Thursday, October 06, 2005

Only Dicks Make Babies Bill Dropped

Assisted-reproduction bill dropped

A controversial proposed bill to prohibit gays, lesbians and single people from using medical procedures to produce a child has been dropped by its legislative sponsor.

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday saying: "The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission."

Bet her office got a few calls after this issue swept through blogtopia (yes! skippy invented that term!) yesterday.

Rumors of Frogmarching Sweep Capital!

US officials brace for decisions in CIA leak case

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by Fitzgerald. In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target.

Libby's lawyer was not immediately available to comment.

Americablog notes that on Friday Rove's lawyer reiterated that he had been told by Fitzgerald that he was not a target. Now he says nothing. Ka-ching!

John at Americablog also notes that Rove has been nowhere to be seen during Bush's events during the past few days. Like the press conference -- no Karl. Bush trying to distance himself from his little Turd Blossom? Before it explodes in his face? Can't wait to watch Bush trying to wash the shit from himself.

In the usual Bush Administration gambit, Bush to give a major terrorism speech this morning! In which he tells us how much progress we've made! Probably as much as we made last week, when his top general said we had 1 ready Iraqi battalion, and Bush said we had 30! The emperor has no clothes. Our emperor has no clothes and no brain.

Let the frogmarching begin.


Update, for word people: After I published this post I questioned my spelling of capital. Found this explanation by googling the two words. I was right!

When touring the capital, why not visit the capitol? Capital and capitol are terms that are often confused, mainly because they refer to things that are in some ways related. The term for a town or city that serves as a seat of government is spelled capital. The term for the building in which a legislative assembly meets is spelled capitol.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: October 6, 2005 edition

The Incompetence

Burn the Katrina debris? Are you kdding? You haven't been allowed to burn leaves in the northeast since I was in high school. For the Bush Administration, deciding whether to pollute another huge swath of America already devastated was easy. Burning is 1) cheaper; 2) more convenient for their corporate contributors; and 3) not their problem! Only ordinary Americans who ingest the chemicals unleashed by the burning of the toxins will suffer. When you understand the cost-benefit analysis, it's so easy to understand!

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

Well, it's begun. Whatever faint hope we might have had that this time our leaders would try to handle the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast right is fading fast. The latest outrage is a decision by Halliburton and other contractors engaged on a no-bid basis to clean up the aftermath to just get rid of debris the way we would have back in the 19th century -- by burning it. Of course, in the 19th century the debris would have been wood and bricks, not complex organic chemicals like PVC, rubber tire laced with cadmium and nickel, even dioxin waste from the DuPont DeLisle plant, which the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality claims in a press releases had "no leaks or releases" from Katrina. How they can even presume to know that before they have had time to do proper sampling?


The Corruption

The GOP is corrupt, from top to bottom. At the top, former chief procurement officer David Safarian indicted on five counts:

Former Bush Official Indicted in Probe

From my home state, the vice Chairman of the Republican Party was taped in conversations with a criminal defense client about how to hide the guy's drug profits! Our Mittwit, Governor Romney, gets laughs describing himself as a "Republican from Massachusetts" while courting conservatives in South Carolina. Here in Massachusetts, he & his party are the joke. He couldn't win an election against Billy Bulger next year. Hell, he couldn't beat Whitey Bulger.

State Republican Party's embattled vice chairman resigns


To little scumbaggy local officials, like John Gosek, Mayor of Oswego, N.Y, who was taped by FBI agents while offering $250 to have sex with a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old girl.

John Gosek, the man Oswego has known for years


The Cronyism

Ted Stevens has been siphoning money from American taxpayers' pockets into his little pet projects for years. (I've heard that you can't even get a meeting with Stevens unless you've raised $10,000 for him.) Here, money goes from Stevens, head of the powerful Appropriations Committee, to the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board -- which his son chairs. All this to paint a fish on a plane. Couldn't they have done this without taxpayer dollars? Why are we painting fish on private companies planes?

what is it about alaska and pork?

...a local nonprofit agency, the alaska fisheries marketing board, gave alaska airlines a $500,000 grant to paint the jet. the money came out of about $29 million in federal funding u.s. sen. ted stevens of alaska and his congressional colleagues have appropriated to the marketing board, created in 2003, to promote and enhance the value of alaska seafood. the senator's son, state sen. ben stevens, is chairman of the agency's board of directors. - anchorage daily news

Senator Ted Stevens, feeding at the Senate trough for 36 years.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

I'm In a New York State of Mind - Bush Hits 29

Newsday:

Poll: Bush approval rating hits all-time low in New York

ALBANY, N.Y. -- President Bush's job approval rating has hit an all-time low in New York with just 29 percent of New York voters giving him favorable marks, a statewide poll reported Wednesday.

Search for Bodies Ends Though Homes in Black Neighborhood Unsearched

From Scout Prime:

Black Bodies Remain Still.....

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: (voice- over): In pulverized portions of New Orleans's Ninth Ward, where water flows, instead of traffic, most homes bear the signs that search teams have been in to look for the living and the dead, but not in one area that spans several blocks. Here, house after house after house is unmarked.

EDWARD MENDEL, SEARCH VOLUNTEER: From here back, I estimate 100 to 150 homes that are still unsearched. And I do expect we will probably find some bodies.

MESERVE (on camera): Why do you think that?

MENDEL: You can smell them as we drive by.

Kanye West was right. George Bush doesn't care about black people.

New York Times Again Avoids Class Issue

The third story in the "No Way Out" series is out

No Way Out
Serving Life, With No Chance of Redemption


Previous post: Life Means Life: If You're Poor

Only If a Dick Is Involved

From Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon:

Put down that turkey baster and put your hands in the air so I can see your wedding ring

Indiana's legislature is considering a law mandating that a man better get laid if a baby is being made. Seriously, that's pretty much how the bill is worded.

Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

Hearing news like this makes me want to engage in a quickie in protest. But then I have the opposite reaction. All lawmakers' spouses in Indiana should stop having sex with their doltish husbands and wives (yes, this bill was introduced by a FEMALE SENATOR. Republican, natch, snatch or no. I give you 1-2 odds she's born again.)

Well, as I typed that I thought 'google her, you moron'. And here's what I found:

Senator Patricia L. Miller was elected a state rep. in 1982 and to the state senate in 1983. She lists her profession as Registered Nurse, and Executive Director Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church. A Methodist.

And what, you may ask, is the "Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church"? Here's their homepage. Far as I can tell, they're a conservative offshoot of the United Methodist Church, because the Methodists are too liberal for them.

God forbid these folks should have been brought up in a truly liberal church. What would they have done if their parents were Unitarians?

Well, back to my ruminating about this foolish bill. Maybe the Democratic lawmakers should introduce a bill that requires a man's marital status to be tattooed on his forehead. That would cut down on men's catting around and spreading that precious procreation seed from being scattered in unmarried vaginas.

Plus, male masturbation should be criminal. No eggs are lost in the process of female masturbation, but males again are scattering that precious seed. All Indiana men's dicks should be required to have a procreational certificate before they get off.

Nothing like a little sex humor to start off the day. Except for one thing. This is serious. This has been introduced in a state legislature.

It confirms my belief that the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism - October 5, 2005 edition

After awhile, the three categories run together. It's hard to decide which story goes where, because almost all stories contain all three -- the Bush Administration trifecta, incompetence, corruption and cronyism. Well, here goes.

The Incompetence

Back to FEMA, the disaster of an agency. They bought $100 million dollars worth of ice, but it never made to the Gulf Coast.

Stumbling Storm-Aid Effort Put Tons of Ice on Trips to Nowhere

[T]he odyssey of the ice.

Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. It would cost taxpayers more than $100 million, and most of it would never be delivered.

More FEMA f**kups:

FEMA suspends Phoenix rescuers over arms

PHOENIX - The Phoenix Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue team has been suspended by a federal agency because it brought armed police officers for protection on hurricane relief missions. []

The team was credited with plucking more than 400 Katrina survivors from rooftops and freeway overpasses in flooded sections of New Orleans.

Tale of the forbidden pillow offers insights into FEMA work

Parish president: FEMA still fumbling

FEMA still struggling to find interim housing

FEMA and Charity


The Corruption

Mad cow disease, coming to a restaurant near you, courtesy of Bush's incompetent and corporate-protecting FDA. It will be hard to eat meat from anywhere but a farm after learning that calves can be fed chicken shit:

FDA Unveils Proposal to Fight Mad Cow

Contrary to FDA's previous plan, the new proposal does not ban cattle blood, often fed to calves as a milk replacer, or restaurant leftovers from cattle feed. It also doesn't ban chicken litter, which includes spilled feed as well as chicken manure, which scientists believe could contain mad-cow disease if the chickens had ingested tainted protein.

The feed rules are important because the only way cattle are known to get mad cow disease is from eating feed containing contaminated cattle remains.

Of course, the FDA's current acting head is a Bush crony:

Acting FDA Head Drops Other Duty
He Bows to Conflict-of-Interest Concerns


Andrew von Eschenbach....the Texas urologist and longtime Bush family friend....


The Cronyism

It would be too easy to use Harriet Miers here two days in a row (but google "Miers crony" and see the hundreds of articles generated since her nomination). No, we'll go to one of the uncovered stories of the Bush Administration: their corporate cronies. And can't we all agree that the last place we want incompetent cronies is in nucular plants? Check out the many links embedded within the original post:

Crony Capitalism at our Nuclear Facilities

What could be worse than our nation's hurricane response being left in the hands of incompetent Bush cronies?

How about the safety of our nuclear plants handed over to an incompetent GOP corporate crony, a company which has repeatedly botched security drills and lied about it to cover up its incompetence.

This is Wackenhut, the foreign-owned security firm that guards many army bases and US nuclear facilities, a company that has:

- botched security drills at the Nevada nuclear test site

- cheated on security drills at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee

- illegally violated whistleblower laws by punishing employees who revealed safety problems at South Texas nuclear facilities

- and generally has been found to violate safety standards or failed tests repeatedly.

So why does Wackenhut keep getting these security contracts?

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

David Ortiz is the American League MVP

MVP! MVP! MVP!

My brother tells me David Ortiz will NEVER win the AL MVP award because he's a DH.

He gives it to Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez (known in these parts as "Slappy McBlueLips").

Besides me, all these folks (many of whom actually vote for the award) disagree:

Ray McNulty, Knoxville News Sentinal: (registration required; use bugmenot.com)
Saluting baseball's best

MVP: David Ortiz, Boston.

I know, he's a DH. And doesn't play defense. And his team didn't win its division. But nobody in baseball got more big hits this season, nobody was more valuable to his team, nobody is more deserving of this award.

Jeff Passan, The Kansas City Star: Red Sox’s David Ortiz the true AL MVP

Tom Hanson, Naples (FL) Daily News: Big Papi deserves MVP

Kevin Hench, FOXSports: Ortiz, not A-Rod, is the AL MVP

Jim Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer: Award voters face some tough calls

American League MVP. People like to point out that a designated hitter has never won the MVP, as if defense has carried a lot of weight with voters in recent years. (Witness Barry Bonds. He long ago stopped playing left field the way he once did, yet powered his way to the last four NL MVP awards.)

This might be the year that the prejudice against DHs ends. That's how big David Ortiz has come up for the Red Sox.

Alex Rodriguez has had a huge offensive season for the Yankees, and he has done it while playing brilliant third base. But Ortiz has become baseball's most intimidating hitter with the game on the line.

