Every time I give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they will catch up with reality when things calm down, I see something that makes me think it isn’t the “fog of war”, it’s the steaming mist hovering over another pile of bovine excrement.

The Israelis apparently decided to send the deputy chief of staff to the north because they were planning this: Israel approves deeper offensive.

So far the “moles” are winning in this obscene version of “whack-a-mole” that the IDF is playing along the Lebanese border. With all of their firepower they can’t really control the villages just over the border. At this point the villages are nothing more than piles of rubble, but the “moles” keep popping up and destroying armored vehicles.

If the Israelis push in with a huge force, the “moles” will stay underground, pop up when the army has passed to re-supply from the Israeli trucks, and strand the army against the Litani River.

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What’s with the Department of Homeland Security warning Windows users to install the latest patches?  They can’t do their own job so why are they issuing reminders for Bill Gates?

Badtux strikes again with Whine, whine, whine.

The Republicans are halving the budget for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. Because of “budget constraints” and the need to preserve Paris Hilton’s sense of entitlement they are cutting the budget from $14 million dollars last year to $7 million dollars this year to treat the returning casualties from the Shrubbery’s great adventures.

The perceptive penguin notes that ADM is getting $4 billion dollars worth of corn subsidies this year and wonders why no one thought to move $7 million from that fund to provide for people injured in service to the country. I would wonder why the “supermarket to the world” needs a government welfare check? Why don’t they get a job like the rest of us? Haven’t they heard of the free market?

I was listening to Fresh Air tonight and the first guest was intriguing. His voice reminded me a little of Truman Capote and he was talking about the Lebanon situation.

Augustus Richard Norton (Ph.D., University of Chicago)(Colonel, US Army retired) is a Professor in the Departments of International Relations and Anthropology at Boston University. He taught at West Point, served two tours in Vietnam, and was stationed in southern Lebanon. He also seems to be a “go to pundit” on Shi’ia issues.

He was interviewed by Harper’s and written an opinion piece, Time won’t help Israel disarm Hizbullah, for the Christian Science Monitor.

His bottom line could be summarized as: the US and Israel seem to be doing everything they can to help Iran and make Hizbullah the most popular party in the Islamic world.

On the military side he thinks Hizbullah is going to be able to finance itself in the future by running training seminars for insurgents on how to defeat a regular military force on a budget.

In 1968 the Democrats had a problem with an unpopular war and the Republicans won by promising peace. Tricky Dick “had a plan.” In 1972 Nixon still had a plan, and everyone wanted the war over. Nixon was talking about ending the draft and the draw down of troops.

The two elections are tied together, as many felt that Nixon had made some progress and just needed more time.

If we re-run the 1968 election today, it’s the Republicans in power, and they take the hit.

I was there and I voted in those elections. It’s the Republicans who are in trouble if we revisit 1968.  I expect we’ll hear a lot about that election because there are Republicans who understand who’s in trouble, but will try to bury the reality, as always.

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! according to the Shrubbery…

While the nation remains at the

alert level, flights to the United Kingdom are raised to the

alert level, and flights from the United Kingdom ARE RAISED TO

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