Problem Solving, Army Style

After all the recent ado over the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit, the Army has come up with a solution to the problem, punish the wounded soldiers and limit their access to the media. From the Navy Times:

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.

The wounded have also been moved to a building deeper into the hospital's campus that requires a public affairs escort for reporters to speak with the soldiers. The public affairs escort will provide an intimidating presence for anyone talking to the media thus shutting them up.

It's ridiculous how we treat those who have given the most for this country, isn't it?

Found via Atrios

Wow, It Really Is Obama-mania

This is impressive. At a Cincinnati area fundraiser Barack Obama raised as much as $500,000. but two other things caught my eye. One of the attendees was Stan Chesley, a Hillary Clinton fundraiser. Another was Harold Brooks, a longtime republican activist.

While Chesley is just a guy that wanted to be in the room, he did add some comments to the article in the Enquirer that I'm sure will not thrill the Clinton camp. From the Enquirer:

Class-action lawyer Stan Chesley, who has raised millions for President Clinton and Senator Clinton's campaigns, said he was there because he has "enormous respect" for Obama.

"Of course, I am supporting Hillary, but, mainly I want to see the best Democrats run for president," Chesley said. "Senator Obama is very impressive."

Brooks went further, pledging to organize other republican African-Americans for Obama. Obama has been drawing impressive numbers as well. At this event, people had to line the wall because there wasn't enough seating. Obama drew almost double what former President Bill Clinton had drawn at a similar event there recently. In Austin, Texas Obama recently drew 15,000 supporters at an outdoor rally. Nobody right now can match these numbers.

Whoa

The Dow took a beating today.

Stuck In The Middle Again

Poor Josh Marshall, he seems to be looking for sanity where there is simply none to find. From TPM:

But wait ... Only a short time ago we were told that Cheney and his crew at the White House wanted to take the side of the Shi'as in Iraq's burgeoning civil war. In other words, for all the attention to who we're going to attack and how and how many soldiers we need to do it, there appears to be a basic debate (to be generous) or confusion (to be less generous) within the administration over which side we're even on.

We talk a lot about the 'surge' and that's important since it assumes a intensive military commitment in Iraq for years into the future. We worry about tactics and strategy and whether the White House is going to plunge us into another war as a way to wriggle out of the blame for the current one. But this is a level of folly that transcends all of that: at the most basic level, the folks running the show can't even decide who's side we're on. There's no real strategy here or grand aim or even stable aim -- more like a rather panicked set of improvisations aimed at finding a way to retrospectively justify the mistakes that got us here in the first place.

It's really simple actually. We don't have a side. Our soldiers go out on their daily missions and whoever shows up to shoot at us, we fight. Could be the Shia one day and the Sunnis the next. In essence, we dangle our troops out as bait to see who will come to play that particular day. We do this under the auspice of securing the country, but we are really just playing king of the mountain.

We arm both sides either directly (Iraqi government) or through proxy (Saudis) and hope neither side goes rogue, which they always do. Our wish is for the Iraqi government to attack al-Qaeda in Iraq and that the Salafists the Saudis arm will take on Hezbollah. It might happen one day, but it is easier to attack us at this point due to our visibility and since they both hate us anyway, the shit just falls back on us.

Eek!

Just checked last night's traffic to this blog. Back to back hits from the IRS and the CIA. That can't be good! It got me thinking though. Why isn't the CIA blocking the tracking of their IP addresses? I'd have to think they have the technology.

Not Gonna Happen Soon

The Iraqis have approved a law to equally distribute their oil wealth among all citizens. As I've said all along, this should have been the policy from the start, but the CPA never implemented it. If this would have happened, it would have went a long way toward halting the burgeoning insurgency.

The problem with implementing it now is that the entire Iraqi banking system has been dismantled. I honestly have no idea how they are even going to attempt to do this. I guess once a year every Iraqi will have to line up at some government office to be handed their payment in cash.

We Can Be Sure Of One Thing

The Iraqis don't appear to be getting their weapons from the French.

Libby Juror Dismissed

A juror has been dismissed in the Scooter Libby trial. Rather than seating a replacement, they will continue deliberating with eleven jurors.

The IP Solution

Sometimes the solution to a problem is so simple, it is overlooked. As has been noted many places, the Bush administration has been purging US Attorneys for political reasons, most notably Carol Lam, the US attorney that brought Duke Cunningham to justice and continues her probe into that case. She has recently indicted CIA #3 Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes for their role in the case.

For this reason Lam has been asked to resign, although the White House and the DOJ claim otherwise. They claim that Lam isn't doing enough to prosecute immigration cases.

I say fine, lets take the Bushies at their word even if it is a lie. A replacement should be appointed post haste, and perhaps her replacement will do a better job a prosecuting immigration cases. Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats should appoint Lam as an Independent Prosecutor to investigate every facet of the Cunningham case. This will free her from the burden of the other duties Lam now faces as a US Attorney.

See, problem solved. By the time Lam finishes her investigation and prosecutes all the involved parties Bush will be out of office and she can be reinstated as US Attorney if she so desires.

Remember, elections have consequences.

Found via Attaturk

Respect

Just in case you haven't seen this yet.

But Can He Cook?

Ah, a story about my favorite (Not favored, but favorite) candidate. Noted food critic Duncan "Lemon Chicken" Hunter has hired a State Chair for South Carolina. His name is Dr. Henry Jordan who recently said during a State Board Of Education meeting, "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims, And put that in the minutes,"

The Board was kind enough to not actually put it in the minutes, but a FOIA got hold of a tape of the meeting with the remarks intact.

When confronted about the remarks, Jordan played the frustration card, which is quickly becoming as hot as rehab. From We Are Family:

"I was expressing my frustration. We can't teach basic Christianity even from a historical standpoint, but they can teach about Muslims and Buddhists," he said. "They can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a cult. So is Islam. I'm getting a little tired of it."

In a television interview Friday, Jordan said no one wants to be tolerant of Christians, although Christians are expected to tolerate other religions, adding: "I did not wish these two religious groups any ill will."

Jordan plans to offer a proposal at the next board meeting to allow students to vote to display the commandments at their school and to pay for it with private money.

"What I want to do is promote Christianity as the only true religion," he said. "This nation was founded to worship, honor and glorify Jesus Christ, not Mohammed, not Buddha."

Jordan ought to see if those kids can raise some money to get himself a copy of those ten commandments, I'm pretty sure thou shalt not kill is in there somewhere.

