Is this legal?

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

[. . .]

Story.

I don't know, I'm asking.

[. . .]

The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation.

[. . .]

If it is, could this be the beginning of 'Watergate II'? I mean, that began as a simple burglary, didn't it? Or are we gonna change the ethics rules to allow the (p)resident to get away with it? Or, with a 49% approval rating, isn't he worth the 'capital'?

Update: 17:15:

Atrios:

Lautenberg, Kennedy, and Reid write to President Bush.

Excerpt:

In addition to the illegality of these actions taken by your Administration, we believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of government policies undermines the integrity of our democracy. Actions like this were common in the Soviet Union, but until now, thought to be long extinguished in our country.

[. . .]

Bend over and grab your ankles

WaPo via Pudentilla:

Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups of some reservists to meet the demands of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army official said yesterday.

[. . .]

So, we're gonna change the Reserves deployment elegibility from a maximum of 24 months over several deployments, to no more than 24 months on each deployment. The draft is getting closer, folks. They're running short of people and recruitment numbers are falling.

If, as Kevin said, Bush is gonna use the elections to cut and run from Iraq within the year, they'll recover. But if it's as most of the TV generals have said, the need to sustain these troop levels for five to ten years, there is no way around the draft. If anything kills the all-volunteer force, if it's not dead already thanks to Stop-Loss, it'll be the 'breaking' of the Guard and Reserves.

Update: 17:55:

Kevin Drum:

[. . .]

If this happens, it's for all intents and purposes a draft.

On DeLay

From Ezra:

[. . .]

. . . When he appears on my screen it feels like Sean Hannity's blow-dried smugness, George W. Bush's ignorant arrogance, Dick Cheney's intense malevolence and Jerry Falwell's glutton-flavored interpretation of piety have all merged into one man, a veritable Megazord of distasteful qualities . . .

[. . .]

Like he says in his post, he's not adding anything to the discourse, "It's just this visceral loathing." I like the description. I also like what he says about the GOP:

[. . .]

. . . For being considered the party with the most developed ideas and the most coherent morality, they're really just a hollow shell. A bunch of satellite groups offering intellectual legitimacy and policy thought but, in the center, just a bunch of demagogues obsessed with consolidating power . . .

[. . .]

Could '04 Have Been Any Verse?

Due to his strategic location on the Other Rim, Fixer gets up way before I do and is blogging his ass off while I am still deep in the arms of Morpheus. Consequently, I awaken to whatever tone he has set for the day. Kinda like the Plan of the Day that used to be nailed to the wall in the barracks. The difference is I don't have to run with it if I don't want to, but he's got a good handle on things and sometimes that's the thing to do. Due also to the time difference, I find stuff sometimes that comes out later. It all works out.

After reading his post on the song parody The Rumsfeld Rag (or scroll down) and liking it, my poetic muse was up an' runnin', on the prowl for some more. I done found it!

From Counterpunch:

Strutting, Smirking, as if the Mad Plan Was Working
Out Old Year
By FRED GARDNER

Out old year, you weren't pretty
Out with Janet Jackson's titty
Out with Bill O'Reilly's loofah
(Which made miss Macris hit the roofa)

Go get lost, two thousand four
We really cannot take much more
Of Ahnold and Maria Shriver,
Rudolph Giuliani's driver

Paul Bremer's failed mission
Fallujah's demolition
George Bush strutting, smirking
As if the mad plan was working

The coalition of the "willing"
The Passion of Curt Schilling
Ascendant Talibangelists
>From Charleston to Los Angeles

Please already drop the curtain
On Cheney, Dick and Haliburton
Privatizing everything
Down to the Army's dishwashing

His daughter Mary selling beer
His wife Lynn, selling fear
His pseudo-rival Colin Powell
A hawk passing for an owl

And Prissy Condoleeza Rice
Let us make a sacrifice
Of her and Rupert Murdoch
Karl Rove, Kid Rock

David Stern, Donald Trump
(among the very first we'd bump)
Berlesconi, Tony Blair,
Biden with his phony hair

A Bronx cheer and demerits
For Bob Novak, Marty Peretz
Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity
Chip chip chipping at our sanity

