Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asks us to STOP!!

The raids onto Iraqi civilian homes yesterday by American forces continued today ... this time to the point where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the raids and demanded an explanation for the assault into a district where he has barred U.S. operations in the past. [This according to the Associated Press earlier today]

And this man is (presumably) our friend in Baghdad. The Iraqi Government (our Iraqi Government--not Al-Quaeda or some rebel forces) believes that we are indiscriminately attacking Iraqi civilians (are we?) and attacking in areas of Baghdad that are "off limits" to US soldiers.

Hmm ... isn't it about time for us to simply get out? Just as it was time (long ago and also long overdue at the time) for the Germans to leave Denmark, France and the Netherlands back in 1939, it seems that history is nudging us to bring our boys and girls home ... NOW!!!

No, no ... Say, it ain't so, Mitt!

Mitt Romney can do no wrong to many of his followers, but the latest revelations relating to how he has trained his children in the treatment of animals .... well, quite frankly, it makes me want to scream (above left). Besides being illegal, his ignoring an animal's only plea for help (diarrhea down the car window) was accented by his showing his children how to deal with such "crisis management."

He simply washed down the window and they were on their way ... with an Irish setter snuggled in his animal carrier atop their car ... for twelve hours.

Is this the man we want running as the Republican nominee for President? For that matter, how do the people of Massachusetts feel about knowing that their Governor flagrantly disobeys the state's animal cruelty laws?

Even my kitties were horrified!

And we all thought that Abu Ghraib was a Cheney-neocon-only kind of thing ...

Super Bush comes back after little Immigration hiccup and takes on the world ... a.k.a. Vladimir Putin!

Although it will clearly be in the presence of and under the careful scrutiny of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, Super-Decider is meeting with Vladimir Putin at his father's summer home this weekend and beyond. Hopefully, he will undo some of the noise made over the recent months about placing new missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin's threat to retarget his ICBMs back in the direction of Western Europe are not simply empty threats, Mr. Bush, and require that you play the part of Clark Kent for maybe the next two days or so.

For all our sakes, I hope that you do at least that.

Besides, where is the money coming from? Listen to Mr. Clinton's advice on that subject, Mr. Decider-in-Chief.

My brother Richard to the rescue ... for the United States of America and for his older brother on the beach!

One Scene Taken from but One Angle Behind a Chair in my Living Room

It never really occurred to me that I might be suffering from a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) common among the elderly and persons, who, like myself are otherwise quite rational persons. I am, in particular, a person prone to always being entirely correct in matters political, historical (except for the names of my children--and their birth dates) and scientific/mathematical. I also used to play the clarinet and chess--equally badly.

Anyway, when I received a note on my front door from a lady who did an estimate of what it would take/cost to "deep clean" my home, I went into a mild (clinical) state of depression.

Her visit occurred during one of my otherwise benign conversations with my brother, Richard in Connecticut and her note was handed to me by Laverna (long story) when she (LaVerna) arrived back from the Food Bank. I honestly hadn't even heard the lady banging (I assume) on my front door and then traipsing through my place (impossible except for the very nimble) for a full half hour (according to the note she left the note pinned to my front door). She wrote:

[begin quote] Joe -- This is very expensive, but we will need to put everything outside, sort stuff for the dump or thrift shop [where does she think I got it in the first place?] ... we can do this sat 6/30 at 2:30 - 5:30. Then to dump or thrift store on Mon 7/2 and deep clean on Tuesday at 1:00 - 4:00. ... Lois [end of quote]

Oh yes, she left a price estimate on her note that spun my head and would/will probably put a stop to my Salvation Army Thrift Store visits for five years. I still wonder where my eight (one belongs to a homeless lady staying in my loft) cats were while she was wondering about ... or where the resident raccoon, Richard, who lives under my front porch ... also was ... while she was getting one helluva look-see through the front window before entering.

Richard (my brother, and not the raccoon under my front porch) explained to me that I was simply suffering from a form of OCD that runs in the family and then went through some of my own history, plus others' in the family. Basically, we all suffer--or had suffered--from severe anxiety at some point and this somehow causes/caused us to find it impossible to throw out seemingly worthless items. I thought back, and that's right ... my wife and I had twelve (actually very worthwhile, I think) kids whom we never once thought of throwing out. Hellfire, my wife would throw me out first!

