Touched By His Presence

There are times when I have reason to be proud of my alma mater*. This is one of those times. It seems that an organization honoring the Flying Spaghetti Monster is currently the second largest religious club on the campus of Missouri State University. Rock on, pastafarians.

*Note: I can only hope that whomever misspelled "religion" as "religon" in the reporter package was not an alumnus of MSU.

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2,185 Days

There is, however, one BIG difference between the two men. Osama knows exactly where Il Douche'™ is. Il Douche'™ doesn't have the vaguest idea where Osama is. Nor, does he care. Do you care? 2,185 days, and counting.

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Mad Jack McCain: Countdown to Irrelevance

Go sell crazy somewhere else, Jack. We're full up here.

This anniversary week of 9/11, John "Mad Jack" McCain is vying for as much media face time as possible, to shore up his ever-waning prospects of capturing the White House in 2008. Speaking to reporters in California over the weekend, he said:

"As president of the United States, I will get him, and we will enact justice against Osama bin Laden."

He repeated this boast in an interview segment on this morning's The Early Show on CBS. This claim reveals at least three delusions that Mad Jack is currently belaboring under: that he'll gain his party's nomination for President, that he'll actually defeat his Democratic opponent for President, and that he'll be able to divorce himself sufficiently from the clusterfuck that is the War in Iraq that he can extend the intelligence & policing forces necessary to bring him to justice.

Since he goes on to claim that Iraq is his "primary focus," why should we believe that he'll be any more successful in his boasts than his frat-boy predecessor?

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I Do Not Think I'll Ever See....

Timber... one of the Whitehall trees is felled

They hate us for our treedom.

At a time when Gordon Brown has pledged to make environmental issues one of his key priorities, the decision to chop down trees just yards from No 10 has been criticised by Tory MPs and environmental groups.

Conservative environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth said he was 'depressed and unhappy' at the loss of the trees, which he said made the environment 'another victim of the so-called War on Terror'.

Six trees will disappear from Whitehall, three from neighbouring Parliament Street, two from Horse Guards Avenue and one from Privy Gardens. They are London Plane, Maidenhair and Oak. The work was due to be completed by the end of the weekend.

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Way to support the troops, Mr. Resident

Please, Republicans, never again tell me how you are the party that supports the military. Lay no claims to superior patriotism around me. If you say it to my face, I might do you an injury. From now on, “Them’s fightin’ words.” I’ve had it.

This is just too freakin’ much. Call it the metaphorical straw that broke the Donkey's back. The man currently occupying the oval is rejecting a 3.5% pay raise for the military. This comes on the heels of last years slap-in-the-face when the ground-pounders got 2.2% while the General staff got an 8% increase.

They get their tours extended, they get lousy medical care, they get blown up, and then they get blown off, and screwed out of any benefits at all if it’s at all possible (with a probability approaching 1 if they have the misfortune of needing any services and they are stationed at Ft. Carson. Where the hell is that Inspector General I’ve been asking for?)

This is from today’s print edition of Army Times:

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 16, 2007 17:34:13 EDT

Troops don’t need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.

The Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan. 1, 2008, enough to match last year’s average pay increase in the private sector. The House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-sector pay raises.

The slightly bigger military raises are intended to reduce the gap between military and civilian pay that stands at about 3.9 percent today. Under the bill, HR 1585, the pay gap would be reduced to 1.4 percent after the Jan. 1, 2012, pay increase.

Bush budget officials said the administration “strongly opposes” both the 3.5 percent raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling extra pay increases “unnecessary.”

Can we stop with the rhetoric and d*/#-measuring please? Zip up. The contest is over, and the Resident lost. He talked a good game there for a minute. Problem is, he never backs anything up, and actually works against the best interests of the American military and the American people.

It is time…

Cowboy up and

ITMFA!!!

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