From Holden: In the navy Come on, protect the motherland In the navy Come on and join your fellow man In the navy Come on people, and make a stand In the navy, in the navy, in the navy (in the navy) AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi Continue reading In The Navy
Via Froomkin I found Julie Mason on the “off the record” party the president threw and the press corps attended: The off-the-record evening was intended as a pool party, but the Washington-based press corps, who spent the past month in Texas eating barbecue, declined to wear bathing suits around each other or the buff and tanned president. The invitation was last-minute because Bush likes to restrict attendance to those who take time away from their lives and families to swelter it out with him in Texas. Still, as it often can be when strange bedfellows find themselves at a party, … Continue reading Over There! Bloggers! Expressing Opinions On the Internets!
From Holden: McCain: “No, no, George – I said, “My dick.” Continue reading Caption Contest
From Holden: YellowDogBlog has the number of Louisianna National Guardsmen currently serving in Iraq. Continue reading Needed at Home
From Holden: Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to Iraq, commenting on the draft Iraqi constitution yesterday on Meet the Press: With regard to family law, which is a controversial article, it recognizes the freedom of choice, that people can choose which law, whether secular or religious, can–will govern their personal matters having to do with marriage, divorce, inheritance. This is no different than what is the case in Israel. Hmmm…. I wonder if the US ambassador’s linkage of the Iraqi consitution with the Israeli consitution is why those who oppose the Iraq draft have labelled it Jewish? Continue reading Ambassador Footinmouth
From Holden: I seem to come across them everywhere. More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam, media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Sunday. Since U.S. forces and its allies launched their campaign in Iraq on March 20, 2003, 66 journalists and their assistants have been killed, RSF said. [snip] The death toll in Iraq compares with a total of 63 journalists in Vietnam, but which was over a period of 20 years from 1955 to 1975, the Paris-based organisation that campaigns … Continue reading Another Eason Jordan Reference
From Holden: In inflation-adjusted dollars, the newspaper said, the war on terror ranks behind World War II, Vietnam and the Korean War. By the end of September the military cost of the war on terror, which began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with the invasion of Afghanistan, will top $250 billion. Costs for the Korea War totaled $361 billion, Yale University economist William Nordhaus told the Monitor. Linda Bilmes, with the Kennedy School of government at Harvard University, told the newspaper she figured that if the war lasts another five years, the total bill will be about $1.4 … Continue reading No. 4 With a Bullet
From Holden: Chimpy’s base says US soldiers deserve to die in Iraq because America is marginally tolerant of gay rights…. or something like that. Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars’ down a highway, waving flags and screaming “God bless America.” [snip] The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are … Continue reading Radical Christian Crod* Pickets Soldiers’ Funerals
From Holden: US forces in Iraq just can’t stop shooting journalists. “A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; U.S. forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haider Kadhem,” an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying. “I heard shooting, looked up and saw an American sniper on the roof of the shopping centre,” cameraman Kadhem, who was wounded in the back, told colleagues who arrived at the scene. The only known eyewitness, … Continue reading Eason Jordan’s Analysis Confirmed Again
From Holden: Unfortunately the person they demoted was the whistleblower. A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance. The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20 years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the reconstruction work in Iraq. The demotion removes her from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigns her to a lesser … Continue reading Finally, Someone is Demoted Because of an Army Contracting Scandal
From Holden: I notice today at the White House home page under the header President Discusses Hurricane Katrina one finds the following blurb: President Bush on Sunday said, “We will stand with the Iraqi people. It’s in our interest to stand with the Iraqi people. It’s in our interest to lay the foundation of peace. We’ll help them confront this barbarism, and we will triumph over the terrorist’s dark ideology of hatred and fear.” Continue reading Priorities
Red Cross info/donation link for Katrina relief. A. Continue reading Relief
Hellooooooo, nurse! There wasn’t an eminent [sic] threat. So why did we? Cindy Sheehan, every mother and father of our service members, and every American has a right to know. It was a strategic blunder to go there. Now America sees it in hindsight.But those in power have responsibilities to do the right thing, and when they don’t they should be held accountable. Cindy is doing everything she can to hold them accountable. President Bush should talk to her and tell her the truth. A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Wesleyan Edition
Stay safe, New Orleans friends. Let us know, post if you can or have someone else do it, if there’s anything we can do. A. Continue reading Those Who Lift Each Other
From Holden: S0 this is the “noble purpose”? Continue reading Tanned, Ready and Rested
God, Mitt Romney is an asshole. A. Continue reading Yellow Elephant Ad Infinitum
Cute. The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution. Other rejected courses include “Christianity’s Influence in American History.” According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books. Wendell E. Bird, a lawyer for the association, said the policy violates the rights of students and religious schools. … Continue reading Christian Kids: Where’s Mine?
My sexy space show.
As always, spoilers for last night’s episode in the extended.
