Obsidian Wings

Modest Proposal (Oh, I slay me)

I have a set of related suggestions for changing the complexion of the national legislature. I am not wedded to any of them, but I think that they'd be interesting to discuss, so here goes:

1). Increase the number of Representatives in the House to 2,000. As someone's pointed out in comments around here, our current slate of Representatives are representing something like seven or eight times the constituents as the ones in 1791. Let's cut that down a bit; besides, it'll take the parties years to work out the new gerrymandering protocols.

2). Make DC a real, live state. No taxation without representation! For that matter, we've got a bunch of offshore islands that really need to have their status resolved once and for all.

3). Directly link the number of electors in Presidential elections to Congressional Districts; eliminate 'winner takes all' in EV contests. You want to win all of, say, NJ's EVs? Win every county. Don't feel like hitting every county in America while stumping? Don't come crying to me if you lose. Think that this will sharply increase the power of local political parties? Good, you're catching on.

I'd also personally add 4). Repeal the 17th Amendment and 5). Stop trying to regulate political ads and/or cash , but those are both fairly controversial positions to take. Besides, these three should be enough to start a debate.

Moe

PS: Yeah, I know, not a chance that #3 will be adopted - and not a good chance for #1 any time soon.

Former UK Diplomats Slam Blair, Bush

Via Kuro5hin
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In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair published in The Independent, an overwhelming host of former diplomats* argued that the effort in Iraq is doomed:

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement. All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case. To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful. Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region. However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the coalition is naive.

It's time to acknowledge we've made some mistakes and move on, quickly, to Plan B here.

Hope in Bishkek, Part II

As clearly I've had to take it upon myself to serve as the US-Kyrgyzstan Tourism Director / Diplomacy Chief (Colin Powell rudely ignoring my suggestion that he do some high-profile PR for our Central Asian ally), and as it's a beautiful spring day here in the North East, I thought I'd share these awesome photos of the sights in and around Bishkek, my partner's hometown.

Timing, Mr. President

Via a diary on Kos

Bush Defends Declaring End to Iraq Combat

A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein," Bush said.

"As a result, there are no longer torture chambers or mass graves or rape rooms in Iraq," the president said.

It must be hard to keep up, I'm sure, but do his speech writers also not read the papers?

Rumsfeld's War, Powell's Occupation

This is so unbelievably idiotic that I can barely comment. (The usual suspects, of course, think it brilliant.) But, for the sake of argument, assume that every single word of it is true -- indeed, I'll allow that there is likely a germ of truth to it, albeit poorly thought-out and expressed. Exactly who decided to make Iraq "Rumsfeld's War, Powell's Occupation"?

Where, exactly, does the buck stop?

(It's not a trick question.)

Can We Call it "Corruption" Yet?

Hat tip to Constant Reader Wilfred for this item
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Forget whether Bush siphoned off money set aside for the Afghanistan effort to start early planning for an Iraq invasion, forget that Bush is poised to request even more money for Iraq now (although some suspect he'll wait until after the election), what the hell's going on with the money we've already supposedly spent to help rebuild Iraq?

Rebuilding Aid Unspent, Tapped to Pay Expenses

Seven months after Congress approved the largest foreign aid package in history to rebuild Iraq, less than 5 percent of the $18.4 billion has been spent and occupation officials have begun shifting more than $300 million earmarked for reconstruction projects to administrative and security expenses.

...

So far, occupation officials have reassigned $184 million appropriated for drinking-water projects to fund the operations of the U.S. Embassy after the provisional authority is dissolved June 30. An additional $29 million from projects such as "democracy building" were reallocated to fund the U.S. development agency's administrative expenses.

I look forward to the next time Bush or Cheney take Kerry to task for his voting record on money for Iraq.

Abu Ghraib

Via the incomparable Gary Farber @ Amygdala

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As I noted before---when the photo of the soldier who had the Iraqi boy hold up a sign about killing his father and knocking up his sister was making the rounds---I can't relate to the sort of stress doing the job our soldiers are doing must put them under. And, therefore, I tend to be very generous in my assessment of conduct unbecoming situations.

It's a little tougher to be so evenhanded about the situation at Abu Ghraib though. And before anyone asks "Where's the outrage from the Right on this?": Here's some.

OK, this is not funny.

The author of this doesn't know me, or those like me. He or she has no idea what we go through, what it takes for us to get through the day. I'm not pushing it on anybody else; it's nobody's business but my own and my loved ones what I do or spend money on, unless I'm hurting people - which I'm not . So back off, Mr or Ms High-and-Mighty, Judge-Not-Ley-Ye-Be-Judged Article Writer: you're messing with stuff important to me!

Besides, I can give it up any time I like.

I guess that it's better than We're Meaningless.

Being We're Dangerous and Scary, that is (I refer, of course, to blogs). I don't have time to do anything more than link to this Mother Jones article - I'll talk about it more tonight, if anybody cares - but I would like to take this opportunity to wiggle my fingers at Mr. Packard and make scary ghost noises at him. Geez, man, it's just a hobby.

And I don't even wear blue shirts all that often.

(Via Wonkette)

Hey, I forgot that I had this hobbyhorse...

I was reading this post over at OTB...

(pause)

What? Oh. I just went to bed at a decent hour for a change. Sleep: it's an amazing notion. I applaud whoever came up with it.

Anyhoo, James commented on (and later linked to, although I haven't read it yet: it could be frothing) to this speech by outgoing Senator Zell Miller about the 17th Amendment - direct election of Senators - and why it should be repealed. This being something that I could reliably become exercised about in the past, I'd thought that I'd share.