And seriously, can he cook?

Deal, Or No Deal?

Michele Bachman (R-Mars) says we can't leave Iraq because if we do, the Iranians will proceed with a deal they have already cut with, well somebody, to divide Iraq and set up a terrorist training area and safe haven. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“Iran is the trouble maker, trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And do you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided that they’re going to partition Iraq.

And half of Iraq, the western, northern portion of Iraq, is going to be called…. the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it’s meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made.

They are going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more terrorist attacks in the Middle East region and then to come against the United States because we are their avowed enemy.”

I'm sure the Sunni in western Iraq and the Kurds in northern Iraq will openly welcome their new Shia overlords with open arms. Seriously, this woman lacks even the basic knowledge of what is going on in the region. Good thing she gets to vote on things pertinent to the conflict, huh?

Speaking in terms of pure politics though, this is great for the Minnesota Democratic party. She is Minnesota's answer to our very own Jean Schmidt. It's a ridiculously conservative district, one where a qualified person could make a name for him or herself and aspire to higher office. Bachman, like Schmidt, is an idiot and isn't going anywhere. She will probably continue to be re-elected unless she gets taken out in a primary, thus taking a nice bench building seat away from the republicans in Minnesota for years. More please in other states! Hell, we should be helping people like her take as many really solid red districts around the country.

And to think I was bitching about not having Katherine Harris to kick around anymore. I think I've found a replacement.

Found via TPM

It's Over

As Atrios noted, our long national nightmare known as the Anna Nicole Smith trial, which has dominated cable news the past few days, is over. In the end, the trial very much resembled the National Title game last month. Three agonizing plays and a punt followed by someone getting buried.

Bush Administration: Worst Foreign Policy Team Ever Assembled

Not content with fucking up American diplomacy, the Bush administration is now meddling into possible diplomacy between other sovereign nations. From Haaretz:

The United States demanded that Israel desist from even exploratory contacts with Syria, of the sort that would test whether Damascus is serious in its declared intentions to hold peace talks with Israel.

In meetings with Israeli officials recently, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forceful in expressing Washington's view on the matter.

The American argument is that even "exploratory talks" would be considered a prize in Damascus, whose policy and actions continue to undermine Lebanon's sovereignty and the functioning of its government, while it also continues to stir unrest in Iraq, to the detriment of the U.S. presence there.

It is also known that Syria, like Iran, continues to provide Hezbollah with arms and equipment.

According to senior Israeli officials, the American position vis-a-vis Syria, as it was expressed by the secretary of state, reflects a hardening of attitudes.

When Israeli officials asked Secretary Rice about the possibility of exploring the seriousness of Syria in its calls for peace talks, her response was unequivocal: Don't even think about it.

Well now, we can't have Israel even raise the possibility of successful diplomacy where the Bush administration is incapable of achieving any. That would be a loss for the Bushies and we can't have that. There may be something a little more sinister at work here, though.

I'm not sure who pushed this story up into the press. It could be more hawkish members of the Israeli government, or ours, or both. The intent is clear, however. That intent is to emasculate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Consider it mission accomplished.

Olmert has taken heat since last summer's war with Hezbollah in which by most accounts would be considered a loss, although I would consider it a tactical draw. I think most neoconservatives view even the possibility of negations between Syria and Israel as the latter suing for peace, thus forwarding a weak posture. I disagree.

Syria actually put forth the olive branch, whether disingenuous or not. It behooves both to see if some compromise can be made, because these two countries are going to eventually have to learn to live together, or mutually destroy each other. Both actually have WMD, chemical for Syria, nuclear for Israel. They both also have an interloper creating an impasse for peace, that being the Bush administration. If I were the Israelis, I'd tell Condi to go to hell.

Found via TPM

Writer's Block

Lately, I have had a nasty case of writer's block. I'm not sure what causes this but most of the stories I read either cause me to say blah, or if it does interest me, I don't feel like writing about it. It usually takes something infuriating to snap me out of it, and then the words flow.

I did see the Ohio State basketball game last night in which the number one Buckeyes managed to get by also-ran Penn St. After the game, Thad Matta got a little testy with reporters asking for the reason Greg Oden didn't get more touches. From the Dispatch:

"It’s a pretty good issue," Matta said. "We’re 25-3. We’re doing a couple of things well here. I’d like to get it to him every time. We’re 13-1 in the Big Ten and have 25 wins, and I’m sitting up here like I don’t know what I’m doing here."

Yea, that's true. But I still have to question some of the moves Matta made last night as well. While it is true that Penn St was packing in a zone defense last night begged to be shot over, OSU wasn't hitting from the outside and Oden was effective when he got the ball.

To make matters worse, with roughly ten minutes left in the game Oden drew two straight fouls leaving two of Penn State's interior players with four fouls and one with three. Oden's touches following that exchange were still insufficient, and we still continued to play with four guards. Neither Othello Hunter nor Ivan Harris saw the floor again last night. In fact, other than Oden, Ohio State's big men tallied only twenty-eight minutes combined.

If one of those two would have been inserted to play alongside Oden, I'm fairly confident Ohio State could have blown the game open at that point as they simply couldn't have stopped them without fouling out.

Eh, what do I know.

Attack The Source

I think Nancy Pelosi is mishandling Dick Cheney's remarks from Japan. Who cares what Dick Cheney says? His mentality is clearly firmly rooted in fantasy land so if he slams you, don't call the president, just point that fact out to the press. Here is his latest shot at Democrats from The San Francisco Chronicle:

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al Qaeda strategy,'' the vice president told ABC News. "The al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel, and then they win because we quit.''

Rather than calling the president to complain which is what Pleosi said she would do, I'd like to see her retort, "Dick Cheney? That man has zero credibility. Just the other day he said Don Rumsfeld was a great Secretary of Defense. Why does anybody believe a thing that man says?"

To me, it simply looks weak to run complaining to Bush every time Cheney spouts off nonsense about the Democratic party. In fact, it's probably Cheney's intent.

Scooter Libby

With the Scooter Libby trial coming to an end today without either Karl Rove or Dick Cheney having to take the stand, I have to wonder if the early trial fireworks made enough of an impression on the White House to guarantee a pardon for Libby. After all the promised fireworks, the trial really did fizzle toward the end. So, did Scooter rattle enough chains to secure at least the promise of a pardon. I'd have to guess yes.

