Hey, you think our internecine squabbles are nasty...

Novak and Buchanan and Raimondo v. Frum. Accusations of disloyalty from both sides! Smearing! Bad behavior hiding behind accusations of anti-semitism! Actual anti-semitism! Howard Kurtz stunned into objectivity when, deprived of a liberal to blame, he is forced to present the administration-friendly position of the unpopular Frum v. the politically incorrect views of the far more acceptable Novak!

Big fun, if you like that sort of thing.

Also, this, which I believe is intended to be funny:

ABC News correspondent Ron Claiborne, who is embedded on a U.S. aircraft carrier, fired off the following e-mail alert to the bosses back home:

"For operational security reasons, we are henceforth to only refer to the Abraham Lincoln as a 'very large ship named after a president of the United States who served during the Civil War.' "

Someone in the New York office took the message seriously and added it to the network's Iraq War Distribution List. Turns out Claiborne was just poking fun at the military's security rules for reporters.

aw, geez.

from the sodomy case currently before the Supreme Court:


In its brief, Texas, represented by William J. Delmore III, assistant Harris County district attorney, argued that no precedent "supports recognition of a constitutional right to engage in sexual misconduct outside the venerable institution of marriage." The state added that its law, which specifically bans oral- or anal-genital conduct between persons of the same sex, is "applicable to both persons of exclusively homosexual orientation and persons who regard themselves as bisexual or heterosexual."


So, see, it's illegal for straight people to be gay too. From Texas, ". . . the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

edit:

Sam has this, of course.

your morning Mac Diva fix

Doing the right thing

Doing the right thing can result in losing a position one holds dear. That happened to two of three men who will be honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award May 12. Former Govs. Roy Barnes of Georgia and David Beasley of South Carolina lost their reelection contests at least partly as a result of opposing Confederate symbols and what they represent.

Beasley, a Republican, angered South Carolina conservatives by proposing to move the Confederate flag from atop the Statehouse. The legislation failed, and Beasley later blamed the flag issue for his 1998 defeat.

Barnes, a Democrat, was voted out of office in 2002 after he pushed through changes to his state's flag. The new flag reduced the Confederate emblem, which had dominated the flag, to a small insignia.

The neo-Confederate movement has taken credit for the ousters of Beasley and Barnes and is now threatening the current governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, and Missouri Gov. Bob Holden.

The third recipient of the Kennedy award will be a former Georgia state representative.

[Dan] Ponder, whose ancestors owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy, delivered an impassioned speech on a hate-crimes bill on the Georgia House in March 2000.

In it, he recounted his shame over a childhood rejection of his black housekeeper. The measure passed overwhelmingly.

a soldier on supporting the soldiers

On June 12, 1945, a month after V-E Day, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower, received an ancient honor, the “freedom” of the City of London. In his address that day, at Guildhall, General Eisenhower said:

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.

Conceivably a commander may have been professionally superior. He may have given everything of his heart and mind to meet the spiritual and physical needs of his comrades. He may have written a chapter that will glow forever in the pages of military history. Still, even such a man-if he existed-would sadly face the fact that his honors cannot hide in his memories the crosses marking the resting places of the dead. They cannot soothe the anguish of the widow or the orphan whose husband or father will not return.

The only attitude in which a commander may with satisfaction receive the tributes of his friends is in the humble acknowledgment that no matter how unworthy he may be, his position is the symbol of great human forces that have labored arduously and successfully for a righteous cause.

Humility is what Eisenhower mentioned before all else-before pride in his honors, before joy in the Allied victory. And humility is a quality that has been absent from the diplomacy of George W. Bush. It is, however, a quality that will be indispensable in victory if we are to help rebuild Iraq after decades of tyrannical rule and to repair our own frayed relations with governments, peoples, and institutions around the world...

Hurray for Bob Herbert

...I think the extraordinary televised coverage of the war with Iraq is a good thing. It looks less like a video game these days, and more like the real hell of combat. I don't see how any sane person could watch the astonishing bombardment of Baghdad, and follow the reports on the ground of one human tragedy after another, and remain cavalier about sending troops into harm's way.

I had a conversation last week with Lesley Paine, a woman in Shreveport, La., who is married to Capt. Arthur Paine, a chaplain with the Second Bomber Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base. Captain Paine was transferred a week ago to an undisclosed "forward operating location."

