Mother Courage and the Bastards of War Dresden, 1945
This afternoon I was reading an article on a local production of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children and I was struck by this sidebar:
"The [Thirty Years'] war solved no problems. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict. The overwhelming majority in Europe, the overwhelming majority in Germany, wanted no war; powerless and voiceless, there was no need even to persuade them that they did. The decision was made without thought of them. Yet of those who, one by one, let themselves be drawn into the conflict, few were irresponsible and nearly all were genuinely anxious for an ultimate and better peace...They wanted peace and they fought for thirty years to be sure of it. They did not learn then, and have not since, that war only breeds war."
John Hinckley is my co-pilot You had me at "allah akbar"...
Well it looks like Naveed Haq isn't the (insert Malkin-sneer) "lone Muslim shooter" afterall, he was much more a religious off-price shopper:
Naveed Haq, now widely portrayed as a Muslim American so angry at Israel that he shot up a Jewish charity in Seattle, had recently converted to Christianity.
His conversion is perhaps the most startling contradiction in a puzzling life.
He had a degree in electrical engineering and was the son of a successful engineer. But he couldn't hold a job and recently worked as a security guard and retail clerk in the Seattle area.
His father was a founding member of the Islamic center here. But the son was rarely seen at a local mosque for more than 10 years.
Haq, 30, told a ministry leader that he saw too much anger in Islam and wanted to find a new beginning in Christianity. He converted to Christianity, but, as with many other endeavors in his life, drifted away from the faith.
So, reasonable and not-unserious people might ask, why did he announce he was a Muslim before he went all-Wayne LaPierre?
I think he was trying to get Michelle Malkin's attention.
C'mon. If he had announced he was Catholic and he that hated the jews (and he was positively identified as not being a drunken Mel Gibson) she wouldn't have given him another look, swarthy skin or not. Him, not her. The swarthy. Okay, her too.... but don't mention it because she's really s-e-n-s-i-t-i-v-e about it, 'kay? But "muslim"? Nothing activates her bigot gland like a Muslim Gone Wild (unless it's a Mexi-muslim, in which case you best leave the room and hide the pets).
Personally, and I can't prove this but it would be wrong not to speculate, I think that there might have been a few emails that went unanswered, possibly tucked away in the 'unhinged' folder, and maybe a CafePress package containing a T that said Naveed's Girl that was returned unopened. And, sure, he could have hung around Fox studios waiting for his honey-bunny to show, but have you ever stood downwind from Sean Hannity? Axe Body Spray and ham. It's like he rolls in it. That's why they had to give him his own elevator (you can look it up).
And it's not like Naveed didn't have his eye on another little wingnutette:
A neighbor of Haq's parents told the Tri-City Herald that Haq expressed anger at Jews, having convinced himself that the Jewish community controls the nation's media and economic system. The neighbor, Caleb Hales, also said Haq expressed an interest in the Mormon faith.
But K-Lo was already promised to Mitt and so it was a love that withered and died on the vine... and then dropped off and eventually it was mulched and spread on a lawn in Tappahannock as part of the great Disney Circle of Life proving that there is a silver lining to everything if you make enough stuff up...
I cover the crazyfront What's that wacky dame up to now?
It looks like I drew the short straw which means I get to follow the adventures of Tits On A Blintz as she tours Israel and annoys the people who just want to wage their war in peace without some crazy Long Island housewife sticking her D-cups into their business.
"I had this encounter with an Arab Muslim when viewing the top of Mount Olive. Mount Olive, the oldest Jewish cemetary in the world on Mount Olive...".
Oh. That Mount Olive.
Unfortunately you can't hear what Muhammad has to say because his voice is overwhelmed by the sound of the wind rushing through Pam's head, but trust me, he's totally down with her since she didn't end the video by clawing him to death with her razorsharp Acrylics of Wrath.
Let's see....hmmmm.... oh yes, the Arabs are vermin:
I spent the morning in East Jerusalem which is mostly Arab. The differences between the Jewish areas and the Arab areas is to break your heart. It is inexplicable to me why the Arabs would live in such abject squalor, throwing their garbage in the streets when they could all work together with the Jews for a far better life. But Jihad Islam will never let that happen.
Because there are no HeftyBag cinch-tops in the Koran.
Then a security guard checks Pam's bag, she has a lovely salad at a tony Jerusalem salad bar ( Radishes & Kaddishes ), she meets a nice Jewish boy who happens to be a rabbi from LA, and then she goes back to her hotel room and has a solo ragegasm (preserved here in its original format):
Returning to my room and turning on the news (No FOX!), I can not make it official, CNN (Crescent News Network) makes Goebbels propaganda look like childs play. At least then we knew it was Naza state propaganda but CNN is "independent" They are anything but. They are jihad TV. Their portrayal of events in Lebanon are such lies, such Jew hatred -- it is nothing short of frightening. Nothing is as they say it is.It is as if they are getting their talking points straight from Hezb'Allah. If I hear the "Israeli war machine" one more time, I'll scream. It's a handful of Jews fighting for their lives. Where are the news reports of the bombing of Nahariyah Hospital and the destruction of its fourth floor and the Department of Eye Diseases, in which Arabs and Jews have been treated, and where Arab and Jewish interns wor? All this whining about the Lebanese people not having enough money to leave their towns (as the benificent Israel has told them to do.) Tell Hezb'Allah to stop buying armaments and bombs and buyt their human shields a one way ticket out.
CNN screaming all day for a HUDNA so that the jihadis can rearm. Sick, sick, sick. Why? For access as they did by covering for Saddams heinous acts of barbarism? These CNN dhimmis will be the first ones getting their pretty little heads chopped off if the savages they are supporting should win. A CEASEFIRE IS A DEATH SENTENCE FOR iSRAEL.
Tomorrow: breakfast and an outing with Rabbi Dave while roomservice refills the depleted minibar.
The scary thing about our current jam is that 9/11 was supposed to have been the wakeup call, but we are again asleep. For this I blame our leaders — both the administration and the Dems. The administration is constitutionally unable to explain itself, and the Dems have no qualms about losing all present battles so long as they can elect their candidates and bring down this president.
The greatest failure of our leaders, with rare exceptions, is their refusal to see the war plain, which means Iran and Syria (might as well call them “Syran,” since they operate in tandem, with Tehran pushing most of the buttons). It was never possible to “win in Iraq” so long as we insisted on fighting in Iraq alone. You can not win a regional war by playing defense in one country. It was, and remains, a sucker’s game. Syran pays no price at all for killing our kids and our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now in Gaza and Lebanon/Israel.
