Supporting the troops?

I've written in passing about the uncounted costs for the United States and its allies, including Canada, that are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Much has been made of the number of soldiers killed in action and there has been some coverage of the tens of thousands of seriously wounded. Earlier this year, I linked to the stories being told at the Winter Soldier conference about the U.S. Veterans Administration hospitals failure to diagnose and treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

It would seem there is a reason for this failure. Depending on the study you look at - and there are several - it is estimated at anywhere from 12% to 20%  of vets returning from Iraq suffer from PTSD to some degree. Add to that the uncounted number of "military contractors" working as everything from truck drivers to mercenaries security consultants and that is a lot of potential for very bad things to happen.

But not to worry. In war, we all must make sacrifices. After all the President is working hard and has given up golf for the duration, what more can we ask?

What not to say to a reporter

D'oh! Obama takes the .50 laser-sighted, night- scoped sniper's rifle of his eloquence and proceeds to blow off his own foot.

Jason Kenney: liar or moron?
The Toronto Star does it right and calls bullshit on Conservative Rottweiller Jason Kenney for using a widely discredited piece of propaganda as if it were the gospel truth.

"In a terse exchange, Kenney asked him if this meant he equated Canada's inaction with "Al Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down's syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated." Kenney was referring to an erroneous story about unwitting bombers in Iraq - which military officials later retracted when it was revealed the bombers were adults and did not have Down's syndrome."

Jason Kenney: Mendacious moron, prevaricating prick or just an ignorant, loudmothed jackass who doesn't know what he's talking about? We report, you decide.
What a novel concept - a politician talks out his ass and the media actually points out that he is talking out his ass. I could get used that.

The issue in question that Kenney is trying to distract from is Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire's comment that Canada's Gnu Gummint should maybe be trying to do something about the plight of Omar Khadr, the 21-year-old who went to Guantanamo Bay intead of high school and college after he was shot and captured in Afghanistan at age 15 by U.S. Special Forces during a raid on Taliban encampment. He is alleged to have thrown a grenade that killed a US soldier, for which the US is charging him with a war crime.

Kady O'Malley was there for the subcommittee hearing in which Dallaire pointed out the obvious, that Khadr's case has become a political hot potato that has more to do with the US government not wanting to admit it is breaking the law than it does with Khadr's alleged war crime.

The National Post quotes the exhange at the parliamentary subcommitte on human rights:

"In panicking, [the United States] is doing exactly what the extremists and terrorists are doing. They don't want to play by the rules," testified Mr. Dallaire.

So naturally Jason "Fathead" Kenney, like many a factually-challenged blogging tory, grabs the wrong end of the false equivency stick and immediately jumps to the defence of the poor, helpless, U.S. military-industrial-national security apparatus and decides to bring Al-Quaida in the whole thing:

"Is it your testimony that al-Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down's syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated is the moral equivalent to Canada's not making extraordinary political efforts for a transfer of Omar Khadr to this country? Is that your position?" Mr. Kenney asked.
"If you want a black and white, absolutely," replied Mr. Dallaire. "You're either with the law or not with the law.
"My position is that the minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties, in order to say that you're doing it to protect yourself and you are going against the fundamentals of those rights and conventions, you are no better than the guy who doesn't believe in them at all."

Interestingly, the hacks atthe National Post headline their story "Dallaire likens U. S., Canada to al-Qaeda" when it was Kenney that brought up Al-Qaeda, not Dallaire. Like you needed further proof that the National Post is lame.

Dallaire amplified his remarks further today (from the Toronto Star story)

"Suffice it to say that I in no way intended to equate Canadian or U.S. authorities with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda," Dallaire wrote today. "But we cannot avoid the point that if we violate international law in our pursuit of the war on terror, we risk reducing ourselves, collectively, to the same level as those we oppose.
"Our acquiescence with his continued incarceration and prosecution puts in question Canada's standing as a nation that respects global human rights and international law."

Absolutely goddamn 100 percent correct.

