Fitz!

F I T Z !!!

Happy Sunday morning, Christy! have fun weeding!

Timmeh the Pumkinhead on CNN Late Edition?

Jeepers. I don’t know whether to flat-out call him a whore for shilling his book, or call the entire television major networks completely irrelevant for being so circularly self-referential in their navel-gazing.

How about both?

Hope I can make the book discussion this evening, rather busy day here, mulch and weeding to do here, too. Damned good book, that How Would a Patriot Act? Get it if you haven’t already; even your Republican neighbors will be interested in it.

I wonder if they will be talking about Haditha. Haditha will be Mr. Bush’s legacy. Any shred of moral authority the US may have had in Iraq has now vanished. There is no justification for staying one day longer.

I wonder if they will be talking about David Broder’s marriage. Mr. Broder’s marriage will be his legacy.

O/T

Hey *ilson !
“
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash
Then I long for my Indiana home.”

just so ya know, all 5 of our kids know all the lyrics - and the tradition is that everyone must sing it like Jim Nabors - we’ll be treated to a cell phone serenade from those not home for the event

oh, and it’s sunday morning,

Bloggers, Start Your Engines !

No mention of Haditha on the early morning news shows. The networks are consumed with the breaking news about another Hollywood baby. Are people really interested in this trivia? Maybe they think that any mention of children in Iraq getting shot in cold blood would be a Sunday morning turn-off.

Call the Dept. of Homeland Security and see if they won’t build a million dollar fence for you around your plant.

Convince them a Mexican took the other. That oughta do the trick.

Oh man, Danbury. You made me snarf my coffee.

If you do catch the evildoers, to detain them for the police, stand on their eyelids.

Yeah, oilfieldguy, the really irritating thing about it is that I have been nursing it along, giving it tender loving care, and it had about 40 blooms ready to pop all at once. It was gorgeous. And now, some butthead stole it. Pissed does not begin to describe my mood about this.

Murtha w/Steph:

Outing the new MyLai.
He’s really citing his ‘my source’ …there’s photos.
Takes abreak to mention what a horrible thing it is to be talking about this during Memorial Day period. “We’re supposed to be focused on the heroes and those who sacrificed.”

“I will not excuse murder. Period. This should have been made public immediately, not six months late.”
Chain starts w/Casey, and goes up to Pace.

lord…
I bet he sounds like Gene McCarthy.

btw -
going back to see about those birds. I know them, maybe.

Murtha is a true patriot.

In 1957 the Shelbyville Boys Club went up to the 500 Track during a weekday: it rained all day and that’s the last time I’ve been out there except for twice for job-reasons. I’m spending this afternoon at a barbecue with a bunch of ex-homeless veterans. As an openly gay “draft dodger”, it’ll be interesting…

FWIW, “Back Home Again on the Wabash” was written by Paul Dresser, the brother of progressive writer Theodore Dreiser of Terre Haute, Indiana. The Wabash goes by that city, not Indianapolis…

Warner focused on ‘calmness’…it’s Memorial Day guldarnit…urghh…mr.patriot.

Then, punctiliciouss, sanctimonious. But hedging all over.

Knows it common knowledge among Iraqis. (al-Jaz has it all over, seems to be concensus. Great PR.)

Ohhh…Final Draft ‘Military Manual’ coming RealSoonNow.

ohhh….direct talks w/Iran should be ‘on the table.’ Condi/Bush decide when and if to use that option.

ooohh. .. Nato to the rescue.

pukemenow,plz.

the Sensenbrenner appearance could be the hottest newsmaker: he’s the firebrand on “illegal aliens” - the evil House Bill 4137 is his bill. He is also all huffy and worked up about the unprecedented FBI raid on Capitol Hill …

*ilson — not to mention that Bush left him holding the bag on the harshest aspects of the immigration bill — and Sensenbrenner has a long, long memory for slights.

