Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen writes about Auschwitz:

Here is my fear. Because we cannot understand Auschwitz, because it is an immense bump in the road in our belief in a good God -- "a just God," the president said in his inaugural address -- we will let it slip from memory, remembered maybe like some statue in the town square that memorializes something or other, maybe a war, maybe a man. Reminders will seem like nagging, and when the survivors are finally gone (they have been an incredibly hardy lot) so, too, will be the obligation to remember. Ah, what a relief!

Then, bit by bit, Auschwitz will fade, becoming something that happened in the last century to people who some may insist had it coming anyway -- Jews and commies and Gypsies and homosexuals . . . mostly. For most people, it may become -- it is already becoming -- too dense a historic burden, a hideously heavy truth about who we can be, not just who we would like to be. Prince Harry just chucked it all. Someday, I fear, so shall we all and then -- as it has in Rwanda and at Srebrenica -- it will happen again.

Tony Blair:

If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda, too.

Reminds me of a joke that’s making the rounds—something to offend everyone:

Last month a worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:

“Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?”

The survey was a huge failure...

In Africa they didn’t know what ‘food’ meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn’t know what ‘honest’ meant.
In Western Europe they didn’t know what ‘shortage’ meant.
In China they didn’t know what ‘opinion’ meant.
In the Middle East they didn’t know what ‘solution’ meant.
In South America they didn’t know what ‘please’ meant.
And in the USA they didn’t know what ‘the rest of the world’ meant.

From the Daily Show:

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison on the Senate floor:

I don’t think that rehashing potential mistakes that people might think have been made in the war on terrorism, specifically in Iraq, are something that should be brought up as a reason to vote against Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State.

Jon Stewart:

Hear, hear! People should not be held responsible for the things they’ve done!

You know, I’ve said this over and over again: you cannot, in today’s world, judge a book by its contents.

From Numeralist:

The Bush administration will request about $80 billion more for this year’s costs of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The request would push the total so far for those wars and for U.S. efforts against terrorism elsewhere in the world to more than $280 billion since 9/11. That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for WWI or the $623 billion for the Vietnam War. (All costs in 2005 dollars)

And the Pentagon plans to maintain current troop levels in Iraq at least through the end of 2006:

The Army’s current plan is to keep about 120,000 soldiers in Iraq through 2006, roughly the same number that are fighting there now, a senior operations officer said Monday.

After George W. Bush delivered his second inaugural address, conservative columnist David Brooks said, on the PBS News Hour, that the speech ensured that Bush would not go down in history as a mediocre president. If the Iraqi elections bring stability and civility to that nation, Bush will be remembered for the Wilsonian idealism of that speech, and the two-fisted pragmatism that managed to spread democracy at the point of a gun. On the other hand, if Iraq continues to spiral into chaos, turning more and more nations against the United States, history will number the Bush presidency among the worst of the worst.

Two days later, I received this message in email:

When have you ever seen so many people have to explain that the Inauguration Speech of a President of the United States did not mean what it said?

Sure enough, the day after the inauguration, White House officials tried to tone down Bush’s bold pledge of “ending tyranny in our world.” As reported in the Washington Post two days after the speech:

White House officials said yesterday that President Bush’s soaring inaugural address, in which he declared the goal of ending tyranny around the world, represents no significant shift in U.S. foreign policy

Daniel Froomkin suggests that the White House has a loose affiliation with reality:

… now comes word from the White House that Bush wasn’t actually setting out a new agenda at all. He was simply describing what his approach has been all along.

And that has invited additional concerns, among them that revisionism may be pushing aside reality-checking in the Bush White House.

E. J. Dionne thinks Bush is inviting cynicism at home and around the world:

Bush’s Freedom Shuffle -- he’s an idealist on Thursday and a realist on Friday -- may come as a relief to the many foreign policy specialists allergic to grand visions. A majority of Americans will be pleased with the elder Bush’s reassurance that the speech does not mean “newly asserted military forces.”

But the Freedom Shuffle is a terrible mistake for Bush, because the greatest barrier to Bush’s success in his second term is the intense cynicism he has inspired about his motives.

Personally, I think the Bush people heard David Brooks’ comments about the eventual verdict of history. They thought about the prospects in Iraq, and in the other places where Bush has staked his reputation, and the nation’s. I think they’re trying now to salvage “mediocrity.”

