Topic: Iraq
Manifest Destiny

Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News and directs its editorial content - its "slant" so to speak. But Fox News is a crude tool. Murdoch also publishes The Weekly Standard, sometimes called "the bible of the neoconservative movement." The Weekly Standard is more measured and philosophical, or theoretical, or something. It's "serious."

In The Weekly Standard you will find the two core theoreticians of the neoconservative "change the world" movement, Robert Kagan and William Kristol. These are the guys who explain what Wolfowitz, Perle and Cheney are really trying to have America do in the world. You might call them apologists. Or "explainers."

Want to know what America is really trying to do in the world? Read this. It is about our new manifest destiny. To remake the world into a community of nations each of which is a secular democracy, with a deregulated totally privatized capitalist economy, few if any social programs (to require personal responsibility), friendly to multi-national corporations like Wal-Mart, Starbucks and KFC (and Exxon-Mobil and Arco and the rest), and so on.

Back in the nineteenth century we claimed it was our "manifest destiny" to increase the acreage of the nation to make it stretch from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. And damn, that would have been easier if guys like Custer had battlefield tactical low-yield nuclear weapons, or at least cluster-bombs and Blackhawks. But no matter. We did it.

Now we have something else to spread. And spread it we must. It is our "manifest destiny" to bring Happy Meals and deregulated discount-priced sneakers to the whole world. It is. Really.

Click the link and you'll get the idea.

An Administration of One
From the December 1, 2003 issue of The Weekly Standard: Bush has made it clear that the only exit strategy from Iraq is a victory strategy, with victory defined as "democracy."
by Robert Kagan and William Kristol
12/01/2003, Volume 009, Issue 12

My impression of this:

"When George W. Bush first entered the White House, the conventional wisdom was that his inexperience and lack of vision in foreign policy would be compensated for by his wise and experienced cabinet. This may or may not have been a reasonable view at the time. Right now, however, it is clear that the most visionary and, yes, the wisest and most capable foreign policy-maker in the Bush administration is the president himself. Let's hope the team around him proves willing and capable of fulfilling his clear and historic grand strategy."

Okay. This starts out defensive, then gets downright odd. Wise? Some dispute there, of course. Visionary? The son of the guy who "had a problem with the vision thing" way back when? Historic and grand are nice words too. What we are doing is, I agree, historic. Grand? Hardly.

"There can no longer be any doubt that whatever Republican `realist' inclinations the president may have inherited from his father and his father's advisers when he took office, he has now abandoned that failed and narrow view and raised the torch previously held high by Ronald Reagan--and before that by John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman."

Well, maybe. Truman with Korea seemed to want to "contain" threats to our nation, to keep us safe. Kennedy seemed to reluctantly "confront" threats, as with Cuba and the damned missiles. Neither acted to overtly change other governments and change their economies and philosophies. That was all covert back then - behind the scenes. Bush just goes out and invades. He's not subtle.

"Bush has broken from the mainstream of his party and become a neoconservative in the true meaning of the term. For if there is a single principle that today divides neoconservatism from traditional American conservatism, it is the conviction that the promotion of liberal democracy abroad is both a moral imperative and a profound national interest."

Well that's the core of the matter, isn't it? We are fated to make everyone just like us. It's a moral imperative. We've got to do what we've got to do. No choice.

As to those who object? "...we are not surprised to see traditional Republican conservatives, of whom there is no more esteemed intellectual spokesman than George Will, now denouncing the supposed folly of such ambitious ventures. Nor are we surprised that in Bush's own cabinet, neither his secretary of state nor his secretary of defense shares the president's commitment to liberal democracy, either in Iraq or in the Middle East more generally. Indeed, the only thing that surprises us, a little, is the failure of American liberals--and European liberals--to embrace a cause that ought to be close to their hearts."

Now wait a second! It ought to be close to this liberal's heart to impose my views of how life ought to be lived, and thus how governments should work, on everyone, everywhere, anywhere in the world? I don't think so.

And these two conclude with this.

"Bush's great task now will be to explain his strategy to his own cabinet and commanders and insist that they begin implementing it."

Time to join the Rebel Alliance on the planet Tatooine to fight the Empire and that Death Star thingy. This is madness.

New Feature

On the panel to the left you will find a link that will open a new page I added to Just Above Sunset this evening. Clicking Comprehensive List of Sites will open a page containing links to most major newspapers here and around the world, numerous magazines, links to the major weblogs and to some policy sites, along with links to the major book reviews. At the bottom of that same page is a link that will take you to a second page of "current events" links. If you are inclined to surf the net for what's up, you might start with these.

