2 +2 = ?

Recently, George Bush has been playing a new card in the rhetoric of selling the Iraq war thing. He's started telling us that Iraq is just like other wars, and that we should learn from our countries history before we call for withdrawal.

This is the height of his arrogance. This is Bush at his absolute cherry picking worst. And in many ways, this is Bush at his most sociopathic. He really is trying as hard as he possibly can to say that 2 + 2 = 5. Or maybe 11.

First, its completely insane for him to criticize others for not being attuned to the lessons of history in a general sense. How about an invasion that completely ignored the entire history of the area? No one who has read Middle Eastern History and wasn't specifically trying to make up reasons to invade could have thought this war would go well. In 2003, Swarthmore Professor John Turner told my class in no uncertain term that American policy was whitewashing the situation far too much, and that no one knew the chaos that was coming. Religion Matters. Beyond the whole Sunni-Shia thing, we have a truly miserable track record with installing "democratic" leaders in these countries, and we are really bad at picking horses. It's just complete hypocrisy for him to suddenly decide to become a student of history.

Second, its not the work of a balanced man to chastise us for misinterpreting the lessons we learned from Vietnam. Look, I wasn't even ALIVE for that freaking war, and I learned its lessons a lot better then Bush seems to. How about: you can't wage a war without telling your people what you are doing? Or how about: the only way you defeat a truly sunk in Guerilla war is to bomb the entire country into small bite-size pieces until the entire population is dead? But, as all things in this world, if you are looking for a lesson of merit from Vietnam, look no further then the all seeing, all knowing Wikipedia:

As General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principal architects of the war noted "first, we didn't know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean war, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies … And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It's very dangerous."

But bush is ignoring these lessons, citing instead the "terrible bloodbath" that resulted from us leaving Vietnam. I'm going to go ahead and take issue with this historical "fact" as well.

Firstly, terrible things did happen in the area of Vietnam directly post our withdrawal. But to blame the American's leaving on the Khmer Rouge is completely absurd. It was America's secret war in Cambodia that opened the door to them coming to power, but we never formally admitted that happened. We were responsible for most of those things. But staying longer? If you can find a historian that argues we would have been able to "win" (whatever that means) with more time and more troops, even if we DID have home support, I will be shocked.

So, what, we were going to bomb all of Cambodia to the ground, and kill all of them whilst defeating the north Vietnamese? No no and no. Lots of bad things happened under the banner of communism, but to connote that the Cambodian genocide was caused by our inability to "hold the course" in Vietnam is about the equivalent of blaming the Darfurian Genocide on our inability to hold the course in Somalia. The conflicts were different, they grew out of different things, and even staying in Vietnam wasn't going to make one tiny bit of difference to the Khmer Rouge in their push for power. Also, let us not forget that it was the Vietnamese government that we were supposedly fighting against that eventually deposed of the Khmer Rouge.

And, yes, there were thousands of south Vietnamese officers who where held. Some of them were killed. But that's not a lesson that applies to Iraq. I have idea what would happen if our troops pull out of Iraq, but I can tell you that if they do, there wont be an army waiting to roll into Baghdad and take over. No, there will be huge number of poorly organized, heavily armed militias. Will these militias calm down and disarm after the irritating piece of American grit is gone from behind their collective war scarred eye-lid? I don't know, but we have no reason to believe staying there is doing anyone any good at this point.

And look! The very Historian that Bush Cites in his recent comparisons in the past to Japan, Korea and Vietnam doesn't think the current analogy fits.

"They [war supporters] keep on doing this," said MIT professor John Dower. "They keep on hitting it and hitting it and hitting it and it's always more and more implausible, strange and in a fantasy world. They're desperately groping for a historical analogy, and their uses of history are really perverse."

I think that bit sort of sums it up for me. What's really wild is that George Orwell was only partially right. Even in a world of information, where ten minutes on wikipedia totally refutes every large point that Bush has made (read it yourself, he missed all the important lessons, and then made up some of his own) he is still able to preach a revised history. He is still able to stand up there and repeat that 2 + 2 = 5, and because he repeats it again and again, it starts to become fact. He really DOES control the rhetoric of the present, and as a really is using that to make us change the past. It doesn't equal five, by the way. It equals Four. And it's going to keep equaling four. I just hope that the generation who took us through the shit storm that was American involvement in Vietnam wakes up and remembers what actually happened.

