I like these odds

The war in Afghanistan is going great again after that brief period last week when a case of Bud Light Lime was tactically misappropriated and we had to switch generals. But we are back on mission to protect the freedoms and the liberties from the evil clutches of the Al Qaeda, the terrorists, and the terrorism inside the Afghanistan.

Now perhaps you've read this blog before and have pieced together that Sean and I aren't exactly bullish on the prospects for success on the mission nor do we think the war is a worthwhile use of money. It was probably all the times that we said we aren't bullish on the prospects for success on the mission nor do we think the war is a worthwhile use of money. That probably tipped you off. That was before we knew we had such tactical superiority.

The U.S. has committed nearly 100,000 troops to the mission in Afghanistan. ABC This Week host Jake Tapper asked CIA Director Leon Panetta how big is the al Qaeda threat that the soldiers are combating:

TAPPER: How many Al Qaeda, do you think, are in Afghanistan?

PANETTA: I think the estimate on the number of Al Qaeda is actually relatively small. I think at most, we’re looking at 50 to 100, maybe less. It’s in that vicinity. There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Hey hey, anywhere from a 2000:1 to a 1000:1 advantage. I like those odds. Makes you wonder why this war makes the Hundred Years War look like a couple of short jaunts in France.

Of course you may be thinking "Why must we have a 1000:1 troop advantage and spend nearly a billion per Al Qaeda per year?" Because we don't want to make the same mistake that every other country that went to war in the Graveyard of Empires made. I haven't researched this one bit, but I'm betting all those countries didn't have a staggeringly overwhelming troop, technology, and money advantage.

So I'm sure we'll be able to get this all under control within another several years... or decades. 50 is a big number.... and it might even be 100! What's your fucking obsession with finding out the length, tactics, and value of endless costly wars? The President doesn't have a crystal ball. Look, it's simple: as soon as we kill everyone that wants us to leave, then we can leave. Not one second before.

Stay classy, Hannity

We always like to mock Sean Hannity here at TB, and why not? The man is probably the most baldfaced liar on TV and he doesn't even have the nerve to be an interesting kind of crazy like Glenn Beck. I mean all he does is work himself into outraged conniptions about minor events he exaggerated and stories he invented in a annoyed windbaggy tone. No weeping, no stunts, no chalkboard. Boring evil.

And it's worked out pretty well for Hannity, as he's knocked down a $100 million dollar contract just for his radio show alone. But that's not enough money for him apparently, and has taken to using a charity he ostensibly started to help wounded soldiers and children of wounded soldiers and decided it should effectively be run as a PR machine and goodie bag dispensery for himself, his friends and his family. It's a shocker, I mean he just looks so trustworthy.

For the last several years, Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance “charity” have conducted “Freedom Concerts” across America. They’ve told you that they are raising money to pay for the college tuition of the children of fallen soldiers and to pay severely wounded war vets.
...
But it’s all a huge scam.

In fact, less than 20%–and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively–of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferret the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style. And, despite Hannity’s statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses, has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships.

And who revealed all of this? Conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel. Et tu Brute? Media Matters, not one to give Schlussel credit, even goes so far as to say that her numbers check out and points to further work done on the Charity Navigator page. There, on the website that rates and analyzes charities to see if they're scamming people and how much of the money they get is actually spent on their supposed cause, alleges that Hannity's charity might even spend less on wounded veterans than Schlussel does. Noting that by Freedom Alliance's own tax filings they have taken in almost $50 million since 2003 and doled out only &1.8 million to the families of veterans.

I guess this is why Hannity is always railing against the government for misuse of revenue: he sees that kind of abuse first hand all the time and must have a sixth sense for when it's happening.

Well this is all just so surprising. I mean, for one, who thought Sean Hannity would be so thoroughly dishonest is his dealings? Secondly who thought that a charity he started in an attempt to get publicity for himself and puff his chest out about how he cares more about the troops than liberals, wouldn't actually be committed to the spirit of charity? On the other had he did get a lot of free promotion and content for his radio and TV shows and he did get to meet Trace Adkins and Toby Kieth a bunch of times, so defrauding the American public and wounded soldiers worked out like gangbusters. Stay classy, Sean, I know you will. Can't wait to hear about how this is all a giant liberal conspiracy against you.