I didn't count, but there are, I'd guess, several hundred links you could investigate.

Topic: Bush
The Queen is not amused. But she'll get over it.

It's more than the five "personal chefs" Bush brought along with him to London.

Matt Bivens in The Nation today... and this link will give you the article with its own embedded hot links.

Bivens:

Remember when the Bush Administration was pushing a partisan falsehood about how outgoing Clinton folks had "vandalized" the White House? Remember how, even without photos or evidence - or, ahem, facts - the media couldn't get enough of the story? Remember how, after the formal US government study concluded the story was untrue - an early indication of the Bush team's commitment to honesty - editors defended their past enthusiasm for the non-story on grounds that it was just too sexy to ignore?

Well, fine. Where are the headlines about the Bush team's trashing of Buckingham Palace?

Queen Elizabeth - already less than chuffed with Bush over the five personal chefs he brought along for his visit - is now "furious" with our president for having let his men rip up her gardens, the Sunday Mirror reports.

"Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry as when she saw how her perfectly-mantained lawns had been churned up after being turned into helipads with three giant H landing markings for the Bush visit. The rotors of the President's Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign. ... clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants. The Queen's own flock of flamingoes, which security staff insisted should be moved in case they flew into the helicopter rotors, are thought to be so traumatized after being taken to a 'place of safety' that they might never return home. ... The Palace's head gardener, Mark Lane, was reported to be in tears when he saw the scale of the damage."

One unnamed Palace insider told the Sunday Mirror many of the plants and trees killed were rare species named after members of the royal family. "The Queen has every right to feel insulted at the way she has been treated by Bush. The repairs will cost tens of thousands of pounds but the damage to historic and rare plants will be immense. They are still taking an inventory. ... Thirty thousand visitors did not do as much damage as the Americans did in three days."

This story has everything the Clinton vandalism story had and far, far more. We're not talking about a few missing W keys from a few keyboards; we're talking about mass, crass destruction of rare historic gardens.

So where's the breathless American media coverage?

Topic: The Culture
Rush Limbaugh explained by way of William Bennett in a way implying things about Arnold Shwarzenegger by way of Bill Clinton

Will Rush go to jail for money laundering?

Kevin Drum over at CalPundit asks us to consider "professional moralist William Bennett's explanation of why Rush's actions weren't as bad as Bill Clinton's:"

"He was manly," Mr. Bennett added of Mr. Limbaugh. "He was straightforward."

He was manly? Is that what you call threatening your housekeeper when she starts to have second thoughts about acting as your supplier? And straightforward? Sure, after he was caught, same as Bill.

I guess Bennett thinks that Arnold's groping was OK too. After all, it doesn't get much more manly than that.

Topic: The Culture
Michael Jackson and Vice President Dick Cheney

This will be all over the net today. I recommend Andy Borowitz and his daily site to you all. Today's item:

CHENEY NAMED INTERIM KING OF POP
Sports Sequined Glove on 'Meet the Press'

Moving quickly to fill what it termed a "dangerous power vacuum," the White House this weekend appointed Vice President Dick Cheney to the position of Interim King of Pop.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that the absence of a King of Pop "posed an imminent threat to civilized people everywhere."

But Mr. McClellan took great pains to stress the temporary nature of Mr. Cheney's reign, saying that the Vice President would serve in his new role only until elections or what he called a "Loya Jirga" could be held to choose a truly representative King of Pop.

Mr. McClellan also said that the Vice President, while not technically a pop star, shared many qualities in common with pop stars, including massive wealth and a long-standing sense of entitlement.

Appearing on "Meet the Press" wearing one sequined glove, Mr. Cheney said, "Clearly, the office of King of Pop has been tarnished, but I hope that by churning out a steady stream of #1 hit singles, as well as by busting some funky moves, I will bring its luster back like never before."

The Vice President's first single, "Billie Jean is Not My Interim Lover," will be released later this week.

Mr. Cheney, who was heading to Los Angeles to tape a musical special for CBS, created some controversy when he said that he expected his reign as Interim King of Pop to last until 2006 "at least."

The comment drew howls of protest from several key U.S. allies, including Germany, who demanded that Mr. Cheney be replaced as King of Pop immediately by David Hasselhoff.