It’s been a while since I was an active blogger.. and I kinda hate that I’m not blogging so much these days. Bad Matt!!! So.. tonight.. I’ll try and write something and post it…  Something where I don’t bother to worry about any of the SEO stuff… or the.. how to write a good blog post stuff.. stuff from a strategic point of view.. Now.. I’m just going to spout off.. and as near as I can tell.. a number of the folks whom are often given to reading this blog.. well.. they seem to dig that kinda thing.. So here we go.

I have a number of posts in draft form.. waiting to be posted..  I never know if I’ll ever post them… but.. because they are there, I don’t want to talk about what’s in them.. even if what’s in them is the sorta thing I find myself thinking about most.

Err, maybe I could talk about Iran or something?

This is one of those subjects that.. I feel the need to make a major post on.. which are the prime candidates for never getting posted.. never finished.. but screw it, lets me throw some stuff at you…  

Some points to consider

1. Even evil dictators have to operate inside of political realities.
2. On the “is twitter going to topple the Iranian government?” All the important social / political movements in history started at the grass roots level.. they started by people networking.. one way or another.. tools like twitter and other social networking tools are, to use Pentagon terminology ”force multipliers.” 

Ok.. so that’s only two points..  but for other points we have to deep dive..

Gandhi believed that none violence would work even against Hitler. I think he was crazy on this point or.. well.. his point is a complicated one to take on if we are to talk about it seriously. But the notion of none violent protest going on in Iran.. versus the “lets go fly some plains into buildings” idea.. if none violence where to work in this instance.. I believe it is possible that we could see ripple effects throughout the middle east.

On Twittering the Revolution

I’ve heard some commentary as of late, about.. well folks on twitter have been turning there avatars green to show there support for the Iranian people and protesters. The commentary is suggesting that “it isn’t going to do or make any difference.” What these people are missing is.. at least for some of us who’ve done things to our avatars.. we are reacting to watching Iranian police beat the crap out of crowds.. our hearts cried out to them.. so our avatars are really a sign of a metaphysical realization.. that we are one people.

Since 9/11 there’s been a heightening of a kind of racism against people from the middle east.. fundamentally racism is an inability to see the human in the other. I think most Americans.. understanding of the world is not terribly sophisticated.. we’ve heard that the Iranian government hates America, that the people love us.. but I’m not sure if we ever truly believed it.. after all they’re all Middle Easterners and don’t they all hate us?

So I think the avatar thing.. does send a powerful message.. if nothing else, that we don’t hate Iranians..  And it represents a kind of revelation about our larger world.. Which I frankly think is important for the future of America.

Should Obama do more?

I think the “should Obama do more” debate is a fundamentally stupid debate. I think most of it is lead by a certain fraction of the republican party.. a party that’s ready to grab onto any straws it can find.. If there is any truth to the idea that Obama should do more.. they’ve managed hide it.. make it look like the only folks who would think that have a political axe to grind. But what is really stupid is the amount of attention this question has been given.. and not really the question its self.

The story coming out of the Obama administration is that they don’t want to give the Iranian government something to blame us for.. to use as an excuse.. as a way of twisting the truth.. in there own desperation to hold onto power. Again, I think this is a story that’s told so much that.. well.. its not quite as true, I don’t think, as you would think for how loudly we are being told this. Sure, its true but.. lets face facts.. the Iranian government will find excuses no matter what.. and we shouldn’t let a fear of that sorta thing get in the way of our.. pursuit of our national interests.. or of.. doing whatever we can do..  But of course we should be careful.

Ok Matt, what can Obama do?

I think this is an Iranian revolution.. I don’t think there’s a hell of a lot anyone can do who’s outside Iran.. accept show our support.. If anything.. as I said earlier.. even evil dictators have to operate in political realities. I imagine if you’re Obama you want to follow the situation very closely.. using whatever intelligence assets we might have.. to do our best to understand the situation and motivations of the folks in power in Iran. I think whatever we can do is going to have to do with what sorts revelations might flow this meditation.

