Currently Reading The Best and the Brightest By David Halberstam see related

It's been cloudy and cold all day, which turned out to be a bit of a departure from the humidity of the previous day. I suppose rain has that sort of effect this time of year. When it rains in the summer it keeps the humidity going, but in the fall it just makes everything grimy looking like a scene before the end of the world. If there is a time of year I am most of afraid of being attacked by zombies it is the fall.

On the subject of flesh eating creatures, I have it from a reliable source that Black Sheep comes out this week. I suspect you are not nearly as excited as I am but hopefully your curiosity has been piqued.

I just finished reading the The Best and Brightest by David Halberstam. If you want to have a general idea of what the decision makers in Iraq are thinking, arguing, and agonizing over right now, this book is a good place to start. It's about the decision making that occured at the top level of the American government during the Vietnam war and how it was deluded by blind faith in technological might and the ability of American's to do anything they set their minds to. Of course, France fucked up before us in the exact same but you know, they're the French. They got steamrolled by the Germans in World War II so clearly their not as well equiped as us. The worst and the best thing about the book is that it is so comprehensive. There were times when it felt like I was reading excerpts from the Old Testament. I would've liked to been able to remember even a fraction of the details he offered up, but in the end all of the details coalesced into a few general ideas about how Vietnam was mismanaged. It was hard even to remember all of the names, even of the key players. Although, I imagine that would've been easier had I been alive during the Vietnam War. It was an arduous read but worth every page.

 After reading Halberstam's book I can't help but feel even more strongly that Bush is going to go down as history as one of our worst presidents. Sure Johnson is mared by the Vietnam war and rightfully so, but at least he adimantly felt that social programs were more important than military spending. This of course caused some of the worst and longest lasting fallout of Johnson's legacy. He tried to push through his Great Society, which provided a ton of relief for poor families, but he put of a lot of important decisions about Vietnam and lied about the cost of the war to get the Great Society through. He knew that if the Republicans saw how much the war cost they would be more than happy to say that the Great Society can not be funded until after the war. He also got other legislation through which improves his legacy. Sadly, Bush doesn't seem to have much to show for himself unless by some miracle he turns the war around in Iraq. The No Child Left Behind act has been disasterous, sad because there needs to be education reform in this country. The only purpose of his medicare plan seems to be to prove that socialized health care doesn't work. But I'm sure rich people will be patting Bush on the back for years to come for padding their off shore accounts.

The subject of tax cuts for the rich is on the fore-front of my mind tonight because my Republican American friend visited tonight. He is primarily a fiscal conservative so our greatest split is on trickle down economics. I really thought this was disproven during Reagan's reign but apparently there are those who feel he proved it works. I do agree with the idea that trade can help to stabilize a nation, e.g. a government would not start a war with another country if they are trading with that country because it would devistate their economy and vice versa. The U.S. seems to be more concerned with making sure that everybody is trading with us than with everybody else, which seems to give the rather strong impression of a puppet master rather than a peace maker.

If you get a chance you should check out the Old Negro Space Program . I've been watching The War recently on PBS and this short movie is an awesome spoof of Ken Burns' documentary style as well as an incredible reminder of how racism has kept Black people out of many of the major events of American history. From what I've seen so far of The War Lynn Novick and Ken Burns have comprehensively covered the rising racial tension of World War 2 and the accomplishments of Black soldiers during the war and how crazy difficult it was for them to contribute at all to it. I understand if you're interest in World War 2 isn't strong enough to watch all 14 hours of the documentary but try to sit down and watch two hours of it. You'll quickly see how adroitly Novick and Burns comment on present by recording the past.