Global warming, that don't frighten
Best seller Michael Crichton
Glaciers melting? What me worry
It won't happen in a hurry

And when we die we just grow wings
And leave behind the underlings
Evolution's just a theory
Have some Paxil feel more cheery

Take Cialis, have some sex
Celebrate with Celebrex
You always said you needed "strokes"
Now's your chance step right up, folks

Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck
They all know their drugs don't work
But nothing's standing in their way
Since they bought the FDA

Enough of two thousand four
Take your baggage out the door
Hurricanes and beheadings
Much ado 'bout gay weddings

Your Intifadas and crusades
Pack 'em up and quickly fade
You don't deserve to survive
Make room for two thousand five!

Done before the wave hit
(Now why even save it,
A trivial poem, a silly ode) a
Really catastrophic coda.

Did I mention that my poetic muse is a cynical old fart that loves satiric wit?

A good try

Mr. Furious at Shakespeare's Sister:

Ohio Electoral Objection Fails
The Senate voted 75 - 1 against it.
The House Voted 257 - 33 against it. (still counting)

Democrats voted with Republicans on this because they are scared shitless about losing their jobs. It seems we effectively have a one-party system.

Hope you enjoyed Democracy. It was fun while it lasted.

And I got this from Contest The Vote in an email this morning. It's on their homepage too.

[. . .]

The passion and fire of the members of the House Caucus was truly inspiring. Each one spoke with great sincerity and truth, weakly challenged by the "get over it" statements of those who sought to deny that there are any problems with our Democracy. In addition to acknowledging those brave members of the House of Representatives, we must individually write, phone, and fax OUR Senator Barbara Boxer. Without the support of Senator Boxer, we would have had a repeat of that ugly scene from Fahrenheit 9/11 where President-elect Gore told each Caucus member to sit down and shut up.

NO OTHER SENATOR JOINED SENATOR BOXER! They are still afraid to stand up to the White House Bully for fear of losing some of their own power. In addition, their staff could lose their premium parking spaces, another fact of life in the Democracy of the United States of America. It is now time for us to acknowledge Senator Boxer. (I will no longer refer to her as "Boxer".) Her contact info is below so you can write her your own message of support.

[. . .]

Californians should be very proud of their Senator. Tell her so:

Senator Barbara Boxer's Contact Info:
Phone: 202.224.3553 (DC)
Fax: 202.228.3972 (DC)
Email: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

Full Circle

I remember hearing Country Joe and the Fish blasting out of my little, single-speaker, AM-FM (big stuff back then) radio in my '68 Roadrunner. Used to sing my bloody lungs out to this tune. A reader at DemVet updated it. Stolen in full:

The Rumsfeld Rag (With apologies to Country Joe)

Well come on, all of you big strong men,
Uncle Sam's telling lies again,
Figured out that to fight a war
All you have to do is send the poor.
While Georgie and his buddies laugh and feast
They'll send you to the Middle East.

And it's one, two, three, what were you voting for?
Oil profits and endless war?
Did you think there was something more?
And it’s five, six, seven, let the theme reverberate:
“Muslims, gays, and liberal states,
Whoopee! We got lots to hate.”

Come conservatives throughout the land,
Now’s the time to take a stand,
Get it into liberal weenies’ heads
That the only good Iraqi is one who’s dead.
Raze their cities, destroy their lives
And convert ‘em all to Jesus Christ.

And it’s one, two, three, who were you voting for?
One deserter and a chickenhawk?
Who else could win Iraq?
And it’s five, six, seven, let the theme reverberate:
“Muslims, gays, and liberal states,
Whoopee! We got lots to hate.”

On 9/11 the country changed
And some of us became quite deranged.
With fears abounding from out and in
We launched a crusade to battle sin.
We all see something’s going wrong,
It’s about the time to drop a bomb.

And it’s one, two, three, what were you voting for?
Don’t you see or don’t you give a damn
‘Bout the lessons of Vietnam?
And it’s five, six, seven, let the theme reverberate:
“Muslims, gays, and liberal states,
Whoopee! We got lots to hate.”

Posted by Motherlode at January 6, 2005 04:56 PM

Beating a dead horse

In other words, Ronald Reagan.

[. . .]