Later Michael says:
Meanwhile, a collection of frauds, writing in places like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Mother Jones, continuously recycles a story saying that a neocon (code for “Jewish”) conspiracy duped Bush into going to war in Iraq, and is now arranging the invasion of Iran. Documented lies, like those peddled by Joe Wilson to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, are treated as reliable. Fantasies about American armed forces operating covertly in Iran, like those written by Seymour Hirsh, get taken seriously. And people like me are accused of masterminding the whole thing, even though I oppose a military campaign against Iran.
Which is true. He wants to attack "Syran"...which is different.
Iran
Syran
And anyone who can't see the difference is a total jew-hating fraud who is objectively pro-Islamofascism and anti-neologism.
Ashlee Simpson appeared on the July cover of Marie Claire magazine extolling the virtues of appreciating one’s body as it is — then she had a nose job.
Marie Claire readers erupted in fury at what they said was Ms. Simpson’s hypocrisy and the magazine’s “cluelessness.” They wrote 1,000 letters in protest to the magazine, according to Joanna Coles, the new editor of the magazine. And she agreed with them.
In the first issue (due Aug. 15) over which she exercises full editorial control, Ms. Coles gives expanded space in the letters column to readers to vent against Ms. Simpson. Ms. Coles adds in a note: “We’re dazed and confused — and disappointed — by her choice, too!”
Rare is the day when the editor of a women’s magazine will openly criticize a celebrity. But Ms. Coles is planting a flag: A new Marie Claire is in town and it is making a clean break with its past. No girly goo, no teeny-bopper covers, no blind obedience to the traditional rules of the road.
Sooooo... according to the cover of the first issue of Marie Claire under the control of Joanna Coles the articles inside include:
Strong, Confident, Sexy: Be A Triple Threat
Big Bags, Hair, and Heels
Total Body Makeover Starting Today
Fall Fashion: What to buy and how to wear it.
...and Maggie Gyllenhaal is the covergirl.
I'm not sure America can handle this much edginess...
Regardless of his comments, if you weren't already avoiding Mel Gibson movies after The Patriot, Maverick, Bird On A Wire, What Women Want, or any of the crapulent Lethal Weapon movies (pick one...any one)then you haven't been paying attention.
Michael Ledeen knows that the best offense is to kill all of the Muslims in the Middle East a good defense which is why he ran to his good buddies Special Ed, themanwhocreatedmoseswine, and the Three Neo-Stooges to get the word out.
HP Printers: Quality printing for all of your terrrorist needs Finding that big roll of papyrus was a bitch
Revisting his halcyon days of kerning and typescripts and overthrowing the MSM, Captain Corndog can't seem to put his finger on this most suspicious development:
This AFP photograph shows Beirut demonstrators with a giant poster of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was used in a rally protesting the accidental killing of civilian human shields, along with terrorists, in Qana:
What seems odd about this is that the banner was unfurled within hours after the Qana attack took place. The building where the civilians died was bombed on Sunday morning, and the demonstration took place during daylight hours, later the same day. I have no idea what kind of facility it takes to produce a 30-foot-high banner like this one. It is obviously professionally done. It would be interesting to know where this banner was produced; who designed and paid for it; and how its production was expedited so that it was ready for use, on the street, within hours after the event being protested. For example, was the image of Rice produced in advance, awaiting a pretext for its use, with only the script added at the last minute? I've often been curious about the logistics of pro-terrorist demonstrations, and this seems like an especially curious example.
It's almost as if a sleeper cell of terrorist Islamonerds have been taking Photoshop® classes at The Learning Annex these past few years awaiting the call to produce large-scale graphics while America slept.
She'll be up all night trying to get her head around this one:
ENCINITAS – Gang members who allegedly took a wallet from a migrant at knifepoint found themselves attacked by vengeful workers who put two of the robbers in the hospital, a sheriff's sergeant said.
The fight was reported about 7 p.m. in the 1100 block of Gardena Road, sheriff's Sgt. Mark Varnau said.
Sheriff's deputies arrived to find several men injured, Varnau said.
Two of those injured were alleged gang members, Varnau said.
“One of them got his head split open from one side to the other,” Varnau said.
Investigators determined that one of the migrants involved in the street brawl had been robbed earlier at a coin laundry on Santa Fe Drive, Sgt. Chuck Yancey said.
The migrant quickly pointed out the gang members to some friends and they went after the suspects, Yancey said.
The gangsters, said Yancey, “promptly fled the area with the migrants in hot pursuit.”
The gang members eventually stopped to face their opponents but pulled out knives, Yancey said, whereupon the migrants quickly dismantled a wooden fence and made clubs, Yancey said.
The fight left one migrant worker stabbed in the chest and another gang member with a fractured bone in his back, Yancey said.
The three men were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, which has a trauma center, authorities said.
Deputies determined that the wallet robbery was part of an ongoing pattern of victimization of migrants by gang members in Encinitas, Yancey said.
The Quisling Who Came To Dinner "Is there a man in the world who suffers as I do from the gross inadequacies of the human race? "
I'm sure that someone will take offense at my refering to Joe Lieberman as a quisling, but what else can one call a man who, on the major issues, can only be described as a willing collaborationist?
... Mr. Lieberman is not just a senator who works well with members of the other party. And there is a reason that while other Democrats supported the war, he has become the only target. In his effort to appear above the partisan fray, he has become one of the Bush administration’s most useful allies as the president tries to turn the war on terror into an excuse for radical changes in how this country operates.
Citing national security, Mr. Bush continually tries to undermine restraints on the executive branch: the system of checks and balances, international accords on the treatment of prisoners, the nation’s longtime principles of justice. His administration has depicted any questions or criticism of his policies as giving aid and comfort to the terrorists. And Mr. Lieberman has helped that effort. He once denounced Democrats who were “more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq” than on supporting the war’s progress.
At this moment, with a Republican president intent on drastically expanding his powers with the support of the Republican House and Senate, it is critical that the minority party serve as a responsible, but vigorous, watchdog. That does not require shrillness or absolutism. But this is no time for a man with Mr. Lieberman’s ability to command Republicans’ attention to become their enabler, and embrace a role as the president’s defender.
