November 30, 2003 - I look for the President to be on the road next week looking for another photo-op. He will be looking for a room full of older Americans to gaze adoringly while he signs the Medicare Reform Act of 2003 with a dozen or so pens. One problem he has is his relatively short name. There just aren't enough letters in it to accommodate the need to have a sufficient number of souvenir pens to give out. I will predict that it won't take place in South Florida . The older Americans living there may have difficulty reading restaurant menus or punchcard ballots but they have been around long enough to recognize a Medicine Show when they see it.

South Floridian retirees interviewed by Robert Pear for an article published in the November 30 th New York Times don't see the trumpeted prescription drug program doing much to help fixed income seniors with the cost of their life sustaining medications. One thing Florida retirees do well is the math of surviving. They have put pencil to paper and figured out that they can save more by taking a trip to Mexico or Canada than relying on Medicare to cut their drug costs. When the drug manufactures and pharmacies were successful in getting a ban on the government negotiating for lower prices included in the bill, they figure that the Republicans and AARP simply sold them out....click here for entire article

November 28, 2003 - It was another "Mission Accomplished" and the troops did well. The military men and women assembled for Thanksgiving dinner at Baghdad International Airport fulfilled their assignment admirably. They were a great back-drop for the campaign footage of the President serving turkey dressed in an Army exercise jacket. As an exercise in political theatre it was a huge success - on a par with the "I have returned" shots of Douglas Macarthur wading ashore long after the beach was secure and the danger had pushed back miles from the scene. That comparison may be a bit unfair. Macarthur's Philippine beach was far safer that Baghdad 's air field. It took a measure of personal courage to sweep into an airport that had been the scene of a successful rocket attack putting Air Force One, its crew, the President's staff and the selected reporters at risk for the sake of a 2.5 hour after dark photo shoot.

There was a lot more risk in this operation than there was in the charter flight to the deck of the Abraham Lincoln. With the footage of the President strutting around in the flight suit appropriated by his political adversaries' ads and the footage of that damned woman going to Kabul sure to get a big play; something just had to be done. It is significant that of all the pool reporters only the Fox News guy was cleared to provide a heads-up his editor....click here for entire article

Neither was the HMO insurance industry cheap. What they bought was direct access to the US Treasury and the involuntary premiums paid by young wage-earners that were supposed to pay for health care in their “golden years”; the power to force retired citizens into their ranks as the price of obtaining the care their Medicare taxes had already paid for; and the power to set and collect the additional premiums seniors will be forced to pay to get the benefits that they thought they had earned in a lifetime of labor....click here for entire article

November 24, 2003 - They were Freedom Fighters and their bravery was hailed in the White House and extolled on the Evening News. Armed only with small arms, rocket propelled grenades and a supply of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons they bled a modern mechanized army of occupation dry one small cut at a time. The Soviet Union kept its Army of 100,000 troops, well supplied with modern arms and well supported by attack helicopters and the Soviet Air force, in Afghanistan for a decade. It lost no battles of consequence and yet it was unable to sustain the alien occupation it imposed on the medieval society that it sought to subdue. The Soviet’s controlled Kabul and sent armored columns into the mountain defiles and passes. The Soviet army was never able to bring the Freedom Fighters to bay. Ambuscades inflicted casualties that taken individually were mere flea bites, but over time, as the coffins streamed north to home, accumulated an impact that sent that undefeated army home....click here for entire article

November 22, 2003 - Forty years ago I was 25 years old. My daughter was three, her brother only one and the world stopped turning for three days. It seemed that those three days that separated a parade in Dallas from another in the Capitol were suspended in a limbo punctuated by gunshots and the somber tones of television's newsmen telling us that the President was dead and a familiar face had succeeded to his place. Camelot was born that day in the cadence of the muffled drums. America had her own Arthur, asleep beneath his mountain awaiting the call when his nation would call him out to lead them. Of course Camelot never was and its Arthur just a creation of faulty memories that recalled the soaring words and blotted out the faltering steps of his three year reign. It was left to his Texan deputy to realize the promise of his words and blunder deeper into the swamp in Vietnam .