Take Thursday night, for example. Ortiz tied a game the Red Sox could not afford to lose with his 47th homer in the eighth, then won it with a single in the ninth.

Twenty of Ortiz's homers have tied games or put the Sox ahead. Of those 20, 10 have come from the seventh inning on, with eight of those after the all-star break.

Stats Inc. describes close-and-late situations as ones that occur from the seventh inning on, with the batting team ahead by a run or tied or the tying run on base, at bat or on deck. Ortiz leads the majors with 33 close-and-late RBIs. Rodriguez is not even in the top 50.

The picks: 1, Ortiz; 2, Rodriguez; 3. Travis Hafner, Cleveland.

Jack Todd, Montreal (Can.) Gazette: Gainey makes right call

Oh, yeah, AL MVP? Split it between Manny Ramirez and Papi Ortiz and tell Alex Rodriguez to shove it in his, uh, wallet.

Dennis Deitch, Delaware County Times (Philadelphia): In final voting, here are the award winners
[T]he Red Sox would have been nothing without Ortiz hammering his team through the pitching woes it had all season.

David Borges, Journal Register News Service: Big Papi is at his best when game is on the line

For reasons that extend far beyond the stat sheet and render his status as the Sox DH moot, Ortiz for MVP is a slam dunk - or, as David Wells puts it, "a no-brainer."

He is, as the plaque presented to him by owner John Henry a few weeks ago attested, the "Greatest Clutch Hitter in Red Sox History." He is the straw that stirs the drink in the middle of the Sox’ lineup, flip-flopped with Manny Ramirez from cleanup to the third hole back in May and putting up record-breaking numbers ever since.

He is a magnanimous figure in the Sox’ diverse clubhouse, a jovial presence who unites players from all backgrounds.

Alex Rodriguez might be baseball’s Player of the Year, if such an award existed. But he’s not even the MVP of his own team - that honor belongs to closer nonpareil Mariano Rivera.

David Ortiz is the American League’s MVP.

Salt Lake Tribune: [G]ive the MVP to David Ortiz, who produced a superhuman number of game-changing hits.

Dan Connolly, Baltimore Sun: In tight MVP races, go with your heart

David Ortiz, Boston. I've flip-flopped on this hair-puller three times now. New York's Alex Rodriguez has had the best all-around season -- he has even stolen 18 bases -- while Ortiz leads the league in RBI and dramatic moments. Ortiz probably is more important to his team than any other player in baseball, and that's the difference. However, A-Rod has helped carry the Yankees and he plays a great third base, while Ortiz, a designated hitter, sits throughout most games. That's a compelling argument, Yankee fans. But, simply put, the stats-driven mind says Rodriguez, and the unrelenting baseball heart screams for the never-give-up Ortiz.

David Del Grande, InsideBayArea.com: Ortiz has big edge as MVP in AL

Carl Steward, The Argus, CA:

-Forget the DH argument, there's absolutely no way David Ortiz isn't the AL MVP over Alex Rodriguez, regardless of how the weekend turns out between the Yanks and Sox.

Dave Roloff, OnMilwaukee.com: Roloff doles out baseball honors

Winner: David Ortiz -- despite my feeling about A-Rod dominating both sides of the game, nobody has been more clutch over the past months than Ortiz.

Bob Matthews, Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle: 'Big Papi' deserves MVP honors for sure

Ray Hamill, Eureka (CA) Times-Standard: A great time of the year

[G]ive David Ortiz a deserved MVP award over A-Rod.

And finally, from the home of the d**m Yankees:

Mike Lupica, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (Yes, you heard that right, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS): No one tops this Papi
DH or not, he's MVP


Mike Vaccaro, NEW YORK POST (Yes, you heard that right, NEW YORK POST!): PAPI PULLS AWAY IN MVP BATTLE

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. David Ortiz is the MVP of the American League.

David Letterman's Top Ten -- Harriet Miers edition

Top Ten Signs Your Supreme Court Pick Isn't Qualified

10. "Lost 10 grand yesterday in the 'case' of Jets vs. Ravens"

9. "Spends most of her time trying to fit the gavel into her mouth"

8. "Her legal mentor: Oliver Wendell Redenbacher"

7. "Asks courtroom stenographer to, 'Quit that annoying tapping!'"

6. "Instead of Constitutional law books, consults set of 'Garfield' paperbacks"

5. "Keeps shouting, 'When does mama get to hang somebody?!'"

4. "When Scalia walks by, she pretends to cough and says, 'Rogaine'"

3. "Authored the book: 'I'm Not Qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice'"

2. "The closest thing to courtroom experience was being an extra on 'Matlock'"

1. "Glowing letter of recommendation from former FEMA director Michael Brown"

All Democrats

6 Iraq veterans seek seats in Congress, question Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) — While fighting in Iraq, a private asked then-Capt. Patrick Murphy why U.S. forces were in the Persian Gulf nation and was told it didn't matter; there was a job to do and just try to return home safely.

"That wasn't the time to question our government," Murphy recalled.

Now, however, Murphy and five other veterans of the war are asking questions about President Bush's policies in Iraq as part of their broader Democratic campaigns to win congressional seats in next year's elections.

Given their experience in Iraq, the six Democrats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia say they are eminently qualified to pose the tough questions. Their reservations mirror public opinion, with an increasing number of Americans expressing concern about the mission and favoring a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops.


Guess Swiftboating will have to ramp up to include attacking the service of men who served in George W. Bush's War of Choice. Won't stop Karl Rove. Maybe Patrick Fitzgerald will have him in jail by then.


