Cowards

Via Atrios, you really ought to read this whole post from Coldfury. It includes this fantastic bit about Witmer family, who, after one of their three daughters -- all of whom serve -- was killed in Iraq, requested that the other two not be sent back.

That’s what John and Lori Witmer did when their daughter Michelle, 20, was killed in Iraq last year serving in the Wisconsin National Guard. Her sister Rachel, 25, who served with her in the 32nd Military Police Company, and her twin sister, Charity, 21, a medic, did not to return to Iraq after their parents pleaded that they be allowed to remain stateside.

“Common sense would say that one hero per family should be enough,” John Witmer of New Berlin, Wis., said in a telephone interview. “That way, the brothers and sisters wouldn’t have to be put in the position of feeling like they deserted their families if they went back or that they deserted their country if they stayed home.”

Their decision led to death threats and criticism from some who thought the other daughters should return to their units despite their sister’s death, he said. Radio stations held call-in discussions and the family received numerous threatening phone calls.

Instead of making threating phone calls to this poor family, why don't those assholes go to Iraq themselves?

Oh that's right, because they're fucking cowards.

Casual Friday

When journalist/blogger extraordinare Matt Yglesias writes this:

Hotel staff seems not to appreciate the casual stylishness of my sneakers/ jeans/suit jacket ensemble. Instead, it's all funny looks.

I have to wonder, was he rocking the look more in the spirit of, say, Kanye West, or was it kind of like a Glenn "Sonny Crockett" Reynolds thing? The Professor is rumored to have once claimed at a U-T alumni dinner:

"They laughed at me when I wore jeans with a sportcoat. I was the first wealthy man in America to do that. Now they all do it!!"

We feel you Sonny, we feel you.

Bring 'Em On

I forgot to congratulate Junior on another milestone achievement yesterday.

The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign rose to 1,500 on Thursday, an Associated Press count showed, as the military announced the latest death of one of its troops.



"It's cool! Freedom is on the march, y'all!"

Little Bill

Exhibiting stunning brillance, Bill O'Reilly's publisher has demanded that the guy who co-produced the Fox News documentary, Outfoxed, remove a link to one of Little Bill's columns from his blog.

This strategery worked out pretty well for O'Reilly last time.

Bitch-Smacking The Maestro

As documented by this blog in the past, Harry Reid is Wyatt Earp. Ponder his voting record on abortion rights if you must, but face it -- he's the exact kind of badass this party needed to come in and stir things up in the Senate.

"I'm not a big Greenspan fan -- Alan Greenspan fan," Reid said when asked about the Fed chairman's testimony this week urging Congress to deal quickly with the financial problems facing Social Security and Medicare. "I voted against him the last two times. I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington."

...

"Why doesn't he respond to the Republicans and tell them the big problem here is the debt that this administration is created?" he said. "We had a $7 trillion-dollar surplus when Bush took office. Now we have a $3 or $4 trillion-dollar deficit. That's, in fact, what Greenspan should be telling people."

The only question now is, if Reid is Wyatt, does that make Howard Dean Doc Holliday?

Welcome Back

Someone ask Yao Ming how to say "I dropped 31 points on your face" in Chinese.

The Washington Wizards have won eight in a row — with Larry Hughes in the lineup. Hughes, out the last seven weeks with a broken thumb, scored 31 points in Washington's 101-98 win over the Houston Rockets Wednesday night. Hughes, who hit for 21 of his points in the second half, nailed a three-pointer with 3:15 remaining, giving Washington a 93-91 lead it would never relinquish.

As a great man once said, "You've got to harvest your nuts right now, man."

Privatize This

From Congressional Quarterly, by way of ThinkProgress.org.

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow indicated Wednesday that the White House would accept a Social Security overhaul that does not divert the program’s payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, a major shift in the administration’s position.

Do you like apples George?

Your plan to destroy Social Security just got shut down, how do you like them apples?

