Kos, sorry you can't find your credit card. But I found mine. I maxed out on Obama in the primaries when Edwards dropped out. Now he's got my money for the general.

Why do I have Obama's back?

If you gotta ask why, you ain't never gonna understand.

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Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama

I made several comments on the mondo diary on this topic, and wanted to collect my thoughts in one spot.

I am hesitant to jump on on the topic again, due to the amount of animosity and level of accusations of bad faith on the site these days -- in both the HRC and BHO camps -- but I want to correct some major errors and deficiencies in FactCheck.org's analysis.

I look at the Obama images in Hillary's ad from the perspective of a video equipment designer.  For nigh on twenty years I've designed leading-edge pro video equipment whose paramount goal was: don't mess with the video -- ever.  Also, I've got academic background in signal and image processing.

A video producer or editor could provide more insight to the "why's" of the video manipulation that led to the distorted images, but I think I have a pretty good idea of the "what".

My conclusions and analysis follow the jump.

Hannah posted a diary about an excellent video this morning.  Unfortunately, it slipped off the list before many saw it, esp on the left coast.

You may have heard about NASA administrator (and Bush appointee) Michael Griffin's short-sighted comments about global warming in a recent interview on NPR.  But the purpose of the interview was to discuss NASA's goals.  And Griffin comments on that topic were atrocious.  

Vacuousness -- The Final Frontier

In Wired magazine, Gregg Easterbrook has a sharp, yet substantive critique of NASA's goals, including the excellent Moon adventure -- How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways to Fix It).  NPR covered this and had an interview with Easterbrook.  This was followed up the next day with an interview with Michael D. Griffin, chief administrator of NASA, and a Bush appointee.  Both were conducted by Steve Inskeep of NPR's morning edition.

A huge misconception some people hold about the flood of New Orleans is that it was a natural disaster.  It was an engineering disaster.  I'm glad to see the WaPo giving Gov. Blanco a platform for saying this.

"They ignored the fact that it wasn't the hurricane, per se, that caused our damage," Blanco explained in a forceful, yet measured, tone. "It was the failure, an engineering failure, of the federal levees that caused our enormous grief. If we had not had levee failures, people would have walked home, and today we would not even be sitting here talking about it." She did say the new Congress was "definitely more interested in trying to help us."

I just got back from working with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans.   On Friday, John Edwards visited the Habitat house I was building. After nailing up some siding, Edwards had a statement for the press, and some Q&A. I was trying to think of a question, and after he left ... D’oh! ... the Army Corps of Engineers!

Here's the question I should have asked:

The flood of New Orleans must be seen as an engineering disaster. Recent investigative articles from AP and Times-Picayune raise concerns about ongoing flaws in the Army Corps of Eningeers methodology  – problems with both procurement and design practices. The underlying issue is a lack of independent, outside, peer review. What can be done to institute independent review, now, before the work is done? Specifically, would you ask Sen. Boxer to raise this issue in the Senate EPW committee? Finally, as president, after withdrawing from Iraq would you direct part of the peace dividend to protecting this city?

The Santa Cruz Sentinel carried OpEd columns by Amy Goodman and David Brooks today.  They offer starkly different world views, and help paint a picture of what's at stake in the upcoming elections.

Goodman writes about a topic that a few bloggers have commented upon, and that I have been thinking about how best to articulate.  Goodman saves me the trouble by pointing out concisely: Clinton does not want the anti-war vote.

The key Clinton quotation, from an appearance at Dover, N. H., is this:

If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from. But for me, the most important thing now is trying to end this war.

While driving through California's central valley Monday night, I tuned in KMJ Fresno and heard a perky acolyte of all things Rush, Ms. Inga Barks.

Inga was fielding a call from a conservative listener who had concerns about the war. "Max" said that the war was wrong from the beginning, and we should find a way to get out. Since Max was a conservative, he was by definition "serious", and Inga treated him as such.

Dear Congresswoman Pelosi:

Denny Hastert is the Cardinal Law of the people's House.  We shouldn't distinguish between people who prey on children and those who protect the predators.  Hastert has got to go.

regards,

-Mark

When the final history is written on Iraq, it will look just like a comma.

G.W. Bush 9/24/06

By now you may have seen the explanation of Bush's "comma" remarks.  It's a dog-whistle phrase for his fundamentalist base.  It comes from the phrase, "Don't put a period where God put a comma", meaning, don't prejudge God's plans.  A friend suggested that given this subtext, it's not as callous as it initially sounded to heathens like me and my friend.

In that light, the curious wording makes a lot more sense. But, to my ears it's just as callous.  This is how I read it:

You know, it might look like I fucked up badly -- spilling untold sums of blood and treasure to accomplish the destabilization of a region critical to the world economy and the radicalization of a vast swath of the world-wide Muslim community. But hey, God works in mysterious ways. Let's not prejudge God's plans by criticizing my fuckups.

what G.W. Bush meant

Perhaps not as callous as Lott's statements, which I quote below, and "translate" below that.  

I'm no lawyer, but I don't see how the suspension of habeas corpus envisioned by Bush meets the test of "emergency" set forth in ex parte Milligan.  Further, the imposition of martial law is never allowed, while civilian courts are still in operation.

Please note the final two lines of this excerpt.  How far we have fallen.

I think we need to take the time to remind our elected officials what sort of values we expect them to represent. My latest missive to Feinstein is below the fold.

She's on tour to celebrate the 10 year anniversary, and to promote the new book she and her brother have written:  Static -- Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

In the passage below, it's quite disturbing to see that Rumsfeld is calling for us to be more like our enemy.  Further, the wording doesn't quite capture what Rummy really has in mind, based on observations of his actions over the past five years.  The word, "confident," doesn't really strike the right Rumsfeldian tone of self-assuredness.

In this very public battle for hearts and minds, we must be as confident in the rightness of our cause as the enemy is in its evil purpose.

Wonder of wonders, the WSJ carried a major opinion piece that -- gasp -- criticizes Dear Leader.

Hostage to Fortune
ROBERT D. KAPLAN
If only we'd bothered to plan for a transformed Middle East.

Kaplan pulls in all sorts of analysis of the history of the region.  Discusses analogies between the Arab portions of the former Ottoman Empire and the Slavic portions of same.  He talks about arbitrary state borders that don't correspond to national, ethnic and sectarian division.

In all that analysis of the region, he somehow forgot to discuss one of the most pivotal events:  the CIA's overthrow of the democratic government of Iran in 1953.  Heckova oversight, what?

Here's a tasty sample from his website, edited for length, as they say in the news biz.