Pierre Pollivere also shows he's more interested in protecting George W. Bush's reputation than protecting the human rights of a Canadian child

I'm liking her less and less
I never got what the right hated so much about Hillary Clinton. From the time of her husband's presidential campaign right up to today, the right has villified, belittled and otherwise attacked Sen. Clinton. I always thought that, were I an American, I wouldn't have any problem voting for her for president. Lately, I'm not so sure. It's not just that fact that she voted to authorize the war, I'd be willing to give her that error, lots of people made the same one. But she swallowed the whole thing hook, line and sinker and now she denies that was the case.

In voting to hand George W. Bush the keys to the war machine, she said:

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001.

It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.

Now this much is undisputed. The open questions are: what should we do about it? How, when, and with whom?

....This is a very difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make -- any vote that may lead to war should be hard -- but I cast it with conviction."

Furthermore, she went to Iraq in 2005 and stood next to John McCain and told the American people that everything was going well in Iraq when anyone with eyes could tell it was not.

That's stike one

Strike two would be her refusal to bow out for the good of the party once things became inevitable. By this I don't mean after she failed to sweep Super Tuesday or anything of that kind, but she has been more or less mathematically eliminated since she failed to sweep to a massive victory in Pennsylvania. She couldn't quite seal the deal on her comeback there and without doing so there, she was done, short of Obama being caught with a live boy or a dead girl. She was way behind him on fundraising, the superdelegates had started to shift away from her to Obama and yet she hung on, loaning the campaign another few million dollars of her own money in the hope of finding a magic bullet.

I don't think her pathetic attempt to get Florida and Michigan included in the totals after agreeing like everyone else that they would not count is grounds to deny her the nomination, though I do think it stinks.

I don't think her pandering to the right by talking about obliterating Iran or talking about how she learned to shoot from her grandpappy or pretending she's a beer and shot kinda blue-collar gal is reason to deny her the nomination. It's lame, but its something any politician would do.

I don't even mind the wounded tones and righteous indignation of her supporters when they complain about how the boys are ganging up on her and that the mass media is sexist. Surely as good feminists they already knew this, so throwing a fainting spell over it isn't gaining them any sympathy from me. Putting Hillary on Hardball and letting her call Chris Matthews on his horrible misogyny on air would have solved a lot of the problem - does anyone think she wouldn't have eaten his lunch? - but Clinton and her people were too afraid of another "I don't stay home and bake cookies" moment and decided to play victim instead.

I wouldn't even hold here poor choices in campaign staff against her - though why anyone would pick Mark Penn again is a bit of a mystery.

Nope, strike three, and this is really the dealbreaker, is her more or less naked appeals to racism.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

While racism has raised its ugly little cracker-assed head a few times in the campaign, this is the first time a candidate has simultaneously courted racists, displayed racism and told her supporter that they were uneducated bigots and that was fine with her.

She's lost, and now its just a matter of getting her out before she burns the house down.

Now, having said all that, if Obama were to be struck by lightning, a bus, or a crazed KKK member, would I advise voting for Hillary over McCain? You bet your ass I would.

Another home-skooked Conservative intellectchul heard from

Probably a relative of these guys. I guess dictionaries are only for ivory tower liberal islamofacist academic pinko anarchists.

Shameless stolen from Orcinus

Did you ever have one of those mornings?

You know, the kind where you wake up after not enough sleep, with a crick in your neck, to the sound of crows and seagulls fighting over the garbage outside. Your spouse is doing that one thing that really irritates you, the kids are sulky and dragging their feet to get ready for school, there's no hot water left, you're out of clean underwear and coffee and it looks like its going to rain?

You know, the kind where you feel like the only good reason to go to the office today would be to give a few people a well-deserved punch in the mouth just on general principles before setting the boss's tie on fire and taking an early lunch? The kind where you're seriously thinking of splashing some gasoline around the living room and kitchen and tossing a lit cigar butt on it, selling the kids to the nearest band of gypsies, sticking up a gas station, stealing a motorcycle and driving to the airport, flying to Patagonia and becoming a hermit who only comes into the village every few months to sell a few goats and buy cases of cheap wine and shotgun shells?

Did you?

No?.....um, me neither. I was just...uh... you know... checking.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Of couse, then the six year old pokes you in the belly and giggles and you find the coffee and all is right with the world. Besides, there's never a band of gypsies around when need them any more and you don't even speak Patagonian.

"But it's alright ma, it's life and life only"

For those without giggling six-year-olds or coffee, there is Fafblog.

