The Taj Mahal on the Euphrates, better known as the Green Zone Xanadu, has a personnel problem.

Two Iraqi employees with the US embassy in Baghdad have disappeared the State Department announced on Thursday, raising suspicions that they have been kidnapped.

"There are two local national employees of the embassy in Baghdad who are missing. Their whereabouts, at this point, are unknown," U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington.

There was a time when the disappearance of local staffer set off alarm bells in the Embassy and in Washington. People set to, “counting the silverware” i.e. checking every piece of paper in every file cabinet the missing local might have had access to, and carefully checking the logbooks of all the photocopiers. When two went missing it was time for the Ambassador to start making phone calls to whoever his rabbi was in the political party that got him into the job. The Chief of Mission would often tell his wife to stop shopping.

"Embassy officials as well as folks in the Iraqi security forces and MNF-I are trying to determine exactly what's happened to them," Casey added.

Reuters reports that US officials, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said that after the husband went missing late last week his wife went to look for him and then she, too, appeared to have been abducted.

I’m kind of certain having a local husband-and-wife team employed in the same embassy breaks about 42 different rules of tradecraft and common sense. That’s two targets vulnerable to coercion and extortion, suborning, and turning. And since the two are married, you get the bonus chance of using the emotional blackmail of death or worse in order to access two different departments within the embassy.

One official described the two as "missing and apparently kidnapped."

There being no immediate announcement that the missing couple worked in the laundry, and therefore there was no chance of any compromised material, just might be significant.

Reuters is reporting that al-Qaeda is claiming their heads.

U.S. officials, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said that after the husband went missing late last week his wife went to look for him and then she too appeared to have been abducted.

"God's ruling has been implemented against two of the most prominent agents and spies of the worshippers of the cross ... a man and woman who occupy an important position at the U.S. embassy..." the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq said in a statement published on the Internet.

"The swords of the security personnel of the Islamic State in Iraq ... are with God's grace slitting the throats of crusaders and their aides and lackeys," it said.

The killings took place on Monday, it said.

Iraqis who work for “the worshippers of the cross,” or for the “bringers-of-democracy,” (depending on your point of view) know what can happen when your employment is discovered. The truth is that your life is in jeopardy from approximately 1,000 or so members of a-Q, as well as from the 20-odd% of Iraqis associated with the Sunni resistance, or from the uncounted members of the Mahdi Army and other Shiite death squads that have infiltrated the Iraqi Army and National Police. Many carry fake ID with different names depending on who’s manning the next checkpoint as you wend your way to work each day. If you come upon a Shiite checkpoint and your ID carries a Sunni name (apparently there is a difference) you may not get to work that day.

Since we have no idea whether this husband and wife worked in the laundry or in the translation department, I’d bet the Embassy is hoping they got killed, rather than ending up with the evil Iranians.

Georgie Anne Geyer has a ripper article in the Dallas Morning News as she discusses terrorism and its spread, comparing it to cancer.

The best part of the article is not about terrorism, but about its impact in Washington:

[Y]ou have weakened societies vulnerable to the "new answers" of "new insurgencies," and on the other hand, you have Iraq set up as a school for terrorists with American troops and policy providing the constant inspiration for their fight.

This, of course, is not the way the Bush administration sees it.

The White House sees terrorists as born, not created by history, bearing the mark of Cain, not the mark of circumstance. There is a scarlet "T" written on their foreheads at birth and the only answer is to destroy them. This kind of thinking, of course, relieves the thinker of any responsibility for the presence of the insurgent-terrorist-whatever in our innocent midst.

What's more, there is not much real give in the administration's policies. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other American diplomats met Memorial Day weekend with the Iranians in Baghdad (a good first move but limited, since the Iranians have most of the power because of our incredible stupidity in Iraq). But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."

I think we should all send this maniac large steel ball bearings as Christmas presents.

A tip of the too-small Kevlar helmet to Lambert at Corrente Wire.

The new MRAPs that are about to be fielded in Iraq at great expense aren’t quite good enough, it seems. Apparently they have to be up-armored.

WASHINGTON — New military vehicles that are supposed to better protect troops from roadside explosions in Iraq aren't strong enough to withstand the latest type of bombs used by insurgents, according to Pentagon documents and military officials.

As a result, the vehicles need more armor added to them, according to a January Marine Corps document provided to USA TODAY. The Pentagon faced the same problem with its Humvees at the beginning of the war.

Waugh! What? I had the distinct impression that we were 86ing the HumVees and going to MRAPs (cost: $25 Billion +) in order to keep the troops safer in Iraq.

The military plans to spend as much as $25 billion for up to 22,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles by 2009. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared that buying the new vehicles should be the Pentagon's top procurement priority.

But the armor on those vehicles cannot stop the newest bomb to emerge, known as an explosively formed penetrator (EFP). The Pentagon plans to replace virtually all Humvees with MRAPs to provide better protection against roadside bombs, responsible for most casualties in Iraq.

If you remember, these are the very same EFPs that are only manufactured in one country on Earth. Iran has the sole license to manufacture these babies.

And these are the MRAPs that the Marine Corps stalled for a year before ordering.

Articles on MRAPs:

Mine Resistant Vehicles

17,700 MRAPs

Marine MRAPs Mired in Minutiae

A Minor MRAP Problem

The Super-MRAP

The Cougar MRAP

Baby Huey Needs Feeding

A Strategically Influenced Nation

Out at Fort Lewis the Army has changed the way they’re memorializing the many dead soldiers.

Fort Lewis will shift to monthly group memorials -- rather than individual services -- for fallen soldiers, a change that reflects the mounting number of deaths as the post fields more than 10,000 soldiers in Iraq.

So far this month, the Army has announced the deaths of 19 Fort Lewis soldiers, including three whose names were made public Wednesday.

It is by far the deadliest month of the Iraq war for the post, which averaged fewer than three deaths a month for the first four years of the war. Post officials say the increased number of fallen soldiers has made it more difficult for rear detachments to pull off the planning and other logistics required for individual memorial services.

Fascinating. The Death Factory in Iraq is so productive that the Army can no longer stand the pace of individual memorial ceremonies. They’re going to the group hug system.

"As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm's way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies," wrote the post's acting commander, Brig. Gen. William Troy, in a May 22 memorandum, which was first made public on the Web site of United For Peace, Pierce County, a peace activist group.

The post memorial services are in addition to services held by the Iraq units of fallen soldiers, and graveside and church services held by families.

The post services, which include personal remembrances of the departed soldiers, are a wrenching reminder of the toll of the war. They draw from dozens to hundreds of mourners, and in about a third of the services, include the family of the fallen soldiers, according to Joe Piek, a post spokesman.

Where to start? The first public announcement comes from a peace group? Who wants to speculate how that memo got to them? I can understand why this memo wasn’t faxed out to every newspaper and wire service on the planet Earth, like they do every time they capture or kill the #2 al-Qaeda guy. Dead soldiers are not good news, after all, despite the fact that every dead GI probably means 10 Islamomunst jihadist Feedom-haters won’t get to make our basement chairborne commandos make skid marks in their shorts.