And the beauty part? It's Freddy Vs. Jason, motherfuckers, Dracula Meets the Wolf Man. It forces the White House to argue with the ghost of Ronald Reagan. It forces them to eat their own or get eaten. They're either going to have to dig up the Gipper and make a soup from his gnarled bones or the Democrats are going to have to use the zombie corpse of Reagan to eat Bush's brain. Either way, it is an engorgement that'll be pure pleasure to our tired hearts.

[. . .]

Short and Sweet

Oliver Willis:

Multimillionaire hollywood liberal Sandra Bullock donates $1 million to tsunami relief

Multimillionaire oil man and President George W. Bush donates... $10,000

Savage On Tsunami Aid

If you're not pissed off enough yet today, or sick to your stomach, go read what MediaMatters picked up from the right-wing asshole Michael Savage and you will be.

During nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage's December 31 broadcast -- his first since the December 26 tsunami resulting from an earthquake in Southeast Asia -- Savage said that the tsumani was "not a tragedy" and that the United States should not be sending any aid to the affected countries because they are "hotbeds of radical Islam." Savage added: "We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this, as far as I'm concerned. ... I am sick of being bled to death by every damn incident on the earth."

We shouldn't be sending as much as we're sending. Bush has a lot of gall writing a check for 135 million dollars. This is more a UNICEF deal, it's a U.N. deal, it's a Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, George Soros, Bill Clinton bleeding-heart-liberal deal. I don't want to send them any money. You know, a few airplanes with some medical supplies and a little lip service would have been fine for me.

Yeah, it's only those 'bleeding heart liberals' that have compassion for their fellow man. Certainly good christians wouldn't subscribe to that commie shit.

Many of the countries and the areas in these countries that were hit by these tidal waves were hotbeds of radical Islam. Why should we be helping them destroy us? ... I think what we're doing is feeding our own demise. ... I truthfully don't believe in foreign aid.

Is it any wonder I hate the right-wing media gasbag motherfuckers?

Twofer on Sleazy

Two good Op-Eds in today's NYTimes:

Maureen Dowd (Down, Woody, I can't reach the keyboard!) chimes in on Sleazy Gonzales:

The Associated Press headline that came over the wire yesterday said it all: "Gonzales Will Follow Non-Torture Policies."

You know how bad the situation is when the president's choice for attorney general has to formally pledge not to support torture anymore.

Before he helped President Bush circumvent the accords and reserve the right to do so "in this or future conflicts," you had to tune in to an old movie with Nazi generals or Vietcong guards if you wanted to see someone sneeringly shrug off the international treaty protecting prisoners from abuse. ("You worthless running dog Chuck Norris! What do we care about your silly Geneva Conventions?")

How are you to believe Mr. Gonzales when he says he's through with torture? His mission is clearly to do whatever he thinks Mr. Bush wants.

It's comforting to start the new year in the hands of a party that cares so much about morals and values.

She's in good form. She also lays into the Commerce Dept., the EPA, "Bugs" DeLay, Rumbo, and Clarence Thomas. Go read.

Mark Danner writes on the same subject. A little more content than MoDo, but he doesn't get me hot:

But what we are unlikely to hear, given the balance of votes in the Senate, are many voices making the obvious argument that with this record, Mr. Gonzales is unfit to serve as attorney general. So let me make it: Mr. Gonzales is unfit because the slow river of litigation is certain to bring before the next attorney general a raft of torture cases that challenge the very policies that he personally helped devise and put into practice. He is unfit because, while the attorney general is charged with upholding the law, the documents show that as White House counsel, Mr. Gonzales, in the matter of torture, helped his client to concoct strategies to circumvent it (my emphasis). And he is unfit, finally, because he has rightly become the symbol of the United States' fateful departure from a body of settled international law and human rights practice for which the country claims to stand.

At present, our government, controlled largely by one party only intermittently harried by a timorous opposition, is unable to mete out punishment or change policy, let alone adequately investigate its own war crimes. And, as administration officials clearly expect, and senators of both parties well understand, most Americans - the Americans who will not read the reports, who will soon forget the photographs and who will be loath to dwell on a repellent subject - are generally content to take the president at his word.

