Taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals.

One more thing regarding the Sotomayor nomination...

I noticed yesterday that the Wall Street Journal and other conservative mouthpieces had taken up the cry against "empathy" which Sotomayor had at one point argued is an important trait for a judge to embody. The general argument is trying to use pigeonhole Sotomayor into the larger conservative frame that liberal judges are wishy-washy emotional basket cases while conservatives are cold, rational purveyors of the rule of law.

I find the argument against empathy kind of puzzling. The opposite of empathy isn't objective reason. Consider that the most famous people who lacked empathy were guys with names like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, David Berkowitz and Jeffrey Dahmer. In our society those that lack empathy for other living things could generally be classified as "sociopaths," not brave defenders of reason above emotion.

There might be something to saying that all conservatives are sociopaths to a greater or lesser degree. That's not an argument I'm making here. I'd point out for example that conservatives have occasionally demonstrated great shows of empathy towards others, although usually it's finely focused on the rich, powerful or only those that they share direct personal experience (James Brady.)

On the other hand there's the example of the conservative Dick Cheney. It's clear to me that other different circumstances, were he not to have had the mechanisms of the federal government at his disposal to torture and maim others, Dick Cheney would have amassed a body count one way or the other. Had he been a video store clerk instead of a Secretary of Defense and Vice President I don't doubt for second that he would've eventually made the national news due to a horrific discovery in the freezer of his apartment. Cheney is quite clearly a sociopath.

Empathy is that which separates man from animal, christian from gentile, liberal from conservative and decent Supreme Court justice from Antonin Scalia. The idea that a judge that actually understands the implications of how she rules to all the citizens of this land would somehow be a bad something is the greatest form of lunacy.

On an unrelated note I have a review of "Drag Me To Hell" up at Swiney's place.

Will you look at the man? He's a Freudian delight; he crawls with clues!

It's with a sense of bitter irony that I note Fareed Zakaria's ridiculous piece "What Bush Got Right" about foreign policy came out in the same week yet another foreign policy disaster arose given in large part to the continued incompetence of Bush's entire administration in this arena. They've been in over their heads since he first took the oath of office and, contrary to Zakaria's assertion to the contrary, nothing has happened to change that situation.

I don't like to write or even think about these sorts of global crisis these days. Truth be told I've been irrationally trying to focus on other stuff in the hope that it would blow over, resolve itself or the adults in the Western European community would step in and bring and bring a peaceful resolution to the fighting.

I'd be the first to admit that's a naive and unrealistic approach. It's just that I have a hard time with accepting the alternative; that our leadership are nothing but a bunch stupid children. I find myself very nervous watching Bush and Cheney poke at Russia over the conflict in Georgia. I've used the example many times but it's akin to being trapped in a room with a monkey that's playing with a grenade. Eventually he's going to figure out how to pull out the pin...

I'm second to nobody in my opinion that the "tough guys" that make up this administration are really a bunch of blustering pansies. One thing I've learned is that the guys that talk the most smack are usually the guys that spent most of high school stuffed in a locker. They're the guys who are cheerleaders or look for excuses to get out of going to Vietnam. They're cowards who can't back up the crap that comes out of their mouths. As a man I don't have much of an opinion of the manliness of men like Bush and Cheney.

Having said that I also recognize it's for exactly this reason that they feel they have something to prove, especially if they're own hide isn't on the line. That's why I'm not sure the tack that Matt Yglesias (via Digby) takes in calling them out is the best one to use here.

"This highlights, I think, some of the limits of the kind of bluff-and-bluster approach to foreign policy that seems popular among conservatives these days. Or, rather, it highlights the fact that popular as bluster-based policy making is on the American right it can have some extremely high costs and that, tragically, a large proportion of those costs can wind up being borne by the people who were nominally supposed to be the beneficiaries. "

Bush has been throwing some extremely bellicose language at Russia yesterday. The kind of language I can't remember being used by an American president since at least the Berlin Wall came down. Pointing out that he's all hat and no cattle might not be the best thing to do here. On a personal level he's a coward. But he's also an incurious, stupid coward who has demonstrated zero predilection towards considering the consequences of his decisions whether to our security as a nation or the well-being of the troops under his charge.