The appalling part is the regularization of the memorial ceremonies. Granted, time is tight on a base geared for combat but these were Ft Lewis troopers. The base was their home. They were family, and scheduling them all for once a month is revolting. It’s almost like tucking Uncle Ralph into the deep freeze to wait for Aunt Minnie, who’s on her last legs at the hospital.

Ft Lewis, being a home base, probably gets a lot of weeping women, and having them all in at once will make life simpler on the nerves and emotions of the CG.

A very unusual story here about wounded and maimed GIs being recycled.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — In the blur of smoke and blood after a bomb blew up under his Humvee in Iraq, Sgt. Tawan Williamson looked down at his shredded leg and knew it couldn't be saved. His military career, though, pulled through.

Less than a year after the attack, Williams is running again with a high-tech prosthetic leg and plans to take up a new assignment, probably by the fall, as an Army job counselor and affirmative action officer in Okinawa, Japan.

In an about-face by the Pentagon, the military is putting many more amputees back on active duty — even back into combat, in some cases.

Williamson, a 30-year-old Chicago native who is missing his left leg below the knee and three toes on the other foot, acknowledged that some will be skeptical of a maimed soldier back in uniform.

"But I let my job show for itself," he said. "At this point, I'm done proving. I just get out there and do it."

SGT Williamson found the medical help to get back up on his foot, and learned to adapt to life with a prosthetic. Good for him. A thinking man could probably come up with two baskets full of clichés about this story, but it may well be that an Army stretched as this as ours is, and faced with decades of dangerous and deadly occupation duty in the hellhole of Iraq, needs every uniform it can front.

There are assignments a less-than-whole soldier can perform with skill, and the duty slot SGT Williamson is apparently scheduled for is well within his physical capabilities. It’s unlikely he would get much assistance through the VA until we’ve had a Democratic president and a Congress with a strong Dem majority for at east three years.

So far, the Army has treated nearly 600 service members who have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan without an arm, leg, hand or foot. Thirty-one have gone back to active duty, and no one who asked to remain in the service has been discharged, Arata said.

Most of those who return to active duty are assigned to instructor or desk jobs away from combat. Only a few — the Army doesn't keep track of exactly how many — have returned to the war zone, and only at their insistence, Arata said.

To go back into the war zone, they have to prove they can do the job without putting themselves or others at risk.

Going back into combat may be a step too far. (With the deepest apologies to all the soldiers with prosthetics. No insult intended.) No matter how remarkable a prosthetic is, it is only a replacement and the state of the art hasn’t reached the point of building COL Steve Austins.

Tonight is a very special night, because we will experience what is called a “blue moon.” Technically, this is a second full moon in the same month. It happens about once every 2½ years.

Traditionally, a “blue moon” was a measure of time, as when something very unusual occurs. According to the old wives’ tale, “Once in a blue moon” meant very seldom.

To commemorate the event, Mr Bu$h will hold a special event in the White House Rose Garden today, and will address questions from reporters seriously, not belittle any of them with demeaning nicknames, and will tell the truth.

Senator Joe Lieberman (R-Tel Aviv) slipped into Baghdad yesterday to take a walk around a market, swaddled in Kevlar helmet, body vest, and surrounded by bullet stoppers bodyguards in order to announce that things are really, really improving this time, and that we are near the end of the tunnel, and just a little bit longer will see us through all this.

The caption of this photo should be “Deceitful politician laughs as he thinks of these poor schmucks stuck in Iraq for 30 years.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.

The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.

He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

"When are we going to get out of here?"

I can remember that even in 1968/69 one of the most popular songs in troop hooches was The Animals’ 1965 hit We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Soldiers always want to go home. But It doesn’t look like a good bet for the next two or three decades.

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee this month, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace uttered a “carefully worded” statement revealing that the Pentagon had no plans to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq if legislation passes Congress mandating troop redeployment:

PACE: Sir, we have published no orders directing the planning for the overall withdrawal of forces. We do have ongoing replacements of forces, and we do change the size of the force over time so that that system is available to either plus-up or draw down, but we have published no orders saying come up with a complete plan for total drawdown.

NPR investigated Pace’s statements and found one scenario being considered within the Pentagon would maintain a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq for several decades into the future.

SPC Williams, while waiting for Senator Joe to arrive to act concerned wrote down some other questions from his squadmates.

“When would they have upgraded Humvees that could withstand the armor-penetrating weapons that U.S. officials claim are from Iran?”

“When could they have body armor that was better in hot weather?”

Williams missed six months of his girlfriend's pregnancy when he was given six days' notice to return to Iraq for his second tour. He also missed his baby boy's birth. Three weeks ago, he went home and saw his first child.

"He looks just like me," he said. "I didn't want to come back. . . . We're waiting to get blown up."

Williams wasn't sure if he'd say how he really felt. But if he could, he'd ask about body armor.

"I don't want him to snap his fingers to get things fixed," Williams said, referring to Lieberman. "But he has influence."

That’s true, SPC Willams. He has influence, which is why you’ll be out there in the sandbox for the full 15 months, and then back there again for another 15 after 365 days at home.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like the Democrats intend to do much right now to help him see his son.

Next to him, Spc. Will Hedin, 21, of Chester, Conn., thought about what he was going to say.

"We're not making any progress," Hedin said, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. "It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."

But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.

"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."

This trooper is ready for NCO School. He’s learned a lot about the Army.

UPDATE: Christy at Firedoglake thinks that Whining Joe looks a lot like Elmer Fudd here in is helmet and vest. What do you think?

I saw a little article over at David Axe’s excellent spot which I almost passed by with barely a blink. I’m sure if I’d actually bought that Grecian Formula and used the stuff I’d have grabbed onto David’s post immediately.

During World War II, U.S. C-47 twin-engine transport planes delivered commandoes and civilian spies behind enemy lines in France, Yugoslavia and Burma to fight and spy on the Germans and Japanese. More than 60 years later the old “Goonie Birds” are still at it. U.S. Special Operations Command uses a handful of the seemingly eternal airplanes for hush-hush missions in Africa, South America and Central Asia, where C-47s and their DC-3 civilian equivalents are still common and prized for their ruggedness and inoffensive looks. The 6th Special Operations Squadron based at Hulbert Field in Florida flies modified DC-3s (pictured below) alongside equally ubiquitous Russian-made helicopters and transports and Huey choppers.

The C-47 was the militarized version of the Douglas Aircraft DC-3, the plan that made “modern” air transport in the US possible. The arrival of this plane made west-to-east trips across the States seem like a civilized affair, doing the trip in 15 hours, with three refueling stops. East to west took a bit longer. Before the DC-3, you made the day trip in smaller commuter planes, and traveled (and slept) at night on trains.

The DC-3/C-47 flew under about more than 50 national flags and a slew of commercial airline liveries. During the war years, and for about 10 years afterwards, it seemed like just about every airport in the world had at least one of these planes on it.

