Analysis: Iowa Caucus Results

I almost forgot to make a detailed analysis of the Iowa results! Fortunately, I remembered in the nick of time, just before the New Hampshire primary. So, here goes:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

--- Henry Louis Mencken, A Little Book in C Major

Feedstocks For the Mill

The population of my home state is decreasing by 3400:

INDIANAPOLIS – In recent years the RCA Dome has been home to elated cheers.

But on Wednesday, thousands of Indiana National Guard families huddled together in the stadium’s darkened concourse – whispering farewells and wiping tears away in a striking display of love, sadness and pride.

“It’s pretty difficult on us,” said David Henderson, who came to say goodbye to his son, Tony Henderson, of Huntertown. “I served two years, so at least I know a little of what to expect.”

Tony Henderson is one of the 3,400 members of the 76th Infantry Brigade to deploy Wednesday, including 680 out of Fort Wayne’s 1st Battalion 293rd Infantry Regiment.

Not only were the duped victims and families there, but the usual smarmy collection of enablers, too ... including one nauseatingly-familiar chickenhawk:

The ceremony, for family and friends only, drew more than 20,000 to the Dome. Elected leaders from around the state gave speeches, and a video with the song “American Soldier” was shown.

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, told the soldiers they are heading to Iraq at a critical time to help create stability so Iraqi forces can take control of their own country.

He mentioned several Fort Wayne soldiers by name – thanking them for their service.

Ummmm, yeah, OK.

And then, another tax-sucking nuisance was heard from:

Perhaps the largest cheers were for Colts president Bill Polian, who called the sendoff the most memorable moment in the Dome’s history.

He told of a soldier who sent the organization a Colts cap after they won the Super Bowl last year. It had been through several battles, was bloodied and had a bullet hole in it. But the soldier said he wore it as a reminder of home.

That cap has been mounted in the Colts’ locker room as a reminder of sacrifice and service.

“Whether Bears or Browns or Colts or Steelers, we’re all Americans,” Polian told the crowd.

The news story doesn't tell us whether Mr. Polian identified anyone within the ranks of the departing legions who looked as if he could run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds, with glue on his hands. Too bad. What's a mere spear-carrier, compared to a gladiator?

Waste and More Waste

So, the Russians are testing an updated ICBM:

A strategic missile known as the RS-24 flew 7,000 km (4350 miles) to hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula.

Later, a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea launched another new missile, hitting the same test site.

It comes as Russia has again accused the US of ignoring its concerns over a planned US missile defence system.

Washington plans to site anti-missile facilities in central Europe, claiming that it will help defend against any possible future nuclear threat from Iran.

The US missile shield system would see a radar site set up in the Czech Republic and a base in Poland for 10 missile interceptors.

However, speaking in an interview to be published later this week in the Vremya Novostey daily, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was clear the system is aimed at deterring Russia, rather than Iran.

The US has said that the limited system it proposes could not threaten Russia's own missile arsenal.

The Interfax news agency reported that the RS-24, the missile tested on Tuesday, is capable of carrying at least three nuclear warheads.

Russia says they are able to penetrate any kind of defensive system.

Why do the Russians feel the need of an improved, updated nuclear arsenal? Obviously, I don't know. I can say, however, that under the new, out-in-the-open American imperial system, having more-and-better nukes is the most probable route to respect -- or at least to being left alone -- for any other nation-state.

My supervisors, for reasons of their own, have decided that the debt-drowned ruins of the American economy must pay -- or, rather, must be further indebted -- to build a missile defense system on Eastern European soil. The Russian supervisors, for reasons of their own, are responding by bleeding their own economic jalopy for a no-doubt-costly upgraded ICBM fleet. What a damnable waste. I wonder: could individual Americans and Russians, if allowed to keep their money, find better uses for it? I can't see how they could possibly do any worse than their supervisors are doing.

Great Idea!

So, Herr Gov. Gropinator is publicly toying with the notion of responding to California's current cash crisis by turning some prisoners loose "early."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering the early release of 22,000 inmates from the state's prisons to save hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to ease California's looming budget crunch.

The idea is one of many that have been presented to the governor by his departmental budget directors, and he has not decided if he likes it or not, Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile said Thursday. But if the plan were to be put into action, it would constitute one of the biggest early releases of prisoners in U.S. history.