I believe the phrase is "don't poke the bear." In the case of George W. Bush I would change that to "don't poke the teddy bear, it's not stuffed properly."

Boy, what a fruitcake you are!

Dick Cheney appeals for bipartisianship.

Mike Tyson appeals for sportsmanship.

Lindsey Lohan appeals for modesty.

Roger Corman appeals for quality film.

Jackie Collins appeals for elevated literature.

You get the idea.

(If you're not familiar with the scene this quote is from the line before this is "everybody should care about everybody else.")

Look at me - underestimated from Day One. You'd never think I was a master of the universe, now, would you?

With regards to Cheney's irregular heartbeat just a couple of thoughts-

+ If, God forbid, something happens to Cheney does Bush become President?

+ I would recommend to any parents of small children in the D.C. area that they keep a close eye on their kids in the next couple of days. If Cheney's condition is serious he'll have to sacrifice something more important than a goat to the Dark Lord in order to keep his ticker going.

+ Could this just be Presidential politics? Cheney steps down and Bush puts Giuliani in office so he's got the inside track in the election?

Now instead of a big dark blur, I see a big bright blur.

Democrats rolled out their new national security platform with little fanfare, not for lack of trying. To get the national media to notice a strategy rollout by the Democratic leaders in a meaningful way you'd pretty much have to have Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi take the press conference wearing domanatrix outfits. Even then the reporters would be yawning about two minutes in unless Harry started to crack the whip, so to speak.

As predicted the platform was a long list of sensible security strategems ranging from better protecting our ports to actually putting some sort of effort into catching Osama bin Laden. Republican leaders, whose favorite line of attack over the last few months has been to accuse the Democrats of not having a plan for national security, quickly denounced the plan for national security as a stunt. Vice-President Cheney who is probably the most irony-challenged Republican in America responded to the plan by saying Democrats didn't have a credible plan for hunting down Osama. I assume he prefers we stick with the Bush "I don't know where he is and I really don't spend much time thinking about him" plan. It's a weird thing to be attacked by the Vice-President of an administration that believes pixie dust will bring the evildoers to justice.

On Iraq we get more of the same wimpy crap the national Democratic leadership is so good at. At some future date when the Iraqi military is somewhat ready to take over we might kind of maybe think of removing a few of our troops. Or not. Murtha's carefully crafted approach to strategic withdrawal to neighboring countries on a fixed timetable is nowhere to be seen.

Putting aside how bad it is for America to have the major opposition party to the party in power continue to refuse to actually oppose, I can't for the life of me see how this is good politics. Iraq is George W. Bush's war. George W. Bush is the Republican's spokesman (or "brand" as Ken Mehlman told the G.O.P troops this week.) As much of a mess as Iraq is does anyone expect it to be better situation come November? Democrats continuing the "me-too" ing on Iraq are putting the party in a position where they'll be considered part of the problem, not the solution when election time comes around. And let's not forget Iran continues to loom just off the political radar. How will the Democrats be able to throw any type of opposition to an expansion of the war in Iraq into Iran if they don't draw a line on how the current war is being prosecuted?

Once again my favorite whipping boy; the Democratic party leadership have failed to do what's necessary to lead. They presented us a security plan that's been polled and focused-grouped to within an inch of it's life and expect us to applaud it as some sort of heroic act of bravery. Here's an idea: if you want to change the perception of the party as being weak why not actually stand-up to an unpopular President and his unpopular war. Shut down the Senate because Frist continues to refuse to open the second phase of the Iraq war intelligence investigation. Do something. Anything. But for God's sake don't give us another position paper.

He had a lovely singing voice. Not many people know that.

