The World Around You

Finally, a little honest assessment from Donald Rumsfeld. Of course, it comes from a memo to high level officials that was leaked to USA Today,

Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?

Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists’ costs of millions.

Do we need a new organization?

How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools?

Is our current situation such that “the harder we work, the behinder we get”?

It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.

There’s still a lot of wrong-headed thinking going on, but this kind of honest assessment would at least give us all a place to begin debating where we go from here. Now if only the things that came out of his mouth were this honest, rather than trying to sugarcoat everything.

My favorite team, the New York Yankees, won last night, led by the efforts of my favorite player, Derek Jeter.

“He told me that he was going to get this guy,” Sojo said. “He said, `I’m going to kill him.’ He did. He’s amazing.”

Jeter did. Jeter was amazing. He smacked three hits off Beckett, the only three the Yankees managed in seven and a third innings off him, and he started their first two rallies in a 6-1 victory over the Florida Marlins in Game 3 of the World Series at Pro Player Stadium on Tuesday. Because of Jeter’s one-man show and Mike Mussina’s dazzling pitching, the Yankees have a 2-1 lead in the four-of-seven-game series.

When Jeter was asked about his prediction, he smiled, stammered, looked away and finally admitted that he did tell Sojo that he would get Beckett.

Three solid hits and one huge victory later, Jeter playfully acted disappointed that Sojo had given away his secretive rant. “Well, I always say that,” said Jeter, smiling again and scurrying away.

The Rocket takes the mound tonight. I’m beginning to smell World Championship #27!

The desperate measures continue,

As suspended Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore prepares for the biggest trial of his life, his attorneys are trying to book the Montgomery Civic center as the venue to decide his judicial future.

The civic center can hold thousands of people and is usually used for large sporting events, concerts and conferences. In this case, the civic center would be turned into a courtroom.

November 12th suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore will go on trial for his job. He’s being charged with violating an ethics code when he ignored a federal judge’s order to remove his ten commandment monument. If found guilty, Judge Moore could be removed as chief justice.

Whatever the ruling, his legal team wants the proceedings out in the open where you can watch. Former Alabama Justice and one of Moore’s attorneys, Justice Terry Butts, said a larger venue is needed in this case.

“There’s plenty of precedent for it, cause the supreme court does it al the time, they’ve been in the Mobile Auditorium before and they do that to accommodate public interest, and this trial has public inters so the court of the judiciary ought to move it move where the public can see and hear it,” Butts said.

Right now the trial is scheduled to take place in the Alabama Supreme Courtroom. Justice Butts expects the court of the judiciary to rule on this change of venue motion within a week.

“I don’t know what the court of the judiciary will do with the motion but I suspect that they don’t want full participation by the public and media, they would rather have a more restrictive smaller atmosphere,” he said.

First, I find it very interesting that the only news outlet I have seen reporting this is a television station out of Columbus, Georgia. Second, it is unmistakable what the Moore camp’s motivation is. They want to create the same kind of atmosphere that we witnessed on the steps of the Capitol. They hope that a raucous crowd will influence the outcome of the trial or, at the very least, the court of public opinion.

As Chandler Bing might say, Could he BE any more desperate?

UPDATE: Mac notes the rejection of Moore’s petition to remove Bill Pryor from prosecuting the case.

I have to give a big thank you to the Auburn and Dothan City Councils for taking steps to reduce the environmental tobacco smoke in their communities. Dothan adopted a change that closely paralleled the current ordinance in Prattville. It has been a great success here and I hope Dothan sees the same kind of results.

Auburn went further and enacted a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, but the ban will not go into effect until August of 2005. I’m sure this was a compromise with the restaurant owners and will allow them to challenge the legality of the ordinance in Alabama. I don’t know if there were other considerations in play.