War is "Romantic?"

Well, you're not going to believe what Bush said today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush got an earful on Thursday about problems and progress in Afghanistan where a war has dragged on for more than six years but been largely eclipsed by Iraq.

In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops.

Bush heard tales of all-night tea drinking sessions to coax local residents into cooperating, and of tribesmen crossing mountains to attend government meetings seen as building blocks for the country's democracy-in-the-making.

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

Yeah, he said that serving in Afghanistan was "in some ways romantic."

This is one of those moments where you drop to one knee and just weep for the spectacle that is the state of the leadership of this country. A grand folly is all they are now. A pathetic, debased and delusional folly entirely of their own making.

Bitches Get Stuff Done

Here's delusion for you, in a nutshell:

[Ralph] NADER: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. 24% of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. 61% think both major parties are failing. And according to Frank Luntz’s poll, the Republican, 80% will consider voting for an independent this year. Now you take that framework, of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine to Israel. From Enron to Wall Street. From Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the…all the candidates, McCain, Obama and Clinton, are against single-payer health insurance. Full Medicare for all. I’m for it. As well as millions of Americans and 59% of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don’t like Pentagon waste, the bloated military budget, all of the reports in the press and the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That’s off the table, to Obama and Clinton and McCain. The issue of labor law reform: repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley act, that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media—the mainstream media—repeatedly indicated how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don’t have many rights these days.

That's a wonderful laundry list of things that are wrong. And Ralph Nader thinks he is someone who can do something about those problems?

Please. Ralph Nader has absolutely no chance to do anything this year except siphon off some critical votes that a Democrat might need in a few key states. Granted, 90% of the people who will vote for Nader just want to throw their vote away because they're pissy about something and won't get behind a candidate because said candidate is not 100% perfectly in line with the single issue they are obsessed with. You're never going to find someone who's perfectly in line with the way you think and who is going to do exactly what you want them to do. Be an adult--and quit being a spoiled fucking child--and get used to being mildly disappointed about serious subjects.

You want to do ANYTHING about the issues Nader lists above? See what voting for McCain gets you.

Nader has no legacy now. He's a tired act. And I guarantee you--more Republicans give to his campaign than any other constituency because he takes votes from Democrats. Plain and simple.

Tina Fey has the best line of the year--bitches get stuff done.

KC Star Gets Over Itself

And about damned time, too.

Last spring the KC Star did away with their free KC Buzz Blog, deciding they were all that and a bag of chips, and we would pay $395 a year for access to the wit and wisdom of Dave Helling and Steve Kraske. You didn't even get a free pass if you were a subscriber to the paper! I only get the NY Times on Saturday and Sunday, but I get full access to Times Select with that partial subscription! Who the hell did they think they even were???

Needless to say, they were wrong. Wrong, wronger, wrongest. As wrong as that time Kissinger won a Peace Prize.

Their grand notion fell fell down at the starting blocks. For a while, some of us registered to access it with alternate email addresses, but that was a pain in the ass, checking defunct or single-use emails, and very soon we stopped doing that, too.

I never read anything there that was worth the hassle of logging in under a different name for fifteen minutes - yet they thought it was worth four bills? (I hope the person who had that brilliant idea was roundly mocked in a staff meeting, fired publicly, and ridiculed by co-workers as they cleaned out their desk.)

The thing is, I am out of the habit of giving a damn what the KC Star says, and so are a lot of other people. I have a partial-week subscription to the paper, but that is mostly to support McClatchy. Honestly, many days the paper goes across the street to a school and doesn't even come upstairs. I read the stories worth reading on the McClatchy website the night before anyway. I don't know about you, but I prefer to get my news before the full Kraske is applied, should the national stories make the MOGOP look bad. The way the Star stepped on the fine reporting of Greg Gordon on the DoJ scandal is it's own scandal, and that was when I stopped opening the hard-copy. I find that my day is always, without fail, better in every way, when I just totally avoid the wankery of Thom McClanahan.

Well, apparently they have awakened from their stupor. The grandiose notion that they were indispensable to the political lives of the people in the region was recognized as the idiotic idea it really was, and they are freeing the Buzz.