Then came America's dark visaged Modred with his sheaf of secret plans and arcane stratagems and the nation was divided anew between those who sought a new Arthur and those content to scoop up the booty; fill their purses; and ignore the weeping of the mothers left behind. Two generations have come of age since Camelot was born that shining November afternoon. We are still a divided people. Half of us still yearn for the Camelot that never was. Half of us are grateful that the promise of its message has been submerged in a morass of self interest and aggrandizement. The division grows ever deeper and its expression more bitter with each day.

We have our new Modred seated on the throne of power who maintains his place with the same appeals to greed and blood that have marked his predecessors' reigns. Where is our new Arthur, his courage tempered by the tragedy of war; his conscience pricked by visions of want and despair; with a message of confident hope that we can do better? Where is the new Arthur to appeal to our better angels with a message that rejects our darkest impulses? Where is the new Arthur to lead us with an outstretched hand instead of driving us with a mailed fist?

November 14, 2003I - was nine years old when "Gentleman's Agreement" won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1947. I was 24 when Gregory Peck won the 1962 Best Actor statuette for his role in "To Kill a Mockingbird". Both pictures dealt with the subtle and not so subtle bigotry that pervaded American society. It was a bitter joke when Groucho Marx wisecracked that he would not join any club that would let him in. We like to pretend that those days have been put behind us. There has been some progress. Restrictive covenants in real estate are no longer enforceable. Discrimination in employment is prohibited by law. Overt bigotry may only be socially acceptable in restricted circles, but it crawls out into the light from time to time with a wink and a nudge and a "know what I mean."

Anti-Semitism, anti-Catholic bigotry, anti-Black stereotypes, and the labeling of all Moslems as a perfidious enemy are all faces on the same coin. It is a coin that finds a home in many pockets and at all the points from left to right on the ideological spectrum. It is evidenced in the transparent hypocrisy of a religious leader who pledges his undying support for Israel while proclaiming that God will not hear the prayer of a Jew. It is expressed in the assumption that Americans whose ancestors were forcibly transported from Africa are unable to compete and any success that they achieve is the result of favorable treatment or quotas. Indeed it is wrapped in accusations of Anti-Christian bigotry whenever the First Amendment is invoked to protect against state imposed religious expression....click here for entire article

November 14, 2003 - Tom DeLay believes in charity. To prove it he organized his own. In September the GOP Extreminator organized Celebrations for Children, Inc. DeLay already has his own charity in Houston, the DeLay Foundation for Kids. He organized this one for a special purpose. Celebrations for Children, Inc. will be run by a distinguished paid panel of managers who have a track record of success - Delay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro; DeLay's poltical advisor, Craig Richardson; and Veteran Republican fundraiser, Rob Jennings. It is a pioneering charitable effort that claims it will contribute 75% of the money it raises to children's charities. It's first effort is already scheduled.

Coincidentally it is scheduled for New York City at the time of the Republican National Convention next year. Contributors of up to $500,000 will be treated to parties into the night featuring rock bands and entertainment; dinner with Delay and "other officials"; yacht cruises around Manhattan; and seats in a luxury box for President Bush's acceptance speech. Unlike President Bush's Pioneers, their "gifts" will be tax deductible and unreportable. DeLay is not the only Compassionate Conservative planning to blend politics and charity at the convention. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is planning to host parties at the convention to benefit AIDS research....click here for entire article

November 13, 2003 - The Italian Parliament suspended its session to mourn its sons and daughters slain in Iraq . When an equal number of Americans were killed in a single attack the week before, it was business as usual in Washington . 24 hours after the Nasiriya bombing the Italian Defense Minister was on the ground, surveying the damage and talking with the survivors. 24 hours after the Chinook went down the Secretary of Defense went on Television to tell us that it was a bad day and there were more like it in the offing, but we were doing well in Iraq .

