Next Democratic Star?

Life of the Party
Brian Schweitzer, the blue governor of the red state of Montana, may just have the answer to the Democrats' woes.

(this article is on salon.com, so to view it you have to watch an ad to get a "site pass")

April 19, 2005 | HELENA, Mont. -- The future is wearing a turquoise bolo tie wrapped around the open collar of a blue-and-white-striped button-down dress shirt. And if that doesn't sound quite right, then you haven't considered the mismatched gray suit coat or the blue jeans and boots down below. Meet Brian Schweitzer, the soil sciences major who grew up to be the governor of Montana -- and may be the next best hope of the Democratic Party.

On Nov. 2, George W. Bush beat John Kerry in Montana by 20 percentage points. On the same day, Montana voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage -- and elected as their governor a populist, pro-choice Democrat. Are Montana voters as schizophrenic as the governor's fashion sense, or is Brian Schweitzer just that good?

A lot of folks say it's the latter. Everyone from the Washington Monthly to the American Spectator has taken note of the rancher from Whitefish, Mont., and what the Wall Street Journal called his "well-spoken, gun-owning, dog-loving, native-ritual-doing, shot-of-whiskey-drinking true-west style." Democrats hungry for hope in the dark days after 2004 find themselves wondering whether another little-known governor from a small red state can somehow help them find their way back to the White House.

Ask Schweitzer about 2008, and he ticks off the names of Democratic governors who've proved they can appeal to red-state voters. What about him? "You know, all these people are saying, 'To be governor of Montana, he must have it figured out,'" Schweitzer says. "I'm telling you, I've broken more colts than there are days that I've been in office. I'm just a regular guy, getting things done in Montana. I don't know if that works nationally, but I don't care."

The Democrats need a candidate who can speak English. There's a reason Senators don't get elected President: They speak Senate-ese. An elite, effete, arrogant, wordy, indirect, imprecise, courtly, passive & ultimately unpersuasive language. They're like lawyers but worse. At least trial lawyers have to learn to persuade 12 regular folks so we HAVE to master the colloquial. It's not "Who among us does not love NASCAR?" It's either "NASCAR rocks!" or "NASCAR sucks!", depending on your point of view. (OK, I gotta admit, I just don't get the NASCAR thing. How can driving a car be a sport? How can people sit in a giant stadium for hours watching a bunch of cars go around in a circle? Give me an English Premiere League soccer game any day.)

So Schweitzer's my guy. He speaks English. He's direct. He tells stories to persuade, rather than telling people his conclusions in florid language.

No more Senators! Let's learn one thing from President Horse Fondler: It is better to speak simply & directly. People will believe you & vote for you EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!

Jumping off my soap box, heading to the kitchen to make dinner....NOT "In regards to the previous statement, I will withdraw and allow others to judge my proposal. Now is the time to prepare our repast."

Say it, and say it plainly. No more Senators.

Joey Has Two Moms

Mom's the Word

Years ago, then-Giants second baseman Jeff Kent was changing out of his uniform when he glanced at the nearby reporters and cracked, "There are no queers here, are there?" The comment barely raised an eyebrow.

Valentine is aware of the stigma. That is why his family asked that this story not be published until Valentine secured a spot on the major league roster.

"We've almost never been treated badly," said Deb Valentine, Joe's birth mother. "But we live in the real world, and you don't 100 percent know how people will react."

Here's the startling thing: Thus far in Joe Valentine's life, few have reacted.

Born in Las Vegas on Christmas Eve 1979, Joe is the biological son of Deb Valentine and a man she prefers not to discuss, a man Joe does not know. Deb declined to discuss the circumstances of the pregnancy, but when she delivered Joe at Sunrise Hospital, the person by her side was Doreen Price, her life partner since they first met in a bowling alley in 1975.

I think the Red Sox should trade for this kid. We need the pitching (David Wells, Curt Schilling & Keith Foulke are not exactly having career years) and then his two moms could get legally married in Massachusetts.

It's been a year since gay marriage came to Massachusetts (thank you Supreme Judicial Court) and look what's happened: NOTHING! We still have the lowest divorce rate in the nation, and there's been no plague of locusts or anything of the sort. Well , there was that moron Ron Crews who moved here from Georgia & ran for Congress against my Congressman, the estimable Jim McGovern, but Crews lost 2-1 & hopefully has taken the hint and gone down south of the Mason Dixon line again.

Haters need not apply here in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Since I Been Gone

We gotta a Pope who can be called "Joey Ratz", a former member of the Hitler Youth.

