What the military thinks

Via The American Street:

WASHINGTON - Members of the military and their families say the Bush administration underestimated the number of troops needed in Iraq and put too much pressure on inadequately trained National Guard and reserve forces, according to a poll released Saturday.

The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 62 percent in the military sample said the administration didn't send an adequate number of troops to Iraq. And 59 percent said too much of a burden has been put on the National Guard and the reserves when regular forces should have been expanded instead. [my emphasis]

Family members were more critical of the administration's Iraq policy than those on active duty.

This critical view comes from a military group that has a more favorable view of President Bush (news - web sites), Iraq, the economy and the nation's direction than Americans in general. [From AP]

[. . .]

The closer it gets to Election Day, news like this and the shortage of flu shots will sway many of the undecideds Kerry's way. Let's hope Bush's smoke and mirror show unravels even more by 2 Nov.

Definitely Not The Ivy League

Following up on my earlier post, Steve Harvey of the LATimes has some more names of institutions of higher learning in California:

Salt Lake, Calif.: A discussion here about college nicknames brought this from Raul Blacksten: "I attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the early '70s, and there were so many students from California that it was not uncommon to hear it referred to as the 'University of California at Provo.' I think there were even bumper stickers to that effect."
Cal State Whatevers: While we're on the subject, here are some other college nicknames I've collected from readers:
• University of Severe Tire Damage (Cal State Northridge, in honor of the school's many parking lots, which have many more exits than entrances).
• University of California Near Fedco (San Bernardino Valley College).
• University of Lincoln and Manchester or LMU (Loyola Marymount University).
• Under Construction Indefinitely or UCI (UC Irvine).
• University on Colorado between Lake and Allen, or UCLA (Pasadena City College).

I wonder when he'll get around to Cal State San Quentin. Oh, well. Who needs Yale, anyway?

Field Report On Flu Shots

Well, I guess we've all heard about the shortage of flu vaccine and Kim Jong-Bush's health plan: "Don't get sick." If you haven't, read Fixer's post (you can scroll down a little to get to it, too) on the subject, then come back.

See, Fixer does the grand scheme of these things, being the Master and all, while I, the grunt, get down in the trenches and find out what's really going on and how issues affect real people. This one came about quite serendipitously (Hey! Lookee here!) on me and the missus' weekly adventure, aka grocery shopping.

There we were, rounding the corner from the cottage-cheese-and-ice-cream aisle and heading for Frozen Food. The F.F. aisle was blocked by a long line of people, taking up its entire length. They were standing in line for flu shots right there in Safeway. Old people. There were canes and walkers, wheelchairs and electric scooters, and such hair as there was, was your lighter shades. I didn't check their teeth, but I'm sure a lot of those folks could have just held them up if I had wanted to.

We continued our shopping and eventually got to the checker. She told us that there had been a line for the shots since six A.M. (it was about 10:00 at the time) and they had already run out of vaccine once and had to recop. Mrs. G. damn near slapped me when I wondered out loud what might be the significance of herdin' 'em down the frozen food aisle. After all, that aisle is full of preserved stuff. Actually, the pharmacy is at the far end of it.

I did some checking: The shots cost $20 and the high-risk criteria applied to be eligible. They took Medicare, cash and checks. Note: "High risk" does not mean the risk of CATCHING the flu, but the risk of DYING from it once you've got it. We were not eligible and that made us feel young.

We are prepared to undergo any hardship, make any sacrifice, to bring you the latest stuff on this blog. We never did get any frozen food.

Saturday Cattle Dog Blogging

Atrios has his cats, TBogg has his Bassett Hound, and The Dope on the Slope has his invertebrates, so here's our Cattle Dog:

A baby pic of Mrs. F's little monster.

Now I'm done for the day.

Rednecks

I personally blame Jeff Foxworthy for making rednecks sound loveable. Most of the rednecks I’ve met are meaner than snakepiss with the intellect of a walnut-brained alligator.