In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken

"A Repulsive Mix of Faux-Seriousness and Joviality"

From Pre$$titutes:

Bush Press Conference: The Usual Tragicomedy

1. He'll be his usual smarmy, smug, fidgety self.
2. He'll make at least one idiotic joke about a reporter followed by that trademark self-satisfied chuckle.
3. Most answers will devolve into some version of terror/freedom/terror...
4. Pre$$titutes will display an exceptionally well-honed skill, namely, to ask seemingly tough questions that evaporate into the mist of Bush's drivel. Follow-up questions will never hold Bush on his contradictions.
5. The atmosphere will be a repulsive mix of faux-seriousness and joviality, entirely inappropriate considering that American troops are dying in the sands of Iraq.
6. We'll be left wondering why a fake news show is harder-hitting and more revealing than a presidential press conference with a gaggle of so-called 'journalists' confronting a failed president.

I am in the middle of watching the press conference right now, and everything Pre$$titutes predicted has already occurred.

Noises I Hate

That little clicking sound Blogger makes as it cycles through "Publishing in Progress" when the result will be "There were errors...."

How to Calculate a $1.2 Million Book Deal

Atrios:

$1.2 Million

My sources tell me the title of Miller's book is "I helped send almost 2000 troops to their deaths and all I got was this lousy book deal."

How else could it calculated? $1 per BushCo lie printed as fact by Judy? $100,000 per New York Times correction (there haven't been that many of them, remember). $1.2 million per cover-blown secret agent?

Talk about blood money.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: October 4, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

This qualified for the cronyism, too, but after I read the second article, about Sen. James Imhofe (R. - Dumbf**kistan) I couldn't resist putting it here.

The Environment Is Doomed

Earlier this year, President Bush appointed 66-year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy, a guy who for more than a decade ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top-five lists of the country's worst polluters.

And what action will our incompetent Republican Party take to protect the environment? Have the eternally dumb Imhofe (dumber than a bag of hammers and half as useful) have hearings featuring witness Michael Crichton, writer of fiction, testify about it (yes, truth IS stranger than fiction).

Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - His last book, "State of Fear," was published more than nine months ago, but the reviews were still pouring in on Wednesday, even as Michael Crichton folded his 6-foot-9-inch frame into a seat to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

"More silly than scary," the flier dropped off by the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

"Notable mainly for its nuttiness," an analysis from the Brookings Institution said.

"Does not reflect scientific fact," the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

[]

His is an unpopular and contrary stance when measured against the judgment of groups like the National Academy of Sciences. But it was not those organizations that asked Mr. Crichton to Washington to counsel Congress on how to consider diverse scientific opinion when making policy. It was the committee chairman, Senator James M. Inhofe, a plainspoken* Oklahoma Republican who has unabashedly pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

In Mr. Crichton, a Harvard medical school graduate who never practiced medicine, he had found a kindred spirit - and a star witness for his committee.

* "Plainspoken" is apparently NYTimesSpeak for "stupid".


The Corruption:

Tom Delay get indicted again, by a different grand jury, for the same conduct, but this time there are two indictments. The man is just a walking ham sandwich. Oh, and this time, if convicted, he could get a life term. And in Texas, life means life.

I Love Me Some Texas Justice


The Cronyism:

Of course, today's crony is Harriet Miers,

a woman who has excelled in endeavors that require networking and shoulder-rubbing and no actual proof of legal expertise. (General counsel? Lest we forget, Mike Brown's first job at FEMA was as general counsel.) (Amy Sullivan)

Even the wingnuts are crying "crony, crony!"

What Julie Myers is to the Department of Homeland Security, Harriet Miers is to the Supreme Court. It's not just that Miers has zero judicial experience. It's that she's so transparently a crony/"diversity" pick while so many other vastly more qualified and impressive candidates went to waste. If this is President Bush's bright idea to buck up his sagging popularity--among conservatives as well as the nation at large--one wonders whom he would have picked in rosier times. Shudder. (Michelle Magalong)

Just talked to a very pro-Bush legal type who says he is ashamed and embarrassed this morning. Says Miers was with an undistinguished law firm; never practiced constitutional law; never argued any big cases; never was on law review; has never written on any of the important legal issues. Says she's not even second rate, but is third rate. Dozens and dozens of women would have been better qualified. Says a crony at FEMA is one thing, but on the high court is something else entirely. Her long history of activity with ABA is not encouraging from a conservative perspective--few conservatives would spend their time that way. In short, he says the pick is “deplorable.” There may be an element of venting here, but thought I'd pass along for what it's worth. It's certainly indicative of the mood right now...(Rich Lowry, National Review Online)

And, really, she's just your average, run-of-the-mill, crooked corporate lawyer:

Miers Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding Investors

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling, considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented the head of a "foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly a Ponzi scheme." The law-firm admitted that it "knew in March 1998 that $ 8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to investors" but didn't tell regulators.

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. The Austin American-Statesman reported in 2001 that Miers' lawfirm was forced to pay another $8 million for a similar scheme to defraud investors. The suit, which dealt with actions the firm took under Miers in the late 1990s, was again quite troubling. As the 9/20/00 Texas Lawyer reported, Miers' firm helped a now-convicted con man "defraud investors and allowed the firm's [bank] account to be used as a 'conduit.'" The suit said "money from investors that went into the firm's trust account was deposited into [the con man's] bank accounts and was used to pay for his 'expensive toys.'"

If you think Miers wasn't involved in any of this -- think again. Miers wasn't just any old lawyer at the firm. She was the Managing Partner -- the big cheese.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Miers Briefs Bush, August 6, 2001

From Atrios:

Full Circle

Can you say "PDB"?

U.S. - Costa Rica Squad Announced

Arena Names 18-Man Roster In Advance of Oct. 8 Qualifier in Costa Rica

ROSTER BY POSITION

Goalkeepers (2) – Kevin Hartman (Los Angeles Galaxy), Tim Howard (Manchester United)

Defenders (8) – Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Wade Barrett (San Jose Earthquakes), Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Dan Califf (San Jose Earthquakes), Eddie Lewis (Leeds United), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake), Jonathan Spector (Charlton Athletic)

Midfielders (5) – DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Ricardo Clark (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Kyle Martino (Columbus Crew), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

Forwards (3) – Brian Ching (San Jose Earthquakes), Santino Quaranta, (D.C. United), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)


Looks like we will finally get our first look at Tim Howard in a while -- he's been riding the pine at Man U., and between Kasey Keller's dazzling domination and Tim's first child being born, he hasn't even been called up this year.

