Remember back in 2004, when Bush won 51% percent of the electorate, and he called it a "mandate"?
What does that mean when, today, 51% of Americans say Bush should be impeached? Isn’t that a mandate as well?
Just wondering.
Active U.S. Soldiers Seek End To Iraqi Occupation
It may take 24-48 hours, but I think people will start talking about this soon:
Sixty five active duty service members are officially asking Congress to end the war in Iraq — the first time active troops have done so since U.S. invasion began in 2003.
Three of the service members will hold a press conference Wednesday explaining their decision to send "Appeals for Redress" under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to their members of Congress. Under the act, National Guard and Reservists can send communications about any subject to their member of Congress without punishment.
Short Bites
Barring some miracle, blogging will be light to non-existent for the next few days.
But that won’t stop be from pointing to things I find amusing, like
(1) the fact that robots think humans taste like bacon
(2) What hath John Hodgman wrought? He wrote a book in which he listed 700 hobo names. Now, illustrators are providing drawings for each hobo.
(3) Obama finally admits he is thinking about an ’08 prez bid. Time magazine has his face on the cover, saying "Why Barack Obama Could Be The Next President." Yeah. I was saying that as far back as July 2004.
UPDATE: Even neo-con Jonah Goldberg at the Corner admits to feeling a little love for Obama:
Well, since now is the time to divulge our feelings about the man, I’ll join the fray. I think Obama is a compelling and attractive political figure. He’s got charisma. He’s legitimately bright. I thought his 2004 Convention speech was outstanding.
Still …there are some out there who think that Obama is — and they mean this literally — the Antichrist. Meanwhile, "Obama" is the word of the day, and The American Street has a wrap-up of various thoughts from around the punditry, but Matt Stoller writes (in my view) the best piece: "Why Barack Obama Should Run For President"
(4) The Dr. Laura Action figure doll. Seriously. I’ll bet if you pull the string, she’ll say something like "Matthew Shepard had it coming".
(5) Death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq this month now at 89. This makes it the bloodiest in 2006 (with a week still to go). At the current rate of 3.87 soliders per day, it will be the worst month since 2/2005.
(6) No, not "Snakes On A Plane". It’s shrimps on a treadmill.
Meet The New Christian Coalition
Yup. The group founded by Pat Robertson has a new man-in-charge, and guess what? He actually seems like a pretty reasonable guy.
The Carpetbagger gives the scoop:
His name is Dr. Joel C. Hunter. He pastors an interdenominational church in Orlando, Fla., and he sounds like a — moderate.
Well, at least on some issues. Associated Baptist Press, a news service run by moderate Baptists, noted that Hunter has taken the lead on urging conservative Christians to take global warming more seriously. Notes ABP:
Hunter is familiar to many evangelicals and others as the face of a campaign by several evangelical groups to combat global warming. Earlier this year, Hunter appeared in commercials for the campaign, in which he appealed to fellow evangelicals to combat climate change as part of the scriptural command to care for creation.
Furthermore, Hunter has self-published a book titled Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly With Most Conservative Christians.
ABP describes the book like this:In it, he laments conservative Christianity’s overt identification with the Republican Party in recent years, and says, among other things, "There ought to be more than just gay marriage and pro-life issues because the Bible is concerned with all of life…. We need to do everything we can to relieve poverty, to heal the sick, and to protect the earth."
A podcast on the church site contains 40 questions about religion and politics. One of them is, "Is it possible to be a believing evangelical and vote Democratic?" Hunter replies in part, "It’s not only possible, at times it’s advisable on many issues."
Nice.
Bush: “We’ve Never Said ‘Stay The Course'”
In his interview with George Stephanopolouskowaskiwitz, the President said — and I quote — ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’.
Man, that’s an easily debunked lie:
BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]
BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]
BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]
BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]
BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]
BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]
UPDATE: WH Counselor Dan Bartlett is repeating the same lie.
The FBI Tries The Funny
The headlines are talking about this Wisconsin grocery clerk named Jake Brahm, who created the Internet hoax about terrorist attacks on NFL football stadiums this weekend. It was a stupid thing for this kid to do, but it was definitely not funny.
Still, the FBI spokesman thought he’d try his hand at doing some comedy schtick:
"Jake Brahm’s unsportsmanlike conduct caused the United States to divert valuable resources from the real battle," Leslie Wiser, FBI special agent in charge Newark division, told a news conference. "This coming Sunday the NFL referees won’t be the only ones wearing stripes."
*rim shot*
Nice to know that the FBI is viewing terrorist threats as "unsportsmanlike conduct". No wonder people don’t have a lot of faith in government.
Friday iPod Random Ten
"Smile A Little For Me" – The Flying Machine- "The Telephone Hour" – Bye Bye Birdie Original Broadway Cast
- "The West Wind Circus" – Helen Reddy
- "Walk On The Wild Side" – Lou Reed
- "What A Piece Of Work Is Man" – Hair (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
- "Paperback Writer" – The Beatles
- "You Belong To Me" – Carly Simon
- "Leave Me Alone" – The Coors
- "Four Jews In A Room" – March Of The Falsettos Original Broadway Cast
- "Then Came You" – Dionne Warwick
A Brief History Of Marriage
Stephen Hawking is getting a divorce.
