I remember reading about these cards, and being told by a USMC Major who had recently returned from VN in 1972 about them. Here's one. How long before they start issuing these to the MAC-I?

In an era when one of the major disappointments is the treatment of Veterans by the Chickenhawk Adminstration this is an incredible story.

Army Pvt. Jacob Brown's leg was mangled, his wrist mashed and his spleen crushed.
And Brown is one lucky young man.
That's because he is still alive, he has a lovely new wife and he's from Danville.
Brown, 22, returned home three weeks ago to a city that has helped him
find a job and a home filled with new furniture. If city leaders have their way, every Danville veteran will enjoy the same homecoming through what is believed to be the first program of its kind in the nation.
"I never imagined that people back home would care so much about my problems," said Brown, who was injured two years ago during combat training in Germany. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think people would pitch together and help me out so much."

And thanks to Jillian for emailing me the article.

Here's the text of the 1600 Crew blackmail order to the 9/11 commission. What a bunch of asshats.

"The Commission must agree in writing that it will not request additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice. The National Security Advisor is uniquely situated to provide the Commission with information necessary to fulfill its statutory mandate. Indeed, it is for this reason that Dr. Rice privately met with the Commission for more than four hours on February 7, fully answered every question posed to her, and offered additional private meetings if necessary. Despite the fact that the Commission will therefore have access to all information of which Dr. Rice is aware, the Commission has nevertheless urged that public confidence in the work of the Commission would be enhanced by Dr. Rice appearing publicly before the Commission. Other White House officials with information relevant to the Commission's inquiry do not come within the scope of the Commission's rationale for seeking public testimony from Dr. Rice. These officials will continue to provide the Commission with information through private meetings, briefings, and documents, consistent with our previous practice."

Asshats.

From the NYTimes:

The stage for this political spectacle was a vote over a Democratic proposal to counter Mr. Bush's demand for unaffordable tax cuts by requiring offsetting savings in spending if the president's "temporary" cuts are to be made permanent. The vote was supposed to last five minutes, but it was held open for 23 extra minutes in a clear abuse of House rules.

The G.O.P. whips used the time to twist the arms of enough moderate Republican members to produce a 209-to-209 tie — the barest margin they needed to head off an embarrassing rebuff of President Bush's budgeting plans.

The proposal, on which 11 Republicans held fast in voting for responsible budgeting, was nothing more than a motion to reimpose the accounting process that brought fiscal sanity and ultimately surpluses to the runaway budgets of the 1990's. That the House leaders had to make such a desperate scramble was evidence that the skittish core of G.O.P. moderates realizes that voters are beginning to worry about the decade of deficit and debt being piled up by Mr. Bush's tax-cutting zeal.

Regime Change in '04. For all the correct reasons. Not the Right ones.

Stealing a little of "L'il Mick's Thunder from Down Under", Howie 'the Hack' Kurtz tells Al Franken how radio should work.

A good radio show has strong pacing and a deft mixture of ideology, confrontation and humor. Franken's "Factor" was meandering and discursive, almost NPR-like, sounding more like someone shooting the breeze at a dinner party than trying to persuade listeners. The "bumpers" between segments were soft and Muzak-like. With Franken speaking in a relatively low voice, the self-proclaimed "Zero Spin Zone" sometimes sounded like a zero energy zone.

Don't drive, don't wanna learn. If Sullivan were not a wealthy white guy I'd have to suspect he's one of the working poor. Uses public transit, relys on the kindness of friends (when he doesn't really need to) and refuses to learn a life-skill here in the US (unless you live on Manhattan, where a car is truly a handicap...NYC denizens do well without them and are proud of their four-wheel independance, good for them). Sullywatch covers this one with laser beam precision, I have only one question: where does the beagle fit on a Mountain Bike? One of those Wizard of Oz handlebar baskets? Does Sullivan see himself as Judy Garland?

No joking about this. Nine more Americans coming home in "transfer tubes". Four of them civilian contractors, five of them American Soldiers. Sent to die by Chickenhawk NeoCons.