Glad to see Jonathan Spector on the roster, too. Hope this time Bruce puts him in. Please God don't let our average age at the World Cup next year be close to 30. That team will just break down and get overrun.

Eddie Pope? I think Bruce sees his past more than he sees his present. I love and adore Eddie Pope, but he's done at the international level. Once you lose that step as a defender, it's over. Can you see him going head to head with Wayne Rooney? Kaka? Eto'o? Shevchenko? Nope. We tried this last World Cup (Jeff Agoos) with disastrous results.

Twellman (too short) and Ching (too slow) haven't impressed me yet. But Twellman is a scorer, and his fabulous record of late strikes with the Revolution this year has earned him this spot. With scoring phenom Eddie Johnson still suffering from fractures in his feet, Bruce must find another striker, just in case. That's where Ching comes in.

At least our two best young players are on the squad, Damarcus Beasley and Oguchi Onyewu. When we shut down the other team's striker, he's been Onyewuued.

What can I say about all those MLS guys? I just don't understand giving all those roster spots to people who have such a small chance of making the World Cup squad. Wade Barrett? A 29-year-old who's been capped once? Come on. I'd rather see Freddy Adu, Eddie Gaven, Zak Whitbread, Justin Mapp, Alecko Eskandarian, Benny Feilhaber, Marvel Wynne. Young players with promise. Too bad they didn't go to U.Va.

Oh well. At least he didn't call up Chris Armas.

The Most Dangerous Book, Condensed

From Science & Politics, via Blog My Soul (Ruminations of a Lutheran Cleric), via helenann hartley:

Cliff Notes for Christians

The Bible in 50 Words:

God made, Adam bit, Noah
arked, Abraham split, Joseph
ruled, Jacob fooled, bush talked,
Moses balked, Pharaoh plagued,
people walked, sea divided,
tablets guided, promise landed,
Saul freaked, David peeked,
prophets warned, Jesus born,
God walked, love talked, anger
crucified, hope died, Love rose,
Spirit flamed, Word spread, God
remained.

Like the real Bible, no mention of my people. Where da women at? At least if we're pretty & white, CNNMSNBCBS, et al, will be looking for us.

Twice in 87 years? Could Happen.

Cuz the Sox are in the playoffs. How did I forget to post the biggest news of yesterday?

Boston bound for playoffs
Sox clinch with Cleveland loss -- and they beat the Yankees

Wingnuts Unhappy About Heckuva Job Harriet

I think I'm sticking with that name for now.

The right wing is shedding Tears for Miers.

Right-Wing Peanut Gallery Hits Miers Hard

Update, 11:50 a.m.: Some major conservative kvetching going on out there, verging on hysteria. People tearing their Bush-Cheney bumperstickers off their cars; vowing never to vote again, never to contribute to the Re-thugs again. Amusing:

Miers

Not Wild About Harry

Well, the SCOTUS nominee is Harriet Miers, Bush's White House counsel. Yes, he has nominated his own lawyer.

So, what do we call her?

Heckuva Job Harriet?

Heckuva Job Harry?

Cheney-Lite? (She heads the search process for the SCOTUS nominee, and picked herself! Just like Cheney headed the Veep search process & picked himself! Whee-hoo!)

H(arriet) M(iers) S(upreme) Pinafore?

The Crony Crone?

SCOTUS Crony-us? (Sounds vaguely Latin)

Or just patently unqualified.



Apologies to Eubie Blake for the title. I'm still wild about him.

Life Means Life: If You're Poor

The New York Times has a great series about life sentences, and how the current "tough on crime" environment has led to more and more people spending their entire lives behind bars, no matter how young they were when the crime was committed, or that 20 years ago the judge imposing the sentence expected them to be released in 12 years, or if they have been rehabilitated in prison. When life means life, that means that person's life ends in prison.

To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars

Jailed for Life After Crimes as Teenagers

I'll be interested to see what issues the remaining stories in this series cover. So far, they have avoided the issue of class. If you have money, you don't get life. You get a high-powered lawyer or legal team, and you get off. Or you get probation, or community service, or a sentence measured in months, not years. You don't get life. You certainly don't get life without parole. That's reserved for poor defendants.

I saw this principle in action in District Court in Massachusetts when I was just a law student. I did internships for a District Court judge (the lowest level trial judge in the state court system) and for the public defender's office. For the judge, I just watched; at the PDs office, I was allowed to handle criminal cases as a law student, under the supervision of a public defender.

When I first went to work for the judge, I remember being shocked at how quickly everything happened. DAs walked in with stacks of thin manila folders, some of which contained as little as one piece of paper, the police report. Hurried conferences were held in the aisles and hallways. The clerk would call the case and the DAs and defense lawyers spoke in their own shorthand: ADA: "This is a B&E in the night time, your honor, the Commonwealth is requesting $500 cash bail ($5,000 bail which is satisfied by the posting of $500 by a bail bondsman)." PD: "Your honor, the defendant has ties to the community, his mother is here, we request PR (personal recognizance). Judge: "$500 cash, next case."

Usually the defendants, the victims, and their families were all completely mystified by the process, unless they were return customers. (More courthouse shorthand/humor).