I don't think I'll carry that thought any further.

Indecisiveness, procrastination and disorganization are other symptoms of the OCD syndrome. Compulsive hoarding, which I now know affects up to 5 million people in the United States, is usually found in persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Yeesh! Giving it a name helps, but now what? I've decided to bite the bullet and let the woman do her thing with her team of trash-haulers tomorrow, but I just might stop by my family physician next week and try to get a prescription for Paxil (paroxetine) which is a form of antidepressant that I've learned from the web ... might help.

What next, Richard? Uhh ... Brother Richard, not raccoon Richard ...

Top Ten Reasons to Impeach Cheney ... NOW!! And Mr. Libby is only the tip of the iceberg.

The first "top ten" list on the site whose URL is given below (as of this morning) was:

1. Lying to the American people, to the UN and to the world about WMD in Iraq, aka invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation without just cause.

2. High treason - the outing of a covert CIA agent in time of war by the Vice President.

3. The use of signing statements to enable Bush to ignore laws passed by Congress

4. Illegal wiretapping and surveillance conducted against American citizens.

5. Torture of detainees - violation of the Geneva Conventions

6. Illegal suspension of the right of habeas corpus

7. Negligent homicide (with regard to 9/11 and the warnings received by the CIA)

8. Obstruction of justice (let me count the ways!!)

9. Illegal destruction of records by the VP (visitor logs, etc.)

10. Use of RNC email server to conceal presidential records

But looking for the top ten reasons to impeach Cheney NOW is as easy as going to http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/219.

Paris Hilton Free at Last!!

Paris Hilton has been finally released from her unfair and unconstitutional incarceration in Los Angeles ... simply for ... being Paris Hilton !!

That might seem a little sarcastic on Mediawingnuts' part, but the fact is, her being tossed in jail for what any of the rest of us would have been given a light slap on the wrist for is/was a simple example of the media running the show.

She was guilty of driving with a suspended license after having been caught drunk driving back in September 2006--actually, she failed a sobriety test after being stopped after weaving (and driving irregularly) while leaving a hamburger stand. She was given some instructions back then by the court who also asked that she take some classes on sobriety and pay roughly $1,500 in fines. She was put on 3 years' probation and then caught breaking her terms of probation ... (gasp) driving!

Long story short: it cost the California taxpayers exactly $1,109.78 per day (roughly my annual salary) to hold her for the three weeks that she was chained to a barren prison wall, shivering, naked and hungry--or something like that, I guess.

Mediawingnuts' take: She's a cute chick and has a lot to offer the teeny-bopper crowd if she truly wakes up and begins a life of giving as opposed to taking. No, I don't think she should have gone to jail necessarily, but just maybe it was part of God's overall plan for her life, and just maybe this will all have a nice ending that we can look back upon someday with a knowing smile and peaceful heart.

This article by Maureen Dowd is the best read of the past couple of months--if not the past year!

Maureen Dowd gets Mediawingnuts' "Best Commentary for 2007" award!
MAUREEN DOWD: A Vice President Without Borders, Bordering on Lunacy
WASHINGTON

It’s hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month.

Harry’s cloak of invisibility would be no match for Vice’s culture of invisibility.

I’ve always thought Cheney was way out there — the most Voldemort-like official I’ve run across. But even in my harshest musings about the vice president, I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet — a separate entity from the White House.

I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it’s quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution.

Dr. No used to just blow off the public and Congress as he cooked up his shady schemes. Now, in a breathtaking act of arrant arrogance, he’s blowing off his own administration.

Henry Waxman, the California congressman who looks like an accountant and bites like a pit bull, is making the most of Congress’s ability, at long last, to scrutinize Cheney’s chicanery.

On Thursday, Mr. Waxman revealed that after four years of refusing to cooperate with the government unit that oversees classified documents, the vice president tried to shut down the unit rather than comply with the law ensuring that sensitive data is protected. The National Archives appealed to the Justice Department, but who knows how much justice there is at Justice, now that the White House has so blatantly politicized it?