Four American civilian contractors were killed in the Iraqi city of Fallujah Wednesday in an attack that left their vehicles in flames, and afterward at least three of the burned bodies were mutilated, dragged through the streets and suspended from a bridge while a group of Iraqis danced in the streets. Separately, in nearby Ramadi, five U.S. soldiers died after their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
...
The White House on Wednesday blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein's former regime for the attack. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, "There are some that are doing everything they can to try to prevent" a June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

A police official in Fallujah, Major Abdelaziz Faisal Hamid Mehamdy, said he did not see any survivors and that it took police about 30 minutes to arrive at the scene. He said no arrests were made and that the gunmen escaped.

Mehamdy said: "I was surprised. . . . The violence is increasing against the Americans. . . . They took over the country and they didn't give us anything. They came for democracy and to help the people, but we haven't seen any of this, just killing and violence."
...
The attack began when insurgents fired assault rifles at two SUVs in a busy commercial area. Then, hundreds of people, young and old, gathered around the burning vehicles and shouted anti-American slogans.

Video footage showed the charred bodies on the streets, having been dragged from the vehicles and beaten with shovels. At least three bodies were seen hanging from a bridge in Fallujah afterwards.

Question is, when will we have gone so far that there is no recovery? I fervently hope we have not done that already.

Most powerful idiot in the world, job description includes a big red button to start the end of the world. Current occupant of said job: a useless fool whose daddy once held the job in the last big job-losing, business-killing recession. Now the fool's daddy is almost in tears because:

George Bush senior appeared to fight back tears as he defended his son’s decision to invade Iraq.

The former President told an audience in Texas that the constant attacks on his son George W Bush were “offensive”.

“There is something ignorant in the way they dismiss the overthrow of a brutal dictator and the sowing of the seeds of basic human freedom in that troubled part of the world,” he told the Petrochemical and Refiners Association annual convention on Tuesday.

The former president accused the media of presenting an image of his son which was “something short of fair and balanced”.

Well perhaps except a few of the good ones, like Jeralyn over at Talkleft. One of Jeralyn's themes over the time I have been reading her blog has been the needless over-criminalization of everything by LawnOrder Congresscritters. Case in point:

People who illegally trade large amounts of copyrighted music online could face up to three years in jail under a bill approved today by a congressional panel.

A House Judiciary subcommittee unanimously approved the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004," which would be the first law to punish Internet music pirates with jail time if it were signed into law.

Survey says: you'll do nothing. RIAA one; P2P afficianados, nothing.

Just like the two-faced guy, The Andrew is arguing both side of the point simultaneously. Again. Sigh.

This is a war, Senator Kerry, not a law enforcement operation.

The strongest argument against him [Kerry] is that he will not take the war seriously enough to allow law enforcement to play its vital but complementary part, and would prematurely pull out of Iraq.

Hmmmm.....

President Bush reversed himself yesterday and agreed to permit his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before an independent commission investigating the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
...
Capitulating on a second point, Bush said he will submit to questions in a private session with all 10 commissioners, backing off his previous demand to meet only with Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton. Bush added a new restriction by saying he will appear only with Vice President Cheney at his side.

You can take it to the bank that the Right-Leaning members of the Commission will be following a 1600 Crew approved Script and Condi-Liar will be practicing for a role that would win her an Oscar, if there were one for most convincing supporting liar.

And what is up with the Fearless Leader and Dick show? Does Unka Karl need Little Toad Cheney there to stick his hand up Preznit No Show's ass to make sure he does not talk too much or too incoherently? Or maybe they just need Unka Dick there just to hold Preznit Cheap Plastic Action Figures' hand, to keep up his spirits in the midst of adult conversation...sort of an interpreter and hanky holder all in one. Colin, the other "adult" must have had the day off.

New polling data seems to suggest that the furor raised over the last couple of weeks has left Turd-Boy's reputation intact. Hey, news flash News Organiztions...poll away. If there are still Three Million Plus Missing Jobs on a certain date in November we can add one more person to the first Unemployment Report after the inauguration...and his name rhymes with Tush. As in the Tejas Tushes (via New England).

Did these folks go to J-School, apprentice at some obscure newspapers with the hopes of being the next WoodStein and then get hired by the "bigs" only to make stunning observations like this?

The Bush administration's uneven decision-making on which sensitive documents it declassifies has prompted criticism that the White House is selectively releasing information to bolster its foreign policy agenda and respond to political pressure.
...
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee, criticized Goss yesterday for bypassing what she said were normal House procedures in seeking declassification.

