Just wanted to add my "Welcome Aboard" to our newest team member. CTuttle was highly recommended by Siun of Firedoglake fame and has been a someone whom I have corresponded with via the comments there for awhile. His viewpoints and expertise will be most welcomed (and don't be shocked to see some occasional sports stuff, just to keep it interesting!).

So blow the bos'n pipe and Welcome Him Aboard!

Jo

I would like to first start off by saying that I miss Lurch! One cannot merely replace a true hero! I hope to only soldier on in his stead. I will strive to carry the torch and attempt to shed light on this Maladministration's illegal and immoral war in Iraq. I hope to expose every nook and cranny to the the cleansing rays of sunshine. I hope to learn and grow with each and every comment from this distinguished and heroic community!

A bit of personal history, I'm a twenty year Army/ARNG veteran. I served 9 years AD and 11 yrs with HI-ARNG. I've been to Team Spirit and Reforger. I've been Bluefor and Opfor at both, NTC and JRTC. I've helped build the border wall in Tecate, CA. and blown up log cribs in Deep Woods, Maine. I've been stationed in FRG and Korea and numerous stateside posts. However, I consider myself very lucky, in that, I've never had to fire a shot in anger! Please do not denigrate me for that, that is all I ask! I was stop-lossed by my C.O. during GWI, as I was about to be sent to Ft Stewart for deployment to the Gulf, and, my retirement papers had cleared before my boyz were mobilized for GWII!

I'm always open to frank and honest discussions, and, I don't have a thin skin. All I ask for is fair play, if you think I'm out of line , please let me know, believe me, I'll let you know...!

Mahalo!
CTuttle

PS-I'm on Hawaiian Time so my posts will be late in the day for you right coasters!

Today will be a day of blessed relief for either you guys or me as medical issues infected hangnail an excess of schadenfreud or too frickin lazy to write will prevail for part of the day.

Hexagram 10 : Lu

Lu cautions the reader to tread carefully in the day’s activities and to beware heavy motion and exertion. The dragon of law is especially to be feared as the Emperor’s minions have drawn their chariots tight. Do not risk treading on the tiger’s tail as his teeth are sharp. Open eyes invite the crow and it is best to keep your lazy ass in bed, with the covers drawn high.

I’m back from the sick list, mostly, and my great thanks to all who left their best wishes. It was no fun. There was a dispute as to whether I had pneumonia or “only” bronchitis with complications, including an infection, possibly viral.

The above is of course a reminder that medicine is an art, and not a science. Doctors like to consider themselves scientists and they speak authoritatively at those times, impressing us with their measurements and readings and testing. Medicine seems to become an art when the doctors make mistakes, at which point their lawyers (known in medicine as the good lawyers,) urgently rush forward to remind us all that medicine is really an art, reliant upon the practitioner’s ability to apply his years of study and knowledge in an effort to ease what ails us,and they will make mistakes because art is inexact, and often gains its appeal from non-measurable standards.

An interesting presentation, and it reaffirms my opinion that lawyering is a synonym for weaseling.

My thanks again to all my loyal readers, including the folks at centcom, army, and pentagon.mil who continue to visit on a daily basis. I know you’ve all been missing my attempts to point out your mistakes. Don’t worry, I will continue with that series shortly. If you can get some good lawyers maybe you’ll be ale to move the goal posts and cadets at Army Vo-Tech can start studying the new discipline of Military Art.

I’ll be at the hospital tomorrow, Tuesday, for treatment and possibly internment for pneumonia. Blogging will resume upon my release, unless the American Medical Ignore System lives up to its dismal reputation.

Adam Elkus, who has continually challenged me professionally by forcing me to learn new subjects in order to understand him, has moved his workspace from Simulated Laughter to Rethinking Security. He’s given this page a new look, with a crisp sharp appearance and smooth interface. The same old professionalism is still there, and as always a vital link in examining National security and Foreign Policy matters.

