What's wrong with the pull out proposal?

Happy Birthday Blog. You're turning two.

I have mixed feeling about the game Congressional leaders are playing to try and end the war. I give them credit for trying to set a date certain. There are probably good military strategic reasons not to do this, but it's better than a continued open ended promise costing our country lives and resources. And I give them credit in attaching it to an apporpriations bill which means Junior can't really just ignore it. And I can even live with the September 08 date. Yeah, it would be great to take our troops home earlier than that, but efforts need to be made to minimize the damage as we pull out. A year+ seems like a reasonable amount of time to wind down opereations.

But what makes this all look like political grandstanding is 20 million pounds of pork and the outs included in the bill. To stay longer Junior just needs to certify that "progress" is being made. Not Congress, but Junior. Congress isn't mandating much. Essentially their handing the poor loser more rope to hang himself. And given his record he'll gladly take it. And of course the September 08 date wasn't pure politics, was it?

Despite all her rage

She's still just a rat in a cage. Little J participated in an experiment for the psychology department today. They are studying babies to see whether they might see a series of colored shapes on a giant screen as more interesting or their own bibs. Little J seemed to have chosen her own bib.

She doesn't know it yet, but she actually follows a short line of lab rats. Back when I was in college, I was involved in some kind of hearing experiment. 3 times a week, I would sit in a sound proof room blindfolded and wearing headphones. They would set off sounds throughout the room and I would have to call our the rough coordinates of where those sounds came from. Doesn't sound like a lot of excitement but $6/hour wasn't bad beer money back then.

Mistakes were made.

Does anybody remember the last time there was positive news out of Junior's Whitehouse? It seems like there's been an endless barrage of incompetence and political scandal for years now. Even the trial and execution of Saddam was botched.

The title to this entry was what Junior had to say about the last episode involving the purge of highly qualified prosecutors for political reasons. Gonzo has said there were performance related issues, but none of that seems to be documented. The purge victims seem like stellar attorneys. But the truth of the matter is, these attorneys do serve at the pleasure of the President. Lacking a real president, if Junior does not like these attorneys he's within his right to fire them. The simple thing would have been for Gonzo to just say as much. But maybe because Junior and Gonzo are already on a horrible losing streak or maybe deep down people believe competent people should not be fired for their political beliefs, or maybe because it seems like the Republiskunks seemed to be politicicing political scandals, this story has gained real traction. Now it looks like Gonzo is going going gone and the horrible streak under a horrible administration continues.

Back to the title of this entry for a bit. This is Bush's most defining characteristic. The ability to sound contrite without really accepting responsibility or placing blame. Mistakes were made? By whom? Anyone?

Pi Day

It's been brought to my attention that today is Pi day. 3.14 Get it. We're supposed to celebrate by eating a pie. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of a nerdier thing in my life.

The Evolution of Elephant Characters

Until very recently Wifey had no idea what a heffalump was. Either she is very out of touch with the modern five year old or I am much too versed in Pooh lore. An informal survey of my coworkers seems to suggest Wifey needs to bone up on her knowledge of childhood cartoon characters if she hopes to converse with Little J in a few years.

Anyway, this is the way my mind works. A brief discussion relating to Pooh the other day led me to think about heffalumps and how they were originally imaginary elephant-like characters attributable to a Tigger sugar high. Ultimately, heffalumps became more and more real until they were featured in thier own Pooh movie a few years ago.

In my mind I saw a suspicious corrollary from the heffalumps to Snuffleupagus, the strangely earless imaginary elephant of Sesame Street fame. Again, you have a character that was originally an imaginary friend only visible by an eight foot bird.

So what's with this? Some Freudian lesson involving animals with really long appendages? I don't really have the answer to that one. Although, it seems like there is a bit of a story behind why Snuffy eventually became visible and part of the regular Sesame Street cast. People criticized Sesame Street for Snuffy because kids could be discouraged about talking about their friendly "sex offenders" by Sesame street. If the cast couldn't believe Big Bird, who would ever believe these poor kids if they talked about someone abusing them. Hence, Snuffy had to become real to everyone. Younger people don't even know that he used to belong only to Big Bird.

One more elephant thought. People really do kill these majestic beasts just for the decorative value of their bones. Rather sad. Don't support the illegal ivory trade.

Impeach Cheney

Former CIA director George Bush Senior once said the outing of a CIA operative was the most unpatriotic act a person could commit. I wonder where Junior was at the time. Probably in the locker stall next to Jose Conseco at Arlington juicing up on steroids.

Anyway, not ever having paid any attention to his father's thoughts, Junior's White House has successfully destroyed the intelligence career of a CIA operative and her diplomat husband in retaliation for their correct allegation that WMD intelligence was being doctored by the White House for political ends. Joe Wilson could see this Emporer had no clothes, and the Emperor struck back.

So Cheney's number one political knee cap buster has been convicted not of the retaliation but of the cover up of the retaliation. Which means prosecutors know there is fire, but because the smoke was so full of noxious fumes, they could never get to the actual fire itself. It'll be left up to the still pending civil suit of the Wilsons to get to the actual flames. But is there any doubt at this point that it's really there? That's why the Senate should begin impeachment hearings for Cheney. Either he or people under his direct watch used this most secret of information to attack someone who pointed out the flaw in their absurd reasoning. That is treasonous and he should pay the consequences for it.

But what's really likely to happen is that I Scooter Libby will appeal and drag the proceedings out for the next two years. At that time, Junior will repay the favor by pardoning Libby for not rolling on anyone else and Libby will join Ann Coulter on the right wing no-think faith tank circuit.

Horse Race 08 starting early

We're in for a long long ride. We're nearly two years and one billion dollars away from electing the 44th president of the United States, but by all accounts, the starter pistol has fired and the horses are running. Not that Congress has ever been a model of efficiency, but how are they to address any issues if everyone is already knee deep in the next election cycle. Everyone is already more concerned with political grandstanding than good governance.

But maybe it's good news that Americans seem to be paying some attention to the candidates and the issues. Maybe they won't get hoodwinked into electing anymore clowns from the Bush family.

One of my coworkers is already wearing the button that she ordered on line and posting a huge sign on her house window visible from the N-Judah. She's only two thirds of the way through her candidates latest best selling biography, but she seems to have made up her mind. She has also request an office bake sale to raise money for her candidate, but I had to shoot the idea down. Not that I nor I think anyone in my particular office would probably care, but at some level somebody probably would and I didn't want to be the manager trying to explain that sort of thing. Still I admire her gumption and I wish her the best of luck in her efforts.

Me, I've got opinions of several of the candidates yet, but they are all likely to change before they actually matter. I'll just continue to monitor the race from a far for awhile.