Now we have a president who’s been part of the pampered class all his life who cannot find comfort among his own class despite all the remedial tutoring and cash bailouts he’s had from all his Dadddy’s friends. He’s far more comfortable displaying all the gator attributes, reaching down to the inbreds and toothless wonders with the politics of hate and division honed to fever pitch, combined with an aw-shucks nice guy camera front that appeals to people accustomed to instinctive response, which is so much easier than actual thinking.

[. . .]

You gotta read the whole thing.

I'm probably done for the day. I have to go to a Bar Mitzvah today that will probably last ALL day. They're conservative Jews. Oy! I leave you in my partner Gordon's more-than-capable hands.

The flu bug

Or, CNN actually asks the right questions. From Digby:

[. . .]

BUSH: If you're healthy, if you're younger, don't get a flu shot this year.

SCHNEIDER: Sounds like rationing, something the president said would result from Kerry's health care plan.

[. . .]

SCHNEIDER: What President Bush warns could happen under the Kerry health care plan, shortages, rationing, that's exactly what is happening now. So the issue is whether the Kerry health care plan would solve the problem, or as Republicans charge, make it worse.

WOODRUFF: Is there any evidence yet how this issue is playing out politically? Do we see polls? Do we pick up what people are saying?

[. . .]

This flu vaccine problem puts Bush's bullshit squarely in the light of day. Even media whores with tenure like Schneider and Woodruff can't shove their heads in the sand over this one. Unlike Iraq, or the rest of Bush's fiascoes, this affects the American people directly. This is only going to get worse for President Clueless before it gets better, and it ain't gonna resolve itself by 2 Nov. Especially if people start dropping dead from influenza in any sort of numbers.

KERRY: There still aren't enough flu vaccinations. What's the president's solution? He says, don't get one if you're healthy. That sounds just like his health care plan to me, hope and pray you don't get sick.

Bush On The Bumper

Go to PST and see over 100 anti-Bush bumperstickers.

Insurance

Gordon had been pontificating at Bubba's a while back about NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer getting a cabinet post in a Kerry Administration. I didn't think it was a good idea, citing the people of New York need him more. From Reactions [Registration required, sorry]:

New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer is suing insurance broker Marsh over its practice of charging insurers placement service agreements (PSAs), also known as contingent commissions or market service agreements, in return for placing business with them. The broker's share price dropped by 17% following the news.

Marsh is also accused of soliciting fictitious bids for contracts aimed at deceiving clients into believing that competition to underwrite contracts had taken place. Several insurers that benefited from the practice have also been named in the lawsuit. These include American International Group (AIG) and Ace, the chief executives of which are the father and brother respectively of Marsh & McLennan's CEO Jeffrey Greenberg.

[. . .]

Now, I happen to have a source (sound like Josh Marshall, don't I) in the insurance industry and the word is that this is a family feud between the Spitzers and the Greenbergs and Eliot's doing this to tweak their testicles. But Spitzer wouldn't be seeking indictments if he wasn't sure of himself. Greenberg has some serious resources. Besides, you know these two copped a plea for a reduced sentence provided they spill their guts:

The two AIG employees who have pleaded guilty to participating in the practice are Karen Radke, senior vice-president of excess casualty at American Home, a unit of AIG, and Jean Baptiste Tateossian, manager of the national accounts unit at American Home.

According to a spokeswoman at the New York attorney general's office, both have been charged with fraud and face up to four years in prison.

Sorry, Gord, there are too many crooks in NY to let Eliot go to Washington.

Win At All Costs

Paul Krugman in today's NYTimes on the Republican policy of vote tampering, disenfranchisement, and voter registration crimes:

The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable.(my emphasis)

If I were President Kerry, I'd convene enough Grand Juries on Jan. 21st to indict every last one of the bastards and build a few hundred gallows, too.

'Sup, Oy?

Just when you think you've seen everything, up jumps the devil. Go read Hebrew Hip-Hop in, where else, the Ess Eff Chron.