Here's a prediction based on my own study of history: pretty soon, the shiny shell of democracy that Bush has been hiding behind will crack. We will realize that the current government is too disjointed, too partisan, too divided. Instead of letting the government under nouri al-maliki stumble along, we will use our considerable clout in America to put someone in charge who can get control. who might be a little Machiavellian, might cut a few corners, but in the end, will lead with a strong hand. Sure, he might suppress portions of the population, but sometimes you...

I give it a year before we run another CIA strong man back in, declare victory, and stop hearing the words "democracy" nearly as much. Because Bush is studying history now, and that's what his predecessors would have done.

Update: If you want to read the same article, only well written and with real references... click here

To start off this post, it would be best to familiarize your self with this article a little, and then read my rebuttal, something that I wrote a little while ago.

Lets talk a little about the accuracy of this article, as a valid criticism.

Toyota never claimed that the Prius gets 60 mpg. Their PR people claim that it CAN get 60 miles per gallon, but they also list its average at 45 mpg city and 53 mpg highway according to the test drive that my mom and I took. I don't think that should make the Prius open to criticism either way, because that is still one of the best on the road. The Hummer DOES NOT EVEN LIST its MPG. Go ahead. Look it up. General Motors does not provide official H2 fuel economy ratings, most reviews have observed high single to low double-digit mileage. So, head to head in terms of fuel efficiency, i think that makes a little difference.

Also, the estimate of 300,000 lifetime miles on the hummer is inaccurate, and potentially absurdly so. While the author doesn't cite all of his sources, that seems optimistic even for GM to be putting out. Every single thing Ive read about the hummer suggests the thing falls apart after 75,000 cause its made of cheap plastic.

But that's not the real point of the article. The real point is that Toyota is a socially irresponsible company because they use nickel from a shitty plant and they ship the batteries around the world, thus the Prius is a lie. Well, besides the fact that GM led the charge to kill the electric car a few years ago, they also got caught with their pants around their ankles when they realized they couldn't keep jobs in Michigan and other traditional American manufacturing plants. Instead, what did they do? they outsourced their jobs to other countries! where its cheaper. So, First Point: GM and other American auto manufacturers are unwilling to invest in the infrastructure to keep new techniques and new cars here. They didn't fight this battle, so I don't think its a fair critique of Toyota to blame them for shipping things when that's the only option.

Next Point: Why is this the only option? Toyota ships it parts all around the world because the places they ship them to are cheapest ways to get the things done the technology needs. If the U.S. car manufacturers would wake up and start creating these parts themselves, there would be no need to ship to china to create nickle foam. They could do it hear cheaper, and much much much more efficiently. If this author questioned why a company would want to spend a lot of money on moving parts around the world so that the batteries could be made correctly... They could also do it with better economic standards. The real problem is that people continue to fight hybrid cars and everything else tooth and nail, point to the INTERMEDIATE points along the way to a greater goal as reasons to halt the progress entirely. The reality is, with the info structure that the US could build in a few years, we could have better plants (and not need to outsource these jobs, because we would be the only ones with the technology)

GM is not the only problem, and I don't want to get into the same one on one dichotomy of Prius v. Hummer, because either way its completely not fair. But GM is a comparison that gets my dander up, because they are a company that has had the opportunity to create the very infrastructure that they would need to create smart energy efficient cars like the Prius HERE with American parts and American labor, cheaply and effectively. And they haven't, and worse, they have fought other companies who have tried. The comparison between the actual Hummer and the actual Prius, on the road and under the same conditions, is absurdly lopsided. The comparison between the infrastructure available to manufacture those two things is misleading, because one is in compete infancy, and one is the end of a long line of General Moters Crap.

In the end, a lot of the energy cost to to build the thing are due new high tech manufacturing processes for which environmentally sound and efficient supply does not exist. They are not, like GM, working with Eisenhower-era engines, parts, and plants. Bottom line is, the energy cost to build a Prius will go down when the manufacturing is further refined. Toyota will need sufficient incentive to invest in refining the supply lines, but I think the reception of the Prius has provided as much. After all, they end up footing the bill for their part's world travel.

The major point glossed over in the article seems to be that buying a Prius means investing in green cars. You are not only contributing to Toyota's ability to produce similar vehicles, but you force other companies to compete for that part of the market. Companies competing to be green would be great (companies competing to market their products as green is not). I believe that the Prius is a genuine step in the right direction, even if its not the final solution in terms of a perfect vehicle. Ever Prius that comes off the rack puts a little more pressure on people to buy the big, bad where as the hummer is obviously a big step backwards.