•
On the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Lieberman has left it to Republicans like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to investigate the administration’s actions. In 2004, Mr. Lieberman praised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for expressing regret about Abu Ghraib, then added: “I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized.” To suggest even rhetorically that the American military could be held to the same standard of behavior as terrorists is outrageous, and a good example of how avidly the senator has adopted the Bush spin and helped the administration avoid accounting for Abu Ghraib.
Mr. Lieberman prides himself on being a legal thinker and a champion of civil liberties. But he appointed himself defender of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the administration’s policy of holding hundreds of foreign citizens in prison without any due process. He seconded Mr. Gonzales’s sneering reference to the “quaint” provisions of the Geneva Conventions. He has shown no interest in prodding his Republican friends into investigating how the administration misled the nation about Iraq’s weapons. There is no use having a senator famous for getting along with Republicans if he never challenges them on issues of profound importance.
If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.
I don't know whether Ned Lamont can beat Joe Lieberman in either the primary or, should it come to that, in the general election assuming that Lieberman makes good on his threat to run as an independant. He is already claiming martyrhood for a cause which seems to have only two adherents (himself and rent-a-whore Marshall Wittman), but I'm sure the lazy cocktail-weenie pundits will run with that narrative (not to mention the wingnuts who are all so concerned with the state of the Democratic party since their liberal internment camp wet-dream seems unlikely... for the moment). Lieberman, having taken his press clippings to heart has convinced himself that he is the "soul of Democratic party" that must save the party from itself. One almost expects him to rebrand himself as Joe "Scoop Jackson" Lieberman and claim his own wing of the party...a wing barely large enough to fill a four-top at Denny's.
As it is now, Lieberman has officialy become damaged goods and hence has become the Democratic Party's Sheridan Whiteside who threatens, condescends, manipulates and blackmails the Stanley familiy (played by the Democratic party in a star turn) who just wish that he would just go away.
Taylor Hicks of Birmingham, Ala., the most recent winner on the show, also gave Bush a black T-shirt emblazoned with “Soul Patrol” — the name of Hicks’ fan club.
Kind of make you yearn for the sweet release of death and an eternity spent in a bloody rain writhing and screaming as the flames of hell sear your flesh and serpents rip and tear at your internal organs....
Don't make Paris go back to working at Hardees So strapped for cash she had to eat her dog
Congress is willing to raise the minimum wage for stupid ugly poor people only if they can ease the onerous tax burden on Paris Hilton:
Republican leaders are willing to allow the first minimum wage increase in a decade but only if it's coupled with a cut in future inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, congressional aides said Friday.
[...]
''It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. ''Members of Congress raised their own pay -- no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect.''
''It's outrageous the Republican Congress can't simply help poor people without doing something for their wealthy contributors,'' said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio.
House lawmakers were to discuss the package at an early afternoon session, while the Senate GOP aide professed confidence the bill could advance through the chamber next week.
The aide asked not to be identified publicly because of the ongoing closed strategy sessions on the bill.
''It's the one chance for Democrats who want to get a minimum wage increase,'' the aide said.
Now it's not like there aren't jobs out there paying good wages like the oneJeannemarie Devolites Davis' landed which paid her "...$78,000 last year for working "10 to 20 hours a week," primarily at home on her cellphone", but those kind of jobs are few and far between. And besides, you have to sleep with a man who looks like this to make that kind of big bucks.
Considering that there is a new fresh hell in the Middle East each day, I thought this excerpt was somewhat appropriate:
In the alleys of Nablus's Old City we got tea from really some friendly guys, talked with them a little, high-fived them all, the walked farther in. Minutes later two Humvees started shooting large-caliber bullets down the street, red tracers slashing the dusk over our heads. We ran and hid behind a dumpster. A few more bursts of gunfire erupted, and then it was dead silent again. The Palestinians we'd been talking to had coolly split up the side streets and away from the Israelis.
Twenty minutes passed before one of us decided it was a good idea to head back to the central square, where the tank had been and the gunfire had come from, because that was the way back to the hotel. As we got back to the city's center, we spotted two Red Crescent ambulances parked where we had been talking to LLoyd an hour or so earlier. One of the drivers from the ambulance crew said that a seventeen-year-old boy, Naji Sayeef, had been shot dead, bullet wounds to the neck and head. We lied and told the drivers we were journalists (Sara once interned at the Cairo Times) and the guys let us ride along to the site, the Balata refugee camp.
The clinic we pulled up to was riddled with huge bullet holes - from an IDF drive-by. We spent twenty minutes inside and got all of the details on the killings: Supposedly Naji Sayeef was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the IDF soldiers had shot his head off. The bullets exploded his head and his neck. Earlier that day, another Palestinian kid had also been shot, but he'd survived. According to the clinic workers, neither kid was doing anything wrong. With the story told, the two guys in the clinic offered to take us to the camp.
Balata, founded in 1948, was one of the first Palestinian refugee camps. It's entrance had a huge Hamas banner strung across the road. A huge metal loudspeaker bolted to the exterior on the camp's mosque was blaring a pissed-off-sounding voice in Arabic. A group of guys with megaphones walked around the corner, yelling Naji's name and saying all kinds of stuff in Arabic.
We lurked around in the narrow streets, passing Hamas and PFLP graffiti, and ended up at the home of the ambulance driver's friends. The building was run down. It looked more like a shrunken public-housing project than a refugee camp. Our host was a young man with a beard. Inside, just past the apartment door, was a huge floor-to-ceiling painting of our hosts dead brother, fronted by a pair of crossed AK-47's. The man told us his brother had been killed several years earlier during the Intifada's worst fighting, at thirty-one years old. He'd been killed defending the camp's gates from invading IDF troops. On the opposing wall was a cap-and-gown graduation photograph of his other brother, a lawyer, who was in jail and hadn't been heard from for a long time. The whole thing had a staged feel, as if the same litany had been told in the same way to many foreign observers before us. Finally we said our goodbyes. Back in the hotel we watched bad Egyptian pop videos on satellite TV in the lobby, trying to register all that he had seen in the past seven or eight hours.
Of course, that is from before they get to Iraq where things go considerably downhill. You'll particularly enjoy their take on the CPA which makes FEMA under Heckuvajob Brownie look like a model of efficiency.