Today I got the following email:

Blue,

What’s that buzzing?

You asked for it; we listened. Starting Tuesday afternoon, Prime Buzz is free!

When we say free, we mean all of Prime Buzz, The Kansas City Star’s political blog that formerly was subscription-only. Access to local and regional political coverage, FREE. Political commentary and municipal agenda previews, FREE. And we’re continuing to offer, FREE, the weekday e-mailed Prime Buzz summary — one of many enhancements over The Star’s former free political blog, the KC Buzz Blog.

“We built the best political Web site in the Midwest, and we appreciate those who recognized the value of Prime Buzz by subscribing to it, signing up for a free trial or otherwise figuring out a way to access it,” said Mark Zieman, The Star’s editor.

“But covering our democratic process is at the core of what we do. Coming into an election year, we decided to trade the extra subscription revenue for a chance to bring that important content to a much greater audience.”

To join the conversation, go to KansasCity.com starting Tuesday afternoon and click Prime Buzz. You won’t need a username to read content. But if you want to comment and receive the Prime Buzz summary, you’ll need to register and supply a valid e-mail address. That’s also necessary for former Prime Buzz users.

Those who purchased a Prime Buzz subscription will be able to receive a partial refund, prorated to reflect the unused portion of the subscription. An e-mail to each subscriber supplied details.

Because some site changes are needed, Prime Buzz will be shut down Monday, Sept. 3, and Tuesday morning, Sept. 4.

Grab a front-row seat in an election cycle that’s already running hot. Find it fast, get it first — Prime Buzz.

I pass this along as a public service announcement to those who might care. As for me, I'm not sure I do. I mean, I'll probably get around to popping in and reading now and then, but everything I read will be through the memory of these people wanting me to take them seriously, but I don't know if I can, after they were so very, very full of themselves that they tried to charge $395 a year for the privilege of reading their blog!

A dose of ones own medicine is a bitter pill to swallow

[This post rated R]

I would have let it pass, because frankly, she is inconsequential. She just doesn’t matter. The bloom is off the rose. Maybe finally the she crossed the line and will be forced off the public stage. Better late than never.

In case you missed it, a week or so ago, the harridan-of-fading-significance, getting ready to address a group of military spouses (mostly wives) said she was tired of hearing military wives “whine.”

I rolled my eyes because I have never taken the stupid bitch seriously, nor do I give any measure of credence or respect to anyone so weak-minded and gullible as to follow the “advice” rendered by the haranguing harridan. I let it pass, because she is just not worth my time.

But my sisters got pissed. She got barraged by angry emails sent by pissed-off military wives.

So now, she is doing the whining. And I have to twist the knife. She has pushed people to tears for years. Fuck her and her hurt feelings. Good. I hope her feelings are hurt. I hope it changes her. It won't, but hey. At least she had to swallow one of her own bitter pills.

“It broke my heart. I cried.” She whined in a phone interview on May 14^th. And she insisted that her saying she was tired of hearing military spouses whine was taken out of context. “I felt [that] if one family was in any way hurt, I had to do whatever I could to help repair that,” She whined . “My job is to set the record straight. My reputation with respect to the military is very important to me. I’m part of the family.” Schlessinger’s son is an Army paratrooper deployed to the Middle East.

Yep. Saying you are tired of hearing somebody whine is pretty vague and statements like that get taken out of context all the time. Whiner.

She has sure flogged that shamelessly. And she has lied about him too. She said he has had his tour extended because the congress won’t give the Useless Tool™ a blank check. That is a lie. No tours have been extended because of the funding fight. She lied about her son in uniform. That’s low.

She also has delusions of grandeur. She actually said she would not reveal the region where his team is operating because he might be a target “like Prince Harry.”

Bitch – do you think the average insurgent even knows who the fuck you even are? You think that you are that fucking important, that your kid would be a prime target of Iraqi insurgents because you have so much fucking influence?

If I could give her some advice it would be "Seek help, Toots. I mean it. You’ve been a danger to others for years. Now I fear you have crossed into territory where you are a danger to yourself."