Cheney’s office denied doing anything wrong, but Cheney’s office is also denying it’s an office. Tricky Dick Deuce declared himself exempt from a rule that applies to everyone else in the executive branch, instructing the National Archives that the Office of the Vice President is not an “entity within the executive branch” and therefore is not subject to presidential executive orders.

“It’s absurd, reflecting his view from the first day he got into office that laws don’t apply to him,” Representative Waxman told me. “The irony is, he’s taking the position that he’s not part of the executive branch.”

Ah, if only that were true. Then maybe W. would be able to close Gitmo, which Vice has insisted he not do. And Condi wouldn’t have to worry every night that she’ll wake up to find crazy Dick bombing Iran, whispering to W. that they have to do it before that weak sister Hillary takes over.

“Your decision to exempt your office from the president’s order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk,” Mr. Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Cheney.

Of course, it’s doubtful, now that Vice has done so much to put our national security at risk, that he’ll suddenly listen to reason.

Cheney and Cheney’s Cheney, David Addington, his equally belligerent, ideological and shadowy lawyer and chief of staff, have no shame. After claiming executive privilege to withhold the energy task force names and protect Scooter Libby, they now act outraged that Vice should be seen as part of the executive branch.

Cheney, they argue, is the president of the Senate, so he’s also part of the legislative branch. Vice is casting himself as a constitutional chimera, an extralegal creature with the body of a snake and the head of a sea monster. It’s a new level of gall, to avoid accountability by saying you’re part of a legislative branch that you’ve spent six years trying to weaken.

But gall is the specialty of Addington, who has done his best to give his boss the powers of a king. He was the main author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects, and he helped stonewall the 9/11 commission. He led the fights supporting holding terrorism suspects without access to courts and against giving Congress and environmentalists access to information about the energy industry big shots who secretly advised Cheney on energy policy.

Dana Perino, a White House press spokeswoman, had to go out on Friday and defend Cheney’s bizarre contention that he is his own government. “This is an interesting constitutional question that legal scholars can debate,” she said.

I love that Cheney was able to bully Colin Powell, Pentagon generals and George Tenet when drumming up his fake case for war, but when he tried to push around the little guys, the National Archive data collectors — I’m visualizing dedicated “We the People” wonky types with glasses and pocket protectors — they pushed back.

Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington.

Never say never, Mr. Romney!!!

Lieutenant Anthony Circosta

I guess everyone in the world knew about this case before me. Thanks to my brother Richard in Connecticut, I now know about young Lieutenant Circosta and his dilemma. What it boils down to is this: When he was only 13 years old, he (Circosta) shot another boy in the arm with a BB gun. The shot didn't break the "victim's" skin, but his (admittedly foolish) action resulted in his conviction of an assault which is still in effect as I am keying this in. He is now a 29 year-old man who completed a second tour of duty in Iraq last year.

Because he wanted to become a police officer in Massachusetts--and still does, he asked the then-Governor of Massachusetts (Mitt Romney) for a pardon so that his record could be cleared and the way would also be cleared for him to become his boyhood dream.

Never mind that he was/is a decorated Iraq war veteran (Bronze Star; led a platoon of 20 in the deadly Sunni Triangle) ... but DO MIND that Governor Romney is stating as one of his proudest accomplishments the fact that he (Romney) denied EVERY SINGLE request for pardon or commutation of a sentence while he was Governor of Massachusetts--including that of Lieutenant Circosta. The pardon was recommended not once, but twice, by the Massachusetts Board of Pardons.

For Circosta, who works as a project manager for disaster restoration company, Romney's refusal is an ongoing source of frustration even today.

And quite frankly, this is a glaring reason (up front) why we should be cherry about considering Mr. Romney as a potential candidate for president of the United States. The very valid argument could be made that the blanket policy is an abdication of a key power given governors and the president--the ability to recognize how someone convicted of a past crime has turned their life around.

How many of you recall when President George W. Bush (then Governor of Texas) pursed his lips and mocked Carla Faye Tucker after she was executed with the words, "Please don't kill me"?

That statement by Mr. Bush must weigh heavily on the mind of "Scooter" Libby, who will be heading behind bars within two or three weeks.

And yes, Mr. Romney, you too should be thinking, but in your case you might think about that old adage, "never say naver" (vis-a-vis giving pardons and such) about now as your fellow Republicans are considering you as a possible nominee for President.