¿Dónde está la casa de Michelle Malkin? I have come to fill the buns that American hot dogs won't fill
Michelle Malkin is only one woman, a petty immature rageaholic woman, but one woman nonetheless, so it is not surprising that, at a time that she absolutely swamped protecting us from Cindy Sheehan, Hezbollah, photographers who make babies cry, as well as taking a brief timeout to shake her Lil'Tyke's tambourine in a music video, well, that things would take a turn for the worse at the border and giant mutant Mexiricans would just start waltzing into our country without a care in the world.
This wouldn't have happened if Chris Simcox hadn't blown all of the Minuteman money on copies of the F-Troop Season One DVD collection to be used as training videos.
I think that we have reached the point where she is invited onto the cable shows purely to make a fool out of herself. She is so ridiculously horrible that she has become the Carrot Top of pundettes.
Pre-Friday Random Ten Go find a jukebox and see what a quarter will do I don't wanna talk I just wanna go back to blue Feed's me when I'm hungry and quenches my thirst Loves me when I'm lonely and thinks of me first Blue is the color of night When the red sun Disappears from the sky
For some reason my iPod has decided to delete all my playlists and when I try to update it through iTunes it adds any new songs...but doesn't reinstate the playlists. Leave suggestions in the comments with the usual lists, snark, and cooler than thou comments. Here we go:
Clampdown - The Clash Nadir (synchronicity) - Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke Turn That Heartbeat Over Again - Steely Dan Several Arrows Later - matt pond pa Tennessee Sucks - Ryan Adams Divine Intervention - Matthew Sweet Let It Drive - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead Escape Pod [from The World of Medical Observation] -Stereolab Stigmata - Ministry Blue - Lucinda Williams A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free - Elliott Smith
Thursday Night Basset Blogging Hot dogs (click to enlarge)
It has been hot by San Diego standards this week (high 80's - very humid) and the beastie boys aren't too darn thrilled, which explains my finding them sitting in front of the fan the other night.
Yes. They do have big asses.
For a little face-time, here is a repeat of young Satchmo Satchmo at eight months
Much will be made of this article. In fact, by this time tomorrow, you will be tired of hearing about it, but this quote deserves a spot in the What Women Don't Know About Men Hall of Fame :
"I'm totally supportive of it — I just don't like the flashing," she says. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."
I don't know about you, but it's like she's talking some kind of crazy moonman language.
To be fair, there are some breasts that I probably don't want to see, but her son is thirteen. He'd probably sell his mother into slavery for a glimpse of whatever Scarlett Johansson is packing.
After today's hearing, UN Ambassador John Bolton stopped for a chat with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Dad's A Perv) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana). Sen. Coleman was overheard asking Ambassador Bolton to sponsor his dad into a private sex club in order to keep him off the street and out of sex slave gangs.
Assured that the the senior Coleman is white, has his own ballgag, and is "totally hetero" the ambassador said he would take the request under consideration in exchange for a "yes" vote in commitee as well as naked pictures of Senator Coleman's wife...just as soon as Senator Lugar is done with them.
The multibillion-dollar surge in federal contracting to bolster the nation's domestic defenses in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been marred by extensive waste and misspent funds, according to a new bipartisan congressional report.
Lawmakers say that since the Homeland Security Department's formation in 2003, an explosion of no-bid deals and a critical shortage of trained government contract managers have created a system prone to abuse. Based on a comprehensive survey of hundreds of government audits, 32 Homeland Security Department contracts worth a total of $34 billion have "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement," according to the report, which is slated for release today and was obtained in advance by The Washington Post.
[...]
"Every dollar that is wasted on a contract is a dollar less that could be used to make Americans more secure," said former department inspector general Clark Kent Ervin. "This kind of abuse constitutes a security gap all its own in America's defense."
Ervin said that though an undue reliance on contractors might have been excused when the agency was launched, it "is not understandable or justified all these years after the creation of the department." The private sector, he said, has had the opportunity "time and time again to take the department -- and thereby taxpayers -- for a ride."
Just a reminder that this happened on Bush's watch, as did the 9/11 attack, the failed response to Katrina, the loss of $9 billion by the CPA, the erosion of Constitutional protections, and the fake war that has resulted in thousands of needless deaths while creating a training ground for terrorists.
Did I mention that the Vice President shot an old man in the face?
It's the end of the world as we know it, and we can't wait I've got two tickets to paradise. Won't you hang yourself for me tonight
Borrowing a term from Our Beloved Leader, I think the proper name for these people should be suiciders. If they really want to see Jesus in the very near future, might I recommend setting up an appointment with Mr. Rope and Mr. Stout Overhead Beam and leaving us the hell out of it. Just take that last step off of the chair and then you can see if you were right...or you were wrong. Either way, it's gonna be a lot more peaceful for one of us.
So you folks can go on ahead and kill yourselves. Take a walk with Jesus and bask in His heavenly glory or whatever it is you plan on doing for eternity. The rest of us want to see our kids grow up, we want to grow old together, we want to watch a few more sunsets, and maybe do a few things that aren't in Bible.
It's Quiet. Yeah. Too quiet.... With World War ∞ busting out all over and Iraq (remember Iraq?) operating like a well-oiled abattoir, I find it a wee bit creepy that we have heard so little from Dick Cheney as of late. I guess he's waiting until after the upcoming Rapture/Apocalypse/Endtimes Jamboree before he pokes his head out of his hidey-hole to claim his dominion over Earth.
Not that he doesn't already think he owns it, mind you...
It is time to say it unequivocally: We are winning in Iraq.
If current trends continue, our counter-insurgent campaign in Iraq will be fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the British victory over a Communist insurgency in Malaysia in the 1950s, a textbook example of this form of war. Our counterinsurgency has gone through the same stages as that of the Brits five decades ago: confusion in the initial reaction to the insurgency, followed by a long period of adjustment, and finally the slow but steady erosion of the insurgency's military and political base. Even as there has been a steady diet of bad news about Iraq in the media over the last year, even as some hawks have bailed on the war in despair, even as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has become everyone's whipping boy, the U.S. military has been regaining the strategic upper hand.
This doesn't mean the war couldn't still go wrong.
BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
If you're like me you have to ask:
Why do the men of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division hate Rich Lowry?
Jennifer Harper of the Washington Times reports on a Harris Poll that, among other things, shows that 50% of respondents--up from 36% last year--believe that "Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded."