The Bible thumpers are after judges, most of whom are quite conservative.

John Bolton, a man who chases people who don't agree with him up & down the hallways of hotels in foreign countries, has been nominated to be our head diplomat at the UN.

The Secret Service has released records that show that the Presstitute didn't sign out of the White House, more than a dozen times. Which leads us to question, who was the Presstitute schtupping??? My money's on Scottie.

It was a good three weeks to be semi-conscious.

Time Out

Apologies to my readers for disappearing without notice. A friend's medical emergency took me off the blogging beat. Now my computer is bugging out. And Friday I have my own long-scheduled minor medical issue.

Whew. Not blogging is hard work.

I'll be back after tax day.

I Was Wrong - Jeb Has Lost His Mind

I suppose if I saw my national political career going down the tubes I might panic, too. Especially if I was the anointed one, the older, one, the smart one, the one who was supposed to be President first. It has to be galling to watch brother dumbBush preening from the throne Jebbie was supposed to occupy.

Speaking of "occupy", apparently Jeb sent law enforcement officers from two different Florida state agencies to seize poor Terri Schiavo, take her from her hospice & reinsert her feeding tube.

Police 'showdown' averted

Apparently one of those law enforcement officers realized they were being sent into a hornet's nest without a bee hood, because they called ahead to warn local police they were coming. Local police said Hell, No, no court order, no deal.

Insane. Were they going to hold a gun to a physician's head to force the reinsertion of the feeding tube? No doctor who wanted to have a medical license tomorrow would undertake a surgical procedure on the most famous hospice patient in the world.

God save me from becoming a political football. Fifteen years in a persistent vegetative state.

Did you know that until 2000, the parents of this poor woman admitted that she was in a PSV? According to the Miami Herald, in January of 2000 their own lawyer even admitted this in open court:

''We do not doubt that she's in a persistent vegetative state,'' Pam Campbell, then the Schindlers' lawyer, told the court. Later, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, asked Mary Schindler, ''Is Terri in a vegetative condition now?'' to which she replied, ``Yes. That is what they call it.''

And there's no way the parents can "take care" of this woman. They couldn't do it 15 years ago; they certainly can't to it today. From the same article:

Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers brought Terri home briefly in the fall of 1990, but were overwhelmed.

There is a time to let go. It's long past. Stop the insanity & let this woman go.

Crackpot TV

I swear, I have never seen so many completely off-their-rocker people on TV before. Fox & CNN are competing to see who can put more right-wing nutjobs on the screen in an hour. Fox is of course winning but CNN is making a valiant effort. Just now, on CNN, the brainless newsreader breathlessly asked an "on-the-scene" reporter in Florida, (I'm paraphrasing here) "We just had [right-wing crackpot] on, and they are asking Governor Bush to throw out the Florida Constitution in order to save this woman's life. Is the governor considering this?" And she was SERIOUS, she gave this kind of wild, insane speculation credence.

Does CNN think Jebbie's cerebral cortex has liquified, too?

Apparently the religious wingnuts have decided that Jebbie is responsible, that if Terri Shiavo dies it's on his head & they will bring him down. Check out If Terri Dies It's Jeb's Fault on World O'Crap for the threats being made on Jebbie's political career. (Click on March 23rd when you go on World O'Crap.)

Years ago I had a client who had lung cancer. He loved Jack Kevorkian. My client had undergone incredibly painful & aggressive treatment for his cancer, and he was determined that when he couldn't take it anymore the decision to let go would be his. He thought Dr. Kevorkian was a hero & should be given a medal. My client died long before Kevorkian was put in jail for assisting two people with Alzheimer's to end their lives. He would have been horrified about Kevorkian being in jail. And he would be railing about Tom Delay, Bill Frist and the other meddling hypocrites in Congress for stepping into this very personal, painful & private decision.

In Sync With Katha Pollitt

I swear, I didn't read this:

Invisible Women by Katha Pollitt

Or maybe, like so many op-ed editors, they just don't see women, even when the women are right in front of them.

Before I wrote this:

Why I Can't Get a Column at the LA Times

Men just hire people who look like them (other men) and then look about wonderingly when women cry foul.

Read Katha, she's right on.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Benjamin Disraeli was right. There ARE lies, damned lies, and statistics. Barry Bond's statistics are the ultimate damned lie.

If I hear one more sportscaster (hello Hazel Mae!) say, in reference to Barry Bonds, "When it comes to Barry Bonds, the numbers don't lie", I will scream.

Hello, THAT'S THE POINT. The numbers of an admitted juicer are all lies. He cheated to get the stats. Therefore, the statistics are lies.