"This is a stunning violation that can only feed the impression that sensitive materials are being selectively declassified for political reasons, rather than national security or the public interest," Harman said. "The message this sends is that for partisan political reasons, classified material can be reviewed and selectively released."

I guess they're hoping no one will notice they have not really done their jobs since about 1995, they have just been the repeaters of the republican blast-fax machine output. I wonder what got them awakened, or are they really? Or is it all just an act to lull the sheeples?

So, the private security companies that bill by the second for services rendered now want to hire the soldiers from Special Forces and probably other branches who have Iraq on their resumes.

Senior American commanders and Pentagon officials are warning of an exodus of the military's most seasoned members of Special Operations to higher-paying civilian security jobs in places like Baghdad and Kabul, just as they are playing an increasingly pivotal role in combating terror and helping conduct nation-building operations worldwide.

Senior enlisted members of the Army Green Berets or Navy Seals with 20 years or more experience now earn about $50,000 in base pay, and can retire with a $23,000 pension. But private security companies, whose services are in growing demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, are offering salaries of $100,000 to nearly $200,000 a year to the most experienced of them.
...
Evidence of a drain of seasoned Special Operations members, including elite Delta Force soldiers, is largely anecdotal right now, but the head of the military's Special Operations Command, Gen. Bryan D. Brown of the Army, is so concerned about what he is hearing from troops in the field that he convened an unusual meeting of his top commanders in Washington last week to discuss the matter. "The retention of our special operating forces is a big issue," General Brown said.

Last December, he gathered 20 senior members of the Navy Seals and Army Green Berets and Air Force commandos and their spouses, at his headquarters in Tampa, Fla., for a weeklong session to discuss career-extending sweeteners, like special pay bonuses and educational benefits. A special panel is now reviewing those recommendations.

A WaPost Editorial about why Condi should testify: after 9/11 everything is different. On the other hand, maybe she shouldn't because well it's really not.

...Presidents are more likely to surround themselves with political loyalists, depriving themselves of diverse ideas and valuable experience. ...

Alice Marshall at GOTV has an interesting entry up on the ummm...relationship between well, we'll let you figure it out:

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is a small producer of high-quality beef in Kansas. But it's making a big point about mad cow disease. It wants to privately test all of the cattle it slaughters for the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in humans who eat infected meat. The way Creekstone Farms sees it, 100% testing would reassure U.S. customers. The company also says it is talking with Japan about restarting exports there, where total testing is required.

But the firm has run into surprising obstacles: from the federal government, which has pledged to do everything possible to detect the disease, and from the meat industry, which has scrambled to keep consumer confidence since December. ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently does not allow such private testing for mad cow disease.

The republicans who continue to parrot the party line about Preznit More Cowardly Than Thee not attending funerals of fallen service men and women need to remember this:

In the days and months after Michael J. Deutsch was killed by a land mine as he drove an armored personnel carrier down a road near Baghdad International Airport, various reminders of his short life and untimely death came home to his parents in this Middle American river city on the Mississippi.

The First Cavalry shipped back his military belongings in a duffel bag and two boxes. Michael died on the last day of July last year, at 21, but the bag and boxes remained unopened for months. His mother, Ilene, said she was not ready for the wave of grief that would wash over her again if she sorted through the artifacts of her youngest boy's final days. The U.S. Army also sent home a Bronze Star, Michael's posthumous award, and his father, Wayne, wears the small star unobtrusively, without talking about it, pinned to the collar of his shirt.

From the state of Iowa, the Deutsch family received a perfectly folded American flag that flew for one day in Michael's honor above the Capitol in Des Moines. And from the White House came a letter of condolence signed by President Bush. Two letters, actually.

"The exact same one, twice," Wayne Deutsch noted dryly, sitting at the kitchen table of their wood-frame house in Dubuque's working-class North End neighborhood. "What does that tell you? It was a form letter."

That says more than all the words that can be written about this fucked-up conflict in Iraq. And the attitude of the Lying Coward who has gotten Michael Deutsch and 600 other servicemen and women killed and who knows how many more wounded and disabled for life. We know that they have pumped up the VA budget because they Love the wounded vets; they have shortened tours and cancelled redeployments for Active, Reserve and National Guard folks because they Love our troops. They expected a Rose Garden, they got a Sceptic System...and about 150,000 Americans are living in it. Indeterminately. Preznit Vendettas 'R' Us is a brave, brave man with the lives of other family's sons, daughters, husbands and wives...his TANG service proves it.

