The beat goes on

Whistleblowers about corruption in Iraq get thrown into jail and interrogated - BY U.S. FORCES.  

Gonzales is finally gone. I'd throw a party, but I want the bastard prosecuted - and I'm afraid of who Bush is going to put in his place.

I knew corruption in Iraq was bad, but this is enough to make you vomit.

I spent the evening in front of the old capitol with an end-the-war rally.  The response from the cars driving by was amazing - there is definitely a majority of people (at least a majority of the ones that drove by us) that want the war to end now.  I've never heard so much honking in my life.  I wonder, though, about the few who flicked us off.  Most of them were young men - made me want to point out to them that if there's a draft, they'll be first on the chopping block - will they then be so gung-ho?

J sent me to Good Reads.  It's similar to other things online, but looks like it might be fun.  Drop by.

Remember the Milk looks like it could be really useful - I'll have to see how well it fits into my life.

I... I have no words...

I've joked about something like this for years now - you know, the "Just wait! Some horrible something will happen and Bush will claim it's not safe to hold an election, etc. etc.... ha ha!"

To see it proposed as a serious idea makes me physically ill.

However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.
When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.
Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.
If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.
He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.

Entire article entitled Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy.

Just a bit of stuff you might enjoy

And stuff to (hopefully) make you think...

How to Achieve Career Happiness by Being Gay on the Inside



Do We Need Another Jungle? - has some great fair trade links, among other things

Here's a book I'd like to read sometime soon...

Here's a GREAT blog entry from a stay-at-home dad - something I hope J can do soon...

This reminds me of some of the frustrations I feel: Oh, but it’s atheists who can’t have morals

I'm tempted to read this to find out what they'll arrest me for that is unconstitutional so I can go find some public event involving the president to attend... I could use $80K!

Tis almost the ides of August

J & I had a lovely dinner at the Melting Pot last night for our birthdays, courtesy of my mom.

I woke up this morning to a note left on our door in probably 92pt font: ROVE QUIT. I think I'll consider that a birthday present. Now if they'll just get him to testify!

So I get online and jump on some of the political blogs to see the details, and while I'm reading various and sundry articles, I see a link to an article in The Observer (a UK paper) "Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq" and after reading it, I think to myself WOW, that's pretty blunt - gee, I wonder if any US news organizations are reporting on this?

Can't find much. Found an article in the magazine The American Conservative talking about how Bush has broken the military - but all the rest of the articles I've found are elsewhere. For example:
"For an exhausted, disenchanted army there is still no end in sight" - The Independent (UK)
"Army Chief calls for return of draft to ease fatigue" - New Zealand Herald


Well, here's one from the US - but you note the article's title doesn't mention exhaustion:
"Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts" - Washington Post
I'm guessing that the title is meant to point out, AHEM, that BOMBING IRAN IS STUPID. (Cheney has evidently been walking around chanting "bomb Iran" - given the amount of oil that China buys from Iran, wouldn't that bring China into a fight? Or is that what he wants, a proxy war with China?) After reading the article, I'm thinking maybe the title understates the problem.


So in looking for US articles about our exhausted military (you get slightly better results if you look for "broken" military, since several high ranking US people have used those words) I notice that our War Czar has basically called for the draft to be reinstated. I'm surprised I've not heard the administration backpedaling furiously.

In other news - watch out, the market is looking scarier and scarier. I'd like to point out that I saw this coming 6 months ago. Here's a quote:

Bottom line: there are a ton of problems in the credit market that aren't going away anytime soon. The main reason for that comment comes from Countrywide Financial's report on Thursday. Countrywide is the largest mortgage lender by volume. That means they have a ton of stature and clout in the market. The problem is simple: they can't find liquidity for their mortgages right now. They had to place $1.8 billion of loans into their investment portfolio and devalue both investments by between 14% and 20% when the transferred those assets. The devaluation tells me that buyers are pretty scared about the whole mortgage mess right now.

Add to this the news that BNP stopped withdrawals from some of its funds, a Goldman Sachs fund lost over 20% since the beginning of the year, Washington Mutual agreeing with Countrywide's assessment of the credit markets, and the central banks pumping liquidity into the market, and you have a recipe for increased volatility and concern.

And in case you thought that wasn't enough:

But, he adds, the full weight of resets on adjustable-rate mortgages have yet to been felt. From the beginning of 2007 through the middle of 2008, over $1 trillion ARMs will reset, many from low "teaser" rates. Then the extent of the declines in home prices and the financial fallout will be apparent, Magnus observes.

The news has continued to come out in a very negative vein. And it's the big players who are making the announcements. That is all the more concerning. When the mortgage mess first started in last 2006/early 2007 it was the smaller players making the announcements. While this was disconcerting, it wasn't earth shattering. Now the big boys are saying, "boy is it rough out there". That should concern everybody.

There's just too much to comment on. I've got the bad news fatigue that seems to be hitting almost everybody. US military lost over 100,000 weapons in Iraq? Whatever. Our people are probably getting killed by our own weapons. Gotta love it. FEMA tries to hide the toxic outgassing of its emergency trailers that is making people sick? No surprise. Bush now talking about creating tax cuts for corporations? Sure, why not.

I think I'd better stop reading the news today. You'd think news of Rove resigning would make me happy... *sigh*

Today was great!

Well, yesterday, at this point, I guess.

Got up early, got to chat with J before the kids were up. Took my meds eeeeaaaarrrrly. Made breakfast for me, the kids, and dad. Went outside with the kids & scrubbed two chairs, a booster seat and a trashcan - getting soaked in the process, and creating much mud for the two munchkins to play in. While they played in the mud, I trimmed the bushes along the front right of the house (that haven't been trimmed in probably years at this point) and the pyrecantha bush (that is not a bush, the damn thing's a tree - it's taller than the house at this point! I told J later "I wonder how many of the bushes in our world are just oppressed trees? I can just see them saying "well, I'd be taller if you'd just STOP CHOPPING MY TOP OFF!"" Got a great laugh out of that. Anyway, got those bushes done, chopped down some unruly growth in the front of the yard, and managed to find 5 or 6 fire ants that hadn't died off yet from me putting fire ant killer on their mounds yesterday. They got my feet. Then managed to find a few more that must have dropped onto me from somewhere else - got a couple of bites on my neck & back; should be entertaining. Then brought the kids in, we watched a short movie, read some books and took a nap. Then got up, picked up Dad from his art class (yay, he went! Even if briefly, and without art supplies! I'm under orders to bring him back and bring his supplies next time.), went by the grocery store, came home & unloaded the dishwasher, made a fruit salad, made dinner (meatloaf, baked potatoes & spinach), fed everybody, took kids into bedroom, read books, put kids to sleep, and spent some quality time with my husband.

And was in a good mood pretty much all day. Sang, hummed or whistled all thru making dinner. The latest news about Westboro Baptist church heading up to the funerals of the bridge collapse couldn't even break me. And even hearing about some ex-friends of ours didn't hijack my brain the way it sometimes does! Of course, that might be because of WHAT I heard, hee - ran into somebody who knows them now, and said "Oh, yeah, I know them. She's a CUNT. Total bitch, you know? And HUGE, too, man!" I know I shouldn't find that as amusing as I do, but damn, it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Considering the BS she put me through, I have a hard time being a nice person about her. I mean, if I found out her house burnt down, I'd probably laugh. Isn't that awful?

Anyway, I'm going to go listen to some political commentary and cuddle with my babu. I just wanted to write this day down so in a few months I can look back and try to figure out what went right today, so as to do it again. :)