So Preznit C. Noe Evil has "flown over the devastation" in his big-ass 747 and viewed it from 1500 feet up, at 400-plus knots. Well, that was 180 seconds well spent, I must say. Then he proceded to the Rose Garden, where he again fought more of the Battle of Platitudes.

The folks on the Gulf Coast are going to need the help of this country for a long time. This is going to be a difficult road. The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented. But there's no doubt in my mind we're going to succeed. Right now the days seem awfully dark for those affected -- I understand that. But I'm confident that, with time, you can get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet, and America will be a stronger place for it.

The country stands with you. We'll do all in our power to help you. May God bless you.

Or maybe you don't need any more bad news tonight...

At the gas pump this evening:

So, how's that Hummer working out for you?

From a college paper editorial, for Ripon College, a young Beloved Leader lover rants against Cindy Sheehan, cause his daddy went to Iraq. The writer, seems to think that America would be better if everyone [Cindy, he's looking at you] just STFU and let our bold Preznit be ... bold. And Compassionate. And Preznitial. Here you go:

Then again, the saddest instance of this nightmare causing pain might be that of Cindy Sheehan herself. There is no doubt that the loss of her son Casey must have been devastating, and even I, a supporter of both the President and War in Iraq, can understand her wanting answers. Now she's not stupid, she knew this was a good PR move-she hoped to bring down pressure on the President to meet with her and knew the media would back that demand through massive coverage if nothing else. But I have to believe she's now in over her head-this is no longer about Cindy Sheehan and it certainly isn't about her son Casey. No, Crawford has become the showcase event for MoveOn.org in its own war against the President; it has become a stage for aging and largely forgotten Vietnam-era protestors to stage some semblance of a comeback. (What, they couldn't find ANY reality show to sign them?) One has to believe that at least a part of Cindy Sheehan wishes she could grieve again in peace or that she could focus on her own, very-ill mother, rather than a grass field and a dirt road two time-zones away.

Oh, young college philosoper you wax so nobly rhapsodic, invoking the unsavory habits of Michael Moore's candor!

Beloved Leader is going on the air this afternoon to talk about the hurricane, supposedly. I'm betting that after a mad-morning of collating last nights focus-group results it's going to be another new front in the Battle of the Platitude from the 1600 Crew.

My guess about phraseology: "workin' hard", "(we must) lessen our dependance on furrin oil: open ANWR", "FEMA is takin' charge", "I have coordinated with federal authorities to take charge of this disaster" (all the "federal authorities" hope they don't get mentioned by name, since that's a sure-fire road to getting your budget axed by the 1600 Crew).

"Now, watch this drive, I'll be closely watching the sitch from Camp David between naps and bike rides"...

Just drove out to run an errand. Last night the price of gas at the little station down the road was $2.62 a gallon. Just now it was $2.99 a gallon. Damn, they got that $70/barrel crude into that pump some kind of fast. I for one would never mention that phrase "windfall profits" on my on-line magazine. Never.

To my esteemed colleagues from the loyal opposition, and you know who you are, how do you feel about the huge giveaways that Yer Preznit just handed the Oil Companies in that Sham of an Energy Bill that just got passed? Inquiring minds, and all that crap...

Once upon a time...ah, shit. This is not, unfortunately a fairy tale.

The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.

The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.
...
Under the new standard, a modernized plant's total emissions could rise if the upgrade allowed it to operate longer hours. In court filings, the EPA estimated in 2002 that an hourly standard would allow eight plants in five states -- including Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia -- to generate legally as much as 100,000 tons a year of pollutants that would be illegal under the existing New Source Review rule. That equals about a third of their total emissions.
...
But John Walke, NRDC's clean-air director, said: "This radical proposal is a 180-degree flip-flop from what the administration has been arguing in court. Instead of protecting public health, now EPA wants to protect the polluters. The proposal would completely sabotage clean-air law enforcement, and it would be open season for power plants to pollute even more than they do now."
...
Eric Schaeffer, who headed the EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement before resigning in protest in February 2002, said the new rule undermines the original aim of the law, which was to slowly bring older plants into compliance with stricter air laws.

"Under this proposal, it would never happen," Schaeffer said.

I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I've come here to celebrate Earth Day, so please
Come join me and help spread the message I bring.
Be a friend to the trees and to each living thing.

New poll from the Post/ABC. Lots of blah-blah yadda-yadda numbers about Beloved Leaders numbers dipping to an all-time low. Yawn. The most interesting thing is this:

The survey also provided bad news for Democratic leaders, who are judged as offering Bush only tepid opposition. Slightly more than half of those surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with congressional Democrats for not opposing Bush more aggressively.

Self-identified Democrats were particularly impatient. More than three in four said congressional Democrats have not gone far enough to oppose Bush on Iraq or on administration policies in general.

"Somebody needs to speak up," said Michelle Burgess, 41, a home health aide in St. Louis. "Enough is enough. I don't understand why we're over there in Iraq or what he's doing on other issues. There are too many lives being lost."

Independents were similarly dissatisfied with Democratic leaders for not challenging the president over the war and other issues, with six in 10 saying Democrats have been too meek.

If they want to start, then next week is the time to begin. Filibuster Roberts. Fuck that agreement, he's an extremist. The "Senatorial Collegiality" bullshit is a cover for extreme cowardice in the service of Surrender. There is no good that can be accomplished from here until 2006 and then 2008 by rolling over any more.

I think more than 49% of Americans are beginning to demand our representatives act like Actual Leaders or go home. I know that I am.

Hear the wind. Hear the Wind Blow. See the Preznit. See the Preznit Blow. Regularly.

Now that the pre-initial-earliest assesments of the damage from Katrina are starting to come in, it's looking like one fact is undeniable. Mississippi and Louisiana sure would like to have some of their own National Guard folks at home to help with recovery. Instead, their troops are over in Baghdad helping to establish the First Irani Gulf Client State on behalf of Tehran.

And their neighbors are waiting for other states whose Guard and Reserve units can spare supplies, personnel and equipment to send them south to help the residents of the hard-hit states cope with their losses.

With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military.

As the devastation threatened to overwhelm state resources, federal authorities called on the Pentagon to mobilize active-duty aircraft, ships and troops and set up an unprecedented task force to coordinate a wider military response, said officials from the Northern Command, which oversees homeland defense.
...
More than 6,000 Guard members were mobilized in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida when the storm struck on Monday, with the number rising to 8,000 yesterday and hundreds more expected to be called to active duty, National Guard officials said yesterday.

"Missing the personnel is the big thing in this particular event. We need our people," said Lt. Andy Thaggard, a spokesman for the Mississippi National Guard, which has a brigade of more than 4,000 troops in central Iraq. Louisiana also has about 3,000 Guard troops in Baghdad.

Mississippi has about 40 percent of its Guard force deployed or preparing to deploy and has called up all remaining Guard units for hurricane relief, Thaggard said. Those include the Army band based in Jackson, Miss. "They are mustering transportation to move them south," he said. Soldiers who have lost their homes are exempt, he said.