Now, if he is convicted, it will be up to his lawyers to run out the clock before a office exiting pardon can be thrown his way. Can he trust the administration to follow through? Again, I'd have to guess yes. You don't work that close to power and not pick up some dirt on the bosses. This isn't a company man taking one for the team, it's two, or three, armed men slowly backing out of the room through different exits with guns ready.

Faves Of Conservatives

After seeing over at Attaturk that several attendees of a NRO symposium had discussed their favorite presidents, I figured I had to go check it out. Yes, Calvin Coolidge had indeed garnered a couple of votes, but at first I was completely baffled that someone had picked William Henry Harrison (You know, the guy that died a month into the term) until I read Bruce Frohnen's rationale for that particular pick. From the NRO:

William Henry Harrison was only president for about a month. And he spent that month in a sick bed, dying of pneumonia. Why is he my favorite president? No other president has done so much to live up to the original intent of the framers, that ours was to be a republic, with a representative assembly at its center and at the apex of power. Ironically, Harrison entered office with the intention of increasing congressional responsibility and power. Unfortunately, his death brought in the Jacksonian John Tyler who sought to act as an Imperial President.

I guess there are a couple of ways you could interpret this. It could simply be a veiled dig at the current Imperial President and his policies, nothing more. But the more I thought about it, Harrison is really the perfect conservative president. Why? The wheels of his policies never had to be put to the asphalt, or in this case, the hooves to the dirt. Frohnen is only judging Harrison on how he might have governed. And for the fact that his ideals never had to interact with reality, or compromise, or scandal, Harrison is really the Superman of conservative presidents. He died before he could screw anything up.

It's an interesting pick if only for the fact that I never thought I would have an occasion to blog about Harrison.

I'm Back

Jesus, I step off the reservation for a couple of days and the whole world goes crazy! Britney shaves her head and the Chargers hire Norv Turner. Norv Freaking Turner? Are you kidding me? Worst. Hire. Ever. Ugh!

Oh, and John McCain now says the war has been mismanaged the entire time and that Rumsfeld was the worst of all time. Funny how McCain never brought that the first three years of the war. I would have thought everything was going swimmingly from listening to McCain. I guess some people will say anything to be president.

Abe Lincoln The Prognosticator?

Hey, I just found an addendum to the famous Nicolay Draft of the Gettysburg address which attributes the following quote to Abe Lincoln:

Seven score and four years from now some jackass from Alaska will take time out of his busy schedule of wasting tax-payers dollars on ludicrous projects to misattribute a quote to me.

Wow, Alaska wasn't even a state then!!! That must have been a magic stove pipe hat.

109ed

Were there any republicans in the 109th Congress that weren't on the take? Jim "Ass Grabbing" Gibbons, now Governor of Nevada might have thought his legal problems were over when an investigation into his cover-up of allegedly groping a cocktail waitress in a Las Vegas parking garage was dropped, but now the DOJ has come a knocking. At issue are the numerous gifts and payments given to Gibbons from contractor Warren Trepp. Form the NY Times:

Federal authorities are investigating gifts and payments that Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada received as a congressman from an executive of a software company that got millions of dollars in federal contracts, government officials said Thursday.

Investigators are examining whether the gifts and payments to Mr. Gibbons, a Republican, were in exchange for his help as a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

The payments were from Warren Trepp, owner of eTreppid Technologies, based in Reno. The company was awarded contracts from several government agencies including the Air Force, the Special Operations Command and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Oh, I'm sure the gifts had absolutely no bearing on Gibbons actions as a member of those committees. Yea, right. And it gets better, there's a paper trail, or rather an electronic trail. also from the Times:

“Please don’t forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn,” Mr. Trepp’s wife, Jale, wrote in the e-mail message to her husband on March 22, 2005, a few days before the Trepps left for a Caribbean cruise with Mr. Gibbons and his wife, Dawn, a former Nevada assemblywoman.

Minutes later, Mr. Trepp replied, according to The [Wall Street] Journal: “Don’t you ever send this kind of message to me! Erase this message from your computer right now!”

Mr. Gibbons, who was in Congress at the time, did not disclose the trip, which included travel aboard Mr. Trepp’s leased private jet.

Oops, I guess somebody forgot to do some erasing! The key here is Mrs. Trepp's phrasing. "The money" suggests that the sum is to be paid in cash, and not forgetting it means it is probably a sum that you can't pick up along the way because it will leave a paper trail as large cash withdrawals do because of required IRS reporting.

Don't Call It A Comeback

Ah, Friday comes and we're treated with back-to-back Broder. Yesterday he was gushing over Mitt Romney. Today's column dreams of a Bush comeback. From the Washington Post:

It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case.

Like President Bill Clinton after the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, Bush has gone through a period of wrenching adjustment to his reduced status. But just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts.

More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge.

Perverse indeed! This presidency is dead, period. Like a degenerate gambler who doesn't have a comprehension of sunk costs, Bush is doubling down on his greatest failure. How that demonstrates political smarts, I'll never know.

I guess Broder's heart is all aflutter because Bush deigned to take reporters questions yesterday in a one hour presser so Broder ran to editors to fluff Bush in today's paper.

Somebody please put Broder out to pasture.

Oh, It Gets Worse

I don't have the embed for the next clip that Fox's Half Hour News Hour has released, but you can see it here. I think they added the laugh track so you would know where the punch lines are. Even the right's reviews are mixed.

Tears Of A Clown

This is a couple of days old, but here is a picture of John Boehner weeping on the House floor as the Iraq debate in the House started. He, of course, trotted out that same old line that if we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us home. Judging by his tears, I'm guessing he has intelligence available to him suggesting the terrorists are interested in targeting the nation's tanning industry.

Found via Think Progress

Lame

If this is the best the new Fox show modeled after The Daily Show can muster, I don't think the show is going to last very long. Maybe I'm not in their target audience, but this is pretty lame put up against any standards, liberal or conservative.

I really can't wait for this show to come on the air, and I really do hope it sucks. Not because it's on Fox or because I harbor ill will towards those involved with the project. I just want to see the right-wing blogging world defend it as being really funny and the rest of the nation doesn't "get it".


It will be especially entertaining if none of the shows clips get picked up on the The Sunday Funnies segment of This Week. I can already hear the claims of liberal bias when the Sunday talkies are clearly dominated by conservative guests. Should be fun.