That was the way it usually worked. But then some kid from Harvard or BU or the Back Bay would be charged with something. And the world stood still, it seemed. One of the top criminal defense lawyers in the state would appear, for a lowly arraignment. The room seemed electric. Those expensive defense lawyers are very telegenic. Carefully groomed, almost all wore flying scarves. Apparently that's a big look in the criminal defense bar. They didn't walk into the courtroom. They swept in, bestowing greetings and handshakes to all court personnel. Everyone perked up, even the judge, to see really good lawyers instead of the usual paper pushing, beaten down, poor PDs and one-room-office criminal defense lawyers. The big lawyers' cases were always held over while they conferred with the ADA. And every time -- I never saw one with another result -- the kid got released on PR. Every time. It didn't matter what the charge was. Even if the other kid in the fight had to post bail, the rich kid didn't. Even if I had seen dozens of defendants forced to post bail for the very same charge, the rich kid didn't.

Because rich folks are different. And that's the way it is in the criminal justice system. Look carefully at the lifers in the NYTimes series. They're all poor. Black, white, male, female, they're all poor. There are very few "not guiltys" for poor folks.

You Have to Go to Another Country to Learn the Truth About the USA

From Der Spiegel (Germany) the horrifying story of Sergeant Javal Davis, one of the young American soldiers ordered to "soften up" Iraqu prisoners, then charged, imprisoned and dishonorably discharged for doing so; and Ali al-Shalal Abbas, nicknamed Hajj Ali, a local leader, who ended up being the prisoner in the iconic image of the hooded Iraqi, hands in the Jesus position, perched on a box.

THE PRISONER AND THE GUARD

A Tale of Two Lives Destroyed by Abu Ghraib

By Marian Blasberg and Anita Blasberg

With Lynndie England's conviction earlier this week, nine US soldiers have now been sentenced for their role in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. But is it enough? DER SPIEGEL looks at two lives destroyed by Abu Ghraib. One, an Iraqi community leader -- the other, his American guard.

The fact that this story was not written by a US journalist is a searing indictment of the prostrate corporate media.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism, October 3, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Our troops still aren't equipped, but is that surprising? This is the "greatest strategic disaster in US history", according to retired Army general William Odom.

Troops still without body armor
Shocking Combat Video—Paying for Rumsfeld's Mistakes

Retired general: Iraq invasion was 'strategic disaster'

WASHINGTON -- The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year., Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.

The U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.

“The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history,” said Odom, now a scholar with the Hudson Institute.

The Corruption:

From TIME:

The Hammer liked to travel. A lot. And apparently he hammered his staff about getting him free perks, so they spent a lot of time soliciting freebies from folks like Jack Abramoff. Problem? That's illegal, Tommy Boy. Enjoy jail.

Power Outage
House leader Tom DeLay's indictment upends the Republicans' to-do list and their outlook for next year's elections. Can they recover in time?


DeLay may not have seen the worst of it yet. Sources tell TIME that while Earle was closing in on DeLay from Austin, Texas, a federal investigation into the spreading scandal around disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, accused with Michael Scanlon (a former press secretary of DeLay's) of bilking their Indian-tribe clients out of $66 million, has begun lapping at the edges of the former majority leader's operation. A former Abramoff associate who was questioned by the FBI in August says, "They had a lot of e-mails, a lot of traffic between our office and DeLay's office." Many of those exchanges involved lavish travel by DeLay arranged by the lobbyist but requested, the e-mails suggest, by aides in DeLay's office. (House members are allowed to accept gifts under limited circumstances but not to solicit them.) Says the source: "There was nothing I saw that hit DeLay personally, but there was a lot of questionable stuff that was going on with his staff. 'Tom wants this. Tom wants that.' Was it really him or just the staff that was being aggressive?" DeLay's office wouldn't comment on the Justice Department investigation, and neither would the FBI.

The Cronyism:

We'll save "Heckuva Job Harriet" for tomorrow. For today, a party hack with absolutely no relevant qualifications appointed to a disaster relief position. Can you say "Heckuva Job Brownie, 2.0"? Meet Ellen Sauerbrey:

Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick

WASHINGTON — Less than a month after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down amid accusations of cronyism and incompetence, the Bush administration is being assailed for nominating another political ally to head a key agency for responding to foreign disasters.

One leading international relief group is publicly opposing the appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and others have expressed private concerns over her lack of experience in emergency response work.

Sauerbrey, a former member of the Republican National Committee who was Bush's Maryland state campaign chairwoman in 2000, is the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

If confirmed by the Senate, which has not set a date for a hearing, Sauerbrey would head an agency with a $700-million annual budget that has responsibility for coordinating the U.S. government's response to refugee crises during natural disasters and wars.

[]

Sauerbrey, 68, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1978. She has been a conservative activist for decades but has no direct experience mobilizing responses to humanitarian emergencies.

"This is a job that deals with one of the great moral issues of our time," said Joel R. Charny of Refugees International in Washington, which opposes Sauerbrey's nomination. "This is not a position where you drop in a political hack."


[]

"I don't want to say this is Michael Brown redux," Charny said, "but what qualifications does she have to deal with the core issue of refugees? The answer is none."

Where Are the War Correspondents?

Did you catch Martin Scorsese's film on Bob Dylan on public TV? It was great stuff, especially the first episode. You can read a good review in the Guardian: Scorsese's stately four-hour Dylan biopic reveals a man who makes every word count.

The most striking piece of the film to me was a brief segment with Joan Baez singing a protest song while they showed footage of Morley Safer in Vietnam. Safer is smoking a cigarette and walking among the American soldiers and the crying and weeping Vietnamese. His cameraman shoots the soldiers holding up their Zippo lighters to the straw roof of the villagers' hut. Morley narrates: the soldiers are torching the hut because shots had been fired out of it towards them. Cut to women and children and old men weeping in a ditch. Four men, naked from the waist up and hooded, are marched away in chains by the soldiers, because, Morley tells us, they can't answer questions in English.

