Defenders Saturday

Marvel Feature Presents The Defenders #1

Dr. Strange has just returned to his life in Greenwich Village, and as the scene opens, we see Wong bringing him tea. But then a mystic voice calls out to Dr. Strange. It takes Dr. Strange a few seconds to catch on; in the mean time he accuses Wong of calling his name repeatedly (which would be a strange joke for Wong to play on his boss). After realizing it must be a mystic voice, Dr. Strange sends his astral body out to look around. He visits a hospital where two doctors and a nurse are discussing a patient who is about to die. Dr. Strange identifies him as Yandroth an Evil Scientist he met in another dimension.

Yandroth reveals his master plan. He has constructed a mystic computer that will ignite all the worlds stockpiles, and destroy the world. As he puts it, “EVERY man wants the world to END when he dies but only I shall FULFILL that dream!” I don’t know. I’ve never really dreamed of the world ending when I die. I dream more about eating a really big sandwich.

Anyway Dr. Strange quickly determines that the world ending would be a bad thing, so he commands the Doctors in the hospital to stop their lunch break, and march robotically into cure Yandroth. Unfortunately they can’t save Yandroth, but they do give an important clue to Dr. Strange (his mailing address). Dr. Strange flies his astral form back to his body.

Dr. Strange in a strange fit of humility, realizes he needs some help to take on this machine; and so seeks out the Sub-Mariner (who is swimming with his head out of water, luckily). They have a short palaver, and the Sub-Mariner is persuaded that the world being destroyed by atomic bombs would be bad. After that they try to find other allies (Namor references his recent adventures with the Hulk and the Silver Surfer). The Silver Surfer is unavailable (he has been hurt; not badly, but enough that he will be of no help). Thor is doubtless “battling menaces on world’s beyond our ken.” Dr. Strange jut pretty much jumps to that conclusion immediately.

That leaves the Hulk. So Dr. Strange sends out his astral body to talk to the Hulk. And by talk, I mean trip and then insult. This mildly upsets the Hulk who promises to follow Dr. Strange to the end of the earth (out of anger). Once Dr. Strange leads him back to the Sub-Mariner, they cage him and he agrees to listen to them. Dr. Strange explains that there is danger coming, that only the Hulk can help with. Hulk reasons that if Dr. Strange wants to be his friend he will go along with it. Then we have a meaningless display of Dr. Strange’s powers as two old people see Dr. Strange in his costume, but he then makes them see him in a business suit (looking quite sleazy). The oldsters direct them to a lighthouse where the evil machine lurks.

The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner burst in (Hulk from land, the Sub-Mariner from under the ocean), defeating numerous traps along the way. Then Dr. Strange goes in in his astral form and is told by the machine (which is ugly by the way) that when the Hulk and Sub-Mariner punch the machine, their awesome power will fuel the machine, giving it the power to accomplish it’s evil plans.

So, let’s summarize Yandroth’s evil plan. He constructs an Evil Machine, then gets himself killed. He summons Dr. Strange before he dies so he can tell Dr. Strange about the Evil Machine. Then he trusts Dr. Strange to take along enough muscle to provide the energy to power his Evil Machine. Yeah that seems overly complicated to me.

Anyway Dr. Strange keeps the Hulk and Sub-Mariner from attacking the Machine by casting illusions that make them see the other as super threatening. So they attack each other, instead of the Machine. Then Dr. Strange defeats the machine, by summoning the awesome power of time; so that each second takes an eon for the machine. And then he un-illusions the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner.

So let’s summarize the Hulk and Sub-Mariner’s contribution to this story. Dr. Strange goes and finds them, which fills up a few pages. Then they crush through the Evil Machine’s defenses. Then Dr. Strange has to keep them from destroying the world, by forcing them to fight each other. Then they go away. There’s a reason the Defenders are called the “un-Team.”