*ilson,
yeah, somehow suspected you weren’t a gearhead but thought you’d get a chuckle from the image of 7 on their feet doing a very bad Nabors impression

enjoy your BBQ!

btw, long range DC Forecast:
Sh*t Storm

H2O Man has an interesting analysis of Traitorgate (partly in terms of a chess game).

sorta EPU -

The Hartford local Fox talker had two reporters (anchor sorta Stepford, but was on the scene when Ned got a third, and did alright). Anyway, at least on scribe Courant. Both white guys said Joe is worried. With good reason. “The ‘activist’ (200,000 cited) likely voters on Aug 8 are NOT his base.”

fun and games and the CIA: a nice summary story from San Diego http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....poker.html

So, is anyone keeping track of Tim Russert’s out-of-network book pluggage?

hey! booking Timmeh to hawk his book on other networks is just “professional courtesy” — it’s all so incestuous!

Oregon Dave -
wherever you are, we are sooo envious - invested lots of pre children time/energy/miles on seeing one - all to no avail - great pic !

what with all the lemmings, maybe we should’ve gone to DC . . .

Wowl Steph Roundtable unusually candid. Must think the weekend means nobody around.

Kucinich very lively.

All are pointing out this crack, here and there. EJ “Fundamental disagreement within REpublicans.” on immigratiion.

WH not doing so well today, overall, on this show.

Raddatz “If he bush doesn’t get this…what does he get?”

Kucinich “Failure of gov’t.”

I am such a non-gearhead that I’ve never bothered to get a car or truck. It’s unnecessary and so much less of a hassle. Amusingly, some folk think I am such the “environmentalist hero” for renouncing a personal vehicle. I just like to keep life simple to focus on more important things…

Elizabeth Bumiller reports that at the commencement address at West Point, Bush implicitly compares his war on “terrism” to Harry Truman’s Cold War against Communism.

The comparison could not be more inapt, and it is a mystery why they took this tack. For one thing, Truman did not pre-emptively attack Russia (that would have brought on a nuclear WW III), and followed a program of containment, diplomacy, and restraint.

Bush on the other hand lied us into a pre-emptive attack on a country that did not wage terrorism against the US (that would be Al Qaeda, not Hussein). Presidents after Truman stumbled into a disastrous anti-communist crusade in Vietnam, but that was not Truman’s doing. Vietnam was not an inevitable result of the Cold War; it was a historic blunder of men, civilian and military, who ignored the history of the region and its domination by the French.

Will there be anyone in the MSM who will be astute enough to point out that Bush’s comparison to Truman is a stark example of irrelevance and cognitive dissonance, not to mention being bullshit?

I doubt it very much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05.....mp;emc=rss

I don’t think Meet the Press lineup is a mystery. It’s a holiday weekend, Timmeh wants to spend it with his friends and secret crushes.

For anyone interested in nontoxic pest control check out http://www.saferbrand.com. I compost all my plant trimings and vegetable scraps (they are in a closed container), and I use fish emulsion as fertizler.
I resigned myself to dealing with flys.

I’ve found the Fly Magnet this week and it works amazingly well. It’s a trap that lures the flys into a container. Where they drown in the water at the bottom.

They also have selected articles posted about natural ways to protect your garden.

ummm…kinda obliviously:

Is Kucinich running?

Christy:
At this point I think it is safe to just go ahead and make the permanent editorial change on Sunday Lineup to Meet the Republicans & My Books!

ABC: Is it ‘This Week’? I can never keep ‘em straight.

Played Bentsen’s famous debate line:…”Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

*ilson

don’t think many of us will be on our deathbeds wishing we had driven more . . .

Pumpkin Head’s All Rightwing Roadshow Express.

Next week we’ll have an exclusive interview with Bill Clinton’s penis, Brought to you by Viagra.

Not only is there the horror of what appears to be war crimes in Haditha, the UK is reporting that the US has held up to 60 children at Guantanimo bay.

