If we are successful, the cost of this mission will be measured in years, tens of billions of dollars and dozens more soldiers' lives lost. But failure will be more expensive, and a premature pullout will exacerbate regional conflict and undercut the War on Terror. So, we need to lock in a defined exit strategy, as we've done in Bosnia, to bring the British and American people and the international community on board: we need to create a matrix measuring progress in political development, economic reconstruction and security, and to announce the report card quarterly. But above all, honesty, and remember, when the Iraqis ask us to go, the mission is over. [Wesley Clark, Times of London, July 10, 2003]

The new plan must give our troops what they need and bring them home safely, share this burden with other nations, ensure the stabilization and rebuilding of Iraq, and make sure that the billions of dollars we are spending are not wasted and used to pay off big corporations. [Press release, October 16, 2003]

   

• Howard Dean, 12 percent
• Wesley Clark, 10 percent
• John Kerry, 9 percent
• Joe Lieberman, 8 percent
• Carol Mosley Braun, 5 percent
• Dick Gephardt, 5 percent
• John Edwards, 3 percent
• Al Sharpton, 3 percent
• Dennis Kucinich, 1 percent
• Other, 6 percent
• Not Sure, 38 percent

These polls don't mean much, but I do think they can give you clues of who's moving up or down, especially if you compare several polls over time. (Pollingreport.com is good for that.) There have been some changes since last summer. Carol Mosley Braun has moved up in several polls from July. Lieberman and Gephardt have moved down. But, by golly, Kucinich remains firmly at 1 to 2 percent, across time and across polls. 

Howard Dean is way ahead of the pack in New Hampshire in another Zogby poll -- 40 percent. Number two is John Kerry, at 17 percent. Wesley Clark and John Edwards are tied for third at 6 percent each. I suspect the real fight from here on out will be for that number three spot -- if Clark can come in late and still take third, that should be respectable enough to keep his candidacy going.

Kucinich is in a group of candidates polling at "1 percent or less."

Remarkably, Dennis Kucinich is demanding that New Hampshire television stations pull some Howard Dean ads.

Earlier this week, Dean began airing two 30-second spots in New Hampshire criticizing his opponents' record on the war in Iraq and prescription drug benefits. While highlighting his opposition to the war, the former Vermont governor says "the best my opponents can do is ask questions today that they should have asked before they supported the war."

Dean does not name his rivals.

Kucinich, the Ohio congressman and the only candidate who voted against the resolution authorizing the war, took exception to the spots. [Holly Ramer, Associated Press, October 24, 2003]

Sorry, Dennis. That's politics. If you don't like it, buy your own ads.

On edit -- I haven't read these articles, but they might be interesting -- here is an archive of Dennis Kucinich articles from Cleveland magazine -- the Complete Kucinich.

   

On Wednesday, NBC News reported on a man who helped the Pentagon develop the Islamic chaplains program for the U.S. armed forces, a man who was later stopped with hundreds of thousands of dollars in his possession — and some serious questions about his background. Now there is more, and if federal prosecutors are right, this is a man who moved from the shadowy world of terrorism to the centers of power in Washington and back again. [Lisa Myers, "Muslim Leader with D.C. Ties Indicted," The Washington Post, October 23, 2003]

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who provided seed money to help Republican activist Grover Norquist start the Islamic Institute, was arrested earlier this week on the Libyan money charges. Federal prosecutors allege that he funded terrorists abroad and inside the United States, including those linked to al Qaeda.

Alamoudi had a close relationship with the Clinton administration, but thanks to Norquist's aggressive pushing of radical Muslims including Alamoudi, the suspected terrorist funder built ties to now-President George W. Bush. The president's enemies, starting with the New York Times, are now linking Bush to Alamoudi. [Center for Security Policy]

   

Today's Quote:

 

• Lacks the "metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror."
• Is "putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan" to thwart the next generation of terrorists.
• Is having "mixed results with Al Qaida."
• Has "not yet made truly bold moves" in the war on terror.
• Faces a "a long, hard slog" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Synopsis courtesy of ABC's The Note.