Anyway they conclude with this final conversation.
Sub-Mariner – “Aye It’s best that we part. For, we all but caused the Earth’s DESTRUCTION– while we sought to be it’s valiant DEFENDERS.”

Dr. Strange – “DEFENDERS! A fitting NAME for such a grouping as we – if ever we’ve need to meet AGAIN.

Hulk – “Hulk NEVER wants to get together again. NEVER! Hulk was IN group once – called AVENGERS. Didn’t LIKE it.”

There’s also a back up story involving Dr. Strange returning to being a hero, but it’s not very interesting. Oh and sorry for the panel this time. It didn't scan very well, and I couldn't get it to look that much better.

What he said

I was going to write a post about how the current argument (reiterated by the President today) that all the Democrats agreed that Saddam had WMDs and so are hypocrites for saying he lied us into war is BS. But Realign This! has a good post covering this subject, so I'm just going to quit a bit of it and link to it (well already did that part).

If the administration did manipulate the intelligence, and if said manipulated intelligence was the basis on which people made decisions, then the fact that they supported the war does not mean they are hypocritical in their criticisms of the decision to go to war. In fact if anything it gives them more of a right to criticize, not less. If seeing the unmanipulated intelligence leads to a different conclusion, its quite clear that the manipulation was a decisive factor in the direction of their vote.

So go read the rest.

Around the Horn. An Irwin J. McIckleson Production.

Good morning all. This is Irwin J. McIckleson, Fictional 1910's Plutocrat.

I'm afraid I do not have a lot of time today. We are going to be celebrating Armistice Day later on at my various plants, and I need to get ready. Memorizing all the names of my workers who served. It's a lot of work; but worth it I think.

Speaking of Armistice Day, I'm glad to see it celebrated in the future; although you call it Veterans day. Bark Bark Woof Woof has a very well done tribute to those who have served.

Anyway next up is . . . You Are A Tree, which has many interesting photos, as I mentioned last time. This time it's a church in the windows of some marvelous glass building.

archy has an article on how Bill Frist who is the Senate Majority Leader is trying to become President; apparently he fails to understand how to win the war of ideas.

The Countess has some information on the Father's rights movement. I don't entirely understand this issue; but apparently this father's rights movement is a bunch of bounders who harm their offspring, but claim custody of same? I may not fully understand this. At any rate she has more information.

I must say that Trish is not a usual name for a Countess. But it is a lot easier to say than most of the Countesses names I have known.

Iddybud has a story about a plan to seek petroleum in the far north, near Caribou. Apparently, this will cause harm to the Caribou as well as the aborigines in the immediate area. There's also the suggestion that said aborigines have rights. The future is different in a lot of ways from my time.

SoonerThought has the story of a preacher named Pat Robertson who has predicted that Dover Pennsylvania will be condemned by God because they did not support school board members who favored something called Intelligent Design. That seems like a very specific prophecy.

Anyway that is all for this week; hope you have enjoyable Arm . . . Veterans Days.

Updates to the Site

Good morning everybody!!!!

How are you? : ) I am happy to announce we are adding two new links. The first is to the Mahablog, which has some really great information. The second is to the Indy 500 Webring. They are a collection of 500 or so websites. Anyway they included us in their listing, so I am going to look around them, and possibly provide a linking to the Indy 500 blogs here.

Anyway hope your all having great weeks.

Abu Ghraib

I know we are pretty comfortable putting Abu Ghraib and what happened there out of our minds. It doesn't fit with our picture of what we, as a nation, are all about. But given the current debate over torture, perhaps we should keep it in our minds just a bit.

As it turns out, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who has been held responsible for what happened at Abu Ghraib, has a book out abuot her experiences, and she sat down with Salon magazine for an interview. Some of what she has to say is clearly self serving (she largely shifts the blame away from herself), but she does paint a picture of an Iraq in chaos and a command unconcerned with the rights of Iraqi civilians.