This was what was coming in to people's living rooms in 1965 and 1966 and 1967 and 1968. Why aren't we getting coverage like this now? Is the media totally cowed by the government? Why aren't war correspondents standing at the checkpoints in Iraq filming as the American soldiers flag down civilian cars and sometimes shoot the occupants? If the government won't let them do it openly, are there any real journalists willing to do it covertly?

Where are our brash young war correspondents?

And the corporate media holds up Judith Miller as their embodiment of a courageous journalist. What a crock of s**t.

I'm a Proud Democrat from Massachusetts

Here's an amazing story, of compassion and bureaucracy overcome:

Time magazine: Guess Who's Coming ...

Forrest King, a rotund man who does not surrender very easily, was told by the American Red Cross and FEMA that they would not help him find Hurricane Katrina victims who needed a place to stay. If he wanted to help, he should give cash, he was told. Otherwise, who knows whom he might let into his home? They might be murderers. They might smoke. In any case, there would be great strain on everyone.

But King's house in Attleboro, Mass., southwest of Boston, had rooms to spare. And after days spent watching wrenching hurricane coverage on Fox News, he and his family decided that bureaucrats might not be the best judges of the situation. "The government failed," says King. "The citizens have to stand up and say, 'Get out of the way. We'll take care of our own.'" And so, for the past week, King, a self-described "dyed-in-the-wool conservative," has been sharing his home with the Meehan-Hoo family, a lesbian couple with three children, ages 5, 7 and 9. "The adults are same sex, and I don't care," he says. "I don't care if they're purple and got horns coming out of their faces. They're Americans first."

But here's the rest of the story, which of course didn't make the slavish corporate media:

From democrats.org, the Democratic Party website:

Lending a Helping Hand to Hurricane Victims

On Friday, September 9, days after Hurricane Katrina had ravaged the Gulf Coast, I felt frustrated and angry. In the communications department here at the DNC, I spend most of my day working and watching the news, and although I felt informed of what was going on around me, I also felt helpless and powerless to help those so far away.

At 10 a.m. the phone rang, and while I usually only get calls from the press, this one was different. A man identifying himself as a lifelong Republican was on the line. I began to prepare myself for whatever harsh words he was about to unleash, but to my surprise he said, "I need your help." So I asked him "What do you need?"

In the wake of Katrina, Forrest King took in six evacuees because he said it was time for Americans to come together and help one another. He went on to say he had an elderly woman in his care, she had no medicine, and no one from the state or federal level would help him. He said that the Republican Party had abandoned him. He said the last thing he ever expected was to be calling up the DNC asking for help but he had no one else to call.

Forrest told me the President he campaigned for -- just under a year ago -- had failed him and that Bush's blatant lack of leadership in the face of this crisis had shattered his faith in the Republican Party. It was further shattered when he called his Governor, Republican Mitt Romney, and gotten no help. It was diminished even more after a call to the Republican National Committee, who told him they couldn't do anything. He was shocked that his own party -- though politically in power at the national and state level -- didn't seem to have control over anything.

I explained to him that I was in the communications department in Washington, DC and didn't know what I could do for him. He said just get me medicine and help for this woman, she's dying. I knew I had to do something, so I called the state party in Massachusetts and spoke with the executive director. I told her the situation. She placed a call to a case worker in Senator Kennedy's office. I continued to call the state party and Kennedy's office throughout the day for updates.

When I spoke with Forrest, I heard the desperation in his voice when he talked about his frustration with the administration. But his patriotism and his ideas about how Americans should help one another had really affected me. I was invested in helping him, in making sure this woman he had taken in was OK, and in providing him with assurance that I hadn't abandoned him as his party did.

I called Forrest that afternoon after receiving word that an ambulance had been sent and the elderly woman was safely at the hospital. He answered saying, "I'm on my way," mistaking me for a case worker. He said he couldn't believe how quickly he received help and that he was actually on his way to the hospital. He later told me that the doctor who admitted the elderly woman said she should have never been placed in a residence and that bringing her to the hospital when he did, had probably saved her life.

When Forrest first called, he identified himself as a Republican. But above all he was an American who invited other Americans who lost everything to share his home. I am proud that as a fellow American and a Democrat, I could help him. I understand the anger Forrest has expressed towards the ambivalence of his party to help in a time of need.

I was fortunate to see dedication and compassion from my fellow Democrats to help him and other Americans in this time of tragedy. I feel my reaction to this man's plight truly reflects my core values and priorities as a Democrat. The health and well being of our fellow Americans is a moral responsibility that I will never shed. Thank you Forrest, and welcome to the Democratic Party.

Romney was probably out campaigning for President, delivering one of his sure-fire laugh lines about being a Republican from Massachusetts. He's the joke. Go back to Utah and resume your homestead tax exemption and get your fake conservative, fake compassionate a** out of my tolerant, compassionate, and generous state.

The Bookie of Virtue

Is that a great moniker for racist gambling fiend, faux moralizer Bill Bennett, or what?

Bill Bennett, the Bookie of Virtue.

Tip o' the cap to E Pluribus Unum.

Oh, and here's another story about Bill's "values", from TPMCafe:

A true story about Bill Bennett

The McMansionization of America

Is bigger always better?

Last weekend I went shopping with a friend who needed a new coffeemaker. She went away on vacation & accidently left the coffee grounds in the coffeemaker. When she got home it was all moldy. She washed it out but couldn't bear to use the darn thing. I suggested the tried & true cleaning method of running a few pots of white vinegar through the coffeemaker, but she couldn't get the picture of the green disgusting mold forest out of her head.

So we headed off to Sears. All the coffeemakers were enormous. She wanted to get one the same size as her old one due to limited counter space. We looked and looked. There was one stripped down model that wasn't too large, but it didn't have the automatic shut-off feature which given her busy schedule is a must.

Finally we realized that all the coffeemakers we were looking at were 12-cup models. All but the one stripped down model were 12-cuppers. Except for the $100+ cappucino makers and high end one cup machines, all made 12 cups. Both of our old coffeemakers -- all of 10 years old -- are 10-cup models.

