contrapositive

LIGHT BLOGGING AHEAD Things are going to get even quieter over here at CONTRAPOSITIVE during the next couple weeks. We know, we've been falling down on the job as it is.

It's hard to explain why it should have grown more difficult, over the last couple months, to muster outrage proportional to our circumstances. Bloggers Brad DeLong and Atrios, for example, don't seem to be having any difficulty conveying the scope and texture of their frustration.

Clearly, we've had trouble rising to the challenge.

Consider: What is one to say about revelations like this one--appearing thirteen paragraphs down in a weekend report from The New York Times about the Iraqi police force:

Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner sent to Iraq in 2003 to lead the police mission, said Pentagon officials gave him just 10 days notice and little guidance.

"Looking back, I really don't know what their plan was," Mr. Kerik said. With no experience in Iraq, and little time to get ready, he said he prepared for his job in part by watching A&E Network documentaries on Saddam Hussein.

More than five years into the homegrown catastrophe known as the Bush administration, is there anything to be said about this sort of news that is in any way illuminating?

Are there any genuinely new lessons to be learned--or shared--about this group's incompetence, its dysfunctionality and its disdain for expertise?

And is there any evidence that enablers like Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) are ready to hold the administration accountable for its errors and misdeeds?

We'll be spending the next couple weeks mulling over those questions--and others.

Meanwhile, we hear that there's some sort of crazed hippie movement gathering in steam in Connecticut. Might be worth learning more about.

And finally, switching gears, we'll close out the month by drawing your attention to a new theatre production, landing in August at the Minnesota Fringe. More on that in future posts.