The Harris folks term this result "surprising," but it's hard to see why. "Yes" is indisputably the right answer to that question. Liberals can dispute whether Iraq had as many WMDs as we believed they did; or whether they had all the kinds of WMDs of which they were suspected; or whether the WMDs Iraq had were mostly, or entirely, left over from the 1980s and 1990s; or whether the alleged mobile weapons labs really reflected nothing more than Saddam's taking a sudden, and very expensive, interest in weather balloons on the eve of war. But about the fact that Iraq possessed WMDs, there is no doubt.
The problem for liberals is that once that basic fact is admitted, and the discussion becomes more nuanced--e.g., old WMDs versus new WMDs--then the discussion also has to include addional facts: that Saddam remained committed to building more WMDs at the earliest opportunity; that he had at his command ample staff and other resources to carry out that command; and that Iraq was moving successfully toward ending the corrupt U.N. sanctions regime, at which point WMD production would have resumed.
Indisputably. And only the deeply unserious who are objectively pro-terrorist and are therefore treasonous would disregard a rationale so anemic that it can barely raise its head, much less invade a country...
You could have knocked me over with a feather Hmmm. He says he likes long walks on the beach, having his back-hair cornrowed, and unilaterally invading Middle Eastern countries.
The Phoenix, the Unicorn, and Mrs. Coburn's orgasm Nobody told me there was gonna be a quiz.
In a desperate bid to be known as Oklahoma's Stupidest Senator™, Tom Coburn one-ups fellow Okie James Inhofe:
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is the nation’s most prominent global warming denier. He famously declared that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Now, he’s taken the argument a step further. In an interview with Tulsa World, Inhofe compared people who believed global warming was a problem to Nazis:
In an interview, he heaped criticism on what he saw as the strategy used by those on the other side of the debate and offered a historical comparison.
“It kind of reminds . . . I could use the Third Reich, the big lie,” Inhofe said.
“The big lie,” is a propaganda technique Adolf Hitler attributed to Jews in his book Mein Kampf. It involves telling lies “so colossal” that no one would believe “others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
Inhofe added that every claim in An Inconvenient Truth “has been refuted scientifically.” He also admitted he’d never seen the movie.
Abstinence is the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy, responded Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
"How many people really think it's in the best interest of young people to be sexually active outside of marriage? Does anything positive ever come from that?" Coburn asked.
I guess, since he threw marriage into the mix, we can also include in that young people subset, people who have graduated high school, college graduates, students still in college, and all of those who haven't married as of yet. In which case all we can say is:
American Idol star Taylor Hicks is set to meet President George W Bush after he and his fellow former contestants were invited to join the US leader and his wife Laura at the White House during a tour stop in Washington DC.
The American Idol winner that America would like to forget meets the American President America wishes it had never met.
As all of our wars turn to shit and we don't have enough cannon fodder to turn every neo-con pipedream into a wetdream, Jeff Jacoby is getting tired of being called a chickenhawk and fights back, as only a chickenhawk can, by missing the point:
You hear a fair amount of that from the antiwar crowd if, like me, you support a war but have never seen combat yourself. That makes you a ``chicken hawk" -- one of those, as Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, defending John Kerry from his critics, put it during the 2004 presidential campaign, who ``shriek like a hawk, but have the backbone of a chicken." Kerry himself often played that card. ``I'd like to know what it is Republicans who didn't serve in Vietnam have against those of us who did," he would sniff, casting himself as the victim of unmanly hypocrites who never wore the uniform, yet had the gall to criticize him, a decorated veteran, for his stance on the war.
``Chicken hawk" isn't an argument. It is a slur -- a dishonest and incoherent slur. It is dishonest because those who invoke it don't really mean what they imply -- that only those with combat experience have the moral authority or the necessary understanding to advocate military force. After all, US foreign policy would be more hawkish, not less, if decisions about war and peace were left up to members of the armed forces. Soldiers tend to be politically conservative, hard-nosed about national security, and confident that American arms make the world safer and freer. On the question of Iraq -- stay-the-course or bring-the-troops-home? -- I would be willing to trust their judgment. Would Cindy Sheehan and Howard Dean?
You have to admire Jacoby for not having the balls to actually go and fight while, at the same time, pretending that he too is one with the few, the proud, the hairy-chested. Actually, you don't have to admire Jacoby at all because his argument is what they refer to in debating circles as "bullshit". In fact, he seems to be recycling the same "not-a-chickenhawk" argument that we have heard before (not that this is anything new for Jacoby).
It's very simple; nobody is saying that Jacoby can't blather on and on about the great moral choices we Americans make about whether to attack and invade countries because they might pose a threat (real or imagined) to us. But at the same time he is making the moral choice to say, "Well, you go on ahead. I have other priorities which don't include getting my ass shot at or blown up. Your life is worth less than mine. I 'll just stay here and wave my little flag. Godspeed!"
That is a chickenhawk. He lets others, who have entrusted their lives to their country, believing with all their hearts that the people in charge have their best interests in mind won't send them off on a fools errand or a bloody debacle. And if they get killed, well, Jeff can always write a somber full-of-regret athlete-who-died-too-young column about the brave man (or woman) they were, file the story, and then go back to bouncing his son on his knee. No risk of harm, no foul.
And yet in one of Jacoby's open letters to his son that he submits as a column each year he writes:
I'm in no hurry to dispel your innocence, but I know that the world outside won't stay outside forever. My power to shelter you from the worst of what's out there is gradually decreasing; your awareness of human evil and suffering are slowly on the rise. I want to prepare you for the ugliness and injustice that you are bound to encounter as you make your way in the world -- prepare you not just to recognize that such things exist but to understand that you have a duty to combat them.
We talked about the war in Iraq the other day. I explained to you that the ruler of that country is an extremely cruel man who for a very long time has been killing and hurting many people -- including even children your age and younger -- and that the United States was now leading a war to stop him. War can be very terrible and frightening, I told you, but it would be more terrible and frightening if we did nothing to stop the cruel man.
"Imagine how you would feel," I suggested, "if somebody were hurting you very badly -- hurting you so badly that you were crying -- and everyone else just watched and did nothing to stop him." That is a very simple way to frame the case for war in Iraq, Caleb, but you'd be surprised how many adults cannot seem to grasp it.
[...]
The lesson I hope you are gradually internalizing is that when victims are suffering, those who can rescue them have an obligation to do so. "Do not stand aloof from the blood of your neighbor," commands the Bible in Leviticus 19:16. When someone is in a desperate predicament, you must help if you can. And sometimes the only way to help is through fighting and bloodshed. Awful as war is, the alternative can be even worse.