Hmmm…Seems to me I remember a certain dictator that had a list of crimes laid out against him…among torture and wars of aggression was also the accusation of imprisoning children.

(Snip)

“The notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay has been hit by fresh allegations of human rights abuses, with claims that dozens of children were sent there - some as young as 14 years old.”

Linky:

http://www.rawstory.com/showou.....620704.ece

Nice work, Chimp and Gimp.

-GSD

Jumpsuit:

Good observation. Even local news last night ran that quote/clip. Struck me on hearing.

Last week’s B.Globe (NOT the other one) had an ‘Ideas’ about how Dems are/will be split on this, just like Truman’s days and Cold War.

‘working…’

lookinn’ for ‘Ideas’ and here’s the online front page lede…

http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....gislation/

“Cheney aide is screening legislation
Adviser seeks to protect Bush power

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 28, 2006

WASHINGTON — The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president’s desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials.

The officials said Cheney’s legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington , is the Bush a dministration’s leading architect of the “signing statements” the president has appended to more than 750 laws. The statements assert the president’s right to ignore the laws because they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.”
——
Savage reported the 750 signing statements a couple weeks back.

I’d just like to point out something. Tom Maguire at justoneminute, has a great big post justifying the swiftboat smears against Kerry. On Memorial Day.

The yellow ribbon thing is actually older than Tony, Orlando and Dawn. You might, if you are into such things, catch the John Wayne / John Ford indian fighting movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” A few centuries back, US Cavalry wore yellow trim on their uniforms, which distinguished their uniforms from infantry or engineers.

anon at 36 — it’s probably because the NYTimes had pictures and lots of other information that they uncovered that even more thoroughly debunked the SwiftBoat morons. There’s a great diary about it on DKos this morning.

Al Gore is going to be on This Week next week!!!

I was wondering how long it would take for him to show up on TV. You know, since he has a wildly successful movie (first time ever for a pol?), the talk shows might want to book him instead of Newt, McCain, etc.

And I am going to watch Timmeh (for the last time) and e-mail all the sponsors to say that if they have no interest in booking any progressives, I have no interest in their companies.

Here’s ‘Ideas’ May 21, on Terror, Cold, and Vietnam…

http://www.boston.com/news/glo.....he_choice/

“The choice
As Democrats struggle to shape a post-9/11 foreign policy, two defining moments in their history, the dawn of the Cold War and the ’60s antiwar movement, present stark alternatives — and reflect a lasting rift within the party”…
——
If anyone reads this, plz post what you think. I can’t tell what the point is.

Oh. Last night when local news ran Bush at West Point, I would like to know where this came from: “54 West Point alums have served in Iraq (maybe Afghan, too, not sure) 33 have died.”

Should be “Meet the GOP.”

Murtha for president!

About Yellow Ribbons and Cavalry…

In Apocolypse Now, wasnt’ Devall’s ‘Valkyrie’ riders (the ‘New Cavalry’)outfitted w/yellow/gold uniform striping?

I love to read about what happens on the Sunday news shows here. They don’t come on TV here until most of you have already seen them. That way if you mention parts that are worth viewing, I can tune in when they come on.
Unfortunately, they rarely need to be viewed.

Tom Maguire is an IDIOT…….I think Christy is right, he is posting in response to the Times. I wonder how ol’Tom would feel being swiftboated? He was also screaming out loud about the fact that team Libby won the right to Cooper’s notes, and overblew what the judge said about them. But isn’t that the ReTHUGlican way?…take a page from the Rover rule book!!!!

oops my post got swaalowed up. I wonder what I said ?

Is Christopher Walken running for President in 2008?

Could the nation survive that much cowbell??

Christy #38, yeah I saw that article, and TM is flailing desperately in trying to justify Kerry’s swiftboating. Again - on Memorial Day. So next time anyone brings up TM’s analysis on Plame, I reserve to right to point out that he is nothing more than a rational sounding smear artist.

