Saddam Hussein did not vigorously pursue a program ...

It's kaput. The entire case for invading Iraq is kaput, smoldering like a shock-n-awed Hussein palace. No longer can George say "Saddam was a gathering threat." Saddam was writing novels while his staff told him what he wanted to hear. No longer can George say "Saddam supported terror and was linked to Al Qaeda," since Rumsfeld (and Dick Cheney last night) have at last admitted there was "no strong evidence of a tie" between the two. No longer can Bush claim that Al Qaeda was operating freely inside Iraq before the invasion, because the CIA just released a report that says the primary operatives in Iraq were clearly in the no-fly zone outside of Saddam's control; no collusion. How will George justify his war at the Friday debate? He can no longer say it was necessary because Saddam refused to dis-arm. It's hard to dis-arm when there's no arm to dis.

The Sweet Life, indeed

Goddam but that Fellini mothafucka was good!



is spectacular. I love the way he manages hugely complex scenes with parades of characters carefully choreographed moving from one place to another, often without cuts. In lieu of a firm narrative we get many scenes: conversations, reaction shots, dances--a variety of settings and situations into which Fellini places his characters in order to reveal them. Somehow it works every time--life isn't tidily tied up each day, and Fellini's films don't pretend to end in any conventional manner. When Anita Ekbert is on screen there's an instant electricity, and Marcello Mastroianni is of course his usual debonair, playa self. I'd do either one of them. Ekbert in the Trevi Fountain? Woof. Tradition has it that when you visit the Trevi you should turn your back and throw a coin over your shoulder into the water to ensure a repeat visit. Watching La Dolce Vita evoked powerful, vivid memories of Rome: the smells, the streets, the cobblestoned pathways, the ruins. I feel like I've been back! I have to buy all this guy's stuff on Criterion.

I must admit that as much as I liked Dolce I liked



and



and



better.

I'm excited because next up on my Netflix queue is my fave George C. Scott pic:



I haven't seen it since I was a young teen and it scared the shit out of me.

Just Awful

I came home from teaching D.H. Lawrence to find that as I entered the front door of the house, Cha was entering through the back. Strange that she'd be returning from Halstead Academy so early on a school day, I thought, and when I saw her face and the wounded look I knew something was up.

She barely managed to get it out before crying: some unknowns had broken into the school Friday night and ransacked her office. They took her spray paint and ruined all her student work (she directs an Arts Magnet program) with graffiti, they took her canned paints and poured them all over the books in the library, and used more to decorate the cafeteria. She was unable to see her office--as soon as she got to school her principal was waiting to send her home because the crime lab people were in her office--and this was certainly for the best. Word has it they tore up her files and her portfolios and lesson plans. Anyone who teaches knows how much work can be lost--ten years worth of finessed and carefully re-thought preptime could be down the drain!

Making this worse is the fact the school alarm system went off Friday and the security guard responded--but instead of checking the school he simply shut off the alarm and closed the open window he found, leaving the perps free reign! Duh.

DC Visit

Had a pleasant visit to DC with the Travelin' Joneses yesterday. Hadn't seen them in months (actually, haven't seen ANY of the Old Crew in months--Sluggo, Buf, etc).
Got to hang out with Startling Sam, who vies with my niece for brightest youngster I know ("It's ok to leave crumbs here," he told me, eating a Granola bar on the steps before the Lincoln Memorial. "Because the birds will eat them?" I asked. "Yes, the birds," he said wistfully. "And the Unknown Creatures."). He showed us all the bugs in his book at home at the Smithsonian, and speculated openly and cleverly about machinery and skeletons. He asked as we walked back along the Mall if we were heading the right way, then said we must be because the pond with ducks was on the other side now; he even recognized a tree he'd looked at before, The Slanty Tree.

All remarkable in a young brain. Of course, all young brains are remarkable. Sam's brother Drew is no exception; he had a rough patch on the train (Sam sagely intoned as Drew screamed "We all get grumpy at times, but sometimes it's best to keep it inside and not let others see.") after which he took a nap and quickly his enthusiasm for bugs ("hey, that scorpion has a backhoe on it") and dinosaurs took control.

It was a nice day, and we saw a lot. I'm reminded that I desperately want to get to the Native American Museum when the crowds die down a bit.

Steamed Rice

The Times today has an excellent cover story about Administration officials--in particular Dick "Heinous" Cheney and Condy Rice--disregarding dissenting views in intelligence and leaping immediately to the direst possible interpretations of information in presenting the case to the American public that Saddam HAD to be removed. My first reaction was to question why it took the Times so long to put together such a report, the facts of which have been buzzing around the 'net since BEFORE THE WAR STARTED. My other reaction was to think about how the Administration would work their response to the story after Bush's collapse in the debate Thursday, especially given that today's reporting suggests strongly that Bush and Co. were aware of much less damning and far more cautious intelligence and squashed it before giving it to Senators like John Kerry--in effect the Congress didn't see "the exact same intelligence" the White House had, but rather a spun version, an edited version.

Condy Rice, on This Week today, was as bad as Bush was last week. She was shrill, bitter, and scolding when Stephanaupolis dared press her on these tough points. He would not let her evade contradictions in the record and she did not like this one bit (and yes, I know using words like "shrill" and "scolding" has negative connotations in describing women in power, becuase women in power who act like men in power can be described as "shrill" to diminish them for having an executive bearing--in this case I'm using such words anyhow, because they FIT her demeanor to a TEE this morning. In fact, that other un-PC label for women also came to mind: hysterical. She was at points overwrought and really struggling to control the rage which distorted her face; "Now George," she'd say when he interjected a counterpoint, her brow furrowing, lips pursing up, eyes watering--and after three of these I thought she was going to leap out of her chair she was glowering so much).

