Sorry for the lack of posting. Had a family emergency come up in the middle of a vacation. Back to bidness on Saturday, although I may try and comment on Preznit Bunnypants tonight, if I can.

For One Pissed off Veteran, a "new kid" on the block, but another vet who's about had it. I like his style... :)

Hey, at some point in the next week or two (I really don't remember when since blogspot ate my earliest posts) DemVet will pass three years old. Gee, imagine that. So instead of sending cards, money and gifts do the 'roo hop over to skippy (if you haven't already) and help him reach One Million Hits by his Third Blogiversary. I understand he's pretty close.

Here we'll pass 300,000 served some time in the next couple of weeks, which amazes me. Any ideas about how to reach a bigger audience would be appreciated...I'm probably the only blogger I know whose readership is shrinking as their blogiversary goes by...but I blog to save my TV set from my steeltoed flight boots so don't look for me to give up any time soon.

Thanks y'all (they say that down here) for hanging in with me, leaving great comments and sending great emails! Here's to keepin' on keepin' on through at least 2008 when we reclaim it all!

Note to all you he-men, self-reliant, macho conservatives who "just want Gubmint" out of your lives...it's time to either take back your party or switch. Because the era of Huuuuge Government is here, and it's coming for you (and your offspring).

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

According to the Federal Register notice, the data will be open to "those who require the records in the performance of their official duties." It said the data would be protected by passwords.

The system also gives the Pentagon the right, without notifying citizens, to share the data for numerous uses outside the military, including with law enforcement, state tax authorities and Congress.

And we all know that no congresscriminal on behalf of some contributor would ever pass a law allowing said contributor to have access to all that data just languishing around, would they SENATOR BIDEN, PA LLC a wholly-owned and operated subsidiary of the Banking Industry. Nope, never happen. Not.

Let's see, bet SOME of the passwords protecting the data will be mmmm, 'ContributeCash!', 'junket', 'boondoggle', and 'joebiden'. Just sayin'.

Once again, another Bobo the Chickenhawk Speaks...

On the one hand, there are signs of progress. U.S. forces have completed a series of successful operations, among them Operation Spear in western Iraq, where at least 60 insurgents were killed and 100 captured, and Operation Lightning in Baghdad, with over 500 arrests. American forces now hold at least 14,000 suspected insurgents, and have captured about two dozen lieutenants of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

It's just wrong to seek withdrawal now, when the outcome of the war is unknowable and when the consequences of defeat are so vast.

Some of you will respond that this is easy for me to say, since I'm not over there. All I'd say is that we live in a democracy, where decisions are made by all. Besides, the vast majority of those serving in Iraq, and their families, said they voted to re-elect President Bush. They seem to want to finish the job.

Others will say we shouldn't be there in the first place. You may be right. Time will tell. But right now, this isn't about your personal vindication. It's about victory for the forces of decency and defeating those, like Zarqawi, who would be attacking us in any case.

And once again, like all the other wingnut pundits big and small, Brooks manages to opine on the need for staying the course without ever making a call for his true-believer readers to head on down and sign up, thus ensuring that that man or woman who has now been to Iraq two or three times knows that they'll come home for the last time without having to face another tour in the sand, because help is on the way.

But since Bobo speaks for his "personal vindication" (and suburbia of course), we know where his loyalties lie and it's not with the Army's accession and retention issues...

From Andante at Collective Sigh:

He coulda been a contender

What Durbin should have said (thanks to Bryan for the inspiration) -

Some of my distinguished colleagues on the other side of the aisle have taken exception to my description of activities at Guantanamo and have demanded an apology.

After careful consideration and a re-reading of my words, I agree.

I apologize to the FBI agent who was exposed to something no dedicated government employee should ever have to witness - the debasement of his country's principles.

I further apologize to him that some of his elected representatives have chosen to twist the words of a dedicated public servant who was only doing his job.

I apologize to our troops around the world who face danger and death with great bravery. Our mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere has made their job harder and much more dangerous.

I also apologize to the American people, who have been tricked into supporting an unsustainable, unjustified war that has cost over seventeen-hundred American lives and billions of taxpayer dollars.

I apologize to all those abroad who once looked to America as a beacon of liberty and human rights; we have been dragged into the depths of depravity by our own fears.

We can - and will - do better. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with me to seek ways to restore America's honor, make amends for our grievous violations of human rights and dignity, seek swift punishment for those responsible - no matter how high - and restore America to that "shining city upon a hill".

The report from the Pentagram General who ran the investigaton of the religious problems at the Air Force Academy looks pretty much like the local ringknocker society protecting its' own.

The U.S. Air Force Academy failed to accommodate minority beliefs but there is no overt religious discrimination at the college, an Air Force report on the religious climate at the institution said on Wednesday.
...
"There was a lack of awareness on the part of some faculty and staff, and perhaps cadets in positions of authority, as to what constitutes appropriate expressions of faith, particularly in this setting: in superior-subordinate relationships in a government institution," Air Force Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, who headed the report, told a
Pentagon briefing.
...
A team from Yale Divinity School said in April it found evangelical Christian proselytizing commonplace at the academy, which has about 4,400 students, and cited "stridently evangelical themes" by staff. The team described a campus chaplain telling cadets they would "burn in the fires of hell" if they were not born-again Christians.

The Air Force report said that it found "the root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination." Brady said problems were neither pervasive nor institutionalized, and that faculty and staff who acted inappropriately did not do so with malice.
...
The religious bias investigation followed a decade of sexual assaults and harassment against female cadets at the academy that a Pentagon report last December blamed on leadership failures by top Air Force officials.

Brady's report found a "perception of religious intolerance" at the academy, and called for new guidelines for commanders and supervisors on appropriate religious expression as well as training in religious diversity and respect.

