...has moved. Update your blogrolls!
Holy Fuck
HILLAH, Iraq - A suicide car bomber blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits Monday as they gathered for physicals outside a medical clinic south of Baghdad, killing at least 115 people and wounding 132 — the single deadliest attack in the two-year insurgency.Link.
Torn limbs and other body parts littered the street outside the clinic in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite area about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Monday's blast outside the clinic was so powerful it nearly vaporized the suicide bomber's car, leaving only its engine partially intact. The injured were piled into pickup trucks and ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals.
[…]
Outside the concrete and brick building in Hillah, people gingerly walked around small lakes of blood pooling on the street. Scorch marks infused with blood covered the clinic's walls and dozens of people helped pile body parts, including arms, feet and limbs, into blankets. Piles of shoes and tattered clothes were thrown into a corner.
Angry crowds gathered outside the hospital chanting "Allah akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" — and demanded to know the fate of their relatives.
[…]
Maj. Gen. Osman Ali, an Iraqi National Guard commander in Hillah, put the toll at 115 dead and 132 wounded. A health official in Babil province said the death toll could rise.
Dia Mohammed, the director of Hillah General Hospital, said most of the victims were recruits waiting to take physicals as part of the application process to join the Iraqi police and national guard.
The Real Cost of the War
I’m pissed, real pissed, about how many American taxpayers’ dollars are going toward George Bush’s folly in Iraq (and Halliburton’s coffers), but I’m even more pissed about this:
As the United States nears the two-year mark in its military presence in Iraq still fighting a violent insurgency, it is also coming to grips with one of the products of war at home: a new generation of veterans, some of them scarred in ways seen and unseen. While military hospitals mend the physical wounds, the VA is attempting to focus its massive health and benefits bureaucracy on the long-term needs of combat veterans after they leave military service. Some suffer from wounds of flesh and bone, others of emotions and psyche.There are stories of other soldiers, statistics about how many of these men and women come home psychological scarred. Vet Centers are meant to help them find jobs, but when, despite the promises made to make enlistment more attractive, you end up being one of the less fortunate who have been trained for little else than being a cog in an unstoppable war machine, with what are you left to put on a résumé?
[…]
Jesus Bocanegra was an Army infantry scout for units that pursued Saddam Hussein in his hometown of Tikrit. After he returned home to McAllen, Texas, it took him six months to find a job.
He was diagnosed with PTSD and is waiting for the VA to process his disability claim. He goes to the local Vet Center but is unable to relate to the Vietnam-era counselors.
"I had real bad flashbacks. I couldn't control them," Bocanegra, 23, says. "I saw the murder of children, women. It was just horrible for anyone to experience."
Bocanegra recalls calling in Apache helicopter strikes on a house by the Tigris River where he had seen crates of enemy ammunition carried in. When the gunfire ended, there was silence.
But then children's cries and screams drifted from the destroyed home, he says. "I didn't know there were kids there," he says. "Those screams are the most horrible thing you can hear."
At home in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico border, he says young people have no concept of what he's experienced. His readjustment has been difficult: His friends threw a homecoming party for him, and he got arrested for drunken driving on the way home.
"The Army is the gateway to get away from poverty here," Bocanegra says. "You go to the Army and expect to be better off, but the best job you can get (back home) is flipping burgers. ... What am I supposed to do now? How are you going to live?"
As a wiser man than me once said, “As long as you can fight, you're cool. Once you're wounded or nuts, we don't wanna know ya. …[A]ll they want is cannon fodder and deck apes.” Support the Troops is an easy proposition when said troops are nameless, faceless masses sent off to fight a war in a faraway place that rarely gets covered on the nightly news. But when faced with an Army of One who’s returned home and isn’t quite sure how to go back to life like it used to be, all that support seems curiously AWOL.
"Once they come through the door, they usually come back," [Vet Center counselor Jeremy Harrison] says. "For them, this is the only chance to talk to somebody, because their families don't understand, their friends don't understand. That's the big thing. They can't talk to anyone. They can't relate to anyone."Perhaps if our president, or any of the chickenhawks surrounding him, had been to war themselves, they might have known that this is why it makes a great fucking difference that there were no WMDs in Iraq, why war should only ever be our very last resort.
You Wanna Talk About Undermining the Sanctity of Marriage?