Wonder when ‘Inconvenient Truth’ goes DVD. Or, iTMS. (I thik Gore is on Apple board, still.) Last I checked people were ‘ponying’ up a buck 95 to download Colbert at DC dinner to make it #1.

http://www.apple.com/pr/librar.....9gore.html

I remember Jane’s post after seeing the movie had a single declarative sentence near the top. Something like, “Gore is definitely running.”

aside:Shumer uses a ‘telco exec’ make a point how WallStreet wants to help Dems…that is an egregious citation, given NSA, and NetNeut, etc.
—–
very aside…
Copa Mundial scheduled coverage on UniVision:
http://www.univision.com/conte.....cid=783324

today’s Globe travel:
http://www.boston.com/travel/a.....mad_month/

—–
very, very aside -
props to all librarians…(well, I gotta think about one who’s spouse to a Decider…but other than that…)

SCHIEFFER: BUSH was sincere about the mistakes (no mention of post-confession smirk) mewannahurl

except for CNN, all the broadcast network Sunday morning talk shows are pre-empted today locally : it’s 500 Mile Race Day in Indianapolis !

Blank Kludge - that was John KASICH (GOPer) not Dennis Kucinich on This Week. And no, he’s not running for anything, he’s a FOX News analyst.

dratty;

thanks. confusing in semi-sleep state on names…hate that. Thanks again.

He’s not running. Interesting.

Redd, it is memorial day weekend. Not sure where you are in WV but there is a slight possibility you might find your basket at the local cemetery. I assume people still keep the custom of taking flowers to the ancestors on Memorial Day. Flowers are expensive.

Hanging baskets of plants present a Godsent opportunity to poor youths as Mothers Day comes around each year. Lost one of those myself.

entertaining watching them all try to sort out the Jefferson Hastert Gonzales events while spinning frantically

then for some better spinning … ah, Indy followed by the Coca Cola 600!

turnleftgofast should be our demand for the dems

Blank K. says: I can’t tell what the point is.

They get paid for filling column inches. That is the point.

ESaund at 42:
“And I am going to watch Timmeh (for the last time) and e-mail all the sponsors to say that if they have no interest in booking any progressives, I have no interest in their companies.”

Roots project? It’s so egregious.

Ron, not just poor youths, sometimes delinquent husbands returning late from the bar on Saturday night.

I was out buying flowers, had to go all the way to wherever to get them and this is the thanks I get.

When I had a tv I thought of the letter to the sponsors thing, but they were mostly institutional — huge corporations like Archer Daniels Midland and GE or stockbrokers. Timmeh is (or was) not brought to us by people trying to sell us a particular brand of hemorrhoid remedy.

I subject myself to the horrendous “Chris Matthews Show” because it’s on opposite infomercials, and there’s just something about watching a trainwreck. Today he and his merry band spent most of their time between the Clintons’ sheets. While not quoting a single actual democrat who is concerned, they contend that democrats leaked this story to the NYT because they don’t want it to explode later “when she’s the front-runner.” And, of course, they’re feeling no shame about pedalling this bullshit because “it’s out there.” Yeah, because YOU put it out there, as*holes. Disclaimer, I do not heart Hilary.

Only show I saw in its entirety was This Week, which actually did nothing to boil the blood for a change. Skipped Fox News Sunday as soon as I saw Chris Wallace welcoming Bill Frist. Blech.

Decided to skip MTP, but realized the point might have been House v. Senate, and/or division within the party, as opposed to some kind of united viewpoint. With respect to immigration, I think that is the story.

Anyhoo…sun is shining, air’s feeling summery (humid), and is filled with the scent of the wild roses that grow all over our property. God, I love that fragrance wafting on the breeze…

The garden roses are blooming, too, and giving off a heady scent. Am off to run some errands and go to the gym. Hubby returning from a couple days fishing. Hoping to find time to join in the book chat later - that Glenn Greenwald can write.