It was the ubiquitous air transporter for the US Army, hauling people and goods in every war theater around the world. It was so familiar that it became better known as a symbol than the American flag. They carried paratroopers and supplies throughout the Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters, and were the lifeline for the units known as “Merrill’s Marauders” and General Bill Slim’s Chindits. They, along with their yoke-mates, the Curtis C-46, carried fuel and supplies over the “hump” of the Himalayas, from India to China, supplying Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces.

During GEN Douglas MacArthur’s Hopscotch advance along the New Guinea coast C-47’s ferried men and supplies from Australia across the Owen Moresby mountain range to the north coast of New Guinea. Every now and then one of these planes would crash, for one reason or another, and groups of natives living in the interior built a religion around the magical birds in the sky that occasionally brought them great wealth and marvelous mysteries. The 1960s hit film Mondo Cane had a bit about New Guinea cargo cults, portraying them quite sympathetically.

The C-47 and C-46 broke the back of the Russian embargo of Berlin, transporting millions of pounds of food and coal to an isolated city. At its height in 1948 the Berlin Airlift was landing a plane every 30 seconds in Berlin.

Throughout the 50s and 60s the C-47 was seen all over Southeast Asia and Central Africa moving goods, sometimes “political” cargo, if the price was high enough. There was always a good market for guns, and the world was awash in them back then, just as it is today. Flying Tiger Airlines used a lot of surplus C-47s after the war, and flew into a lot of small airfields all over Eastern and Southeastern Asia, carrying a lot of different cargoes. If the whispers are right, some of them were "political."

During our last little unsuccessful adventure in overseas power projection, many of us knew the C-47 as “Puff” the night-time savior, with 7.62 mini-guns that put out rounds at 6,000 per minute, and broke the back of many an NVA attack. They fired 1-in-6 tracer and at night you’d see them operating, throwing a line of fire that looked like a straight line of laser red cover. If I remember the statistics right, a two second burst was enough to put a round every six inches across a football field.

In the age of jets that fly at twice the speed of sound, it’s interesting that a museum relic that first flew in 1935 at 150 mph is still in the air, and still working for the Air Force.

Seeing the success of tribal leaders in Anbar province uniting to fight al-Qaeda, several tribes in Salah-el-Din province formed a Salvation Council under the leadership of Sheikh Hamad al-Hasan last Thursday.

Gunmen exacted a reprisal for the action on Monday, killing four relatives of Sheikh al-Hasan.

Four relatives of the head of the Salah el-Din Salvation Council, Sheikh Hamad al-Hasan, were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked their house in al-Hajjaj village, in southern Bayji, Voices of Iraq (VOI) reported Tuesday.

The attack occurred in the early hours Monday morning, a local media source told VOI.

"The gunmen killed the council head's four nephews, then set the bodies and house on fire," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

It hasn‘t been made public whether the attacks were sponsored by al-Qaeda, although the odds are excellent that the US military would tag them as the initiators. Even though there are quite a few groups of militants in Iraq, domestic US politics requires CENTCOM and MNF-I to call them all “al-Qaeda.” The name is less important than their tragically quick response, but from what we have learned of tribal life it’s unlikely the reprisal will deter the Salvation Council. A blood vendetta, if supported by the other tribes of the Salvation Council, will increase their strength and their fury in the push-back will create another small victory against terrorism in the province.

Jane Arraf reports for IraqSlogger and has posted an article about a recent patrol with troops of the 5th/ 20th Infantry which highlights the difference between being a guest soldier protecting civilians and being a member of an occupying army.

Baquba - It’s early morning and there is the incongruous, cheery sound of birds chirping as this street rings with the bang of metal gates being kicked in and locks being wrenched apart – a grating sound like teeth being pulled out with pliers.

Purple bougainvillea spills from the high walls in front of the houses. The sunshine hasn’t begun to burn yet as soldiers from the Strykers 5th battalion 20th Infantry Regiment go from house to house looking for fighters and weapons in neighborhood thought to harbor al-Qaeda. There are no polite knocks. They operate on the assumption that when the gate or the door swings open there could be gunmen behind it.

At this house they’re met at the gate by Selma and her two eldest daughters, determined to leave for school despite the soldiers and armored vehicles in the streets and the possibility of getting caught in crossfire. The girls, dressed in black skirts and flowing white blouses with blue headscarves covering their hair, are more worried about being late. They’re sitting for high-school exams and the school was closed for the last two days because of fears by the government the students would be kidnapped.

“It will take us an hour to get there and we want to be on time,” says Yasmine, who is 17.

There is no electricity, no telephones, no taxis, and no cars. There is no radio or television service to tell them if the school will be open. The girls will have to walk to the school, just in case it is open. Selma has no way to know if the school will be open today, and is fearful to send her daughters, although everyone in the family wants to see the girls complete their education.

Ms Arraf speaks some Arabic and unexpectedly the reporter, ostensibly an observer, finds herself placed in the position of participant as translator.

“It won’t be dangerous for them?” her mother asks me. “I’m so afraid for them. Should I tell them it’s alright to go?” she asks me to ask the soldiers.

The platoon commander, 1st Lt Thomas Gaines tells her it’s fine. He radios to his soldiers moving through the neighborhood to let them know that the girls will be walking through the area.

‘”Thank you,” Yasmine says solemnly in her high school English. “Goodbye,” says Sabreen, enunciating each syllable.

Selma, watches them as they walk away. “I’m so afraid for them,” she tells me.

The US occupation might be unwelcome in many parts of Iraq, but life goes on, accommodations must be made, and sometimes people of good heart make contact with each other.

Usually a house search only takes a few minutes, but this house seems well-situated to be a temporary patrol base, a chance to monitor the neighborhood. The prospect terrifies Selma.

If you stay here, they will say we were cooperating with the Americans and they will come and attack us,” she says. …

Selma worries: “When you’re finished here you’ll leave and what about tomorrow? We have no neighbors, there is no security here.” She tells me her uncle was kidnapped four months ago – they paid the ransom money that was asked – all the money they had she says – but they still have no news of him.

The soldiers stay. Even among people of good heart the country is occupied, and the fear of being associated with the occupiers is tangible.

An idle mind is a curious thing. McClatchy Newspapers had a little piece yesterday about Argentina, and its military defeat by the UK in 1982. Reading it just made something go ‘click’ for me.

Most of you remember how it went down. There were some exciting naval and ground battles, and the Argentines lost. Two of the reasons they lost can be easily explained: the British troops were tougher, better trained. Soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Para Regiments and 42 Commando of the Royal Marines walked 75 to 90 miles across open, wild, rocky country in 3 days, carrying 100 pound packs and when they arrived at their destinations swept into the attack almost immediately. The Argentine Army, mostly conscripts, were poorly led, inadequately clothed for the harsh weather of a winter in the Falklands, poorly armed, and lost every ground battle.

The British battle fleet lost ships to the Argentine Naval Air Force, but had some success with their integral Naval Air component, Harrier fighters carried on two aircraft carriers.

The irony of this is that if the military junta ruling Argentina had waited eight months, there would have been no naval air at the Falklands. The British Ministry of Defense was in the process of decommissioning both carriers. The expedition would have been impossible without those carriers, and the Falklands today would be the Malvinas.