Recruiting and retention problems are worsening the strain on Guard forces in hurricane-ravaged states. Alabama's Army National Guard has a strength of 11,000 troops -- or 78 percent of the authorized number. "We're just losing too many out the back door," Arnold said.

So, when do Jenna and Not-Jenna join the Guard to head on down to help direct traffic, and party with the victims of Katrina? Oh, never? Gee, I'm shocked.

The enormity of the disaster in New Orleans should bring home one thing with crystal clarity as the flood waters recede and the city one day becomes whole again...if it ever does.

When the Army Corps of Engineers speak, politicians should shut the fuck up and listen. These people know whereof they speak. Tax Cuts are wonderful things when all other bills have been paid; the Federal Government doesn't belong in my bedroom or cable box, they belong on Levee Projects and other things that affect public safety. Peoples lives are ultimately affected by greedy, power-obsessed politicians who preach the virtue of self before community, maybe Louisiana and Mississippi residents can identify a few of those folks at the local, state and federal level and reconsider their "employment contracts" in light of their present circumstances.

Katrina might have been a wake-up call for a lot of things. For now, it's time to rally around our fellow citizens and help out. The American Red Cross is a pretty good choice. [/end of rant].

Thanks.

Ooooh, here's Beloved Leader today celebrating the Constitution of Iraqan...

This course is going to be difficult largely because the terrorists have chosen to wage war against a future of freedom. They are waging war against peace in Iraq. As democracy in Iraq takes root, the enemies of freedom, the terrorists, will become more desperate, more despicable, and more vicious.

Gee, I'd have to say that desperate, despicable and vicious kind of sounds like the command authorities at GITMO who went off and disgraced our country for the next five decades at Abu Ghraib, with the blessing of...Beloved Leader, Abu Gonzales and Rumsfeld.

"Good afternoon, Desperate, Despicable and Vicious, how may we help you torture your prisoners? Waterboard? Please hold while I transfer you to our Christian baptism and confession department..."

Now, CLAP Dammit!

Oh, and I'm so glad that Preznit Record Vacations mentioned that folks should not stay in their homes in the path of Katrina. He Cares. But not enough to fund the Coast Guard, or the Corps of Engineers, or First Responders...face it, Lobbyists-r-Us construction probably couldn't make the kind of jack doing levee projects in Cajun Country that they're getting from Preznit Constant Corruption in Mess O'Potamia, so Darth Cheney Contracting Inc, wasn't gonna waste time keeping citizens safe when it could rip them off in Iraqan. After all, no-bid is better than no bid, right?

I hear that the First Leisure Boy will be heading back to DC after stopping off at Prairie Chicken Ranch to rest up after being out in San Diego, accomplishing his mission. Bets as to whether or not he'll head up to Camp David for the long Labor Day weekend to rest up from his long plane flight and two arduous days of playing Oval Office Grab-ass with Condi and Donnie?

With all the damage to New Orleans, much as been written about all the things that can (and will, thanks to the 1600 Crew) go wrong in the Big Easy and other places. I was wondering what the risks and/or incidence of infectious diseases will be with all the sewage and other stuff (bodies from graveyards in N.O.?) that got "floated" as Katrina passed.

I'm sure that precautions have been taken for "normal" sever weather events, but Katrina was sort of a worst-case scenario beyond the reckoning of even really pessimistic disaster planners, I think.

Anyone have any idea? How well prepared is the CDC and other health authorities to deal with that if it becomes a threat?

Just curious....

Remember this?

As a presidential candidate in 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush promised that, if elected, he would use the full weight of the White House to pressure oil-producing countries to increase production if there was a gas-price crisis. He charged, "The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price" and promised that as president he would "convince them to open up the spigot to increase the supply."

Pump prices for gasoline, already on a steady climb all year, look like they will pass the $3 barrier soon, thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to the devastation to lives and property, the hurricane aimed an ill-timed blast at a U.S. energy infrastructure already stretched thin, especially in the capacity to refine oil into gasoline, heating oil and other products. The shutdown of oil platforms, refineries and pipelines along the Gulf Coast drove energy prices sharply higher Tuesday,

The buying frenzy reflected uncertainty and fear about the full extent of the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted on key energy infrastructure, according to the Associated Press.

"Fill up your cars now, because I think it's not going to be long before we see $3 per gallon gas," Jonathan Murray, senior vice president at Legg Mason, said on CNBC's "Morning Call."

In what has to be one of the most ironic offers ever made in the western hemisphere, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has made everyone but the 1600 Crew an offer that, well, is interesting.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to send food and fuel to the United States after the powerful Hurricane Katrina pummeled the US south, ravaging US crude production.

The leftist leader, a frequent critic of the United States and a target himself of US disapproval, said Venezuela could send aid workers with drinking water, food and fuel to US communities hit by the hurricane.

"We place at the disposition of the people of the United States in the event of shortages -- we have drinking water, food, we can provide fuel," Chavez told reporters.

Can you imagine if Chavez made this offer the way that the 1600 Crew offers assistance: you can't have any water, food or fuel if you voted for Beloved Leader. Sort of like how the 1600 Crew (in real life) appropriates aid to countries ravaged by AIDS and stuff...abortion? No aid, the shelter's closed, the bank's empty, the lights in the clinic are off. Sorry (not really).

Opera for free. Don't know how long this will last, but you can go here and get a registration code for Opera just by clicking on the "Go Free Now" button, entering an email address. Then download and install...it's the "paid" version with none of the pop-ups or ads (just like the purchased version).

Hey...it's kewl. Or so the kids say... :)

Here's a thought for senators with a spine and a brain: tell Abu Gonzales to go fuck himself in the most tactful beltway-speak you know. Why? Well, he wants to ratchet up the police state Patriot Act more than the Senate wants to. And let's face it, Gonzales claim to fame besides endangering the lives of future (and present) soldiers with his reading of the Geneva Convention should automatically disqualify him from having input on legislation concerning any Civil Liberties. He's a hack lawyer, who's where he is because of his uncanny ability to lick Preznit Bonesman's Boner clean as a whistle on command.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday criticized a Senate bill that would place new restrictions on law enforcement in the USA Patriot Act, saying the legislation would hamper the government's ability to prevent terrorist attacks.

Gonzales, during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Post, said he favors a competing House version of the antiterrorism law that includes fewer restrictions on the government.

Sixteen provisions of the controversial Patriot Act, which Congress voted overwhelmingly to enact weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are due to expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts. Although most of the law would become permanent under either bill, the Senate legislation includes tighter restrictions on the FBI's power to seize business records and would place a four-year time limit on two of the law's most controversial provisions.

Gonzales said yesterday that the Senate bill's tighter provisions would make it too difficult for investigators to conduct secret searches or obtain "roving wiretaps" in terrorism investigations. He also said the threshold for obtaining business records, including those held by libraries, would be set too high by the Senate bill.

In years to come Gonzales will be judged for the hack he is. When kids of the future learn about the people who tried to ruin the republic whole chapters will be written on Abu Gonzales, the man who hates soldiers and Beloved Leader, the man who sends them off to die, to prove he has a bigger dick than his daddy.