The Navy has taken it's lumps at Annapolis, but I don't seem to hear that they have anymore than the occasional "honors" scandal, the same at West Point. My community, Naval Aviation took it in the shorts with the whole "Tailhook" scandal...but took the "lessons learned" for what they were worth and moved on.

The Air Force has this seemingly blind spot about their Academy, that it's some kind of breeding ground for some kind of infalliable warriors or something. That attitude, has in my opinion, contributed to the problems that they are having now...

And that's a shame, I know many good AFA grads who probably don't like being tarred with this brush, but are getting tainted all the same.

Unfortunately, I don't think that either the Air Force leadership or Congress will take the requisite actions to make a real, lasting change for the better of their Academy. A few classes and some sensitivity training aren't going to cut it. Some "slash and burn" leadership needs to take place if anyone is going to take any changes seriously. If they need a historical example of how it can be done, they should study the tenure of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (remember Z-Grams?), when he was CNO. Love him or hate him, and many were in both camps, his leadership changed the Navy for the better, and made it a place to be proud of, not just a place to be from. The Air Force could learn something from him, if they're not too proud to stand down and take a lesson.

All that's missing from this story is the location of some warehouse where Abramoff, Delay and all the others involved in fleecing this Native American tribe were keeping smallpox-laden blankets to eliminate the benficiaries of their "benevolence" after they extracted their last dime.

A former Republican lobbyist and his partner pocketed $6.5 million of the $7.7 million in consulting fees they received from a Mississippi Indian tribe in 2001 while congratulating themselves on their "gimme five" relationship, according to e-mails released today by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
...
McCain said that Abramoff had directed the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to hire Scanlon for consulting work, but never revealed to the tribe that they had a secret partnership, which they called "gimme five," according to the e-mails released today. Whenever Scanlon pitched his services to a client, Abramoff would remind him of their extra profits. On Aug. 16, 2001, Abramoff wrote to Scanlon, "Don't forget the gimme five aspects." On Oct. 17, 2001, Abramoff wrote, "So there is more gimme five coming on all these as well, right?"
...
In March, The Washington Post reported that the Choctaw and a gambling services company made donations to Ridenour's group covering most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000.
...

Ridenour said in written testimony that at the time she invited DeLay on the trip, "I did not know we would be receiving contributions from the Mississippi Choctaws that year."

The trip came two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company, eLottery Inc. A person involved in arranging DeLay's travel for the National Center said that Abramoff had suggested the trip and then arranged for checks to be sent by two of his clients, the Choctaw and eLottery. The dates on the checks coincided with the day DeLay left on the trip, May 25, 2000.

I wonder if the Tribes can get any of their money back?

If the most positive measure of the 1600 Crew was incredible incompetance, they'd be sure-fire winners for any Incompetence Award imaginable.

The diversion of assets and funding from Afghanistan to Iraq has been not only deadly, but wholly unconscionable. Read this story, then think about this: the patrol was sent out by helicopter to catch a Taliban bad-guy. Remember, al-Qaeda supported by the Taliban in Afghanistan (and the mullahs in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan our dear, dear GWOT allies) were responsible for the attacks on 9/11. We invaded Afghanistan to rid it of both the Talib and al-Qaeda influences. So off this patrol goes to do a little "hearts and minds" thing, and look for the bad guy. Arriving in the village, they find he's not there. A report comes in that he may be in the wind in another village and

Back in Badamtoy, Stammer and his men were settling in the next morning for a long wait for a helicopter to ferry them back to the base when their banter was interrupted by one of the radio operators. A report had just come through that Akundzada might be in a village called Kawti, just a few miles north.

Stammer instantly switched into battle mode, directing his men to draw up plans for a multi-pronged assault including Afghan security forces and to arrange for Chinook helicopters to transport them to the site.

A few hours before sunset, the group trekked up a hill to board a Chinook. But the new village turned out to like the previous one: a series of humble, mud-walled compounds occupied by passive, if slightly less welcoming, farmers. Akundzada had slipped through their fingers again.

Really, what kind of war are we fighting and who is really in charge? The diversion of assets from Afghanistan to Iraq ought to have been enough to get the 1600 Crew kicked out. Unfortunately, the republican noise machine made sure it wasn't, and now we're left with not just one, but two battles which are not being effectively prosecuted by virtue poor leadership at the very top and an unwillingness to accept any course correction for fear it would be tantamount to an admission of failure. By an Utter Failure.

John Tierney is so clueless. I wonder how he got the job at the Times. I love this line in his latest column.

We need to rethink the old assumption that employees keep getting raises throughout their careers.

Just like this.

Now, all my liberal Veteran bretheran, you'll be happy to know that Young Paul considers us to be (wait for it) Domestic Terrarists™. Yes, that's right. We are Domestic Terrarists™. How fucking sad is that? And not just any old domestic terrarists™, but hippy-left domestic terrarists™.

Why are we such unsavory people?

Leftist hippies are the real threat to America - these "domestic terrorists" wish to destroy our country. They hope to remove everything we stand for. They strive the adoption of French as our national language and the forced conversion of the country to Islam.

After breathless quote after quote making excuses for not enlisting, there's this little gem at the end of his tirade:

I do support the troops and I support their efforts to defend America. I support military action wherever it takes us when the cause is good and just. I am a proud American. If I was asked by my country to join the military in order to preserve these great traditions we share, I would do so in a heartbeat. I salute those men and women who do make the choice to serve in the armed forces and will always continue to be a strong supporter of their efforts.

Another interesting and frightening note in the Junior Gentry Screed is his calling other members of his jugend "Brother Knight". I'm wondering, do they do torchlight marches and swear blood oathes to Beloved Leader in dark castles at midnight gathered around their video-game consoles?