Content. Yeah, why look up while they're grazing? If the wolf don't kill 'em, the shepherd'll screw 'em. Then, it's shearing time (if they're lucky) or the mutton works. Too late to bitch then. Idiots.

By using torture, we Americans transform ourselves into the very caricature our enemies have sought to make of us. True, that miserable man who pulled out his hair as he lay on the floor at Guantánamo may eventually tell his interrogators what he knows, or what they want to hear. But for America, torture is self-defeating; for a strong country it is in the end a strategy of weakness. After Mr. Gonzales is confirmed, the road back - to justice, order and propriety - will be very long. Torture will belong to us all. (my emphases)

That last short sentence says it all.

Mark Danner is the author of "Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror."

Reminder

If you haven't signed this petition or emailed your Senator about the Gonzales confirmation hearings, please do so this morning. The hearings are starting.

Propaganda

Matt Yglesias:

I missed this the first time around. Same article as discussed below[here], second page. "Seeking to head off unhappiness among Republicans who want Mr. Bush to take the bolder route, White House officials have been emphasizing the importance of unifying behind whatever plan has the best chance of being signed into law." In other words, the White House doesn't actually give a damn what happens, as long as they can replace Social Security with something else. Anything else. The small matter of the multi-trillion dollar difference between the two plans discussed in the article is trivia. As if they had meant to fight weapons proliferation in North Korea and build democracy in Afghanistan, but then decided that invading Iraq focus grouped better and, hey, it's invasions either way so what's the difference. Or maybe that is what they did.

Josh Marshall:

The key passage in the Wehner Memo (the leaked memo written by Karl Rove's deputy, Peter H. Wehner and reported this evening in various news outlets).

Let me tell you first what our plans are in terms of sequencing and political strategy. We will focus on Social Security immediately in this new year. Our strategy will probably include speeches early this month to establish an important premise: the current system is heading for an iceberg. The notion that younger workers will receive anything like the benefits they have been promised is fiction, unless significant reforms are undertaken. We need to establish in the public mind a key fiscal fact: right now we are on an unsustainable course. That reality needs to be seared into the public consciousness; it is the pre-condition to authentic reform.

Remind you of anything?

For all of you uninitiated, this is how the Repubs work, how they have been working since Newt and his 'Contract for America' in '94. Bullshit on top of bullshit until 51% of America believes it as gospel truth. Saddam's a threat, lawsuits are the reason for high medical malpractice insurance rates, the need for a missile defense system, the prescription drug crisis/plan, and Social Security is 'in crisis'. Ol' Joe Goebbels has got to be smiling in his little corner of Hell.

Noises and drafts

A relatively big noise. WaPo:

The head of the Army Reserve has sent a sharply worded memo to other military leaders expressing "deepening concern" about the continued readiness of his troops, who have been used heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and warning that his branch of 200,000 soldiers "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force."

In the memo, dated Dec. 20, Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly lashed out at what he said were outdated and "dysfunctional" policies on mobilizing and managing the force. He complained that his repeated requests to adjust the policies to current realities have been rebuffed by Pentagon authorities.

[. . .]

"The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you of the Army Reserve's inability . . . to meet mission requirements" associated with Iraq and Afghanistan "and to reset and regenerate its forces for follow-on and future missions," he wrote.

"I do not wish to sound alarmist," he added. "I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern."

[. . .]

Highlighting the dwindling number of Reserve troops available for future deployments, Helmly included computations showing that only 37,515 remain out of 200,366 soldiers in the Army Reserve.

Well, I wonder when they're gonna force him to retire, just like they have every other general who's spoken up. I've been saying this since they startred calling up Guard and Reserve units in large numbers. For those who would join these units (as opposed to regular military) it is the fact that it is part-time duty. Ain't nobody gonna sign up if they're gonna get sent into a war zone for 2 years.

Thanks to DemVet for the link. As Jo puts it:

Gimmee a "D"
Gimmee an "R"
Gimmee an "A"
Gimmee an "F"
Gimmee a "T"

Update: 05:35:

And, unlike many of us veterans who remember 1968 and see the similarities in 2004, Kevin at Lean Left has a different take:

[. . .]