Scalia, the Tool speaketh:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia blasted what he called "judge moralists" and the infusion of politics into judicial appointments Monday after joining law students in a re-enactment of a 100-year-old landmark case.
...
"I am questioning the propriety -- indeed, the sanity -- of having a value-laden decision such as this made for the entire society ... by unelected judges," he said.

Irony is indeed Dead. Mort. Muerto. Tot. Guasto. Inoperante.

So, convicted criminal Bob Taft denies that he ever heard of the 50 million wasted from Tom Noe?

On May 13, 2001, as they changed into business suits after showering in the locker room of Toledo's Inverness Club after a round of golf, Tom Noe told Gov. Bob Taft about the $25 million rare-coin fund he operated for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, according to an account released by Mr. Noe's attorney yesterday.

And Mr. Noe used the discussion to tell the governor "about his pending application for the second $25 million coin fund," the statement said.

The bureau approved the second $25 million installment two months later - in July, 2001.

Mr. Taft repeatedly has maintained he didn't know about the state's rare-coin investment with Mr. Noe until April 3, when The Blade first reported it.

It's almost axiomatic with criminals like Taft, lies are like icebergs, what you see is only 1/10th of what's there. It takes a collision to discover that more was lurking just below the surface and now Tafts ship is sinking. How long til all the rats are in the water?

Taft says he'll finish out the final 16 months of his term, to which I say: go for it, Bob! Between you and Delay, we have ready-made poster boys for the corruption of American Politics. So please, by all means, Stay (just a little bit longer)!

Well this'll get the christo-fascisti up in arms no doubt. The Air Force has decided that it's not really such a good idea to piss in the spiritual wheeties of the non-christian amongst them. Sort of.

The Air Force issued new religion guidelines to its commanders yesterday that caution against promoting any particular faith - or even "the idea of religion over nonreligion" - in official communications or functions like meetings, sports events and ceremonies.

The guidelines discourage public prayers at official Air Force events or meetings other than worship services, one of the most contentious issues for many commanders. But they allow for "a brief nonsectarian prayer" at special ceremonies like those honoring promotions, or in "extraordinary circumstances" like "mass casualties, preparation for imminent combat and natural disasters."
...
The guidelines apply not just to the academy, but also to the entire Air Force. They will be made final later this year after Air Force generals meet and consider recommendations from their commanders.
...
Rabbi Resnicoff said some Air Force members he had spoken with "mistakenly assumed" that because the military encouraged "spiritual strength as a pillar of leadership," they were given license to promote strong belief in Christianity within it.

But one outspoken critic, Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate from Albuquerque, said the guidelines meant nothing because the Air Force had refused to discipline officers who overstepped the boundaries.

"All this does is increase the level of confusion," Mr. Weinstein said.

And we'll all be reading about this again. You'd think in light of all the scandals that have flowed forth from the AF Academy they'd break the code sooner or later on how to deal with miscreants. Absent another epic scandal soon, I guess not.

To all the folks dropping by from BartCopNation! Glad you dropped by...add us to your bookmarks and rant at/with the owner...it'll make you feel better!

If you like it here, here are a few of other places to drop by on your way through...

Alternate Brain
All Spin Zone
Nitpicker
One Pissed Off Vet
Pen and Sword
Rob's Blog
Today in Iraq

Great Reading from other military men and vets...enjoy!

From the most-excellent San Diego blog, Words Have Power, a piece on how decades of republican governance can make the American Landscape look. Read this, and then pass the link on...it doesn't take much to see the linkage from the Grovel Nosetwist republicanism that's ruined San Diego to what's happening everywhere else.

"The council doesn't want to put taxes on the ballot, nor raise taxes," she said. "None of the mayoral candidates would talk about it either. The council hasn't had the political will to be honest with the public about what we can afford to do and what we can't."

San Diego isn't an isolated incident. It is an object lesson. What Republicans did in San Diego is what they are doing on the national level. Tax cuts without comensurate reductions in government services. Government funded by borrowing money collected for retirement benefits. It's the same pattern and it's cut from that same old cloth.

Whoo-hoo! Warm up the Tenors boys, there's gonna be some Opera sung down in Southern Florida. I have a feeling this is gonna get more attention than Butterfly Ballots in Autumn, and there won't be any republican operatives to stop the caterwaulin'.

Former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges of conspiracy and wire fraud stemming from his purchase five years ago of a Florida casino cruise line.

Pass the popcorn...it's gonna be a bumpy ride for someone, I have a feeling.

Our old pal Justice French Fry is getting to look more and more like the whitebread racist that makes the GOoPers orgasmically happy.

In a memo written in 1983, after Roberts moved from the Justice Department to the White House counsel's office, Roberts left open the possibility that he agreed with a statement that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- which is responsible for enforcing laws against discrimination -- was "un-American."

Roberts is the pasty whitebread face of the Nixon Southern Strategy writ large. If this guy is on the Supreme Court, there's not a doubt in my ex-military mind that the causes of race relations, womens rights, personal privacy and much of the Bill of Rights will be tossed into the shitter, if only for the entertainment value for French Fry, Fat Tony and Clarence O'Pube to insult attorneys making oral arguments they don't like before striking down their next civil liberty.

How much more will it take to convince the dickheads on the Judiciary Committee that this guy deserves naught but a filibuster? A huge campaign contribution, I mean in the corruption that is Washington an outright bribe might be the only thing that can save the Republic, or am I wrong?

Yeah, so as long as I'm on the subject, over at ASZ, they have post up that led me to Roxanne over at Rox Populi who has a list of the top 100 songs from the year of your high school graduation. So I decided I'd go visit the list and see how embarassed I'd be to time travel back and listen to some of that crap again. The songs struck out are those that in many cases define absolute suckiness. Those in bold were pretty good, with a few being awesome (IMHO), denoted by being bold and italic. Anyhow, here's to being an unter-geek!

1. Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree, Tony Orlando and Dawn
2. Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Jim Croce
3. Killing Me Softly With His Song, Roberta Flack
4. Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye
5. My Love, Paul McCartney and Wings
6. Why Me, Kris Kristofferson
7. Crocodile Rock, Elton John
8. Will It Go Round In Circles, Billy Preston
9. You're So Vain, Carly Simon
10. Touch Me In The Morning, Diana Ross
11. The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, Vicki Lawrence
12. Playground In My Mind, Clint Holmes
13. Brother Louie, Stories
14. Delta Dawn, Helen Reddy
15. Me And Mrs. Jones, Billy Paul
16. Frankenstein, Edgar Winter Group
17. Drift Away, Dobie Gray
18. Little Willy, Sweet
19. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, Stevie Wonder
20. Half Breed, Cher
21. That Lady, Isley Bros.
22. Pillow Talk, Sylvia
23. We're An American Band, Grand Funk Railroad
24. Right Place, Wrong Time, Dr. John
25. Wildflower, Skylark
26. Superstition, Stevie Wonder
27. Loves Me Like A Rock, Paul Simon
28. The Morning After, Maureen McGovern
29. Rocky Mountain High, John Denver
30. Stuck In The Middle With You, Stealers Wheel
31. Shambala, Three Dog Night
32. Love Train, O'Jays
33. I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Barry White
34. Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose, Tony Orlando and Dawn
35. Keep On Truckin' (Pt. 1), Eddie Kendricks
36. Dancing In The Moonlight, King Harvest
37. Danny's Song, Anne Murray
38. Monster Mash, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt Kickers
39. Natural High, Bloodstone
40. Diamond Girl, Seals and Crofts
41. Long Train Running, Doobie Brothers
42. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), George Harrison
43. If You Want Me To Stay, Sly and The Family Stone
44. Daddy's Home, Jermaine Jackson
45. Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye), Gladys Knight and The Pips
46. I'm Doing Fine Now, New York City
47. Could It Be I'm Falling In Love, Spinners
48. Daniel, Elton John
49. Midnight Train To Georgia, Gladys Knight and The Pips
50. Smoke On The Water , Deep Purple
51. The Cover Of Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show
52. Behind Closed Doors, Charlie Rich
53. Your Mama Don't Dance, Loggins and Messina
54. Feelin' Stronger Every Day, Chicago
55. The Cisco Kid, War
56. Live And Let Die, Wings
57. Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?, Hurricane Smith
58. I Believe In You, Johnnie Taylor
59. Sing, Carpenters
60. Ain't No Woman (Like The One I Got), Four Tops
61. Dueling Banjos, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
62. Higher Ground, Stevie Wonder
63. Here I Am (Come And Take Me), Al Green
64. My Maria, B.W. Stevenson
65. Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
66. Get Down, Gilbert O'Sullivan
67. Last Song, Edward Bear
68. Reelin' In The Years, Steely Dan
69. Hocus Pocus, Focus
70. Yesterday Once More, Carpenters
71. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Bette Midler
72. Clair, Gilbert O'Sullivan
73. Do It Again, Steely Dan
74. Kodachrome, Paul Simon
75. Why Can't We Live Together, Timmy Thomas
76. So Very Hard To Go, Tower Of Power YES! YES! YES! T.O.P Rox it!
77. Do You Want To Dance?, Bette Midler
78. Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu, Johnny Rivers
79. Ramblin' Man, Allman Brothers
80. Masterpiece, Temptations
81. Peaceful, Helen Reddy
82. One Of A Kind (Love Affair), Spinners
83. Funny Face, Donna Fargo
84. Funky Worm, Ohio Players
85. Angie, Rolling Stones
86. Jambalaya (On The Bayou), Blue Ridge Rangers
87. Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend, Lobo
88. Break Up To Make Up, Stylistics
89. Daisy A Day, Jud Strunk
90. Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001), Deodato
91. Stir It Up, Johnny Nash
92. Money, Pink Floyd
93. Gypsy Man, War
94. The World Is A Ghetto, War
95. Yes We Can Can, Pointer Sisters
96. Free Ride, Edgar Winter Group
97. Space Oddity, David Bowie
98. It Never Rains In Southern California, Albert Hammond
99. The Twelfth Of Never, Donny Osmond
100. Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Temptations

Ok. Now, don't tell anyone else that I listened to some of this crap. Please? The kid would laugh at me...LOL!

Tomorrow is the day that Fifty becomes the New Thirty. Yes, it's my birthday and using my Slim Pickens voice from Blazing Saddles "I am Depressed", although not for the same reasons...well, you're only as old as you feel, I guess.

Enough about me. I got an awesome birthday present a day early. SK Bubba, formerly known as R. Neal is guest-blogging over here. Hey, Bubba, for my birthday would you consider making it permanent?

Anyhow, we'll be having wild celebrations around the Fish Pond, there will be much drinking of San Miguel, vomiting on my shoes and annoying the girls in the local bar. Oh, wait, that's what I did for my 30th in Olongapo City, PI. Well, if it's the new 30, then perhaps I can get away with it one more time. Or not.

What I really want is for the 1600 Crew to come clean, for the Democrats to deserve to win in 2006 on the merits of their politics, not because of GOP fatigue, and for the winning powerball lottery ticket so I can buy a old Huey and spend every weekend flying off to go fly fishing in the mountains out west.

Since the chances of 2/3rds of that happening are about the same as James Dobson becoming a practicing athiest by midnight tomorrow, I'll just count my good fortune which includes my family and all the friends I have made out here in blogtopia (y!sctp!). Thanks guys, here's to victory next year!

This just got dropped in my email box. You have to watch it (QT Video). If this guy wins the Manhattan Borough President job, he's really done something I think. I know nothing about NYC electoral politics, so I don't know what Mr. Ellner's chances are, but damn, this is one ballsy ad.

My sister lives in Manhattan, I'll have to get some more info when she gets back from taking her daughter to college. Or does someone out there have more info for me?

Operation Yellow Elephant makes a good point about those who won't go and serve, put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. But interestingly, the Army is having issues keeping what it considers "company grade" officers, O-3's, Captains in its ranks as the deployments in the middle east continue ad infinitum.

Jonathan Powers, a 27-year-old Army captain from Buffalo, N.Y., spent more than a year in Iraq with the 1st Armored Division and saw "a lot of good things being done" to help rebuild the country.

But when his four-year commitment came up, Powers decided last September to leave the Army because he was wary of additional tours in a war-torn land: "You're going to be in Iraq. That's the Army."

As the American military begins its third year in Iraq and President Bush vows to stay the course, an increasing number of captains and other junior officers are leaving the service, leading some current and former officers to fear an exodus of talent not seen since the Vietnam War.
...
One retention proposal is to offer more Army-paid graduate school slots to captains. Another would let officers switch career paths earlier in their careers, which would allow more and earlier opportunities for advanced education.

The Army is also considering enticing students in college ROTC programs and West Point to commit to eight years of active duty -- as opposed to the current four or five years -- with the promise of graduate school and a choice of Army jobs and installations.

Army officials say that once officers commit to eight years and devote two to graduate study, they would be required to "pay back" the graduate school time. By then, they would have well over a decade in the Army and be likely to serve to a 20-year retirement, officials said.

"These incentives I think will turn it around," said retired Army Lt. Gen. Theodore G. Stroup Jr., who was chief of Army personnel during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "The Army's really not bleeding. The captains are really not leaving in droves."

This is who the spineless Democrats need to formulate a strategy for opening a lasting dialog with, people who see the naked emporer and want no part of applauding his nut sac flopping around in the breeze for all to see.

So when my mother called me the other day and told me she was considering registering as a Democrat, I was, well, stunned. Somewhere in a cemetery plot near Fillmore a body is spinning.

For the last year or more my mother has been gradually expressing ever greater exasperation with President Bush, the war, and the religious right. “Have you heard about this James Dobson guy?” she asked me on the phone, referring to the head of Focus on the Family. “If they overturn Roe vs. Wade, that’ll be it for me,” she said.

Then she mentioned Cindy Sheehan.

For all the efforts to discredit Ms. Sheehan, what she accomplished in drawing attention to the human cost of the war, if my mother’s opinion is any indication, crossed party lines. There’s a Mom Faction in American politics, and while it isn’t a monolithic Third Rail, it’s at least and second-and-a-half rail. When their children are dying on a battlefield of choice, you touch it at your peril.