Then again, maybe this skit is an outlier and it will actually be good. I'm not holding my breath.

Regrettable Remarks

I'm not quite sure what to make of Governor Ted Strickland's comments regarding the news that the US is preparing to accept 7,100 Iraqi refugees. From The Morning Journal:

Strickland opposed the U.S. war in Iraq as a congressman, and when asked about the refugee plan yesterday, he reportedly said, ''I think Ohio and Ohioans have contributed a lot to Iraq in terms of blood, sweat and too many tears. I am sympathetic to the plight of the innocent Iraqi people who have fled that country. However, I would not want to ask Ohioans to accept a greater burden than they already have borne for the Bush administration's failed policies.''

While it is true that Ohioans as well as the rest of the nation have paid a tremendous price for the fool's folly that is George Bush's Iraq War, I must respectfully disagree with Governor Strickland's remarks.

This is really something pretty stupid for the governor to say. First of all, we're not talking about the Mariel boat lift here where Castro opened up the prisons to ship them along with anyone who wanted to go out on a raft to the US. Most of the people likely to integrate are highly productive individuals that helped out our doomed cause in Iraq and because of that can't really stay now. These people are unlikely to be a "burden" on the people of Ohio. We don't even know if any refugees are planning on a life in Ohio anyway.

Secondly, this reeks of intolerance if not outright racism. I don't know who exactly Strickland is pandering to here, but it certainly isn't to a good deal of the people who voted for him. What's next? English only legislation?

Lastly, there really isn't anything Strickland can do to stop any refugees from settling here after they arrive in the United States. Are we going to check IDs at the state line?

This is where the real political lesson is to be learned for Strickland. Never spend political capital on things that do not concern you. Things left best unsaid can sometimes be the best statement you can make when it's not your political fight to make. Strickland is wrong here and should apologize for these remarks. Then we can chalk this up as a lesson learned, hopefully one he only has to learn once.

Here Is A Little Straight Talk Rama Lama Ding Dong

Pander Bear, Lady Bug, Flip-Flopper, Whatever.

The Death Of Republicanism?

On election night in 2008, I feel fairly confident at this point at least, that the Democratic candidate, no matter who that person is, will win the general election. Things can and will change between now and then, but if I had to handicap the race today I would have the Dem winning.

Regardless of whether we win or not though, it might come to be known as the day republicanism was felled for a generation or two given the number of exploding right-wing heads coming from the news that the next Senator from Minnesota is none other than Al Franken. Al is in it and his website is here.

Laughing Last

John Edwards other blogger, Melissa McEwan, who wasn't actually blogging for the Edwards campaign has followed Amanda Marcotte's lead and also resigned. That's fine. I'm sure Bill Donohue is feeling mighty smug right now, but I'd like to remind Donohue a little thing about laughing last.

They say those who laugh last, laugh best. That last laugh will never belong to you, Mr. Donohue. Why? Even the party you love so much, the republicans, don't give damn number one about your puritanical ways. You're brand of theocracy will never flourish in the United States because of that. For that fact, we will always have the last laugh over you. Enjoy.

The latest example probably comes in the form of conservative Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry, over the objection of folks like Donohue issued an executive order to inoculate girls with the HPV vaccine. As much as Donohue's ilk want to control the vaginae of the women of this nation, your fellow republican threw your views under the bus. You see, Merck is a large donor to Mr. Perry and when is comes down to the views of Big Pharma vs your collection of zealots...well, you know how it goes.

Seriously, what have your band of charlatans gotten accomplished during twelve years of your beloved republican party ruling Congress with six years of total control of the Federal government. To say not much would be a gross exaggeration of what you accomplished. Sure, you got the Parks Department to stop giving out the age of the Grand Canyon, but seriously, that's a sinewy table scrap that even the dog wouldn't touch.

Still, you gnaw and gnaw and gnaw on it, because it's all you get. In the six years of republican control, have you enjoyed your daily diet of well picked through bones and scraps of meat so tough that even the rawhide bone looks tastier? I hope you have, because just as you rode the nation's pendulum toward conservatism, you must face the inevitable return of it as it speeds to you like an executioners axe. As it does, even those such crumbs will be harder to find.

Six years and all you got were symbolic votes, and symbolic votes are a lot like symbolic victories. It still feels like losing, it is losing.

Someday the republicans will return to power. Just remember that when they do things aren't going to change. The dog still gets a house, and you still just get a mat. And I'll still be laughing last.

Blogger!!!

If you're wondering, as I am, why the text spacing is different coming out of a blockquote, I haven't a clue. It is bothersome to me though to have the text spaced like this.

Then

Have it come out the other side spaced like this. I have checked through and made sure there is nothing in the html editor that produces this spacing. It is driving me mad. Tell me how to fix it Blogger people!

Fascism On The March, Or Should I Say Goosestep

I was going to write about Frank Gaffney's article in today's Washington Times, but there isn't much further to add to Glenn Greenwald's excellent take down. I just don't understand how they can be that delusional.

Fuckity Fuck Fuck

Lest you consider me a hypocrite, let me first say that I indeed use the word fuck, a lot. And I think that this is a perfectly appropriate forum in which to do so. There are other places that are inappropriate to do so, such as when addressing a high school history class.

That's exactly what Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown did on a recent visit to King Phillip High School. Brown, who delusional conservatives believe can defeat John Kerry in 2008, used the word fuck several times while addressing a Facebook site that had disparaged him. Brown also distributed e-mails he had received that contained the word fuck.

Okay, being dumb enough to think you can say fuck, as a politician, while addressing high school aged kids is poor enough judgement in itself. But instead of just apologizing for the incident, Brown did the stupidest thing you can do as a politician. He tried to justify his actions. A note for anyone reading this who might be thinking about going into politics, never do this. From the Metro West Daily News:

Brown said he is accustomed to criticism himself, but was upset about comments about his daughter, saying it was hurtful. As for the quotation of postings, he said, "I'm a little confused what the problem is. Is the problem that I quoted the "F" word directly from an e-mail?"

He pointed out that the word appears in "Catcher in the Rye," which is required reading.

[snip]

Brown acknowledged he included those e-mails, both from constituents and students, and defended putting them in.

"We're talking two or three swear words," he said.

He said if the school has issues with those words he inclusion, whether the school is also editing those kinds of words out of works such as "Catcher in the Rye."

