From Holden: Now that my six-day birthday celebration has ended I need to get back to the importance of obsessing on the gaggle First up, the president’s complete foreign policy failure in regards to North Korea: Pony Blow blames The Clenis™… Q Tony, it was four years ago that President Bush labeled North Korea a member of the axis of evil. But under the President’s watch, you have — North Korea has increased its nuclear arsenal. You’ve got it abandoning the six-party talks, and now these missile tests are going on. What do you say to Americans, how do you … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Republican House submits a subpeona to the Pentagon for Abu Ghraib documents. Lawmakers have issued a subpoena seeking Pentagon information on a soldier who says he suffered retaliation for reporting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. The subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee seeks all communications relating to information provided by Army Spc. Samuel Provance about the Iraq prison, where U.S. mistreatment of detainees caused an international uproar. It also seeks information on the interrogation of an Iraqi officer there, identified by Provance as Gen. Hamid Zabar. Provance had helped interrogate Zabar’s 16-year-old son and was later told … Continue reading Is This A First?

You know, Barack Obama wants Democrats to court deeply religious voters. He wants Democrats to start talking more about how faith impacts their lives. Any conversation about morality, religion or, God forbid, a “culture of life” and doesn’t address this is a fucking waste of oxygen and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Sirko and her children, Eden, 14; David, 12; and Natalia, 11, live in DuPage County, where the median household income is roughly $70,000. Their basement apartment is just down the road from Medinah Country Club, with its breathtaking mosaic rotunda and lush greens. The state’s surge … Continue reading Founder’s Pointe

From Scout: From WWL… Nearly 50 people killed by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters more than 10 months ago remain unidentified, the Orleans Parish coroner said Wednesday. Some of the remains were discovered in the last several months as family members or construction workers began demolishing heavily damaged homes in the Ninth Ward and Lakeview, said Dr. Frank Minyard. Others were found by firefighters doing new searches. “The more they go down and do work, the more remains they’re finding. I think this is going to go on a good while,” he said. About 40 of the remains still awaiting identification belong … Continue reading Dozens of Katrina victims still not identified

Here’s another argument I’m aghast we’re actually having: Kirkwood: “Anyone who hasn’t been brainwashed by the Corps of Professional Victims and its allies in the mass media, but instead has read something about World War II and the real history of this era, knows this.” Dering: Huh? Brainwashed? “Real history?” Professional victims? I don’t have my conspiracy-to-English dictionary handy. One historian I’ve read is a guy named George Takei. Yup, Mr. Sulu. He researched the topic at a very early age. His first-person account is in his biography. Could someone post a list of books by Japanese-Americans interred during WWII … Continue reading Thanks, Michelle

Dead of a heart attack, according to MSNBC. A. Continue reading Ken Lay

“Really ugly dogs and really mangy ponies.” Well played, sir. Well played. Though I wouldn’t let Holden hear you say that about his stable. A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: The Shermanator Edition

From Scout: This NYT’s article paints a very bleak picture of life in Ramadi for US soldiers and civilians. Then there is this… In three years here the Marine Corps and the Army have tried nearly everything to bring this provincial capital of 400,000 under control. Nothing has worked. Now American commanders are trying something new. Instead of continuing to fight for the downtown, or rebuild it, they are going to get rid of it, or at least a very large part of it. They say they are planning to bulldoze about three blocks in the middle of the city, … Continue reading Destroying Ramadi to Save It

Now this is a declaration I’ll sign in a cold minute. A. Continue reading Department of America The Beautiful, Bitches!

Lieberman this morning: I have loyalties that are greater than those to my party. And I want to talk about this for a second, because wasn’t too long ago Kos was castigating Republicans for putting the Elephant above the Stars and Stripes, so if you’re just skimming the surface here, and especially if you’re a wingnut or a New Republic-style “centrist,” you might get confused. Every politician should have loyalties more important than party. We applaud those politicians who broke with the Republican party, for example, over the Iraq war or who buck the RNC talking points on some issue … Continue reading Loyalties

From Scout: From AFP via Huffington Post LONDON (AFP) – People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll. The United States is no longer a symbol of hope to Britain and the British no longer have confidence in their transatlantic cousins to lead global affairs, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph. The YouGov poll found that 77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is “a beacon of hope for the … Continue reading Oh we’re So Not Loved

Man. There’s the whole bumper sticker: If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. I read stuff like the above and hear the cash register ringing away. A. Continue reading Jesus H. Christ In A Chicken Basket

Horrible. WASHINGTON – A veteran of the fighting in Iraq is facing federal criminal charges in connection with the killing of an Iraqi woman and members of her family. Steven Green, who has been discharged from the Army, was arrested in recent days in North Carolina, two federal law enforcement officials said Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the case against Green have not been made public. The U.S. military is investigating up to five soldiers in the March rape and killing of a woman in Mahmoudiya and three of her relatives. Every time I post … Continue reading Why They Hate Us

I’m in a dear friend’s wedding today, and yesterday during the rehearsal, as everybody was telling wedding stories, I passed along the best piece of advice I ever got. My wedding was a giant Catholic to-do, trumpeters, dress the size of Manhattan, etc. I’d wanted to elope, but Mr. A, with unerring instinct, said instead, let’s throw a big party for all our friends and family. We’ve all been through some rough stuff together, so, in thanks, let’s get a great band and some food and let everybody get to know everybody else. As weddings do, it got a little … Continue reading O Long Their Coupled Joys Remain

From Scout: So the White House has stripped recommendations from the Corps’ report. That was a report that Congress directed the Corps to prepare on recommendations. Where exactly will Congress draw the line? Apparently it’s not with the administrations’s push for limitless executive power in conducting war and now this domestic issue. So just where is the line? From the Times Picayune The Army Corps of Engineers, which was directed by Congress to prepare a report on how to protect Louisiana from a Category 5 hurricane, is poised to issue a vaguely-worded document that will not list the specific projects … Continue reading White House Strips Army Corps Report for Congress

Sexy hotness: “Rather than weighing these suggestions fairly as Americans, this administration constantly chooses to play politics, dismissing well-intentioned concern with such trivial phrases as ‘cut and run,’” Webb said. He continued, “We need to bring the Iraq war to an early and honorable end. We need to begin bringing our troops home soon, as the first step toward a complete military pullout from that country. “We must do this in order to free up our dedicated military people to fight the war we need to win — the war against international terrorism — and so that we have the … Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: WEBB edition

Gas station by my house this morning, advertising $3.20 per gallon. A. Continue reading Prices

For a while now, Spocko’s been fighting the good fight against some Coulter wannabes, who, like the bigger punks we’ve been writing about all week, yob off to the high-minded ideals expressed in things like that T-shirt, above. Go read about his campaign, and give him a hand. A. Continue reading Hanging