My mother has her fingers on the pulse, and scalps, of many such women. She’s a hairdresser with a clientele that has been coming to her regularly for decades. Now grandmothers, these women were moms during Vietnam, in which over 50,000 American sons and daughters died. They worried then about their kids’ safety, now they’re worried about grandkids - theirs or someone else’s. Most are pretty mainstream, most Republican, and most, my mother tells me, pretty much fed up with George Bush.

One possible solution not open to America right now is drawing on other nations to provide support of any kind, even if it were only to offer their services as impartial, trusted brokers to all sides in the so-called "constitutional discussions" to perhaps get all sides to declare a moratorium on the killing while some earnest discussions begin.

Unfortunately, the unilateral cowboy-ism of Preznit All Hat No Cattle has driven many allies and potential allies from our side for the duration of the conflict and probably longer, it's going to be a generational task to rebuild our international street creds as having the moral authority to speak on much of anything in global realpolitik.

Is it time to begin a grassroots (netroots?) effort to earnestly take back the Democratic Party from the Joe Bidens, Joementums and Dianne Feinsteins? They have become Triangulating Losers who are intent on leading us off the cliff again to maintain their own status quo in the Senate (and House). Perhaps if we are going to preach a "slash and burn" approach to politics for retaking our Democracy from these bastards who are ruining our country, the place to start is at home.

After all, there are republican grandmothers out there who are waiting for a leader, and they'll join the fight too...

Ho-lee Cow. It's over the wall. Frank Rich broke his bat on this one.

We have long since lost count of all the historic turning points and fast-evaporating victories hyped by this president. The toppling of Saddam's statue, "Mission Accomplished," the transfer of sovereignty and the purple fingers all blur into a hallucinatory loop of delusion. One such red-letter day, some may dimly recall, was the adoption of the previous, interim constitution in March 2004, also proclaimed a "historic milestone" by Mr. Bush. Within a month after that fabulous victory, the insurgency boiled over into the war we have today, taking, among many others, the life of Casey Sheehan.
...
And what exactly is our task? Mr. Bush's current definition - "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down" - could not be a better formula for quagmire. Twenty-eight months after the fall of Saddam, only "a small number" of Iraqi troops are capable of fighting without American assistance, according to the Pentagon - a figure that Joseph Biden puts at "fewer than 3,000." At this rate, our 138,000 troops will be replaced by self-sufficient locals in roughly 100 years.
...
The Democrats are hoping that if they do nothing, they might inherit the earth as the Bush administration goes down the tubes. Whatever the dubious merits of this Kerryesque course as a political strategy, as a moral strategy it's unpatriotic. The earth may not be worth inheriting if Iraq continues to sabotage America's ability to take on Iran and North Korea, let alone Al Qaeda.
...
The marketing campaign will crescendo in two weeks, on the anniversary of 9/11, when a Defense Department "Freedom Walk" will trek from the site of the Pentagon attack through Arlington National Cemetery to a country music concert on the Mall. There the false linkage of Iraq to 9/11 will be hammered in once more, this time with a beat: Clint Black will sing "I Raq and Roll," a ditty whose lyrics focus on Saddam, not the Islamic radicals who actually attacked America. Lest any propaganda opportunity be missed, Arlington's gravestones are being branded with the Pentagon's slogans for military campaigns, like Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Associated Press reported last week - a historic first. If only the administration had thought of doing the same on the fallen's coffins, it might have allowed photographs.

No Democrat who is currently in any National Office except perhaps Feingold is even talking the talk. Too terrified of Rove and the republican slime machine, and perhaps too ashamed of their lack of spine in days past they feel they do good (for themselves) by saying nothing at all. So who do we listen to? Who do we look to for leadership now that all our alleged "leaders" have averted their gaze and assumed submissive positions to the 1600 Crew?

Unless things change, I'm going with Wes Clark. He may be a political one-trick pony bred just for Mess O'Potamia, but damn it, no one else has either the brains or balls together to even start challenging piss-poor position the 1600 Crew have put us in. Clark is a leader, not afraid to raise the bullshit flag, and that's what it's going to take to extricate this country from the 1600 Crew disaster.

2006 - we have to take back at least one chamber of Congress, and begin to stop not only the disasterous policies of absolute failure of the 1600 Crew, but keep them from hiding the evidence of their criminal wrongdoing, something they are more afraid of seeing the light of day, than all the falling poll numbers in the world. They know that the first unrefutable documentary evidence of their misconduct will not only poison the public against them, but the GOoPers for generations to come.

This is good. Thanks to Blogging of the President for the link.

From Dan Froomkin at the Post:

About 50 members of the White House press corps accepted President Bush's invitation last night to come over to his house in Crawford, eat his food, drink his booze, hang around the pool and schmooze with him -- while promising not to tell anyone what he said afterward.
...
Nevertheless, I'm told that several reporters expressed squeamishness about last night's event, particularly as the press-pool vans drove by antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey" site. And later, a small handful watched askance as the rest fawned over Bush, following him around in packs every time he moved.

Bought and Paid for with a hot dog and a cheap beer. We've long since established what they are, and now we know the price...

Ahhh, a new moniker for the Duchess of Dupont: Auntie Eugenix. Back from emulating his hero and taking that looooong vacation on his readers dime (pay for 12 months, get 11!), Auntie plays with Bells again.

And the fact that so many liberals are determined instead to prevent and stigmatize free research and debate on this subject is evidence ...

Oh wait, it's your Masturbation Object, Preznit Pickle Licker, whose goal is politicize all research and science, who hates "free research and debate" because well, it's just not very controllable...and sometimes makes his big donors look like big dicks.

Well, I'm glad to see that Vacation hasn't improved the old Eugenix brain much. Too much dope, or not enough?

So I was waiting for the VBen to publish his second installment in his Chickenhawk follies. And he doesn't disappoint.

Shorter VBen:

There's no way on the planet that a 100KT nuke could get me out of Hahvahd Law and Cambridge

He calls all dissent from the left "unAmerican" and especially those who call for the enlistment of Jenna and Not-Jenna. Because their sacrifice in the GWOT/GSAVE is in coming home from a drunken spree at 2AM not 4, and not buying any French designer couture.

VBen then says that

Deciding to enter the armed services isn't a choice the left understands, but it is a choice -- an honorable, brave, praiseworthy choice.

Oh, and Michael Moore? He's still fat.

You gotta read this, if you haven't already.

Every time the wound begins to heal at Ray and Diane Maida's house, something comes along to rub salt into it.

First came news that their son, Mark Maida, a 22-year-old Army sergeant, was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb on May 26. Then, a week after his death, the Army gave only hours' notice that the body would be arriving at Gen. Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, forcing the grieving family into a frantic scramble to retrieve it for a funeral two days later.