But even if those fail, I do not think that we will have a draft. I do not expect Bush to remain in Iraq for very much longer. The Shiites party that everyone expects to win is running, essentially, on the US out of Iraq platform. When faced with a growing insurgency, the specter of civil war, and a troop shortage, some of the Bushies will be looking for a way out before the midterm elections. If the new Iraqi government asks them to leave there will be a faction in the White House who will want to take them up on their offer.

[. . .]

We're smart

Left-leaning political bloggers to be precise. An excellent post about how well-informed bloggers are, and the gap between the roots (us) and the leadership (our weasel representatives in Washington).

[. . .]

Another example — How many Democratic Senators say they won’t oppose Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General? But us bloggers and blog-readers ALL understand that a vote for Gonzales is a vote for torture.

[. . .]

From Dave Johnson over at the american street.

Note: Just watching Chimpy speaking live about medical tort reform. In his world, no one will be held accountable for any harm they do. How can you limit medical liability judgments to $250,000? Just the way it is in his administration. He's also patting himself on the back about how generous we are to the Tsunami victims. It was his idea, of course. What a fucking lowlife turd.

Update: 18:45:

Kevin Drum:

[. . .]

But none of Bush's proposals would have any effect at all on frivolous malpractice lawsuits. As usual, instead of trying to solve a problem, he's merely using a problem as an excuse to do something else that he wants to do anyway — regardless of whether or not it has any effect. I wonder how long it will take the medical profession to realize that nothing Bush is proposing will actually help them in any way?

Will Congress Back Torture? Will You?

Robert Scheer via Working For Change asks the question: "Is there bipartisan congressional support for torture?"

Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings on the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general of the United States. At stake is whether Congress wants to conveniently absolve Gonzales of his clear attempt to have the president subvert U.S. law in order to whitewash barbaric practices performed by U.S. interrogators in the name of national security.

Acting like a sleazy attorney advising a client on how not to be convicted of an ongoing crime, Gonzales was apparently not worried about irrational foreign courts or high-minded jurists in The Hague, but rather U.S. prosecutors who might enforce federal laws that ban torture of foreign prisoners of war. Indeed, Gonzales made the case for a legal end run around the 1996 War Crimes Act, which mandates criminal penalties, including the death sentence, for any U.S. military or other personnel who engage in crimes of torture.

Another positive step would be the withdrawal or rejection of the Gonzales nomination. To make a man with so little respect for both the spirit and the letter of the law the nation's top law enforcement official would be a terrible advertisement for American democracy.

Write your Representative and your Senator. They're only a click away. Tell 'em you don't want a shady lawyer doing bad things in your name. Be nice. SouthKnoxBubba puts it this way, and I agree:

Tell them that in your opinion Gonzales' views on torture and abuse of prisoners are evidence that he is not fit to serve in a position sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and enforce the law of the land.

If Bush gets his way with this one, the Brown Shirts are not far behind. Not far from your front door in the wee hours, either. If you think "it can't happen to me. I haven't done anything wrong", you're seriously missing the point. Murphy's Law, which has never been wrong yet, says "If it can happen, it will happen".

This clown interpreted existing law to allow torture, at the request of this President, after finding evidence that torture had already taken place, in an attempt for all those at the top to avoid prosecution. One of Bush's people (don't make me look it up, please) said, "It's not about what's legal. It's about what we can make legal".

Legislators are supposed to make laws, not lawyers. If Congress gangs up on us with bad laws, OK, we're fucked. We'll live with it. Interpreting the law to allow criminal ends, under direction from the pretender to the highest position in the World, is not what we want.

Sign The Petition

If you agree with Fixer's post (just below this one), and mine (just above this one), and even if you don't, go sign the Declaration Against Torture at Act For Change. I don't know if it will help in keeping Sleazy Gonzales out of the top law enforcement position in our country, but it can't hurt.

Sleazy Gonzales

Via Pudentilla from WaPo:

A dozen high-ranking retired military officers took the unusual step yesterday of signing a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing "deep concern" over the nomination of White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general, marking a rare military foray into the debate over a civilian post.

The group includes retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officers are one of several groups to separately urge the Senate to sharply question Gonzales during a confirmation hearing Thursday about his role in shaping legal policies on torture and interrogation methods.