The decision to invade and occupy the Falklands was made for several reasons. The official reason was a long diplomatic dispute over the actual “ownership” of the islands. But as the McClatchy story points out, there might have been a second reason:

“The war shouldn't have ever existed," said [Gabriel] Sagastume, now a prosecutor in this provincial capital. "Much less to take us there in the condition they took us, and afterwards not give us food and not give us munitions and not do things minimally well."

Twenty-five years after British and Argentine forces clashed over patches of rock that were home to more sheep than people, Argentines are still debating the legacy of the Falklands War, known here as the Malvinas War.

Was it, as Sagastume and many others argue, a misguided effort by a corrupt dictatorship to distract Argentines from a failing economy and the government's brutal persecution of dissidents? Or was it a heroic, if ultimately failed, effort to reassert rightful Argentine authority over territory spirited away by colonizers 149 years ago? [emph added]

At the time the Argentines occupied the Falklands there was some discussion about this in the US. It’s traditional in a dictatorship to find and fight an external enemy in order to distract the citizens who are suffering greatly under a corrupt government mismanaging an economy.

As we approach the 2008 elections, and as the actual economy (as opposed to the paper economy of the stock market) worsens because of escalating energy prices, more jobs shipped overseas for cheaper labor costs, stagnant wages and crippling costs for essentials, we can look forward to further war drums about Iran and Syria.

All dictatorships are the same.

Steven Thomma, writing for McClatchy Newspapers yesterday discussed the “ I “ word.

WASHINGTON - The push to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is gaining a hearing in some parts of the country, but not in Washington.

More than 70 cities and 14 state Democratic parties have urged impeachment or investigations that could lead to impeachment. The most common charge is that Bush manipulated intelligence to lead the country into the Iraq war. Other charges include spying on Americans and torturing suspected terrorists in violation of U.S. and international law.

Most recently, the Massachusetts Democratic Party voted to push impeachment of both men. The 2,500 state convention delegates voted almost unanimously against Cheney; the vote against Bush was closer.

Massachusetts' Democratic Party thus joined 13 others on the investigate-or-impeach bandwagon, including: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Notice that all the rush to impeach these two men is coming from the “sticks” – outside the Beltway. A cynical man would say, “You know – where the real people live.” “Real people” might define those millions of Americans who, aided by the benefit of distance from glittering cocktail parties, those marvelous Vienna sausages, and endless bottles of premium champagne, are cognizant that gasoline, which cost $3.35 per gallon now, only cost around $1.00 to 1.25 in 1999. They’re also aware of the fact that their incomes have not risen 2 ½ times during that period, although they’re pretty certain the Beltway glitterati have had some hefty earnings increases.

Gasoline isn’t the only expense, of course. In 1999 a loaf of bread cost $1.49 and now it’s $3.39. A pound of bacon was $2.59, but it’s $5.00 to 6.00 a pound in 2007. Coffee - $3.41 then and $6.00 to 8.00 now, although if you live inside the Beltway you can but boutique coffee for $14.00 a pound. Got milk for that coffee? $3.25 in 1999 and at $3.99 now, a real bargain.

Of course, the costs of feeding a family, and transporting Mom and Dad to their 2.7 jobs was only one of the reasons America was revolted by Republican misgovernment.

American voters were also disgusted with the criminal and ethical excesses of the Republican Party and elected a wave of Democrats because they expected change. They wanted the cesspool of Washington drained, and flowers planted. They wanted Mr Bu$h’s ego-war in Iraq stopped. They wanted the steady train of dead bodies stopped. They wanted the steady drain of national resources stopped. They thought their taxes should be spent in the US rather than spent to blow up Iraqi homes and kill Iraqi citizens. They wanted to paint US schools, rather than schools in Fallujah and Ramadi.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly assured the Republicans that “Impeachment is off the table.”

This was rather stunning news to millions of Americans. That was one of their secret hopes, probably more important than painting schools.

There are both policy and political reasons that Democratic leaders are risking the anger of their base.

One is that some don't see an impeachable offense in what Bush has done, what the Constitution calls "high crimes and misdemeanors." They might find such evidence in any of the many congressional investigations, but they haven't yet.

Another is that they fear a political backlash from voters similar to the one that punished Republicans after they impeached Bill Clinton. One factor on the side of the pro-impeachment crowd: Clinton was much more popular than Bush.

The third is that they're eager to keep Bush and Cheney around as punching bags for Democratic candidates in the 2008 campaign.

I would agree. Lying in order to start a war of aggression to loot another nation‘s oil is not an impeachable offense, although lying about a blowjob most certainly is. Looting the US Treasury to hand out lots of cash to political cronies would never be seen as a high crime and misdemeanor, although lunatics inventing gossip about secret drug deals, stealth assassinations of aides, and replacing clerks in a travel office is obviously beyond the pale, and warrants immediate impeachment, trial and conviction.

While performing their political calculus about the 2008 elections, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi might want to think about the other side of the coin. Just as the fever swamp of the netroots inspired American voters to unass Republicans in 2006, they just might work to replace certain selected Democrats in 2008. Especially Democrats who promised change and now don’t seem to want to deliver.

Tim Carpenter, director of the liberal Progressive Democrats of America is quoted as saying, “"There is a groundswell here. Pelosi says it's [impeachment] off the table. It's our role to put it on the table."

ITMFA

Following up on my article about disillusion among the ranks, frequent commenter Cyber Ruffian (and, I believe, my favorite dissident cynic Shanks,) pointed out to me the story about Donald Hudson, also a trooper in the 82nd Airborne, who had a shattering experience during a nighttime evolution that he thought would be entirely ordinary.

Of course, it’s always easy to look back and remark upon the fact that there is no “ordinary” in a war zone. Attention to detail is precious, life is fleeting at best, and there is no “safe” over there.

This young man, three years into his enlistment, is apparently on his first deployment and probably has had the benefit of a lot of training and preparation. The 82nd has been the country’s strategic reserve and quick reaction force for more than 10 years; training is incessant. Training can prepare a soldier for the first moment of contact, but there is no training to get you ready for seeing your roommate’s face burned off, and that experience can mark you forever.

There's always a reason when things out of the ordinary happen (i.e. become public) within a tightly-curtained hierarchical organization like the Armed Forces. The "Military" and the "Press" have always had a love-hate relationship. Since at least WWII commanders have tried to influence what reporters wrote and usually the journalists exercised caution, understanding that military security had to be balanced against the right of the public to have accurate information.

Soldiers who are properly-led and well-motivated don't bitch to reporters about their disillusionment with the service or the mission. They’ll complain about not getting mail, or bad food, or too much chickenshit. But the service isn’t just something you’re in, it’s something you do and most GIs understand this. Likewise the mission. If you’ve been trained well and trust your leaders, you understand the mission must be accomplished.