Generally speaking.. I’d probably advice against taking an overly aggressive stance.. as that could potentially galvanize the political forces in Iran into a nationalistic direction which could actually work against the protesters. So.. you know, its complicated.

Will we see a revolution in Iran?

I think what we are seeing are intrenched political tensions.. its a warning sign for the folk in power in Iran to loosen up.. The country wants to go in a “loosen up” sorta direction… So far it would seem the Iranian government is going in the opposite direction.. in reaction to the protests.. All that can really do is heat up the situation.. if things get too hot.. you got your self a revolution.. and to some extent we are already seeing this in the form of various power struggles.

If the Iranian government were to loosen up a little.. if say the investigation into the election proved not to be a farce.. if the election its self proved not to be a farce.. if they did the whole thing for real this time.. and power changed hands on the electoral sorta level.. well.. the lead cleric fellow, it seems to me, could stay in power. But the more they appear to be corrupt, lying, basically evil.. abusing there people.. tyrannical.. all this does nothing more then keep the heat on them.. welcome to the power of none violent protesting.. basically.

And of course now Iran has the spot line on them, right? This is more of why I don’t think Obama has to worry too much about if the Iranian rulers blame us.. lets face it, they are systematically destroying there credibility.. and while a giant spot light is on them!

I do think that there’s no escaping, in the long term, change coming to Iran. I think the force for change in Iran is a pretty unescapable reality. But I don’t know if we’ll see this change happening inside of the next 6 months, or the next 6 years, or more.. If nothing else, eventually.. the generation who we find protesting.. will come to be the generation in power.. when that happens.. you will see a different Iran. 

Further Reading

Steven Streight, aka @vaspersthegrate on twitter,  did a recent post on the roll Twitter is playing, Twitter versus mainstream media, and all that good stuff: Twitter, Iran, Citizen Intelligence Agents.

The Washington Post did a thing on Iran Elections: A Twitter Revolution?

The Berkman Center at Harvard has been looking at the roll cell phones and the internet have been playing in the Iran demonstrations, along with what the Iranian government has been trying to do to censor this sorta thing.. and this whole story.

Perhaps my current favorite podcast is Media Hacks.. Mitch Joel is currently kicking around the idea of writing a book on “the great unteathering” which is to say the migration away from folks working on at a terminal.. a desktop computer of some sort..  to going mobile.. to a world where internet connectivity is everywhere.. ramifications of the rise of the iPhone and all that.. Something that is likely to be next great disruption.. In episode 12 of Media Hacks, how mobile is changing the way people connect and market is looked at.. and of course Iran comes up in the conversation. I think this adds some good texture to this conversation.

Thomas Barnett, a kind of Pentagon war planner, did a post.. though shorter then mine, sorta saying some of the same sorts of things I’m saying… Regarding Obama’s increasingly “tougher stance”..  close by on his blog are some of his reactions to various journalists coverage of the Iranian election protests.

Barnett is also interesting for talking about… well, what do about countries like Iraq.. or whatever.. what should be done, how we need to change how we doing things.. here’s his TED talk on the subject:

So I’m participating in this project called So Me Election 2008..  This is a project started as a part of the Boston Social Media Club.. and I guess the idea is like.. politics shouldn’t be a spectator sport.. and this like.. lets document this thing.. but perhaps even more important is like.. a participatory / collaborate project… 

Any who..  Mr. Adam Zand did a talk shoe kinda podcast today.. talking about it.. A thing where we could all just kinda call in… and participate in the podcast. This was happening at 12 PM today.. and.. shit.. I wasn’t awake yet.. but here it is, wanted to share: 

I should perhaps add that I love those guys?

I’ve been thinking for a long time that there should be more of these kinds of things.. social media collaborative projects..  So I think its really cool that we’re doing it.

Oh, and here’s a link to the site: someelection08.ning.com

So by the time you get around to reading this.. you’ll no doubt have noticed that the sky is falling..  err.. Major financial institutions file bankruptcy.. shit has hit the fan.. Were talking madness we haven’t seen since the Great Depression’s preamble! 

