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Fear of T-Shirts

Don’t like those shirts that list the names of America’s fallen in the Iraq war? Pass legislation outlawing their sale!

It ought to go without saying that simply listing the dead isn’t violating anyone’s rights, and that next of kin don’t deserve any special control over such use of a loved one’s name. The laws being passed are simply attempts to suppress certain speech. The jingoists supporting the war don’t want you knowing who’s dying, just as they don’t want you seeing those coffins coming home.

They want you to ignore the dead, but they’ll pretend, of course, that this censorship is some sort of respect.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

With the GOP consistently down in campaign polls, da Prez has turned to an ingenious solution to all of America’s problems: banning gay marriage.

“For decades, activist judges have tried to redefine America by court order,” Mr. Bush said Monday in Statesboro. “Just this last week in New Jersey, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman and should be defended.”

Blah, blah, blah.  Here we see a politician out of ideas.  Again.  When homophobia fails, the Republicans are also working the xenophobia:

One group, called U.S. English, bills itself as “the nation’s oldest, largest citizens’ action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States” and is seeking voter turnout in Delaware in support of legislators who want to make English the official language of the state. This year, the Delaware house passed legislation that would make English the official language of the state, but the bill was not taken up by the state senate in time for recess….

Another group, called grassfire.org — whose purpose, according to its website, is to “utilize the Internet to expand the impact of conservative and pro-family citizens” — has reportedly released a study of congressional votes on immigration and found that Republicans have a higher “border security score” than Democrats….

In recent years, Republicans have relied heavily on focus issues to mobilize their base to come to the polls. If they are brought out to vote for a particular issue, analysts say, they will also likely vote for important candidates and pieces of legislation. That strategy worked in 2004 when ballot measures to ban gay marriage drew conservative voters to the polls in swing states across the country.

The GOP.  Nothing to sell but hate and fear.

Shakespearean Daily Diss (Halloween Edition)

Cheney

“…The scarecrow that affrights our children so.”
Henry VI, Part I, 1.4.42

Shakespearean Daily Diss

Bush

“I am whipp’d and scourg’d with rods,
Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician.” –Henry IV, Part I, 1.3.236-38

A Marine’s Letter Home

Time requested and received permission to publish this letter from an anonymous Marine officer stationed in Fallujah, a letter written for his family but circulated ever more widely. There is wisdom here for anyone with an opinion on the war in Iraq, wisdom acquired in perhaps the most difficult ways.

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”

Worst E-Mail Message — “The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need blood type A+ stat.” I always head down to the surgical unit as soon as I get these messages, but I never give blood — there’s always about 80 Marines in line, night or day.

Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we’d get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won’t give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp…

When the Bill Comes Due

Comptroller General David Walker warns of disastrous consequences for America’s permanent deficit and debt:

If the United States government conducts business as usual over the next few decades, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation. That’s almost as much as the total net worth of every person in America - Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and those Google guys included.

A hole that big could paralyze the U.S. economy; according to some projections, just the interest payments on a debt that big would be as much as all the taxes the government collects today.

And every year that nothing is done about it, Walker says, the problem grows by $2 trillion to $3 trillion….

“Realistically what we hope to accomplish through the fiscal wake-up tour is ensure that any serious candidate for the presidency in 2008 will be forced to deal with the issue,” he says. “The best we’re going to get in the next couple of years is to slow the bleeding.”

Water War

Water service in Highland Park, Michigan, was privatized, and bills are up 60%. In a nasty trick, the bills are attached to property taxes, so that residents unable to pay also lose their homes. Watch the report.

Corporatization of the Commons sucks. Always.

Shakespearean Daily Diss

Bush
“Fiend! Most credulous fool, egregious murderer, thief,
any thing that’s due to all the villains past, in being, to
come!” –Cymbeline, 5.5.210-13

The Distinction of Rank Preserved

P&P

Three miles on the treadmill this evening, while watching A&E’s 1995 Pride And Prejudice (screen cap above, about forty-five minutes into the production, when I finished my run and cool-down). After many, many viewings, the last just this past weekend, I’m still convinced that it’s just about perfect, and certainly the best thing ever to hit the small screen. Manliness be damned! Gimme that old-time religion.

Now I’m off to walk the dogs while Lynne’s foot heals, and then there’s four more hours for us to watch. For what do we live, but to veg in front of the tube?

Ohio. GOP. Stupid.

Congressional dim bulb Jean “Cowards Cut and Run” Schmidt (R-OH), frantic at being held accountable for her only famous words, has threatened her Democratic opponent with the specter of a House Standards of Official Conduct rule against the use of Floor proceedings in campaign ads. Read her letter here.

The punch line: she forgot that opponent Victoria Wulsin isn’t actually in Congress yet.

What a maroon!

US Deaths in Iraq since March 20th, 2003