Wampum

Yesterday's shelling is reported to have run the entire day, and Nahr Al-Bared is reported today to be totally in ruins. Of the 30,000 people who lived there, only a few hundred remain.

Naturally, some will point out that Fatah Al-Islam, in particular its military operations earlier this year, are the root cause. Some will also point out that the PLO and its successors in interest, modernly, the Fatah vs Hamas split, are the root cause. Some will also point out that the agreement that prevents the Marionite Phalange Militia "Lebanese Army" from entering UN Refugee Camps is the root cause. Still others will point to covert support for Fatah Al-Islam, by foreign actors, a sequel to he 34 Day War, a prequel to the anticipated Summer War ...

Since 1949 American policy has been to maintain hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in UN Camps as "Refugees" from Occupied Palestine. The root cause for Fatah Al-Islam being able to conduct defensive operations, including construction of defensive fortifications, tunnels, trenches, mines, pre-positioned munitions, etc., and force combat at highly advantageous terms for the fortified defense on external forces, aka the Lebanese State ... is the perpetual existance of the "temporary camps" and the "process" that fails to progress.

The choice to run for an open seat in the US Senate for the State of New York by a non-resident in the '04 cycle, the choice to run against the Speaker of the House by a non-resident of the CA-08, the City and County of San Francisco, in the current cycle, got me to thinking about whether races that are in fact national in character, on national policy issues, are best reserved for the highest status local car dealer or local developer or local party hack, or if these races should be contested, not on two competing car dealer's grasps of complex federal issues, but on the best and brightest candidate willing to be the candidate for a competitive campaign.

Should James Imhofe have to run on his record as a global warming denyer, or should he have to go to the voters as the alternatve, not to whoever is "next" in the OK Dem political ladder, but Dr. Jeff Masters, of Wunder Blog, if it ever occurred to Jeff to take a brain to Washington. Oklahoma has "weather".

Should Pete Dominici have to run on his record as a waste-the-Army political profiteer who's only just gotten the smallest amount of basic clue on the actual trajectory and most likely future trajectories, of the Bush Romance with Cordite in Iraq, or shoud he have to go to the voters as the alternative, not to whoever is "next" in the NM Dem political ladder, but Wes Clark, who ran in the '04 cycle Democratic primaries and caucuses, and could take a brain to Washington. New Mexico has "soldiers".

I could go on with examples, but Tom Lantos won't ever have a competitive primary challenge from the car dealers and developers and the Democratic hacks of the Peninsula south of San Francisco. The AIPAC message that what is happening today in Nahr Al-Bared and has happened in other UN Camps in Lebanon or in the Gaza, and will continue in the foreseeable future, has only superficial causes rooted in transient present, not in the decades long policy of the United States, will go unchallenged.

Which is why Carpetbaggers are worth thinking about. The DCCC uses paratroopers with nominal district residence and local support in every cycle. Perhaps we're not thinking quite outside the box enough. If Edward Said were alive and healthy, he could put Tom Lantos and AIPAC on the national agenda of the Democratic Party, and the non-Democratic Progressive Left, and we'd have a race with debates that would clarify if cluster munitions deployed agains civilians is our policy, or Republican policy, if permanent exile is our policy or Republican policy, and if control by a foreign government of the United States is our policy, or Republican policy. Professor Said died in 2003, but he's not the only person legally qualified to file papers with the FEC for the California 12th.