I’m no economist.. and don’t know too much about the markets.. But my understand was “that couldn’t happen again.” Reason having something to do with market regulations.. the roll of the Fed, and all that kinda thing..  or at the very least markets are more stable these days.. and not susceptible to that sorta madness.. but you know this web 2.0, globalization 2.0, whatever 2.0 world.. we have all sorts of new madness we can spring on you..  so who knows… 

I don’t know if the sky is really falling…. seems more like we are at a moment where we are… more enable to stare down into that there abyss.. then is our usual mode of operating.. which strikes me as healthy..  and it does feel like the danger is at least “all too real.” So lets all hope the US economy doesn’t collapse, ha?

Matt’s Ignorant take on things

Seeing as I don’t know what I’m talking about, what better time for me to tell you “how things are.” Social Media makes you an expert, don’t cha know?

It strikes me that the US economy hasn’t really been a happy place since our president’s name was Bill. Of course those days were bubble days and not really realistic anyway.. But what I mean to say is it seems like its been all down hill from there.. I mean not long after that we had our 9/11..  and on and on it went..  Things seemed healthy.. not soo bad.. but not real good ether… and then there was that housing bubble…

What concerns me mid term

Fill-er up 

So the cost of oil is.. well going down at the moment.. but still, its rather high relatively speaking, isn’t it? So that drives up the cost of everything else, ha? The future of the fuel issue isn’t really a happy one. 

What concerns me is the long-ish term fuel story: We have two issues here. #1 Oil sources are finite.. #2 Demand for Oil is rising. If our economy depends on oil… this means, long term, we are fucked. (that’s a technical term). 

Now of course economics 101 tells us that.. as the cost of oil rises.. other fuel sources that were hither to too expensive.. now become viable.. when they hit mass production / as the technology increases.. stuff gets good..  but the curve that all this has to follow.. its not one that makes for a “happy economy.”

Gore’s Nightmare

Al Gore has rang the environmental alarms.. some on the conservative side of the isle are still saying “hum bug;” they think the earth’s warming has to do with solar wind, or some such thing.. rather then some sorta human made thing..  But.. it doesn’t matter what the hell the problem is.. global warming does present a danger.

I’m not here to say what the danger really is… I don’t really know..  but I will tell you that.. the shift of power from greece to… eventually Briton.. was not unconnected to global warming! What we will see happening, among other things, is a shift in where food comes from.. 

In Search of a Perfect Storm 

This fun turn of events can produce a little thing we like to call in the biz “mass starvation.” If you think that sounds bad.. imagine crazy political realities.. the kind of wars that can spring from this sorta thing.. to say nothing about the issue of limited fuel sources..  If you were to add to that a “great depression 2.0,” I dare go so far as to say “Mutually Assured Destruction” might prove to have its limitations.. 

I’m not saying that all this sorta thing will happen..  I’m more saying.. the possibility is more real then we are thinking today… In my view.. this is a monster that does lurk out there.. somewhere over the rainbow if you will..  and its a monster that if we do not deal with our modern challenges.. really could happen.

Of course perhaps I’m just paranoid.. but do you remember when 9/11 “couldn’t happen?” 

And of course if you wanna get real paranoid you could ask “what happens if this doesn’t happen till India and China become the dominant super powers?” 

What’s this got to do with politics?

Admittedly what I speak of sounds far fetched.. but.. I think what all this points to is.. how important it is that we take the issues we are currently being confronted with seriously.. Cause if we fail to choose “wisely” well…  

lol, how about a video to illustrate?

lol, I hope you can excuse me for saying this.. but have you noticed how modern politics seems to be “brand warfare?”

And here you thought Pepsi was the choice of a new generation!

Yeah.. them taste tests were rigged!

Next day sometime:

Things are looking a little less creepy today..  

So like.. I don’t want to creep you out or anything.. but you might want to take a look at these videos… 

Sarah Plain Church Video Fun

Can you dig that?

Ok, how about one more.. .   .    .

 So, ok.. if you’re… hmm….

