I always have to wonder about flag officers who make statements like this, and wonder what they are saying privately. I do understand the need to salute and give a "cheery aye-aye"...goes with the job and uniform. But with the recent outspokeness of the retired flag officers about Mess O'Potamia, and some of the criticism they got for not resigning and speaking out about George and Dick's Excellent Adventure.

The commander of the National Guard pledged yesterday that 6,000 troops will be trained and ready to carry out President Bush's order to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border starting next month, but the narrowness of their mission and long-standing doubts about U.S. enforcement efforts shadowed Bush's call to "gain full control of the border."
...
The deployment of up to 6,000 troops is expected to begin in June and could extend into a second year with a smaller force of about 3,000, said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. They will be replaced as more Border Patrol officers are hired and trained.

McHale said the military force will consist mainly of National Guard troops from California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico who will rotate to the border for three-week tours in lieu of their annual 15-day field training.

These men and women will be facing issues that I wonder how well they wil be prepared for. The last time we saw woefully-unprepared Guard troops put in position of authority over detainees and too-little supervision we got Abu Ghraib. Not to say that would happen again, but it seems that the 1600 Crew is setting up the situation again, all to get a photo-op and a hopeful poll-bounce.

I wonder how this will affect the Guard in the long-term, I wonder how this policy will do more than provide an opportunity for the deserting frat-boy to put on a uniform and prance around the Rio Grande on his way to another vacation on his "ranch". I wonder how the Commander of the Guard will reconcile his conscience knowing that he might have helped to undermine the organization he loves and has dedicated his life to, by not speaking up if that's the right thing to do now.

Because I can never read things like this too often...

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans. The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.

Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is our answer to the republican's bigot-pandering racist-coded Southern Strategy. It truly emphasizes our inclusiveness and willingness to give voice the small and the large and the weak and strong.

We need to campaign like republicans, quietly paying attention to the details and govern like Democrats as representatives of all Americans not just those whose zip code includes Northern Virigina, DC and Maryland.

We do this right, the permanent republican majority that Tom Delay and his band of whackos dreamed of will be nothing but a bad, repulsive memory. And that's just fine with me.

Preznit aWol is gonna announce that the border-with-brown-folks will be patrolled by the National Guard henceforth. I guess that the good folks in the Guard can stop by the dusty towns of the southern border states to relive their days in Iraq and Afghanistan...like they'll be missing those places, or something?

President Bush tried to ease the worries of his Mexican counterpart yesterday as he prepared for a nationally televised address tonight unveiling a plan to send thousands of National Guard troops to help seal the nation's southern border against illegal immigrants.
...
"This is not about militarizing the border," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "The president is looking to do everything he can to secure the border. It's what the American people want, it's what he wants to do."
...
"We've got to secure our borders," Frist said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We hear from the American people. We've got millions of people coming across that border. First and foremost, secure the border, whatever it takes. Everything else we've done has failed, we've got to face that."

Some in the president's conservative base called on him to be even more aggressive. Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (R-Ga.) said Bush should send 36,000 National Guard troops and eventually up to 48,000, drawn from around the nation. "If President Bush signed that order Monday night, our border would be secure for the first time in decades by Memorial Day at the latest," Norwood said in a statement. "Mr. Fox and [the National Council of] La Raza wouldn't like it -- but the American people sure would."

The saddest part of this is that had Beloved Leader ever been tasked with 5% of the things that the average soldier in the National Guard is tasked with under his administration, he'd have probably deserted. Oh, wait. He did, and he was never even asked to leave Houston, except to go off and learn to fly jets at the taxpayers expense, after lying about wanting to do it "for the rest of his life".

Bravo Zulu to the men and women of the National Guard who will once again be asked to pick up the slack of the slackers in the republican party. Hey, maybe now that they won't think they'll have to deploy to a war zone, the Yeller Elephant College republicans will enlist and fight their "war of ideas". Nah never happen, once a Chickenshit, always a chickenshit.

1. General Disorder?
   
2. :-)
   
3. Guard what with who again?