In late August [2003] they started these very aggressive raids. The first operation, up in Mosul, resulted in 37 security detainees arriving in Abu Ghraib. Within about 30 hours, the military interrogation teams had interviewed each one of those 37 and determined that only two of them had value and needed to be held. The other 35 were eligible to be released. And that was a firestorm, because nobody was going to be released.

I was at a briefing over at [Lt. Gen. Ricardo] Sanchez's headquarters [as the head of coalition forces in Iraq] and the deputy commander, [Maj.] Gen. [Walter] Wodjakowski, turned around to me and said, "You are not to release any one of them, Janis." And I said, "Sir, that information came from the military intelligence." And he said, "Get me somebody from the military intelligence." So this captain comes over and is trying to explain that none of these 35 had any further value. They were in fact in the wrong place at the wrong time, [gathered] up with the target individuals. So, Gen. Wodjakowski now turns on this guy and tells him, "You are not to release any of them. Do you understand me? Am I making myself perfectly clear? You are not to release any one of them." And this captain tries valiantly to explain that we'll be holding innocent people, and Gen. Wodjakowski says he doesn't care.

Obviously one of the strongest arguments in favor of torturing people is suggesting that they would do the same or worse to us. "These are people who would like to kill as many Americans as possible and you feel bad that they have to go through a little discomfort?"

The dynamic changes when you think about them as innocent civilians, and you try to imagine what it would be like to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, going through this kind of abuse. Unless you don't see much difference between an Iraqi civilian and a terrorist, I suppose.

A Catalogue of Commentators - Issue 2. Walter E. Williams

Hello everybody. This is Maple Roberts, personal assistant to Alaistar Niedenmaker, who has been saddled with the inelegant moniker of the Post-Modernist. I'm afraid he can't be here today, as he is meeting privately with the New Gamorrah City Council to discuss the Reincarnation of Paul Revere's Horse. As such he has asked me to fill in for him, which I was naturally delighted to do.

This weeks subject is Walter E. Williams. Apparently he prefers to be called Walter E. Williams so as to distinguish himself from Walter Williams who is a socialist economist (according to Williams). Williams is black and a strict constructionist in terms of the constitution. He mainly applies this strict constructionist philosophy to economic affairs, arguing that such measures as the minimum wage or safety regulations are unconstitutional and should be eliminated. His focus on economics is no accident; he teaches the subject at George Mason University. Let's take a look at one of his statements on the economy.

Whether it's individuals or countries, one seldom sees highly productive people poor or highly unproductive people rich unless there are government restrictions and subsidies at play. Making people more productive is the challenge. Whining about income inequality is a cop-out.

I admit that Mr. Williams observations do not square with my own. Mr. Neidenmayer's sister, Beatrix is quite well off and yet produces nothing. Meanwhile our mechanic Staplejoe is very hard working and skilled and yet has a far lower standard of living. But perhaps Mr. Williams envisions the concept of production different from myself.

Mr. Williams is black, as I noted before and so spends some time racial issues as well. His main contention in these matters seems to be that blacks in America have all the help they needed to over come the effects of slavery and the loss of civil rights; therefore they should not blame white America or corporate America for their problems. Mr. Williams has gone so far as to suggest that prejudice is acceptable.

Suppose leaving your workplace you see a full-grown tiger standing outside the door. Most people would endeavor to leave the area in great dispatch. That prediction isn't all that interesting, but the question why is. Is your decision to run based on any detailed information about that particular tiger, or is it based on tiger folklore and how you've seen other tigers behaving? It's probably the latter.

You simply pre-judge that tiger; you stereotype him.

I am not sure what to make of this argument; other than to suggest, as Bryant did when he originally reviewed this article, that people are not tigers (except of course Prince T'Anickle of Outer Fangolia).

There is no getting around the fact that Williams is somewhat of an elitist. Consider this proposal, suggested in an article from September 15, 2004.