Could we stop saying that, please?

Christy Todd Spineless

Christy Todd Whitman was dumbBush's first EPA chief. She did nothing for the environment, let Cheney dictate policy, and resigned to write an "Aren't I a good Republican" book.

Bill McKibben lets her have it: Christy Todd Whitman: When Courage Was Called For, She Punted

Bush promised to lower carbon dioxide emissions during the 2000 campaign, actually had her to go the G-8 summit and promise the same, and then when she got back to DC he called her in & changed the policy. Now, says dumbBush, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant & the US will not agree to caps.

Did she fight this? Go all Elliott Richardson on Shrub & resign in high dudgeon over this? Oh, no. As McKibben describes it:

I can't think of an instance in modern U.S. history when a Cabinet member had been so neatly, quickly and publicly kneecapped. But instead of doing the right thing, Whitman did nothing.

In a spectacular display of political cowardice, she settled down at the EPA, devoting herself to minor pieces of legislation such as the one that extended limits on diesel emissions to vehicles for "non-road uses," like tractors and backhoes. Not a bad law, but in the end no big deal. Whitman had a chance to make a real difference on what one panel of Nobelists after another has called the worst dilemma human civilization yet has faced, and she'd passed it up.

Imagine what would have happened if she had simply quit, accusing the president of reneging on a promise, undermining relations with our allies and, more to the point, neglecting the most crucial environmental challenge that's ever appeared.

It would have lifted the issue out of its relative obscurity and set it at the center of American political debate. Whitman could have done more to move the United States off the dime about global warming than any politician before or since.

Whever any Democrat or liberal tells me we need to support moderate Republicans, I think of Christy. Not exactly a profile in courage. I'll stick with the Dems.

Bonds Turns Juice Into Whine

Woe is Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds is tired. Tired. Tired. The media has made him jump off a bridge (the Golden Gate?) Everyone is against him. It's making his children cry. Boo-hoo, woe is me, nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms.

I gotta agree with Gary Peterson, in his article on MSNBC today: No one's buying Barry's pity party: Star has nerve to blame media for image he created

His concluding grafs:

For him to attempt to invoke pity is as impressive a feat as his low-orbit home run off Troy Percival in the 2002 World Series. Because, when you get right down to it:

Nobody told him to associate with trainer (and childhood friend) Greg Anderson, and nutritionist Victor Conte, two of the four targets in the BALCO case.

Nobody told him, when questioned by the BALCO grand jury in November, 2003, to give the literally unbelievable testimony (later leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle) that he used cream and clear substances thinking they were flaxseed oil and arthritis balm.

Nobody told him to keep a mistress for 10 years, an arrangement that is currently biting him in the hinder as she rats him out as a potential felon.

Nobody told him to sneer and scowl his way through the summer of 2001, when he set the single season home run record.

Nobody told him to loaf on ground ball outs to the point that local radio broadcasters were criticizing him on the air.

These are choices Bonds made, as is his right. The shocking thing is, he can't see how those choices have led to his stature as the least-loved player in the game.

But there he was on Tuesday, strapping on his pity party hat above sad, boo-hoo eyes. That's just another reason why, should this be the beginning of the end for Bonds, should he fail to hit the 53 home runs he needs to become baseball's all-time leader, a lot of people will be partying for another reason.

And they won't all be at Hank Aaron's house.

While MSNBCNBCFOXNEWSCSPAN et al are convulsed over the Schiavo case, very little of substance has hit the airwaves.

Here's the best commentary on the case, from the blogs(of course it's from the blogs, you were expecting actual news from the media?):

The Facts:

The Terri Schiavo Information Page, by Michael Conigliaro, from the Abstract Appeal blog

The Ethics:

Terri Schiavo, by hilzoy on the Obsidian Wings blog

Terri Schiavo, Part I: The Medical Post
Terri Schiavo, Part II: The Ethical Post by Rivka, on the Respectful of Otters blog

The politics are rather obvious.

I'd like to make it clear that it is my wish that I NOT be kept alive through medical treatment if I were in this situation. Give me a big dose of morphine & let me go.

Profile in Courage?

The judge who's been assigned the Schiavo case is named James Whittemore. Here's his bio:

Whittemore, James D.
Born 1952 in Walterboro, SC

Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
Nominated by William J. Clinton on October 20, 1999, to a new seat created by 113 Stat. 1501; Confirmed by the Senate on May 24, 2000, and received commission on May 25, 2000.