Letters and packages to Mark from home arrived for a time almost daily, marked "Return to sender." Then a slow trickle of possessions arrived from Iraq and his unit's base at Fort Irwin, Calif. To top it off, despite repeated efforts, Army officials failed to provide details of Mark's death. More than two months later, the Maidas finally got the details of his death, not from the Army, but from the Washington Post.
...
For the Maidas, pain from the loss of their son has been compounded by countless snafus. Ray said an Army official even admitted, unofficially, that the Army lacked a proper protocol for dealing with the families of dead soldiers.
...
"They can take a $1 million missile and put it up some Iraqi's ass and they can't tell me what time my son's coming in?" Ray fumed. "This is why my son's dead, this total incompetence."
...
Mark and his fellow soldiers patrolled trouble spots, often looking for insurgents planting roadside bombs. Although Mark was trained as a gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle, the soldiers typically traveled in Humvees, which insurgents have been remarkably successful in blowing up.

"He's in Iraq and he's serving and he's getting frustrated, frustrated at the incompetence of leadership," Ray said. "He didn't feel he was accomplishing what America was saying was being accomplished."

But he had a sense of obligation to his fellow soldiers that outweighed his aversion to the military.
...
If there's one thing that galls the Maidas, it's the endless parade of bumper sticker ribbons.

"Do you know what my government's not doing to support the troops?" Ray said. "I want people to know the lack of respect and the folly of 'We Support Our Troops.'"

Mark Maida was the kind of military guy I respected a lot, and there are lots and lots of them out there, men and women who don't necessarily love the military, but do truly support each other and their mission, however stupid and misguided it may be.

Even in peacetime, it was always a sort of wrenching experience to leave your unit, knowing that someone else would be picking up the sorties you would have flown, or the deployments you would not be making. It's just like that...unless of course you're an overprivileged son-of-a-bitch who can't be bothered to carry your share of the load...ever.

RIP, Mark Maida.

From the 1600 Crew press brief with not-Scotty, Trent 'Tuffy' Duffy:

As the President said on Tuesday, most of those he meets with express support for going forward in the way and the manner in which the President has laid out.

The day he leaves office, either at the next inaugural, or as a result of an impeachment and conviction following a shift in Congressional Politics (and don't believe for a minute that the subpoenas won't be flying fast and furiously if either chamber changes hands), you have to wonder what his life will be like when he discovers that almost 60% of Americans now think he's a blithering, fucking idiot. Impeachment and conviction would remove him from his bubble forthwith...no nothing from an ungrateful nation, ever again.

I guess mommy and Pickles will be tucking him in every night with a glass of warm scotch and prozac chaser...it'll be hard work, takin' care of the most reviled ex-Preznit in history...

Kitty-killer Fristy is feeling the wrath of the Professional Victims of the Right these days. All he had to do was open his southern-fried yap and say that stem-cells might have some intrinsic medical use and boom! he was solidly in the PVoR's sights.

An evangelical group has begun a weeklong advertising campaign in Iowa criticizing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for backing expanded embryonic stem cell research.
...
In the ad, which shows a photo of a smiling baby, an announcer says: "Senator Frist: we cannot save innocent lives by destroying them. Tell Senator Frist to stand with President Bush and oppose research that destroys human embryos."
...
In the ad, which shows a photo of a smiling baby, an announcer says: "Senator Frist: we cannot save innocent lives by destroying them. Tell Senator Frist to stand with President Bush and oppose research that destroys human embryos."

What would these bozos say if that little babys liver failed and embryonic stem cells allowed it to return to being a happy healthy baby? Would they rather hold up the corpse and say "well, at least no embroys were harmed in the death of this formerly living person". I'm pretty sure they would.

Feel sorry for Frist? Nahh. But it's nice to see him get the castigating he so richly deserves from his "own people".

From Media Matters, a quote from John "5 in da Noggin" Gibson:

GIBSON: Hey, everybody. It's John Gibson in for Bill O'Reilly. And uh, this hour threatens to be big trouble. Big, big, big, big, big trouble. Because this subject has been big trouble in this country since at least -- 1925? Wasn't that when the Scopes trial happened? Inherit the Wind [the play and film based on the Scopes trial], 1925? And we're still arguing about it, although the argument has transmogrified in a lot of ways and is something different. And it's probably not even fair to talk about the Scopes trial of 1925. When the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] found John Scopes and was able to challenge, uh, the teaching of Bible-based science in schools. Successfully. And ever since then, we've had science-based science in schools.

Just got home and fired up the internets to see whazzup. bouncing off the link from Atrios, I find this:

The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, has declared war on antiwar protestors, and the media could be next. Speaking at its national convention in Honolulu, the group's national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the war, constitutional protections be damned.

"The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples," Thomas Cadmus, national commander, told delegates at the group's national convention in Honolulu.

The delegates vowed to use whatever means necessary to "ensure the united backing of the American people to support our troops and the global war on terrorism."

Cadmus explained, "No one respects the right to protest more than one who has fought for it, but we hope that Americans will present their views in correspondence to their elected officials rather than by public media events guaranteed to be picked up and used as tools of encouragement by our enemies…

Second, isn't threatening violence and creating fear among the populace, well, sort of Terroristic Behavior? I mean when this guy tells me, that he's going to "use whatever means necessary" to silence my and others First Amendment protected objections to this Neo-Con Fantasy War, is he planning to come to my house, burn it down and kill me and my family? Or maybe just something a little less direct, like having a sympathetic AL member who's in law enforcement, picking up my kids at school and taking them for a ride and calling me up and asking where the kids are, and I'd better shut the fuck up now.

I certainly don't think that anyone in the 1600 Crew will gainsay this guy. Not after Trent Duffy threatened the press corpse again yesterday with another "yer with us, or agin us". Members of the American Legion who think this thing is over the top and believe that this reflects poorly on the Legion and it's history and principles, will you speak out?

Will any Democrats and/or republicans in politics ditch their American Legion Membership immediately as repudiation for these remarks and do so publicly and with some fanfare to point out that this is as Un-American as it gets?

You know what, this all sounds like an irrational conspiracy rant, something my commenters and correspondants accuse me of with regularity. But I have one question: how did we get to this point today?

Happened to catch the video feed of the Codpiece speaking in Idaho (he was mentioning members of the Idaho Nat'l Guard)...he went through all his yadda-yadda about freedom, womens rights (what planet is he on again?), how the Iraqi Security Forces are "standing shoulder to shoulder with our troops as we "hunt down the terrrists" (not what I've been reading in emails from correspondants over there), and how 9/11 was a horribleeventsaddamhusseinwasabadmanwhosupportedterror.
Shorter Beloved Leader speech:

American Soldiers must to die to honor the others who have died before them in Iraq.

via Sadly, No!, from The Poor Man. This is so true and one of the funniest things I've read on the internets in a long time. The comments are priceless. I nominated my self for a chair too:

How many kitten pictures do I have to view to be the Chair of the Barrifs and Terriers Research Foundation at the Institute?

We'll have pictures of cuddly puppies on the wall, and listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" alot, and give out AOL 9.0 CDs to worthy employees in lieu of filthy lucre.