John (Birch) Bolton and his moustache got defeated (again) for a vote to the UN. Preznit Ding-Dong makes a recess appointment, as he's extremely likely to do.

US goes to the UN for help with the Mess in Mesopotamia as many are now postulating as a possible exit strategy.

What UN?

Hmmm.

In his closest-ever encounter with danger, Preznit Yellow Stripe hosted the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Who I am sure refrained from any Vietnam/Iraq analogies, after all, he's a diplomat not a John Bolton. The Vietnamese Premier bought four Boeing 787's for their state airline, met with Bill Gates, is going to ring the bell on the NYSE and had a word for Preznit Fraidy Pants:

"We have a population of 80 million people, which means a huge market for American businesses," Khai said.

So there's always that, now the Spin Machine can pack the 1st Lieutenant Codpiece Commando off to Ho Chi Minh City with a Flight Jacket and supply of airsickness pills and then claim that he really went to 'Nam. Peggy Noonan will have her first orgasm since dreaming of St Ronnies shoes.

President Bush, speaking after an historic meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai at the White House today, announced he will visit Vietnam in 2006 on the invitation of the communist leader.

I don't want to know anything about Our Lady of the Dolphins...

Lincoln Chafee (R-Dunce) is a sitting US Senator and he says this about the Bolton nomination:

One Republican, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who has said he is uncomfortable with Mr. Bolton's nomination but supports it because he believes Mr. Bush has the right to appoint his own team, said he saw another way to resolve the dispute.

"The other way," Mr. Chafee said, "would be to release the papers."

"release the papers". Dumber than Inhofe, Allen, Sessions and Preznit Lucky Sperm put together. I weep.

A tip of the piss-cutter to my new bestest friend in blogtopia (y!sctp!)The Burned Over District. What a shameful story...

John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father's Day worrying about his son's pending date with the war in Iraq.

Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments.

Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival.

The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.

"He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had," Tod said.

Total estimated cost: $600.

Tod said his son's call about two weeks ago from the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma was a sobering reminder that the military is not prepared to equip Pfc. Tod and fellow Marines with the best equipment.

It's not new news that families have been sending body armor over to Iraq to keep their loved ones alive, but this is the first time I have heard of an official directive from someone's chain of command to buy their own body armor. To the tune of $600. Newsflash for all the overpaid pundits out there, $600 is probably pretty close to a paycheck for some junior enlisteds. And it's quite a hit for those with families i.e. wives and kids.

So, how 'bout them Yellow Ribbons, you Yellow Elephants? is this called "supporting our troops" or is this called "I got my tax-cut, You got no Armor" to the tune of Eddie Murphy's "Ice Cream Man"?

Dear Senator Biden,

After reading this story I just had to paraphrase the infamous quote of the Lady in Red:

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said yesterday he plans to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 unless he decides later this year that he has little chance of winning.

Just Say Fuck NO!

If we wanted a purchased politician, we'd elect a republican. Go back to funneling cash from bankers. Stay out of presidential politics...but I guess if you don't you can always crib an old Ted Kennedy speech or something, after all, about the only bill you haven't supported recently is any anti-plagarism legislation...

Goddamn Andrew Sullivan. I know that some of you get annoyed when I post about that simpering little war-monger, but goddamn it. Arrgh!! He's such a fraud, with such a huge megaphone and ... ARRRRGH!

Sayeth the Jaded Janus today:

My only fear all along is that we might fail.

Under this president, we mean to win. To my mind, that's the surpassing political truth of the current administration and the standard by which any Democrat must be judged

Interesting poll in USA Today: 70 percent think things are going moderately well or very well in Iraq; and 67 percent believe that the administration did not deliberately deceive anyone about the WMD threat from Saddam. If I were to poll my own brain, I'd come up with similar results. Sorry, Paul. Try harder.emphasis added

The key point is that Saddam's Iraq was a clear and present danger in that context.
...
That's why the Bush administration seemed at times to conflate the issue of disarmament and regime change.

"BRING THEM ON": No, I don't think it's merely rhetoric. One of the many layers of the arguments for invading Iraq focused on the difficulties of waging a serious war on terror from a distant remove. Being based in Iraq helpsus notonly because of actual bases; but because the American presence there diverts terrorist attention away from elsewhere. By confronting them directly in Iraq, we get to engage them in a military setting that plays to our strengths rather than to theirs'. Continued conflict in Iraq, in other words, needn't always be bad news. It may be a sign that we are drawing the terrorists out of the woodwork and tackling them in the open.

During training in GITMO for the MP's who "guard" the detainees apparently a drill was run using a soldier the MP "rapid reaction force" did not know. They kicked and beat the living shit out of him. Literally.

Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.
...
The Pentagon initially said that Baker's hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.
...
As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word, "red," and shouted: "I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!" He said the beating continued until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

"While it is unfortunate that Spc. Baker was injured, the standards of professionalism we expect of our soldiers mandate that our training be as realistic as possible," the spokesman said. my emphasis

Hey, I like this blog! Love their "description": Where the fires of the new American revival will burn out the pestilence of the Bushoviks.

And he has "Friday Airplane Blogging"...now that's entertainment!

All Spin Zone. Required reading. Go.

And the Republican Junior Gentry still aren't going. Well, I guess they all wanna be Dick Cheney...five excuses and a swagger that gets kids killed. Yellow Elephants indeed. Heh.

The ultra-right wingnuts in outer Wingnuttia are so spun up over Dick Durbin's comments as they try and deflect the news that Preznit Lucky Sperm is going down faster in the polls than Mary Carey in their favorite hot girl-on-girl porn movie. Mark Steyn writing in the Chicago Sun-Times seems to have forgotten something when he wrote this:

This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing; it's about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they've signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe.