Now, with all that said, the example of buying something because it A) is a good product, but also because B) it forces the market to move toward making more good products available, shall now be known as the Prius consideration. Just so that my spell check can calm down and relax, I will be abbreviating that as PC to avoid writing the word Prius.

On to "Living the American Green"! I just spoke with a professor from my Alma matta who
thinks that the PC corollary can be used for the project. Basically, he says that we shouldn't even bother focusing on something as useless as home, or personal, energy gathering methods. Instead, if you want to invest in green energy, invest in real wind power. Buy the creds for a giant turbine on the top of a mountain, where its actually maxing out its potential, and by doing so force up the demand for your energy provider to invest in more larger wind turbines. Dabbling with the massively inefficient home stuff isn't the best way to spend the cash.

I think this is exactly the reason that LtAG can be great. The PC corollary is the kind of thing that, given a few episodes of production, we can make much much more real then writing about it on a sheet of paper. We can show, without a shadow of a doubt, that its true: investing in a wind Turbine and putting it in your back yard can barely power a microwave oven. We can also break down the Dollar amounts that you re-coup off your energy bill from having a Wind Turbine yourself, versus what the same amount of money would do to force the hand of your local energy Industry Giant.

What is, and continues to be, very important about this project is LtAG's "come learn with us" mentality. It might well be true that Solar is the only viable project for a suburban home owner looking to add on to their house, but knowing that it is true and demonstrating that it is true are two completely different things. This true/not true dichotomy seems obvious to some, (especially people well versed in the field) but less obvious and more exciting to a large portion of the population. We live in an age where people spend mind numbing amounts of time, energy and money to obfuscate exactly what is going on in all levels of our lives, and exactly what each option does or does not do is a valuable, even crucial part of the experiment. One of the amazing doors that a show like MythBusters opened for us is that failure, as long as its amusing and well written, is a perfectly acceptable reality. And if someone like me, who is relatively knowledgeable, and vaguely well read, still has doubt about each technology's effectiveness: well, it seems like our audience might not be so sure themselves. And the example of PC is exactly the sort of discussion we can have once the wind turbine fails to show any appreciable change.

Don't Read This. I'm Too Tired, and It Dosen't Make Sense

Perspective and Balance. I keep coming back to it. Perspective and balance.

I want to an interesting event tonight, basically a round table discussion about the role of the ethnic press in the media today, and about the minority reporters who straddle the world between the mainstream press and the ethnic press.

The whole crew was pretty dismissive of the Mainstream media, which I agree with, but the final discussion of the entire evening just reinforced what I had already learned in Shamanism at school: All that it takes to be good at News is what it takes to be good at Anthropology: you have to continually re analyze yourself, your subject, and the relationship between the two.

However, unlike Anthropology, Media adds another new wrinkle: Who, exactly, is the subject? Who are we watching? And how do you know if your even studying the right crew?

Let take, for example, the Fort Dix case. Big Hullabaloo, three of the men arrested were illegal immigrants, lots of this that and the other. Muslims plotting to attack an American army base. Crazy stuff. But no matter how well we hash and re-hash the story, no matter how much we interview enough people and get the right take on Albanians, and get the right take on Muslims...

Because the same week, there was a bunch of true blue Americans down in 'Bama who had grenades, lots of ammo, and were charged with planning to kill as many Mexicans as possible. No mention of terrorism there. No mention of it, really, in many American Main Stream news sources. This is a place where perspective fails.

But the real issue is: do I have the omniscience to ever pull good reporting from my White Southerner Perch? I mean, even if I do manage to guess at what the important news stories are, and even if I am aware of all the realities of reporting, and even if I get to the right place at the right time with the right mindset: Who knows if I'm talking to the right people? Or are there just so many opinions that my perspective and my internal balance wont be enough? How do you battle through?

I'm exhausted and full of self doubt. There is just too much to be constantly weighing every day when you start a new thought. Consciouses truly truly is a curse.

But I can say this with complete confidence: There is no way that another human being has been doing as much thinking about this issue and agonizing about this issue as I have. If there are point in this new Show hire process for having done the thought in what it takes to reach a larger population of ethnic audiences, I have done that thinking. I don't have any answers, but by god... I have perspective. And I have balance. And I don't think its enough to matter.

To Jobo, With Love

Some Quick Hits on Today's thoughts:

I don't have the energy to hold down a full time job, produce a once a week TV show, do anything physical, think about GRE's and Grad School, research Green Energy, and have a social life. I just don't. Something has to give. And I can't just drop the one of those that seems the least important to me right now.