"I'm a politician, step into my big black car"

Limousine Liberal Conservative Bev Oda to taxpayers: "Baby, you can drive my car"

Remember all the bitching and complaining by Steverino Harper when he was head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation National Citizen Coalition (Editor: what's the difference?) about how the Liberals were just a bunch of fat cats who were living high on the hog at taxpayers' expense? Now he only wants money when it can be billed elsewhere, but won't spend it where he should.

Remember all the outrage on the part of the Tories that the Liberals were using federal money for partisan purposes in a little affair known as "Adscam" and how they swore up and down they would be the party of openness and accountability?

Yeah, right.

and another thing:

"...the NDP found that (is) Oda (what)was doing in Toronto last March 17, when she billed $1,291.88 for a limo that took her from her home to a Conservative party candidate training session. She also made a government announcement later in the day.
In that particular case, the expense was proactively disclosed by Oda - but not the party function"

A $1,300 limo ride? I can fly round trip from Tokyo to Toronto during peak season for less than that.

(a hat tip and apology for my laziness in posting to Cat)

But how do they feel about apple pie?

From the "Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower" department, we get this Mother's Day treat from the Republicans. We knew they had some major daddy issues, but apparently the Republicans are now anti-mom. Better yet, as has been pointed out, they have flipped-flopped on the issue, having voted for mothers before voting against them.

Did the earth move for you too?

As I sit here blogging about earthshaking stupidity in Florida etc, we just had a succession of earthquakes in the Tokyo region. At least enough to justify these musical choices.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

There's a reason Florida has its own tag on FARK

Even if there are two sides to this story, the fact that the climate exists in which a teacher could believeably  be accused of "wizardry" boggles the mind. Yes, the school board is now giving other reasons, but the telling bit is where the supervisor says it wasn't just the wizardry, meaning that while there were other reasons, wizardry was one of the reasons for firing the teacher. And least you think this is an isolated incident in the climate of Florida crazy, I would argue that it isn't the heat down there in the Sunshine State, it's the stupidity. 

So far, there is no word on whether the teacher in question has a wart or weighs the same as a duck.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your conspiracy theorizing
In the words of Dana Carvey's Church Lady "Isn't that convieeeenient?"
One must ask age old detective's question: Qui bono?

"Everything old is new again"

When Democrats complained about Republican dirty tricks in the 1972 campaign they were labelled as whiny liberals who just couldn't handle hardball politics. Then Woodward and Bernstein blew the lid off of what White House-sponsored criminals like G. Gordon Liddy(1) and Donald Segretti (2)were really up to on behalf of Richard Nixon and the Republicans and people wanted Nixon's head. Only his resignation and Gerald Ford's willingness to choose peace and quiet over justice kept his crooked criminal ass out of prison.

Its a good thing that kind of thing is no longer tolerated by the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys. I mean, crimes committed for the purpose of intimidating political opponents, like torture and rampant corruption, are the sort of things we expect to see in third-world tinpot dictatorships, right?

Fun fact footnotes!
1. G. Gordie's fondest childhood memories include listening to radio broadcasts of speeches by Hitler that "made me feel a strength inside that I had never known before" a lasting effect of which being that even today "at assemblies where the national anthem is played, I must suppress the urge to snap out my right arm."
2. Segretti's protege in the 1972 campaign was none other than College Republicans honcho Karl Rove. Segretti was also the co-chair of John McCain's presidental campaign in Orange Country, Calif., in 2000 - further proof of McCain excellent judgement.

In which I appear to the congregation

I recently discoverd Justin.tv and have decided to put it to use to preach to the those of you out there in the choir that is made up of the select and discerning readers of the Woodshed.

We begin our semi-regular visual manifestation with a reading from the rules. C'mon, you know you've always wondered what I look like....

(Shorter You: Oh dear god, he's finally lost his mind and started a video blog -- no good can come of this)

Preach it Brother George!

Murder in Moondust

The Second Life drama continues to unfold with a coerced confession, an academic digression and the interrogation of  RevPaperboy Boozehound. Come and read all about it at the Murder in Moondust blog.

