Slip of the Lip?

On Saturday, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney talked a little bit about Boston's "Big Dig":

"The best thing politically would be to stay as far away from that tar baby as I can," he told a crowd of about 100 supporters in Ames, Iowa.

Actually, the best thing politically would be for politicians to stop using the phrase "tar baby". And you'd think that every politician would have learned this lesson two months ago when WH Press Secretary Tony Snow used it and got a bit beat up over it.

And yes, argue all you want about whether this should be seen as a racist expression in the first place, and be sure to include all the usual denunciations of "political correctness" in the process. But the point to remember is that "tar baby" does offend a lot of people, so it seems to me that the only reason a person would have for using it is: a) stupidity; or b) actively wanting to piss people off by making them think you're a racist. I'll give Mitt the benefit of the doubt and accept that it was a).

Decidering Is Hard Work

While I am disappointed by the lack of serious engagement on the part of the Bush Administration with the situation in Lebanon, I must say that I'm not particularly surprised. As DK points out on TPM, Bush has never had any interest in wrestling with the problems in the Middle East. Indeed, he's never shown the any interest in addressing any serious problem with anything more complicated than a bumpersticker slogan. I have a feeling that his exclusive preference for simplistic solutions will be remembered as a defining feature of his administration.

Economic recession? All you have to do is cut taxes. International terrorist threat? Just invade Iraq — problem solved! Rising gas prices? Guess what — tax cuts again, this time for the energy industry. All very simple solutions to very complex problems, and no doubt they sound good to the voters at the start. But guess what — the success of each of these "plans" can be measured on a scale ranging from "useless" to "disastrous".

In the Middle East today, I have the distinct impression that the result of Bush's simplistic approach will tend more toward the "disastrous" end of the scale. Of course, there has been a change in focus to the crisis over the past three weeks. Initially the simple answer was to "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over". But when that first approximation was found wanting, Bush decided that the only action he will accept is one that solves all of the region's problems forever. Yeah, good luck with that.

In the media, this is called "progress", but it's just more of the same refusal to believe that some problems defy simple descriptions and simple solutions. You aren't moderating your position or learning from experience or listening to the sage council of others when you go from a plan that's just outright stupid to one that's simply an obvious attempt to stay the do-nothing-and-maybe-it-will-solve-itself course.

Some vitally important problems do not admit to total solutions. When faced with a problem like this, you work hard, muddle through, and do the best you can. Well, that's what adults do, but not our President. As we know, he's not a fan of hard work. And people die every day as a result.

Stem Cells

I was all set to let loose the dogs of moral outrage in response to Bush's veto of the stem cell research bill, but Charles Pierce over at TAPPED has said everything I wanted to say much better than I ever could. Go read it.

Shades of Nixon

From today's Washington Post:

President Bush personally blocked an internal investigation into the role played by Justice Department lawyers in approving a controversial warrantless eavesdropping program on calls between the United States and overseas, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified today.

During an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales was questioned by the panel's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), on why staffers in the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility were not allowed security clearances necessary to conduct an investigation into the eavesdropping program.

"It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access," Specter asked. "Why not OPR?"

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales answered.

Of course, even at the height of the Watergate scandal, Nixon's Attorney General was able to muster up the courage to do the right thing and resign rather than impede the investigation. But not Gonzalez — he's just happy to be part of the team. He's a total disgrace.

Describing Karl Rove

Yesterday I received my semi-regular email from the RNC, and this section caught my eye:

Be on hand at the annual volunteer deployment kick-off event in Washington, as the honorable Karl Rove and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman energize the party's volunteer core for the November elections.

The honorable Karl Rove?

Maybe "honorable" was meant to be used a title, as in "The Honorable Karl Rove." But the word in question isn't capitalized as it should be when used that way, and besides, according to the rules of etiquette, Rove isn't an "Honorable".

So it must be that the RNC is using the word as an adjective, albeit in a rather cumbersome way, just to assure us that Rove is indeed an honorable person. Given Rove's predilection for political dirty tricks, such as outing a covert CIA agent and falsely accusing a political opponent of child molestation, they might be worried that some people might get the wrong idea about him. I'm glad they set the record straight.

What is This "Baseball" You Speak Of?

Back in the day, I considered myself to be a typical fan of America's Pastime — I rooted for my team (the Braves), spent a lot of lazy evenings watching them play on TV, and and in general, knew what was going on in the sport. But these days? I didn't even know about yesterday's All-Star Game until I read about it in this morning's paper! And you know what else? I totally don't care.

Friday Cat Blogging

I love watching the fireworks on the 4th of July!