These guys are despicable human beings. They deserve to be removed from society and imprisoned for life. And they have been. They won’t be hacking off any more arms and legs. They won’t be raping and sodomizing helpless women. And they won’t be recruiting children to fight their battles for them. But they will not be executed. For their crimes they will sit in steel cages for the rest of their lives, contemplating and (hopefully) regretting their savage brutality toward their fellow human beings.  Read more 

Us against them, them against us, Shia against Sunni, Kurds against Turks, Baathists against Kurds, militia against police, security forces against insurgents, insurgents against terrorists. And our troops…

…caught in the middle of it all.

When I read this frightening piece, I was reminded of the climax of Louis de Bernières brilliant anti-war novel, (Captain) Corelli’s Mandolin, which portrays the tragic confusion and wholesale slaughter in the aftermath of the Italian-German occupation of Greece during World War 2.  Read more 

Why can’t more Democrats call this occupation what it really is instead of letting the other side frame the debate? Time. After. Time. What are Blue Dogs and other Bush enablers so afraid of? That they will give the other side a soundbite that could (possibly) be used against them in a future campaign? That they will be portrayed as unsympathetic to the troops?  Read more 

Pope Benedict XVI , the ancient relic poseur who is the chief apologist for the ancient medieval relic that is the Catholic Church is on a whirlwind tour of the Americas, which began here in Brazil with a canonization of an 18th century snake-oil salesman and a rousing call to action by the faithful on the most important issues of our time.  Read more 

In a poll conducted by D3 Systems for the BBC, ABC News, ARD German TV and USA Today, more than 2,000 people were questioned in more than 450 neighbourhoods and villages across all 18 provinces of Iraq between 25 February and 5 March 2007:

69% of Iraqis think that the occupation by the US and the UK is making things worse.

77% of Iraqis think that the US occupation is having a negative effect compared to 12% who think the occupation is having a positive effect. (That’s about 7 to 1 PURPLE THUMBS DOWN by my calculations.)

A majority (51%) actually approves of attacks on coalition forces.

Wow. That is not insurgency talking. That is revolt against an armed occupying force.  Read more 

After reading this pandering rant from Fox News Columnist and consummate Hillary worshipper, Susan “put-him-in-the-tank” Estrich, I think I am gonna be sick. This is shameless, journalistic quackery. This, from the same political hack who gave us the unforgettable tank moment in 1988 on the way to squandering a 17-point lead to Lee Atwater and George Bush Sr.  Read more 

This is just terrible. Here you have a highly-trained Police Officer accidentally killed by another highly trained Police Officer. Wait just a minute. Excuuuuuse me. I want Michelle Malkin and Newt Gingrich and Bill O’Reilly and John Derbyshire to explain to me again about how great it would be if everybody on every college campus in America started packing concealed heat. Lunatic fringe, I’ll tell ya.  Read more 

Tom Turnipseed, my good friend and future United States Senator from South Carolina, sent me an e-mail this morning about Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been twisting a lot of far-right evangelical arms in South Carolina for his “Surge” buddy, John McCain. The response among evangelicals has been, shall we say, less than enthusiastic. So McCain has broken out the old “consultant” (wink, wink) checkbook and is flat-out trying to buy the wingnut vote.

This is how the sham shakes out:  Read more 

This morning, I got an e-mail from my old friend, Tom Turnipseed, a veteran political activist and former Democratic State Senator from South  Read more 

This Time/CNN poll does not surprise me one bit. It is nothing more than a popularity contest between a popular Republican and an unpopular Democrat. WTF??  Read more 

The United States Military is an elitist, patriarchal, hierarchical organization and had been since the time of George Washington. So why is everybody so shocked by this ward 72 business??  Read more 

Chapter 1. Shrubsville

A pack of sleep dogs stretch and yawn lazily under a stand of tower Oak trees as the little commute train steams out of the Shrubsville station. Spring is here. The beauty Magnolias and Azaleas are just beginning to bloom. The passengers look out of the dirt windows as clouds of brick-red dust blow across the fresh-plow fields. Red Gibson, the engineer, peers out from under the bill of his stripe cap as the train moves slowly down the wind track in the direction of Shooterville. Red is a very tradition man. He remembers the glory days of the Republic Party—the Ronald Reagan days and the Contract-With-America days— when the Democrat Party knew its place in the scheme of things. “We’ve come a long ways from Doleton and Gingrichburg,” he says to his crust old brakeman. “Imagine the gall of this new Democrat Majority—thinking they have the right to question the Decider on matters of nation security.”  Read more