The veteran republican is also admitting for the first time that the impeachment of Clinton may have been in part political revenge against the democrats for the impeachment proceedings against GOP President Richard Nixon 25 years earlier. *

"Was this pay back?" asked Andy Shaw.

"I can't say it wasn't."

Hey, it's a shame about those poll numbers, isn't it?

Okay, so the republicans behind the leadership of Dr. Kit E. Killer are going to force another vote on John Bolton.

Senate Republicans will make a second attempt on Monday to break a Democratic filibuster blocking a confirmation vote on John R. Bolton, President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador, Majority Leader Bill Frist (D-Tenn.) announced Thursday.

Democrats said they were ready. "It's unlikely that [Republicans] will have the votes on Monday," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). He said the party rank and file were united in efforts to gain access to information from the Bush administration about Bolton, some of it highly sensitive.
...
A second straight defeat could force President Bush to decide whether to withdraw the nomination, authorize further concessions to the Democrats, or possibly bypass the Senate and install Bolton by giving him a recess appointment during Congress' Fourth of July break.

I really don't think that there's been a President, even Nixon, who hated the democratic processes of our government more than this idiot. He really does aspire to dictatorship, no wonder Sensenbrenner wants to repeal the 22nd amendment, they could keep this idiot around forever or until another genetically impaired Bush was ready to be ascendant.

Gee, wish I could say that this surprised me. But an administration that lies about the need to send troops into combat to invade a sovereign country, rewrites scientific reports on global warming, promotes abstinence instead of condoms as an alternative to normal teenage behavior...it really shouldn't surprise anyone that they'd do this: lie yet again, oh sorry, modify the facts to suit the situation.

The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study.

A government biologist and a hydrologist, who both retired this year from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said their conclusions that the proposed rules might adversely affect water quality and wildlife, including endangered species, were excised and replaced with language justifying less stringent regulations, which are favored by cattle ranchers.

It's almost as though there ought to be a new cabinet post in the 1600 Crew: Secretary for Psuedo-scientific Investigation. Then at least we'd all know when the bullshit was officially sanctioned instead of just sort of snuck in through the back door like it is now.

I have to wonder, from reading accounts of the way operations go in Iraq, what happens after this?

About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops mounted a fresh assault on insurgents early Friday on the border with Syria, the U.S. military announced.

The push by Marines and sailors with Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division, in tandem with Iraqi soldiers, "began in the early morning hours aimed at rooting out terrorists, foreign fighters and disrupting terrorist support systems in and around Karabilah," according to a Marine statement.

But once "Operation Spear" is over, and all the 1,000 or so troops head back to whereever they came from, who or what fills in the void and prevents the return of the "terrorists, foreign fighters and ... terrorist support systems"? Methinks that General Shinseki and others have been sacked for asking just that question. How long until the sacrifice of those troops involved in this operation and others is laid once and for all at the feet of the 1600 Crew, it's PNAC War Monger master and the utterly indefensible Pentagon Chickenhawks?

Not soon enough...

Damn, even Hacktackular Howie Kurtz gets the whole "missing White Women" thing that the Cable News shows focus on.

I've fulminated on this subject before, but I've got to say, when you look at which missing-persons stories get heavily covered (female, white, usually middle class) and those that don't, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that selective news judgment is at work.

If there's a logical explanation for this, I've yet to hear it. And after JonBenet Ramsey, Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart, Jennifer Wilbanks, Natalee Holloway, etc., the pattern is unmistakable. In fact, I tried to look for stories about Holloway for the past month and Nexis interrupted my search, saying it would return more than 1,000 documents.

Here's the USA Today piece by Mark Memmott that got me thinking anew about this:

"Tamika Huston's family reported her missing a year ago this week.

"When police in Spartanburg, S.C., began investigating the 24-year-old woman's disappearance, her loved ones swung into action. They distributed fliers, held news conferences and set up a Web site. Huston's story became a cause célèbre in the local media.
...
"Rebkah Howard, Huston's aunt and a public relations professional in Miami, tried to get the national media interested in the case. 'I spent three weeks calling the cable networks, calling newspapers -- even yours,' Howard said this week.

"Not much happened.
...
"Tamika Huston is black."

I don't know if this is worth putting forth, but with recent polls indicating that the American Public is beginning to get (on some level) that Preznit Whale Shit and the Congress Criminals and all their apparatchiks from the judiciary to the K-Street goons are less-than-savory, maybe it's time to look at/for themes for the Democratic Party.

Remembering that in 1994 the republicans used a document that's been violated more times than Colin Powell's personal integrity, the "Contract with America" to roll into power, perhaps it's time to put forth our own easy-to-understand document that we can both live up to and hold forth as the gold standard of Democrats and what we stand for.

So, I humbly suggest this: The Covenant for Democracy. Make it simple, something that reinforces our belief that we don't believe that the Government belongs in our lives in any way other than as envisioned by the Founding Fathers and that provides a visceral comfort to all but the most extreme right-wingers that we are not planning on re-inventing the Great Society, but instead we're intent on regaining the America we all grew up in, where we could be truly free and unafraid of our Government.

Covenant for Democracy:
(1) We believe that no law made by the Federal Government should supersede the individuals right to excercise their constitutional rights as they see fit.

(2) The ultimate goal of the covenant is to return control of the Federal Government to the people.

(3) Excessive Governmental secrecy is in instrument for the invasion of privacy and personal rights on every level. We will work to end practices which encourage the Federal Government to not allow full-disclosure of matters which are funded by tax dollars.

