Posts from — November 2005

Yes, the Big Dog was annoyed with Saddam in December of 1998, and as a result he ordered Operation Desert Fox which punished Saddam for failing to cooperate with weapons inspections and finished off Saddam’s WMD programs, at least according to those who went looking for WMDs after the invasion.

If people were really upset with Saddam’s WMD program, why haven’t they been condemning the Reagan administration for providing him with the chemicals and biological samples he used to create the programs. Ask Rumsfeld about it, he was Reagan’s representative to Saddam when these decisions were made.

If you were paying attention you would note that Saddam is being tried for an atrocity unrelated to WMDs, so he will be convicted and executed to prevent any testimony about potentially embarrassing American complicity in the WMD programs.

This leads me to my seasonal rant about the inappropriateness of the gifts that the Three Magi brought with them. On the surface it might seem that gold, frankincense, and myrrh were valuable and wonderful gifts, but let’s have a reality check.

You have a young family with a new child in a stable because of a lack of suitable housing. Nothing these guys schlepped into Bethlehem affected that problem, but they caused another problem.

Why were Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem? To pay taxes. When you are in the process of paying taxes do you really want strangers to hand you valuable imported gifts? Does anyone think that Roman tax guys were less suspicious than the IRS? Where does a poor Jewish carpenter get gold and chunks of imported tree sap used in incense and perfumes?

If they had dropped by with an amphora of a decent red, some diapers, and a car seat for the donkey, they would have been “wise men”. The stuff they brought made them look like “wise guys” involved in a smuggling operation.

Davis-Monthan is best known as the graveyard for old aircraft. You can see the rows, upon rows of aircraft from the Interstate as you drive by.

Again, he speaks on a military facility before a pre-selected audience. We have a shortage of people along the border, but dozens got time off to show up in uniform to act as a backdrop while the President of the United States compared their job to bass fishing.

I’m probably a bit uptight about this, but I don’t think it is appropriate to call our current policy “catch and release”.

If an undocumented individual is picked up, if they are determined to be Mexican, and if they waive a hearing, they are immediately transported back to Mexican control. If they are not Mexican, they are detained until they go through the deportation process.

If someone had improved our relations with the Mexican government, as they indicated they would, the system would probably be more effective. As things stand, the Mexican government has no reason to assist the current administration.

Of course, if the businesses that recruit undocumented workers faced real penalties, for example if certain large retailers were discouraged from using undocumented workers when building new Supercenters, and the government contractors hired to work in New Orleans lost their contracts for running buses down to Texas to bring back undocumented workers, things might improve.

The problem with building a fence from the Pacific to the Gulf, is that the contractors will probably hire undocumented workers to build it, and the smugglers will pay for unauthorized “gates” to be installed.

As for the “jobs that Americans don’t want”, how about paying a living wage for those jobs, something that doesn’t require living in a canyon or tent, and Americans might want the jobs.

I was living in San Diego when he first ran for Congress and his campaign was ” I’m an ace, so you have to vote for me.” Over the years he has used his status as a combat veteran to attack anyone who disagreed with him, and to justify his pronouncements on all things military.

He sat on committees and subcommittees important to the defense of this country and he sold his influence to the highest bidder. He was so blatant about it that pleading guilty was his only option. He left behind a paper trail of deeds and registrations for real estate and a Rolls Royce that are hard to hide.

I’m not sure about the status of his military retirement after being convicted of a felony, but I feel certain that it will have no effect on either his Social Security benefits or his Congressional pension. While he has lost $2.5 million in ill-gotten gains, neither he nor his family will be living in poverty.

I have no sympathy for Cunningham, and wouldn’t object to his being staked out on a fire ant bed for what he did. He directed contracts to the people who paid him. He didn’t care about the quality of the products and services that those people provided to the military, all he cared about was buying a mansion, a Rolls, living on a yacht, and throwing a big party for his daughter’s graduation.

If some enlisted-type dies as a result of the bad equipment that the friends of “Duke” sold to the Pentagon, that’s not as important as driving a flashy car and having a Rancho Santa Fe address.

I expect this kind of crap from the Tom DeLays and Dick Cheneys who avoided the military, but Cunningham was a combat veteran and should have known how important those contracts were for the troops.

As an aside, if he had really cared about his constituents he could have resigned earlier so the election to fill his seat could have been held at the same time as the special election for the San Diego mayor and Arnold’s initiatives. He was no less guilty in October than he is today.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., recalled that during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt often went on the radio in “fireside chats” to explain to the nation in detail the conduct of the war in Europe and Asia.

“I think it would be to Bush’s advantage,” said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war. “It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public,” he said.

The Senator misses the point that people have realized that the Shrubbery lies: he lied to get his war and he lies to continue it. FDR was a much better speaker with a much better message, and was speaking about a war that was forced upon the country, not a choice made by a cabal of zealots living in an alternate universe.

The Shrubbery only speaks in controlled environments to ensure he doesn’t have to deal with the real world. Lately he has only been speaking at military facilities, because he is guaranteed a crowd that will be polite and respectful. He doesn’t understand what is going on, so he certainly can’t explain it.

When the Senator goes on to say that he has been assured that there is no problem with maintaining the current troop levels in Iraq because General Pace has told him that the Pentagon will do it by retraining existing units to fill the requirements, I’m forced to believe that Senator Warner hasn’t been paying attention. The military has been doing this for some time, and they are running out of options.

Some units are facing a third deployment, the equipment is wearing out, recruitment is down, and we aren’t dealing with the veterans in an honorable fashion. We can’t continue and anyone who has been paying attention knows it.

And, yes, he really was barred from entering the military and excluded from the draft based on a conviction for littering.

This isn’t anything like Vietnam, so move along, because there is going to be no Christmas bombing campaign. This is totally different. No similarity at all.

A yellow ribbon with brown edges indicating that they listen to bad pop songs, and what would happen if they had to serve. The bronzed base metal medallion has a bas-relief of a mouthy cartoon character with delusions of grandeur. The members are awarded the white feather device for each armed conflict they advocated for while avoiding service.

Members of the order tend to wear these on their lapels rather than the miniature ribbon pin

Both Vonnegut and Murtha are combat veterans whose view of war is colored by that experience. Their experience does not mean they cannot be criticized, nor does it mean that they are automatically right, but it damn sure means they have a right to be heard on the subject without having their courage or patriotism questioned.

This is not a new phenomenon, during the Civil War William Tecumseh Sherman noted:

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.

Those attacking veterans approve of the Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace] phrase Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori [It is sweet and proper to die for your country], decrying the conclusion of Wilfred Owen’s poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est that is “The Big Lie”.

Wilfred Owen was a British officer in World War I who was awarded the Military Cross, and died a week before the armistice.

General George Patton, “Old Blood and Guts” didn’t think much of Horace’s view:

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

The world would be a better place if those who advocate war were required to back up their calls with their bodies. I’m sure one of these “survivor” shows would be happy to pay for an island somewhere for these jingoistic people to demonstrate how wars should be conducted.

Three hours messing around with one single decoration and cramps in my hands from swapping bulbs to check them.

™ ^{[Kevin Drum]}

Perpendicular

Move, Sox, the angle is a little off.

[Editor: A helpful demonstration by Dot.]

Samantha and Tabitha

™ ^{[Kevin Drum]}

Sox Chills Out

Wow! What a Rush!

[Editor: Sox is ready to leap into action…or not. Standard flash problem with his pupils and his L-Tryptophan level has spiked.]

Friday Ark