A Rational Animal

Jeebus H. . . .

So the Chimpster’s in another snit, because those nasty, evil terroristappeasingSaddamlovingcommielibfeminazi Democrats won’t give him his surge without question.  (You ask me, a guy can’t get his surge on without the help of terroristappeasingSaddamlovingcommielibfeminazi Democrats, maybe it’s time to break out the little blue pills, but I digress.)  So what does he do?

Why, throws a tantrum, of course.  Otherwise known as "launching a surprise bombing attack on Somalia."  ‘Cause, you know, getting Ethiopia to front for us last week wasn’t, like, strong and firm and unwavering enough.

Bleahhh.  On second thought, maybe he’s already been into the little blue pills.  Ugh.  There’s a visual I don’t need. 

So whaddawe got?  Well, dead civilians.  But, you know, they were scary brown people anyway, and prolly al-Qaeda symps besides.  And pissed-off locals.  But, you know, same answer.  And covert U.S. financing of warlords.  But they’ll give us al-Qaeda!

And what do we get out of all this?

Another insurgency, maybe? 

Meanwhile, back on that other front . . . .

In a good way, kids.

I’m watching C-SPAN’s footage of a presentation by Richard Clarke from earlier today sponsored by the Center for American Progress.  You know, the Richard "hair on fire [over the Aug. 8 PDB]" Clarke - the one who actually tried to do something that might have helped prevent 9/11.

Anyway, Clarke’s blasting - and I mean blasting - the Bush maladministration for its foreign policy:  9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia. And he just used the priceless phrase "the Bush/McCain escalation"!

God, I love this guy. 

Update:  Ooh, and in response to a question, he says, ". . . surge, escalation, whatever you want to call it . . . " [emphasis added].  And then continues to use "escalation" throughout the remainder of his answer.  I think maybe it’s time for another Rational Animal Award . . . .

Image copyrighted by my friend N 

So this is where I’ve been for the past 2.5 days.  Well, not "here," precisely - at the moment, Taos Pueblo is closed to outsiders for ceremonials.  But I’ve been in Taos at a conference, and staying with my friend N, who took the photo above.  (He’s a professional photographer; the glare is from my amateur-hour photo of his photo.)

It’s both bitterly cold and absolutely beautiful here:  getting down below zero overnight, but bright and sunny during the daytime.  I’ve spent the last couple of days alternating between a conference and pretending that I’m on vacation.  Sadly, I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon for the west side of the state - just in time, I’m hearing, for another big winter storm to hit northern New Mexico.

I suppose it’s just as well:  I heard on the radio this morning that Rummy’s in town; apparently he showed up at El Taoseño the other night, and if I were to run into him, I wouldn’t be able to resist expressing the profound hope that Germany does indeed agree to try him (and his compatriots compas*) for war crimes. 

Fortunately, at the time, I was at a newly-opened world-cuisine restaurant with fabulous coffee.  (One thing Taos does really well - I mean, besides skiing, and art, and culture - is coffee.  Like that found here, and here, and here.)

*I couldn’t bring myself to use any term containing the word "patriot" to refer to this pack of criminals.  "Compas" is a local term, from the Spanish for "compadres," translating loosely to "homies.")