(4) Every citizen has a right to know where their tax dollars go. Only by knowing and understanding government spending can deficits and taxes be reduced.

(5) We will be more accountable to constituents by spending less time taking company-sponsored trips to luxury resorts and vacation destinations and more time in our states and districts.

(6) We will hold ourselves accountable at every election by taking direct responsibilty for what we have done. We will not blame the "other guy" for our failures because it's our responsibility to work with every member of congress in the interests of all Americans.

OK. So that's my input/suggestion whatever.

I realize that I don't have the reach of Atrios or Kos, but damn you all are loyal and smart (sometimes I think I have some of the smartest readers out there). Give me some input, spread this around...maybe we can make this a netroots contribution that might help us make inroads into the House and Senate both at the DC level, and in state capitals as well.

It all starts with an idea and a printing press sometimes. Can ya help out an old sailor here? I want my country back.

I just know that Kos is on his way to see his family doc to get a scrip for the anti-depressants and anxiety meds he's sure to need now that he's gotten a "Moore" award from the Duchess, and I'm sure that Kos is waiting with baited breath for HRM to retract those slings and arrows...

I look forward to his clarification on these lines and will happily link to it if it appears and withdraw his award nomination.

Maybe Andrew can go take reading lessons from his hero, they can start discussing the nuance of "My Pet Goat" and spend seven minutes gazing into each others eyes...for Andrew a dream come true...

The 1600 Crew Bullshit Machine has been caught on the corner of High Dudgeon Avenue and Righteous Indignation Blvd over Dick Durbin's speaking the truth about the use of torture by our ever-less-than moral administration. Check this out:

The White House said a senator's comparison of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was reprehensible and a disservice to those serving in the military. (my emphasis)

What incredible balls those guys have. The events at Abu Ghraib and Bagram would not have been possible without the explicit consent of Preznit Yellow Stripe and his trusty lamprey, Abu Gonzales; I suspect that most officers would have not allowed events like those that happened to have occurred on "their watch", if for no other reason than pure professionalism and adherence to the Geneva Conventions. But when word from the top came down that the gloves were off, they turned their attention elsewhere, especially when the word came via the CIA and right from SECDEF almost in person.

Why do the republicans hate the military and our Democracy so much?

Apparently Mitt Romney (R-fucking opportunist) wants to go for the ban of Gay Marriage, you know, that horrible thing that's getting more Americans killed than IED's on the Baghdad Airport road. So horrible is the idea of loving, monogamous relationships to Romney that he seems to be pushing the matter as an amendment to the Massachusetts constitution. And boy does he have some support. From those Boy-lovin' Catholic Bishops.

Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley and the bishops of the state's other three Roman Catholic dioceses pledged support for signature-gathering efforts.

It's just really hard not to tag all Catholics with the whole gay-bashing thing when you look at where the leaders of the church have been on the issues of their own "employees". I know that not all Catholics are in the same vein as these hateful men, but O'Malley and his peers and superiors are the voice of intolerance for an entire institution, maybe they need a close look in the mirror before passing out those petitions.

Bobo really needs that ride in the magic Delorean. His desire to move himeself back to the 50's when men were men and Priests ran free is right up there on the weirdness scale. He's got a passage in his latest waste of space in the Times that well, describes almost anyone else but him (or most "journalists"):

...Conduct "is a question of how the good professional behaves within the rules of a game or the limits of a craft. All the how-to passages - how to land a fish, how to handle guns, how to work with a bull - have behind them the professional's pride of skill.

I wonder if Bobo and John Tierney get together over lunch at the Plaza and jerk each other off as they talk about their views of "liberal orthodoxies", and how much they both want to teabag Grover Norquist and Preznit Horse Fluffer.

Todays Bob Herbert column in the Times is too good.

What I was not able to find in the handbook was anything remotely like the startlingly frank comments of a sergeant at Fort Benning, Ga., who was quoted in the May 30 issue of The Army Times. He was addressing troops in the seventh week of basic training, and the paper reported the scene as follows:

" 'Does anybody know what posthumous means?' Staff Sgt. Andre Allen asked the 150 infantrymen-in-training, members of F Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment.

"A few hands went up, but he answered his own question.

" 'It means after death. Some of you are going to get medals that way,' he said matter-of-factly, underscoring the possibility that some of them would be sent to combat and not return."
...
Let the Army be honest and upfront in its recruitment. War is not child's play, and warriors shouldn't be assembled through the use of seductive sales pitches to youngsters too immature to make an informed decision on matters that might well result in their having to kill others, or being killed themselves.

If the Congresscriminals could spend money on one thing, it would be R&D for a machine that lets them put words back into their pie-holes once spoken.

After all the demogoguery about the Schiavo case here's poor little Billy "Kitty Killer" Frist on the Schiavl autopsy:

Frist said the autopsy should mark the close of a divisive chapter.

"The diagnosis they made is exactly right. It's the pathology, I'll respect that. I think it's time to move on," Frist said earlier Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show."

Get back under that rock.

First the strangness that's Michael Jackson gets acquitted, and now the other circus event of 2005, the Terri Schiavo debacle comes to a close with the release of the autopsy results today.

An autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

In fact, I half-expect someone out in southcentral wingnuttia to postulate that the brain tissue found was placed there by cherubim to decieve the coroner after death. Within hours that'll become the tru-believer wingnut talking point, because you know, there are those videos of her watching a balloon, so how could she be blind? And no one could survive with only 600 grams of brain tissue...why that's just a

miracle.

Look for images of Terri Schiavo to appear on Freeway overpasses, grilled cheese sandwiches and the odd farmers-market root vegetable over the coming years...I wonder if Tom Delay will see her image on his cell wall?