Right is right ... even if the guy who's right happens to have the initials GWB !!!

My brother Richard in Connecticut said it best when he stated, "If we err, we should always err on the side of life!"


President Bush did not err in any way (in my opinion) today when he sided with life and vetoed legislation that would have allowed the use of federal funds to support embryonic stem cell research. This is the second consecutive year he has blocked such a bill.

Those who favor such research say that embryonic stem cells--which can turn into cells for many different kinds of human tissue--offer the best chance of treating or curing many fatal and debilitating diseases. Opponents, such as Bush, state that research on the cells, which can be derived from human embryos created during in-vitro fertilization treatments, effectively destroys a human life.

And yes, it does!

What Mr. Bush specifically said was, "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical — and it is not the only option before us. Researchers are now developing promising new techniques that offer the potential to produce pluripotent stem cells without having to destroy human life."

The fact is, recent research--some announcements coming as recently as last month and earlier this month--suggest that adult stem cells and other “Pluripotent” stem cells can become any of the three layers of cells from which all organs and tissues develop.

Bush also issued an executive order to the National Institutes of Health asking scientists to pursue research on stem cells that "are derived without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding, or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus."

Three cheers from a very progressive liberal-minded guy (that's me!) to a generally not-so-progressive thinking President (Mr. Bush) on deciding to do what's right and not what the majority of the members of Congress (apparently) want.

Watch out Dems! Watch out, GOP! The $5 billion roller-coaster is a-comin' ...

Michael Bloomberg ... can $5 billion buy the White House?

It appears that both parties are shaking a bit in their collective booties as Mr. Bloomberg has decided to quit the Republican Party and become an Independent. He directed the following comments to both the White House (Republican) and the Congress (Democrats):

"I think the country is in trouble; (citing the war in Iraq and America's declining standing globally) our reputation has been hurt very badly in the last few years. We've had a go-it-alone mentality in a world where, because of communications and transportation, you should be going exactly in the other direction."

Truer words were never spoken, but then, this is only Day One of the latest reincarnation of Michael Bloomberg--former Democrat and former Republican.

"The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed, leaving our future in jeopardy," he also said in a another speech only yesterday.

Whither goest thou, Michael?

A Hillary Clinton-Fred Thompson-Michael Bloomberg three-way race in 2008 would surely be hard to call at this stage.

From the mad to the sad to just plain BAD ... to this!

From the mad to the sad to just plain BAD ... to this!

Happy Father's Day to all of you fathers

from

too many (underscored ... "many") cats'

Dad!

Diet pill seems to be the answer ... at least as a starter!

Alli to the rescue!

In February of this year, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals announced the FDA approval of the weight loss Orlistat in the form of a lesser dosage, 60 mg capsule, sold over-the-counter starting summer 2007. It will be called Alli and if the picture to the left makes you think you are looking in the mirror, I'd recommend Alli and everything else available (exercise, dieting and possibly surgery) to take off that extra pound or two (or two hundred if need be). It certainly looks good in all of the testing that I've read about in recent weeks.

It only blocks the absorption of fat and doesn't decrease your urge to eat, so the need for will power or a good EA Program (like AA, only more difficult) is still a reality for most of us.

And no, this is not a self-portrait of Mediawingnuts!

The perfect wife; the perfect life ...

Ruth Bell Graham
1920 - 2007

Maybe not 100% perfect; none of us are. But what we know and love of Ruth Bell Graham makes her one of the most lovely and influential persons of our time -- no matter who Time Magazine might select in their "Top 100" !! The Reverend Billy Graham said that she surely "had a great reception in heaven," and I fully agree. I look forward to meeting her in person there myself in some distant future eon.

Maybe this explains why we're building the idiotic US Embassy in Iraq ... largest of any country anywhere!

My previous posting suggested that among other stupid activities begun by Mr. Bush in Iraq, he was building the world's largest and most expensive Embassy--larger than ours in both China and Great Britain combined. The question is ... why? [Not accounting for the hundreds of millions pocketed by the Cheney-picked contractors!]

The article at Real Clear Politics' excellent website suggest a possible additional explanation.