Unless, of course, the alternative is to send someone else to go do the fighting and the shedding of blood, in which case, it's good work if you can get it.
Seen in his light, Jacoby isn't just your average run-of-the-coop chickenhawk. He's also a hypocrite and a liar who talks awful big for his little boy and walks awful small for a man.
As much as I made fun of M. Night Shyamalan's Lady In The Water a few weeks ago, I never thought it would tank as bad as it did:
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan made his smallest splash since his Sixth Sense breakthrough with Lady in the Water, his first major feature apart from Disney. Shyamalan's self-described "bedtime story" drew $18 million at 3,235 venues, compared to the $50.7 million debut of his last picture, The Village. According to distributor Warner Bros.' research, 56 percent of the audience was female and 64 percent was under 25 years old, while the verdict from moviegoer pollster CinemaScore was a discouraging "B-."
Both Lady in the Water and The Village, lacking stars, were sold primarily on Shyamalan's name, with references to his previous movies and the promise of mysterious creatures creeping about an isolated location. The problem is that Shyamalan's brand was damaged by The Village, which many detested, after building his name to extraordinary heights with The Sixth Sense and Signs. To recover, more was needed for Lady than a marketing campaign that simply mimicked past successes.
Venturing my humble outside-of-the-industry opinion, part of the problem was too much marketing of Shyamalan as a Hollywood storyteller non-pareil; from the American Express commercials to the starstruck hagiography by Michael Bamberger timed for release with the film.
Bamberger professes objectivity about his subject, but the book reads as an extended paean to Shyamalan -- his intelligence, his vigor, his magnetism and his remarkable skill as a filmmaker. Bamberger is prone to such comments about Shyamalan as "I felt a powerful force coming off the guy," "all had felt the force of his personality," and "If he had these powers, where did they come from? Could another person develop them?" -- and this just in the book's first 10 pages. Even those favorably inclined toward Shyamalan (among whom I include myself) will inevitably feel an overpowering urge to smack the director around when he makes pronouncements such as, "I believe if I had unlimited time to practice, after two years, I'd be able to shoot with any NBA player," and a concomitant frustration with Bamberger for not being ever so slightly tougher on his subject.
Knowing he has gone soft for Shyamalan, Bamberger admits at book's end that he has been wooed into the director's camp: "I was rooting for him and his movie. Maybe that sounds like the writer getting too close to his subject, but to me honest reporting is you dig as deep as you can and you write what you find, and what you feel." It is hard to fault Bamberger for liking his subject, but it would have been nice not to feel that we were seeing Shyamalan through rose-tinted glasses. Nonetheless, the most important favor Bamberger bestows on Shyamalan is the one the director most richly deserves: the right to have his movies taken seriously, to have them treated as the work of an enormously gifted young filmmaker with titanic self-confidence in his own abilities and a seemingly magical ability to inculcate similar belief in others.
Fortunately for Warner, the film wasn't that expensive and it should make money, but it's not going to help them forget the disasters known as Poseidon and, to a lesser degree, Superman Returns with its $260 million budget. Based upon the consensus from the all-important 17-year old high school demographic (made up of the lovely and talented Casey and several of her friends who all went together and saw LITW this weekend) word of mouth is not going to be good. Shorter L&T Casey review: not interesting enough to make you pay attention...ending is just "blah"...The highlight: monkeys with dreadlocks (or as we have dubbed them: chimpafarians.)
Passive/Aggressive "Did somebody order a handjob?"
At least it is nice to know that Condoleezza Rice isn't doing any showy grandstanding in a vain attempt to win a Nobel Peace prize:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to buttress Lebanon's fragile democratic government Monday after nearly two weeks of warfare, making this stricken capital a surprise first stop on a high-stakes Mideast diplomatic mission.
At the same time, the Bush administration announced it was sending humanitarian aid.
Rice's visit marked the first high-level U.S. diplomatic mission to the area since fighting erupted on July 12. But she disappointed Lebanese leaders who had hoped her lightning trip would hasten a cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militants in Lebanon that has claimed hundreds of civilians' lives.
''Thank you for your courage and steadfastness,'' she told Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who has repeatedly asked for international help in bringing a halt to cross-border Israeli-Hezbollah shelling. Rice flew next to Jerusalem but made clear that she would not pressure Israeli leaders for an immediate cease-fire during meetings Monday and Tuesday.
This is kind of the equivalent of promising someone bandaids while your best friend, who you just got stinking drunk, punches them repeatedly in the face.
The Amazing Adventures of the Outrage Patrol A short walk from hysterical to historical
The ever-vigilant Michelle Malkin catches the NY Times releasing state secrets, in this case, the fact that the US is moving up the shipment of bombs that will be used to kill Lebanese civilians as part of WWeyeyeyeye:
Anonymous blabbers and their stenographers at the NYTimes are at it again:
The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.
Reader Thomas W. writes: "Michelle, the NYT is doing it again. Throwing one of our best allies under the bus, and openly disclosing future military war plans against our enemies."
Reader Thomas W., using his mad photoshopping skillz, then provides Michelle with a screen cap of the article and makes a brilliant comparison between this story and the totally not-secret Manhattan Project, because unlike the Manhattan Project, the fact that the US sells billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Israel every year is a closely held secret. Kind of:
Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment to Israel, and they would not say whether the munitions were being shipped by cargo aircraft or some other means. But an arms-sale package approved last year provides authority for Israel to purchase from the United States as many as 100 GBU-28’s, which are 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs intended to destroy concrete bunkers. The package also provides for selling satellite-guided munitions.
An announcement in 2005 that Israel was eligible to buy the “bunker buster” weapons described the GBU-28 as “a special weapon that was developed for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground.” The document added, “The Israeli Air Force will use these GBU-28’s on their F-15 aircraft.”
American officials said that once a weapons purchase is approved, it is up to the buyer nation to set up a timetable. But one American official said normal procedures usually do not include rushing deliveries within days of a request. That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, the official said.
FRIDA BERRIGAN: Sure. Almost all of the weapons used by Israel are from the United States. There might be a couple French fighter planes that they’re using, but its F-16s made in Fort Worth, Texas; its Apache helicopters; its Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles; it’s all from the United States. So you have this real disconnect between an overemphasis on the supply by Iran and Syria of Hezbollah's weapons and no discussion of the fact that all of the Israeli arsenal is from the United States, and that that is in contravention to U.S. law. to the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S.-origin weapons are only to be used for self-defense and for internal security.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And your report indicates that Israel has always been the largest recipient of military aid from the United States, but that that’s actually increased since 2001?