I don't know if this has been around for a long time...but damn it tickled my funnybone. Check it out...

I think I could add one:

Republican Agronomy:
You have two cows. The USDA takes both and when you protest, the Republican noise machine goes on the airwaves claiming you're delusional but then offers you, on TV, the opportunity to sign a note incurring debt to buy milk at Prime + 21% from your own cows, now living on a factory farm.

OK, not as funny but sorta true?

The problem with the Downing Street Memos and why the journo's and hence the 'Murkan public are up not up in arms about them is simple.

No one (to the best of our knowledge, as incomplete as it is) wore or hid a semen-stained blue dress worn during the meetings, anywhere in the UK. Therefore, the Memos could not possibly be of interest. Additionally, they was no narrative in the Memos about any common-or-garden varieties of pedophilia, missing dead women (pregnant or not).

So there you have it...it's kinda like that old David Allen Coe song "You never even call me by my name". Had it had the equivalent of getting drunk, prison,trucks, trains or momma, the Downing Street Memos might have gotten more airplay.

-sigh-

With all the brouhaha ha ha ha about the recruiting numbers, I'm surprised that the recruiters in the DC/Northern VA are not descending on this steaming pile of shit like flies looking for a good meal. I mean after all, these collegiate conservitards ought to positively jump at the chance for an all expense paid trip to Mesopotamia. Look what lengths they went to to get to be Heritage Babies:

Scott Hurff, a senior at Wake Forest University, wanted the internship so badly that he filed three applications. Rachael Seidenschnur had set her eyes on Heritage since her youth in Little Rock, Ark., where she revived the teenage Republicans club at Central High School.

Kenneth Cribb came with family ties and a book by the conservative author Russell Kirk, which he said "sends chills up my spine." Daren Stanaway and Brian Christiansen welcomed Heritage as an escape from the liberal orthodoxies they said they experienced at Harvard and Yale.

But then, like most of their generation, their aspiration as young republicans is to bend Patton's admonition to suit their philosophy: The point of War is not to die for your country, it's to make the other poor son-of-a-bitch die for your country. It's all the rage in republican junior gentry circles y'know.

I always like to go back to these two old posts here and here for some perspective on the College Chickenhawks...I wonder if that guy is at the Heritage Jugend Kamp...

My name is RB and I applied for a seat on the R County Selective Service Board in 2003. I have one son-in-law (E-3, Utah Guard) and one nephew (Marine, Master Sergeant) in Iraq. I worked from @ '72-'76 at what is now known as JICPAC, the old FICPAC (CINCPAC Fleet) under 3rd Fleet Admirals Gaylor and Weisner as a PH2. My last official wartime action was Mayaguez in which the CIA trumped operational control over from the Navy. Well, after more than a year from my initial application, the local board has changed from USN officers recruiting and screening, to a fully functional civilian staffed outfit which has been doing a lot of callback to me over the position including a recertification and referral to the main office in ****** as well as mailing out pamphlets laying out the scope of the SSS's current activities. I am to talk to a Lori H from the main office sometime in the next week. Please tell your folks that this draft of essential "skills" personal is becoming a reality, if the SSS is willing to consider a person with as much animosity toward the Bush administration and this war as me. When asked why I applied for this position I've told them I believe in the citizen soldier as the best defense to enemies foreign and domestic and I honestly do. I am a disabled vet who decided to watch and see if the rumors were true. It may be that my only drawback, according to the local review I've been through to sitting on the board, is the fact I am currently a Chapter 31 Vet. How that makes a difference is beyond me. Security clearance and background checks of me should reveal membership in Amnesty International and the *** party which lawfully should not make me a liability to them, but possibly a political one. I only offer information if they specifically ask. This is no game, folks. Serious problems are coming our way soon.

My only comment on the Jackson case has nothing to do with the case directly, but rather with CNN Helmet-head Harpy Nancy Grace.

CNN proudly describes Grace as "one of television's most respected legal analysts" and is happy to provide interested parties with a detailed account of her legal education and career, right down to her stint as a business law instructor in Georgia State University's school of business.

There is, however, one inconveniently disturbing detail on which CNN maintains a studied silence: On three occasions involving three separate cases, appellate courts have cited Grace for unethical behavior while she was a Fulton County prosecutor.

Best moment of the night: when Jackson family attorney Deborah Opri (sp?), looking cool, calm and collected basically told Grace to get over it and get on with her life, Jackson was found not guilty and she'd have to give it up. Grace looked like she'd been smacked with a bag of quarters.

/end of jackson comments

Not exactly "new" news, but Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina sure can't be endearing himself to the republican Chickenhawks at all.

"When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed -- it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded -- and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," Jones said on ABC's "This Week."
...
Jones, whose district includes Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, has written condolence letters to the families of more than 1,300 service people killed in Iraq, and posters outside his congressional office show the faces of those killed.

Walter Jones is Karl Rove's worst nightmare come true: a pissed-off republican with a message Rove doesn't want getting out there. Having both Cheerless Pit and Lejeune in his district brings him into contact with the families and their Marines who are being sent off for a tour in the Codpiece Follies every day he's not in DC. At least he can look them in the eye and say "I'm sorry" like a man, something they'll likely respect and send him back to congress for...

His actions will bear watching over the next year or so to see if he's gonna survive the republican slander machine.

The Senate and the lynching resolution. Gee, where are their hearts and minds? Midnight legislation...comments from sponsors. Quoth Mary Landrieu (D-Just Barely)

Asked why the resolution was not put to a straight yes-or-no vote and why the debate on the Senate floor had to take place at night, Landrieu said she had accepted the conditions she was offered by the Senate leadership. She noted Congress' busy schedule.