Just take a peek at the map of northern Iraq (shown above) and look who the players in the cross-border shenanigans ongoing for the past three weeks are. In fact, click on the map to increase its size and read carefully the names of both the countries and cities included in the region called "Kurdistan." There are very few places anywhere in the world more spaghetti-like than northern Iraq, where the British, the Arabs, the Turks, and now the Americans have played a deadly game of "Who Owns the Oil?" at the expense of the locals who think of themselves as "Kurdistan." Of course, for the longest period of time in recent history, we had an ally (Saddam Hussein) in charge in Baghdad to keep the Iranians and Syrians (with their British partners) in check.

Now ... Katie bar the door!

George W. Bush has not only defanged the Arab presence in Kurdistan through his ill-conceived Iraq War, but now he has more recently been attempting to destabilize (maybe another regime change, who knows?) Iran and its huge Shiite population. What with the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK based in northern Iraq) setting off bomb after bomb in Turkey over the past year, and now, Turkey retaliating with cross-border incursions into Iraq ... well, you decide!

Is an even greater regional war about to explode in the area covered by the map above? For starters, the Kurds make up about 20% of both Iraq and Turkey and are also a significant minority in both Syria and Iran.

Interestingly, the "plan" put forth by the moderate Republicans last Christmas (remember James baker and his crew--including today's Secretary of Defence Robert Gates) recommended an independent Kurdistan, something that Turkey would surely go to war to prevent.

I just have to wonder ... does President Bush or his neocon advisers (and yes, they still exist, even with the removal of Rummy, Wolfowitz and a few more visible faces) think they have something to gain oil-wise or otherwise from a major war in the Middle East?

I surely hope not!

Is this really necessary?

Excuse my French, but this project really pisses the hell outta me!

The photo above shows where we stand today in the construction of the now famous $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad--with everything from fast food restaurants and swimming pools for the staff that will (someday) reside and work there. And oh yes, the $600 million needed to build the crazy thing is only half of what its annual operating costs are expected to be.

The prime real estate is sufficiently large to hold 80 football fields--a great target for the insurgents who are probably waiting for a ripe time to bring this latest Tower of Babel down.

Interestingly, it's scheduled for opening in September, just in time for the Pentagon "progress report" on the war ongoing at its gates.

And please note that not a single one of the Democrats or Republicans running for President has even made mention of this boodoggle--the dumbest idea in this whole stupid war/occupation.

Randi Rhodes tells it like it is ...

This quote of Randi Rhode's is worth noting:

I was a woman and in the Air Force. ... I ... understood that the reason
why the American military is the proudest and the most fierce fighting force on the planet is because we feel like we’re doing a legitimate job for a legitimate government. When you look at why the Iraqis won’t fight, they don’t feel like they’re legitimate, and they don’t feel they’re fighting for a legitimate government. ... Plus, I can’t imagine being on foreign soil making thirteen hundred dollars a month, with a family at home, car payments and house payments and the whole nine yards, and serving next to a guy who’s getting eighty grand to pump gas. In my military experience, that can’t happen. You don’t serve alongside somebody who’s making eighty grand to put the gas in the vehicle. I put the gas in the plane. I put the jet fuel in the plane. I put the oxygen in the airplane. I can’t imagine having to serve with somebody who is making a fricking fortune and is on the payroll of the company, not the country. That screws up the entire camaraderie, the entire feeling that you are a legitimate fighting force. All of a sudden, you see it’s for profit, and you don’t feel legitimate anymore. [unquote] -- Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio Host

Having spent a good part of my lifetime as a contractor for the military, I
know that what she says relating to how the one and two-stripers trudging (and dying) in and on the sands of Iraq must feel alongside the $80,000 to $150,000 per year contractors only a few hundred yards behind them. It's estimated that we have nearly as many contractors in Iraq today (earning your tax dollars!) as we have uniformed military.

Who's looking into that?

Nobody!

Mr. Bush fighting for the life of his remaining 19 months

My brother Richard in Connecticut has it exactly right this week.

He sees the Immigration Bill (dead at the moment) and the vote of "no confidence" on Alberto Gonzales (Attorney General at the moment) as serious threats to both Bush's credibility and the chance(s) of any of the Republicans to defeat any Democrat (even Dennis Kucinich, the most logical of the bunch).