Booze for the troops

Being a soldier can be some shitty, shitty work. You're deployed to a lot of hellholes like Fayetteville and Alabama, not to mention the foreign hellholes, there's no personal sense of style allowed in your dress, some ornery drill instructor is always asking you about reach-arounds and if you like being called "Private Snowball", and some shoddily performed KBR/Halliburton no-bid contract will result in your moderate to death inducing electrocution. Plus: that whole war thing.

But amongst the greatest indignities is this:

After a long day in a war zone, why not knock back a cold frosty one? If you’re in the U.S. military, not a chance: In Iraq and Afghanistan, deployed troops are under General Order No. 1, which forbids the consumption of alcohol, as well as gambling and possession of pornography.

Yeah, I'm sure soldiers abide by that one religiously.

But one man has made it his crusade to make sure our troops will soon be able to openly hold porn in one hand, a beer in another, and openly wish for the completion of a DARPA project that will genetically graft a third arm onto them which they can use to hold a winning poker hand.

But as Rick Maze of Army Times notes, one senator is questioning the draconian restrictions on alcohol consumption in theater. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week, Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia suggested that U.S. military commanders should consider loosening the ban to allow “alcohol for stress relief.”

It’s important not to take this out of context: Webb was responding to reports of increased use — and abuse of — of prescription drugs by deployed troops. As we’ve reported here, before troops are popping pills to fight everything from fatigue to depression.

Shit, that's kind of depressing and takes away from the whole comical "troops should be allowed to drink" angle I was taking. I really should read these things before I start posting them.

But we for one would like to support Senator Webb, himself a former Navy Secretary, and his quest to bring some measure of normalcy, relaxation, and stress relief to the men and women fighting overseas. So maybe with a little regulation and some guidelines, namely no drinking and shooting, maybe we could alleviate some stress and PTSD. We sure as hell aren't going to do it by ending the wars they're fighting in, so how about allowing them to partake in the consumption of a fine beverage like Pabst Blue Ribbon or Beast Ice? Drinking those two beers is considered a war crime in Germany, but whatever it takes to make it a little easier is cool with us.

Picture of the day

Via the Guardian comes this look at some of the winners in the World Press Photo Awards 2010.

World press photo of the year: by Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo, showing women shouting on a rooftop in protest at the presidential election results in Tehran

Spot news: third prize stories AFP photographer Palestinian Mohammed Abed came third in this category with his pictures of the shelling in Gaza

Spot news: second prize stories AFP photographer Olivier Laban-Mattei took a second place with his images of post-election protests in Tehran

Nature: first prize stories Canadian photographer Paul Nicklen, National Geographic, won first prize in this category for South Georgia, Antarctica

People in the news: second prize singles The runner-up in this category was American photographer David Guttenfelder for Associated Press, who showed US soldiers responding to Taliban fire outside their bunker in Korengal valley

Message

Via Coffee Ghost comes this look at how previous Don't Ask, Don't Tell policies benefited humanity.

That's why it's nice to see the Obama Administration and the military finally moving on trying to get this repealed. And despite the overwhelming and increasing popularity of the idea (even in the military), the same hypocrites and troglodytes and fearmongers come out of the woodwork to warn how this will crack the planet in half, legalize armed pedophilia, and make the military susceptible to defeat from a sufficiently armed boy scout troop.

So with the support of the President, the Defense Department, the military, and a general population that doesn't see supporting bigotry or a tacit acceptance of bigotry as aspiring to American ideals, hopefully this can get past Congress in a reasonably sufficient amount of time. By which I mean sometime before the sun burns out. But hey, at least they're finally moving on it. I don't think we're in danger of any more Turing type situations, as I think we've advance a tiny bit since then, but hopefully we could at least avoid firing all those arab linguists that it would probably be smart to have in all those public and secret Middle Eastern wars we start.