Education:
University of Florida, B.S.B.A, 1974

Stetson University College of Law, J.D., 1977

Professional Career:
Private practice, FL, 1977
Assistant federal public defender, Office of Federal Public Defender, 1978-1981
Private practice, FL, 1981-1990
Judge, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court, Florida, 1990-2000


Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

Terri Schiavo Case

While Corporate Media reports every 15 minutes on "The Fight To Save Terri Schiavo", the phrase with which every story on MSNBCNNCNBCFOXNN is prefaced, here's what is missing from the coverage; from Digby:

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

As an attorney, I am waiting to see if the federal judge who gets this case has the guts to declare the law unconstitutional and dismiss.

Why I Can't Get a Column at the LA Times

Shorter Michael Kinsley ("He wrote, she wrote") in today's Washington Post:

I can't hire women columnists because I have to give equal time to conservatives, and they're all white men.

Here's what he says:

Newspaper opinion sections also want diversity of political views. In recent years, that, frankly, has led to reverse discrimination in favor of conservatives. And an unpleasant reality is that each type of diversity is at war with the others. If pressure for more women succeeds -- as it will -- there will be fewer black voices, fewer Latinos and so on.

Why should this be so? Aren't there black women and conservative Latinos? Of course there are. There may even be a wonderfully articulate disabled Latino gay conservative who is undiscovered because she is outside the comfortable old-boy network. But there probably aren't two.

Hey moron, I got news for you: Every other group but gender has half men and half women! Really! You can look it up! Age, race, disability, nationality, ethnic origin, even sexual orientation, pretty much every group is half men & half women!

Men just hire people who look like them (other men) and then look about wonderingly when women cry foul.

I'm on the Washington Post (online)

I don't know how these things happen, but last night while I was reading the Washington Post I read words that seemed very familiar to me: my own!

Howard Kurtz excerpted my post on the baseball hearings in his Media Notes Extra column on Friday!

Here's how Howie (or more likely, one of his minions) cut and pasted my post:

The MainSt.USA blog: "Conveniently, Sammy Sosa has lost his ability to speak English . . . Jose Canseco is an idiot, but he's the only honest player on this panel...Mark McGwire has shrunk a great deal from his playing days . . . Congress is full of cowards. No one has even managed to make McGwire take the 5th Amendment, although it's clear that the 5th is his fallback position. They're letting him get away with "I'm not here to talk about the past" and offering to become a spokesperson against steroids which is just ridiculous. So we know: McGwire was juiced. Roger Maris still owns the single season home run record as far as I'm concerned. The only guys who have exceeded it are Bonds, McGwire & Sosa, The Juice Boys."

I wonder how they found me?

And if you're reading again, Howie, or as one of the players might have addressed you during the steroid hearings, Mr. Kurtz, a real journalist would identify himself as married to Sheri Annis, a Republican media strategist who runs a company called "Fourth Estate Strategies" selling her right wing media expertise. A real journalist would say that before every column, kind of like "I approved this message", so we'd all know where you're coming from. In baseball terms, the Kurtz/Annis family bats right and throws right. Right, not left, not center, right. Just so we're clear. I know I'm just a lowly pajama-wearing blogger, but we like to know these things up front.

If you're reading this blog after clicking on the link in the Post, leave a comment, please.

Colonel Mustard in the Study with the Candlestick

I don't know how I missed this yesterday, but Sammy "I No Speaka Da English" Sosa gave a very lawyerly answer to the question, 'Did he do steroids?'. Tom Boswell in the Washington Post heard what I didn't: an answer with a loophole big enough to drive a hypodermic needle through.

And what of Sosa? He spoke in a soft voice. He brought an interpreter and a lawyer who read his statement for him despite the fact that those of us who know him from the baseball beat realize that he is perfectly fluent in English. That Sosa statement was a 99.9 percent total denial of any use of steroids. However, cynics may parse his words in search of legal loopholes.

"To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I've not broken the laws of the Unites States or the laws of the Dominican Republic," Sosa's statement read. "I have been tested as recently as 2004 and I am clean."

It is an awful world we live in. Within minutes of the statement's dissemination a veteran baseball writer said, "So, I guess that doesn't quite cover taking steroids orally if they were prescribed legally by a Dominican doctor." .

I was so busy laughing at Sosa's assertion that he didn't use steroids that I missed the essence of his statement: He didn't deny it completely. Of course he didn't. He's one of the players whose steroid use made him resemble Mr. Potato Head.

Roger Maris and Henry Aaron are the home run kings, and these guys are the Juice Kings.