I’ve left the link to his old blog, Simulated Laughter, since it’s useful for archive purposes.

Is there a problem with the website? I can’t seem to view anything on the webpage prior to November 16th unless I go into the archives.

Is anyone else having this problem when they access the page through the basic URL?

Treat this as a general catch-all spot for questions we have no answers for. Pease don’t treat it the way George Bu$h treats our generals.

Blogging is light today because I’ve been distracted by a zillion details as I pack for the great semi-annual migration. There are birdcages to clean and birds to bring in for boarding, and the dachshund who rules the universe to bring to the vet, plants to set up, a pool to prepare (living in the tropical paradise that used to be JEB! land of course there’s a pool.)

I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off to drive up to New York to see the kids and grandkids, with a few stops along the way for old and not-so-old friends.

I’ll do what I can to post over this time, but I do most of my posting during the day and that is prime travel and sight-seeing time. I’ll post when I can, and I’ll see to it that there is always an open thread, and encourage you to post your thoughts, fears, glories and warnings.

Just please be kind to each other. We all have enough stress and strife in our lives during the Age of Bu$h.

I’ve made several additions to the blogroll.

Moon of Alabama, hosted by Bernhard, is one of the smaller great gems of the universe. It's a remnant of Billmon's original site. Bernhard created it to continue the remarkable conversations that used to make Billmon the place to go. B. brings a unique eye to events and trends and provides a perceptive and critical analysis.

Frank Lynch has several webpages and I would like to direct your attention to his commentary at Not Really Worth Archiving. He doesn‘t post every day, but he has a marvelous ability to look through the clouds of spin and find the single point of interest for you. Not everything he writes about will entertain you, but if you pay attention, it will inform you.

Frank also has a photo page with some very fascinating looks at New York City, and other locations. New York is changing, but Frank’s interest in what New York was brings back a lot of nostalgic memories for me. He likes rusty fire escapes and gates.. I look at them and remember them from many years ago, when neither they nor I were rusty. I didn't add the photopage to the blogroll. It's easy to find on his home page. Look in the upper left.

Because doing things all at once seems like too reasonable a method, please note that Just An Earth-Bound Misfit has finally been fit into the blogroll.

The Misfit has a jaundiced view of stupidity, but a very approving opinion of cats, small planes and guns in the right hands. Don’t piss off her in the comments. No, she won’t shoot you. She’s a lawyer. You’ve been warned.

We don't update the blogroll too often here at M&C, but we wanted to share some outstanding blog links with you. Visit them often.

Armchair Generalist
The Newshoggers
No More Mr Nice Blog
Swedish Meatballs

Read and Enjoy.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Thanks to all the regular readers and well-wishers who left comments. This is an ongoing thing for me. The months of August and September are tough because they are respectively the anniversary months of my wife‘s birth and death. I’m still working my way through all of it. I can’t stand the word “closure” because it’s just so sweetsie-trendy pop sociological. Denial was easy to get through; acceptance is hard. Sorry to take it all out on you.

The period from Thanksgiving through the Winter holiday season is hard, too, so now you’ve been warned.

A combination of circumstances indicate light blogging ahead. I’ll do what I can, but apologies ahead of time. As always, you're invited to opinionate, discuss, chastise, or powderpuff Mr Bu$h and his Traveling Magic Show™

One of my sons is down visiting, and we are doing some guy stuff. The other two arrive this afternoon. Tomorrow we’re going to the Keys for the day on some pressing family business. I'll try to publish some things, but basically blogging will be a little bit hit and miss over the weekend.

Sort of like my sex life.

Have a safe weekend, look both ways before crossing the street. Remember to wear clean underwear, just in case you get to meet the nurse of your dreams. And remember the words of the poet Hesiod:

We know how to speak many falsehoods
Which resemble real things, but we know, when we will,
How to speak true things.