Ok, dig this right…  archetypes, which we could speak of as being the basic building blocks of religion.. or religion is like a system for relating to archetypal forces… they are basically the expression of biology onto consciousness.. to explain all this would take a long time.. point is, if we view this stuff from that perspective.. you find that its not really all that crazy…  or, some of what looks crazy on the surface might not be as crazy as it appears.. Indeed, its kinda interesting…

Still.. there’s a certain cultural force to this kind of religious thang that, umm..  can be a little creepy.. In large measure.. well we see this in cultural conservatives that fail to see moral / ethical spirit which.. say.. moved the cultural revolution surrounding hippie-dom..  

Archetypal psychology speaking.. when ever you focus on a morality sorta thing that is.. sorta narrow in its allowances.. that part of your totality that looses a chance to grow up as a result… becomes your shadow.. then what happens is it gets projected on those folks whom live outside of said restrictive moral order.. so we find our selves the darkness of our own shadow in said people..  and thus the creepiness of the religious culture we find Miss Palin living in…  

For more on this here archetypal psych shtick.. check out this entry / documentary.

So..  how about a little of Matt’s religion.. in my religion we rock out.. with a dyionesian spirit.. to break out of the inherited value system.. so that we might get a direct experience of said archetypal forces…

We’re just a little more hungry for God, I guess.. then they are up in Alaska, ha? 

Well, as my readers kinda know.. I’m a bit on the liberal / progressive side..  but you know.. I still kinda feel this as a loss..  and why does it seem like everyone’s dying these days?

Tony was absolutely amazing, skill wise, as a white house press secretary. You know.. I think the Bush communications program has been amazingly bad.. and on a kind of skill level, Tony seemed to me to be the only bright spot. I mean the guy had the political skills of a Bill Clinton really.

Of course I wasn’t a Tony Snow fan.. he was an object of frustration.. for me with my political stripes.. but he was still a pleasure to watch… on that certain level…  And I think it really sucks he had to die like this.

[editors note, this isn’t one of my better written entries.. hopefully you can forgive those transgressions] 

Who is the real John McCain?

Ok, allow me to explain my self here.. I am politically on the left… I think.  John McCain is politically on the right. Are you following all this so far? I’m probably voting for Obama..  but all that said..  I do tend to like McCain..  and frankly.. it pisses me off to get these emails from my leftist activist brothern with there whole “Who is the real John McCain” shtick.

Listen.. I HATE, is that even a strong enough word? George Bush. I sometimes have a hard time choosing which I hate more.. the stupidity, or raw evil of the manipulations.. in there communications. And lets face it.. I really want the republican party to pay a price… because they where the enablers of George.. and hell, I get pissed at the Democratic party for being such giant wusses in this battle! 

But John McCain.. he escapes much of my anger at the Republicans because.. though he has consistently voted in conservative manners.. he didn’t just do whatever the party was doing.. the man thought for him self.. so he wasn’t the terrible enabler that the rest of his party was.

Now we got this war in Iraq.. you’ve heard of this one right? My view of McCain’s position is.. though I’m not sure that I can agree with his position.. I do respect it. He’s critisized the utter stupidity of the stupid parts.. and got behind the smart parts… and frankly I’m a little on the fence as to wether I should embrace him on this..

Hmm..  to understand this you really want to understand that larger geopolitical subtext, and.. I suppose, it might help to know something of what the Neo-Cons where thinking.. the folks whom.. prior to the invasion of Iraq, talked a lot about the notion of going there..  

Ok.. so.. you know the middle east has a reputation for.. not always being the nicest neighborhood, right? It probably doesn’t help that we are dependent on this unpleasant neighborhood for our fuel supply..  You know, we’re going crazy as the cost of fuel goes above $4 a gallon…  depending on what goes on over there.. our economy, I dare say, could grind to a halt.. . I mean $4 is nothing.. . 

The fuel issue.. at the very least, keeps us focused on the middle east.. because keeping that fuel supply in order.. well that’s probably in American interest, right?