His wife says he’s being "uncommunicative". No, just kidding.
Pat Tillman’s Bro Speaks Up
Pat Tillman was a linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals. Moved by 9/11, he volunteered for military duty and was deployed to Iraq.
He was a darling of the right wing, who reported his death in Iraq with much sadness. Here’s Hindrocket at Powerline, April 23, 2004:
The news brought tears to my eyes, as to many others. Already, some are asking why Tillman is so special, and why there is so much grief over his death when hundreds of other, less well known soldiers have also perished.
Stalin, who was neither stupid nor crazy, said that a single death is a tragedy, whereas a million deaths are but a statistic. It is true that the human imagination fastens on to single personalities, not casualty statistics. There is no reason to apologize for the fact that Tillman, a professional athlete who turned away from millions of dollars in salary to serve his country as an Army Ranger, is better known to the public than other Americans who have sacrificed equally. He is as good a symbol as any to stand for them all.
Sadly, the right-wing lovefest for Pat Tillman lost its sheen when it was learned that (a) Tillman died as a result of friendly fire; (b) the friendly fire incident was covered up by the military; and (c) Tillman was not as gung-ho about the Iraq War as many ojn the right believed.
When Pat joined the U.S. forces, he was joined by his brother Kevin. Here they are in Iraq — Pat on the left, Kvein on the right.
Now honorably discharged, Kevin has something to say:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.
Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
Studio 60: Not Doing Well, May Be Mercifully Cancelled
One month later, it appears "Studio 60" will be lucky to last the season. Since its premiere on Sept. 19, the pricey series has been shedding viewers weekly, and those who once saw Aaron Sorkin as the Arthur Miller of network drama grumble about the poor quality of the show’s comedy and the characters’ endless back-patting claims that said tepid comedy is in fact boundary-pushing, hilarious, edgy fare.
Oh, Aaron. How the mighty have fallen.
O’Reilly: Irony-Impaired
Bill O’Reilly lauched a tirade against the "off-the-charts vitriol" on blogs. In the course of his complaint, O’Reilly said this of free speech on the Internet:
"Because if I can get away with it, boy, I’d go in with a hand grenade."
Not that’s vitriol!
Ground Zero
Five years after the fact, they’re still finding human remains at the WTC site, some as large as an arm and leg bone.
Gruesome, to be sure. But it’s a reminder of the width and severity of the devastation.
“Sorry I Haven’t Posted In A While…”
This is unique.
A blogger went out and collected a bunch of apologies written by other bloggers explaining reasons why they have been lax in their blogging. Some examples:
"I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been so busy, but hopefully we’ll catch up on things. Anyway, my great-grandmother died today." [LINK]
"I forgot my password…" [LINK]
"
bc I knew my next post would address the current war in Lebanon" [LINK]"I’ve been busy shooting soccer teams." [LINK]
"Sometimes it can be exhaustingly overwhelming to say what you think, which is why I haven’t posted in awhile." [LINK]
"I haven’t had the internet and I have been drunk or busy alot. I kind of did a minor (for me) crash and burn when I found out Selissa was fucking one of my friends (after we broke up). The night I walked in on them I had just spent about 200 dollars on boxing gear for this guy, because he wanted me to teach him how to fight. Anyway, everyone has something to mope about. Truth is, there really can be no rules for this sort of thing." [LINK]
"I’ve been really bummed. I went shopping" [LINK]
"Both lazy & busy or just busy being lazy. " [LINK]
"more than the usual laziness was involved" [LINK]
"I would like to blame it on the excess of greasy iftaar goodies that reek havoc on any sane person’s digestive system, but alas, it is my own laziness" [LINK]
"I was hoping to make a celebratory declaration about the new oven’s arrival. The good news is, it did finally arrive on Wednesday afternoon. The bad news is, it’s been a nightmare ever since it got here!" [LINK]
"I had a really bad end to my summer" LINK]
"I’ve been very depressed since Ginger died." [LINK]
"We are on ‘vacation.’" [LINK]
I confess that I don’t really get this. Why does one feel the need to "apologize" for not blogging? Is blogging a mandatory thing we do (for those of us who do it, that is)? Is it required?
And who exactly are we apologizing to? Do we assume that we have a loyal fanbase of several thousand? Strikes me as a little vain.
Look, even I don’t know why I blog. I just do it. Maybe it’s to vent. Maybe it’s because — after doing this for a couple of years — it’s fun to look back (and it will be funner ten years from now, assuming I keep it up). My stat counter says I get 70-100 visits per day, and that’s nice. But I’m not egotistical enough to think that I’m letting anyone down by NOT blogging for a few days.
Time Killer
This isn’t a game — but it’s fun.
Draw a line (the "ground"). Use the hand tool to move the paper and make your line as long as you want. Click the play button and watch your little sledder go down.