I find it remarkable that two stories about dissatisfaction among the enlisted ranks from the same division appear on the same day. If you paid attention to the story about Delta Company, 1/325th you noted the company commander has also lost faith in the mission. This doesn’t mean the 82nd is a hotbed of dissension. These soldiers’ morale may be high, but they have no faith in their mission any longer. The political and environmental realities of occupation combat in Iraq have made them distrustful of their ostensible allies, and accomplishing the mission has been supplanted by saving their buddies and protecting the unit.

These stories leaked out from one division on the same day in an environment in which the release of news to the media and to the American media is very tightly controlled. Mr Kamber’s article was most likely reviewed by MNF-I. I’m intrigued by why it was passed through. I have no idea how Donald Hudson’s story got out and the degree of repercussions might be more indicative of how things really are than GEN Petraeus’ politically-prompted announcements..

Michael Kamber has a story in today’s NY Times which is worth a look. He spent some time with Delta Company, 1/325th Inf of the 82nd Airborne Division.

He introduces us to SSG David Safstrom, who is on his third deployment to Iraq, and many might think he’s been there at least once too often.

BAGHDAD — Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.

“In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place,” he said. “There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome.”

But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber’s body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.

“I thought: ‘What are we doing here? Why are we still here?’ ” said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. “We’re helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us.”

His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.

Those of us who have actually done the deed have been insisting for years that our Army is stretched too thin, tasked too hard, and bleeding too much. Those who have sat on their dead asses have called us traitors. It’s not a painful accusation once you consider the source.

Mr Kamber points out that younger troops, those on their first tour, don’t necessarily feel the same sense of frustration.

A small minority of Delta Company soldiers — the younger, more recent enlistees in particular — seem to still wholeheartedly support the war. Others are ambivalent, torn between fear of losing more friends in battle, longing for their families and a desire to complete their mission.

A grizzled man would wonder whether their attitudes might change after months of patrols, ambushes and IEDs in the same area, day after day, especially after loading a few helicopters with their buddies.

Here’s the first money quote of the article:

With few reliable surveys of soldiers’ attitudes, it is impossible to simply extrapolate from the small number of soldiers in the company. But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers in this 83-man unit over a one-week period, most said they were disillusioned by repeated deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war, one they had no ability to stop.

They had seen shadowy militia commanders installed as Iraqi Army officers, they said, had come under increasing attack from roadside bombs — planted within sight of Iraqi Army checkpoints — and had fought against Iraqi soldiers whom they thought were their allies.

“In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war,” said Sgt. First Class David Moore, a self-described “conservative Texas Republican” and platoon sergeant who strongly advocates an American withdrawal. “Now, 95 percent of my platoon agrees with me.” [emph added]

I doubt the Army is eager to permit very many attitude checks of the troops without a Colonel or three watching, along with a couple of eager 2LTs to take down names for later “counseling.” The fact that a career NCO like SFC Moore has had enough is a signifier that no one should miss.

A second point: Mr Kamber noted he’s in the field with an “83-man unit.” Does anyone know the TO&E allocation for an Airborne Infantry Company?

131.

You’re going to have a few clerks and jerks back in the FOB. Someone has to write the Morning Report, fill out 16 different manning, status, and action reports for all the slacker Majors at Battalion and Brigade, and count the bedsheets, so there’s a supply sergeant, and a clerk, who traditionally does the writing for the S4 SGT, who is traditionally – you know mission-incapable in the writing department. There are no cooks and bakers as far as I know. SGT Major Halliburton handles that, I believe.

Delta, 1/325 is fielding 83 rifles out of an authorized strength of 131. And the 82nd Division (Abn) is an elite unit.

Here’s the second money quote:

On April 29, a Delta Company patrol was responding to a tip at Al Sadr mosque, a short distance from its base. The soldiers saw men in the distance erecting barricades that they set ablaze, and the streets emptied out quickly. Then a militia, believed to be the Mahdi Army, began firing at them from rooftops and windows.

Sgt. Kevin O’Flarity, a squad leader, jumped into his Humvee to join his fellow soldiers, racing through abandoned Iraqi Army and police checkpoints to the battle site.

He and his squad maneuvered their Humvees through alleyways and side streets, firing back at an estimated 60 insurgents during a gun battle that raged for two and a half hours. A rocket-propelled grenade glanced off Sergeant O’Flarity’s Humvee, failing to penetrate.

When the battle was over, Delta Company learned that among the enemy dead were at least two Iraqi Army soldiers that American forces had helped train and arm.

Captain Rogers admits, “The 29th was a watershed moment in a negative sense, because the Iraqi Army would not fight with us,” adding, “Some actually picked up weapons and fought against us.”

The battle changed the attitude among his soldiers toward the war, he said. “Before that fight, there were a few true believers.” Captain Rogers said. “After the 29th, I don’t think you’ll find a true believer in this unit. They’re paratroopers. There’s no question they’ll fulfill their mission. But they’re fighting now for pride in their unit, professionalism, loyalty to their fellow soldier and chain of command.”

I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying.

After three soldiers were captured near Mahmoudiya, there was a massive effort to recover their bodies. Michael Kamber of the NY Times accompanied one patrol from the 10th Mtn Division.

Crooks and Liars has archived a five minute oral report here, with accompanying photos.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae, 1915

Today we remember and honor absent relatives, friends, and comrades all. Their sacrifice around the world helped this nation be what it is, and their blood has drenched the soil of six continents. Where one has fallen we have lost more than a life; we have lost a bit of ourselves.

Death is not a kind specter, but it is egalitarian. It collects patriot, coward, prince, pauper and thief. The Great Leveler observes neither fame nor notoriety in its grim embrace. Some meet Death nobly, and others are carried shrieking and fighting across the river. But as we remember each of our brothers and sisters in uniform today, we mourn their passing and vow that none of them shall have died in vain, and each new flag-draped coffin shall be the last.

Man is an imperfect animal and we can be assured that there will be more wars, more caskets, more graveside ceremonies, more evil men trying to twist and pervert the foundations of our country’s greatness. There will be more stunned Americans asking “Why?”

We owe it to each of our fallen countrymen, all the way back to those first to die in our war for independence, to renew our solemn vow to keep alive the flame of freedom so that not one shall have died uselessly.

History of Memorial Day

When talking of our war dead it is difficult to separate fact from fiction and history from myth.

There is but one indisputable fact. They are dead, and we are both poorer for their death, and richer for their sacrifice.

I've played a lot of roles in life;
I've met a lot of men,
I've done a lot of things I'd like to think
I wouldn't do again.

And though I'm young, I'm old enough
To know someday I'll die.
And to think about what lies beyond,
Beside whom I would lie.

Perhaps it doesn't matter much;
Still if I had my choice,
I'd want a grave 'mongst
Soldiers when
At last death quells my voice.

I'm sick of the hypocrisy
Of lectures of the wise.
I'll take the man, with all the flaws,
Who goes, though scared, and dies.

The troops I knew were commonplace
They didn't want the war;
They fought because their fathers and
Their fathers had before.

They cursed and killed and wept...
God knows
They're easy to deride...
But bury me with men like these;
They faced the guns and died.

It's funny when you think of it,
The way we got along.
We'd come from different worlds
To live in one where no one belongs,

I didn't even like them all;
I'm sure they'd all agree.
Yet I would give my life for them,
I know some did for me..