Okay, literary great J.D. Salinger Brown is not, and whether or not the word fuck is contained in Salinger's work doesn't make it okay for Brown, an elected State Senator to use this language in this situation. By defending himself with this rationale, Brown only manages to paints himself bigger the fool.

One other thing from this article made me chuckle as well. Brown claims he has received over 300 e-mails of support following this dust up. Who the fuck writes an e-mail of support over this? It must go something like this:

Fucking ace job using the word fuck in front of those little fuckers the other day. I fully fucking support you!

Found via JC General

Blogging Gold

You know it's going to be a target rich environment for blogging when the first newspaper you check in the morning contains an Op-Ed by "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the planet", Douglas Feith.

Feith takes to the pages of the Washington Post to defend the work he did at his previous office where he pushed the Iraq - al-Queda relationship meme. Didn't get it then, doesn't get it now. From the Washington Post:

In evaluating our policy toward Iraq after Sept. 11, 2001, my office realized that CIA analysts were suppressing some of their information. They excluded reports conflicting with their favored theory: that the secular Iraqi Baathist regime would not cooperate with al-Qaeda jihadists. (We now face a strategic alliance of jihadists and former Baathists in Iraq.)

What Feith is suggesting with his little aside is that he was right all along. He conveniently leaves out the events of the last five years, events that he helped foment with the help of the other neocon nitwits which has brought us to a place where former Baathists will now ally with jihadists.

Look, before we got there, there was no Iraq - al-Qaeda relationship. The Baathists would have never considered an alliance with al-Qaeda because they were firmly in charge of the place getting fat on oil wealth. Why on earth would they invite in a bunch of nut jobs who would eventually threaten their way of life. They wouldn't, they didn't.

Now, however they will because after years of being on top, they're on the outside looking in. It's that same old the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing. Is this too difficult to understand? Al-Qaeda is in Iraq because we let them in. It is our fault for upsetting the applecart and creating bedlam in a country that was in no way a direct or indirect threat to the US.

Yes, I understand that even the Clenis had similar thinkings about Saddam Hussein. He just wasn't dumb enough to send in ground troops when the situation was clearly contained. Feith and his brethren were that stupid and now he whines in the WAPO when it is pointed out for all to see in a report by the Pentagon's Inspector General.

Feith now claims this is all political. To a degree he's right, but only because the folks on his side of the aisle are complicit in this administrations failures by refusing to point them out. Just because his detractors are of the opposite party from his doesn't make him any less of a fuck-up. That distinction he earned all on his own.

Douglas Feith, still the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the planet.

Newsweek: The Slowest And Wrongest, What A Great Combo!

Ah, Newsweek. Only four days behind the Pelosi story and they still manage to get it wrong. Enjoy your long slow death, print weeklies.

Found Via Greg Sargent

Can You Get My Half-Retarded Third Cousin A Job?

What, we're out of government jobs we can give our slack-jawed supporters? Can't we just create some more bureaucracy at the DHS? No? Well, I guess we'll just have to start firing well qualified folks over at the US Attorney's office because one of Karl Rove's rhubarb buddies needs a j-o-b. From McClatchy:

In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, [Deputy Attorney General Paul]McNulty conceded that H.E. "Bud" Cummins, the former U.S. attorney in Arkansas, wasn't fired because of how he handled his job. Rather, McNulty said, administration officials wanted to make room for Timothy Griffin, a former aide of presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Well, my half-retarded third cousin doesn't have the credentials to hold down an US Attorney job, but neither does Griffin. Still, isn't there some sort of national water company that the Bushies can find him a job at? If not, can you create one? For this administration, he's definitely Director level material. Just don't tell him it's a recess appointment, unless you want to chase him around the grounds for a couple hours. Really, he's pretty much just like your other hires so I'm sure you're used to it.

Blogofascism At Its Finest

Finally, we get to see some of that good old fashioned blogofascism the right wing always likes to bitch about, and of course, it is perpetrated by the right wing itself.

Amanda Marcotte has resigned from the John Edwards campaign after repeated attacks by such luminaries as Bill Donohue and various other right-wing hacks. From the Washington Post:

Amanda Marcotte, whose writings were assailed as anti-Catholic, wrote yesterday on her blog that the Edwards camp had accepted her resignation. She blamed her most vocal critic, Bill Donohoe, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, writing that he "and his cavalcade of right wing shills don't respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics," which Marcotte described as being "anti-theocracy."

Marcotte charged that Donohoe had been running a "scorched earth campaign" against her and that he "made no bones about the fact that his intent is to 'silence' me. . . . It was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign. . . . Bill Donohue doesn't speak for Catholics, he speaks for the right wing noise machine."

Although I figured this is the way it would eventually go down, it still bothers me that the main-stream media gives fringe elements like the Catholic League the time of day when it comes to this kind of crap.

Even worse, some other group called Fidelis is demanding that the other two top Democrats denounce Edwards for the employment. Who the fuck is Fidelis? I don't know, I've never heard of them until today, but I would say that it is a sad indictment on our society that every pseudo-religious fringe group of dickwits with a website is acknowledged as mainstream when they clearly are not.

Now, Marcotte has even taken down her own website as it is being bombarded with right-wing, oh what's the word I'm searching for, blogofascists.

If I was more of a conspiracy theorists, I would guess that the media is simply doing this because the blogosphere is treading a little to closely to their own hallowed ground, after all, we can't have average citizens taking part in the political arena. But I won't, I still cling to the belief that they are simply lazy, and it is a lot easier to write a story from parroting cunts like Donohue than it is to develop one on your own.

Ice Storm

I really don't expect to have both Internet service or electricity today as a major ice storm is currently hitting my location. We'll see.

Update: Huh, the ice storm turned out to be nothing more than rain here, for now. So much for accuracy in forecasting.

North Korea Disarming?

The AP is reporting that Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill says we have reached a tentative agreement with North Korea to begin its disarmament.

I figured that the North Koreans would be much more agreeable to this after their nuclear test was a failure. It's a situation where luck was on our side. If the bomb would have worked, Kim Jong-Il would have likely displayed more animosity to the parties attempting to disarm it. When the test failed though, they were left standing there with their pants around their ankles.

Hey, it looks like the Bush administration might just get one right.

Iranian Weapons (Updated)

Well, well, well. I'm shocked I tell you, shocked, that Iranian munitions are turning up in Iraq. But just because they are showing up in Iraq doesn't necessarily mean that the Iranian government was involved in getting them there. Every black-market arms dealer in the world is most likely turning dimes into dollars over there, and due to its proximity to Iran, Iranian weapons are most likely to be the weapons of choice.