Even the name Hadag Nahash embodies the group's spirit. Guy Mar, the band's DJ and one of the first hip-hop DJs in Israel, reveals that the words are a mix up of Nahag Hadash -- "new driver" -- a sign everyone must post on their cars' rear windows during the first year of licensed driving. Streett came up with the name as a form of protest.

"This is the great idea they have to reduce car accidents?" he scoffs. "People either honk at the new driver or stick to (him) or pass him on the right. So actually, posting this sign is stupid and useless. I figured that if we called ourselves Hadag Nahash and got people to put our stickers on the back of their cars, we would help create chaos and confuse the police" -- which, he adds mischievously, "is always a good thing."

Where else could you go after Klezmer, anyway? I'll go quietly.

Signs Of The Times

Check out the signs on Freeway Blogger.

Thanks again, Bubba.

By A Country Mile

Whew! I've predicted for months that Kerry is gonna win by 15%. I know that's a meaningless number, but I use it to describe the mandate that I think he will get, you know the real kind, from the American people. Not the kind Bush thinks he got, from hired judges.

At last, someone with access to a printing press agrees with me and has the guts to say so, albeit not as stridently as I have, but no one listens to me anyway. Byron Williams in Working For Change:

At the risk of looking like a fool, I am prepared to respectfully disagree with conventional wisdom to offer the following contrarian perspective: The election will not be close.

When we want to keep a president, we keep him; Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Clinton are prime examples. Likewise, when we want him out, he's out: Hoover, Carter and Bush 41.

I don't believe we will be in court discussing hanging, dimpled or pregnant chads on Nov. 3.

Thank you, Byron

A cheap and tawdry political trick

From a real live lesbian; Genia at Sisters Talk:

[. . .]

Cheney needs to get off his high horse. It took Dick Cheney and his wife months and months to finally stand up and speak out against the proposed constitutional ban against gays and lesbians -- well after it was defeated in the Senate (a lot of help that did us!). And now, Dick and his wife are angry that Kerry made a reference to their lesbian daughter, who I might add was paid $150,000 a year to help the very duo that fought for the passing of that legislation.

Cry me a river for Mary Cheney. Mary will be fine. All she needs is a little massage at the country club and a quick vacation in Tahiti. She'll be her old self in no time.

'Nuff said.

Update: 18:45:

Skippy.

Bait Casting And Buttplugs

It's another slow news day. Fixer got to the good shit first, so I'm just screwing around reading different stuff. I'm almost to Field and Stream.

This one's big fun: Go read Wolcott. Scroll down and keep reading. How can you lose with shit like this:

So stay tuned, and take a tip from Bill O'Reilly: always remember to rinse buttplug before re-using--it's the considerate thing to do.

We haven't sunk to reporting on O'Reilly yet. If you want that kind of fun dirt, go here.

Check Out The FNG

Got onto a new blog through DemVet. Check it out and report back. The proper response is:"Aye, aye, sir."

Support our troops. Yeah, right.

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.

The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.

Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.

[. . .]

"I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped," said [Rep. Bennie]Thompson, who was contacted by families. "I have had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated. It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Aviation regiments have complained of being forced to fly dangerous missions over Iraq with outdated night-vision goggles and old missile-avoidance systems. Stories of troops' families purchasing body armor because the military didn't provide them with adequate equipment have been included in recent presidential debates.

Patricia McCook said her husband, a staff sergeant, understands well the severity of disobeying orders. But he did not feel comfortable taking his soldiers on another trip.

[. . .]

From the Mississippi Clarion Ledger via Corrente.

Guys like me who are adrenaline junkies go for the 'suicide mission' stuff. Guys who signed up for the quartermaster corps ain't about that and rightly so. While the Jarheads say 'every Marine a rifleman', the Army ain't like that. You can't expect these guys to go out in machines that are unsafe. This all goes back to the top, the civilians in the Pentagon and the morons in the White House who learned all they know about making war from Hollywood movies. Our kids' lives are being squandered and they don't even have decent equipment. Bush and Co should not only be voted out of office, but tried for war crimes committed against both sides.