So bury me with soldiers, please,
Though much maligned they be.
Yes, bury me with soldiers, for
I miss their company.

We'll not soon see their likes again;
We've had our fill of war.
But bury me with men like them
Till someone else does more.
Anonymous

To Absent Friends

Hubris Sonic has done us all a favor. Go over to Steve Gillard’s spot and take a look at what 3,450 dead Americans look like. Start at the top and just scroll down. And down. And down.

It’s almost like going to that fucking black hole in the ground to find your friends.

What an incredible waste of human beings.

Tomorrow is the celebrated Memorial Day and we, as a nation, will grieve for our dead. Today, let's celebrate the living.

Back last year VAW-116 (the Sun Kings) were worn out from a series of port visits and made a video. To prove that not only the squadron’s officers know how to dance, they’ve made another.

There is no truth to the rumors they are changing their squadron name to the “The Show-Biz Kings.”

Not to be outdone, CS6 of the USS Enterprise has also made a video and in a bit of one-upmanship, it’s not in English.

Even risking their lives every day they still find time for humor. The US Army’s Matt Wright and Josh Dobbs are looking to bring some blue-eyed soul to hip-hop.

Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi, is spending an entire month living in one small room at the Flatfile Gallery in Chicago. People with high speed web connections can log in at Domestic Tension and watch him live his daily life, almost the way people used to long onto websites that covered eight coed babes living in a group home. (Some of you might still do that, you perverted wretches. Why doesn’t anyone send me screengrabs?)

Viewers can wrestle control of the webcam away from Bilal and move it around the room, to get a better idea of the meager and Spartan setting he’s put himself in.

Viewers can peep in on him anonymously at any time, and even chat with him online. On the installation’s Web site, his audience can fight for control of the camera and pan it around the room.

Now, there is a slight gimmick here. The webcam is more than a camera.

[T]he camera is affixed to a rifle-sized paintball gun—and the Web site has a button that allows viewers to fire the gun—they also have the opportunity to shoot at him, or anything else in his room. Which they have done an astonishing 40,000 times in the project’s first two and a half weeks.

After all, why ask an Iraqi about himself, his life, hopes, dreams and aspirations when you can just symbolically whack the guy?

Every day he posts a new entry in his video diary on YouTube, and every day commenters—be they outraged, sympathetic, thoughtful or asinine—usually find something to say. When the project was linked to on the popular communal news site Digg.com, someone hacked into the gallery’s server and fired the gun 20,000 times in 24 hours.

If I’d known about this project four weeks ago I’d have bought some Frito-Lay stock on margin.

Andrew Bacevich is a Viet Nam veteran and teaches at Boston University. As most of my readers know, his son was killed during an IED attack on May 13th while he was serving with the US Army in Iraq.

Mr Bacevich discusses some facts surrounding his opposition to this evil war, and his son’s death, and expresses himself about the Iraq occupation.

Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.

Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings.

There is no point in discussing these sick, diseased minds that drool with pleasure when a responsible citizen becomes a victim this way.

What exactly is a father's duty when his son is sent into harm's way?

Among the many ways to answer that question, mine was this one: As my son was doing his utmost to be a good soldier, I strove to be a good citizen.

I encourage you all to read the essay and leave your thoughts here, if you wish.

Amazingly, the NY Times discovers there is a maniac loose in Washington.

Never mind how badly the war is going in Iraq. President Bush has been swaggering around like a victorious general because he cowed a wobbly coalition of Democrats into dropping their attempt to impose a time limit on his disastrous misadventure.

By week’s end, Mr. Bush was acting as though that bit of parliamentary strong-arming had left him free to ignore not just the Democrats, but also the vast majority of Americans, who want him to stop chasing illusions of victory and concentrate on how to stop the sacrifice of young Americans’ lives.

And, ever faithful to his illusions, Mr. Bush was insisting that he was the only person who understood the true enemy.

Speaking to graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Mr. Bush declared that Al Qaeda is “public enemy No. 1” in Iraq and that “the terrorists’ goal in Iraq is to reignite sectarian violence and break support for the war here at home.” The next day, in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush turned on a reporter who had the temerity to ask about Mr. Bush’s declining credibility with the public, declaring that Al Qaeda is “a threat to your children” and accusing him of naïvely ignoring the danger.

Paranoid. Megalomania. Illusions of Imperial Grandeur. Massive denial.

Granted, the Democrats who caved last week are complicit in this. They could have sent back the exact same bill that Mr Bu$h had already vetoed. They could have changed a word or three here and there. They could have changed some dollar amounts. The important goal was not to get him to accept timelines, whether binding or not. The goal should have been to enrage the man, get him absolutely foaming-at-the-mouth, break-the-pen-while-signing enraged.

He is such a child that he could not have resisted going on national television and shrieking his anger at being disobeyed.

Then all Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi had to do was stand on the Capitol steps and plaintively ask, “Why is he refusing to fund the troops? We don’t understand. We thought this funding was important. Seventy-two percent of the American taxpayers and voters think it’s important to fund the troops, and to protect them with the proper equipment, which Mr Bu$h refuses to supply. The American taxpayers and voters have made it crystal clear to us that they want all this, and they want our troops out of Iraq. We thought Mr Bu$h was serious about the troops.”

But they didn’t and now they own Iraq, along with Mr Bu$h.

It’s upsetting to think that Mr. Bush believes the raging sectarian violence in Iraq awaits reigniting, or that he does not recognize that Americans’ support for the war broke down many bloody months ago. But we have grown accustomed to this president’s disconnect from reality and his habit of tilting at straw men, like Americans who don’t care about terrorism because they question his mismanagement of the war or don’t worry about what will happen after the United States withdraws, as it inevitably must.

The civil war that Mr Bu$h and his Likudnik operative advisers refuse to acknowledge is destroying Iraq. And more and more Americans each month are being consumed in the flames of disintegration. As of yesterday, there have been 3,452 confirmed dead, including 13 within the last few days. There have been 101 dead so far this month. Last month there were 104, so it looks like we may have yet another record-breaking (and heart-breaking) month.

We, too, believe that Iraq has to be made as stable as possible so the United States can withdraw its troops without unleashing even more chaos and destruction. But Mr. Bush is not doing that and his version of reality only makes it more unlikely. The only solution lies with the Iraqi leaders, who have to stop their sectarian blood feud and make a real attempt to form a united government. That is their best chance to stabilize the country, allow the United States to withdraw and, yes, battle Al Qaeda.

The Democrats who called for imposing benchmarks for political progress on the Iraqis, combined with a withdrawal date for American soldiers, were trying to start that process. It’s a shame they could not summon the will and discipline to keep going, but we hope they have not given up. As disjointed as the Democrats have been, their approach makes far more sense than Mr. Bush’s denial of Iraq’s civil war and his war-without-end against terror.

Because Messers Bu$h and Cheney have been so dishonest with America, the Times can’t publicly admit what we all know: George Bu$h has no intentions whatsoever to leave Iraq. As far as he and Mr Cheney are considered, the troops must stay there for the next 20 or 30 years, until all the Iraqi oil has been extracted by their friends at ExxonMobil, Conoco, Shell and BP.