"The governor asked his department heads to work with their budget managers to find ways to cut the budget by 10 percent because of the budget crisis we are facing, and this idea was one of many that was floated in reaction to that request," Maile said. "It's not a proposal yet, just an idea."

California has 172,000 inmates incarcerated in 33 institutions. The release of 22,000 offenders would reduce the number of inmates by 12 percent, and potentially save about $250 million a year, sources told The Chronicle.

Only prisoners who are considered low risk because they are nonviolent, not sex offenders and had less than two years left on their sentences would be considered for the early release.

[snip]

Eric Hickey, a criminology professor at the California State University Fresno, said the concept of releasing prisoners early is not new. He also did not think it was wise.

"A lot of these guys are getting time off already for good behavior, so letting them out even earlier sends a message that we're not serious about being tough on crime," Hickey said. "It's not good policy.

"It's unfair to the victims, and it sends the wrong message."

He noted that the recidivism rate among state prisoners - the rate at which they re-offend and have to go back to prison - runs as high as 75 percent.

"When times get tough, someone always proposes letting prisoners go early," Hickey said.

Well, no need to be unfair to the victims. Instead, why not choose a different set of criteria for selecting prisoners to be freed from the Anal Rape Gulag? How about cutting loose the people whose crimes don't have victims, and aren't really crimes anyway? I have in mind the "controlled substance" offenders. And then -- even though the numbers aren't large, we should be scrupulously fair -- turn loose those convicted of "insider trading." Hey, Ah-nuld, got anybody in the can for practicing any trade -- from doctoring to lawyering to plumbing -- without a government license? Let 'em walk.

The savings should be permanent; just stop imprisoning people for non-crimes. That way, you don't need so many cops, either ... or prosecutors. I can think up some more release categories, I'm sure. But, you know, just get started by turning the stoners and the tweakers loose, and that will be enough to solve your budget problems.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

We're always being told that we owe absolutely everything to the military veterans among us. We're always being told that we're debtors, and that the infinite sum of our indebtedness can never be repaid (although we're always encouraged to keep up the futile repayment effort). The veteran, we're endlessly reminded, has sacrificed endlessly to secure our liberties. To doubt this is considered to be about as close to blasphemy as one gets, in our more or less officially impious society.

I see a short post, on a local pseudolibertarian blog, that tempts me to this blasphemy:

If smoking is to be considered a privilege and not a right, then veterans have earned that privilege. Many veterans had to work in an environment that contained substances far more hazardous than secondhand smoke. The most notorious of these is secondhand lead. Secondhand lead has been known for centuries to cause brain damage, organ failure, paralysis, and death.

Quite a few of these men were not given a choice of whether they wanted to work in that environment. You can quit a civilian job anytime you want. But it's a lot harder to get out of the military than it is to get in. So at least let veteran's clubs smoke.

So, O Guarantors of Our Liberties, if smoking has become "a privilege and not a right," where were you stern & virtuous watchdogs when that happened? For that matter, where are you now -- always apart from lobbying the government for privileges? Either the military does not undertake as its mission the preservation of Americans' liberties, or they don't do a very good job of it. (The evidence strongly indicates that the former is, in fact, the case.)

Ah, those last sentences: "You can quit a civilian job anytime you want. But it's a lot harder to get out of the military than it is to get in. So at least let veteran's clubs smoke." Well, that's one approach, I guess: I can't quit being a soldier, so slip me an extra privilege. Another might be: It's a lot harder to get out of the military than it is to get in. So don't get into the military.

That, however, would be way too libertarian for our Libertarians.

A Retraction

A commenter to the previous post has suggested that "pudgy little freak" is inappropriate as a description of my Congressweasel, and he is correct. (His comment is well worth reading.)

I am troubled by a more-important problem with that post, though. In it, I called for the torture of that person, and that was wrong of me. I could go back and edit the post, but why compound barbarism with dishonesty? Let's use it, just as it is, as a cautionary illustration of the corrosive tendency of our national practice of torture to corrupt the thinking even of its opponents.

I think that a good case can be made against Mr. Souder as a war criminal, and as such he could be tried by some court of competent jurisdiction and punished according to the trial's outcome. Such punishment might include a lengthy term of confinement, or even execution. But it could not justly involve water torture, nor the pulling-out of fingernails; and I should not have suggested such, even in dark humor -- maybe especially not in dark "humor." Mea culpa. I'll try not to do it again.