Video of the day

In a Daily Show piece on the decision to roll back Don't Ask Don't Tell, John Oliver offers up his own suggestions for who should and should not be allowed to serve.

The army has been overrun with hippies

Over the past few years one thing we've learned from our Republican brethren is that the military is always right and must always be listened to no matter what they say. We've also learned from the GOP that global warming and climate change are utter myths that are to be ignored.

So what are they going to make of this news: the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the "statement of purpose" for the Defense Department, is going to come out virulently in favor of recognizing climate change and overdependence on fossil fuels and how the military will have to adapt to and address these issues going forward.

Climate change may be an “accelerant of instability” in future conflicts, and the U.S. military needs to plan for possible environmental catastrophes and resource wars, according to the Pentagon’s soon-to-be-released master strategy document.
...
Among other things, the draft QDR suggests the military will have to start planning for operations in which rising sea levels, an ice-free Arctic and higher overall global temperatures may be an important factor. What’s more, it suggests that military planners will have to prepared for the knock-on effects of climate change: forced migration, resource scarcity and the spread of disease.

In parallel, the draft QDR calls for a bigger push for energy independence by the military. The Defense Department, the document notes, is already “moving out smartly” to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, and to tap more renewable sources of energy.

And if that isn't enough to cause the vapors in Jim Inhofe, the Defense Department has already taken numerous steps to prepare for a dystopian world decimated by climate change and is also at the forefront of investing in green technologies and green energy sources in order to cut out supply line vulnerabilities, fuel dependence, and fuel costs. Many of those steps are documented here.

Why do I get the feeling that the global consensus of scientists, demand from the public, possibilities for new industries and economic strength, and a commitment from the rest of the world aren't enough to change the thoughts of the most rock-headed US legislator, but some three-star general with a sufficient Muslim agitating resume going "maybe we need to look at this climate thing... because of war and kaboom and freedom and the troops" is going to make a big difference?

Is it sad that this country can't get major climate legislation passed and that the most significant investments into climate research and green technology we can get without a 60 vote supermajority and some kickbacks to coal state congressmen is from our military backdooring the research so it can wage war better?

So I say to our elected betters who won't vote for environmental legislation but will vote for any and all military action: forget about the hippies, fat Al Gore, or the fact that it may or may not be cold where you are at this very moment and how that disproves global warming. Take action on climate change for the sake of the troops, so they can fight more effectively. You don't hate the troops... do you? Climate Action Now! It's what General Patton would want.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 01.27

Report: U.S. Drone Goes Down Over Pakistan. Again.
What's the one phrase you don't want to hear in our illustrious war on terror. I mean besides "they're using magic wands to detect bombs in Iraq." Would it be something along the lines of all the Predator drones are glitch ridden, cut out of contact frequently, don't handle anything other than nice weather very well, are notoriously difficult to land, and crash a lot? Good news then, as it seems as we widen the scope of our war on terror we are coming to rely more and more on crash prone planes that can't be flown if there's a stiff breeze. On the bright side, it looks like General Atomics is the Bell Helicopter of our generation. Buy stock.

Dungeons & Dragons Prison Ban Upheld
In what is the next great step in the evolution of the main goal of the US prison system (Goal 1: fuck over inmates as capriciously and pettily as possible for no discernible reason other it makes society feel better. Goal 2: See Goal 1.) Dungeons & Dragons is now banned as it "promotes gang activity." Still one wonders why anyone would want to play a game that so closely resembles their own life, with the dungeon represented by an actual concrete dungeon and the dragons represented by the many personal battles one fights in prison from rapes from the black gangs, to rapes from the Mexican gangs, to rapes from the Aryan gangs. Oh, let's not for get the shankings. Ah well I'm sure this will solve all gang related problems in prison.

Pentagon Report Calls for Office of ‘Strategic Deception’
The Defense Science Board in the Pentagon says our intelligence and military capabilities are not being used to their fullest. It seems we are lacking a Dept. Of Dishonesty or a Ministry of Truth, if you will. Because for all the trillions we spend on defense, we just haven't put enough effort into having a few more lying fuckers on the payroll. I agree, if there's one thing that I complain about, it's that our military and intel communities are just way too truthful. It's nice to see that the lessons people take away from 1984 are "this book is just chock full of good ideas." Ah well, at least people are reading more.