Baseball Hearings

I'm laid up today, so have watched much of the baseball hearings. A few observations:

1. Conveniently, Sammy Sosa has lost his ability to speak English. His statement is read by his translator. I laughed out loud when the translator read that Sosa denied doing steroids. Just look at a picture of him from 1999. He's a juicer. During the hearings he has perfected the befuddled look I remember well from doing worker's comp hearings with clients for whom English was a second language, supposedly, although they did fine speaking with me outside the hearing room. I sincerely doubt that his English is this poor. (n.b., see #7, below) As the hearings go on, his answers become more and more confused. "I don't know" is his favorite answer.

2. Jose Canseco is an idiot, but he's the only honest player on this panel. He is being the honest idiot he is. At least he is answering the questions about baseball steroid use somewhat honestly. Sadly, he truly believes he is a hero for writing his book! He testifies that the hearings are taking place solely because of his book. He takes the position that steroids are a huge problem during the hearing, while in his book he sings the praises of steroids. Dolt.

3. Mark McGwire has shrunk a great deal from his playing days. Sammy Sosa is also very much smaller than he was in "The Year That Saved Baseball". Neither has the steroid acne today.

4. Congress is full of cowards. No one has even managed to make McGwire take the 5th Amendment, although it's clear that the 5th is his fallback position. They're letting him get away with "I'm not here to talk about the past" and offering to become a spokesperson against steroids which is just ridiculous. So we know: McGwire was juiced. Roger Maris still owns the single season home run record as far as I'm concerned. The only guys who have exceeded it are Bonds, McGwire & Sosa, The Juice Boys. I'm with Jim Bunning -- throw those tainted records out.

And why Roger Maris isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame, I can't believe, that's another injustice that should be rectified.

5. The most powerful testimony by far was from the parents of the two young men who committed suicide after taking steroids. They must be furious watching these baseball players avoid the questions.

6. The funniest testimony has to be from the doctor who advised MLB on their steroid policy. He was combative from the get-go, for reasons that are unclear to anyone watching the hearings from the outside. He got members of Congress to shout at him! Didn't look like he was enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.

7. New entry for funniest moment: Dennis Kucinich addresses Sammy Sosa in Spanish, and Sosa answers in English! Second language duel-off!

8. Saddest testimony: All these multimillionaire baseball players saying they didn't see much steroid use, or they just can't say. Curt Schilling denying what he said three years ago about players using steroids & human growth hormone (difference between then & today: Today he's a player rep! Deny everything!) All I gotta say to you guys is, no guts, no glory. Slink off. Shame on you all.

I reiterate my call for the tiny hypodermic needle to be placed next to all of the records of the juicers. In addition, Mike Greenwell (I saw him hit for the cycle in Fenway Park!) should be awarded Conseco's MVP award.

Sports Movies

ESPN has a couple of articles on their site about the greatest lines in sports movies:

Top 100 Sports Movie Quotes

From some players, their favorite lines from the movies:

Sports Movie Liners

Both of these articles missed a few great lines:

"Attitude reflects leadership, Captain."
- Remember the Titans

"Coach: What are you?
Players: Mobile! Agile! Hostile!"
- Remember the Titans

"Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you're not good at them."
- Tin Cup

"Skip: You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!
Larry: Lollygaggers!
Skip: Lollygaggers."
- Bull Durham

I got my idea for this post from Basegirl, who loves Jason Varitek & his favorite quote.

Hey, what Red Sox fan doesn't love the Captain of the World Champion Boston Red Sox?

I'd also like to point that Curt Schilling in his testimony today worked "World Champions" into the first sentence of his opening statement. Good job Curt! (You d***ed Republican.)

No More Snow on Kilimanjaro

Via Billmon, here's a picture of Africa's tallest mountain. Global warming has melted all the snow that covered it for centuries.

Modernizing Hemingway

The Real Cost of War

When Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi resigned on Dec. 8 after four years of service, he said: "It is now time for me to move on to fresh opportunities and different challenges." The Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter states that the real reason for Principi's leaving the Bush administration is a burgeoning scandal developing around the massive use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions in Iraq. Executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, Arthur N. Bernklau, wrote in the newsletter: "The real reason for Mr. Principi's departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the 'Gulf War Syndrome' has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the U.S. Military." Not mincing his words Bernklau continued, "Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability, a rate of 56 percent. In Vietnam the rate of disability was 10 percent."

This was a UPI piece, reprinted in the Washington Times (that liberal bastion) and I found it via the Art Pottery, Politics and Food blog. Here's the original link: The Laughing Man