Bring me the head of Martin Biron
Just watched the first two periods of the Canadiens-Flyers game before running off to work. The Habs were down 3-0 on some soft screened shots that wunderkind Carey Price should have stopped. Biron continues to stand on his head for the Flyers and I am much vexed, so here is some inspirational music.


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Addendum--It's two hours later and I finally found out what happened in the third period. Apparently Darien Hatcher is continuing to prove that he and the Flyers are the class of the league, though I suppose we should be grateful he hasn't bitten anyone yet. Though what can you expect from a team whose fans boo "O Canada"? And speaking of class:

Flyers bad boy Steve Downie got the crowd going again near the end of the first period, tripping Price behind the net and attracting several Canadiens as a melee ensued. The crowd once again showed its IQ level when it shouted "U-S-A, U-S-A," during the fight. Their hero, Downie, is from Newmarket, Ont.

Nice to see that we didn't let Biron off with a shutout at least, and Koivu continues to impress with both his talent and he drive, but we need more goals and we need more toughness on the forechecking. And Downie should get thumped everytime he steps on the ice next game.

Price was clearly rattled by the first goal and Carbo did the right thing to pull him in the third, although since the Flyers only had two shots on net in the period thanks to the extended powerplay, Halak wasn't really tested. Price will come back and shut out the Flyers on Thursday -- he hates to lose. Just ask Boston about game seven.

I guess hippies don't sue

Sorry to have stiffed you on the weekend entertainment videos this week, but I've been getting up early to watch hockey via dodgy internet streams (and yes, I feel Tom Kostopoulos was an excellent choice for Spiritual Leader of the Moment. Three goals all season and now three goals in the playoffs, including the overtime winner in the opening game against the Flyers. 'Nuff said!) but while catching the latest in North American commercials I was aghast to see the ad for this product:

At first I thought it was an update on the old Sy Sperling ads. The TV commercial features clean cut corporate types of a certain age with facelifts, capped teeth and a hint of salt and pepper at the temples cavorting with hip twentysomethings - surfing, hiking, playing electric guitar with a hot young blonde hanging off one shoulder.

It is hair dye for aging boomers "It's for the generation that swore it would never get old. And didn't." That rumbling sound you hear is Jerry Garcia rolling over in his extra wide grave.

Now, I know it is just me being closed minded and judgemental, so feel free to harsh on me in the comments, but I'm always a bit suspicious of men who dye their hair. It just seems vain and dishonest in men in a way that it doesn't for women. Maybe it goes back to Ronald Reagan, maybe it goes back to the subverting of one of my childhood heroes:

thus, it all returns to hockey.

'Funny,' but not 'funny - haha'

I'm hardly the first one to blog about Tony Zirkle's recent speaking gig in front of a group of Nazis to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday, but you have to see this bit from the man's own website to really get a handle on just how far up the delta of the Crazy River this guy has swum.

I'm considering discussing divorce aids and my plans for a "Derrenger's (sic) for Dildos" policy to put guns in American women's hands instead of divorce aids. Presently, when a criminal is arrested for a weapons crime, the prosecutors seek orders to destroy those weapons. What a waste! Put our criminal prisoners to work modifying those guns to be smart-guns that can only be fired when the female owner is holding it so that children don't hurt themselves and so that criminals can't use them (unless they use the woman's hand). When a women turns in her stash of divorce aids, then give her a free gun to defend America when the jihadists follow us home....

(brief amount of crazy snipped)

...I may also call attention to the fact that one of the biggest commercial frauds is that divorce aids market themselves as being for "novelty purposes only" so that they can avoid all consumer safety inspections; yet ,they then go to court and claim they have a 1st Amendment so called right to privacy to abuse their bodies. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19333870/page/2/ Who knows what toxic chemicals these women are inserting into the most intimate areas of their bodies and how many men chase children because they can not find comfort from an adult women.

No, really, he actually calls it "Derringers for Dildos." I mean...uh...he's...wow...just, wow.

Truly, this is not the kind of crazy we should run from. This is the kind of crazy we should avoid direct eye contact with as we back slowly and carefully through the nearest exit and bolt it shut behind us before calling in an immediate airstrike on the place.

