Falwell arriving at the pearly gates

Uh oh, Tinky Winky....


(pic stolen from here.)

Update 5/29: We need a poem to honor this event:
Steve Bates said...

Jerry Scary

Children, see the Teletubby:
Rather stubby,
Kinda chubby.
Never snobby, never clubby.

Has a TV in its tummy:
Never crummy,
Never scummy;
Doesn't look a lot like Mummy.

Has a 'tenny on the toppy:
Though he's sloppy,
Dances choppy,
One would not mistake for Poppy.

Children, now let's look at Jerry:
Jerry's wary,
Jerry's scary;
Calls our Tinky Winky "fairy."

Doesn't like our Tinky's baggy,
Calls him "faggy,"
Calls him "draggy,"
Calls him everything but "Maggie."

Jerry's preachy on the tubey:
Hates kids who be
Just like you be;
'Specially kids who might a Jew be.

Children, do not be like Jerry:
Leery, wary,
Chary, scary.
Lovey-dovey has he nary.

Better take your cue from Tinky:
Smiley, Winky,
Kindly thinky;
Next to Tinky, Jerry's stinky!

Hate's infectious, like a scabie:
You had maybe
Better gay be
Than to hate a 'tubby baby!

- SBtheYDD
2/9/1999
(From Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat)

Every once in a while we see a politician

Who might actually transform the system. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA):

“This capitulation proves once and for all that we cannot negotiate with this President. He won’t listen to his military generals on the ground, he won’t listen to outside experts like the Iraq Study Group, he won’t listen to the Congress, and worst of all he won’t listen to the American public.

“Faced with this blind arrogance we have no other choice but to take bold steps to confront this President and to hold him accountable for his continued failures in Iraq. If we refuse, if we continue to take piecemeal steps such as today’s vote, then we must accept our complicity in his continued occupation of Iraq.

“The American public voted Democrats into power for one simple reason - they trusted us to act boldly to hold this President accountable and to bring our troops home. So far we are failing the very trust that they have placed in us. But more importantly, every day that we allow this occupation to continue we are failing our brave young men and women who are serving honorably and professionally in Iraq. And we are failing their families here at home, who, while struggling to keep their lives and families together, are forced to worry whether their loved ones will come home alive, and if so in what condition.

“Today is not an opportunity to claim victory, or to give bellicose speeches for partisan gain. Today is an opportunity to grieve for the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for this President’s failed Iraq policy, to stand by our nation’s sons and daughters who suffer through the irreparable physical and mental wounds of war, and to grieve for the lives that we will continue to lose so long as this President refuses to bring our troops home, and continues to send our young men and women to die for his failure.”

We can hope.

Finally someone actually spoke the truth

About the stupid 'fight them over there or they'll follow us over here' bullshit. Via Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars, Fred Kaplan at the Slate on Georgie's birdpooping press conference:

If you sat through the rest of the conference, which dealt mainly with the war in Iraq, you saw the bedraggled president he has become—defensive, doctrinaire, scattershot, and either deceptive or delusional.

Iraq has dominated his agenda for four years now, yet he still sees the conflict through a prism rife with cliché.

The topper, which he has recited several times before, is that if we fail in Iraq, the terrorists will follow us home. He uttered a few variations of the line this morning: "If we were to fail, they'd come and get us. … If we let up, we'll be attacked. … It's better to fight them there than here."

Clearly, this is nonsense, on three levels.

First, the vast majority of the insurgents have nothing to do with al-Qaida or its ideology. They're combatants in a sectarian conflict for power in Iraq, and they have neither the means nor the desire to threaten North America.

Second, to the extent that the true global terrorists could attack us at home, they could do so whether or not U.S. troops stay or win in Iraq. The one issue has nothing to do with the other.

Third, what kind of thing is this to say in front of the allies? If our main goal in bombing, strafing, and stomping through Iraq is to make sure we don't have to do so on our own territory, will any needy nation ever again seek our aid and cover? Or will they seek out a less blatantly selfish protector?

Texas Senate passes Bible teaching in public schools

And it's now going to the governor to be signed. Steve Bates at the Yellow Doggerel Democrat has the Democratic reply.