Remember this:
… the idiotic propaganda piece issued by USA Next because AARP wasn’t getting behind the president’s proposed Social Security reform, attempting to illustrate that the AARP’s agenda was anti-American and pro-gay marriage?
Well, it turns out the GOPers dosn’t even like acting gay for a photo shoot, so instead they ripped off a picture of a real gay couple’s wedding. The couple in question are Richard M. Raymen and Steven P. Hansen of Portland, Oregon, and they’re none too happy their image was used. (Go figure.)
A lawyer from their letter can be viewed here, and a press release issued by AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis, who’s working as their publicist, can be viewed here.
Go get ‘em, boys. The dumb fucks.
You Wanna Talk About Undermining the Sanctity of Marriage?
George Bush Has Fucked Me Again
So today Mr. Shakes and I went into Chicago to a friend’s for Oscar night. My 10-year winning streak is over. (Mr. Shakes is a cheat—he just made all his selections based on the Vegas odds, and edged me in categories like best short documentary. No fair. Pout pout.)
After we arrived in early afternoon, Mr. Shakes and our pal trucked off to a local comic store, leaving me to take a much-needed nap, after I drove myself nutty writing like a maniac this weekend. Fast forward to the end of the evening, when Mr. Shakes and I get into the car (which was left in a parking space directly outside our pal’s flat—George Costanza would have been bragging about this space for a decade), and immediately my nose, mouth, and eyes fill with this horrific odor/taste which can only be described as cat piss meets Brut.
“What the fuck is that?!” I exclaim, and Mr. Shakes starts laughing and gestures to the rearview mirror, from which is hanging a cut-out of George Bush’s head.
“It’s a car freshener,” he tells me. “I bought it at the comic shop for a laugh. It’s Presidential cologne.”
“Freshener my ass—that thing fucking reeks!”
We threw it out the window, but the damage had been done. Our car stank of a cheap salesman’s collar at the end of a hard day, and the taste of the thing had penetrated my very teeth—no amount of Pepsi and cigarettes could rid the insidious tang from my mouth.
So in the cold rain, we drove home with the windows open, cursing the very existence of George Bush, even though I’m fairly sure he didn’t give permission for his likeness to be associated with the most offensive aroma this side of Calcutta.
Oscar Night
...or as I call it, The Superbowl.
I'm off to Chicago for a day of Oscar fun. Consider this an open thread.
If you need a little inspiration, here's the new Condi Doll released by Condi for Prez:
Discuss.
(Picture via Crooks and Liars.)
Our Fight
I’ve got a post up over at Ezra Klein’s place which dissects a recent speech given by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in which he links gay marriage and US prestige, specifically that legalizing gay marriage would undermine our prestige. Although in that post I was specifically debunking Romney’s bullshit, there’s another troubling aspect to his assertion that I wanted to mention. Something very wrong, very dark and insidious, is happening when the party in power begins to connect denying the rights of a scapegoated group with national identity.
The increasingly vitriolic and frequent attacks on the LGBT community is this country is not unlike what happened to the Jews in Germany before WWII, including the use of their images in propaganda pieces. We must loudly defend the rights of gays and lesbians every time something like this happens. The fence-sitting bullshit we’ve seen from our elected officials is not good enough, and we need to make our voices heard that it is unacceptable to meet the hostility of the Right toward the LGBT community with weak and timid waffling.
My straight liberal friends, if you cannot be motivated to get active in this fight simply because it’s appalling that there are citizens of this country who are not afforded the same rights you are, then let’s revisit once again the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller, a Protestant minister in Germany during WWII:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
This isn’t “their” fight. It’s our fight, and we need to get our asses on the battlefield.
(Crossposted at The Seventh Cross.)
If He Didn't Already Have My Vote...
...he'd have it now. This post from Me4President is hilarious:
I have been awaiting Ann's interpretation of the whole Jeff Gannon fiasco with excitement. Luckily for me it has arrived. I did not see it until after I had visited JRH over at Upon Further Review... and am glad I stopped by and saw that he had already commented on her.You must go read the rest as M4P imagines Ann's reaction if the same thing had happened in the Clinton White House. Great stuff.
Like I thought, she was also appalled at such antics because things like these hurt her credibility as a journalist.