I'd like to officially welcome two new members to our blogroll. A Silent Cacophony is published by DK, a retired Army officer who lives down in the Eastern Virginia area. He's been writing for about a year or so, and has produced some outstanding work.

Simulated Laughter is one of the homes of A.E. who writes professionally in the area of foreign policy and politics. He keeps a town residence over at Huffinton Post. Maybe if Mr Bu$h had consulted with him we'd have a cornet player instead of a concert pianist as Secretary of State, and people would respect us a bit more. A.E writes on a number of topics and if you read him carefully, you could learn something.

I’ll be home tomorrow – thanks to all for the kind wishes.

Blogging will commence forthwith.

Friday looks to be a light blogging day, with a prolonged procedure scheduled at my local hospital. It’s nothing too serious, just long and involved, and probably involving medication that will keep me from driving home afterwards. There is a possibility that I’ll be attending the Friday night pajama party, and I learned the hospital has a wifi area, so I’m bringing along the laptop, just so I can play solitaire and Monopoly and maybe get to write something insulting about politicians and the never-right wing, for a change.

I'll post an Open Thread and will encourage all 21 of my regular readers to practice your mad typing skillz.

Yes, we're sorry. Someone is trying to fix it.

Sometime yesterday, while I was scurrying around southern New Jersey we had our 100,000th visitor.

Thank you.

So, I’ve been on the road for three days, and finally have a chance to sit down, breathe a few times, and trim my eyebrows. Apologies for the lack of blogging; perhaps I’ll be able to work up a bit of stuff over this weekend while I’m in DC for the conference. Monday I’m off to NYC for some business matters, mixed with a lot of personal stuff, including some threatened lunches with friends and several readers of this blog. I’ve been away from all the news, so I don’t have much to comment on at the moment. If I survive tonight’s Thai dinner I may be able to write later, what with agita and being up all night.

Due to real world requirements blogging will be light-to-nonexistent today. I'll be going out of town early tomorrow and there are birds and dogs to house, bags to pack, and an annual luncheon with some fraternity brothers. I'll be traveling up to the New York area for personal and business reasons and blogging will be erratic for the next few days, because I refuse to fly in Mr Bu$h's 21st century America, and so it's a road trip!!

While I was tidying up the files I noticed we recently posted our 1,000th article. No one is more surprised than I am. As is traditional with milestone events, some stock-taking is called for.

I'd like to thank all the readers, and the commenters, who've so graciously supported us and engaged us in dialog. There is no paycheck; the only compensation for writing here is a sense of self-fulfillment and the responding commentary, which either feeds a need to communicate and share ideas, or my ego, depending on whether you believe me or my ex-wife's lawyer.

So thank you all for your engagement. You make it worth while.

Nothing terribly interesting at the the moment to castigate the criminals in DC about. That's actually a good thing, since much of the day is taken up with followup specialists' appointments. Ironically, I can remember when doctors made house calls, even for the disabled.

I'm certain I'll have found something to accuse the Bu$h malAdministration of by 3 PM.

I've been out most of the morning with an unexpected medical situation. I don't anticipate writing much this afternoon.

Blogging may be light to non-existent for the next day or two, for which I apologize.

I have to say I've been expecting criticism over my post regarding Senator Joe "Bulls Nipples" Biden and his apparent misstep when talking about Senator Barack Obama. Not having seen any, I'm not sure whether readers agree or are just being polite.

In any case I hope to be back, nose to the grindstone, eye on the prize, by Saturday, although how I'll be able to get anything done in that position is a puzzle.

Looks like we now have Haloscan comments running here. Not fully moderated, so please be nice to each other.

Side note: if you are posting here and leaving something that might be considered OPSEC material, please don't. We've had an incident or two with that, not by virtue of someone trying to dump classified stuff out on the internets, but more by way of a narrative. Because moderation now requires an extra step, it's just more of a pain in the ass to "unpublish" stuff that is in the OPSEC bin.