Thought so.

The El Supremo's have just handed (it seems) the 1600 Crew another victory in their war on Everyone who's not a Rich White Guy Campaign Contributor. They've rejected an appeal from Jose Padilla, the so-called "dirty bomber".

The Supreme Court refused Monday to be drawn into a dispute over President Bush's power to detain American terror suspects and deny them traditional legal rights.
...
... justices declined to address a separate issue: whether American citizens arrested on U.S. soil can be designated "enemy combatants" and held without trial.
...
Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, said the lower court ruling "marks a substantial judicial intrusion into the core presidential function of determining how best to ensure the nation's security."

Never underestimate the power of Fascism and the speed that totalitarianism can become ascendant...ever.

Seen the blog post on TalkLeft about the camp to reform the gays in Tennessee? Gotta wonder if Dick and Lynne thought about sending Mary of for a summer of reformation and godly persuasion?

Dick, and I use that term perjoratively, Cheney says that all the bad things being said about GITMO are just whining and hot air from disgruntled ex-detainees. Yeah.

Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he doesn't believe revelations about the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay have become an image problem for the United States and that the facility should not be shut down.
...
"The fact of the matter is, we're engaged in a conflict that's been described as the war on terror," he said. "It is unlike any conflict we've ever known before, but as a by-product, if you will, of that activity, we have from time to time captured individuals ... who are doing their level best to launch attacks against Americans either on the battlefield or in the United States."

It always amazed me that the pictures of Cheney holding babies never showed what he probably did with them after the photo-op...most politicians kiss'em and hand'em back to mom (or dad). Cheney, probably had a secret service guy with a bag who took the kid for later consumption in the limo by Darth Dick himself...wotta guy.

Well now that we're back up and running, sans TrackBacks, it's time to get back to the bidness of bidness.

I want to thank all of you who commented and sent email about the outage. We have moved to El Red State supremo south (not Texas, thank the Hairy Thunderer) of the Mason-Dixon line. All is well and we are settling in nicely, thanks for asking.

So, now back to our regularly (un)scheduled ranting....

Some spammer managed to run my hosting company's server up to over 50% utilization. They have been working with me to come up with some solution for the problem. For some reason or another, MT is up for me right now, so I thought I'd let you know what's going on. I apologize for the "break in service", but all this happened coincidentally with my family moving to another state...we're just getting settled in, and this is the first chance I've had to let you all know what's up.

BTW, remember that unless you have a Typekey acount, all comments get submitted for "approval" (not that I "disapprove" anything but dupe comments). Sorry for the screwy blogging. I hope to be back up and running by mid-week for good (probably without the "search" feature of the blog, it's what caused all this trouble).

--Jo

A couple of days ago, I posted more in the continuing saga of CW Darrell Birt, the Ohio Guardsman who was given a partial reprieve of his sentence. I got several emails from Army guys saying essentially, "not so fast, it's not as tragic as it appears". In comments on that post about CW Birt was this from a CSM Veppert:

It is clear you don't have all the information related to Mr. Birt's conduct in Iraq. Certainly, none of you read the AR 15-6 and AR 32 investigations. I did. I also spoke with Soldiers of the 656th TC Co, the company in question. In conjunction with pieces of the trial transcript, I can confirm the basic facts of the case.

The unit, under the command of MAJ Kaus and the Motor Officer Mr. Birt, stole a total of 9 vehicles, all but one from assigned holding areas at the port and at Camp New York. There were a couple of S&P trailers, a parts trailer, a 3/4T trailer, in addition to at least two 5T trucks and three prime movers. These vehicles were not 'abandoned'. Some units didn't have enough licensed or assigned drivers to get all their vehicles into Iraq in their initial convoys. Some vehicles were excess and, in at least one case I can confirm, were signed out to a unit that went through the proper channels to request additional support. Best information I have is that all but one were at 10-20 standards (ie., operable). Also, they idea this equipment was abandoned is belied by, in at least one instance, the owning unit was able to track their trailer down to the 656th and threatened legal action. This is documented in statements by several of the 656th Soldiers.

In taking these vehicles, Mr. Birt spent time grinding off the serial numbers and painting over the bumper numbers to conceal their rightful owners. In addition, Mr. Birt had a couple of his Soldiers take parts off specific vehicles he identified that were in the holding areas.

Of all these vehicles, only 2 were used on missions to deliver fuel, and one of the 5T trucks was used as a gun truck. Bear in mind that the unit had almost its full complement of 61 prime movers and tankers. The most fuel the unit moved at any one time was approx 240,000 gals. Divide 240 by 5K and you can see they were only using 48 prime movers and tankers at any given time. They still had at least 10 vehicles left.

In May 2003 (after the ground war was essentially over), the 656th fell under a new battalion. The Bn Commander gathered up all unit leadership in all subordinate companies and gave them a blanket amnesty to turn in anything that didn't belong to them. The 656th didn't take advantage of that.

This removes the argument that the vehicles were taken to support the war effort, save lives, etc. Remember, the insurgency didn't start until July or thereabouts.

When the unit was getting ready to redeploy back to CONUS, MAJ Kaus and Mr. Birt further conspired to hide the evidence by abandoning most of the vehicles at places such as the PX at LSA Anaconda, after having been cleaned of any identifying marks that could trace the vehicles to the 656th. One M931 truck, however, had been cannabilized down to its frame and cab. The cab was cut up and the frame was buried in separate pits at Camp Speicher.

I don't pretend to understand why Army leadership has not defended our Army Values but, that said, the actions of MAJ Kaus, Mr. Birt, and some few others were not nearly as noble as you have been led to believe. Their initial motivations for pursuing this action appears, on face, to be arguable, but their conduct over their remaining service wipes away all questions of honor and integrity.