And that's when it hit us. These were for the McMansions with the enormous kitchens. We live out here in the exurbs/suburbs, and space is no object. I guess if you drive a Hummer and live in a McMansion, you need a giant coffeemaker, too.

And my friend? She stopped at the grocery store on the way home & bought a gallon of white vinegar.

Chickenhawks Prepare to Dismantle Veterans Administration

From military.com

Dismantling VA

The Senator's aide chuckled rather loudly and said, "What VA? By the time this administration is done there won't be a VA." Our conversation had begun with a discussion of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA's) healthcare budget, and quickly came down to a single, simple point. VA is being dismantled.

Three reasons why the administration would want to dismantle VA immediately come to mind:

VA is a large-scale, publicly funded healthcare system that works: VA works so well it has been used as a model to push the case for nationalized healthcare; something that strikes fear in the heart of every Republican.

Recent studies by the Rand Corporation and the University of Michigan , working with UCLA, prove the point that VA is efficient and provides healthcare that meets the highest standards. If it can work for millions of veterans, it can work for millions of Americans. That concept is antithetical to current administration thinking.

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina we learned that VA was the ONLY healthcare organization that managed to save ALL patient records. This is because VA uses a computerized system that was backed-up on a regional level and put back online in a matter of hours. Now that system is under attack by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs . Rep. Buyer wants to eliminate regional control of the system under the guise of saving money.

VA is ripe for privatization: And that spells profits for private corporations. The latest move in this direction happened last week on Capitol Hill where the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs approved S. 1182 (see Sec. 10) which would spend money from VA's healthcare budget to study outsourcing jobs of VA healthcare workers. The study, with VA healthcare funds going to private consultants, could cost over $140 million and lead to the loss of up to 36,000 VA jobs. Democrats opposed it, but Republicans pushed it through.

VA is part of BIG government: And that's something this administration abhors. GOP strategist Grover Norquist says he wants the government shrunk down so he can “drown it in the bathtub.” The problem with this is that smaller government means fewer services as well as the much-touted lower taxes. And the jobs that are spared are outsourced and cost more to maintain because private corporations have to build in a profit margin.

So, while the concept of smaller government appeals to many, the economics fall into the “voodoo” category, and the social ramifications spell disaster for those who need the programs that are cut back or eliminated. In fact, smaller government gives less but costs more per person served. And I should remind Grover that 24.6 million veterans won't fit in a bathtub and the ones that do surely WILL drown.

Dismantling and privatizing VA is a big job. But the administration has enlisted like minds to sell the concept to the public.

From the New Hampshire Gazette: Chickenhawks

Chickenhawk n. A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person’s youth.

Here are the resumes of the brave leaders who have us quagmired in Iraq, while at the very same time getting ready to gut benefits and services for soldiers who have fought their illegal war:

Chickenhawks:
Chickenhawk Headquarters

Name: George W. Bush (R-TX)
Born: 1946
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: You know when a guy walks away from a National Guard obligation during wartime and gets away with it, he must come from "a good family." Not that his daddy had anything to do with his getting a Guard slot in the first place - oh, no ...

Name: Richard "Dick" Cheney (R-WY)
Born: 1942
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Says he had "other priorities." You bet he had other priorities. Imagine how early in life you must begin scheming to get away with what this guy has. He was too busy thinking about Halliburton to go fight Charlie.

Name: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Born: 1950±
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. He’s had a string of no-doubt well-paying government jobs in State and Defense. He’s also practiced law. In fact, he was Marc Rich’s lawyer for years. Yes — the Marc Rich whose pardon from President Clinton was excoriated by so many high and mighty Republicans. Maybe if Scooter had been a better lawyer, his client wouldn’t have needed that pardon. Speaking of legal questions, “Scooter” is alleged by some to have traded energy stocks while helping his buddy Dick Cheney cook up a new energy policy in secret. He’s also suspected of having inserted the bogus “Niger yellowcake” reference into the President’s State of the Union address. As if all that weren’t enough, he’s also a top suspect in the outing of CIA operative Valeria Plame. Clearly “Scooter” is a ballsy kind of guy, so it’s a complete mystery to us why, when he graduated from Phillips Andover in 1968, he didn’t enlist in the Marines or go Airborne instead of going to Yale.

Name: Karl Rove
Born: 1950
Employer: Baal
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: This little cherub was born on Christmas Day, 1950. Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove ran George W.’s campaign, right down to the tiny detail of deciding Bush was going to run. The hardest part was convincing a horde of Republican skeptics that it could be done.

He is said to have said of his boss, he’s "the kind of candidate and officeholder political hacks like me wait a lifetime to be associated with."

Now Karl’s Senior White House advisor. If he really is “Bush’s Brain,” and if the fondest wishes of former US Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV come true, one fine day Karl will be “frogmarched out of the White House in mandcuffs.”

Will history record that event as “Bush’s Lobotomy?”

Name: Donald "The Don" Rumsfeld
Born: 1932
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Korea
Notes: When the shooting started in Korea Rummy here was either 18, or about to turn 18. Not to worry for him, though — he spent the war at Princeton, wearing a ROTC uniform. Once the war was over he flew jets for the Navy for a few years. Defenders of Rumsfeld will say he’s no chickenhawk — he served, and it’s not his fault the war ended before he got his commission. To which others answer, “plenty of farmers and mechanics and kids just out of high school served. Anyone as full of whatever that stuffing in him is, could have tried out for a battlefield commission.”

Name: Paul Wolfowitz
Born: 1943
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Deputy Secretary for Defense - yet another Bush administration man in the Pentagon who has no idea what it's like to wear a uniform. He got a BA at Cornell in 1965. Maybe if we'd had a guy as bright as he thinks he is in Vietnam, it would have turned out differently.


Bastards.