He might just be right, but in my view the Immigration Bill is totally meaningless ... meaning that we will have the same actual numbers of immigrants coming into the US to help out in our time of need (for cheap labor) and the same percentage of them who will ultimately add to the diversity of our country in the years and decades ahead. And as for Alberto ... he'll be leaving his job one way or the other before the summer is out.

Mediawingnuts doesn't see what the "big deal" over the Congressional efforts is/are all about.

The real issue(s) is/are Iraq and/or Iran, and I see nothing ongoing as regards impeaching Cheney or blocking the nomination of Michael "Poseidon" Mullen as the new Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hellfire, even President Bush called the Gonzo vote later today "meaningless" and fully expects that his popularity [sic] will win the day for some sort of limp Immigration Bill.

We need Paris Hilton back into the news.

Joe Lieberman wasn't simply on 'Face the Nation" this morning; he wants to MACE the Nation ... Iran, that is!

My brother Richard in Connecticut shares his homeland (Connecticut) with the likes of Senator Joe Lieberman who really went out on a dangerous limb today.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Mr Lieberman told those of us watching CBS before church this morning. And he went on, "and to me that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people to kill our soldiers."

Wasn't it only last month that we began talking with the Iranians to avoid exactly the kind of Holocaust that Mr. Lieberman is suggesting we kick off?

I wonder if Mr. Lieberman has thought through his suggestion to the point of the impact of an attack on Iran on, say, the Shi'a fighting the Sunnis in Iraq. If I were a GI patrolling the streets of Baghdad this morning, I'd be shaking in my boots ... wondering exactly how much influence this clown in Connecticut has on his friends in the White House.

And meanwhile, our carriers and submarines with nuclear-tipped missiles continue to operate in the Persian Gulf (a.k.a. the Arabian Gulf in the more Arab leaning capitals throughout the Middle East).

Admiral Mullen sees the Iraq War as "a generational war." Is this what we are looking towards?

Recall how General Pace earned our admiration when he stood up to Donald Rumsfeld on the issue of torture ... and then again when he stood up to Mr. Cheney as regards widening the war map to include Iran?

Of course, that voice will soon be silenced since (see previous posting) General Pace has become the first JCS Chairman NOT to be renominated to his post, according to this morning's news from the White House.

Well now, enter the new man on the President's to-be-named list. Likely to be nominated as the next Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff is

Admiral Michael Mullen, currently the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO).

He has spoken often and long on the issues surrounding our Middle East adventures and, among other interesting pronouncements has stated that, "The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are -- the democratic principles for which we stand ... This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war."

That alone might make me a tad nervous, but his view of the "Naval Operations Concept" last year as shown below ... really makes me nervous!

One of our local talking heads on the radio here in Washington State suggested that if you liked our quick action on the dikes in New Orleans during Katrina and if you thought that Rudy Giuliani was Our Saviour on 9-11, you're going to just love the Bush-Cheney-Mullen team and some of their coming attractions! Look at just exactly who's taking center stage in the slide signed by Admiral Mullen above. Isn't that Saudi Arabia, Iran and and most of both Sunni and Shi'a Islam in the Middle East?

My brother, Richard in Connecticut believes that General Pace was only the last standing guard of the neoconservative remnants in DOD. I guess I don't agree with him this time.

Instead, as I study the chart above, I ask myself, "Why are navy admirals suddenly in charge of everything in the Middle east?"

... I think I know how to spell ...

Poseidon Adventure

Maybe we should put the impeachment Proceedings against Mr. Cheney on hold, Dennis ... instead, we might think about putting some immediate effort into blocking the Chairman, JCS nomination first.

(Yes, that's a Poseidon C3 launch!)

The fallen ... from the 3500-plus young men and women to General Peter Pace, USMC and Chairman, JCS

This picture of General Pace, taken last weekend, was a powerful statement to us all. He understands, maybe better than most of the rest of us, the real cost of our sad adventure into Iraq. Yes, I personally would have preferred that President Bush have renominated him to the second term at the top which he so badly wanted to be--and expected to be--despite his somewhat antiquated views about gays in the military, etc. However, the situation in Iraq continues to head south ... and General Peter Pace has become just another another "war" casualty ... along with the 3500-plus who have come home in flag-draped coffins aboard C-5A's.