Rummy also says the War on Terra might require a "new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere .. that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem."

Since such "focus" is usually the role of the National Security Adviser, one wonders if the memo is an attempt to bitch slap Condi.

I'm too sleepy to say anything profound about this memo, although a few things are rattling around in my brain. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Mrs Schiavo's brain scans have not been made public but Dr Walker has followed the case closely through media reports and court records.

"The majority of her cerebral cortex - the part of the brain that thinks and feels - has been destroyed and replaced by fluid," he said.

"She doesn't have any perception, there is no reason to believe she can suffer."

Unlike a patient in a coma, Dr Walker believes there is no hope for recovery for someone in Mrs Schiavo's condition - known as permanent vegetative state - because the cerebral cortex does not regrow once destroyed. [Rachel Clarke, "Fight Over Florida Woman's Fate," BBC News, October 21, 2003]

Ms. Schiavo still has reflexes, which her parents and others who want her kept alive have projected to be signs of intelligence. But if you don't have a brain, you don't have a brain.

As a parent myself I can appreciate how hard it would be to let go, but sometimes holding on just prolongs pain. Mr. Schiavo, who is being crucified by the usual right-wing and so-called "right to life" elements, had his wife's feeding tube removed October 15 to allow her body to go in peace. Physicians say she would not feel pain from starvation because you need a brain to feel pain.

But then the Buttinsky governor, who ought to be educated enough to know better (although, as he's a Bush, who knows?) butted in. Today the Gubmint ordered Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube re-inserted, thereby unnecessarily prolonging a matter that nature would have resolved many years ago, had it been allowed to take its course.

There are rumors that Mr. Schiavo will inherite a large sum of money -- not true; what little money there might have been was eaten up by medical bills years ago.

[On edit] More about the money Mr. Schiavo is allegedly trying to kill his wife to inherit -- according to Time magazine, in 1992 he was awarded $700,000 for his wife's care and another $300,000 for loss of companionship. After more than a decade there can't be much left to "inherit."

I've even heard people say this is some kind of victory for the disabled. Ms. Schiavo is not "disabled." She is missing a large part of her brain. In nature, that is called "dead." She is already gone, for all practical purposes.

I just hope Mr. Schiavo isn't stuck with paying for the bills from this point forward. Let the Florida taxpayers pay them.

Partial brain constituency. And then there's the damnfool "partial birth abortion" bill. I don't even want to get started, except to make a few points:

First off, very likely this bill will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, and if history is our guide SCOTUS will bounce it as hard as they've bounced similar state laws in the past. And, I suspect most of the legislators realize that. The purpose of the bill is purely political -- they can go back to their mouth-breathing, semi-educated constituents and tell them the EVIL LIBRUHLS like to kill babies by crushing their skulls.

Second, I wish "journalists" would stop being so sloppy about language. There is no such thing as a "partial birth abortion";  the anti-abortion rights tribe is most likely referring to what physicians call "intact dilatation and extraction" (D&X for short). Although the anti-choice people don't always seem to be clear in their own minds what a PBA is.

Another bit of sloppy language that makes me crazy: Anti-choicers and "journalists" keep mixing up D&X with "late term abortion" as if they were synonyms. First, what to they mean by "late term"? Many people infer that "late term" means close to "full term." But D&X procedures are mostly done in the second trimester, which to my mind is not "late term" but "mid term."

There are several ways a pregnancy can be terminated beside D&X, and so if the bill passed today becomes an enforced law, probably it will stop no abortions from being performed. It will just make some abortions a little more complicated for some women (see ACOG statement, below).

It would make much more sense -- and Roe v. Wade would not have to be overturned -- simply to make ban elective abortions after some point (say, 20 weeks' gestation), as long as physicians may continue to perform medically indicated