Late Monday Morning Quarterbacking

We begin with a very good question...

Ooh, la-la! Stephen Hadley's Freudian slip is showing! [G'head! Watch it! It's only about 2.5 minutes long]

Ahem! Yeh, that Stephen Hadley, the National security Advisor to the President of the United States of America. When asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week program about the controversy surrounding the coming Summer Olympics in China, instead of referring to the Tibetan situation and the protests in the West this week, Hadley repeatedly said Nepal when he meant Tibet, and - weirdly - Stepanopoulos didn't bother to correct him. You have to see the video to get how weird this is. A senior administration official who just so happens to be the White House's top guy on national security goes on national TV and appears to be unable to distinguish between two different, albeit, contiguous countries (and we should remember that Tibet was annexed by China in 1959). Real confidence-builder, that.

So, how does this happen? Was it just a case of a simple gaffe, a fumbling attempt to cover a lack of knowledge on behalf of one the most influential people in the White House (heaven forbid!)?

Not at all.

You may not have heard, but Nepal went to the polls Sunday, and it looks like they've voted into power the same Maoist rebels who were formerly locked in a decade-long civil war with the Nepalese government. This election will likely bring to an end the 239 year old monarchy, replacing it with a legitimized Maoist leadership and thus establishing a Chinese ally in another Himalayan state. Perhaps these events were foremost on Mr. Hadley's mind, and he just couldn't contain his anxious feelings about another success for the Chinese, while the US fumbles around in the dark. And this turn of events cannot make India very happy, either. The Himalayas are the buffer zone between the world's two most populous countries, and you may remember that things haven't always been rosy between China and India. After ignoring the situation in Tibet for years (and this doesn't fall solely on Bush's shoulders), our government has now ignored the situation in Nepal (which does fall squarely on Bush's shoulders) which will only make things worse for Tibet, India (our newish ally), and probably the Nepalese as well. And all this occurred, we will be assured, without having anything to do with our resources being stretched too thinly across the globe in our futile War on Terror.

So, today the National Security Adviser went on national TV and slipped up, revealing his - and one assumes the Adminstration's - anxiety about events in the Himalayas and growing tensions with China - a huge trade partner, and a country which holds a great deal of our debt at a time when we are highly indebted - and his entire performance is nothing short of an embarrassment for himself and his boss. But y'know what? Good for him - Hadley inadvertantly put Nepal into the consciousness of American Viewers and Consumers, which is more than the mass media would do for you.

Doesn't sound very good, does it? But don't fret... there's always hope.

We're gonna have a funky good time! (Many thanks to Fake Steve Jobs).

Kevin Phillips has a new book out entitled Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism. Here's a taste of it, and also a review.

Siegelman turns the tables on the DOJ.

According to Sidney Blumenthal, most recently an advisor to Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney never grew up.

Bill Moyers looked at the the Farm Bill, that devastatingly stupid legislation which wastes so much money for the purchase of political capital.

A mythical debate.

Oh, no. Not him again!?

Watch out, Wachovia.

James Carroll, whipping boy. That's beyond the pale.

Is there hope amidst all the gloom? Yes, because the Sun still shines, and Obama is Right.


Diversions...

The beautiful game.

I noticed a story on Neatorama yesterday morning about kilts, which gave a chuckle. Little did I know it would foreshadow an actual kilt encounter. I was shopping with my family in a Japanese market yesterday evening, and in walked a big, strapping fellow wearing a kilt. So, here goes - Real Men Wear Kilts.