The Indiana Republican party are doing their best to shove this guy out on an ice floe and deny he is even a party member. Zirkle, on the other hand, claims to have won 30% of the vote in the 2006 Republican congressional primary. A quick look around with the google shows him as a primary candidate in 2004, and Wikipedia lists him as having lost to Republican Congressman Chris "Count" Chocola 70% to 30% in the 2006 primary, so he must have been a party member at some point. And while huge numbers of registered party supporters don't always vote in primaries, 30% is still significant number. I'd guess having a nutbar like Zirkle around made whatever extreme right-wing positions Bushista Chocola and the rest of his party enspouse seem reasonable by comparison. Small wonder the district went democrat in the last election.

The scary part is that Tony Zirkle looks good on paper - he has a fairly impressive resume: Naval Academy and Georgetown grad, former prosecuter and seminarian. He was even a political science professor for a short stretch. Clearly he has either only slipped off the rails in the last few years or he has a history of fooling people into believing he's sane.

And then there were eight

There are no easy, sure bets in the second round of this year's NHL playoffs, though I feel a lot more confident about picking winners in the East than I do in the West. And based on my success in the first round, in which I called only one series in the right number of games (though I did pick six of eight winning teams) any bets you lay based on my advice better be money you can get along without.

Detroit vs Colorado
Goaltending may tell the tale here - If either side gets an exceptional performance between the pipes, it could be the defining factor. I'd give Detroit the edge on the strength of their blueline corps, but then again they did give up two games to the Predators. Detroit has some younger legs on offense and more depth, despite the Av's gang of stars from days gone by who can still do the job like Sakic and Forsberg. This will be a good, hard fought series: I'd say Detroit in six close games, but probably the most likely series to see an upset.

San Jose vs Dallas
Two teams I've never liked, so I don't care who wins. The Sharks look good on paper, but should have taken Calgary apart and didn't. They needed to get oldtimer Jeremy Roenick - a healthy scratch earlier - dressed to show them how to do it. Joe Thornton is not to be underated either, though his previous playoff record is not overly impressive this could be his year. Add to that a young, inexperienced Dallas defence missing Sergei Zubov and the Sharks look good, on paper. But Dallas just finished off last year's cup winner in six games and look hungry and Brad Richards seems to gotten back on track. This could be another close one, but I'll go with the Sharks in seven.

Pittsburgh vs New York
This is going to be an entertaining series. New York has the offense it needs to beat the Penguins and a solid goalie who, if he gets hot, could stone the twin snipers that are Crosby and Malkin. With the aforementioned two, the Penns have the offensive edge. The series could turn on special teams and which team's less than great defensemen have better series, but my money is on Sid the Kid being able to beat Lundqvist. Barring an injury to one of Pittsbergh's big guns, it will be the Penguins in six

Montreal vs Philadelphia
Obviously you know where my sympathies lie, but the this is the series I feel the most confident picking a winner for a number of reasons. The Flyers' offense is overly reliant on Briere, who won't be able to hear himself think in Montreal for the booing everytime he steps on the ice. Add to that the Habs' tough forechecking and of course Carey Price being unbeatable when he is having an "on" night. And I pity the goon who tries to run the goalie in this series, something the Flyers like to do and have done in each of the four games they have lost to the Habs this season. Koivu is back to lead the team and after the close-call with Boston they are unlikely to be overconfident or lax. Add to that the history of the two teams all the way back to the mid-70s finesse-versus-fisticuffs matchups and the pregame benchclearers of the 80s when Gainey and Carboneau were still on the ice -- the Flyers are team the Habs like to beat. Montreal has a faster team with more depth on the scoring chart and more finesse, while the Flyers have Briere, Prospal and a bunch of thugs like Downie and Cote. It could well be a chippy couple of games to start the series and if that's case, I like the Canadiens' chances even more, because we can and will outmuscle them as well as skate rings around them. Shades of '76 indeed!
Allowing for Price to have a couple more off nights, the Habs will ground the Flyers in six

Equality vs convenience

Shorter John McCain: Justice and equality are important, but not if it means a bunch of lawsuits and stuff.

To the "sour grapes" crowd within the Hillary camp: Are you still sure you want to vote for McCain if your favorite doesn't get the nomination?

One wonders whether McCain would have voted against striking down the Jim Crow laws on the basis that getting rid of the laws that allowed segregation would have just lead to more lawsuits against bus companies and lunch counter owners.