There are many things on Mrs. Paine's mind and very few of them have to do with geopolitics. She is convinced the war with Iraq is a just one, so her concerns are elsewhere. She worries about the many thousands of men and women who, at any given moment, may have to step into the ferocity of the war.

"Your heart beats a thousand miles an hour thinking about it," she said. "They're just children, really. Some are just 19 years old."

There are more mundane concerns. Because money's tight, she worries about the cost of overseas phone calls from her husband. The charges on his phone card mount too quickly, she said, "so we really can't afford to do that." She plans to rely on e-mail.

And she worries that her own son, John Morrison Paine, who was born less than three months ago, on Dec. 30, "won't remember" his dad when Captain Paine returns from the war.

Wars are planned and championed by the folks who stroll the corridors of power. But they are fought by ordinary men and women and their families, who have to watch their budgets closely, and tend to all their daily duties, while hoping against hope that no one really close to them gets lost in the madness.

The hope here is that this war is quickly won, and that we think a little harder about the next one.

Hooray for Molly

(who links to Josh Marshall further up)

...In the meantime, I have some unsolicited advice for both those who are pro- and anti-war at this point. If you are anti-war, keep in mind that anyone who suggests or urges that you do anything illegal or violent to oppose the war should immediately be regarded as poison. Peaceful civil disobedience is another matter, but I have always maintained that there is a good case to be made for taking out Saddam Hussein.

I'm just sorry the administration -- by constantly changing its rationales, making dubious or unproved claims about nuclear weapons and links to al Qaeda, and relying on what turned out to be forged evidence in the case of the Niger papers -- has so muddied the water and alienated the rest of the world.

To those super-patriots who are now picking on the Dixie Chicks, I would suggest you curb your enthusiasm. Dissent is not unpatriotic, even during wartime.

Even if the war goes well, and we all pray it does, it's going to be the peace from hell. Let's try being a little gentler with one another. If you don't want to drink French wine, instead of pouring it out, why not make some bum really happy?


Parenthetically, I was at the NYC protest on Saturday, and with the exception of the obnoxious wannabe urban warrior suburban teenagers seeking frissons and substance abuse opportunities in Washington Square Park (with whom the Village is perenially blessed on weekends) the police and the marchers couldn't have been nicer. One officer tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that a police van was coming down the street behind me - he hadn't honked because he didn't want to startle HM.

I realize that middle-aged ladies with seven year olds in tow aren't a big target, generally, but I was pleasantly surprised by how few assholes I saw. (Well, there were those two beer-bellied guys from (by the accents) Broad Channel or environs who kept inviting male protesters to suck their dicks, but I'm guessing it's just that the parade was routed through their regular prowling grounds. We get those too.)

Can it be possible that this is the most inspiring picture whitehouse.gov could find?

from "President Bush Addresses the Nation" (the transcript)

Eek.

( Be afraid. Be very afraid. )

facrynoutloud

Jim at Rittenhouse gives us this, from the regrettable Michelle Malkin:

Sharpen your powers of observation. Take note that the Islamists abroad are recruiting women suicide bombers. If you are trained and licensed to carry a concealed weapon, don't leave home without it.

which is actually pretty selfless of her - I wouldn't want to be an olive-skinned woman travelling in her circles with a bulge at my hip, especially if anyone takes her advice to be particularly suspicious of "aliens" seriously.

Presumably the armed self-appointed citizens' militia she's asking for will just somehow Know who the Good Murkins are.

relationship advice

via Uggabugga:

... one thing I can relay from Washington. The closer you get to people who actually know [president Bush], who deal with him, who observe him, the greater the respect you hear. In a cabinet of heavy-weights, you'd expect in these tense circumstances a certain amount of grandstanding, of leaks to the press about who is really running the country, a buzz of rivalry and condescension and personal spin that is actually the norm in most administrations. But instead, you hear something rather different...

Andrew, sweetheart, picture me as a Lainie Kazan figure in your life. I'm old, I've lived, I have some advice for you.

If you've been giving a middle-aged gym bunny a blowjob for three years and he hasn't asked to meet you yet, he's probably married.

Agonist, Schmagonist

Carol@randomlygeneratedspamaddress04.net has the real scoop:

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I would have thought that God would know how to use apostrophes.

something worthwhile, somewhere else.

So I'm a little fractious today. You may have noticed.

I'd like to have something inspiriting to say, but I'm afraid I don't.

Kip does.

Apparently he comes by his talent, and his conscience, honest.

(um, duh, I guess).

Go read his mother's words and look at her pictures of the Iraqis living.