burlington mayor's race, but for statewide office through his position as leader of the Burlington City Council. For those of you who don't remember, the reason he has that position is that a Democrat put him there, rather than see a Progressive get the position. This is what's known as cutting off one's nose to spite one's face – or possibly shooting off one's face to spite one's head.

Wright is well on the way to becoming the latest Frankencrat Monster. Also on the list is General Michael Dubie, brother of the other Dubie, who was promoted to the position of Adjutant General by the Democratic legislature, and wasted no time in speaking out against progressive legislative priorities vis-a-vis the VT National Guard and Iraq.

Think I'm being alarmist? When we don't challenge these guys and instead enable them or give them free passes, they come back bigger and better, even when we thought we were being clever when we did it in the first place. In 2000, the Democrats did not field a candidate for State Treasurer, allowing the Republican incumbent to walk in with a gazillion percent of the vote and build up a phony bipartisan feelgood narrative that made him into an electoral juggernaut.

If you're new to the state, the Treasurer's name was Jim Douglas.