[. . .]

The letter signed by the retired officers, compiled by the group Human Rights First and sent to the committee's leadership last night, criticizes Gonzales for his role in reviewing and approving a series of memorandums arguing, among other things, that the United States could lawfully ignore portions of the Geneva Conventions and that some forms of torture "may be justified" in the war on terror.

"Today, it is clear that these operations have fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world," the officers wrote, referring to the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies.

[. . .]

"Repeatedly in our past, the United States has confronted foes that, at the time they emerged, posed threats of a scope or nature unlike any we had previously faced," the letter reads. "But we have been far more steadfast in the past in keeping faith with our national commitment to the rule of law."

[. . .]

The hearings start tomorrow. Make sure your senators get an email making them aware of your feelings on this matter. General Hoar:

[. . .]

I think that the key thing, the thing we are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee, is to ask a series of questions of Mr. Gonzales during his confirmation hearings, that will fully illuminate Mr. Gonzales's role in the development of these policy papers, that had to do with the abrogation of Geneva Accords in the Afghan campaign, and the use of torture for detainees. And I think it's imperative that these issues be fully illuminated at the hearing. And this is what we hope will happen: Is that the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will recommend to the Senate as a whole, whether or not Mr. Gonzales should be confirmed as the Attorney General, really needs to bear down on these issues, and taking the documentary evidence that we have, and connect the dots, to find out what Mr. Gonzales's role has been in these very troubling issues.

[. . .]

This is a great interview and you should read it. (Link via american street.) The good General makes his opinions known on the clusterfuck in Iraq and the leadership at the Pentagon.

Update: 05:05:

Kos has more:

[. . .]

. . . Officials dispute how much senior Justice Department officials knew of the memorandum as it was being prepared. A former official and a current one said that neither Attorney General John Ashcroft nor his deputy, Larry D. Thompson, were aware of the memorandum until it was about to be submitted to the White House.

Can you fucking imagine that? They had to hide it from Ashcroft?!?!?!?

Ads

If you've noticed, I caved in to Google and put ads in the sidebar . . . on the bottom . . . all the way on the bottom. Click on 'em if you want, don't if you don't want to. I give no endorsements and I know nothing about the individual advertisers.

I've been running this blog on Blogger/Google's dime, same with the Haloscan comments. I'm supposed to make money when people click on the ads so I thought I'd use whatever income was generated from them to upgrade the blog. Maybe spring for a Haloscan membership, or actually get some server space on Blogger so it would be easier to post our own pics, shit like that. If it ain't worth it, I'll take the ads down.

The last thing I'm gonna do is compromise whatever respect we have in the Blogosphere (Blogtopia, for skippy). I sure as hell ain't asking for donations . . . ever. If we ever reach the big time in the blog world, and the need for increased bandwidth becomes a factor, we'll make the decisions about how the Brain will be financed. For now, let's see what the ads generate and how we'll use it.

Thank you for your attention. You may now resume your activities.

Ve know who you are

From WTF??:

[. . .]

"The fine print in [the smirking liar's] No Child Left Behind Act is slowly dawning on the parents of high school students across the country as the war in Iraq drags on: military recruiters can blitz youngsters with uninvited phone calls to their homes and on-campus pitches replete with video war games. This is all possible under a little noted part of the law that requires schools to provide the names, addresses (campus addresses, too) and phone numbers of students or risk losing federal aid."

[. . .]

Didja watch Fahrenheit 9/11? Didja see 'em saying that the weasels in Congress don't read bills before they vote on them? Well, now your kid is on some recruiter's list. Guess what? I'll bet you anything that those same lists will be given to Selective Service too. Do ya feel it getting drafty?

Jesus

It's come to this:

[. . .]

"The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: 'Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied.' In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching with 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: 'If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them,' says a bullish lieutenant. 'It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people.'" [my emphasis]

[. . .]

This is no fault of our Marines. Wasn't their choice to be there and they're doing what they have to in order to stay alive while trying to keep some semblance of peace. It's just sad that they have to have the 'kill 'em all and let God sort out the mess' mentality. No, it's criminal, not on the Marines' part, but on the part of the Bush administration.