Have a great day, everyone!

Talk about left field: LA Times today’s lead editorial is a passionate essay to Hillary to Please Just Go Away so Bill can become UN SecGen. Huh. You just never know over here who’s smoking what and damn it kinda makes sense…

http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....editorials

Garden-wise, we’ve just about dug out all our big raised beds and lined them with chicken wire. The only solution left for these f**king gophers, short of midnight stints with a flashlight and a 12-gage, which might land me in jail. Probably shred the tomatoes, too.

RJJ 62, I see what you mean, what are we gonna do, stop buying nuclear reactors?

Having just seen the Sensenbrenner/Hagel discussion on MTP, I’m gonna take probably an unpopular stand and say that I’m kinda glad that, for two weeks running, we’re seeing Goopers fighting each other on the immigration question.
Now before you all go off on me, I’m not one who applauds the Dems sitting on the sidelines all the time (and I do mean ALL). However… from a strictly political viewpoint, this is not a winning issue for either side of the debate. The Senate bill, however well-intentioned, is frankly, a mess. The House bill is, in a word, fascist. At this point, I’m quite content to watch, along with the rest of America, as Goopers slime each other’s intentions and raise each other’s negatives in the process.
I’m also quite content to watch Goopers give cover to defending a Dem Congressman who, let’s face facts, most of America has learned, had bribe money in his freezer. Indicted or not, I’d rather have Sensenbrenner defending what will be perceived as Jefferson’s right to hide things than Pelosi.

So now don’t go flaming me. It kinda makes sense.

davin, 51

The Walken for president thing is a hoax. However, in real-world terms he would make a lot better president than the imposter who currently holds that position. If however he ran against Der Groper for guv of CA, he could very well win but so far he shown no interest in politics. Probably too stoned most of the time.

In truth I have no idea if Walken does drugs; it’s just that the man just looks, talks, and acts like he is on something 24/7, and it gives him a uniquely spaced out and creepy quality that is, well…very endearing.

Unforgettable in Pulp Fiction.

dratty @ 67 –

Considering the quality of sloganeering coming out of the DC Dems, sitting on the sidelines while the GOoPers rip each other to shreds might be the best strateregy.

Other than having a real strategy, of course . . .

Tweety has a weekly that runs OTA in Hartford. (’Chris Matthews Show’?) I don’t know what it’s called. Ran ‘confession’ w/o smirk, or mention of same. ‘He’s so humble…” is the meme

Lamont ad on now. The lawn-sign and dog-bark.

Alter says Lieberman in trouble. Would run Indy, and win due to 3/way.
—–
Tweety tells me that JFK woulda been 89 today.
Here’s a link to JFK Library, if you feel like it…

http://www.jfklibrary.org/

Christy (and anyone else who likes bluegrass music) here’s where you can listen live, from one to five Eastern:
http://woub.org/bluegrass/
It’s our local OU branch station.

Tell you what, I’d be out canvassing the neighborhood looking for that plant. Happened in my neighborhood once. The way we got back at them was we all went to the dumps and loaded up two vans with garbage-you know, broken toasters, empty coffee cans and such. About 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday we arranged all the stuff on the guy’s lawn and put garage sales throughout the area leading to his house. Was he pissed off with all the cars driving up all day and what an embarrassment cause nobody bought anything!

OJsuit (#68):

Walken is the Robert Mitchum of our times. The essence of cool.

Time to dig into projects for today and try to avoid learning who has won the Indy 500 until I can watch the delayed broadcast tonight. If I don’t actually go the world’s greatest race, I at least try to *not* know what happened until I can watch later.

But, in the words of Rocket J. Squirrel - “That trick never works!”

ccmask 72, you evil genius,you.

