the bastards' last stand

i just got back from seeing morris day and the time. it was entertaining. and a bit odd. i don't think i've ever been to one of those sorta revival shows. i never saw the beach boys, or the four tops, or the monkees (even though in my childhood the monkees were better than the beatles. i had never heard the beatles, but somehow i just knew). i never quite understood the appeal of music frozen in an era, the disco revival; the 80's craze; artists who essentially say, "i'm going to make a living performing the same songs for 20 years." i don't blame them, i don't think it's wrong. if i had a couple hits i'd hit the road every couple years myself. still, it's odd. we ran into a couple who'd been at the show at a restaurant afterwards. the man said he saw them in the 80's. i asked the question that had been in my head since the third song, "is it the same show?" his answer, "yeah, pretty much." i knew b

...cause they're sure not giving it to our side. i can't escape the feeling that despite all of the families' grief, our military deaths mean little more to the president than the quarterly profit losses he grew used to hearing about in every business he ran into the ground. and like in those businesses, ultimately the loss is someone else's problem. i think that anytime i post about the military i will start with that quote (pardon the self-quoting) because the mound of evidence supporting it is growing weekly. the gall of this administration somehow still continues to surprise me. if their actions were fiction i would say it was too over the top to be believable. god i wish they were a fiction. it's bad enough that haliburton got no-bid contracts and keeps over-charging us for billions, but then to give the troops contaminated water is unbelievable. is it really too much to ask that our vice-presidential crony war-profiteerers at least be competent? in t

i found this link to a dailykos diary on news blog My Military Experience (What Really Demoralizes the Troops) by filmgeek83 [Subscribe] Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 12:17:21 AM PDT Before I begin, I just want to say thank you to all you Kossacks who have been so kind and thanked me for serving. I greatly apprieciate it. I always thought I'd be reluctant to speak on my time in the Marines, but now I realize the greatest disservice I can do for my buddies still in uniform is to remain silent. I want to inform all of you, first hand, what I find most of those brave men and women find truly demoralizing. I'll give you a hint. Dissent is nowhere on this list. 1. Being Unprepared. There is a sort of gallows humor that one clings to in Iraq. This is especially true when outfitting a Humvee with armor. I've saw some of those Up-Armor vehicles out there. Almost all of the grunts don't have them. They have to ride around with plates attached to their vehicles. This plating is spotty at

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," Mr. Bush said in a television interview on Sept. 1. "Now we're having to deal with it, and will." i start this post with a quote from the president because it's a standout example of how efficently he lies. three lies in one statment, two brief sentences. an amazing lie:word ratio. i have never seen better. it is unfortunate that such simple magic fades under the harsh glare of facts-based reality A Homeland Security Department report submitted to the White House at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, hours before the storm hit, said, " Any storm rated Category 4 or greater will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching ." ----- Other documents to be released Tuesday show that the weekend before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Homeland Security Department officials predicted that its impact would be worse than a doomsday-like emergency planning exercise conducted in Louisiana in

my friends i would like to invite you to join me on the path of paranoia; the righteous path of justified paranoia. i think it's going to be the next big religion, bigger than scientology, but with less money. i founded this cosmology very recently and it began with a vision. while trying to gain insight into the president's way of thinking i consumed a massive amount of jim beam. when the world would no longer sit still no matter how still i was i knew i was ready. the less enlightened might call it passing out and vomiting all over myself or a typical saturday, i'd like to say i was transported to another paradigm.* in the vision i saw myself as a pawn aligned against the forces of tyranny and oppression lining the great chess board of life across from me. they seemed to have more pieces than they should, but i was ready for battle, until i took stock of my comrades. they all seemed to be mostly smoking weed and playing video games. before i could even get out, &q