Every American regardless of any other consideration should have one vote in any federal election. Then, every American should get one additional vote for every $10,000 he pays in federal income tax. With such a system, there'd be a modicum of linkage between one's financial stake in our country and his decision-making capacity.

The idea seems to run counter to the very constitution Williams generally claims to champion. It certainly runs counter to the idea that all men should have equal protection under the law.

Here are some thoughts by Bryant on Walter E. Williams.

Walter E. Williams. I should say I like the guy in general. He's gotten me riled up on occasion, but not that often. Certainly not compared to a Dennis Prager or an Ann Coulter. Rather he writes from some sort of rarefied area where eliminating most legislation since 1936 or so is a real possibility. In that sense I find him a bit more honest and forthright compared to many of his colleagues on the right. I take him a bit like I would a fuddy duddy who has some goofy ideas. That said he has served as a regular substitute for Rush Limbaugh and his writings on race are really quite awful. So I'm unlikely to take it too easy on him.

We also have a few of our favorite posts on Walter E. Williams.

On March 16, 2003, Mr. Williams made some puzzling statements about the United States Budget, which Bryant responded to with charts.

On June 4, 2003, Mr. Williams expressed his opposition to a proposed National Slavery monument, on the grounds that it would provide a backdrop to people he disagreed with.

On January 21, 2004, Williams explains to a relative who's child had just graduated High School had probably the same education accomplishments as a white seventh grader. Bryant used some interesting grammar to express the idea that this wasn't the kindest thing Williams could have said.

Thank you all for reading. Next week this function will be performed by Durango, and the Post Modernist will be back in two weeks. If you have any suggestions for a commentator we should cover, please post them.

This Doesn't Add Up

You need to check out this exchange between reporters and Scottie McClellen (White House Press Secretary), presented by First Draft.

A little background; the President has said that under his administration we don't do torture. Vice President Cheney has gone to the senate and asked for an exemption for the CIA to a proposed bill outlawing torture. How does the Bush Administration reconcile those two events?

The real answer, of course, is that the White House has a very narrow definition of torture. There are all kinds of things you can do to prisoners that don't fall under the heading of torture in their mind. But McClellen can't say that (because the American people might disagree with the Bush Administrations on what actually constitutes torture). So he dances. And dances. And then he dances some more.

What Yesterday's Elections Mean

As you all know, yesterday's off-year elections didn't go exactly as the Bush Administration and the Republican party had planned. The GOP lost Governors races in Virginia (where Bush campaigned for Republican Jerry W. Kilgore) and in New Jersey. Governor Arnold out in California lost four ballot initiatives he claimed were necessary to reform the state. So kind of a bad night for the Republicans.

So what does it mean? Well I think it means that the bloom is off of the Republican Apple. I think it means that soon Republicans will be embarrassed to show their faces in public. I think it means that a coming era of unbridled Democratic Power will reduce the Republicans to clandestine meetings in the middle of night for fear of societal disapproval. I think it means that Republican politicians will be about as popular as a punch up the conk. Democrats will rule! Republicans will cower! Republicans will flea the sunlight of Joyous Democratic Rule like boll weevils afraid of the light! It will be a glorious day for all Democrats, a glorious day coming soon! And a very bad day for Republicans, for the tide has surely turned and they will soon be three kinds of doomed!!!

But, you know, it's important not to read too much into this.

Google and the Library

This situation with Google scanning the world's libraries is pretty interesting. Salon has an interesting article on the pros and cons of what Google is doing (or to be more accurate, the people who think it's cool and the people who think it's wrong). In the middle there is this argument against what Google is doing.

Aiken compares Google's plan to use books with the way Hollywood uses novels as plots for its movies. When film producers first started making movies from books, "They could have said, 'Hey, how does it hurt the author if I make a movie from his book?'" Aiken points out. "You could argue, after all, that more people would buy the book because of the movie." But that's not the way the world works, Aiken says. Hollywood pays publishers for the rights to novels they want to use, and in the same way, Google should pay publishers -- who would then distribute money to authors -- for the right to add books to its database.