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More info on the Tintin Movie.

Getting more excited about this movie. Seems like good people are combining to work on it. And the fact that they are going to do three movies excites me for some reason, like they will give the time to the thing that I (in my nerdy focus) believes that it should get.

It does look like the article will answer the first part of my concerns: What will it look like?

Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish.

"Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!"

That. Is. Cool.

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To bad the NBA has no testicles, and hates its fans. You never like to see a thug break the rules and then get rewarded for it. I really really hope that the rest of the Suns throw together a great effort tomorrow and somehow pull off the win, but you got to feel like Robert Horry cheated to get the Spurs a championship. As someone who has liked and defended the Spurs style of play for a long time, this sucks. Go Suns.

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And finally, after reading a lot of Vitriol from people that I like on the left about Jerry Falwell's death this morning, and bracing myself for the great man anthologies that are sure to come from the right, I have some thoughts:

1. I hate Jerry Falwell. Really hate him. Hate the fact that he, allegedly spoke for me and for where I am from, hate his hypocrisies, despise his stance on almost all issues, but also hate that he allowed people to lump Christians and people from the conservative south together as frothing lunatics, and thus discount them. He, more then anyone I can think of this side of Karl Rove, is directly responsible for the fact that no one listens to anything the other side says anymore. I challenge anyone to come up with a more Machiavellian and cut throat person that will still be hailed by many Americans as a good and moral person.
   
2. I do not like celebrating death. Disgrace, fine. Failure, sure. But Death seems weird to me. So I guess, at the end of the day, I'm not glad he's dead, I'm really just sorry that he ever lived. I wish that he had never had come along and polarized America to the point that his Legacy is damn near immortal.
   
3. I think its crucial to remember that Fundamentalism cripples people. I honestly do not understand, from the bottom of my heart, how Jerry Falwell could claim that the prophet Muhammad was a terrorist, while continuing on the path he chose.
   
4. Working hard at something, and believing fervently in what you do is not enough for you to be a good person. Its a great start, but you have to avoid being evil.
   
5. A pretty great quote from another reverend that I find a lot of solace in seems like a good closer. Clearly, I need to follow this advice myself, because I can't forgive Falwell at all. But I don't get how he and MLK fall under the umbrella of the Christian God.
   

   “It’s not only necessary to know how to go about loving your enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. “

Living the American Green

The beginnings of a Business Plan. What else do we need in our opening statement?

Our project, called "Living the American Green" (LtAG), will critically evaluate the green movement in the united states with the goal of shifting people's perceptions about "living green." Americans still view Green energy as a fringe part of everyday life, as something that does not apply to the suburban commuter or the small town Mom and Pop store. While they may be wrong about this, the proponents of green energy also overstate their claims of energy savings and environmental goodwill. We will create an internet media channel dedicated to unpacking these issues by documenting our own attempts to "Green" an energy inefficient average American suburban home. We hope to convey our successes, our failures, and our thoughts throughout the project, while creating a human example of the amounts of effort and money that would go into installing alternative energy sources in your home.

Regardless of the personal sentiments of the participants, it is our stated goal to approach the project with skepticism. This, combined with a sense of humor and a general spirit of exploration, will make the show palatable to an audience who are not currently convinced that Alternative Energy applies to them.

Central to our efforts of reaching a large audience will be creating fun, entertaining, and humorous documentation of our efforts for distribution through our website. "Living the American Green" will not be shrill or lecture at the audience. While straight forward lecturing might be effective for some, we believe that it misses a very large and very important part of the American population. In lieu of lecturing to our audience from a conclusive standpoint, we invite viewers to learn and laugh with us as we apply various "green" living solutions to our own living situation. Part product review, part myth-busting, part reality TV, we plan to expose, confirm, and appreciate the green movement as it applies to American suburbia.

The Project Plan: LtAG will begin when we move into an unmodified suburban house picked out for its size and general energy inefficiency. We will try and find a house that fits the classic definition of a “McMansion.” We will first live in the house for a month or two to get a basic control reading of the amount of energy the house uses.

We will then begin modifying the house along two basic green lines:

A) Energy Types: Wind, Solar, Hydro (if at all possible) and Biomass power in a series of head to head comparisons. In this branch of the project, we will try and isolate exactly how much energy production each of these energy types is capable of producing in an environment not specifically cultured for their success. We will also try and experiment with different models and options commercially available within each energy source.