Ilene Deutsch listened to her husband's lament as she stood by the kitchen stove. For several hours, she had politely refrained from answering questions about the politics of the war. She was afraid of what she might say. Now it came flooding out, along with the tears. "They didn't have a clue what was going to happen once the war was over. No anticipation. Bush had no idea," she said. "I don't like George Bush. We are listed as independents, but I will never vote for him. Surely he didn't look at the long range. . . . He didn't have a clue."

Getting Native Americans to spend $45 million dollars on efforts to lobby Congress has to be one of the more momentous feats of persuasion in the annals of "K" street. And guess what, a republican lobbyist got caught doing a bad thing.

Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined.Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined.

Abramoff, one of Washington's best-connected Republican lobbyists, this month was forced out of his firm, Greenberg Traurig, after revelations that he and the executive -- Michael S. Scanlon, a former spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) -- had persuaded four newly wealthy tribes to pay them fees of more than $45 million over the past three years. That amount rivals spending on public policy by some of the nation's biggest corporate interests.
...
McCain, a senior member of the Indian Affairs Committee who has called the lobbying and public relations fees "disgraceful," launched an investigation earlier this month after a story about the fees was published in The Washington Post.
...
An undisclosed financial relationship between Abramoff and Scanlon could create further problems for Greenberg Traurig. On March 5, the firm wrote to the Saginaw Chippewa tribe offering to refund moneys if an internal financial review the firm is conducting finds that the tribe was shortchanged.

"Should we determine that the services provided or charges made on your account were inappropriate, you should know that we are prepared to make adjustments in those charges and take all appropriate action," the letter said.

As for the two men of somewhat questionable ethics, perhaps justice might be served if it ever comes to that by having them do a few years of "public service". On a Reservation.

Snort. Nothing makes me laugh quite as much as that poor fool in the throes of republican passion. Yeah, sorry. But his return from a break from his non-existant j-o-b can only be described in terms of ... huh?

So to spare you any more grim mental pictures, let me sum up his return piece and move on: Richard Clarke is obviously a man of limited capacity (9/11) and he has a bone to pick with the Administration because they let him go (9/11) this makes him a bad man and incompetant (9/11). It's all Clinton's fault because he had eight years to prevent the rise of Osama and Preznit Lying Always only had eight months (or was it nine?) to become the Action Figure he always wanted to be (9/11). Remember Republicans are Tuff'n'Buff in the War on Terror (9/11). I might like Kerry, like I liked Al Gore (9/11) but I fear he may not be bold (9/11). My hero might have lied, but it's not worse than lying about a blow job. (9/11). It's all Clinton's fault, including the continued employment of Richard Clarke (9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11). Continued tomorrow (9/11).

And in other news from the Duchy, Shelby Steele has a "leftist" view that corresponds exactly with those of Tom Delay (according to the Duchess) perhaps black is white, your highness. And not for the last time, he conflates that bad bogey-man of Commander Codpiece's febrile dreams with 9/11.

Yup, he's back.

So today we have struck another blow for the freedom of Iraq as described by Preznit Scared as Hell:

"...One year ago, military forces of a strong coalition entered Iraq to enforce United Nations demands, to defend our security, and to liberate that country from the rule of a tyrant.

American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.

Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The 1600 Crew in their vigilance against terrorists of all stripes has begun to process immigration violators as potential terrorists. Interesting.

Majed Hajbeh was in his stocking feet when the war on terrorism came calling. It was a rare morning off for the engineering technician, a lazy Thursday in a suburban Virginia neighborhood of red-brick townhouses and gently flowering Bradford pear trees. And then came the rap on the door.

Agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were on the stoop of the Woodbridge home. Hajbeh, 41, black-eyed and bearded, agreed to let them search it. Several hours later, they drove off clutching a sheaf of documents related to his immigration in 1992.

Today, nearly 10 months after that raid, Hajbeh sits in an orange jumpsuit in Piedmont Regional Jail near Lynchburg. He is facing a routine immigration charge: falsely portraying himself as a single man in order to qualify for legal U.S. residency. But if he is sent back to his native Jordan, he faces a life sentence.