Will Haiti Earthquake Response Slow Afghan Troop Surge?
An interesting subplot for the next few months in our war on terror and in our relief efforts. Seems we just went and put our Afghanistan surge into Haiti, putting 33,000 troops and the requisite equipment onto the ground in Port-au-Prince. What will happen when we need those troops to go kill brown people instead of help black people? It'll be interesting to see how they answer that ques..... they'll leave and go kill brown people. It's not even a question. Hope you get all your aid you need in the next few months, because the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is calling to us like a sirens song.

Driving A Hard Bargain: Nelson Says He Would've Opposed His Own Abortion Language
If there's one silver lining to the fact that Democrats don't have 60 seats and that the conference committee option is no longer feasible for health reform, it's that odious fuckers like Ben Nelson will no longer get to needlessly poison the bill with their short-sighted, troglodytic concerns. Not only was Ben Nelson fighting for his right to own every woman's uterus, he was willing to pull a knife-in-the-back double cross during the conference committee process to kill the bill if he didn't get abortion concessions made that were even more restrictive than the ones he already negotiated, signed off on, and voted for. Do you understand, House? This is why the Senate can't be allowed to meddle with health care again.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 01.20

Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals
Worried that not enough of your food was either made of corn or sweetened to the point of tooth pain with high fructose corn syrup? Well, what would you say to those things if they were made with genetically modified corn that also caused your liver and kidneys to shut down? You probably wouldn't want to eat them, right? Too late, they're already on the market, having been deemed by Monsanto to be safe after a 90 day study. Ah well, everyone in this country is either going to die of obesity or a recession related alcohol problem. Why not have dangerous mutant corn help speed us on our way into Jesus' loving embrace?

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
Since Sean and I are both the proprietors of These Bastards, the web's number one parenting and child rearing blog, we have a duty to speak out to all you moms and dads out there who look to us for advice on vaccinating their child. DO IT!!! What the fuck, are you fucking insane or something? What's wrong with you?! Yes, of course vaccinate your little snot nosed brat. If not for its sake than for the sake of everyone else's child or, more importantly, for my sake. I'm not catching air herpes just because you think Jenny McCarthy is a credible medical source. Scientific studies are showing just how dangerous it is when people don't get vaccinated. You remember science, right? It's what we listen to in the 21st fucking century. Vaccinate your little puke before everyone dies of the mumps or the goddamn ass spewing plague.

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes
Pop quiz. When you've got Mommar al Raghead in the sites of your sweet ass fucking sniper rifle and you're about to plunge a hollow point into his jugular at such force that it'll cause his head to pop off his shoulders like a goddamn NASA space launch, do you prefer your rifle scope is inscribed with a reference to Corinthians 4:6, John 8:12, something from Matthew, or Revelations? Which one do you think personifies the faith you live by while shooting the shit out of America's enemies? Which one would Jesus put on his sniper scope? You don't have to come up with an answer now, I'll let you think it over.

US Military BitTorrent Users Targeted By MPAA/RIAA
Just a word of warning to our soldiers overseas: if you think that just because you're fighting in a warzone you can download the new Vampire Weekend album or the Hurt Locker from a torrent site, well think again motherfucker. The MPAA and RIAA will be on your ass with a lawsuit so fucking fast it'll make you wish the insurgents would stop attacking you long enough for you to deal with this petty, tin eared, shortsighted legal bullshit. If you want to watch a movie, you go to the goddamn Kandahar Blockbuster and you rent in on the level, Mr. Army Guy. Freedom to steal movies isn't one of the freedoms you're fighting for. They MPAA and RIAA will see you in the courtroom, you fucking amoral, shiftless crooks. That'll teach you to serve in a godforsaken desert hellhole.