The bombing of the Italian headquarters sent a message around the world, "You are not safe anywhere in Iraq ". The message was heard around the world. Tokyo announced that the plan to contribute non-combatant troops to the occupation was being "delayed". South Korea announced that its promised troop contribution was being scaled back from its 5,000 man commitment....click here for entire article

Deeper into the Swamp

November 12, 2003 - Nassiriya had been quiet for a long time. Not since the live version of Saving Private Lynch was filmed on April 2 had the Shiite holy city been the scene of serious conflict, and there is some question on how serious the conflict was then. The town is not part of the Sunni Triangle. It is part of the Shiite south and is occupied by international troops under the command of our British allies. There is no question that Nassiriya is the scene of serious conflict this morning. Eleven Italian military policemen are dead and more are said to be trapped in the rubble of a police station destroyed by a car bomb last night.

Before the war we were told to expect that the Kurds in the north would be allied with the American forces and that when the Sunni oppressors were driven out the Shi'a in the south would be cooperative. Other voices, those who warned that the removal of the Sunni controlled secular government would result in chaos and civil war, were either ignored or drowned out in the enthusiasm of the invasion. In the short term it seemed that the Shiite south was quiescent. But that was before the Shiite cleric, dissatisfied with the makeup of the American appointed National Council proclaimed his own government for Iraq. It was also before the occupying Americans killed the American appointed head of the Sad'r City Municipal Council, the Shiite enclave on the east side of Baghdad....click here for entire article

November 7, 2003 - The various pieces of the Iraqi peace initiative jigsaw puzzle are starting to form a clear picture. As early as December 2002 and perhaps earlier Syrian officials approached the CIA with an Iraqi peace overture that included stationing US troop on Iraqi territory and a promise of prompt free elections policed by the United Nations. The overtures were said to have originated with Lt. Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush, Saddam Hussein's chief of intelligence and the Jack of Diamonds in the Central Command deck of cards. The CIA attempted to follow up by arranging a series of meetings in Morocco but the Iraqis did not show up.

About the same time Imad El-Hage, a Lebanon born American citizen whose insurance business is headquartered in Beirut contacted an old friend and schoolmate Michael Maloof, a Defense Department intelligence officer and reported similar overtures made through him. Maloof arranged for El-Hage to meet with Pentagon advisor Richard Perle and then, on January 28, 2003 with Paul Wolfowitz' Senior Aide Jaymie Durnan. Both Durnan and Perle acknowledge that the meetings occurred. El-Hage was stopped at the airport as he was returning to Lebanon after meeting with Durnan. A .45 caliber pistol and four stun-guns were found in his checked luggage and a search of his person revealed on of Durnan's business cards. Initially charged will failing to get an export license for the handgun, El-Hage, who was traveling on a Liberian diplomatic passport, was permitted to board the plane....click here for entire article

November 5, 2003 - With the centerpiece of his campaign, the Confederate Battle Flag, pinned carefully in his lapel, Halley Barbour claimed the governorship of Mississippi for the Republican party.. In Philadelphia the discovery of a listening device planted in the Mayor's office changed a hair thin Republican advantage in September's polls into a devastating Democrat landslide for the Democratic incumbent. In Mississippi the Democrat incumbent avoided any connection with the Democrat national establishment. In Philadelphia the Democrat incumbent welcomed Bill Clinton and Al Gore to nail down his victory. Philadelphia 's incumbent mayor is Black and was running in a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic with a Black and whose population is about 50% African-American. Did that unique set of circumstances account for the difference in results?