The editorial page of the Times while giving a fairly good rhetorical bitch-slapping to Beloved Leader manages to gloss over their part in the Iraq War with amazing dexterity. It's almost an act of prosaic auto-fellatio:

It took President Bush a long time to break his summer vacation and acknowledge the pain that the families of fallen soldiers are feeling as the death toll in Iraq continues to climb. When he did, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Utah this week, he said exactly the wrong thing. In an address that repeatedly invoked Sept. 11 - the day that terrorists who had no discernable connection whatsoever to Iraq attacked targets on American soil - Mr. Bush offered a new reason for staying the course: to keep faith with the men and women who have already died in the war.

"We owe them something," Mr. Bush said. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for." It was, as the mother of one fallen National Guardsman said, an argument that "makes no sense." No one wants young men and women to die just because others have already made the ultimate sacrifice. The families of the dead do not want that, any more than they want to see more soldiers die because politicians cannot bear to admit that they sent American forces to war by mistake.

Most Americans believed that their country had invaded Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, but we know now that those weapons did not exist. If we had all known then what we know now, the invasion would have been stopped by a popular outcry, no matter what other motives the president and his advisers may have had. (my emphasis)

It's nice that the Times is finally saying that the emperor has no clothes, but that's an observation they should have been making with the same energy and commitment that they had to say...hmmm, I don't know, Whitewater...?

The Pentagram, that five-sided monument to Murphy's Law on the Potomac has done it again. They have allowed the BRAC, that post-cold-war brainchild of the Bush I and VP Crashcart to start to effectively strangle them. From the announced BRAC closings today:

The nine-member Base Closure and Realignment Commission also voted to shut major Army bases in Georgia and Michigan and to close nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard facilities in dozens of states.

Now figure that a vet who has done a tour or two in Iraq thinks all those same things, plus knowing that it's a weekend away from the family they just left for several years, on-and-off. Yeah, I'd say that the BRAC just did the Pentagon a big favor. Not.

So BRAC just saved a few bucks for the next round of tax cuts for the friends of the 1600 Crew...wowee. There's an old saying: One aw-shit wipes out 1000 atta-boys. And folks, here's proof positive...

A great op-ed on evolution and why ID is crap.

Last month a team of paleontologists announced that it had found several fossilized dinosaur embryos that were 190 million years old - some 90 million years older than any dinosaur embryos found so far. Those kinds of numbers are always a little daunting. Ever since I was a boy in a public elementary school in Iowa, I've been learning to face the eons and eons that are embedded in the universe around us.
...
It's been approximately 3.5 billion years since primeval life first originated on this planet. That is not an unimaginable number in itself, if you're thinking of simple, discrete units like dollars or grains of sand. But 3.5 billion years of biological history is different. All those years have really passed, moment by moment, one by one. They encompass an actual, already lived reality, encompassing all the lives of all the organisms that have come and gone in that time. That expanse of time defines the realm of biological possibility in which life in its extraordinary diversity has evolved. It is time that has allowed the making of us.
...
That is a lot to absorb and, not surprisingly, many people refuse to absorb it. Nearly every attack on evolution - whether it is called intelligent design or plain creationism, synonyms for the same faith-based rejection of evolution - ultimately requires a foreshortening of cosmological, geological and biological time.
...
Evolution is a robust theory, in the scientific sense, that has been tested and confirmed again and again. Intelligent design is not a theory at all, as scientists understand the word, but a well-financed political and religious campaign to muddy science. Its basic proposition - the intervention of a designer, a k a God - cannot be tested. It has no evidence to offer, and its assumptions that humans were divinely created are the same as its conclusions. Its objections to evolution are based on syllogistic reasoning and a highly selective treatment of the physical evidence.

Accepting the fact of evolution does not necessarily mean discarding a personal faith in God. But accepting intelligent design means discarding science. Much has been made of a 2004 poll showing that some 45 percent of Americans believe that the Earth - and humans with it - was created as described in the book of Genesis, and within the past 10,000 years. This isn't a triumph of faith. It's a failure of education. emphasis added

The public face of these blowhards is Pat Robertson, whose personal christian convictions include relying on the Ten Commandments only when it's time to raise money on the TeeVee, and favoring summary execution for those he personally dislikes..."Thou Shalt Not Kill" is for pussies and wimps, eh, Rev?

Robertson has been a driving force behind this movement to get Religion back into Government at every level, including and most especially public schools. Make no mistake about it, putting the face of someone like Robertson on ID is a good thing for us...it makes it harder for the any christo-fascists to differentiate themselves from the most radical elements in their brood. Robertson has thoughtfully supplied us with a "Spotted Owl" moment on Hugo Chavez...we need to use it for every battle. Just like they do.

Continuing his five week-long escape from reality, Beloved Leader again spoke of Cindy Sheehan.

President Bush suggested Tuesday that anti-war protesters such as Cindy Sheehan, who want the troops brought home immediately, do not represent the views of most U.S. military families and are "advocating a policy that would weaken the United States."

In brief remarks outside the exclusive resort where he is vacationing, Bush gave no indication that he would change his mind and meet with Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq and has emerged as a harsh critic of the war there, when he returns to his Texas ranch Wednesday evening.
...
Bush said that two high-ranking member of his staff have already met with her.

Bush was asked about the possibility that objections to the constitution as it now stands from the Sunnis, the party of deposed leader Saddam Hussein, could trigger a civil war.

"The Sunnis have got to make a choice -- do they want to live in a society that's free?" Bush said.

I think that's the truth of the "Noble Cause" that the republican slime machine is afraid will be uttered by Preznit Strategery if he goes off-message by accident.

Kind of like this:

At an August 11, 1984 press conference, Reagan quipped during the microphone check: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

Holy Crap! I'm not alone!!! Was wandering around the blogroll this morning and from the lovely Susie Madrak over at Suburban Guerilla, I found this link to a blog called Pen and Sword, written by a guy I think I knew in the Training Command (flight school to everyone else).

Jeff, the guy who runs the blog is retired E-2C driver, and was the skipper of VAW-124. He retired as a Commander, and is now a part-time beltway bandito and plays with his dogs.

It's always nice to find another 131x out here in blogtopia! (y!sctp!). Welcome aboard, shipmate! You can find him over in the Fish Pond from this day forward...I get one more blogging 1310/1315/1320/1325 (Naval Aviator/Naval Flight Officer) or even an AEDO, and I'm starting another pond!

Wow. From todays WaPo on the predeliction of the Luxury-SUV class to have magnetic yellow ribbons on their vehicles, but avoid having to send their kiddies off for an 18-month vacation in Mess O'Potamia (shamelessly stolen from The Daily Show).

But the Post-Gazette raises another issue. There has been much talk about the relationship between race and ethnicity and military recruitment. But what about social and economic class? Are wealthier Americans, who are more likely to be Republicans and therefore more likely to support the war, stepping up to the plate and urging their children and others from their communities to enlist?

Unfortunately, there has been no definitive study on this subject. But it appears that the affluent are not encouraging their children and peers to join the war effort on the battlefield.