Update: On a lighter note, Hanna Rosin imagines the day-after revisions of some other bold statements:

“No one needs to go turning over their inheritance to the meek tomorrow morning. This is a generational process, not the work of a couple of years.”

-- Jesus, circa A.D. 33

“ ‘Liberty’ or ‘death’ were just the two choices I happened to mention, but of course there are others.”

-- Patrick Henry, 1775

“Well, it wasn’t really a dream. More like a daydream.”

-- Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

Andy Ihnatko writes about Johnny Carson.

When the time comes for me to explain to my nieces and nephews why Johnny was so terrific, I think I’m going to pull out that tape of the Letterman show and then I’ll ask them what a man needs to accomplish in a lifetime to receive in that sort of welcome.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on the PBS program NOW:

[Polluters] make themselves rich by making everybody else poor. They raise standards of living for themselves by lowering quality of life for everybody else, and they do that by escaping the discipline of the free market.

…

Nature enriches us. When we destroy nature we diminish ourselves. We impoverish our children.

…

Good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy. Environmental injury is deficit spending. It’s a way of loading the cost of our generation’s prosperity onto the backs of our children.

If we treat the planet as it it were a business in liquidation—convert our national resources to cash as quickly as possible, have a few years of pollution-based prosperity—we can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy, but our children are going to pay for our joy ride.

Via Daily Kos: here are the numbers on the first four years of George W. Bush.

One additional Inauguration Day number: This darkness will continue for 1461 more days. Whether there is light and hope at the end of that time depends upon us.

As the country starts four more years on the wrong track, Paul Simon’s sad song about the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea seems appropriate:

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s alright, it’s alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune
Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all, I’m trying to get some rest

Email from James Carville:

President Bush has already made plain what he means by “cooperation.” He tells us what to do and we’re supposed to cooperate. So now, it’s time to tell the President what we think of his bullying political tactics and his dangerous second-term agenda.

Now, James Carville doesn’t know me from Adam. But I gave money to John Kerry’s campaign, and to the Democratic National Committee last year, so I get email from Carville and other prominent Democrats, frequently asking me to give more money.

George Bush and the Republicans are going for broke. They know that a second-term President has no more than 18 months to force his agenda through -- and they won’t waste a minute.

If we let them, they’ll weaken economic security at home and weaken America’s most important alliances abroad. They’ll stack the courts, abuse the legislative process and change the rules whenever they see fit.

These people are playing for keeps, and we better do the same. This is no time to hold back. We’ve got to fight forward with every ounce of energy we have.

Supporting the Democratic Party isn’t the only way to fight back against the Bush agenda, but it’s not a bad start. Here’s where you can contribute online:

https://www.democrats.org/support

From the Senate confirmation hearing with Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice:

Barbara Boxer, Democrat from California:

Your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth.

Barbara Boxer is becoming one of my heroes.

Condoleezza Rice:

I have to say that I have never, ever, lost respect for the truth in the service of anything.

Can’t lose what you never had?

Our interaction with the rest of the world must be a conversation, not a monologue.

Lucky for Condi that her boss doesn’t read newspapers, or he would yank this nomination so fast your head would spin.

Last year, George W. Bush pushed hard for a Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to outlaw gay marriage. Blogger Andrew Sullivan takes comfort from learning that this drive to alter the U.S. Constitution was only a cynical election-year ploy, not an honest expression of Bush’s beliefs.

The FMA has gone unmentioned by Bush since the election - and it appears more and more like a pre-election ploy rather than a principled stand. (Of course, that’s a relief but it’s also an indication of how bald-faced a political maneuver this was in the first place). But this piece of sanity from the President deserves praise and reciprocation from those of us who support equality in marriage.

Tom Tomorrow thinks Sullivan is mistaken:

Remember Charlie the tuna? The bespectacled tunafish who, for reasons which are never made entirely clear, wishes nothing more than to be caught by the Starkist trawler (represented by a cartoon fishing hook) and, presumably, chopped up and served as some child’s lunchmeat? That’s Andrew Sullivan. Like Charlie, he longs for acceptance into a system that is designed to destroy him, and like Charlie, he is destined for perpetual rejection.

Aaron Swartz quotes Martin Luther King:

...there are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted.