Dat Liberal Academia

From Aaron Swartz, via Oliver Willis, this is absolutely fucking dead-on brilliant.

A shocking recent study has discovered that only 13% of Stanford professors are Republicans. The authors compare this to the 51% of 2004 voters who selected a Republican for President and argue this is “evidence of discrimination” and that “academic Republicans are being eradicated by academic Democrats”.

Scary as this is, my preliminary research has discovered some even more shocking facts. I have found that only 1% of Stanford professors believe in telepathy (defined as “communication between minds without using the traditional five senses”), compared with 36% of the general population. And less than half a percent believe “people on this earth are sometimes possessed by the devil”, compared with 49% of those outside the ivory tower. And while 25% of Americans believe in astrology (“the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives”), I could only find one Stanford professor who would agree.

Isn't it funny? Liberals accept the fact that certain professions tend to attract, or some would say require, those with a more conservative mindset -- you don't hear Democrats whining, "I sent my son into the Marines and now he's being indoctrinated by the right" -- while conservatives continue their thousand-year moan over the liberal nature of college campuses.

Get over it, you fucking cry babies.

Dat Liberal Media

From Media Matters.

While reporting on the 2004 presidential campaign for The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray apparently wrote posts for several weblogs in which he declared his support for President Bush, attacked Sen. John Kerry, and bolstered discredited allegations by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth).

Here's a sampling of Bray's work.

While Bush says scarcely a mumblin' word about Vietnam, Kerry has made his Vietnam service the central issue in his campaign. Until recently, when the true cost of this moronic strategy became apparent, Kerry spoke of little else.

Now if Kerry's Vietnam service had been uncontroversial, this might have worked for him. But now we find that of the hundreds of men who served with him, nearly all hated his guts. The very fact that the SwiftVets backlash took him completely by surprise doesn't speak very well of his skills as a judge of human nature or as a strategic thinker.

Besides, the Swifties raise a bunch of telling and legitimate questions. Did Kerry really earn his medals, or did he wangle [sic] Purple Hearts for trivial injuries to earn himself a quick ticket back home? A look at the medical records would help answer the question, but Kerry won't release them.

I wonder how much time Bray spent in Vietnam? At least as much as our President, right?

Fore Shame

Oh goodness, that's the best title in weeks.

RAW Story is reporting that the same clown who runs USA Next -- the group claiming AARP is pro-gay marriage and anti-America -- helped illegally fund Tom Delay's Scottish golf extravaganza.

RAW STORY EXCLUSIVE
By John Byrne and Larisa Alexandrovna

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a highly controversial and little-known conservative think tank which has been sending Social Security 'fright mail' for years, paid for two posh trips for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) in 1996 and 2000, each at the cost of at least $64,000.

...

The group's letters target seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits are in jeopardy and thereby induce them to donate money. The mailings also encourage seniors to keep the mailing secret from others, perhaps even from family members.

...

NCPPR also picked up a hefty $70,000 tab for trip for DeLay and his aides made in mid-2000 to Europe. DeLay and his staff took a junket where he met with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and took a round of golf with conservative leaders in Scotland.

The ten-day "educational" trip was no small affair: NCPPR paid $28,106 for DeLay and his wife alone, splurging on transportation ($20,266.00), cushy lodging ($3,840.00) and meals ($4,000.00).

DeLay's office did not return RAW STORY calls seeking comment today.

On Saturday, the National Journal reported that DeLay may have violated House ethics rules when a top lobbyist shelled out an additional $13,000 for DeLay's stay at the London Four Seasons hotel during that same trip. House rules stipulate that members or members' employees cannot accept payment from a registered lobbyist to cover travel costs.

The lobbyist in question? Jack Abramoff, an NCPPR director. Abramoff is also on the board of USA Next, a pro-privatization Social Security group that formed as an offshoot of the Swift Boat Vets and recently ran an ad claiming AARP supported gay marriage.