Ok.. so the other deal is the middle eastern terrorist organizations.. you’ve heard of this one right? I mentioned it was a bad neighborhood, right?

So.. its complex… but there are complex interrelationship….

err… This is complex.. let me give you the Thomas Barnett’s take on.. well, war.. He gives a killer power point presentation.. I disagree with him in places.. but he is an amazing guy with respect to the framework he gives us for thinking about National Grand Strategy.

a shorter one:

And finally: 

Ok, I know that was long, but I need to give comments!

First off, yeah.. I love his military humor.. and yeah, I disagree with him in a number of places.. but I think his stuff is so important to think about.. and while I know that many a reader might… well.. I’ll hopefully get to this.. in any event, you can follow Thomas Barnett’s blog here.

So there’s a number of interesting things germane to our conversation… relative to John McCain… This presentation throws the Iraq conflict in a radicle new light… and when viewed from this vantage point, McCain doesn’t look so bad on Iraq…

Here’s the trouble.. as I said earlier, Bush screwed things up.. Should we be in Iraq? How could he be so stupid about how we went there, and how we have stayed here? I sorta feel like.. if we can do this right.. lets stay, if not lets cut our losses and leave….  A big part of the political realities surround the war are.. well the stupidity of Bush’s public relations:

Bush did not prepare us for a prelonged occupation.. His PR surrounding Iraq was.. short sighted.. how do we get in there…  All of Bushes PR, no matter what the subject, has been short sided in this way.. which is why for a short time he didn’t look soooo bad, and why he now looks even worse then that. Frankly we don’t believe in the Iraq war.. largely because of the Bush pr catastrophe… Frankly, there’s a political dimension to war.. we pulled out of Vietnam, not because we had lost the war militarily.. but because we had lost the political will. The Vietcong’s moves that lead to us loosing the political will was a set of actions that was very bad for them militarily.. the reason this was a decisive blow to our political will was because our political will was based on a PR strategy that.. was not aligned with reality.. another words, its the same stupidity we see with George Bush.

Frankly.. which is the bigger sin, the stupidity or the dishonesty?

You know I’m not arguing that we should have stuck it out in Vietnam…  I’m just telling you what the people who think we should have… say, people like Henry Kissinger, say. I dare say that it was the dishonesty of the US’s PR surrounding Vietnam.. that has a lot to do with the success that period’s anti war movement. Another words… the Hawks are creating Doves.

The trouble with talking about this stuff is that we are going so far beyond the public debates of now.. so it strikes me as very likely that the lens through which you read these words is the lens of these debates.. and to really get what I’m saying we need to try and move beyond that.

So back to McCain.. we’ve now talked about the stupidity of Bush and Vietnam.. what we can say about McCain is that authenticity and honesty are core to the McCain brand… And I believe these are the core values people are looking for in this political season… and its George Bush who’s made this the most important thing.. because we are all so sick of the bull… and this is why I’m saying that people on the left need to be careful in how they attack McCain.. because if those attacks misrepresent the reality… well then you’re in danger of associating the left with the sort of values that.. value power over truth or honesty or good government.. which is exactly what is driving the political realities against Bush.

What we need now is strong leadership.. a leadership that has the maturity to tell us things we might not want to hear. 

One of the things that’s astounded me about McCain is his willingness to stay with the Iraq war.. even when it seemed to mean political devastation for him. He’s now taking heat for what amounts to PR missteps:

Will we stay in Iraq for 100 years if McCain has his way? That’s not really what McCain is saying.. McCain is saying.. we need to be committed to victory in Iraq.. that failure would suck really really bad.. and blah blah blah.. and he’s also saying that.. a long term commitment to staying in Iraq is.. not the same thing as a long term commitment to war in Iraq; its a long term commitment to peace in Iraq.

The political situation surrounding Iraq has a big problem.. basically, we the people don’t understand Iraq.. the situation there.. I don’t think you can sell us on staying in Iraq unless you can really educate folks about what’s really going on in there.. how it really works, etc.. Otherwise fears are very likely what will drive the political realities.. and of course McCain’s political problems, relative to Iraq, are all about fears.