i had friends in town last weekend and that broke my grasp on my plan for semi-regular postings. taking a step back and trying to begin again is like trying to jump in for double dutch; where the hell do you start? i can't help it, i find myself overwhelmed by the oh-shitness (as in oh shit they did what?ness) of this administration but probably moreso by the response or lack of response of the american public. the optimist chained up in my stomach would like to believe that people are up in arms and the corporate media is just a poor conduit for the righteous anger of ordinary americans; the cynic responsible for chaining the optimist has spent enough time with people to know better. if i had been writing i think i would have written about: the reverend dr. martin luther king jr. my early season prediction that the knicks would make the playoffs or at least be competetive for the final spot, this was after i felt vindicated by their 6 game winning streak and before stephon ma

in november time magazine published a photo essay, honor after the fall , about informing military families of the the deaths of their loved ones. i came upon it without realizing what it was and eventually found myself weeping, hiding my face in my hands to keep my sobs from disturbing my co-workers. one image in particular has stayed with me. it epitomizes the loss, needless death, and massive squandering of human potential that the war represents. on the face of it, it's not tragic exactly, in war death is the norm, loss is mundane. it is only tragic when it becomes apparent that for this administration our soldiers are just another natural resource to squander, somewhat less precious than oil. i had wanted to write this without getting all political but it's not possible. i can't escape the feeling that despite all of the families' grief, our military deaths mean little more to the president than the quarterly profit losses he grew used to hearing about in

i have to admit that i've given too little thought to the confirmation process for alito . it seemed so far off once upon a time. now that it's upon us i just have to ask: is it really possible for this essentially corrupt party to bring this lying man , who supports and encourages unfettered executive power , and power in general, and the eradication of roe v. wade , to a lifetime appointment on the supreme court through the so called nuclear option? the name is appropriate. the republican use of that maneuver would leave the nation fractured, hemorrhaging and mostly uninhabitable for generations. i don't want to live in alito's america. in alito's america it's fine for the president to spy on the citizens because anyone could be a terrorist, whether they be quakers , vegans , or catholic workers . digby articulates my thoughts better than me: this NSA illegal spying issue has brought all that home. We have a president who believes that he knows who

the president has basically said that knowing what he knows now about the absence of wmd's he would still have invaded iraq. why has no one further questioned him on this. no wmd's, no timetable for immediate deployment based on the spectre of mushroom clouds. so i want someone to ask him mr president you have said that the spread of democracy in the middle east justifies the war, and that you would have launched the war to free the people of iraq. knowing as we do now that there are no wmd's would you still have launched the war when you did without plans for the insurgency and before the forces were fully armored ? would the deaths that might have been prevented by extended preparation for armor production or post war planning be justified for deposing sadam sooner? someone with greater word efficiency could probably ask it better, but whatever, somebody ask it. i'd like to see him choke on his tounge trying to answer without saying it's all unjustified.

...because agitprop also thinks bush may try to nullify the 22nd amendment in the name of national security. i'm sure, like me, he's joking, but let me reveal a little something about myself, since you're actually not reading this, i'm taking this a little bit seriously. i'm trying hard not to be a conspiracy nut, but has any one person done more to make conspiracy theories hip again than president trip and fall? he makes war on false pretenses; he authorizes torture; he spies on americans. i don't think i could have made this stuff up five years ago, i'd have laughed at myself and called me a cynical extremist nut.

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in a testy conversation with the press yesterday the president said: " I was elected to protect the American people from harm." this was of course as part of his defense for authorizing warrantless wire-taps. 'i'm spying on you to keep you safe from harm; i'm torturing them over there until i torture you over here to keep you safe from harm' i have trouble wrapping my head around the full insanity of this administration. i wonder if anyone has the complete view of how much damage this administration is doing to us; not just how we are diminished now, but the extent of damage to our ability to recover from them. in addition to some of the more obvious deficiencies of these guys, detailed by john aravosis at americablog , and added to by kos , how many government officials have quit, been fired, demoted, punished for competency? does anyone know how many individuals who have tied their entire careers to their work for the government who are no longer there