It seems the Simpsons actually live in Britain. I may have to reassess my opinions about that country

I link to blogs and articles catch my eye and bring out a point that I feel is important, or in some cases, crucial to our nation’s health, safety, or survival. It’s probably wrong, but I don’t link often enough to two of my best online and RT friends: Fixer and Gordon (and two of their colleagues, Nina and the Jersey Guy) just because I figure my readers go there anyway. I figure you go there and read every word, as I do. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Fixer excerpted a bit yesterday from the NY Times that should be read carefully. Moqtada al-Sadr, who was apparently in hiding for a while in Iran is back in the hood. Specifically he’s in Kufa, a “Shiite holy city” about 100 miles north of Baghdad. (Don’t they seem to have a lot of “holy cities” in Iraq? Just so many ways for us to offend religious sensibilities and crash and burn over there.)

Now, while he was out of public sight, the nimrods at MNF-I were mocking him, claiming he was hiding in Iran. The implication, I guess, was to paint him as a puppet getting instructions, or some kind of coward or something. I’m not sure that was a good idea. We might have a lot of firepower, but you know, they outnumber us by a large number. So far we’re losing about 100 GIs per month, and that’s mostly caused by the actions of the fighting part of about 20% of the population of the country.

Moqtada al-Sadr has been keeping his Mahdi Army pretty much under control, even as we push deeper and deeper into Sadr City, establishing Combat Outposts staffed by a mixture of US and Iraqi forces. And a lot of those Iraqi forces owe loyalty to al-Sadr.

You do the math.

In Kufa al-Sadr pointed out that he has had a lot of forbearance, telling his Mahdi Army not to strike back at Sunnis as they’ve been setting off bombs all over the country, killing Shiites and GIs. He apparently extended his hand to Sunnis and Christians to unite in order to force out the occupier.

“No, no, no to Satan! No, no, no to America! No, no, no to occupation! No, no, no to Israel!” Mr. Sadr told about 1,000 worshippers, frequently mopping his brow in the 110-degree heat of Iraq’s early summer.

He renewed earlier demands for a timetable for an American troop withdrawal, saying the Iraqi government “should not extend the occupation even for a single day.” But he avoided setting a deadline, perhaps because of widespread fears among Iraqi Shiites that the country’s new Shiite-dominated army and police were far from ready to stand alone against the Qaeda groups and Baathist diehards who have driven the Sunni insurgency.

So, is it really a good idea to go out of our way to piss this guy off?

Editor and Publisher is reporting today on a Gallup poll that apparently states that almost one in three Americans believes the Bible is to be taken literally.

NEW YORK About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word, a new Gallup poll reveals. This percentage is only slightly lower than several decades ago.

Gallup reports that the majority of those "who don't believe that the Bible is literally true believe that it is the inspired word of God but that not everything it in should be taken literally." Finally, about one in five Americans believe the Bible is merely an ancient book of "fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man."

There is also a strong relationship between education and belief in a literal Bible, Gallup explains, with such belief becoming much less prevalent as schooling continues.

We keep hearing about this: the Christian Bible is the revealed word of an old white man with a long white beard who sits on a throne up in the clouds. I don’t know about you, but I hear it most often from people who want to kill every Arab in the Middle East, enable the Israelites to take over all their old kingdom, and bring about the return of the carpenter, which will usher in a lot more killing and death. They also seem to believe in torturing people who disagree with their world view, but then they’ve been doing that for centuries.

I don’t think that’s what the carpenter intended, if you read what his followers and biographers wrote.

What is it about this deity thing that makes humans into killers and haters?

As for the Bible being the literal word: if you really believe that, why are American children going to bed at night hungry? Why is one singe woman in this country unable to feed her children and et them medical care when they need it? Why are landlords permitted to not rent to the “wrong” people? Why do you endorse killing humans in another country? Why do you support a man and his associates who have demonstrated by word and deed that they have nothing but contempt for the laws of our country?

If you are an observant believer, carry these words with you tomorrow on the way to shul, or to church on Sunday:

“The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.”
Psalms, 55:21

There was an editorial in the LA Times that seems to take the position that our high gasoline pump prices are our own fault. That’s right. Our fault.

Gasoline prices have risen to record levels recently and are climbing more sharply than oil prices, raising the usual suspicions that refiners are gouging consumers. The ritual response in Congress to such spikes is to call for investigations (despite the fact that dozens of probes over the last 20 years have turned up no clear evidence of market manipulation by oil companies) and to propose laws imposing price caps or other ways to discourage profiteering. A case in point is a vague bill passed by the House on Wednesday giving federal regulators the power to prosecute, during presidential declarations of an energy emergency, anyone selling gas at a price that is "unconscionably excessive" and "taking unfair advantage" of consumers — whatever that means.

James Wright, of Boston Massachusetts, stop driving to work every day. You’re killing us. Tell your boss you want to work a four day week. It’s the patriotic thing to do. Matilda Swan of Keokuck, Iowa, stop driving your eight year old to the school bus stop. Make him walk the five miles to the stop. It will make a man of him, and we all have to sacrifice in the war to beat high oil prices. Bill Keschimak of Minneapolis, not more detail calling on your customers. Just sit at your desk and telephone them to ask for orders. If you have a new product line, describe it to them over the phone. It’ll all work out – just ask the LA Times, which has decided to do away with home delivery, and truck delivery to news stands. They’re going to be the first online-only newspaper in the country.

American consumers are plenty mad about high gas prices, but apparently not mad enough to change their behavior. Gasoline consumption so far this year is up 1.7% nationwide over the same period in 2006, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. One explanation may be that Americans' incomes are rising too. A recent report in the Washington Post revealed that the share of the U.S. household budget devoted to oil and gas spending was 5% in 1981 but only 3.8% last year.

Of course, it could also mean that many Americans have lost their sweet local jobs (“Hello, Mumbai!”) and now have to drive further to get to a compensation job which is not so close to home, or that many Americans now have to have a second job just to make ends meet.

As for that WaPo article, has anyone at the LA Times taken time out from the bong, or the guacamole bowl, or whatever they’re ODing on out there, to consider that it might be a good idea to consider gallons consumed rather than budget percentages because today’s cars are more efficient than they were 26 years ago, and then we did have that economic peculiarity in the 90s – a Democratic President who seemed to have raised everyone’s incomes?

There’s also no sense blaming it on the SUV’s because that’s what the car makers insist on producing. We went through this foolishness in the 1970s when everyone wanted small economical cars and Detroit insisted on Street Cruisers making 9 miles per gallon with dual-carbed V-8s because the profit margins were higher. The Japanese car manufacturers loved that decision.

Everybody keeps insisting that oil (and gasoline) are matters of national security, so perhaps we should treat it that way.