Are rouge elements of the Iranian military supplying Iraqis with weapons? Probably. But if the Iranian government was involved don't you think they might manufacture such weapons without Iranian markings? I would have to guess they would.

So, what we know for sure is that some Iranian weapons are getting into Iraq. But the Iranians surely wouldn't be selling them directly to the Sunnis who are overwhelmingly responsible for the vast majority of American casualties. Iranian weapons are more likely going to the Shia who are, in turn, stockpiling them or even selling them to their enemies to use on American forces. Unless we go after al-Sadr, why would most Shia even bother to attack Americans. We're sort of doing their dirty work for them when we fight the Sunni led insurgency.

Look, anytime you have a clusterfuck such as Iraq, weapons are going to flow in from all over the globe. I've even heard that the Sunnis have purchased Strella manpads from the Romanian black market and that these are indirectly responsible for the rash of lost helicopters lately. (Flying lower to reduce the threat of surface-to-air missiles raises the threat of being brought down by heavy machine guns. The only way to avoid both is to fly above 12,000 ft where the choppers are less effective.)

Also, over the weekend I heard that the military would produce documents to back up their claims that the Iranian government was involved. None of those documents showed up in the sixteen page power point presentation given to the press, which is available here. Now it is true that if they were included I wouldn't have been able to read them, but someone could and therefore be able to question the legitimacy of those documents.

Update: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace, had the follwing to say today in Australia. From VOA:

"We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran. What I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se (specifically), knows about this," [Pace} said. "It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."

Not quite a ringing endorsement, is it?

Required Reading

Chef Anthony Bourdain has a post up as a guest blogger at Ruhlman about The Food Network.

The Grammy Awards

Before we get into the serious shit today, I have some Grammy notes. First of all, if you are going to drag The Police out of retirement, can you get them to play something other than their worst song ever?

Secondly, is there a more boring man on the planet than John Mayer?

Lastly, I know I'm supposed to, as a good liberal, to thrilled to death that the Dixie Chicks won some the big three awards, but to be honest, that record kinda blows.

I realize that they were treated like shit for their stance on the war, and I feel for them in that regard. I respect anyone willing to take that kind of heat and lose money for taking a stand like that. And for that reason I really wanted to like this record but I just can't get into it.

Quote Of The Day

Guess who said this:

We are very fortunate to have President Bush. Presidents ... have to make decisions and move the country forward, and that's the kind of president I would like to be.

Good luck with that.

Answer in the comments

Wow!

I guess the people who attended Barack Obama's announcement as a candidate for President drew more people than I could tell from watching the video. Taegan Goddard is reporting that the local police estimated the crowd between 15,000 and 17,000. I had thought the number to be about 4,000, but then again, I'm terrible at such estimates.

As for the speech, I thought the speech was very good, if not great by Obama standards. He does tend to set the bar rather high, by most other candidates standards it would have been a home run.

Here is the video

Supporting the Troops By Defunding

Actually, I'm not talking about the "surge" here, but rather I'm referring to the piece of junk pictured below.

The V-22 Osprey has once again been grounded. From The Washington Post:

The Marine Corps said yesterday it was temporarily grounding its fleet of V-22 Osprey tilt rotors after discovering a glitch in a computer chip that could cause the aircraft to lose control.

The order affects 54 of the helicopter-airplane hybrids -- 46 owned by the Marines and eight belonging to the Air Force -- and could last weeks, Marine Corps officials said. It was an unexpected setback for the program; the military last grounded the fleet in 2000 after two fatal crashes that killed 23 Marines.

If Congress is serious about supporting the troops, they should kill this program before it kills anymore of the troops. This thing has been in development for twenty years and we have spent God knows how much money and for what? The Osprey is still a flying deathtrap, and that's during peacetime.

Well guess what, the Marines are planning on deploying this piece of shit to Iraq this summer. If you think the insurgents are improving their techniques for shooting down helicopters, just wait until this thing gets introduced. Stop this from happening, kill the Osprey program.

Majority Has Its Privileges

I like it.

Going To Ground...Someday

A Los Angeles judge has ordered the body of Anna Nicole Smith to be preserved until at least after a Feb. 20th hearing.

So, who do you think is going to make it into the ground first? Anna Nicole Smith, or James Brown. And before you ask, no, they still haven't found a hole to throw the The Godfather of Soul into.

So, what do you think? Who dances with the dirt first?

Required Reading

Check these two long articles in the upcoming Vanity Fair here and here.

Catching Up

Since I've not been blogging the past couple of days, I do want to take time to comment on two ridiculous stories that bubbled up in the media during that time.

The first one is about the Edwards campaign bloggers Amanda Marcotte (Pandagon) and Melissa McEwan (Shakespear's Sister). Noted bigot and president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, attacked the Edwards campaign for hiring the two because of "controversial" postings the two made on their own private blogs before being retained by Edwards.

For a while, their fate with the campaign seemed to hang in the balance. Luckily for Edwards, he decided to keep the pair. Any candidate looking weak in the face of silly right-wing bitches like Donohue isn't going to make it through the nominating process.

That being said, didn't whoever hired these two, and I assume it wasn't Edwards himself, consider past remarks they have made? While I think their remarks were insignificant and to be honest, rather pale by blogging standards, apparently the Edwards campaign took them fairly seriously as it took them a day and a half to meaningfully respond to them.

The other story that came up was Nancy Pelosi's request for a plane that could make the trans-continental flight from DC to her district in Northern California. I actually didn't know this, but since 9/11 the Speaker of the House flies on military provided aircraft. Since former Speaker Dennis Hastert only lived in Illinois, the same plane he used will not reach California without having to refuel. None the less, the right-wing noise machine cried foul. silly lot that they are, they have been rebuked by everyone from the House Sargent At Arms to even the president's spokesman, Tony Snow.

You gotta find something to bitch about, I guess, and they're going to have a tougher time than we did in the minority. There just aren't enough corrupt bastards on the Democratic side to bitch about. I guess in that respect, we had it easy.

Rocky Times For The OSP

Remember the White Office For Special Plans? It's the group that brought us the flaming turd that is the Iraq war and all of its glory. Well, the Pentagon's Inspector General has released a report declaring that the OSP's manipulation of the pre-war intelligence was "inappropriate, but legal."