So, if we bare all this in mind.. I also think it’s safe to say that Obama need’s to be careful in how he takes on McCain on this front… Because there’s more merit to McCain’s stances then if commonly understood..

Still.. I don’t think Obama is as bad on Foreign Policy is McCain would have you believe..  and at the same time.. we have an increasingly complex foreign policy situation… And clearly McCain is the stronger candidate, with regard to sophistication in Foreign policy.

Out of the Weeds, back to Barnett 

My issues with what Barnett is saying: 

1. I think its a mistake to be too pro globalization… this is an area where I’m not real comfortable with Barnett.. but it takes a complex and nuanced conversation to really get at this.
2. He’s using a systems approach to thinking about this stuff (much as I use with social media).. which is groovy and all.. but I think its easy to feel like things are safer then they potentially are.. see Bill Ward Video after this list.
3. He did work under Rumsfield.. (though he voted for Kerry).. so that some of his political analysis seems.. well its worth treating critically.
4. I still think we need to listen to voices like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn..  Barnett is, after all, the product of a Harvard education.. is a bit of an elite.. and I don’t really think has, at least for my taste, quite enough sensitivity to wrestle with the dark sides of all this stuff.
5. He’s basically saying.. economic / network / whatever.. integration leads to piece.. which I think is true enough.. the trouble is that the challenges between here and there are freaking huge… and that could be enough to sorta blow up the systems.. to put it a certain sorta way.
6. As wonderful as globalization can be.. there is a greater concentration of power happening in this context then ever before.. which has huge ramifications of which we don’t fully understand.. which represents a danger he’s not addressing..  Indeed this sorta message, about the problem of power concentration in globalization, has come from a guy who used to be a part of Henry Kissinger’s consultancy group! He wrote a book on the subject called Super Class.. which I still haven’t gotten around to reading… but I’ll recommend it to you anyway!

Bill Ward Video  (fellow who used to play drums for Black Sabbath) 

And finally, because I just couldn’t help myself, a video a to end on:

There I feel better, don’t you?

I only just got the news, of Tim Russert’s death. I’m still in shock. Tim was.. God, he was just one of the best, you know? It seems sorta strange to morn the loss of someone you never met, but I’ve been on the verge of tears since I heard.

We need more good one’s like Tim, not less, you know?

 I’m just feeling so crazy moved by this..  

I’m, on principle, against the use of fowl language in blog posts but.. I’m in a wild and wacky mood today.. so I thought I’d throw a little at ya.. Ok, maybe I’m not really against it…..

Today I’m blogging without spell check. Even when I blog with spell check, people tell me I should use spell check… so this is going to get ugly fast, allow me to apologize now… Cause I can’t spell for…. yup, shit.

Its creeping up on 9:30 AM, which means it’s a little past my bed time.. so maybe this accounts for my wild wackiness..

I just started in on a pretty good blog post, just moments ago, when IE crashed on me.. made me so angry.. yet another reason for today’s blog post’s subject line.

I’ve been thinking a bit about my blog strategy, and thinking I should make.. at least from time to time, posts that might have broader appeal.. you know.. stuff that doesn’t make graduate students run for cover.. with my analytical madness that is this blog…

My God… I have some Jedi analytical faculties.. not to get to high on my self.. that I actually think I could provide for you a scientific proof for the existence of God.. some folks out there might question which God I was proving.. but that’s besides the point..

I don’t know.. I just figure I should write in ways that are more wild and free, from time to time.. maybe use a little humor.. I’m told I have a good sense of humor.. but you wouldn’t know it from this blog.. or maybe you would, come to think of it..

I have a dark sense of humor in my intellectual life.. its sorta.. I don’t want to say arrogant.. but I do feel like.. people who call them smart are often not. The life of the mind is really no different then any other life.. it simply has a different cast… and when folks try to make it into something more.. not only do they make it stupid.. but they castrate it from that which is worth anything at all.