What it boils down to is this Administration is unused to having its assertions challenged. They have grown comfortable with their isolated, tough-as-nails sureties, and now that questions have been raised and journalists are smelling blood in the water, Rice and the President have fallen off script, or found that scripts aren't working so well. Bush doesn't give press conferences for a reason--and it's not simply the fact that he's terrible at answering unscripted questions and that he's not nimble enough for follow-ups--Bush doesn't give press conferences because he can only justify his position to adoring fans who not only can't articulate counterpoints, but wouldn't dream of doing so. That's why his public appearances and campaign stops allow only those truly loyal fanatics access. Bullies and fierce ideologues don't like when pieties are challenged, any more than religious fundamentalists like being confronted by more nuanced scriptural interpretations. Bush in the first debate looked and sounded like what he was: someone out of his depth, someone who tried to force reality into his pathetically small worldview ["I know how this world works," he whined at one point Thursday.] and now that there's overwhelming evidence to the contrary on his desk every day, he's finding that simply restating old claims won't work.

And yet he does so, again and again.

Rice isn't as small-minded; she's more nimble, she's certainly more capable of rhetorical flourishes and bait-and-switch manoeuvers designed to either evade a questioner or turn the topic to her advantage, but Stephanaupolis wasn't having it this morning, and Rice got petulant and bitter and flustered. Hughes was acting the same way late Thursday night. They're in trouble.

Kerry, on the other hand, in the two speeches I saw on CSPAN this weekend, was clear, exhuberant, forceful, aggressive, bitter, and mean-spirited. His rhetoric was impassioned and righteous, and he was even funny and relaxed. My criticisms of his debate performance thought he lacked some of this, but I can see him using two different personae for two different groups: A cautious, honed, firm but pliable Kerry in the debates where people are in effect shopping for a product. The undecideds are looking at cues those of us who've made up our minds aren't, and Kerry is aware of this. In front of the crowds he spoke to this weekend, he was in rabid anti-Bush territory--no one at these events was making up their minds. They wanted to be fired up, agitated, reminded of what they despise and why. Kerry's craftier than I gave him credit for. We'll see how well Edwards rises to the Cheney challenge--I think Kerry held back so that Edwards (the more ebulliant and effusive of the Dem duo) can play gutter ball next week with less ramifications for the ticket. Hopefully Edwards'll smear Cheney with the worst: Halliburton (Truman called war profiteers "traitors,"--bring it up), the Times story today, the fact Dick still harps about connections with Al-Qaeda and nuclear capabilities. Play hard-ball with Dick--he'll lash out and appear repetitive just as Bush did, and he'll likely get angry and let out the un-PC Darth Vader which is an overwhelming liability for the Republican ticket. They have to know Cheney is going to try and be the Terminator after Bush's spoiled brat performance.

Bush the Wilsonian Liberal

At last, somebody on the Right said it:

But what strikes me in Brooks' defense of Bush is how it's traditionally a liberal defense of a liberal president. It's liberalism that has historically enunciated grand, abstract themes and conservatism that has always emphasized the difficulty of translating abstraction into reality, of finding the proper means to achieve certain ends, of the limits of our intellect when faced with the world of practical life. In that philosophical sense, it is Kerry who is the practical conservative in this race; and Bush who is the airy-fairy idealist. If Bush didn't have the abstract theological support of evangelical Christians, he wouldn't have a, well, prayer.

Andrew Sullivan

President Bush's policies, and in particular his foreign policy, has nothing whatsoever to do with conservatism.

Don't Delay

So nice to see Tom Delay getting a much deserved (tho way too cautious) smack-down from the House Ethics Panel. When four of the five guys investigating have ties to the PAC of the member under investigation, that's the best we could hope for. This story will be lost, alas, in the debate mania this weekend.

Also quietly mentioned in the middle of today's Times A section: new records of Kissinger's cuddly relationship with South American juntas who routinely violated human rights. I'm sure if we ever get this guy in the dock it'll be a Pinochet-style "too old and infirm to face questioning" scenario.

A New Day

Of course the President would never time aggressive, tough-guy military operations to coincide with the debates...Kerry should've more forcefully used Bush's decision to attack Fallujah and then his decision to not attack at the last minute during the debate.

I slept like a stone last night, after staying up until 2am reading political blogs and casting votes in online polls and watching Fox,MSNBC, CNN, PBS post-coverage. I also drank a half bottle of merlot and had great fun cheering at things like a Wall Street Journal editor who scored the debate a huge victory for Kerry.

Perhaps my agitation the last few days was Nietzschean in origin: too much Appollo of late, and not nearly enough Dionysus. I drank at Mick O'Shea's and then again last night, and realized that I very rarely drink more than a glass of wine anymore. I may simply need to blow off some steam

The air was crispy when I left work last night, and I love autumn weather. This morning was gorgeous! My students had great things to say about Kafka, despite the wave of loathing that washed over me when I handed out the quiz. I ran into Pseudo-Flea (an old friend from Rouen I'd not seen in two years), and other strange experiences walking home which made me happy. Then, a NYTimes editorial this morning called Bush's aspect during the debate "downright petulant." YES. Sighing, eye-rolling--seems like just yesterday that those behaviors cost someone points in a debate. Oh wait, it was. My students (especially the ones who've had me for other classes) were asking about the debates last night. I try not to take sides in front of the class, though I was pleased to note those who'd watched thought Kerry whooped up on Bush.

Today I'm doing NOTHING. NOTHING I tells ya. I should rake leaves and tidy up the house, but NO.