Not so fast says Senate Inelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller who released this brief statement. From TPM Muckraker:

“The IG has concluded that this office was engaged in intelligence activities. The Senate Intelligence Committee was never informed of these activities. Whether these actions were authorized or not, it appears that they were not in compliance with the law.

“In the coming days, I will carefully review all aspects of the report and will consult with Vice Chairman Bond to determine whether any additional action by the Senate Intelligence Committee is warranted.”

Careful review indeed! I can't wait to see these jackasses go before the committee for questioning. Should be a hoot though they would be wise to take a cue from Dave Chappelle and plead the fizzifth.

An Interrogator Speaks

If there is a must read in today's papers, it is certainly the Op-Ed penned by Eric Fair, an interrogator in 2004 who worked with the 82nd Airborne in Iraq. From The Washington Post:

American authorities continue to insist that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident in an otherwise well-run detention system. That insistence, however, stands in sharp contrast to my own experiences as an interrogator in Iraq. I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking. Aggressive, and in many ways abusive, techniques were used daily in Iraq, all in the name of acquiring the intelligence necessary to bring an end to the insurgency. The violence raging there today is evidence that those tactics never worked. My memories are evidence that those tactics were terribly wrong.

While I was appalled by the conduct of my friends and colleagues, I lacked the courage to challenge the status quo. That was a failure of character and in many ways made me complicit in what went on. I'm ashamed of that failure, but as time passes, and as the memories of what I saw in Iraq continue to infect my every thought, I'm becoming more ashamed of my silence.

It is often said yet rarely heeded, torture inflicts long term damage not only on the victim, but the torturer as well. Mr. Fair is now coming to grips with that, and hopefully his speaking out will prevent others from being forced to go down that road.

I'm Back

I have largely refrained from blogging the past two days for a couple of reasons. One, I was having some connectivity problems yesterday which took most of the day to repair after a power surge. That probably wouldn't have mattered much though because I sustained second-degree burns on several of my fingers a couple of days ago which made typing rather painful.

Anyway, it no longer feels like I am typing on a bed of needles so the posts should pick up.

Hello

Hey, it looks like my ISP is working again!

For The Locals

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to evacuate the city after an immediate impact cataclysmic event such as a terrorist attack or radiation leak, yesterday's evening commute provided as close an approximation as you can get without actually conducting a city wide drill which is, of course, logistically impossible. In fact, it is probably a better approximation than a drill.

Since this was indeed the case, I'm wondering if the city will be conducting any research into the traffic patterns that emerged last night because what happened yesterday would make an excellent test case for future evacuation planning.

The reason yesterday's commute would provide insight into how an actual emergency evacuation might look is that people don't simply head out of the city. They have loved ones, pets, and even valuables that they simply will not leave without. That will create the sort of cross-town clusterfuck like we experienced last night. It's worth looking into.

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Spaces

There is a pretty funny story in the New York Times about astronaut U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak who drove from Houston to Orlando to confront a potential romantic rival for fellow astronaut Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein.

Nowak, who apparently had no time to spare, reportedly wore diapers to avoid stopping for restroom breaks.

The whole story is odd, these people go through some pretty serious psychological evaluations before they ever get to go up into space, but judging from Nowak's photo, she has lost it since her last flight back in July of 2006, not that anybody's mugshot looks good.

Bomber?

American intelligence says this man, Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, was convicted of bombing American and French embassies in the eighties. He now sits in the Iraqi parliament, and because of that, American authorities say they cannot arrest him as he has immunity from prosecution.

Funny how the administration picks and chooses which foreign officials have diplomatic immunity and which do not, isn't it? After all, didn't we hang the former president of the country?

Personally, I think we should have snatched him up when he played the Super Bowl halftime show the other day.

Umm, No

Stuart Elliot of the New York Times watched the commercials for the Super Bowl last night and decided that the subtext of many of them was the ongoing war in Iraq. I have no idea what the hell he is thinking. These ads didn't have a damn thing to do with Iraq. From The NY Times:

No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.

More than a dozen spots celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.

For instance, in a commercial for Bud Light beer, sold by Anheuser-Busch, one man beat the other at a game of rock, paper, scissors by throwing a rock at his opponent’s head.

Look, there are two elements that can be used in a great Super Bowl ad, hot chicks and humor. And if you're going to go the humor route you have to keep it simple. Nothing is more simple, and for that matter nothing is more simple and hilarious than a guy getting conked on the head. Period.

You can't do clever and you can't do high brow comedy in a Super Bowl ad because people aren't going to be thinking about you're ad while the next one is on. You're ad has to be instantaneous in getting the laugh. Because of that, you almost have to go for guttural cartoonish violence to have a great ad. That's why the aforementioned rock ad worked as well as the following Doritos ad. It's why the fighting robots ad fell short, too much thinking. They might have well just had one robot step on the other and then flash "pwned" up on the screen.

I'm not saying only dumb people watch the Super Bowl, that's not true. But, you are expanding into a large demographic of people who don't go to Super Bowl parties to think. They want blunt instant gratification.

Now, if you can combine hot chicks with cartoonish violence, then you've hit a home run. Think about it, one of the most widely panned ads, at least in the left blogosphere was the Katie Couric ad for the CBS Evening News. Wouldn't that ad been a lot better if she would have gotten conked on the head?

The Death Of 527s

The Club For Growth has become one in a long lines of activist organizations to reorganize as a 501(c)(4). What we are seeing here is the end of the 527 as a political organization.

The reasons for this are three-fold. First, 501(c)(4) groups do not have to disclose donors, though they cannot accept corporate donations.

Secondly, being organized as a 501(c)(4) gives groups much more flexibility to engage in a greater variety of political activities than that of a 527, especially when it comes to advertising.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, 501(c)(4)s have already received a Supreme Court ruling that guarantees their right to operate in this manner. Continuing to operate as a 527 will likely lead to immense court costs as Congress tries to rein in these organization which makes little sense when it is cheaper to reorganize as a 501(c)(4).

To be honest, I never really understood why 527s popped up in the first place when 501(c)(4)s already existed. Anyway, the politics of money just got a little more secretive. It's what happens when you try to legislate money out of politics, it will always find another path to the door, and it is often a worse path than the one you diverted.