The life of the mind is a life at play. Play with ideas.. Ideas are fun. Indeed, ideas are you’re friends. Don’t think I’m a neo con for saying that… Oh, there’s something worth saying something about.

Are you familiar with these Neo-Con folks? You know, the folks who brought you the war in Iraq? Neo-Con’s are an interesting lot.. they are into ideas, and think ideas are important.. which is to say they are different from the “realists” in the world of foreign policy and diplomacy.. Well, for the record, I think ideas are important to.. but I don’t think they are everything. Ideas are matters for waking life, but its our dreams that really make things happen..

I’ve been watching a lot of C-Span lately.. which also means I’ve been listening to lots of intellectual folks talking about foreign policy… So I guess these thoughts are with me.The presidential debates are stupid when it comes to the subject of Foreign policy. We are told that this or that candidate is good on the subject.. but what the hell does that mean? Diplomacy is a complex subject.. I mean answer me this big guy “just what the hell is America’s interest in the world”

Oh I could tell you what I think.. I could go off for a long time on what I believe… you’d probably be impressed, you’d say “that guy is good on foreign policy,” but… that really makes me no better then the folks running for president, ha?

Well I’ll tell you what bothers me about these candidates we got these days.. American Foreign policy is one of the most important issues we have today.. do you believe me? If you don’t I’ll address this in the next paragraph.. What bothers me is that no candidate for president has really articulated what our interests are.. what there vision on this subject is… in grand terms. Nobody has given us a big picture view of the matter.

Ok.. so why its important: Once upon a time we had this groovy thing called “the cold war.” The cold war is a complex subject.. but basically it meant.. well as George Bush would say.. you’re ether for us or your against us… lol, or you’re with Cuba.. but that’s another story. Basically everybody chooses a side between us and Russia.. and it’s all nice and simple..Then one day some evil bastard tears down a certain wall, and before you know it the Cold War is history.. now what do we do? This is the period where Bill Clinton is president.. and this becomes is biggest issue.. as far as foreign policy is concerned.

Then we get our man Bush and.. he’s kinda nostalgic for the good old days of the cold war.. his team is all into big state war.. big state power.. and so they don’t think the war on terror is all that serious.. until 9/11 comes, and then it becomes time to over compensate..

9/11 doesn’t really change a thing.. well accept for everything.. but it’s really only a mind set change.. maybe a few rule sets to… but what I mean is it’s still the post Cold War scene.. it didn’t really change the reality of what the real threats were.. just changes our awareness of them.

Old School Realism, it became clear, was a mistake… in some senses anyway.. or at least in need of some revisions. Basically there was this belief in “the status quo.” Which is to say.. it was all about maintaining it.

As insane as this might sound.. status quo maintenance does address a pretty important concept.. you see we, the US, we have limited means…. even if we’re the biggest kid on the block. We have only so much treasure, can only spread our military so far, and only get so adventurous abroad.. so, you gotta pick and choose your wars.. literally… and maintaing the status quo is a strategy that helps minimize how many adventures we might get called to..

The problem with the maintaining the status quo, above all else, is that the status quo does in fact lead to political environments that help to incubate terror… and its that status quo, like inertia, that kept us from taking the adventures that might have prevented 9/11.

Anyway… the real deal is we need to get smart… that’s the long and the short of it. The war in Iraq is stupid.. if Bush was really a CEO president, he would have cut his losses on his failed program a long time ago.. As much as I don’t like Bush, I can appreciate why he might be so committed to the Iraq conflict.. and I’m not really as bothered by our continued involvement there then most folks I know.. what bothers me is the stupidity of the involvement.

That said, I’m still leaning to “we should get the hell out of there.” It’s just that I think if Bush talked straight to the American folks.. and it didn’t all feel like a giant mass deception.. You know what? Maybe I’d go a long with it, I don’t know.

Domestic Issues as they Relate to National Security. 

Of course lets get real here.. the War in Iraq =  less money for other things. This, my bothers, is a real problem. You have to ask, it seems to me, what is in our interests when it comes to education, the economy, etc.. and how does this effect our geo political situation?