Help Wanted
Pop quiz 2. If you had to guess the number of Obama Administration appointees still languishing in the Senate confirmation process after one full year because of Republican holds, delays, and filibusters, what would your guess be? Did you guess 177? Because that's what it is. 177 positions, from TSA head to head of the Office of Legal Counsel to the director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to any number of officials that run agencies responsible for security, foreign policy, diplomatic, and defense are unfilled because of petty Senate bullshit. That's over a 100 more unfilled positions than at the end of Dubya's first year. Just in case you needed a reminder: we are governed by adults. I'm sure this situation will improve dramatically now that Republicans have 41 Senators, right Massachusetts?

How considerate of them

White House: No Afghanistan announcement until after Thanksgiving

The Obama administration won't announce its new comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan until after Thanksgiving, a White House official confirms to The Cable, and observers and experts close to the discussions see it as the White House's attempt to stage a full and controlled rollout over the week beginning November 30.
...
In that way, the argument goes, the administration can build more support for the policy, deal quickly with any opposition on Capitol Hill, and then have a more active role in how the story plays out in the media.
...
The administration isn't going to want to make the announcement and then wait a long time before holding the hearings, because that would make it more difficult to keep the message consistent after the news breaks.

Plus, congressional attention will be diverted that week to the health-care debate in the Senate, distracting some attention from the Afghanistan debate, which may be part of the administration's calculations.

Well how considerate of them. I know they talk about "building support" and "controlling the message" and playing a shell game with Afghanistan and health care, but I'm just glad they decided not to ruin our holiday with a big announcement of a war escalation. I mean you don't want the phrase "40,000 troop increase" to come out on the 26th. Someone might be shocked enough that they might slip on carving the turkey, severing off a finger or two with an electric carving knife, or a clumsy dad might accidentally dump a heaping spoonful of napalm-like sweet potatoes into their lap. And really, without health care reform passed, most people can't afford that expense during the holidays....or ever.

But aren't we forgetting one of the main lessons of the Bush Administration? No, not "don't elect the Bush Administration." I'm talking about their famous maxim of not "rolling out a new product in August", meaning when selling something to America you don't want to make your case too early. Now it seems Obama is going in the other direction, waiting too late to unveil his product. How are people going to be excited about buying a new war escalation if you dump it on them right before Christmas?

You need a slow build, to get them interested and excited, and to make them think they can't live without it. This is Marketing 101. I expected better of you, Barry. Well, I actually expected you not to escalate wars, but if you were going to do it, I thought you'd at least do it in a slicker fashion. At least dazzle me with some showmanship and salesmanship if you're going to make a giant mistake.

Compare/contrast

National Security Adviser General James Jones, on General McChrystal's plan to add 40,000+ troops in Afghanistan

"Generals always ask for more troops. Take it from me," Jones told SPIEGEL in an interview. ..."You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past."

Obama's Afghan Plan: About 40K More Troops

The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for.

McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says "that's close to what [McChrystal] asked for." All the president's military advisers have recommended sending more troops.

Whew, that was a close one. For a second there I was worried we weren't going to escalate the war, or if we were, we weren't going to escalate it to the satisfaction of our generals. Dodged that bullet. We did, not the troops. Ironically they'll have to be dodging bullets now. Now the Obama Administration says that the CBS report is false because no final final decisions have been made, but does anyone think there's a chance this isn't happening? I thought so. I guess the real victory is that he didn't put in 200,000 troops to get swallowed up in there. Jones must have been preparing us for a worst case scenario.

For comparisons sake, this increase of 40,000 combat soldiers (plus the requisite addition in tens of thousands of support forces) will cost somewhere in the range of $80 billion extra a year for Afghanistan. Doesn't that make you feel great? $80 billion a year is cheap when you want to use it to extend and escalate a war. But when you want to use that money to get people cheaper health care and do so in a way that decreases the deficit, then that same $80 billion a year is an onerous deficit burden on America that our children (someone think of the children) will have to pay off. I'm no budgetary expert, but I think it has something to do with a part in the preamble of the Constitution that says "War money don't count as real money." Who are we to argue with the founding fathers?