Bob Schieffer on CBS just quoted TeddySanFran “Had Enough?” You’re a pop icon, Teddy!

jayt - I’ll stay mum on your behalf …
a full plate of racing makes the work go faster here

muggy hot here so I’m sticking near the fan and gonna see how the NYT Ykos article is playing … if you missed it, check here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05....._lede.html

fahrender

Good analogy. Is it coincidence Mitchum said this:
http://www.hempfiles.com/php/quote.php?id=68

“”The only effect that I ever noticed from smoking marijuana was a sort of mild sedative, a release of tension when I was overworking. It never made me boisterous or quarrelsome. If anything, it calmed me and reduced my activity.”
Robert Mitchum
in his plea for probation stemming from marijuana possession charges”

Anyone want to know more about the guy who wants Denny Haster’s congressional seat?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/f.....ohnlaesch/

Totally OT, but I stumbled on a way cool website — Wikiquote.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page

No hits on Glenn Greenwald — but it could be a great resource for political quotations.

Did any of them talk about lemon yellow pantsuits? I’m on pins and needles there - I had one of those when I was in6th grade and they changed our dress code.

I hope Broder manages to get them all on track with the important stuff.

Blank K 38 - what is with the Addington focus lately (not that I’m not all for it)? Newsweeks piece pitting him as Sauron’s Sauruman v. Comey as the “unlikely Frodo”; the recent USNW multipager and now your just linked piece? Is something going on with Addington digging in to protect Cheney vs. Spec Counsel and someone is trying to highlight that Evil Walks Among Us in advance to level the playing field a bit? Or have journalists figured out that the free season on them and their sources basically springs from the OVP with Addington as the enforcer?

Add in the Gonzales tiff and it seems like Strange Times at Cheney High.

#60 grits at it again”Republicans lost the chance to redirect focus from their caucus’s’problems’ to a Democrat’s crude criminality”.(paraphrase)not too hard to see through the sematics here-unless you don’t want to.
I’d like to smack this bitch with a 2×4(in spirit,of course)

Not as important as lemon yellow pantsuits, but worthy of a quick review this Memorial Day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...../26/AR2006 052601578.html

Above is from anon last night: Nir Rosen on the sectarian violence and divide in Iraq. A grim read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/

Above a Dec 05 piece from the same author on withdrawal of troops from Iraq - whatifs.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/.....1546c.html

Above a pre-Haditha publicity interview with a Marine re: civilian deaths

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/.....iraq.main/

One of the stories from the March episode resulting deaths of: 5 children or 1, insurgents or civilians, 4 deaths or 11 - all depending on who you believe. It would be nice to believe the military sources. The ones that originally confirmed the Haditha deaths as being bomb related.

Is there ANYTHING GWB has not been allowed to break?
*s*

Mary;

“Strange Times at Cheney High.” Indeed. Damned if I know. ‘Questions, questions everywhere…and not any answer to shrink.’ When you find out, let us know…

OTOH, we could just rerun another segment of A&C’s “Who’s on 1st”…

Looks like not much news today. Might be some discussion about Marines murdering babies in Iraq. Someone will probably get all teary eyed about GW Clusterfuck’s “confessions” concerning Iraq (puke). There’s a VERY sobering story about Iraq running at WaPo- will make your skin crawl. Nothin about frogmarching- as Fitzy sits the week out- again. Nothing really new about the election- cept it’s comin. Little bit of yellow pantsuit journalism alive and well- Clinton’s dick in a repeat performance. Oscar time!

All in all- same-o same-o. Clusterfuck’s still in the toilet- all’s wrong with the world.

Here’s the story of the day- don’t read it if you fear losing your breakfast:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01578.html

We have reached the point in Iraq where the conversation should shift to the musical question; “What’s a troops ta do when the war has turned ta poo and there’s not another army there ta shoot?”

What the hell are our troops doin there anyway- except for murdering Iraqis and getting the shit kicked out of em. Can they stop suicide bombers? No. Can they stop the various militias from murdering one another- no- in fact they’re TRAININ and Equippin the murderers.