Now THIS will fix premarital sex, teenage misbehavior, crime, illegal aliens, the health care crisis, the war in Iraq....

Update 5/26: Steve corrects me: the reply [he] published is that of an individual State Democratic Executive Committee member. She does not represent the Texas Democratic Party on this issue.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, North Korea

Gets tired of being ignored:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea fired several short-range guided missiles Friday into the sea that separates it from Japan in an apparent test launch, South Korean officials and media reports said.

Analysts and media reports said the North's test was in response to South Korea's launch of its first destroyer equipped with high-tech Aegis radar technology on Friday. South Korea is now one of only five countries armed with the technology, which will make it easier to track and shoot down North Korean aircraft and missiles.

The top ten idiots

How could I forget?

They're just making little soldiers for the next war

Why should we care?

Did you know that women in the US armed forces are currently denied access to legal reproductive options?

About 350,000 women currently serve in the military, making up about 15 percent of all active-duty personnel. But federal law does little to protect their reproductive rights. Not only are servicewomen banned from accessing abortion care at all military medical facilities, many can't even obtain emergency contraception at their base pharmacy and thus have no effective access to Plan B contraceptives.

Timely access to emergency contraception is important for military women, especially since nearly 3,000 incidents of sexual assault were reported in the military last year-- an approximate 24 percent increase from 2005. Congress has an opportunity to improve health care for women in the military with a bill sponsored by lawmakers in both parties supporting the addition of Plan B to the list of medications that must be stocked at every military health-care facility.

3000 sexual assaults? A 24% increase? They're supposed to lie back and think of America? WTF????

Supporting our troops one contractor at a time

Read what the Blackwater apologist said about how wonderfully the military was being supplied:

5. The U.S. military is designed to be the most capable organization in the world, it is not designed or expected to be particularly cost effective. Outsourcing needs to the private sector brings huge economies of scale and efficiencies that save billions of dollars while reducing burdens and enhancing services to the soldiers in the field.

Here's some articles:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The system for delivering badly needed gear to Marines in Iraq has failed to meet many urgent requests for equipment from troops in the field, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press.

Of more than 100 requests from deployed Marine units between February 2006 and February 2007, less than 10 percent have been fulfilled, the document says. It blamed the bureaucracy and a "risk-averse" approach by acquisition officials.

Among the items held up were a mine-resistant vehicle and a hand-held laser system.

"Process worship cripples operating forces," according to the document. "Civilian middle management lacks technical and operational currency."

The 32-page document -- labeled "For Official Use Only" -- was prepared by the staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force after they returned from Iraq in February.

The document was to be presented in March to senior officials in the Pentagon's defense research and engineering office. The presentation was canceled by Marine Corps leaders because its contents were deemed too contentious, according to a defense official familiar with the document. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The document's claims run counter to the public description of a process intended to cut through the layers of red tape that frequently slow the military's procurement process.

The Marine Corps had no immediate comment on the document.

And this from Bryan at Why Now?:

Juan Cole says that the insurgents are Starving the Americans Out, but I would think “You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.” [Robert Heinlein - Logic of Empire].

They have pulled all of these people into Baghdad without insuring that the privatized logistics system can support them.

Consider they increased the number of combat troops, and then “realized” they had to increase the number of support people. The GAO knew the extra support people were necessary, but the Pentagon claimed they weren’t. Given the way the Pentagon has nickel and dimed the troops, it not surprising that no one made sure there were increased shipments of food and materiel.

Where on earth did this woman come from?

Thinking that a drug that shuts off menstruation is a denial of babies and womanhood? Prepare for the weirdness:



Update: Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon has more.

Update: Chester of Vanity Press explains why this woman is so weirdly creepy: her bio.

6 Navy Commanders sacked in 6 weeks

Why?

Are they refusing to attack Iran? What is going on? Who is replacing these commanders?

For the sixth time in as many weeks, the lead officer of a Navy ship has been suddenly relieved of command, DANGER ROOM pal Andy Scutro reports for Navy Times.

Here is a list of all of them, one was Coast Guard.

Why does this make me freak out just a bit?