If you think it might be sensitive, keep it to yourself. It'll probably make a great story for your grandkids about how stupid the whole classification system is.

Peace.

Thanks to the spammers, comments are officially dead (at least for now). The spammers won this round and caused the ISP to shut M&C down until we got comments disabled.

Sorry.

For various reasons there was no blogging today, Monday. I apologize for this to all of you. I do hope to resume blogging tomorrow, Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest.

Blogging might be a bit slow and sporadic over the next four or five days, due to family visitors. Govern yourselves accordingly and behave, please.

Today is the anniversary of my first post on this blog online magazine. It's hard to believe it's been a year; so much has happened.

I'd like to thank my regular readers - all 20 of you - and acknowledge the hard work you've put in following my rages, and most especially I'd like to thank that anoymous spammer located somewhere in the former Soviet Union who likes this place so much that he sends me over 200 messages a day advertising ringtones, cialis, sex webpages (especially the ones devoted to NMBLA topics.)

Most especially, I'd like to thank Jo Fish, who gave me this opportunity, and a shout out to all the brothers who've sustained me in my times of doubt.

Immanuel Wallerstein is a sociologist turned macroeconomist who presents think pieces twice a month on the global capitalistic economy, and its impact on the political sphere.

This essay is long, and is presented in whole not just because of the copyright requirements, but because it’s worth reading all of it, without editorial commentary.

When many years ago, some of us said that the decline of United States hegemony in the world-system was inevitable, unstoppable, and already occurring, we were told by most people that we ignored the obvious overwhelming military and economic strength of the United States. And there were some critics who said that our analyses were harmful because they served as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Then the neo-cons came to power in the Bush presidency, and they implemented their policy of unilateral macho militarism, designed (they said) to restore unquestioned United States hegemony by frightening U.S. enemies and intimidating U.S. friends into unquestioned obedience to U.S. policies in the world arena. The neo-cons had their chance and their wars and have spectacularly failed either to frighten those regarded as enemies or to intimidate erstwhile allies into unquestioned obedience. The U.S. position
in the world-system is far weaker today than it was in 2000, the result precisely of the very misguided neo-con policies adopted during the Bush presidency. Today, quite a few people are ready to talk openly about U.S. decline.

So what happens now? There are two places to look: inside the United States, and in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, governments of all stripes are paying less and less attention to anything the United States says and wants. Madeleine Albright, when she was Secretary of State, said that the United States was "the indispensable nation." This may have been true once, but it is certainly not true now. Now, it's a tiger at bay.

It's not yet fully the "paper tiger" of which Mao Zedong spoke, but it's certainly on its way to being exposed as a tiger crouching in self-defense.

How do other nations treat a tiger at bay? With a great deal of prudence, it must be said. If the United States is no longer capable of getting its way almost anywhere, it is still capable of doing a great deal of damage if it decides to lash out. Iran may defy the United States with aplomb, but it tries to be careful not to humiliate it. China may be feeling its oats and sure that it will get still stronger in the decades to come, but it handles the United States with kid gloves. Hugo Chavez may openly tweak the tiger's
nose, but older and wiser Fidel Castro speaks less provocatively. And Italy's new Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, holds Condoleezza Rice's hands while pursuing a foreign policy clearly aimed at strengthening a world role for Europe independent of the United States.

So why are they all so prudent? To answer that, we must look at what is going on in the United States. The de facto chief executive, Dick Cheney, knows what needs to be done from the point of view of the macho militarists, whose leader he is. The United States must "stay the course" and indeed escalate the violence. The alternative is to admit defeat, and Cheney is not someone to do that.

Cheney does however have an acute political problem at home. He and his policies are clearly losing support, massively, within the United States. The scare speeches about terrorists and the accusations of treason launched at his critics no longer seem to be as effective as they once were. The recent victory of war critic Ned Lamont over war defender Joe Lieberman in the Democratic senatorial primary in Connecticut has rattled the U.S.
political establishment of both parties. Within days, a very large number of politicians seemed to move some distance in the direction of closing down the Iraq operation.