It was a strange thing seeing the Vice President recieve a standing ovation yesterday after the week he'd had. It was matched by the surreal aspect of watching his victim, Harry Whitington, apologize for all the negative attention Cheney and his family enjoyed after the shooting. Fair enough. All Mr. Whitington had to take was a little bit of birdshot. That's nothing compared to the jokes of the likes of Jay Leno and whitheringly tough questions of Fox News' Brit Hume. Clearly Harry got the better part of the deal.

As usual the GOP can count on the rank-and-file fall in line. Consider this comment by a Cheney Supporter who attended the speech:

"We have somebody from Wyoming who made it to second-in-command, and that's a big deal for us," said Jim Kallgren, manager of the Snake River Pub & Grill, located a few blocks from the Capitol. "Because we get so many negative things [said] about us being so behind the times."

Because having a Veep from Wyoming that shoots a buddy in the face while hunting reflects SO positively on the state. Puh-leeze.

I'm afraid what we have here is just another example of the political tribalism that seems to be such a driving factor in Bush's Republican Party. It's difficult to explain the strong support shown Cheney to anything else. Taking the incident by itself and ignoring the subsequent attempt at cover-up, the BEST one can come away with is that Cheney is a careless hunter. How one can take that past indifference and into the state of righteous indignation on display in Wyoming falls outside of the realm of rational thinking.

My current fun-time reading is "Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006001315X/sr=8-41/qid=1140305667/ref=sr_1_41/103-2864965-1697418?%5Fencoding=UTF8. If you haven't read Pratchett he's sort of a cross between J.RR. Tolkien, Douglas Adams and Mark Twain. He mixes fantasy, sci-fi and political commentary.

In "Monstrous Regiment" a small squad of recruits consisting in part of a girl disguised as a boy named Polly, a Troll named Carborundum and a vampire named Maladict join up to fight for their country; the fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia. The problem is that Borogravia has little to no economy, little food and pretty much nothing of any value. When they ask their drill instructor why they're at war they get this answer:

"Well, be smart about this: you might not like everything about your country, eh? It might not be the perfect place, but it's ours. You might think we don't have the best laws, but they're ours. The mountains might not be the prettiest ones or the tallest ones but they're ours. We're fighting for what's ours, men!"

Since trolls are kind of slow it takes him until the middle of the night to get it:

"Okay , den, I fink I've worked this out. If people are groophar stupid, then we'll fight for groophar stupidity, 'cos it's our stupidity. And dat's good, yeah?

Several of the squad sat up in the dark, amazed at this.

"I realize I ought to know these things, but what does groophar mean?" said the voice of Maladict in the damp darkness.

"Ah, well... when, right a daddy troll an' a mummy troll--"

"Good, right, yes I think I've got it said Maladict."

Cheney may be a stupid, groophar Vice-President but he's THEIR stupid, groophar Vice President and that's all they really to know.

Oh, and the fact that he's from Wyoming.

Freeze, Gopher!

The world remains atwitter over the Veep's friendly fire incident, ominous silence and then belated mea culpa on FOX(*) Over at Digby's spot Tristero http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/ pondered Bob Herbert's call today for Cheney to step down/ pass his evil legacy to another. Tristero points out that neither scenario: Cheney staying or Cheney stepping aside to be replaced would be good for the country.

Now I see that Peggy Noonan joined the chorus of Cheney-must-goers. Wow. Just... wow. Once you've lost the support of a conservative leg-humper like Noonan you really have sunk to unbelievable depths. I still think the average Winger wouldn't blink twice had Cheney been caught dining on a live baby. It's the fact that Cheney shot a rich, white lawyer that gets to them. This is somebody they can identify with. This is one of THEM.

Ultimately, all the calls for Cheney to down seem silly. Cheney won't leave his job for the same reason he got his job in the first place: he picked himself. He is Vice President because, in his best judgement, he is the most qualified man for the job of Vice President. So as long as Dick Cheney has confidence in the job Dick Cheney is doing then Dick Cheney will be Vice President. Simple as that.

(* I refuse to use the liberal convention of referring to "Fox" news as "Faux" news only because it stopped being clever after about the one zillioneth time it was used.)