Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Wednesday Roundup

Two oh wow moments upon opening the Trib this morning. First, former administration spokesmodel Scott McClellan has written a book saying yeah, we sort of misled the country into that whole Iraq war thing.
"History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided—that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder," McClellan wrote in "What Happened."

He added that "war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

The president's real motivation for the war, he said, was to transform the Middle East to ensure an enduring peace in the region. But the White House effort to sell the war as necessary due to the stated threat posed by Saddam Hussein was needed because "Bush and his advisers knew that the American people would almost certainly not support a war launched primarily for the . . . purpose of transforming the Middle East," McClellan wrote.
The White House has no comment. Will George Bush continue to link Iraq to September 11 with varying directions of causality, as he did in his speech to the 82d Airborne during last week's All American Week festivities? And I almost kept a straight face while asking that rhetorical question.

If that news item left me a bit surprised and shaking my head, even though Scottie's exit interviews suggested he was leaning toward eventually disavowing most of the stuff he'd spewed in his job as the president's mouthpiece, the next one had me hopping up and down for a couple of giddy moments.

Poll: Majority of Californians back gay marriage.

The results mark the first time in over three decades of polling that more California voters have approved of extending marriage to gay couples than have disapproved, said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. The survey of 1,052 registered voters was conducted over the phone.

The poll was conducted from May 17 to May 26 in the days after the California Supreme Court handed down its historic ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the nation's most populous state. A smaller percentage of respondents--48 percent -- said they agreed with the court's decision and 46 percent disagreed.

Maybe the pollster inadvertently dialed up more Ellen fans and Star Trek groupies than he thought he would, or maybe--despite the bleatings of religious conservatives that the sky will fall and the cows will be frightened--Californians have noticed that life has carried on as usual in Massachusetts four years into their foray into marriage equality, with no hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or plagues of frogs. Maybe Ellen's artfully simple dismantling of John McCain last week nudged a few fence-sitters into comprehending that our live really is equal to theirs. Ah, or maybe they're finally just sick of it all. Doesn't matter. It's about damn time.

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