bush administration's transition strategy

So, there's been a lot of discussion of the coordination between the Bush and Obama administrations of late, primarily focused on how to enact a smooth transition of power in what will be the first presidential transfer of authority since 9/11. Much has been made of the contingency plans for emergency situations (wait? they had those??) that the Bush White House is providing President-elect Obama. However, at the same time that the current administration is putting on its best front in its efforts to keep America safe by providing the incoming president with important information, Bush et al. also seem downright determined to pass as many absurd regulations as possible, which the Obama administration would inevitably undo, but only after wasting a lot of time and energy. The most recent, of course, is the "right of conscience" rule, the latest way conservatives have come up with of trying to transform the woman's right to choose to the woman's right to battle a seemingly infinite number of governmental barriers and then maybe, just maybe, if she has the determination, time and resources be able to exercise that right. The regulation prohibits federal money recipients (read: all hospitals) from discriminating against health practitioners (including doctors, nurses and hygenists) who refuse to perform certain procedures because of their personal beliefs and bans hospitals from forcing employees to participate in those procedures (a caveat expansive enough that it would allow people to refuse to clean the instruments if they were being prepared for an abortion procedure). In addition to making the lives of women who do make the difficult personal decision to have an abortion even harder, it also achieve the secondary (or maybe even primary) goal of forcing the Obama administration to waste that precious time and energy that could be used to, oh, I don't know, prevent another terrorist attack on America.

one small shoe toss for man, one giant leap for democracy

As George W. Bush concluded his final trip to Iraq, he received a parting gift from a local journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, who hurled not one, but both shoes at the outgoing American president, The first toss was accompanied by Mr. al-Zaidi shouting: "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!" The second was described as a gift "from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Democracy-building mission accomplished? Evidently. Bush hailed the incident as a sign of the democratic progress made in Iraq claiming, "that’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves" while the man's screams were heard in the background. Well, so much for being bid farewell as liberators...

the al qaeda candidate

So, I was fairly shocked to hear that Al Qaeda was endorsing John McCain for president. Naturally, this is excellent news for Obama (Barack gets Powell endorsement; McCain gets that of the most hated group in the country, not to mention the fact that it undermines his "tough stance" on the terror issue). I wasn't surprised because i don't think Al Qaeda would clearly benefit from his presidential policy with an influx of new recruits due to the continued war hawk policies of the Bush presidency (they almost certainly would), but rather because i thought they were a heck of a lot cleverer than that. After all, in 2004, the Osama Bin Laden endorsement video may have lost Kerry the election (it clearly didn't help). At the time, I assumed this was a rather brilliant move on the part of Bin Laden to ensure that Bush would get reelected; the man's no idiot, he knows his support of a the automatically weak-on-terror Democrat would be potentially crushing to the campaign, resulting in the reelection of W. and the continuation of war hawk policies that drive alienated and disenfranchised Arab and North African youth further into the arms of Islamist militant groups. so, what does it mean that Al Qaeda endorses John McCain? Are they secretly pushing for an Obama victory (which, according to at least some in this country, would lead to some sort socialist Islamist state) or are they genuinely hoping for a McCain presidency? I would probably say the latter (and only partially because I'm a leftist pinko from an anti-American part of the country). While the Osama Bin Laden tape was widely released, this endorsement was listed only on a password protected website. Clearly, some dissemination must have been intended (otherwise why post it at all?), but had they wanted to have the same effect on the American population at large, they obviously could have staged something more dramatic (and may still, for all I know, but let's certainly hope that they won't).