If, as seems quite possible now, the Democrats win control of both houses of Congress in the November 2006 elections, there risks being a stampede to withdraw, despite the hesitancy of the Democratic congressional leadership. This will be all the more sure if, in various local elections, prominent antiwar candidates win.

What will the Cheney camp do then? One can't expect that they will
gracefully acknowledge the coming of a Democratic president in the 2008 elections. They will know that they have probably only two years left to create situations from which it would be almost impossible for the United States to retreat. And since they would not, with a Democratic congress, be able to get any important legislation passed, they will concentrate (even more than now) on trying to use the executive powers of the presidency, under the docile front man, George W. Bush, to stir up military havoc around
the world and to reduce radically the sphere of civil liberties within the United States.

The Cheney cabal will however be resisted, on many fronts. The most important locus of resistance will no doubt be the leadership of the U.S. armed forces (with the exception of the Air Force), who clearly think that the current military adventures have greatly overextended U.S. military capacity and are very worried that they will be the ones held for blame later by U.S. public opinion when Rumsfeld and Cheney have disappeared from the newspaper headlines. The Cheney cabal will be resisted as well by big
business who see the current policies as having very negative consequences for the U.S. economy.

And of course they will be resisted by the left and center-left within the United States who are feeling reinvigorated, angry, and anxious about the course of U.S. policy. There is a slow but clear radicalization of the left and even the center-left.

When that happens, the militarist right will retaliate very aggressively. When Lamont won the primary, a reader of the Wall Street Journal wrote a letter saying that "we have reached a tipping point in this country - if we allow the left to govern as the majority our country is finished." He calls Republican leaders "inept." He, and many others, will be looking for fiercer leaders.

Everyone worries about civil war in Iraq. How about in the United States?

Scary times ahead!

By Immanuel Wallerstein

Copyright by Immanuel Wallerstein, distributed by Agence Global. For rights and permissions, including translations and posting to non-commercial sites, and contact: rights@agenceglobal.com, 1.336.686.9002 or 1.336.286.6606.

Permission is granted to download, forward electronically, or e-mail to others, provided the essay remains intact and the copyright note is displayed.

Commenter Markus makes an excellent point, Harriet Meirs the latest person in Crony Incorporated to fail upward into the ultimate lawyer job in America, was by many, many blogs (including me/us) tied to the notorious Fix-A-Gay-Thru-Jesus Exodus International. Not true. She was instead associated with Exodus Ministries, a group that works with prisoners after they are released from incarceration and are on parole.

Thanks to Markus for pointing that out. Apologies to Ms. Meirs...now about that whole failing upwards thing...

A big hello to all the visitors from TBogg, Today In Iraq and Jesus General! Thanks for stopping over and welcome to Main and Central. I guess you could call this our corner. [heh]. If you enjoy what you see here, more can be found by this outstanding group of bloggers in their own blogs over there ---->.

Again, welcome and please, bookmark Main and Central and come back often, we'll try and make sure it's worth your while!

Howdy to all the new friends stopping by this evening. We're into our first 24 or so hours of life, still working on getting the look and feel of the site down. So poke around a bit, enjoy our authors, there are more to come in the days ahead and we're all looking forward to hearing from you and keeping you informed, entertained and hopefully not bored!

So please, feel free to bookmark us and stop back by "early and often" everyday!!!

Greetings to visitors from The Stakeholder, Alternate Brain, Skippy and Dark Bilious Vapors. We're just getting going, and have some outstanding contributing bloggers with a deep breadth of military service who will be writing for Main and Central.

Please, bookmark us and come back often. Thanks, and again, welcome to Main and Central.

Comments seem to be working. Sorry for the delay. Welcome everyone who has come over for a visit. I'm honored to have had Lurch start us off with such a great post.

I'm working on getting this up and running over the next few days. Keep checking back with us!