In Kentucky Happy Chandler's grandson ran away from the national Democratic Party while the term-limited Democratic incumbent's record was marred by sexual scandal and charges of corruption. Across the Ohio at the heart of conservative Indiana , Dan Quayle's Indianapolis where once the Republican Party and the KKK were indistinguishable, the Democratic incumbent was handily re-elected. It is too early to draw conclusions on this morning after Election Day but one thing is clear. When the Democratic candidate ran from the Democratic Party, he lost..click here for entire article

November 4, 2003 - Conan Doyle created the World's Greatest Consulting Detective in a simple time when the vegetable compound in Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was opium and the Coke in Coca-Cola was cocaine. He gave his hero one vice - one vice if you don't call fiddling around wit the violin a vice. It was a medical one. Sherlock was addicted to a seven-percent solution of cocaine administered by injection. That vice became the subject of one of the many pastiche written after the author's death put Holmes and Watson seeming beyond the reach of mortal men.

After 10 quarters of contraction the Gross Domestic Product grew for the first time in the second quarter of 2003. If you did not compare it with the second quarter of 2000 and looked only at the rate of growth the economy seemed to be on the mend. The 7.2 percent growth rate was the greatest since the economy turned around in 1984. According to the administration the economy has come roaring back...click here for entire article

November 3, 2003 - Central Command is admitting that 16 American soldiers died as November 2, 2003 took its place in military history as the day the Chinook was brought down. The official report has it that there were 21 wounded in the incident but that it hard to credit if the helicopter exploded in mid-air and came down in flames. The army says that the incident is "under investigation" and giving out few details. It is pretty clear that the chopper was brought down by a shoulder launched surface to air missile. It was, Secretary Rumsfeld said with eloquent understatement, "a bad day" and he warned that more were to come.

Then he spoke with irrational exuberance of the great successes we were experiencing in Iraq . That success was celebrated in the streets of Falujah as we were sickened by images of an Iraqi dancing down the street waving an American's combat helmet, its camouflage cover shredded and blackened in another attack in the city's street. The crowd was waving newspapers soaked in blood before the lens of the television camera. There were no flowers of welcome in evidence..click here for entire article

November 2, 2003 - I have been studying the exploits of Confederate Captain Jesse C. McNeill who, with his father, led McNeill's Partisan Rangers. From the summer of 1862 until May 8 th 1865 McNeill's Rangers terrorized the upper Potomac line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a major supply line from the west for the Federal forces operating in the Virginia theatre. Always working behind Union lines the Rangers pinned down a Union Corps detailed to guard the railroad. Never numbering more than 100 men and supplying themselves with captured materiel taken from Union trains the Rangers were never captured or defeated. Their major exploit came on the night of February 22, 1865 when Jesse led 65 Rangers into the heart of the 8000 man Union garrison at Cumberland , Maryland ; kidnapped Union Generals Benjamin F. Kelley and George A. Crook from their beds; and carried them back to old Virginia - all without firing a shot.

McNeill's Rangers were successful because they were irregulars, operating out of their homes and sheltered between attacks by their friends and families. Their raid and run tactics hit the Union forces hard, inflicted casualties far out of proportion to their numbers; and provided the southern armies with food and supplies that helped keep Lee's Army in the field. It was nearly a month after the surrender at Appomattox that the Rangers finally voted to surrender and even then they negotiated a deal permitting them to keep the new goods they had captured from the Federals. They went west to new lives with money in their pockets. Jesse became a prominent farmer in Central Illinois...click here for entire article

November 1, 2003 - I'm not going to watch The Reagans. The idea of spending two nights of television time watching a second-rate made for TV mini-series featuring a second-rate actors doing second-rate impersonations of a second-rate actor couple leaves me cold. It has nothing to do with politics. It is a matter of reasonable taste and the selection of more edifying television fare available in the 100 channel universe of cable TV. I'll probably tune in the Home Shopping Network instead. The plot line and acting is likely to be superior.

Did Nancy slap Patti? Did Ronnie disrespect AIDS patients? Frankly I do not care. I have my own view of the Reagan Presidency based on having survived it and it doesn't depend upon a CBS Bio-Pic for ratification. Like most of that genre that has come to be known as doc-u-drama this one can be expected to be light on the doc and heavy on the drama. I don't know because I haven't seen it, but that is my guess and it is as good as anybody's...click here for entire article