That comparison just strikes me as apples and oranges. Yep, it's like some cranky monkey throwing apples and oranges at me. At my head.

See the thing is that movies, even back in the early days, made and make a ton of money. It's hard to imagine Google making a ton of money off of this particular project (the article is pretty murky on where the profit motive fits in here, except in so far as Google wants to retain it's position over Yahoo and Microsoft). The assumption on the part of some publishers and some authors seems to be that Google wouldn't do this if it wasn't going to make a ton of money for them. So the author's and publishers want their share of the pie.

Which, I have to admit, is understandable if not admirable.

Beating a Dead Horse

In this case a dead horse named Ben Shapiro, I'm afraid.

Ben's latest article is about the Riots in France, and Ben displays his usual hateful ignorance on the subject. Let's get to hateful right away.

When Muslim terrorists murder 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, the European response is to lecture Americans about their "intolerance"

Actually the response from Jacques Chirac, President of France was somewhat different than Ben portrays it.

In these horrific circumstances, the French people stand as one, side by side with the American people. They want to express their friendship and solidarity in this tragedy. Their thoughts go especially to the injured and to the families of the victims.

France condemns totally this terrorism against which we must fight with absolute determination.

Le Monde, France's leading newspaper, ran with a headline "Today We Are All Americans." There were massive demonstrations through out the world in support of America in our time of need.

But that doesn't fit the story Ben is telling so he skips over it. He also skips over why the rest of the world has felt to lecture us. We invaded Iraq under false pretenses and with little provocation.

Now let's get to ignorant; the reason the Muslims are revolting is that the French government has been to lenient with them. This is, as I'm sure you know, total nonsense. France has no affirmative action, and a policy of enforced assimilation. If a Muslim youth from North Africa or the Middle East cannot become French fast enough he is marginalized and given little opportunity to improve his life. This creates resentment. As Mahablog points out, this looks a lot more like the Watts riots than any sort of terrorism.

Presented without Comment

The Democrats' desperate attempts at gaining political advantage, regardless of the cost in human lives, is disgraceful and treasonous. When will they learn that partisan politics ends at the water's edge? I pray that the American people can see through their vicious campaign of lies and partisan propaganda and will vote accordingly in the next elections.

We must ensure that America does not burn with Europe. It's way past time for Reid, Kennedy, Schumer, Howard, Pelosi, et al, to sit-down and shut-up! You're either with us or with the terrorists.

For more thoughts along this line, go here.

Townhall Still Wants Your Money

They want it so bad they got Ben Shapiro, Boy Prognosticator, to proclaim that Townhall is "The ultimate conservative tool for change."

The ultimate conservative tool for change. In support of this position, Ben notes that Townhall now has a blog and a message board (called Soapbox). I don't know if those actually mean as much as young Ben seems to think they do.

At any rate if you want to support "The ultimate conservative tool for change" (and isn't that a mouthful) send Townhall some money.

On another note, I think it's interesting that my spell checker keeps wanting to replace Townhall with Downhill.

Taking Pleasure in Other's Suffering

I caught a bit of Rush Limbuagh's Morning Update this morning. This is a three minute spiel he does on whatever strikes his fancy. Today it was on how happy he is to see human suffering in France (and, tangentially, how the Kyoto Pact is a bad thing). Basically his thesis was that the French people deserve to suffer. Frankly he sounded rather pleased with himself. And check out these comments from yesterday's show.

The riots have spread to within the city limits of Paris, and the fires are raging, and the French, the good old French, the cops are still ordered not to shoot back. It's just a question of how long it's going to be before the French surrender.

The story in the Right Blog-O-Sphere is more or less the same. They are pleased as punch to see France suffering. The Mahablog has a piece on their glee.