B) Energy Efficiency: Insulation, moderation, more efficient devices, etc. In the second Branch of LtAG, we will try and come to grips with the different ways you can improve on the energy you are already using, as well as get a hands on idea of what it means to use a little more or a little less Wattage per Hour. After we have been in the house for a few months, we will be completely removing ourselves from the grid to dramatize the situation a little and raise the hypothetical stakes of the project.

These hands on demonstrations both make our project something that many home owners will easily identify with, as well as help them parse through some of the different options available by seeing how much work they are and what they actually realize.

For the Project, we will have 6 people living full time in the house: 3 as permanent staff and 3 as live in commuters and support staff. The Three permanent members will be: a researcher/writer, A technology/engineer (for the installation and maintenance of the different energy sources) and a web support/video editing person. The three support staff will all keep personal track of their energy use, as well as write down thoughts and tribulations around living a green life. Potentially on of the three commuters could also be a live in person in charge of publicity/community/financial issues. All of these rolls are subject to crossover as needed, and all 6 of our staff will also be doubling as the subjects for our documentary work.

Today, we are playing the GRE Game. Today was Angry to make up for Yesterday.

Which of the following is the best example of "Irony"?
A) The man in charge of 16 Billion Dollars of U.S. Aid, much of which is being spent on Aids prevention through ABSTINENCE ONLY programs, is caught ordering hookers.

B) A.G. breaks multiple Laws, obstructs justice.

C) Support our Troops Congress forgets to check conditions at Troop Hospital, Large Fungal Colonies grow on the walls of Walter Reed
(Editors note: I find it completely infuriating that no one is talking about this anymore. How is it not still a big deal? Support the god damn troops, or stop saying it on all your press conferences. Those are your options)

D) Rice leads press charge accusing Nancy Pelosi of being a traitor for visiting Syria. Promptly Visits Syria, and speaks with Iranian representatives.

E1) Man masterminds a war that effectively destroys America's world standing. Is immediately put in charge of the World bank
E2) Come into world bank on anti corruption platform, transfers girlfriend to new job, gives her 60K in raises and guarantees her good reviews regardless of performance.

Others receiving votes. Not specific, as much as Ironic based on circumstance, both past and present: Dana Perino:
"Perino went on to claim that no one at the White House has ever 'played the patriotism card' against the Democrats in the Iraq debate."

George W. Bush, in 2000, swears to uphold the law.

Please Watch These

If you ever, EVER take advice from me about anything, please watch these two clips.

The first one comes from Boy1 Via Aunt3 (a cryptic scoring system that only a few people in the world will understand). But it gives me so much hope. And so much happiness. And if you make it through the Jon Stewart one, watch the TalkingPointsMemo guy. These people are thoughtful. They are articulate. And they understand the game being played, and how to engage in that game.

You will be a better person, and better able to participate in a democracy if you watch this half hour PBS show.

Next up is Hometown Baghdad. I've had the great pleasure to meet and speak with one of the producers on this program (I wish I could expand on that thought, but it would violate my no-proper-nouns clause in the blog)

This, represents for me, all that is great about journalism in the new world of the Internet. It portrays the humanity of people living in Iraq, and disabuses us of that easy notion that they are all numbers on an ever growing death count. Even more so because they are SO MUCH like me. And they are strong and interesting... anyway, another reason that this week, the Bush Junta isn't rattling my cage. You know why? Because greatness does exist in the face of everything they have come up with, and we will overcome. Voices from Iraq that matter.

And, just so you don't think I have lost my sense of outrage: Glenn Beck is on a Straight Roll these days. The CNN commentator, last week compared America leaving Iraq to the moral equivalent of Slavery. (and I'm not paraphrasing here. he said exactly that).

And now, this week, he is playing my least favorite card ever: that someone is basically the same as Hitler. But who, might you ask, raised Glenn's Ire? Check this out:

"Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them," Beck is careful to explain. "It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world. That is the goal. Back in the 1930s, the goal was get rid of all of the Jews and have one global government ... You got to have an enemy to fight. And when you have an enemy to fight, then you can unite the entire world behind you, and you seize power. That was Hitler's plan. His enemy: the Jew. Al Gore's enemy, the U.N.'s enemy: global warming ... Then you get the scientists -- eugenics. You get the scientists -- global warming. Then you have to discredit the scientists who say, 'That's not right.' And you must silence all dissenting voices. That's what Hitler did."

Damn James. Thats some harsh words. Remember Jon Stewart. Remember Jon Stewart.