Planet Abell

I'm getting more confused every day about what a way out of Iraq will look like. Is it any wonder? The president continues to say it is a vital national interest to engage Al-Queda in the chosen land of Iraq. We'll leave if Iraq asks us to, consequences notwithstanding. That's called respecting a sovereign state. We won't leave if Congress asks us to, consequences notwithstanding. That's called surrender. The administration is pinning its current hopes on the success of what it calls a "surge." This allegedly temporary increase in troop strength and activity is supposed to stabilize Baghdad enough to give the political processes a chance to work. The argument against a timetable is that it gives the enemy a date certain around which to plan. And the enemy wins either way: by increasing their activity now, they give ammunition to those who would call the "surge" a failure, and by retreating to fight again when the "surge" is over they ...

T hey've been after him for years, so David Letterman must know something. Maybe it's because of his famous anti-social proclivities. Maybe Saturday really is Yoga night at the Letterman home. Maybe he learned a tough lesson when he hosted the Oscars : it ain't fun bombing in person. Thanks to C-SPAN even nobodies can be a fly on the wall at the White House Correspondent Association's annual dinner . I'm no Sanjaya but I like watching a train wreck as much as the next guy. Don't worry if you missed it last night -- C-SPAN will repeat it several thousand times. But you missed nothing. Well, almost nothing: the only thing worth seeing, Letterman's virtual appearance, is already on YouTube . Please Help Me Forget Rich Little, making his second and certainly last appearance as "the talent" at the dinner, was horrible. A choice intended to make everyone forget last year's pointed commentary by Steven Colbert , he probably succeeded by putting every...

I always look forward to the State of the Union and shortly after it begins forget why. The speeches themselves are well below the average hot convention speech or presidential address to the nation prompted by tragedy or political necessity, although President Clinton, with visible glee, used the forum in a traditional way to trot out wild and crazy ideas guaranteed to go nowhere. At least this one didn't begin with the tired boilerplate: "The State of the Union (is excellent! is superb! has never been better!). But Bush could not help himself from making an insider's jab as is his wont by referring to the "Democrat Party" -- which drives the Democrats nuts -- although published transcripts based on the released version says "Democratic Party." There is very little to dissect, but I can't help but think if Bush's next, and last, SotU will be any different. Iraq came up late in the speech, and wasn't mentioned in passing. As the NY Times rep...

It's tough to be wrong, but it's tougher to deny an obvious truth. I'm speaking of myself, of course, and my naive hopes that President Bush was just giving his opponents no satisfaction before deciding to reduce the US military presence in Iraq as rapidly as possible. But I could just as easily be speaking of Bush, who, despite the clear logic of the Iraq Study Group's analysis and, perhaps most importantly, strong opposition by the U.S electorate to raise troop levels , thinks the best way to bring an end to US military involvement in Iraq is by first increasing it. Americans support folly and even things they don't understand -- if they have confidence in their leader. Sometimes that requires a leader to admit to fallibility. Bush has perhaps never come closer to this than in these woefully inadequate 10 words in his Iraq speec h : "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me." Is this the way to begin to re-build consensus? I dou...

It appears to be one of the great early successes in open-source journalism -- exactly what MSM futurists like Reuters' Tom Glocer seemed eager to greet and other news organizations welcomed with little visible trepidation. But the unauthorized video of Saddam Hussein being hanged is likely to result in some severe penalty for someone -- one hopes it is at least the "guilty" party -- and for the moment the media focus seems to be on the act of taping some pretty odd gallows behavior by official participants (or were they? see below) rather than the behavior itself. Ironically, the overarching issue is not whether TV would show the actual death. These days that discussion is quaint beyond words. The issue is that there is tremendous news value in the illicit recording of an historical event that could not have been obtained any other way. And, but for this, history would have been inaccurately recorded. Recall that the first video released of the execution, the official...

"What I say to the American people when I am out there is, all you got to do is listen to what Osama bin Laden says." -- President Bush , 10/11/06 Taking his acclaimed truth-telling to the next level, Osama is now here to help you understand life, love and relationships. Letters of no more than 250 words are welcomed – no calls please! Due to the heavy volume of material received, personal replies are not possible. Dear Osama, I'm a little reluctant to use email again, but my sponsor says getting used to doing the little everyday things again is a big part of the rehabilitation process – so (deep breath) here goes! I recently decided to quit my job and left Washington on the same day after someone special – someone to whom I thought I was special -- "humiliated" me in public. I feel very "betrayed" but mostly I am "hurt" because "we" meant more to "me" than to "this person." I guess I was "mature one" i...