There ARE no BATTLES to fight- it’s a police action- and we have no Joe Friday’s there who can figure out who the bad guys are and bring em to justice. It’s a perfect Clusterfuck- and our presence is making it worse not better. Bring em home! This is getting STUPID!

The brit press reports that Clusterfuck made the poodle change his speech at the last minute after learning that Tony intended to speak the truth about some things- and the poor fucker agreed- now every newspaper in the UK is cataloguing the display of outstanding wimpery.

Leave NOW Tony before GW Clusterfuck gang rapes you into an unrecognizable pulp. If you wondered why the poodle seemed a little off his feed the other night- now we know why.

Someone in the Pentagon needs to ask “What the fuck’s our mission in Iraq?- if the president doesn’t give us one- we’re gonna assume that we’ve done our job and get the fuck out!”

Morning, firepups. First de-lurking and I get EPU’d, heh. It’s more germane to this thread than the earlier one anyhow, so here ’tis:

Do any of y’all follow Salam Adil’s Asterism blog? His 5/26 weekly roundup of “the Iraqi Blogodrome” is, as always, stunning, hilarious, and appalling: e.g., the latest fatwa in one B’dad neighborhood bans SALAD (cucumbers are male, tomatoes female, and mixing ‘em leads to the Devil).

God help them and us.

http://asterism.blogspot.com

rwc - just read yours after seeing the tweety film montage of Poodle and W set to Your Eyes…
synchronicity!

I agree with you rwc. As the sectarian divide gets worse, too, you have every translator with their own agenda, every piece of intel that comes to forces with its own agenda etc.

And you have troops out to get guys who are in homes, mosques and villges. The fact that a “target” exists has been allowed to make the fact that getting the target means killing children be too secondary for too long. Would we “light up” a church or home here in the states to get a bad guy?

Don’t answer. *s*

The burden needs to be on GW Clusterfuck to prove that the US military presence in Iraq is doin a damned bit of good. Sure he can show that we’ve killed some Iraqis- and we can kill a whole lot more if we really want to- but who do we kill Mr. Clusterfuck? Ya want us to kill the ones who pray right hand over left- or the ones who pray left hand over right? Ya want us ta kill some Kurds- just to make us an equal opportunity death squad? There’s about as much argument for killin any given Iraqi- as any other given Iraqi. No wonder our Marines are having mission confusion. They all look the same!

More on what happens when you militarize police action:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....71_pf.html

Civilian toll from airstrikes.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BlankK - I printed off the A&C - it is one of my absolute favorites ever.

Off to do outside stuff and think a few more somber thoughts. On a happier note, I never go through a Memorial Day without thinking about so many positive things that came from the GI bill. My dad, a WWII vet, had a talk with me about that when I was a kid one day, while he was making me plant bulbs, but I still remembered it. His shot at law school was solely due to the GI bill. Here’s hoping that there are some positive sea changes ahead to come from all this mess.

The Iraq nightmare is in some important ways much worse than the Viet Nam nightmare. In Viet Nam- there was at least an enemy- there was the “Cong”. We didn’t always know who was Cong and who wasn’t Cong- but the Cong was not a figment of the army’s imagination- it was real. You could go out and fight it.

In Iraq- all ya see is little shitty houses and fields. There are Iraqis livin in all of em. They all fuckin hate you. Most would kill you or smile while someone else does it. Most have guns. Many are busy killin one another- for reasons you don’t understand. So who the fuck is the enemy? Where the fuck’s the enema?

Sorry about the bowl of petunias, but things could be a lot worse … you could have whale parts all over your lawn :-)

Several newpapers reporting that when soldiers get their dicks blown off it puts a strin on their marriages.

I love it when the US Press finally gets to the bottom of a story!