By looking at long-term trends, it seems logical that some of those most likely to support Bush and his Iraq policy are also those least likely to encourage their children to go into the military at wartime. And it raises questions, such as, if you are among those most likely to support the war, shouldn't you be among those most likely to encourage your child to serve in the military? Shouldn't your socioeconomic group be the most receptive to the recruiters' call? And would there be a recruitment problem at all if the affluent put their money where their mouth is?

Among the more recent studies was one done last year by Robert Cushing, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He tracked those who died in Iraq by geography and found that whites from small, mostly poor, rural areas made up a disproportionately large percentage of the casualties in Iraq.
...
Back during Vietnam, "the top [economic class] had access for means of staying out of the military," said Segal. "The National Guard was known to be a well-to-do white man's club back then. People knew if you if joined the guard you weren't going to go to Vietnam. That included people like Dan Quayle and our current commander in chief. If you were rich, you might have found it easier to get a doctor to certify you as having a condition that precluded you from service. You could get a medical deferment with braces on your teeth, so you would go get braces -- something that was very expensive back then. The wealthy had more access to educational and occupational deferments."

Today's affluent merely see themselves as having more options and are not as enticed by financial incentives, such as money for college, Segal said.

Segal said that service members in the highest and lowest income brackets are underrepresented in the modern military. ...
...
While there have been changes in racial and ethnic enlistment trends, with the number of black recruits dropping precipitously since the Iraq war, Segal and Bachman said they've seen nothing to indicate significant changes in the class -- of which education levels is a prime indicator -- trends in the military.

Journalists can get themselves in trouble by drawing simplistic conclusions based on less-than-exhaustive research, and we won't do so here. But we can at least raise the question of whether the rich are more likely to support the war because their loved ones are less likely to die in it.

crossposted at Operation Yellow Elephant

The Washington Post has issued a correction. Which proves that the MSM is both archaic and consistently factually incorrect.

Gah.

Really.

The there's this post from Sadly, No! talking about giving Charles Johnson of Little Green Snotballs indigestion.

hat tip: Julia

Release the Hounds! Let the Balkinization Begin! In agreeing to agree in principle on the understanding of the principles of the draft of the understanding of the new constitution, the Shiites and the Kurds have really done it!

Shiites and Kurds were sending a draft constitution to parliament on Monday that would fundamentally change Iraq, transforming the country into a loose federation, with a weak central administration governed by Islamic law, negotiators said.

The draft, slated for action by a Monday deadline, would be a sweeping rejection of the demands of Iraq's disaffected Sunni minority, which has called the proposed federal system the start of the breakup of Iraq. Shiites and Kurds indicated they were in no mood to compromise.

Leaving out the other third of the population? Not a problem, why they're just acting like Preznit Swallow Not Spit, and ignoring everyone who doesn't agree with them. After all, what are the Sunni's going to do, fight?

Michael Crowley taking the reins from Josh over at TPM speculates.

It now looks increasingly likely that Hackett will run for Senate next year, against the vulnerable Republican incumbent Mike DeWine. This Cincinnati Post article has current details, including the decision by one top Ohio Democrat to skip the race and the signal from another that he probably won't run -- developments which appear to make Hackett the Dems' de facto candidate.

[big flashy blue light graphic thingy stolen by damn moonbats]

UPDATE!!----------------------------BREAKING---------------UPDATE!!
Patridiot Watch reads TPM too! it's not the same exact story, but he was there too today!

hat tip: Jesse

It's Blog Like a Conservative Day!

Nine-Eleven.
9/11
9-11
911
0911

Lest we forget. Now watch this invasion.

Why it's not working. Bob Herbert's column today talks about the tactics used by the military to try and fill the ranks for future deployments to Iraq and other places that the Bunnypants Brigade may want to wreak havoc on for no discernible reason. He finishes with this observation:

With a series of television ads, the Army is also trying to win over what it calls the "influencers," the parents and other adults who have been counseling youngsters to stay away from the military. That campaign was packaged by the Leo Burnett agency, which has the following to say about itself:

"Leo Burnett USA creates ideas that inspire enduring belief for many of the world's most valuable brands and most successful marketers, including McDonald's, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Marlboro, Altoids, Heinz, Kellogg, Nintendo and the U.S. Army."

Of course expecting "Truth in Recruiting" from the 1600 Crew is like expecting "Truth" about anything from them. Not gonna happen.

Yes, kids. It's reaching epidemic proportions of stupididity out there. The paper of record, lacking the good guidance of Judy (You go, Ho!) Miller to help with it's editorial guidance has led a story with this opening:

At the heart of the debate over intelligent design is this question: Can a scientific explanation of the history of life include the actions of an unseen higher being?

The proponents of intelligent design, a school of thought that some have argued should be taught alongside evolution in the nation's schools, say that the complexity and diversity of life go beyond what evolution can explain.
...
In one often-cited argument, Michael J. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University and a leading design theorist, compares complex biological phenomena like blood clotting to a mousetrap: Take away any one piece - the spring, the baseboard, the metal piece that snags the mouse - and the mousetrap stops being able to catch mice.

Well, talking about fecal matter, here's another frothy Ricky Santorum story.

On the evening of August 10, Hannah Shaffer of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, decided to go to the nearby Barnes & Noble outside of Wilmington. She wanted to see Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was promoting his book, “It Takes a Family.”

The event was billed as a “book signing and discussion,” Shaffer says.

But discussion was the last thing that the Senator’s people wanted.

Shaffer, her friends, and two other young women were booted out of the store and threatened with imprisonment even before they had a chance to say a word to Santorum...

I'm actually surprised that Barnes and Noble management let this go on. I stopped shopping at Borders a couple of years ago after that shameful display in a Borders in Virginia where a musician was singing an anti-Beloved Leader ditty and was kicked out/silenced. Do I no longer shop at Barnes and Noble anymore either because their management is getting too cozy with the GOP and suppression of free speech too? Hope not.

Frist, a politician who can be swayed by any breeze more than five knots, has managed to make some interesting headlines backing that Genesis story in psuedo-scientific clothing: Intelligent Design. You know, the theory that that says that the Hairy Thunderer waved his magic wand and "BOOM" everything happened. Of course the Creationist-Dominioniist use somewhat more fancy words than "BOOM", but it all works out to the same thing. Nothing. BOOM. Everything.

So Fristy, who gets his diagnostic information on patients he writes midnight legislation for via heavily-edited video tapes has weighed in for Intelligent Design. Remember, he's already positioning himself for a bid to be elected Christo-Fascist of the Year for 2008.

"I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith," Frist said.

Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future."

Harvard Med has to be somehwat embarrassed about this guy having one of their diplomas...

Quote of the day, from David Sirota on the congressional Democratic leadership in charge of electability:

...Apparently, the class of professional election losers in Washington, D.C. thinks Democrats can win by saying almost nothing on Iraq (like the party often says nothing on lots of issues, thus perpetuating the perception that Democrats stand for nothing).

Hey, Little Ricky's gotta be likin' this French Fry Guy muy mucho:

In 1985, he called a proposed memorial service for aborted fetuses organized by antiabortion doctors in California "an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy." And as principal deputy solicitor general from 1989 to 1993, Roberts co-authored a brief that said Roe v. Wade should be overturned.