Oh wait, I misread her piece. What the hell? Ann is not outraged that national security may have been endangered or that an unqualified hack claims to have received classified information before anyone else? Oh damn, what would I call a situation where people put our safety in danger for political reasons? Now I remember, treason.
The Seventh Cross
In conjunction with some of the best bloggers in the blogosphere—The Fixer, Travis, Eponymous, Granny Insanity, and Matt Ruben of Democrappy—I’ve begun work on a blog called The Seventh Cross, which is intended to track the rise of fascism in America. You’ll find the explanation of the great name, suggested by The Fixer, here. Much thanks is due Eponymous for getting us all set up.
My first contribution, Virginia is for Lovers, is now up, and there’s other good stuff to check out, too, even though we’re just getting rolling. If something catches your attention that you think we should cover, email me (or any one of us) and we’ll get on it.
If you have any doubt about the necessity of this endeavor, please see here. And as I’ve said before:
The undermining of democracy happens incrementally, by slow degrees. Its schemers trust that no one will notice, and that those who do will be labeled as mad, because, as Monty Python so aptly suggested, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
So call me mad, if you will, but I will not let my silence be misconstrued as capitulation.
Housesitting
As I mentioned, I'm working for Ezra this weekend.
Greetings
W is for Women
This Noah's on a Sinking Ship
What's the Matter with Kansas Now?
She's a Deaniac
Stop by if you get a chance.
Everything’s Coming Up Roses
I’m no war expert, but this doesn’t sound good:
A major oil fire raged Saturday after insurgents blew up a pipeline in the north of the country.
[…]
Attackers hit the oil pipeline late Friday, setting fire to the line running about 20 miles from fields in Dibis to the Kirkuk, which is 150 miles north of Baghdad. As the line continued to blaze Saturday night, an official with the state-run North Oil Co. said it would take at least four days to repair the line.
Insurgents have regularly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country funds badly needed for reconstruction. Three pipelines were been blown up last week.
Acts of sabotage have blocked exports to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a major outlet for Iraqi crude, for nearly two weeks.
And:
Insurgents, meanwhile, killed two civilians in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed an Iraqi national guardsman and injured 7 people southwest of the capital and the U.S. military announced the death Friday an American soldier killed in a massive security sweep in the Sunni Triangle.And:
The body of Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, the 35-year-old news presenter for he U.S.-funded Nineveh TV, was found dumped along a Mosul street, six days after she was kidnapped by masked gunmen, according to her husband, who said she had been shot four times in the head.Fuck.
Words v. Deeds
Mahablog has an excellent post today about talking the talk versus walking the walk. A must read.
Support the Troops
Link (via Democratic Underground):
Republican majorities on the House and Senate veterans' affairs committees have voted to impose an enrollment fee of at least $230 a year on 2.4 million veterans - one of every three now eligible for Veterans Affairs Administration health care.Guh. And who’s fucking fault is that, dickheads?
[…]
Both [Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho] and [Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.], in separate letters to their budget committees, said difficult choices have to be made this year, given a tight VA budget and the number of new veterans returning from war with severe injuries.
I don't suppose those rich bitches who voted your greedy asses into office would be willing to spare part of their precious tax cut so our veterans don't have to pay an enrollment fee to get access to healthcare so they can get treatment for, among other things, wounds incurred in a war you support but are unwilling to fight?
Pricks.
Million Dollar Movie
Just returned from seeing Million Dollar Baby. This has been a pretty shit year for films, and after being rather disappointed by Mystic River last year, I didn't have particularly high hopes. But MDB lived up to--and surpassed--its hype. It's amazing. I'm actually excited to see it win the Oscar now, which I am convinced it will.
Posting will probably be fairly light this weekend, as I'm doing some housesitting for Ezra. Don't worry, though--I'll save all the good stuff for here. :-)
[UPDATE: Don't read this comments thread if you don't want key plot points revealed.]
Steers and Queers: Gay Issues in Texas
What’s East Texas’ Stephen F. Austin University’s idea of a thoughtful debate about gay issues? Pitting two anti-gay groups against each other (link via Max Blumenthal):
The Rev. W.N. Otwell of God Said Ministries in Mt. Enterprise and Adam Key, Spring junior and public relations director for Straight Pride, will debate issues related to homosexuality during a public forum beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Regents Suite A of the UC.Cool!
“Both sides are anti-gay,” Doyle Srader, communication lecturer and debate moderator, said. “One side is moderate, and the other is more extreme...”