Jeepers, the comments certainly accumulate quickly here. But there are certainly lots of good ones too. I wish I had the time to follow up all the wonderful links posted here as well.

To Mash at comment 4 - Haditha will just be one small part of Bush’s legacy of incompetence, greed and outright evil. Hopefully future generations will closely study the Bush Presidency in order to learn how not to do things.
wjh
I agree that the talking head shows can be an irritating way to start a Sunday, but they (the crap that goes on)won’t go away if we just ignore them any more than Climate Change or evolution or teenage sex will go away just because George Bush sez so.

Christy, sorry about your plant, I should be in my garden too, but it’s not so sunny here on the Wet Coast. If you need help from the DHS and claiming Mescans did it as Danbury suggests doesn’t work, maybe convince them that there is an underage {pick sex} exploitable minor in the vicinity.

It looks like Fitz has completely stomped out the Roots idea. I had nothin’ against the Roots thing but when you get right down to it:

FITZ kinda FITS

I would like to think that the reason Timmeh had an all ReThug line-up this morning was because Democrats have too much self respect to go on his show. But I’m sure that’s not the case.

Somewhere, someone linked to H2Oman’s post on DU Forums, wherein he mentions that Tweety (that’s matthews, right?) called Joe Wilson to warn him the WH was after him. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. Am I just out of the loop?

What Timmeh is saying (there’s no “trying to” about it) is “FUCK YOU!!!!”

As a kid, my Mom said whenever you have to make an important decision, make a pros and cons list and ask yourself the big questions and you will see what the answer should be. Try not to side with your heart.

Sounds like the Lone Ranger should make himself a pro con list wrt Iraq.

It’s baby bird day here at our house–lots of cute ones being fed by their frenetic parents.

I can’t believe someone stole your hanging basket. Who would do that?????????????

Re Tie a Yellow Ribbon–

The guy who wrote the song was riding a bus somewhere in rural somewhere, and heard a passenger tell the driver that he’d just gotten out of jail, and told his wife to tie the ribbon around the tree in the front yard if she still wanted him back. Which she did. And he disembarked to the applause of the other passengers. I think I read this in an article years ago. So it’s not about welcome-back so much as I-forgive-you.

Assuming it’s all true. Sigh.

ABC’s “This Week”: Sen. John Warner, R-Va.; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; singer Tony Orlando %u2026 This Week looks like the most interesting line-up to me %u2014 two old hawks who have spent their lives working for military policy in the Senate and the House.

I was wondering what Tony Orlando has been doing for the last 30 years. Oh, I guess you were talking about the other guys.

Timmeh’s got a book to sell. It’s clear he believes that Repugs are followers and will buy his book if he just has a couple of them on his show for the next month.

And that’s why “This Week Beats Meet The Press In Demo For First Time Since 1999″. See http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/?page=2

Go Stephanopoulos!

Timmy can’t get any democratic guests.

He’s been cut off.
….the enforced marginalization of a former “fair ‘n ballanced” DC powerplayer is underway. It won’t be pretty, but Timmy is done.

as in Fork, Fox, and forget him

If we want our backend on this deal maybe we should invest in ribbon factories?
Saw a great Gore doco the other day. Gore VIDAL not big Al. Turn’s out he called that anti-semitic creep whassisname a ‘ crypto NAZI’ not a crypto fascist in that famous 60’s TV exchange.
I like to hear what’s on the Pol TV over there - you watch it so we don’t have to. As netmedia stands up so crap corporate TV garbage shall stand down.
Re H20 mans analysis - To get Rich is glorious?
To get the whole gang of Chenobites will be delirious.
And finally - should thieves have their hands amputated? Discuss.

Seems to me I remember that during the Mai Lai thing, a lot of the troops were worried that the prosecutions were going to get to the fact that a lot of the troops all over nam were doing the same thing (see the Toledo Blade article about the Song Valley), and it strikes me that history repeats itself.

Sorry about the hanging basket, Christy