Go-Kart Races at Gitmo

Now we know why we can't close Gitmo--the US spent $500 million to construct a Go-Kart track, a Taco Bell, a Starbucks franchise and nifty neon signs that say "Welcome to the Pearl of the Antilles". I hope they allow the Uighurs to hold go-kart races to pass the time.

Rod Blagovich showed up at court today with the man who taught me how to write a lead graph for newspapers--the one and only Jimmy Breslin. In the prehistoric age, Breslin wrote for the New York Daily News and spent his time smoking stoogies in the newsroom, while I was to write a piece on the Angolan Civil War. "What's the most interesting thing you experienced?" "Walking along a riverbed at night guided by diamonds. shining in moonlight." "That's your lead." Then he went back to cheerleading the newsroom on to call into a local station, which was running a poll "Are you straight?" or "Are you gay?" . The gays had just taken a lead but with Jimmy's prodding the newroom pushed the poll back to a lead for straights. Cheers went up and deadline was just ten minutes away and he sat down and pounded out his column right on time.

Chris Hedges posted an article on Truthdig "The Christian Fascists are Growing Stronger". While I agree with his analysis, I disagree that they will become the force I had feared. Just keep them away from the school system.

Bernard Henri-Levy wrote a scathing op-ed in Europe against the Free Gaza Flotilla and lamented that a writer of the stature of Henning Mankell could fall trap to the disinformation. He did spend one sentence lamenting the stupidity of Israel's actions. But unnoticed was Henri-Levy's communications within Israel itself, where he asked Israelis to act more responsibly because people like himself, who had defended Israel against the European Left for years, have found it tougher to get traction in light of recent actions.

Former McCain aide, Tony Cordesman send a blast across the bow with the CSIS publication "Israel as a Strategic Liability". The piece found its way into articles in the New York Times. Cordesman warned that the depth of America's moral commitment to Israel does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when it should remain an asset. So far, there hasn't been the usual AIPAC blowback against Cordesman but there will be.

However, the same day of the seizure of the Turkish ferry, the head of Mossad Meir Dagan addressed the Knesset and said openly that Israel had become a strategic liability to the United States. A speech that received little press in the United States. He attacked the notion that it was somehow because Obama was elected President of the United States. He said he had been quietly warned by the George W, Bush administration about this and that the problem doesn't go away by waiting out Obama's term.

Even conservative columnist Ross Douthat has published two pieces now that call on Israel to adopt new strategies or else face destruction from within.

We've now had the Turkish Prime Minister vow to join the next flotilla, accompanied by the Turkish Navy. This was followed by Iran vowing to send its aid agencies escorted by the Revoutionary Guard. And, to top it off, German Jews are going to send their own ship to Gaza filled with musical instruments. "All tactics, not strategy" Bibi is now transitioning from F troop to McHale's Navy. We should have some naval battles shortly.

The good news is that there is now a spirited debate within Israel among the elites over the whole fiasco. For the last two days,Haaretz running op-eds blasting the "commando complex" and the "bunker mentality" of the coalition government. Prestigious voices such as Amos Oz and David Grossman have weighed in, arguing that Israel must understand the limits of forces. Doron Rosenblum quotes an Israeli official as actually calling the absence of Palestinian terror a "propaganda problem".

Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni submitted a motion of no-confidence motion in the Netanyahu government for its botched handling of the Gaza flotilla and claimed Israel could have avoided the international isolation it now faces. She accused the government of destroying Israel's stance in the world and its security in the Middle East. "This is not just a temporary event that will pass. This is a continuous process under which Israel is becoming isolated from the world." Naturally, Bibi demanded the opposition stand by him as he did the government during Operation Cast lead and the Second Lebanon War.

Meanwhile Joe Biden was trapsing around Egypt saying that the United States would be seeking ways to ameliorate the effects of the Gaza embargo and like a good scout called on the continuation of the proximity talks.

For trivia nuts, Bibi Netanyahu is a Facebook friend of Orly Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers, who is running for Secretary of State in California. If conservatives face an epistemic closure, the Likud party and their allies are also, surrounding themselves in the American echo-chamber of the right surrounded by people like Rev. John Hagee and others of the Religious Right. The tea Party movement itself is funded by two of Likud's biggest donors.

Until this Gaza episode, I had not known there were actually Israeli self-styled " neoconservatives" with journals and think-tanks of their own. From some of their writings, they appear to be very Americanized in their arguments. One of which argued that Israel should use the threat of its nuclear arsenal to make Arab states do what Israel wants. It's like they were channeling Dick Cheney's American nationalism. We now have Israeli exceptionalism but American-style. It's so strange that Ariel Sharon now towers over this crew as a wise statesman. It almost seems like he should wake up from his coma to shake some sense into the ruling coalition.

Col. Wilkinson has appeared now for an extensive three-part interview on Dick Cheney and his effects on America. Col. Wilkinson argues that Cheney is not a neo-con but an American nationalist, harkening back to the days of the America Firsters. While I had always associated America Firsters with isolationists,he argues that it was really not so. Instead,they argued for American nationalism and unilateral action abroad. What we conveniently forget is that the George W. Bush era was in fact the time of "National-Greatness Conservatives", the brainchild of William Kristol. Part of this greatness would be achieved by adopting the policy of "pre-emptory war" and massive de-regulation to fuel the economy. The glorious aftereffects we will be feeling for a long time to come.

If you like the idea of a more small ball America, Peter Beinart has a new book out--The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (Harper, 2010)--in which he argues that the United States as the world's sole superpower has faded with the disaster of the last administration and can be replaced by an America that focuses on its internal development and cultivating a different relationship with the world. Once I've digested it, I'll report on its ideas.

Today are the primaries in about a dozen states, which will be interesting to the extent that lunatics win their party's nominations. Off everyone's radar are the primary races among Republicans in Montana where there is a good chance the "white supremacists" will seize the party. South Carolina continues to amuse with charges that the Republican woman candidate for governor is a "ragtop", who is ashamed of her God (she's a Christian) and whose father, a Sikh, is organizing a Sikh conspiracy to take over the State. Also, she has been accused of having two affairs. For Democrats, the race to watch is the primary between Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter. But it's an all-Republican show. By tonight, we will know whether Nevada will pit the Chicken Lady or the Teabagger against Harry Reid.

Lastly, Sarah Palin's new fence is higher than the old Berlin Wall. Joe McGinness is probably the greatest threat to our national security.