As for the gay issues they’ll be discussing? Well, it’s a whole list of topics of interest to the gay community, including:
the relationship between homosexuality and child molestation; the arrest and trial of four Philadelphians for preaching against homosexuality in public; homosexuality in schools and universities; benefits of gay marriage and civil unions; how the church is responding to homosexuality and how it should respond; homosexuality on campus; and how the average person relates to the gay agenda.(Something tells me that even the ones that sound reasonable…aren’t. Just a little sense I have when the first item on the list is “the relationship between homosexuality and child molestation.”)
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. “Shakespeare’s Sister, I’m not gay. What’s in it for me?” Fear not, my hetero pals. It turns out that Straight Pride’s Adam Key is also part of a group called Psalm 24,
a fledgling student organization based around the idea that Biblical values are as true today as when they were written.So get out your stones and get ready to throw ‘em! There are plenty of adulteresses out there who could use some Biblical values to set them right, and they’re not going to stone themselves.
Bush Tells the Truth
Worthy of a headline, no? There’s a lot of bizarre shit going on during this European whirlwind tour, and one of the weirdest has to be the president’s comments on a free press while in Russia. When you read the quote, forget for a moment the laughable hypocrisy coming from the leader of an administration which has no qualms about issuing propaganda to push their agenda—that’s so obvious as to not merit comment. Check out the last bit, instead (via Hesiod at the American Street, emphasis mine):
I think it’s important any viable democracy has got a free and active press … whether it be in America or anywhere else, the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one in where there’s an active press corps. Obviously, there has got to be constraints. There’s got to be truth. People have got to tell the truth, and if somebody violates the truth, then those who own a particular newspaper or those who are in charge of particular electronic station need to hold people to account. The press — the capacity of the press to hold people to account also depends on their willingness to self-examine at times when they’re wrong. And that happens on occasion in America. And that’s — that’s an important part of maintaining a proper relationship between government and press.Did you catch it? He’s daring the media to get some balls. It is, according to the president, the responsibility of the press to maintain the proper relationship between themselves and the government. Translation: We’re going to try to coerce, intimidate, threaten, bribe, and use you every chance we get, but it’s up to you to say no. Holding us accountable for using you to be our propaganda tools is dependent upon self-examination; if you can’t admit your own role in it, you will never be able to call us out on it, either.
And he’s right. He’s absolutely right. When you’ve got slimy, unethical, manipulative, opportunistic, soulless drips of dog wank running the government, who will use anything to their advantage no matter how grim, no matter how immoral, no matter whether in direct conflict with the very tenets upon which this country was founded, the responsibility to maintain a proper relationship between the government and the press does indeed fall squarely on the press. A responsibility, by the way, they have taken all too lightly, and consequently failed miserably to uphold their end of the bargain.
Kind of amazing. But there it is, Mainstream Media. Whaddaya gonna do about it?
As an aside, what the fuck is this all about?!
Blurrrggggh.
[UPDATE: I just noticed that Putin kind of looks like a ventriloquist's dummy sitting on Bush's knee. "When you asked if anyone wanted to buy some wood during the debates, I thought you were trying to get ridda me!" Wah wah wah.]
Friday Limerick
There really isn’t much hope
That a fellow like Gannon, the dope,
Will meet a just fate;
Instead there is hate
For happy out queers from the Pope.
Friday Bookishness
This week, I started reading Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, whose protagonist is a 15-year-old autistic boy. So far it’s really great. I’m liking it a lot.
As for recommendations, this week I’m recommending Michelle Cliff’s No Telephone to Heaven. I first read it over a decade ago, and I’ve reread it several times since, and each time I read it, I get more out of it. Cliff is a great writer, and the story compelling. The main character is a Jamaican immigrant called Clare Savage, whose father encourages her to try to “pass” as white, causing all kinds of drama as she finds she fits into neither the black nor white communities wholly. Later, she returns to Jamaica, where she becomes embroiled with radical political activists…
Reading that back, I’m not sure that’s a great sell, but I don’t want to give too much away. My first reading of the book, I knew nothing about it, and the surprise of it was part of why it stuck with me so, I think.
The themes of community, self-identity, and political activism will no doubt resonate with anyone who spends enough time here to regard my recommendations with the remotest interest.
Has anyone picked up Flashman yet?