What's interesting to me is how, well, un-Christian this sort of behavior strikes me. This is a crowd that is pretty regularly reminding us all of how much better they are than us, mainly because they call themselves Christians. Is this the way Christians act? Happy at the suffering of others? If so, than boy have I been barking up the wrong tree.

A New Blog on the Blogroll

I don't know if Presstitutes will replace Media Matters, but it's quite good so far. And certainly you can't have enough blogs watching the Media.

Monday Mail Bag

Well good afternoon all.

We didn't really get any comments last week; except one that Bryant responded to already. For those interested it's attached to this post.

I guess I'll use this space that I would normally devote to comments to a short tour of our facility. It's not very nice. Basically we are in a small office complex. It's made of that white stucco like stuff. Anyway there are about three rows of four offices, and we are in the very back. We get a break on our rent because Sunday Night we go around to all the offices and dump their trash. So someone hangs out here on Sunday and waits for everybody else to shut up and then goes around and does that.

It's usually Cheery; she just plays World of Warcraft till it's time. I haven't tried it because it's hard to use a mouse with my claws. And before you ask the next obvious question, my keyboard is specially made.

Anyway we have 5 work stations and an office. The office is The Monsters, but since he's never here, we use it as a phone booth. Whenever anybody has a private phone call, they take it in the office so the rest of us know to surreptitiously listen in. By the way, Cheery's new boyfriend is named Lester and is allergic to shellfish (I like him already).

Anyway the two workstations in front used to be Grumbly Muffin's and Cheery's. Cheery still has the front left station, and the front right is empty for the moment. Bryant has the desk directly in back of Cheery, and I am across from him. Course I only use mine once or twice a week. I did personalize it a little though; I hung a poster from the old show, and I have a small packet of fish guts in one of my drawers. I don't eat them of course; I just leave it there as a surprise for anybody who goes snooping.

Anyway the one behind me is empty, but Durango used it last week. That guy creeps me out. And I imagine the Post Modernist will use it this week. Or he might phone it in the way McIckleson does. I think cheery is going to clean it out and use it as a lunch area. Puke got Grumbly Muffin a job at the office she works at, just around the corner. So they come over for lunch. Actually things are a lot better between us and Grumbly now that she's not working here. I'm still not allowed to tell you her real name though.

Oh and don't call Puke Ashley. She said that it would upset her if people did that; but rather than going to the trouble of finding the person who said that, she would just find me and pummel me.

Our bathroom, by the way, is spic and span all the time. And behind the office. And we have a little supply room too. And a back door. And that's it. The walls are cream colored, the carpeting is blue and very unpleasant to walk in. It feels like steel wool.

So that's our office. Hope you can imagine it now. Next week I'll tell you what we all look like (maybe).

Anyway to the mail. Here's a cheery letter I am going to reprint in full.

Miss BEAH DENIS
Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire
West Africa

YOU ARE THE ONE I AM LOOKING FOR

Good morning, sorry to take your time and also to disturb you. Introducing myself, I am miss Beah Denis the only daughter of late Mr and Mrs Ble Yao Denis. I wish to request for your assistance in a financial transaction and I wish to invest in manufacturing and real estate management in your country.

I have Eight million, five hundred thousand united state dollars. USD ($8.500,000) to invest in the transaction and I will require your assistance in receiving the funds in your account in your country. I will gladly give you 15% of the total sum for your assistance.

Please it is important you contact me immediately you receive this mail so that I will give you the procedures on what and how to do this

Awaiting your immediate response for more information and explanations and God bless.

Regards

Miss Beah Denis

Note that all the relevant document in regards to this transaction is intact with me. Please I will like us to hasten this transaction up now.

