And one from the wayback machine...

'On the verge of chaos'
or so Sen Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) describes Iraq.
hmmm - with people taking over whole cities in different parts of the country and the civilian death toll rising - is there some point at which we officially reach 'chaos'? or is this another one of those idiotic Fox/CNN "?" headlines... "Iraq, Verge of Chaos?"

The thing that really gets me going now are the hordes of assclowns that say 'yeah, all you ever do is complain - what kind of solutions do you have!!!' as if by electing democrats that somehow puts the onus of resolving this nightmare successfully on someone else's shoulders. If the mother of a child is killed, the question isn't who has the better plan for resolving the question of making the kid's lunch in the morning. Iraq is broken and just because the king's horses aren't putting it back together doesn't make it Bill Clinton's fault. Broken. There's no changing the Met lineup card so they can win the world series... they LOST... and Bill Clinton is not responsible. Iraq WILL be a source of terrorism for generations... it WILL be a destabilizing influence in the region... it WILL be a horrible human tragedy that will involve not thousands but millions if not tens of millions of deaths... and it's the people who voted for George Bush that are responsible. You want an answer? elect Fred Phelps president... he'll solve the problem for you.

Here's one for the 'man up, bucko' crowd...

The army is reporting 16% of troops coming back are being tagged as victims of post-traumatic stress - you know, the 'my best friend blew up' or 'i shot a 3 yr old' stuff... things people probably need some time to work out if they're going to get any semblance of themselves back from the warzone.

Well the army has a new answer to all that. In the face of lowered recruiting standards and questionable troop levels - the army is enacting a 'face your fears' approach to PTSD. It's as if Frank Burns were in charge.

Once again frontline was a killer show last night.
Read the extended transcripts for some amusing anecdotes... such as:

It was a bunch of young kids -- had no experience managing finances -- who
were given the task of running Iraq's budget. It turned out that this group of
kids who had come over together couldn't quite figure out why they'd been
chosen. They finally discovered that what had tied them together was that they
had all applied for jobs at the Heritage Foundation, this conservative think
tank in Washington.

What happened was that the hiring was done by the White House liaison to
the Pentagon, an office of the Pentagon political appointee. This office served
as the gatekeeper. Instead of casting out widely for people with knowledge of
Arabic, knowledge of the Middle East, knowledge of post-conflict reconstruction,
they went after the political loyalists and canvassed the offices of Republic
congressmen, conservative think tanks and other places where they knew they
would find people who would be unfailingly loyal to the president and to the
president's mission in Iraq.

The hiring process involved questions that would have landed a
private-sector employer in jail. They asked people what their views on Roe v.
Wade were, whether they believed in capital punishment. A man of Middle Eastern
descent was asked whether he was Muslim or Christian. People were asked who they voted for for president.

…

The civilians at the CPA, including many of these young 20-something
Republican loyalists who came, regarded the soldiers as their errand boys --
their drivers, their couriers, their coffee fetchers. We're talking people who
were soldiers in their 40s and people who were majors and colonels being forced
to work for these young kids and being very disrespected.

Iraq gave up the ghost a year ago - so when you see reports from the middle east, take a cue from Clayton Williams and just relax and enjoy it.

off to montreal...
should be fun...
might even be productive...
(like that ever happens)

i'll post on the state of the industry when i get back - something i'm not sure i've ever really done

For the love of god...

Went into town to get my hair cut and attend a school function with jake and mel. School plays are not places where melodrama really belongs - unless the actors are really really damnably bad - and in this case that just isnt fair. The golden mask players werent half bad - in fact, the lead actress was remarkably good for the fact that i was watching a 17 yr old (yes, i'm getting to be an old man). The actual choice of material though - dear lord - it was painful. And the timing one expects in HS drama - ie slightly longer pauses than one might find in performances by older more experienced actors - exacerbated that problem tremendously. By the climax you felt like, well, imagine Cat's Cradle only 600 pages... a long long grinding of the axe...

note: i've seen a lot of crappy high school drama in my life - hell, i married a high school drama star (crappy or not i'll leave to you) - but this was better than most - and i really mean it when i say that the lead actress should keep at it, i think she could be good.