This will never end

Hey, will you look at that? The United States is finally headed towards pulling out of Iraq. They've removed 23,000 soldiers this year with the plan to get down to 50,000 non-combat troops in an advisory situation to the Iraqi government. You know, I never thought that we'd ever actually get to a point where....what's that you say? Afghanistan? .......Christ.

President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials.
...
The deployment of the support troops to Afghanistan brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000. The buildup has raised the number of U.S. troops deployed to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan above the peak during the Iraq "surge" that President George W. Bush ordered, officials said.

/ bangs head off desk

Well, there goes that. Oh, and we haven't even gotten to the part about whether McChrystal gets an additional 40,000-70,000 combat troops like he wants. Sure the war is being called a "lost cause", the Taliban is resurgent in addition to al Qaeda, we have to deal with Afghan/Pakistan conflicts in addition to the war we're fighting, and all for a "government" that not only just rigged an election, but despite the international community funding, protecting, maintaining, and supporting the "government", it views a look into said election rigging as some form of heinous international interference.

But trust everyone: escalating a war in Afghanistan is always a good idea. Plus they're going to try a new strategy: counterinsurgency. See...oh fuck, they haven't been doing a counter-insurgent campaign all these years? So glad we're deciding to get to all of this now. This all sounds like such a great idea. Excuse me there's a desk I need to bang my forehead off of.

Oh please let this happen

Sweet Baby Jesus, lying there in your manger, surrounded by cute stable animals and hay, could you get off your goldbricking God-infant ass and make this happen already?

GRODIN: We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure.

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. ... I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.

Waterboarding Hannity....for charity. For the troops. Do it on pay-per-view and the DailyKos commenters alone will fund two new Walter Reed hospitals.

This raises two important questions: 1. Does Hannity, self-important windbag that he is, actually have the guts to do what his huffed up, lizard brain, knee jerk reaction to having his masculinity challenged made him say? 2. Will Hannity actually come to the conclusion that just about every journalist who gets waterboarded comes to the second the water hits their face: that it's torture? Or are we going to see him pretend to shrug it off like it's Spring Break fraternity hazing?

Start up the donation site, I pledge $50 bucks and my solemn vow to not stop laughing for the entire duration of this pasty blowhard getting the full brunt of the torture he's been excusing for the past few years.

Why do our soldiers hate America?

Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama

During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

Despite McCain's status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

Uh-oh John. It seems voting against vets legislation, opposing an expanded GI bill, engaging in legislative behavior that got you a D rating from the IAVA, got you a 40% rating with Disabled American Veterans, caused the Vietnam Veterans of America to say you voted against them 15 times, and generally basing your whole campaign on the premise that everyone stationed in Iraq needs to stay there for a few more decades hasn't exactly endeared you to the men and women who have to cash the checks your mouth writes.

But don't worry, the media won't ever mention this. So you can continue to prop yourself up as a man of the people and representing the troops without anyone pointing that the emperor has no clothes. Your dong is showing John, the media doesn't have the good taste to point it out. But it seems soldiers just don't want to put their money where your mouth is. I guess you better give them a stern talking to, it seems they don't understand what's on the line here: their lives your candidacy.

Bush reduces troop tours, I develop psychic powers

Bush has cut troop tours in Iraq from 15 months to 12 months, hinting at the possibility of further troop reductions later in the year and actually appearing to do a positive thing.

I haven't bothered to read the article because I wanted to perform an experiment. I am betting that Bush will still play up the dangerousness and tenuousness of the situation, to be sure. I am also betting that he will use the phrases "We are a nation at war", "Terrorists are dangerous" and "Terrorists are still determined to strike at us." Now I will go look.

Shit yeah! SAME SENTENCE! "We remain a nation at war," he said. "The terrorists remain dangerous and they are determined to strike our country and our allies again." I am the fuckin' all-seer. I know when you will die! I am a being of pure thought!

This will likely to do little to ease the arguments between Democrats and republicans about who Iraq loves more and wants to spend the rest of her life with. But if you're a soldier, or 'troop' as I believe jargon dictates, congrats: you get to spend 3 less months with sand in your crack......subject to typical Bush Administrations guarantees, prices and liscense may vary, not available in all stores. Go nuts.