Super Bore

After an exciting first quarter, the Super Bowl settled into what Super Bowls usually are, rather dull. The game was really over after the Colts first drive in the third quarter leaving only the commercials to keep my interests. Unfortunately, the commercials weren't much better than the game. Overall, a disappointing experience.

The Zoo Crew

Is this a joke? From the Washington Post:

The State Department has sent new "tiger teams" to six Iraqi ministries to help clear away the wreckage of the past and speed financing for approved projects, and it plans to double to 20 the number of U.S.-staffed provisional reconstruction teams in Baghdad and around the country.

In addition to Foreign Service officers, experts including small-business advisers and camel veterinarians are being recruited from the U.S. Agriculture Department and elsewhere to staff the teams, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, David Satterfield, told Congress last week.

That ought to get the country moving forward again. Seriously though, don't these guys know how to prioritize anything? This would seem very low on the list.

Bob Odenkirk

Here is, in two parts, a pilot made by Bob Odenkirk. I wish this would have made it to TV.

Silly Laws: Super Bowl Edition

As you probably know, I'm no fan of the Christian right and mega-churches in general, but this is ridiculous. From The LA Times:

It was to have been a wholesome evening of fellowship and football.

And it would have been illegal.

Farmland Friends on Friday joined churches nationwide in abruptly canceling its Super Bowl party for fear of violating a federal copyright law that prohibits public venues from showing NFL games on big-screen TVs.

Sports bars are specifically exempted. Churches are not.

The law has been widely ignored for years. Churches routinely draw hundreds of fans to annual Super Bowl parties; some denominations openly use the events as tools for evangelism. The Christian magazine Sports Spectrum even markets a Super Bowl party kit for churches. This year, however, a celebration sponsored by Falls Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis caught the attention of a National Football League attorney, Rachel L. Margolies.

She ordered the church to cancel its party and remove the trademarked Super Bowl name from its website. The Indianapolis Star picked up the story Thursday — and by Friday, pastors across Indiana and beyond were scrambling to yank down their Super Bowl banners and give away their trays of burgers.

A few things about this law which was enacted around forty years ago and limits the television size to 55 inches. It's archaic. Damn near everybody goes to a Superbowl party of some sort nowadays. Secondly, wow, who was worried about TVs larger than 55 inches forty years ago. Hell, most people were still watching black and white models back then.

Lastly, damn near a billion people watch the Superbowl world wide, what the hell is the NFL doing enforcing this anyway?

Oh, and go Bears!

Found via Kevin Drum

Iraq: The Longest Six Months You've Ever Seen

You've probably read that the surge is supposed to take somewhere between six to eight months and that this is our last, last chance. Don't you believe it. How do I know? Take a look at the administration's budget requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. From the Dispatch:

The Bush administration will ask for another $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior administration official said Friday.

The requests Monday, to accompany President Bush's budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, would bring the total appropriations for 2007 to about $170 billion, with a slight decline the following year.

That's a lot of cash to be spending after our last, last chance, don't you think? I mean, either the surge works and we can turn the country over to the Iraqis or it doesn't work and it was our last chance, right? Oh, and don't tell me about contingencies, this administration doesn't do contingencies.

I'm pretty sure the administration knows they are leaving this mess for the next one, and really, it's clear they also know what the next one will do too. The request for 2009 is only $50 billion.

Puxy, PA

Oh did I forget to mention how happy I am that the oversized rat didn't see his shadow today? I am sick of Winter already and I see we have days ahead with highs in the teens. Ugh.

Send Me The Cash

Since the American Enterprise Institute is offering $10,000 to disprove the new UN report on climate released today, I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring to try to claim the cash. I've been working on two competing theories that are rather simple so that even the AEI can understand them.

The first is that there simply are not enough white people in the world, or conversely, there are too many non-white people in the world, especially Arabs Everybody knows that white people reflect the Sun's radiant energy back into space while those of darker skin tone absorb more of that energy, especially Arabs.

I suggest that this course could be reversed through the implementation of injecting depleted uranium into these darker skinned energy absorbers at a rather high velocity, especially Arabs. This would help to even out the white people to less white people ratio and thus end global warming.

There, that's it. I can't help but believe that $10,000 is mine given the shit that comes out of the AEI on a regular basis. Screw the $10,000, that tripe ought to get me a fellowship at that stink tank provided I can prove I didn't rework a Michael Ledeen essay which, while I don't think I have, it is certainly a possibility because this so closely mirrors the majority of the body of his work.

My other theory revolves around the equally less proven fact that mercury has developed a resistance to gravity. If we would just turn our thermometers upside-down it would prove that the world is actually cooling. As for electronic thermometers, well, I'm still trying to hash that out.

Somebody Is Trying To Win A Darwin Award

I'd hate to be the first one to experience an equipment failure.

We Have To Attack Iran

Don't you see, you fools? Sure some thought it might take a decade, others thought months, but after yesterday's events in Boston it is perfectly clear that the Iranians already have Lite-Brite™ technology! Who are you going to trust? The eggheads involved in our intelligence agencies or your own lying eyes?

It's not just that they just have the ability to manufacture Lite-Brites™, They've already figured out how to make flashing Lite-Brites™. Fucking flashing Lite-Brites™. Even worse, they've somehow managed to smuggle these into our homeland. Jesus, it might already be too late.

Oh, and don't you believe that shit the liberal media is telling you. Sure, they say this was a guerrilla marketing tactic for a movie. Yea right, a movie I've never heard of based on a cartoon character I've never heard of. Bullshit! Those hipper than thou fucks would like you to believe there are super cool cartoons out there you've never seen. Such liars.

Maybe they are just trying not to panic the nation, then again maybe they are in on it. You know how much the mainstream media loves the terrorists.

That's why we must attack now. Today it might just be an anthropomorphic, Atari looking, motherfucking Lite-Brite™ flipping you the middle of his? three fingers, but tomorrow it could be, like, I dunno, a fucking sailboat Lite-Brite™! A fucking flashing sailboat Lite-Brite™, at that.

And did you see how easy it was to put them on our bridges! These may very well be remote controlled flying flashing Lite-Brites™ we are dealing with. How else would they get up there?

They even have the technology to build an erupting volcano Lite-Brite™. Don't believe me?

I bet you're pissing your pants now, huh? Better now though than when a fucking flashing flying Lite-Brite™ Volcano starts dropping piping hot magma on your head. Then you'd be fucked.

Demand action today, or there shall not be a tomorrow.