What the hell is that mess on Janet's head? Janet, I love you and you look fabulous for your age but please sit your old self down! She is trying to compete with these 20 year old singers and she has to realize they have youth on their side so they will always win. She has to realize she is a legend and these little singers have a long way to go to accomplish her success.
VoteVets released a 30-second ad that targets the McCain camp to come clean on how they are going to support a long term presence in Iraq. Predictably, the response from the McCain campaign was quick and partisan as they sought to portray the attacks as a liberal smear job. VetVoice has the reply posted:
National Liberal Democratic groups are rolling out their strategy for the General Election. It appears that the politics of "hope and change" are euphemisms for even more vicious attacks than we've ever seen before. All the usual liberal suspects; MoveOn.org, the Democratic National Committee, The New York Times and others are adding to the efforts under way by VoteVets and are plotting to spend over $20 million to smear John McCain. A line has been drawn in the sand.
This is reminiscent of Melanie Morgan, hack queen pundit of the "You don't support Bush, You Don't Support the Troops" meme, who had a similar attack on VoteVets last year deriding the group for taking donations from various left-wing groups. Of course, this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, as her Move America Forward is in bed with big-money Freedom's Watch. Other pundits may liken this to some sort of "Swiftboat" campaign against the Senator, but Jon Soltz says McCain's military record is honorable in this AFP article. The skeezy politics involved cannot distract from the point of the ad which seeks an answer from McCain on his plans for foreign and defense policy with a troubled military and economy.
Hot Air called attacking McCain's "100 Years in Iraq" comment a "distortion". I give props to Hot Air because they tried to rationally dispute the claim, instead of calling the patriotism or "military credentials" of VoteVets into question. They retorted with the following:
the “100 years” comment isn’t a call for another century of hot war; it’s a projection of a token presence in a stable country along the lines of our “occupation” of Okinawa, one that certainly wouldn’t require the trillions of dollars being disingenuously tossed around here.
In response to that, the comparison of Cold War era bases in a stable country to bases in a country with an active insurgency is a bit foolhardy. Herschel Smith at the superb Captain's Journal has routinely questioned the need for bases in South Korea and Germany, while the nation fights two wars on extremism with an over-stretched military. I tend to agree with him. Most importantly, the fact that the military is at the breaking point has not been addressed by Sen. McCain (do we need a draft? more defense funding? fill us in on your master plan, sir). I only need to step outside my trailer in the IZ to understand this grim reality. Overuse of contractors, 55-year old reservists in uniform, active duty guys on their 3rd/4th tours, etc. Not that I'm bitching about my personal situation as a member of the military, but I'm quite concerned as a citizen about the future of our military as a whole. Sure partisan politics might be nasty business during an election year, but let's not stray too far from getting the McCain response to how, as commander-in-chief, he plans to support an enduring presence in Iraq with a military in trouble. While I do write at the Vetvoice blog (part of Votevets) frequently, I don't think I have political affiliation with the left or the right. I just want to see our military not all fucked up, but still able to win the Long War against Islamic extremism. I think it's a reasonable ad, IMHO. But I'll get off this proverbial soapbox and let you decide.
The Good: Iran to help rebuild Iraq to help spruce up the Baghdad Municipality ? I know what you're thinking, that LT Nixon is some stooge for the theocracy in Iran by linking to the Tehran Times in "The Good" portion. My friends, if there's one thing I've learned it is to put ideology aside and savor small victories, and money from Iran to help with Baghdad's sub-par services is a lot better than EFPs and 240mm Rockets coming from Iran. Also, Minister of Oil Shahristani wants foreign companies to start coming in and investing in Iraq's oil infrastructure. That's sure better than US tax dollars. The paratroopers from the 82nddetained a special groups thug in Baghdad, good stuff, thanks for looking out guys.
The Bad: More violence during the Arba'een pilgrimage yesterday where terrorists attacked Shi'ite pilgrims in the Baghdad district of Karrada. It turns out that the mythical 130,000 personnel in Iraq by July isn't going to hold. It will actually be 140,000 troops as the Pentagon announced yesterday. This is bad since the military remains on an unsustainable deployment cycle, which even our top brass have acknowledged.
The Ugly: One of the managers at Al-Fourat TV has been detained by coalition forces for connections with Special Groups. The station is run by the Hakim's Supreme Islamic Council and I'm expecting the rumor mill in Iran and the Arab world to be rife with conspiracies for the next few days.
The self-serving Oscars have seen a fair share of crap lousy movies get all the props throughout the last 20 years. Titanic, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love...all movies that are supposed to make you feel "good" about yourself... I hate those movies. We have entered some dark days and we need Hollywood to make us realize that in new and creative ways. The Cohen Brothers (of legendary Big Lewbowski and Barton Fink fame) made a movie about a stone cold psycho who goes on a rampage with a silenced shotgun and retractable pneumatic boltgun. The rational and intelligent protagonists weren't able to save the day, which does a good job explaining the current malaise in our fight against ideologists. I thought the movie was excellent and was privileged enough to see it on the big screen during R&R and not on a fuzzy bootleg. Well "No Country For Old Men" won for Best Picture and I can at least say there is still some good tastes in film.
Of course, the perpetually outraged on the moral right weren't happy with this movie. Take Debbie Schlussel who proclaims:
And the bizarre, violent, weirdly-ending "No Country for Old Men" won Best Director and Best Picture. Yup, more Hollywood rewarding movies glorifying killing for no reason. Blood and the macabre.
She also likened McCain's babealicious daughter to being a Nazi and/or KKK member in her blog today, so I remain a bit skeptical of her commentary. I've always been a fan of the dark and strange movie and I welcome the recognition of film geniuses like the Cohen brothers.
On the other hand, apparently the troops announcing one of the awards didn't get a lot of applause (CJ at Soldier's Perspective was not impressed), but at least they didn't get booed or called "babykillers". I'll take that as a small victory.
The Oscar would have been "morally" acceptable if this guy was the villain
Anne Hathaway
Eva Hezigova
Heidi Klum
Hilary Swank
Marion Cotillard
Jessica Alba
Sanaa Lathan
Sanaa Lathan and Diddy
Deborah Cox
Christian Milian and Jessica White
Eva Herzigova
Zoe Saldana
Poria de Rossi
Heidi Klum
Monique Lhuillier
Kate Beckinsale
The Oscar would have been "morally" acceptable if this guy was the villain