Continue reading “‘The Gods lift those who lift each other’”
I met Jason in college. He spent his days squirrelled away in the back room of our newspaper office, a dark, windowless basement that reeked of ink and old takeout and stale beer. He sat back in this tiny little cubbyhole with another guy named Jason, and they drew and inked and yelled at each other and were funny and brilliant and AROUND ALL THE TIME. He and I have been on a simliar wavelength this year. I’ve been at work on a book project, off and on, for five years, and finally quit my full-time writing job to write … Continue reading XXL Pimpin’
From Holden: ARG: 36% Harris: 40% Gallup: 40% Continue reading The Trend Continues
From Holden: A surprising drop in consumer sentiment shocks the markets. U.S. stocks slipped on Friday after a report showed U.S. consumer sentiment, a key to consumer spending, fell more than expected in August, suggesting higher gasoline prices are eating into Americans’ household budgets. [snip] Consumer sentiment declined to 89.1 in August from 96.5 in the previous month, according to final figures from the University of Michigan. Economists had expected the index to fall to 92.7. Continue reading My Bush Boom Just Went All Sentimental On Me
From Holden: I took a minute to visit The Corner this morning to see if K-Lo had updated or otherwise corrected her seminal post of yesterday: CONSTITUTION UPDATE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Apparently they’ll [sic] be a vote today Posted at 11:22 AM I can’t say I was surprised to see that she had not updated the post or even corrected her typo. Then I read her latest missive: CAN WE GIVE SGT. JOE ROCHE SOME OF CINDY CRAWFORD’S AIRTIME? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] WashTimes: I’m very proud to be a soldier of the U.S. Army because of the war on terror … Continue reading K-Loed
From Holden: Please read Marjorie Cohn’s exclusive interview with Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski (Ret.). This excerpt is tasty, but it does not do the entire piece justice. MC: You wrote in an e-mail: “The techniques are a clear departure from what soldiers are taught and understand, the techniques that were directed by the highest level of this Administration.” By that, you mean all the way up to the Oval Office? JK: I mean all the way up to Cheney. I don’t know the workings of how it gets up there. But I would think that, very similar to … Continue reading Janis Karpinski
From Holden: The fundies are out to get Sen. Bill Frist in Iowa. An evangelical group has begun a weeklong advertising campaign in Iowa criticizing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for backing expanded embryonic stem cell research. “We know Iowa is a way to get everybody’s attention,” said Gary Cass, head of the Florida-based Center for Reclaiming America. “Our hope is Senator Frist will hear from Iowans and they are kind of a bellwether state in the heartland.” [snip] In the ad, which shows a photo of a smiling baby, an announcer says: “Senator Frist: we cannot save innocent lives … Continue reading Frist is the New Gay Marriage
From Holden: In this corner, weighing in at 145 pounds, voted Miss Incompetence 2001 – The Contender – Condoleeza Rice! SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that the United States has been very involved with the Iraqis every step of the way. But this is an Iraqi process; this is not an American process. And I know that Zal, as John Negroponte before him, tried to help in any way that they were asked to do. Sometimes they were asked to facilitate, to hold discussions, but I want to be very clear that this is an Iraqi process and I think … Continue reading Condi vs. Chimpy
From Holden: Via Juan Cole: Katsuya Okada, president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) says that if his party defeats Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the upcoming elections, he will pull the 500 Self Defense Forces contingent from Samawah in Iraq. He said, ”The Self-Defense Force is doing nothing in Iraq. The most important mission of the Self-Defense Force, supplying water to local communities, is over . . . They are remaining in Iraq only for the political consideration of the Japan-US relationship.’ ‘ WIth Iraq seized by the grip of civil war how long will it be before … Continue reading The Ever-Shrinking Coalition
From Holden: Even if the homeless person happens to be the Dukester. The federal government said for the first time in court Thursday that it is seeking to seize a California congressman’s home because prosecutors believe it was purchased with ill-gotten gains. The charge, disclosed in an amendment to a complaint that was previously filed secretly, said Rep. Randy ”Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., sold his previous home at an inflated price to a defense contractor whose company was seeking federal contracts. Cunningham then used the money from that sale to buy his current home for $2.55 million, according to the complaint. … Continue reading House the Homeless
From Holden: Well, we’re still stuck with second-stringer Trent Duffy in today’s gaggle but Duffy did mention that Little Scotte returns next week. Now, what about that Misguided Mother, Cindy Sheehan? Q Does the President feel that over the last couple of days he’s made an effective and convincing case that Cindy Sheehan is misguided in her feelings about the war and what should happen to the troops? MR. DUFFY: [Homage to 9/11 snipped to reduce nausea.] The President reiterated that on Tuesday. He empathizes with Ms. Sheehan and those who have lost loved ones. He said Tuesday, again, that … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle
From Holden: Check out William E. Jackson, Jr.’s, lenghty analysis of the New York Times editorial board’s pious approach to the Judith Miller/Karl Rove Scandal over at HuffPost. A key graph.: It is to turn the Plame case on its head to suggest that Miller, of all people, was gathering materials for a story that cast a critical light on the motives and actions of those officials who partook in a potential federal crime in leaking the identity of Plame. It is to make a mockery of the very idea of shielding whistleblowers from adverse consequences. Moreover, it is not … Continue reading Judy and the Board