Because if CSM Veppert is passing on the honest gouge here, then CW Birt has an angel living on one shoulder. Big Time.

Or does someone else feel a d-r-a-f-t coming too?

In their Ellicott City kitchen, Jeff Amoros's parents handed their son the Selective Service registration form that arrived shortly after his 18th birthday. For them, it evoked dark memories of the Vietnam era. For Amoros, it meant: "I'm old enough to die for my country now."
...
Rarely in the more than 30 years since the draft was abolished has the Selective Service triggered such angst. Two years into the Iraq war, concern that the draft will be reinstated to supplement an overextended military persists -- no matter how often, or emphatically, President Bush and members of Congress say it won't.

Yeah that one. Cowardly Lying Codpiece.

Draft, take it to the bank, my guess.

Shorter WaPo editorial board:

"If you piss in my cup while I'm still thirsty, it's OK because that's liquid too".

This story is one that makes me sad and hopeful. Sad because the blustering war-mongers opened a Pandora's Box they should have known better than to even touch, and hopeful because in a story of utter hopelessness, average American Soldiers and Iraqis devastated by the effects of a completely needless war are reaching out to each other.

On a steamy June morning two years ago, a U.S. soldier's warning shot ricocheted off a sand berm and blew a hole in Raez Habib's life.

The stray bullet plowed through the meat of his left thigh and shattered his right femur, leaving him bleeding in the street, Habib recalled in a recent interview. A helicopter took him to a military hospital, where doctors amputated his right leg four inches below the hip.
...
Letters that Raez Habib carries from service members familiar with his case shed light on his story. (None includes a unit designation, but the military's press office in Baghdad said the Army's 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Tex., was responsible for Diyala province, where Balad is located, during the summer of 2003.) Habib spent almost a week in the Army's 21st Combat Support Hospital in Balad, according to a note signed by Maj. Beverly Beavers, the hospital's operations chief.

He was eventually transferred to an Iraqi hospital in town, Capt. Dillard W. Young wrote on July 13, 2003, adding that Habib needed "help with his medical payments."

Two other notes discuss the difficulty his family had in getting money from the military. An undated note signed by Lt. John M. Noga and addressed to "Claims office personnel" says, "I can't get a clear answer as to why this claim was kicked back."

"We want to know the reason for not paying this claim," Staff Sgt. Joseph Messenger wrote on Feb. 21, 2004, about eight months after Habib was shot.

Last March, the military paid Habib $1,000 in restitution, his brother said, but that money has been spent.

Habib and many, many other Iraqi's have lost everything because of Preznit Completely Cowardly's lies. How we might be judged eventually,I hope, is not by the actions of the Total Chickenhawk Cowards and 69th Typewriter Tigers Brigade, but by the Major Beavers, Captain Youngs, Lieutenant Noga's and Staff Sergeant Messenger's. They are the face of America I know. They are who I hope we are remembered as being.

Everyone is a-twitter over the revelation that Mark Felt, former #2 guy at the FBI was the mythic "Deep Throat". Lots of figures who fell to earth during Watergate expressed their surprise at Felt's disclosure, John Dean:

"I never thought he was in the loop to have the information," John Dean, counsel in Nixon's White House and the government's top informant in the Watergate investigation, told The Associated Press. "How in the world could Felt have done it alone?"

Dean said he couldn't see how Felt, then in charge of the FBI's day-to-day operations, could have had time to rendezvous with reporters in parking garages and leave clandestine messages to arrange meetings. Perhaps FBI agents helped him, Dean suggested.

Also surprised was Nixon chief counsel Charles Colson, who worked closely with Felt in the Nixon administration and served prison time in the Watergate scandal.

"He had the trust of America's leaders and to think that he betrayed that trust is hard for me to fathom," Colson told the AP.

Preznit Unclean Urine was heard to remark, "Watergate? Dude, it was a great place to crash between blow binges in Georgetown and Alabama".

Just on the news in Columbus, CWO Darrell Birt, the National Guardsman from Ohio who was courts-martialed and convicted for doing the right thing and scrounging parts to protect his troops has had part of his sentence reversed. Apparently, the conviction will stand, but he will not be dishonorably discharged.

I have been trying to find more information on the story, but it apparently just broke on a Columbus NBC affiliate, and they have not gotten the story on their website yet. Although every rape, murder and robbery story is up there. Bleeds it Leads..yay broadcast "journalism".

CWO Birt could be sent back to Iraq, now that he's going to be allowed to stay in the Guard, and he was shown on the news as saying he wants to go.

Another case where the deserter-in-chief could do the right thing and pardon this guy and his CO who also took a fall for doing the right thing and choosing to protect her troops over doing mountains of paperwork while her troops were getting shot up doing convoy duty.

But, as we all know, the day that Preznit Yellow Stripe ever does the right thing, will probably be the day hell freezes over plus one.

As someone says..."developing...."

Legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in a passage from "All the President's Men" about now-revealed "Deep Throat" Mark Felt:

From the book: Woodward "arrived at the garage at 1:30 a.m.

"Deep Throat was already there, smoking a cigarette. . . .

"On evenings such as these, Deep Throat had talked about how politics had infiltrated every corner of government -- a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House. . . . He had once called it the 'switchblade mentality' -- and had referred to the willingness of the president's men to fight dirty and for keeps. . . .

1. Missing in Action
   
2. A little love, please...
   
3. Blogiversary Third
   
4. Not!
   
5. Bobo no Gogo
   
6. Ghostwriting Durbin
   
7. AFA Whitewash?
   
8. And on it goes...IOKIYAR
   
9. That other conflict
   
10. What to tell John Tierney