I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob-rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence.

That speech was made in 1957, almost forty-eight years ago. Martin Luther King was murdered in 1968, almost thirty-seven years ago. Yet you’d almost think he’d seen the current Administration in action. Some things never change.

Gosh, with the war in Iraq going so well, isn’t it time for our next war?

CNN reports that the U.S. is making plans to attack Iran:

The Bush administration has been carrying out secret reconnaissance missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran in preparation for possible airstrikes there, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.

The effort has been under way at least since last summer, Hersh said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

In an interview on the same program, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the story was “riddled with inaccuracies.”

“I don’t believe that some of the conclusions he’s drawing are based on fact,” Bartlett said.

When I hear the Bush White House deny a story about war planning, I can’t help remembering how, during the run-up to the Iraq War, Bush repeatedly said, “There are no war plans on my desk.”

I don’t need to parse the exact meaning of Mr. Bartlett’s words, nor any of the apparent denials that will issue from the White House over the coming days and weeks. I know that this Administration lies constantly. I know that, while each word they say on this matter might be true, they are lying now.

From CNN:

Army Reserve Spc. Charles Graner Jr., sentenced to 10 years in a military prison for his role in abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, says he has no apologies for his actions in Iraq.

Listen, young fella, George W. Bush may be the Commander in Chief, but that doesn’t make him a good role model.

Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:

It took no less a sage than President Bush to put the firing of four high-level CBS News employees in perspective: “CBS said they would act. They did. And I hope their actions are such that this doesn’t happen again.” This from the man who fired not a single person in his entire administration for getting nearly everything wrong about Iraq and taking the nation to war for reasons that did not exist or were downright specious. Lucky for Bush he’s only the president of the United States and not the head of CBS.

This is what I call Bush’s Doctrine of Infallibility. The Bush Administration escapes the obligation of accountability because they don’t make mistakes.

Much of the controversial work that Alberto Gonzales did in the Bush White House was constructing legal arguments that this president’s actions are beyond the reach of any law. Critics have complained that the Bush Administration wants to roll back the New Deal. Actually, they want to roll back the Magna Carta!

I got this via email, and had to share.

Impeach Bush Meetup Groups

You can enter your zip code to find a group near you. Even if they don’t get Bush impeached, this is a chance to meet like-minded people in your own community.

Via Hetty Litjens: here is The Daily Show covering the Senate confirmation hearings for Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales.

An insurgency cannot be crushed. It has to be defused.
 —Anas Shallal, Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, on the PBS News Hour

There is no solution on the ground.
 —A retired general on the PBS News Hour (quoted from memory)

There is some hope, however faint, that elections later this month will help defuse the bloody insurgency in Iraq.

If the elections are seen to be fair and honest, the people of Iraq might finally rally behind the elected government. If Iraqis have confidence in their elected government, sympathy for the insurgents could fade. Without a sympathetic populace, the violent insurgents wouldn’t last long. We must hope for such an outcome.

Senate approval of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General might derail that hope.

The people of Iraq are not ignorant. They have radios and television sets. They have satellite dishes. They have electricity, sometimes. They know what’s happening here.

Gonzales’ diligent efforts to seek loopholes in U.S. laws against torture, and to place the United States beyond the reach of international law, may earn him the gratitude of his client, George W. Bush. But they do nothing but harm to the international reputation of the United States. Fairly or unfairly, Gonzales is seen as one of the spiritual fathers of Abu Ghraib.

The elected government in Iraq will have to work with the U.S.-led Coalition. Promoting Alberto Gonzales at this time sends the wrong message. It will undermine popular support for any Iraqi government that attempts to work with the United States. It will give fresh fuel to the insurgency.

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times:

The Associated Press headline that came over the wire yesterday said it all: “Gonzales Will Follow Non-Torture Policies.”

You know how bad the situation is when the president’s choice for attorney general has to formally pledge not to support torture anymore.

…

How are you to believe Mr. Gonzales when he says he’s through with torture? His mission is clearly to do whatever he thinks Mr. Bush wants.

Is it just me, or is this guy a dead ringer for George W. Bush?

Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales has called the Geneva Conventions “obsolete” and “quaint”. What do you guess he thinks about that old-timey scrap of paper known as the Bill of Rights?