Heroes all ... from General Pace at the top to the lowest ranked one-striper in the sands of Iraq ...

Paris Hilton is grabbing new headlines even as we worry about US servicemen (and women) dying in Iraq and close our eyes to the genocide in Dafur ...

Just for the record, this is a chronology of events dug from two websites that has brought Paris Hilton to the front and center of the American stage:

• September 7, 2006: Officers arrest Paris Hilton in Hollywood, Calif., for investigation of driving under the influence after she was spotted "driving erratically."
• September 26, 2006: Hilton is charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence.
• January 9, 2007: Hilton's lawyers enter not guilty pleas on her behalf to one count each of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or above.
• January 15, 2007: Hilton is pulled over by the California Highway Patrol and informed that her license is suspended. She signs a document acknowledging she is not to drive.
• January 22, 2007: Hilton pleads no contest to a reduced charge of alcohol-related reckless driving. She is placed on three years' probation, ordered to enroll in alcohol education and pay $1,500 in fines.
• February 27, 2007: Hilton is ticketed for misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. A copy of the document signed Jan. 15 is found in her glove compartment.
• March 29, 2007: The city attorney's office says it will ask a judge to revoke Hilton's probation.
• May 3, 2007: Prosecutors recommend Hilton serve 45 days in jail for a probation violation.
• May 4, 2007: Judge Michael Sauer sentences Hilton to 45 days in jail.
• May 6, 2007: Publicist Elliot Mintz says he and Hilton have parted ways over an apparent "misunderstanding she received from me regarding the terms of her probation."
• May 8, 2007: Hilton rehires Mintz.
• May 9, 2007: Hilton hires a new attorney, Richard A. Hutton, who specializes in DUI cases.
• May 14, 2007: Psychiatrist Charles Sophy says in court documents that Hilton is "distraught and traumatized as a consequence of the findings at the May 4 hearing ... and her fear of incarceration."
• May 16, 2007: Sheriff's officials say Hilton will serve 23 days in a special unit away from the general population.
• May 17, 2007: Hilton drops an appeal of her jail sentence.
• June 3, 2007: Hilton reports to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood after attending the MTV Movie Awards and saying she's ready to serve her sentence. [Video/audiotape played 4,978,462 times on national radio and TV stating her hope that her ordeal will serve to help others with similar addictions/problems.]
• June 4, 2007: Hilton's attorney says his client is doing well under the circumstances.
• June 7, 2007: Hilton is released from jail because of an undisclosed medical problem and is ordered to serve the rest of her sentence in home confinement.

Which brings us to ...

June 8, 2007: Mediawingnuts says, Let's get a life and leave both Paris Hilton and the law enforcement folks down in the L.A. area to their own lives and problems ...

WE GOT OURS!!!

Hmmm ... if Fred Thompson tells us that he'll bring the troops home ... good grief! I'd vote Republican with my brother Richard in Connecticut.

Fred Thompson and his wife Jeri

Gee whiz! How could I turn against a candidate who agrees with me as regards undoing Roe versus Wade (for me, a new position) and has a wife--or is Jeri Thompson really his granddaughter?--who reminds me of a Hollywood starlet? After watching the Democratic Debate this evening, I'm reasonably certain that Hillary will be the Democratic candidate and Thompson looks like a winner coming out of the gate on the Republican side.

What do you think?

Is it just me, or do you think that it was no coincidence that Katherine heigl and Seth Rogers' new comedy hit "Knocked Up" was released this weekend ... just as Mr. Thompson is announcing his candidacy? After all, both the film and the man are clearly against abortion. [See previous posting.]

Naah! That's just me, isn't it?


Doesn't Katherine Heigle look a little like Geri Thompson?

Migod ... I'm actually on Bill O'Reilly's side on this one and yes, I'm appalled!

While driving leisurely to Olympia this morning, I happened to switch over to Air America's equal-and-opposite, Fox News Talk (or something like that), on XM-168. I almost switched back to Air America's blather of the moment on XM-167 after I heard the familiar and (for me) unpleasant voice of Bill O'Reilly--bloviating away with his "no-spin" nonsense, I assumed.

But I held off touching the XM buttons for only a second and ... listened!