FRIDA BERRIGAN: We’re looking at incredible increases in U.S. military aid and weapons sales to Israel. Military aid stands at about $3 billion a year. That’s about $500 for every Israeli citizen that the United States provides on an annual basis. And then, weapons sales, most recently, since the Bush administration came into power, we’re looking at $6.3 billion worth of weaponry sold to Israel.
Israel's relationship with the United States is unique in a number of ways. And one of those ways is that essentially the United States provides 20% of the Israeli military budget on an annual basis, and then about 70% of that money that is given from the United States, from U.S. taxpayers, to Israel is then spent on weapons from Lockheed Martin and Boeing and Raytheon. Most other countries don't have that sort of cash relationship, where they go straight to U.S. corporations with U.S. money to buy weapons that are then used in the Occupied Territories and against Lebanon.
I guess so.
Color me outraged.
(I see those bastards at Sadly, No were already on this while I was enjoying myself in San Francisco instead of defending the republic. There are no vacations for patriots.)
I want to like novelists. Really, I do. For example, T.C. Boyle. I read him sometimes. That is to say: I subordinate my mind to his and let his thoughts become my thoughts. But then I read quotes like this, and it sets me to wondering all over again about this practice of reading novels. They're written by novelists, you know.
ADDED: Roy thinks I'm objecting to Boyle's politics. He specializes in calling me an idiot, in numerous posts, but he never seems to begin to understand my writing. Here, he comes to the defense of writers. But do writers even want to be defended by a man who is such a poor reader?
You can have your own fun by connecting the dots between "They're written by novelists, you know" and "...he never seems to begin to understand my writing". Me? I'm just glad to see that Ann, who once annointed me " ...a somewhat popular blogger", has bestowed upon Roy the title of "...specializes in calling me an idiot."
If I were Roy, not only would I be putting that on my resume, I'd be looking into having it screened on t-shirts.
When Miss Israel kicked Miss Lebanon's ass....that rocked. Get out the corndogs and Mr. Pibb! It's time to "unleash your enthusiam for the winner" if you know what I mean...
Just like the annual Sports Illustrated bathing-suit issue that no one bothers with anymore because Victoria's Secret catalogs are free, Captain Corndog makes his annual return to blogging the Miss Universe pageant once again and gives us the inside scoop on how it should have gone down:
The initial impression is that this was an evening of upsets. A number of the betting favorites didn't make the top twenty, while several underdogs broke through. The big shocker was that Miss Australia, the betting favorite just twenty-four hours ago and the contestant who accompanied Donald Trump on the David Letterman Show, didn't make the cut. What a diss by Trump, who got to name five of the twenty finalists! No Miss Iceland, who made a late rush among bettors, either.
Another shocker was that Miss Sweden survived the National Costumes exhibition and made the cut-off. And Miss Sri Lanka didn't make the cut, which took some of the fun out of it for me. But I was happy to see Miss Trinidad & Tobago, another of my favorites, in the finals.
Okay. It has to be said:
This is really really sad. What? Hinderaker has, like a Miss Universe betting pool at work and he's laying down odds on Miss Trinidad? White bread lawyers are dropping big cash on Third World hoochie-mamas? I mean besides going on Neil Bush junkets.
Perhaps we should be glad that Miss Sri Lanka "didn't make the cut". Now another bottle of hand lotion has been spared a horrible and icky death.
(Just a note...when I go to the Powerline site for the post I get that hideous Vote for Ann Coulter ad which is a well-known antidote for a Cialis overdose)
Okay. First thing first. No, I did not need pants in San Francisco as there was record heat, so 'nyah'. Just ask the guy behind the counter at City Lights bookstore which has neither air conditioning or fans and was sauna-like forcing the assorted literary pilgrims to grab copies of The Sheltering Sky with which to fan themselves. I settled for Jonathan Lethem's The Disappointment Artist, which is a light breezy read...(get it?) perfect for filling the time waiting on delayed planes at SFO as well as keeping seatmates from talking to you.
Regardless of the heat, the lithe and plucky mrs tbogg and I walked the ridiculously steep hills of San Francisco all weekend visiting Chinatown and North Beach where we Thai fed ourselves and visited assorted trattorias, sampling their wares and drinking massive amounts of wine (her) and San Pellegrino (me). We also visited many bookstores (because, as you know, San Diego is pre-literate), saw a baseball game (nice park) and witnessed a spectacular fireworks show (still don't know what the hell that was about) Friday night from our hotel room balcony.
Our only disappointment was getting to San Francisco on Friday and seeing that Kathy Griffin was at the Warwickfield that night...and the show was sold-out.
That once there was a fleeting wisp of looney. Called Pamalot Talent on loan from Bellevue
She Who Makes Our Ears Bleed condones killing toddlers in the Holy Name of Rand:
I am not buying into the innocent civilians meme. If by ignorance, complicity, neglect or helplessness the Lebanese wouldn't throw Hezbollah out and establish a strong government, then they must pay the price for the sins of Hizbollah. And if people put up with dictatorships, theocracies, totalitarian regimes - as they did in Nazi Germany -- they deserve what Hezbollah deserves. Our only concern should be who started the war. Hezbollah/Hamas initiated the use of force and so stepped outside the principle of rights.
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO GIVE UP THEIR RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE FOR FEAR OF HURTING SOMEONE ELSE GUILTY OR INNOCENT. --Ayn Rand
Seven Canadians — including four children — were killed in an Israeli air raid that hit a Lebanese town on the border with Israel on Sunday. Three Canadians were seriously injured.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out the attack and has apologized to Ottawa, CBC's Nahlah Ayed reported from Beirut.
Most of the dead were members of one extended Montreal family, on vacation in the village of Aitaroun at the time of the Israeli attack. Among those killed was Ali El-Akhras who came to Montreal from Lebanon 15 years ago. His wife, Saada El-Akhras, was among the injured.
The nephew of Ali El-Akhras, also named Ali, had accompanied his uncle and aunt on their annual summer vacation. His wife, Amira, and their four children, ages one, four, six and eight, were killed in the attack.