You’re going to have to guess. According to CNN, “the White House has refused to provide copies of his memos on the questioning of terror suspects” to the Senate committee responsible for holding hearings this week on the Gonzales nomination.

Personally, I’m guessing that this refusal itself provides all the information we really need about Gonzales’ views. The Republicans have 55 seats in the Senate. The most vital thing for the Bush administration now is to keep the American people in the dark.

(You can find your senators here. The Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the Gonzales nomination starting Thursday. One of my senators, Mike DeWine, is a member of the committee. I’ll bet he’d love to hear from me.)

The Attorney General might be called the Chief Prosecutor of the United States. Some people think it’s appropriate for him to be focussed more on getting the bad guys and not so much on protecting the rights of the accused. After all, we have the courts and judges to look out for everyone’s rights.

George W. Bush will appoint many federal judges during the next four years. He will almost certainly name several new Justices of the Supreme Court. Surely they will protect what the Attorney General disrespects?

As Tom Negrino reminds us at Backup Brain, Bush’s model Justices are Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Tom points out this informative page about those two Justices, titled “Ten Things President Bush Doesn’t Want You To Know About Scalia and Thomas.”

Scalia opposes efforts to desegregate schools.

Thomas favors state-sponsored religion.

Scalia supports sex discrimination.

Thomas would allow the president to effectively waive due process rights.

Scalia and Thomas oppose Family and Medical Leave.

Scalia and Thomas support executing the mentally retarded.

Scalia and Thomas support brutality against prisoners.

Scalia and Thomas support criminalizing consensual sex.

Scalia and Thomas oppose federal environmental regulation of polluters.

Scalia and Thomas would allow states to discriminate against the disabled.

Details, and a printable PDF poster, at the site.

Bumper stickers, t-shirts, hats and such for the next four years.

www.dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com

www.beatbushgear.com

Anti-Bush products from CafePress.com. (Warning: some rough language.) CafePress is an internet merchant that makes and sells products for independent content providers. Some of those producers provide pro-Bush products.

I may need the American Traveler International Apology shirt. It says, in many languages, “I’m sorry my president’s an idiot. I didn’t vote for him.” So true.

The great Will Eisner, creator of “The Spirit” and long-time advocate of comic books as a real art form, has died.

I met him once. I said I’d wanted to meet him ever since I’d discovered The Spirit in a reprint book in the mid-1960s. He said, “Why didn’t you send me a letter?”

Good-bye, Will. I’m glad you were here.

Okay, I think I know what happened.

The Republicans sent out a flyer—or maybe it was a television ad—and it got a great response. It said something like this: “You can tell a lot about a man by the enemies he makes.” And then it showed Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and me.

They may have shown me wearing a John Kerry campaign button. If they didn’t have a photo of me with a button, they could easily Photoshop it in. They probably explained that I’d given money to John Kerry’s campaign and to the Democratic National Committee. Maybe they quoted some of my political blog entries.

Anyway, the flyer or ad or whatever must have been a huge success, pulling in big contributions from Republican fat-cats, or persuading undecided voters to vote for Bush because I was against him. That’s the only way to explain this letter I’ve received from George W. Bush, thanking me for my “great help on my campaign in Ohio.”

“Your state played a critical role in this election, and the Vice President and I were fortunate to have your help in campaigning in Ohio.” Bush writes. Gosh, this looks hand-written. He addresses me as “Dear Michael E.” George W. and I are on a first-name-and-middle-initial basis now.

This explains the White House Christmas Card. I feel sick that Bush carried Ohio, and even worse to think I might have played a role. And yet, it’s nice to be recognized as a major player.

There’s only one other explanation I can think of for George W. Bush sending me a letter of thanks. Incompetence. But these are the folks shaping the nation’s defense against international terrorism. They’re the people selecting federal judges. They’re the people shaping national health, educational, environmental and science policies. They’re the people making the key decisions about when and where to send American soldiers into harm’s way. They’re going to reform the tax code and fix Social Security. Surely, such people can maintain an accurate database of the names and addresses of their political supporters.

So let me apologize to my fellow Kerry voters for my role in getting Bush elected. I’m so very, very sorry.

But if, by some strange chance, I should soon be appointed to a federal judgeship, then it wasn’t my fault. (I’ll try hard to do a good job.)