"A person who has done this in the past . . . is capable of doing it again," he declared in the packed courtroom.

What is it they say? When it rots it starts at the head? Were they talking about a fish or the 1600 Crew? Well, you can be sure that if Condi [Never met a mattress I didn't like] Rice is mentioned it has to involve lying, protecting the status-quo and decimating National Security. What the hell is she a doctor of anyhow, bullshit?

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, at the center of a controversy over her refusal to testify before the Sept. 11 commission, yesterday renewed her determination not to give public testimony and said she could not list anything she wished she had done differently in the months before the 2001 terrorist attacks.
...
But Rice gave no ground on the administration's decision that she will not appear in public before the panel or testify under oath because Bush officials believe doing so would compromise the constitutional powers of the executive branch. The renewed refusal came despite the panel's unanimous plea for her testimony.

Republican commissioner John F. Lehman, who has written extensively on separation-of-power issues, said that "the White House is making a huge mistake" by blocking Rice's testimony and decried it as "a legalistic approach."

I think that the republicans are slowly coming up with a new definition of "is". And it has nothing to do with truth, justice and the American Way...thanks again to Preznit Remarkably Incurious for bringing the grown-ups from the Nixon Administration back to Washington.

Senator Jay Rockefeller

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have voted against it,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Friday. “I have admitted that my vote was wrong.”

The key Senate vote authorizing a war against Iraq came Oct. 11, 2003. It passed 77 to 23. The opponents included Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., an outspoken opponent of President Bush’s war plans. (The House of Representatives voted to pass a similar resolution, 296 to 133.)

“The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.

“You had a president who we now know was determined to go to war. He was going to be a war president,” Rockefeller said during an interview with editors at The Charleston Gazette on Friday.

“We had this feeling we could be welcomed as liberators. Americans don’t know history, geography, ethnicity,” Rockefeller said. “The administration had no idea of what they were getting into in Iraq. We are not internationalists. We border on being isolationists. We don’t know anything about the Middle East.”
...
“They are true believers. It started with [Rep.] Newt Gingrich [R-Ga.] in 1994. Nothing gets in their way. Facts don’t get in their way.

“And three chairmen of major [Senate] committees were told by Dick Cheney not to investigate anything in the administration.”

If this does not start to make the case for taking back at least one chamber of Congress as well as the White House, I'm not sure what does. After all, both chamber is in the hands of the adults got the exact dimension of the Clenis™, but can't seem to quite get a handle on the cost of the Big-Pharma Medicare bill or the cost of the Mess in Mesopotamia.

Well, I went west to the land of the wide-open spaces, where the men are men and the sheep are nervous. I was sort of hoping that Preznit Worse'n Nixon might have retreated to his bunker in Crawford with a bottle of Wild Turkey and a cee-gar. Guess Unka Karl and Unka Crashcart would not let him go...but, on the bright side, there's Richard Clarke, who could be this generation's John Dean...he knew what the Chimp knew and apparently when he knew it.

President Bush's intense efforts to neutralize the revelations of former national security official Richard A. Clarke have yet to succeed, leaving White House officials struggling to regain political momentum after a tumultuous week, according to interviews with Republicans both inside and outside .
...
...Beginning with interviews in connection with his new book and continuing with Capitol Hill testimony, Clarke said he had watched Bush repeatedly ignore warnings about al Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001, then diverted resources from the broader war on terrorism for an attack on Iraq.
...
Polling has shown that the Clarke's assertions have resonated as more than mere Beltway sniping and that voters are beginning to question the president's handling of terrorism.

It's nice to see that non-stick coating of shit is finally starting to get a spot of tarnish on it...well little spots turn into big ones. Has someone outside of Left Blogistan finally figured out that [gasp] there migh be previaricators in the 1600 Crew?

Looks like I picked a good week to quit vacationing.

1. A card for your friends
   
2. Awesome
   
3. Legal Blackmail
   
4. Abusive Fanatics
   
5. So now he's a RADIO critic too?
   
6. Tour de Sullivan
   
7. A Miserable Failure, for real
   
8. Waaaah, Daddy they're Meanies!
   
9. First, Lock up the CongressCritters...or was that Lawyers or both?
   
10. Andrew Janus