And, in an act of Randian self-interest, Israel finally, finally, says "Never again" to protect its people:
The Press secretary of the Embassy of Israel called to cancel my trip to Israel. They recommend that I not go to Israel. Apparently they have canceled all my interviews and war coverage. Ugh.
If only they could cancel her war coverage.
(Added) From the comments because it sooo good:
She should go anyway. There's so much she could do to show Israel what a good friend she is. Hang around, be there in case it needs her. Show up at Israel's office right at lunch time, saying she was just in the neighborhood and do you want to grab a quick bite. Call Israel several times a day and leave emotional messages on its answering machine. Go to clubs where Israel hangs out just in case it wants to talk to her. Sleep in her car outside Israel's house. Break in and boil Israel's pet bunny in the kitchen. --deNoVa
President Bush's unwillingness to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Lebanon is rooted in a view of the Middle East conflict that is sharply different from that of his predecessors.
When hostilities have broken out in the past, the usual U.S. response has been an immediate and public bout of diplomacy aimed at a cease-fire, in the hopes of ensuring that the crisis would not escalate. This week, however, even in the face of growing international demands, the White House has studiously avoided any hint of impatience with Israel. While making it plain it wants civilian casualties limited, the administration is also content to see the Israelis inflict the maximum damage possible on Hezbollah.
As the president's position is described by White House officials, Bush associates and outside Middle East experts, Bush believes that the status quo -- the presence in a sovereign country of a militant group with missiles capable of hitting a U.S. ally -- is unacceptable.
The U.S. position also reflects Bush's deepening belief that Israel is central to the broader campaign against terrorists and represents a shift away from a more traditional view that the United States plays an "honest broker's" role in the Middle East.
In the administration's view, the new conflict is not just a crisis to be managed. It is also an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region, just as Bush believes he is doing in Iraq. Israel's crippling of Hezbollah, officials also hope, would complete the work of building a functioning democracy in Lebanon and send a strong message to the Syrian and Iranian backers of Hezbollah.
"The president believes that unless you address the root causes of the violence that has afflicted the Middle East, you cannot forge a lasting peace," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "He mourns the loss of every life. Yet out of this tragic development, he believes a moment of clarity has arrived."
One former senior administration official said Bush is only emboldened by the pressure from U.N. officials and European leaders to lead a call for a cease-fire. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded yesterday that the fighting in Lebanon stop.
"He thinks he is playing in a longer-term game than the tacticians," said the former official, who spoke anonymously so he could discuss his views candidly. "The tacticians would say: 'Get an immediate cease-fire. Deal first with the humanitarian factors.' The president would say: 'You have an opportunity to really grind down Hezbollah. Let's take it, even if there are other serious consequences that will have to be managed.' "
Having been proven completely wrong about Iraq where "freedom on the march" made a quick right onto "anarchy in the streets", George Bush now wants to swat a hornets nest just to see what happens. This reminds me of the old Steven Wright joke about picking up hitchikers and telling them, "Put on your seat belt. I want to try something. I saw it once in a cartoon, but I think I can do it."
It is truly stunning to survey how much damage this shallow stupid man has done to the world in six short years, and to realize that we will be picking up after his mess for generations to come while he and Laura go back to Crawford and drink their dullwitted selves into oblivion.
Pre-Friday Random Ten But I'm the stuff Of Happy endings Though mostly bluff Belief suspending But close enough For just pretending to care
And I'm pretending to care When I'm not even there Gone, but I don't know where
This was quite an assortment. A real good assortment. Usually I just read them off and don't even listen to them, but this one was worth the time. Here you go:
How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns - Paul Simon Revelator - Gillian Welch The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) - The Jam Lord Can You Hear Me - Spirtualized September Gurls - Big Star Satellites - Rickie Lee Jones Jaded - The Crystal Method Lost In Space - Aimee Mann Don't Wanna Know About Evil - Beth Orton Ten Storey Love Song - The Stone Roses
And the everloving bonus #11: You Will Never Be No Good - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
I would hope, I really really hope, that there was at least one Senator who was laughing so hard during Brownback's show & tell that they had to call in the paramedics.
Please Senator Brownback - run for President. I beg you.
Even Warren Buffett doesn't have enough money to pay for the therapy her children are going to require. I'd thank Watertiger for the link but I'm waiting to see if my testicles will ever come back out of hiding.
“I come from a family committed to civil rights,” Bush said. “My faith tells me that we are all children of God — equally loved, equally cherished, equallyentitled to the rights He grants us all.
In 1964, Bush ran for the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary, Bush ran first with 62,985 votes, but his total was 44.1 percent, not the required majority. He was thus forced into a runoff primary with Jack Cox, also of Houston, the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee, who had 45,561 votes (31.9 percent) in the primary. A third candidate, Robert Morris of Dallas, who had been a member of the Senate Internal Security Committee and an ardent constitutionalist and "cold warrior," polled 28,279 ballots (19.8 percent).
Bush easily prevailed in the GOP runoff, with 49,751 (62.1 percent) to Cox's 30,333 (37.9 percent). As the Republican nominee, Bush then aimed his campaign at the incumbent Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough, making an issue of Yarborough's support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the time many Southern politicians (including the Republican Senator John Tower of Texas) opposed the legislation on constitutional or libertarian grounds.
Bush called Yarborough an "extremist" and a "left wing demagogue" while Yarborough said Bush was a "carpetbagger" trying to buy a Senate seat "just as they would buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange." Bush lost in a Democratic landslide but ran considerably ahead of the GOP presidential nominee, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona.
Glenn Greenwald stalker and the obviously girlfriend-less Patterico still won't let it go:
Read on, Gentle Reader. I promise you, this will be worth your time.
See if you see any similarities between the following comments, from three completely different people. (Or are they?)
Listen to their amazing praise for the great Glenn Greenwald . . . and note how similar all the comments sound.
And then Patterico finds similarities in words like "the" "and" and "14-inches of man-meat" and tries to make something out of it, which, I guess is worth your time if you're just a lonely guy trying to fill the the desperate hours until the sweet oblivion of sleep claims you and then morning comes and you must once again face the black shrieking void of a meaningless life devoid of joy and human interaction...at least until lunchtime because it's Taco Thursday today.
Then it's back to that shrieking void thing again.
Anyway, I just received an email attachment of a Microsoft Solitaire screenshot from my Dark and Petulant Lord, Kos and I just wanted to say that Raymond Shaw Glenn Greenwald is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