Well I am flattered to be the one you are looking for. It makes me feel warm inside. But I'm afraid Lobster Human Romances just don't work out. I remember when I was working for Madame Spydro (in Episode 2F33 "Spydro, Spydro"). She used her wiles on me and I really thought there were sparks. But when I went to visit her in her sleeping chamber she screamed at me. And later, after I accidentally let Captain Starfaller escape, she tried to have me killed. Luckily I had a contract, and so was able to escape. At any rate I'm sort of seeing someone right now. Plus, as previously noted (repeatedly) I don't have a bank account. Bryant does, come to think of it. Maybe I'll forward this along to him.

Anyway that's all for this week. I'm gong to get back to working on my Self-Help book "How to Crush Life in your Mighty Pincers." I got the idea from the Walrus Tyrant of Io 4, who has since become a successful self help guy. Due to legal restraints I can't fill you in on who it is, but you've probably heard of him.

Anyway have a great week.

Townhall wants your Money

Townhall, responsible for reprinting the words of Ann Coulter (among others), would like your money. I'm planning on keeping my money, but if you want to hear the ugly hateful rhetoric of Ann Coulter, you might send them a few books.

This is the main gist of an article by Jay Bryant over there. His main theme is that for a long time the American Press was a lot like Soviet Style propaganda efforts (which seems a little delusional, but there you go. It's an article of Conservative faith). He then goes into this hopeful news.

In the sphere of politics and public affairs, the big bang of the information explosion has had the effect of destroying the bland liberal consensus, personified by the dominant Democratic Party, that dominated American politics for the previous half century. The good news is that it has released the conservative viewpoint from its old constrictions. The bad news is that it also released the most frightening and toxic left- wing extremism too.

Boo Mr. Bryant. I'm a toxic frightening liberal.

Oh wait, Halloween was last week.

Is there anybody on the left wing as toxic and as prominent as Ann Coulter? I don't doubt that you can find some hateful rhetoric by some liberal websites or Hollywood morons. I have no doubt of that. But is there anybody of her stature that pours out hatred every week?

Don't all get up at once.

President Bush doesn't like to be graded

But I mean, come on! Who likes to be graded? I don't. Grades suck.

So when someone like Senator Russ Feingold suggests that President Bush and his administration come up with plan to leave Iraq at some point in the future; well, President Bush doesn't cotton to such a plan.

A military timetable won't solve all our problems in Iraq, nor will it signify American disengagement from that country. Intense American diplomatic and political efforts will likely be needed long after the troops' mission is accomplished and they are withdrawn. I expect that we will also continue military and security cooperation with the Iraqis, as we work with them and with others around the world to combat terrorist networks.

But a flexible, realistic timetable could undercut the insurgency that rages in Iraq, an insurgency that thrives on conspiracy theories and suspicions regarding American intentions. A timetable would also encourage Iraqi ownership of their country's political process, moving Iraqis toward real political independence by making it clear that the U.S. will not be there indefinitely. Finally, a timetable would enable us to devote more resources to the most pressing national security issue we face -- combating the global terrorist networks that continue to threaten this country.

Well, yes, but if you set a time table; people would be able to judge how the war in Iraq is going, and that would be a major downer. It would suck. You'd presumably have to actually meet the goals of such a timetable.

But of course you don't want to look like you are afraid of failing; so what is the best way to defuse this situation? Pretend like the timetable is will require US troops to pull out before the mission is done. Clever. Paint imaginary scenarios and then make fun of them.

"Sarge, the Insurgents just blew the hell out of that gas station. We should go fight them."

"Sorry son. The timetable says that it's time to go, so we have to abandon them to their fate."

See how ridiculous that situation is? Of course that's not even close to what Feingold is proposing; but let's pretend it is. Then we can attack the ridiculous scenario we invented as ridiculous, and Feingold gets the blame.

You might think this sounds far-fetched. You should try listening to Rush Limbaugh sometime if you do.

New Logo, New Quote!!!

Hi all! : )

I liked the look of the blog, so in a radical new technique, i am leaving it as it is for another week. Did change the logo though. And a new quote as well.