The real solution is something that makes theTimes editors clutch their pearls and have the vapors over: price controls. When Big Oil reports quarterly profits that begin to resemble overruns on Federal defense projects you know that’s where the problem lies. Yes, we do need more refinery capacity. I’d like to suggest a few of likely spots: Grosse Point, Michigan, Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Palm Beach, Florida. We can take the land through eminent domain seizure, build the refineries through a new-century public works program, and even create some new jobs thereby.

Matthew Ygesias takes a look at this LA Times editorial and has a few thoughts.

The other thing about demagogic attacks on "price gouging" at the pump is that it serves to further re-enforce the view that providing consumers with cheap gasoline ought to be a major policy aim of the US government. If you care at all about the environment, of course, this is precisely wrong.

Ahem.

Ahem.

As gas topped a record level of $50 a barrel this week, Mr. Bush has shown no propensity to personally pressure, or “jawbone,” Mideast oil producers to increase output.

A spokesman for the president reportedly said in March that Mr. Bush will not personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds.

It appears that our national policy is not to have cheap gas at the pumps.

It would be nice to help the environment, but if I have to travel 30 miles one-way to feed my family I might not be able to afford a hybrid.

In theory, Mr Yglesias and the LA Times might be right.

In theory, Theory and Practice are the same. In practice, they aren’t.

Out-fucking-standing. Reader and occasional commenter OZinWisconsin was good enough to point out this blog entry to me from a soldier in the sandbox. Now, it’s a given that the men and women over there have more courage than the politicians infesting our deeply damaged political system.

But still. All those cowards had to do was to say “No.”

25/05/2007

Memorandum for Record: Military Spending Concerns

FROM: SPC Freeman, Milo; US Army, Iraq

TO: Senate Democrats, Republicans, and "American Idol" viewers across the nation.

1. You. Punk. Ass. Pantywaisted. Bitches.

2. You had a chance. You could have put your money where your mouth is--could have put some ass behind all those claims of "favoring an end to war."

3. And you fucking choked.

4. Let me explain something to you. Your children; your spouses; your lovers and friends and parents and CONSTITUENTS are hostages to this war. They're dying for a conflict with no concrete objective. They're losing marriages and childhood moments to a neverending cycle of extended tours. Their equipment, their morale, is stretched thin. And some of them--those of us smart enough not to buy the fucking hype--were counting on you to find your fucking testicles and put an end to this shit. We were counting on you to save us from ourselves; to find a way to put us to use serving our country in ways perhaps more effective in rebuilding our nation.

5. And you. Fucking. Choked.

6. I haven't gotten a current edition of the paper in months. It's always a day behind. I don't get to check the news--I barely have the time. So what am I to think when I read yesterday's Stars and Stripes, and hear about this shit? Is that supposed to tell me that my leaders, my countrymen give a flying FUCK about what happens to me or my wife? Is that the message I'm supposed to glean from this STUNNING lack of cojones? Because I gotta tell you, America, I'm not seeing it.

7. I'm so sick of hearing this wretched war talked about in terms of Victory or Defeat. "If we leave, the terrorists will win."

8. Fuck that.

9. Today it's Terrorists. Yesterday it was Blacks/Gays/Jews/Hippies. Before that it was Communists. Before that, it was Uppity Colonials with Secondhand Muskets and Pitchforks. It's always fucking something with you people, isn't it?

10.You just need your little wars to feel good about yourselves, don't you? Something to make you feel threatened; something to make you feel heroic; ANYTHING to make you feel like your pathetic lives are more than just you against the Big, Black, Scary Infinite. Well, obviously, it's working.

11. You don't magically "win" an occupation. It's an inevitable bleed-out. We're stuck in a situation beyond our powers to fix, in a country that WE voted to destroy, whose history and people we neither understand nor care to try. We bought the hype, hook-line-and-sinker.

12. Fuck Victory. Fuck Defeat. Any way you slice it, This. War. Is. Wrong.

13.You don't keep trying to win the game after it turns out you bribed the refs. You fire the coaches and/or players responsible, and you hand over the Title. You take your lumps like a fucking man and try to rebuild. Accept it.

13. Hope you're happy, America. Clutch your pearls about all those dirty liberals who voted against the proposal ("They didn't Support The Troops!"). Whine about all the evil elderly schoolteachers and librarians protesting the war on a Saturday morning outside your courthouse.

14. But when your son or daughter or spouse or first lay comes home airfreight, mangled into a closed-casket service by a daisy-chain of 155s buried under Route Tampa, remember this:

15. It won't be the dirty liberals who put them there.

16. Hoo-ah.

//

ORIGINAL SIGNED

Milo Freeman, SPC

United States Army, Iraq

Many thanks, Oz. This lifted my spirits. I hope it does for any of our dispirited readers.

The Pretender's "Brass in Pocket".

This is the original band, when Peter Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott were alive. The group survived, with many changes, and is still good, but Chrissie Hynde still makes it special for me.

Since Mr Blair is on the way out the door and the apparent new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is determined to take the UK out of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” and he might well separate from the special relationship, which undoubtedly involves Carnivore and Echelon and that would create an annoying and dangerous gap in Mr Bu$h’s wiretapping Americans in his eternal search for political dissent.

Fortunately, by an amazing coincidence, Mexico recently had a Presidential race, in which the Conservative candidate, Felipe Calderon, won a questionable victory, complete with disputed voting box totals, missing voting boxes, alleged intimidation of poor voters who might have voted for Mr Calderon’s opponent, and, strangest of all, conservative gringo advisers helping Mr Calderon win his election.

The Gun Toting Liberal believes he sees dark forces at work:

Via our activism, we’d [almost] successfully tied President Bush’s hands. We’d [almost] successfully pressured him to cave into the wishes of our Founding Fathers — i.e., that “there will be NO data-mining and “wiretapping of U.S. Citizens without following the law” crowd. From his pulpit, President Bush promised us he would grudgingly adhere to the rule of law. He would seek the permission of the [hideous] FISA court’s “rubber stamping” procedure before going any further with his illegal acts against the Constitution and the Citizenry… from this day forward. And for a few short weeks, we had HOPE. HOPE that he really meant he would stop his criminal activities against the Citizens; hope that the blood of our Founding Fathers had not been spilled for ZILCH.

But, remember, we are talking about President “Surge” W. Bush here. There HAD to be a way out for him; a way to usurp the Constitution without risking being hanged by the neck until dead; the manner in which similar acts were handled a couple of hundred years ago. THINK… THINK… THINK… finally — “Eureka, I’ve GOT IT!“, exclaims the President. “There IS a way to do this!”, he says to himself as he claps the palm of his hand to his forehead…

The answer? It’s rooted in President Clinton’s unwinnable “War On Drugs”. “We’ve GOT to step up the unwinnable War On Drugs”, says President Bush. He then FINANCES a SWEEPING data-mining and wiretapping program in Mexico, hand in hand with Mexico’s (fellow) CONSERVATIVE President… President Bush’s close buddy who is working hand-in-hand with President Bush to eliminate both our Southern, and Presidente’ Felipe Calderon’s Northern borders. In other words, WE PAID OUR TAX DOLLARS FOR THIS so-called “program”.

The LA Times reported:

Mexico taps U.S. funds to boost its intercepting of data

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that