The future is uncertain. The rise of globalization… inside of which we see the rise of India and China in particular, to say nothing of who knows what might happen over in Russia.. or for that matter the EU.. There is the question of what you need to be competitive in that global economic situation.

In the US we have a drop in manufacturing that has a lot of people freaking out.. freaking out over out sourcing… as they say on South Park “They took our jobs!” The nature of Globalization is.. they will take our jobs, but that doesn’t have to be a big problem. What we need, in my view, is a system of safety nets:

If you loose your job.. and you loose it because the industry / area you’re in is doing poorly.. this ought to be an opportunity to get into something that’s doing well. I believe there ought to be opportunities for retraining, and reeducation.. and believe it or not, this might not have to be ubber expensive!

You may not have noticed, but one of the latest sensations to have swept our nation is a little old thing we call in the biz “the podcast.” Strangely enough, it turns out that podcasting is a rather inexpensive thing to do.. and so it is.. that you see any number of podcasts of lectures coming out of universities like UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Texas A&M, Stanford…..  and the list goes on.  Did I mention you can subscribe to all of these for free? If you have iTunes, go check out iTunes U for some examples.

The subject of how all this might work is a little complex to try and fit into this blog entry, but it’s clear that education is key to our economic future. It’s also clear that our economic well being is key to our national security… The only time this isn’t clear as when we compartmentalize these subjects.. and say “this is national security, and these are our domestic issues.”

So there is a real question as to if the war in Iraq, because of how expensive it is, takes resources away from domestic issues that also relate to the issue of American interests.. our world standing, etc.. so when we look at Iraq we really do need to balance these things.

I’m always thinking of Martin Luther King… coming out against LBJ on the Vietnam war for this very same reason.. or more particular the problems with poverty in America and how Vietnam lessoned our ability to deal with these problems.

I guess I’ll just leave this hear and post.  

Check out this here video:

I used to like Hilary Clinton, but now… not so much. I was amazed at how well this video expressed my feelings on the subject. It seems as if.. the truth of which it speaks, is lost in the collective unconscious of cable news.. analysts talking about the horse race don’t seem to have a clue as to why Obamma seems to be racing forward… It’s as if the people know.. just not the news ileitis… 

Of course I say this as friends argue for Hillary.. and if it wasn’t her shooting her self in the foot this way, I might be arguing for her to. 

I think it’s pretty safe to say that, politically speaking, I’m a little bit to the left of center. That said, I don’t find conservatism to be without value.. Indeed I’ve had debates with conservative folks where I’ve taken the more conservative position. At any rate, I’ll tell you that I value good ideas more then I value from where in  the political spectrum that idea comes. I value substance… I value intelligence. William Buckley,  I think it’s safe to say, was smart and substantive.. and there’s no doubt that he’s contributed much to my political understanding… and so with that I want to share some Buckley with.

You just don’t see TV like this anymore!

Can you even believe this kind of thing was on TV at one point? I confess that I tend to side with Chomsky in this debate. When I watch this I feel like my knowledge of history is rubbish.

Here’s an interesting bit… Buckley Vs Gore Vidal.. on what is needed in a president.. sort of interesting to watch today.

 and part 2:

Who here’s wants a Pepsi?

Well.. I feel like… in all of these debates I’m siding with whomever Buckley is debating against… So.. lets move onto one that.. is more in keeping with honoring the life of Buckley.. a kind of retrospective of Buckley.

What I love about Buckley is… how he speaks, how he articulates.. his play with language. There’s also a certain elite arrogance to him that I really love… I mean how can you not enjoy that? It makes him so much fun! Yeah, I guess I think he’s a little crazy in many of his political positions.. but I still enjoy watching him take those positions, argue for them, etc.

It is poignant, him talking about leaving the land of the living, and the end of that video.

One last bit of video.. follow this link to a C-Span’s In Depth interview with William F Buckley, that is if you’re not overloaded as is. This is a great interview.. and it really does take you in depth into William F Buckley.

And with that, I shall publish this entry.