What I heard was an interview he had taped with a fourteen-year old girl describing a late-term abortion that she had undergone a year or so ago. It was both absolutely heart rendering and emotionally drenching to hear as I was speeding east on US 12.

The bottom line of both the interview and Mr. O'Reilly's entire hour (less commercials) was that the Governor of Kansas had vetoed a bill that was presented to her that would have required that abortionists (licensed doctors) in Kansas at the very least indicate the medical reasons for conducting all late-term abortions.

Current Kansas State law only allows a late-term abortion if it is necessary to save the life of the mother or if there is risk of permanent impairment of her bodily function. The information required by the bill before the Governor would have had no identifying information, although it was the Governor's concerns for the privacy of the "mothers" that caused her to veto the bill (from what I am able to determine from her comments published on the Internet).

O'Reilly's attack this morning was apparently a "rerun" of a segment that I missed while I was at work on last Wednesday evening during which he took on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius over an abortionist named, George R. Tiller.

O’Reilly referred to Dr. Tiller as "Tiller the Baby Killer" more than once during the radio show that I heard. He also asked the quite reasonable question of Governor Sebelius (shown just above on the left), "How can you sleep at night?"

For myself, this was a defining moment in my own concerns about the barbaric nature of abortion as a method of "birth control" [sic] and/or elimination of embarrassment or whatever to the family/woman/girl involved. There are surely legitimate reason for taking human lives--including abortions in accordance with current Kansas State law.

But I can't believe that I am beginning to question my own previous support for the Roe versus Wade decision a million years back. Where in God's world are we heading with the barbaric practices of most abortion clinics nationwide?

I've used the word, "carnage" often enough to describe Bush's war in Iraq, but on this issue Mr. Bush is 100% correct, and abortion for any reasons outside of the qualification "if it is necessary to save the life of the mother or if there is risk of permanent impairment of her bodily function" ... is also carnage. On this matter, I stand foursquare with George W. Bush and (yes) Bill O'Reilly.

Did I just write that?

* * *

Ironically, the movie that a friend and I saw this afternoon was a "comedy" that addressed the issue of taking an unwanted pregnancy to the fulfillment of God's purpose. I might not have enjoyed some of the rather filthy "guy-talk" throughout the film--or the other sexual innuendos throughout, but the lessons, so to speak, embedded in the story line vis-a-vis the human life growing inside the heroine's womb wasn't lost on this old curmudgeon.

And despite the quotes I put on the word "comedy" above, Knocked Up was a very funny movie. Weird and a little unbelievable, but fuuunnny! And its finale was quite enjoyable.

Especially after listening to the O'Reilly Show this morning.

A Hillary Clinton - Evan Bayh ticket? My brother in Connecticut told me that it's being discussed ...

Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh in 2008?

Well, my Brother in Connecticut said he heard it straight from the mouth of a Fox News talking head--which makes it fact, right?





Hmmm ... maybe the idea isn't such a bad one, after all ... I fully expect (as does one of the Air Americans--who thought of it almost a full two years after I told my brother in Connecticut in September 2005 that it was a sure bet) that when Cheney steps down early next year, Jeb Bush will be selected to finish out his term and be urged to run for President when none of the current crowd is able to muster more than about 30% of the electors needed for the nomination. Hillary and Bayh will easily beat Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney -- on that, my brother in Connecticut and I can fully agree on!

231 young people gone in April and May ... the largest number for any two month period since that ugly night of "Shock and Awe" ...

Looking intently at a young face like the one above experiencing first-hand the sad reality of the stupidest war ever fought by our country, I wonder aloud again, "Will it ever end?"

The sad and incomprehensible numbers that I look at almost daily at the website that keeps the tallies for us all only state the obvious--we are losing our youngsters faster now than we ever have in Iraq ... and there's no end in sight.

It's been four months since the President announced the "troop surge" and more than a week since our Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike) voted to fund the rapidly increasing carnage.

I challenge any and all of those who voted to plod on in this insane endeavor to look at the faces of those who are dying ... and those who are still fighting ... and ask themselves ... "Just what are we doing?"

The collage below, made from the faces of many of our fallen, was one that has remained in my mind for some time ... Click on the image and just try to take in the horror of it all ...