And by the way. When a sergeant has to put his foot down and say 'enough', what does that say about the officers?

And while we're on the Iraq clusterfuck:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday ordered a freeze on assets of the militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq

He's been bedeviling our people since we went into Iraq and they're just moving to sieze his assets today? And people say Bush is the best one to fight the 'War on Terra' (© DemVet)? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Haben Sie deine Fuehrerschein?

Or, do you haff ze papers? From Xan at Corrente:

[. . .]

Well, whew! I feel so much better now. If you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about, do you?

For details on how such documents have been used in the past, google "Soviet Union" and "internal passports."

Then google or otherwise access the works of T. Jefferson, B. Franklin, P. Henry and other such radicals on the topic of of liberty, security, and people getting what they deserve. Or get used to hearing the words from anybody in a uniform, "Let me see your papers."

And you know the Right will spin this to mean the Democrats are so far left that they want a Communist state. After all, it was the Dems who wanted the 9/11 Commission, right?

The Worst Presidente Mexico Ever Had

Not exactly high praise for Dubya, El Fisgon (The Peeper) says he's the worst Mexican President in history. From Mother Jones.

Mexican political culture has very defined features and the President of the United States has absorbed them all: The classical Mexican political boss usually inherits his power from his father. The typical Mexican cacique has a love for guns as well as an inclination toward violence and cruelty; he despises legality and intellectual activity, has a personal history of alcoholism and dissipation, lies systematically, and declares himself a faithful servant of God. (Did we miss anything?)

According to Mexican tradition, politicians always reach their positions thanks to a fraudulent electoral process and then surround themselves with a clique which uses its power to conduct "business" on a staggering scale while in office. The Florida electoral thievery and Halliburton's Iraq contract are classic examples of Mexican corruption.

The difference is, if Dubya was president of Mexico, someone would have stood him up against a wall and shot him by now.

Dude, ya got any change?

How's that job going? Pissed at the boss, want to get away from that secretary you used to boink, looking for a place to make more money? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. If you got a job, suck it up, if you don't, well, maybe you might want to think about community college.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people filing an initial claim for U.S. jobless aid rose more than expected to 352,000 last week, a government report showed on Thursday.

Initial jobless claims rose 15,000 from an upwardly revised 337,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Economists forecast a climb to 340,000 from the originally reported 335,000 in the week ended Oct. 2.

[. . .]

The moving average was at its highest since 355,500 in the week ended Feb. 28. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Great numbers, President Livin' Large. And these folks who have lost their jobs and their unemployment benefits have run out, they'll get a job if they get a degree? Hmmm. How they gonna pay for it, Helmet Head?

That's just as brainy as having people start 'healthcare savings accounts' for catastrophic illness. Where are they gonna get that money, bitch? Yeah, President Resolute, gonna give 'em a $300 tax rebate and they can save for school and healthcare. Where will they get that money when they have to pay for shit like gold-plated prescription drugs, diamond-infused gasoline, and those annoying food/rent/heat/light/transportation things.

It's like the cast of fucking Hee Haw is running the fucking country. Howdeeee!

Will Canadian Aspirin Give You A Hard-On?

Ha! That got your attention, huh?

In light of Bush's comment, on the way to his third debate loss, that he has been thinking about getting flu vaccine from Canuckistan, this editorial in the LATimes is timely.

The Food and Drug Administration has been sending bullying letters to governors whose states try to establish safe ways of importing drugs from established pharmacies. The most recent such letter, sent to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, called his state's newly launched I-SaveRx program "illegal." If Bush actually believes that, let's see him put Blagojevich in handcuffs and have the governor do the perp walk into federal court.

They ain't got the balls, cuz that would blow the whole "Medicare Reform" up in their greedy little faces and expose the scam for the taxpayer and senior citizen rip-off it really is.

See, Fixer, we got plenty of windmills left to tilt at.