Still dont think mel will invite me back... one too many Jennifer Garner comments ;)

Foley...
lets see...
first it was 'this is a democratic conspiracy'...
then 'he's an alcoholic, it was the whiskey talking'
then 'democrats knew about this and did nothing... and sat on the story until the election'
then 'republicans werent informed - and even if they were they told foley to stop doing this crap'
then 'it's all these 'beasts' fault...'
now it's 'it was all a joke gone awry...'

you ever notice that republicans are never at fault for their actions?

must be nice to live in a world where you can do no wrong... where that girl in the short skirt wanted it no matter what she said at the time... where that child in the corner was at fault for tempting you... where those 60 baghdad citizens who showed up dead in the morgue last night (or the night before) are just a comma in the grand march to freedom.

makes me sick...

Be Afraid
(edit to remove autoplaying film)

Republican Values from Rep Foley (R-Fla)
Here is an excerpt from an IM chat between Foley and an underage male (Foley is Maf54)

Maf54 (8:03:02 PM): ha thats wild
Xxxxxxxxx (8:03:14 PM): ya but now im hard
Maf54 (8:03:32 PM): me 2
Maf54 (8:03:42 PM): cast got you going
Maf54 (8:03:47 PM): what you wearing
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:04 PM): normal clothes
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:09 PM): tshirt and shorts
Maf54 (8:04:17 PM): um so a big buldge
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:35 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:04:45 PM): um
Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you
Xxxxxxxxx (8:05:08 PM): haha
Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake
Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab
Xxxxxxxxx (8:06:53 PM): not tonight...dont get to excited
Maf54 (8:07:12 PM): well your hard
Xxxxxxxxx (8:07:45 PM): that is true
Maf54 (8:08:03 PM): and a little horny
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:11 PM): and also tru
Maf54 (8:08:31 PM): get a ruler and measure it for me
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:38 PM): ive already told you that
Maf54 (8:08:47 PM): tell me again
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:49 PM): 7 and 1/2
Maf54 (8:09:04 PM): ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Maf54 (8:09:08 PM): beautiful
Xxxxxxxxx (8:09:38 PM): lol
Maf54 (8:09:44 PM): thats a great size
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:00 PM): thank you
Maf54 (8:10:22 PM): still stiff
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:28 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:10:40 PM): take it out
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:54 PM): brb...my mom is yelling

I'm surprised he doesn't intend to continue his political career... afterall if George Bush raped a dead 14 yr old girl there's at least 30% of the current electorate that would still vote for the son of a bitch. My country is full of assholes.

The senate just passed a bill that retroactively pardons everyone in the US govt for any activity associated with violations of the Geneva Conventions, and allows the president to define torture.

This country just jumped the shark.

a picture is worth a thousand words... most of them not ready for prime time

Fucking A... I couldn't have said it better if I'd spent a month writing it...

I was in the clubroom at Le Centre Sheraton with Jon...
Peter (one of the waitstaff... i lived in that hotel, i knew everyone by name) came over and opened up the cabinet that hides one of the TVs - saying something terrible was happening in NY...
We saw the second plane strike...
I was on the phone to my wife within seconds - giving her the news
then I was on the phone to coworkers since I had people flying to NY that morning and I wanted them off anything that flew... and had others from texas scheduled to come up the following day - and needed to make sure that wasnt going to happen either.
my wife spent the day crying - and i checked in on her repeatedly. Manhattan was always 'her' city and i knew this would hurt her deeply
We didnt make it into the office until afternoon.
Jon and I were livid. We probably looked as dangerous as we felt.
The canadians saw us coming - and i swear they were diving into offices to get out of our way.
I remember Robin, the HR director, peeking into my office and saying how sorry she was - and how sorry everyone in the office was... and then Mark coming by to suggest we just bomb everything - you dont expect that from the leftist harvard boys.

It doesnt seem like 5 years

I dont think a commemorative coin will ever do it justice.

10 hours at a tailgate...

Anonymous 30 something beer-bellied balding ex-frat guy: "Honey, later tonight I'm gonna treat you the way Texas is gonna treat Ohio State... rough"
Anonymous 30 something plasticized blonde: "Grrr"
Sean (as an aside): So if OSU wins 63-3, I wonder if that means he'll be rolling over on his back and letting her fuck the shit out of him.
Jake: No, but there'll definitely be a strap on involved.

One 24-7 score later i'm thinking mr fratboy's anus is sore this morning. Grrr...