Lance Corporal Jesse Tillery of Vesper was killed in Anwar Province in Iraq. His family was notified on Sunday. He was a Graduate of Wisconsin Rapids High School.
http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061205/MNH0101/612050646/1980
In honor of Jesse Tillery I am reprinting this:
Ode To A Marine ...
(also know as St. Peter's Poem)
You can have your Army khaki,
You can have your Navy blue,
But there is still another fighter,
I will introduce to you.
His uniform is different,
the finest ever seen.
The Hun's called him Devil dog,
But his real name's Marine.
He trained at San Diego
The land that God forgot.
Where the sand is 14 inches deep.
And the sun is scorching hot.
He has set many a table,
And many a dish he dried.
He also learned to make a bed,
And a broom, he sure can guide!
He has peeled a million onions,
And twice as many spuds.
He also spends his leisure time
In washing out his duds.
Now girls, take a little tip,
I'm handing it to you.
Just grab yourself a good Marine,
For there's nothing he can't do!
And when he gets to heaven,
To St. Peter he will tell
"Another Marine reporting Sir,
I've served my time in hell!"
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Another volley in the "Christmas Wars"
This Wickan had a particularly poignant post about the Catholic League's monitoring of Christmas.
You can read the details here.
Religious holidays, on the other hand, are what we celebrate in our homes and at our places of worship. (OK, I don't have a set "place of worship." Today, I saw a lovely t-shirt that said, "Surely you can pray for me and I can dance naked in the woods for you." I loved that! But if I had "A" place of worship, I guess that it would be the woods.) So the CLRCR can go f*** itself. If they want to celebrate f**king xmas so much, they can go f**king celebrate it in their f**king churches and leave the rest of us the f**k alone. Otherwise, I'm going to start demanding that everyone wish me a Happy Solstice, sing Solstice songs, put up Solstice ornaments, and dance naked in the woods.
Actually, it's a nice message...one that expresses outrage at intolerance and places a somewhat humorous juxtaposition of religious beliefs before us for our consideration.
In our own county, we have people of many, many different faiths and I have no desire to offend them and I am sure they have no desire to offend me. Most often I encounter friends of the Jewish faith but more and more commonly, I am finding persons of the Islamic faith. Throw in an occasional atheist and you've got quite a mix right here in our own community. I don't need any one of the faiths whining that they aren't being adequately represented....
Celebrate in your own way.
Celebrate privately or publicly as you wish....
but don't criticize me for celebrating in my way....
You can read the details here.
Religious holidays, on the other hand, are what we celebrate in our homes and at our places of worship. (OK, I don't have a set "place of worship." Today, I saw a lovely t-shirt that said, "Surely you can pray for me and I can dance naked in the woods for you." I loved that! But if I had "A" place of worship, I guess that it would be the woods.) So the CLRCR can go f*** itself. If they want to celebrate f**king xmas so much, they can go f**king celebrate it in their f**king churches and leave the rest of us the f**k alone. Otherwise, I'm going to start demanding that everyone wish me a Happy Solstice, sing Solstice songs, put up Solstice ornaments, and dance naked in the woods.
Actually, it's a nice message...one that expresses outrage at intolerance and places a somewhat humorous juxtaposition of religious beliefs before us for our consideration.
In our own county, we have people of many, many different faiths and I have no desire to offend them and I am sure they have no desire to offend me. Most often I encounter friends of the Jewish faith but more and more commonly, I am finding persons of the Islamic faith. Throw in an occasional atheist and you've got quite a mix right here in our own community. I don't need any one of the faiths whining that they aren't being adequately represented....
Celebrate in your own way.
Celebrate privately or publicly as you wish....
but don't criticize me for celebrating in my way....
Monday, December 04, 2006
Bolton Resigns!!!!
Remember this: Bolton was sent to Florida in 2000 to "stop the counting"
Reaction across the web has been interesting:
From the liberal/progressive sides:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2639895
Another one bites the dust...Couldn't have happened to a nicer rageoholic pervert.
66. Cookie duster bites the dust. n/t
From firedoglake:
Sure, it's a little gloaty to post an extended Snoopy dance at the news…so I'm just posting the extended Snoopy dance YouTube video above because I'm in a really good mood and thought everyone could use it on this cold and snowy Monday (it's cold and snowy here, anyway).
That Bolton resigned? Just think of it as an added bonus. (As Jesus General said in an e-mail this morning, "Isn't it kind of like resigning after you've already been laid off?")
From the conservative side:
I thank John Bolton for the dedication and skill with which he performed his duties..."I thank him, too. He was a wonderful breath of truthful air, and he will be deeply missed.This is the saddest announcement since Rumsfeld. We're losing all our real men. I'm just damn depressed.20 posted on 12/04/2006 10:33:16 AM PST by AnnaZ (I keep 2 magnums in my desk.One's a gun and I keep it loaded.Other's a bottle and it keeps me loaded)<>
OUCH! That's gotta leave a scar!
Anybody who has ever worked in politics knows that your credibility is your political "wealth" . Without credibility, you have no currency to trade in the political marketplace. Once you have "expended" your credibility, you have nothing.....
So Bush goes to Jordan and makes a jaw-dropping speech denying reality in all forms and all ways. Our allies, by some AP accounts, are agast at his ignorance of reality.
But not to worry.....Mark Sandalow, of the San Francisco Chronicle explains it all.
"This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all,'' Bush said at a news conference Thursday morning in Jordan with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Yet some experts say it would be foolhardy to assume, just because Bush said it, that the statement is true.
snip
There is mounting evidence that the world of public Bush-speak -- from his vigorous support for al-Maliki and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to his rejection of direct diplomacy with Syria and Iran -- bears little relation to what goes on behind the scenes.
Senior White House officials even tangled this week with reporters who suggested that al-Maliki had snubbed Bush at a dinner with Jordan's King Abdullah. A three-way dinner had never been planned, the officials insisted -- until the reporters forcefully pointed out that it had been on the president's public schedule for nearly a week.
"It does seem from his rhetoric, if he's true to it, that he's not going to bend. That he's going to continue down the road toward further disaster,'' said historian Robert Dallek, who has written biographies of such wartime presidents as Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
snip
"But with this guy, I don't know. It's so hard to know what's going on behind the scenes. We'll all know in 30 to 40 years when they open up the documentary record,'' Dallek said.
In other words, don't listen to what he says, just WATCH WHAT HE DOES!
The man is now officially without credibility....without ANY CREDIBILITY.
Time for a nice, quiet vacation on a beach in the Caribean?....maybe not so much......
So Bush goes to Jordan and makes a jaw-dropping speech denying reality in all forms and all ways. Our allies, by some AP accounts, are agast at his ignorance of reality.
But not to worry.....Mark Sandalow, of the San Francisco Chronicle explains it all.
"This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all,'' Bush said at a news conference Thursday morning in Jordan with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Yet some experts say it would be foolhardy to assume, just because Bush said it, that the statement is true.
snip
There is mounting evidence that the world of public Bush-speak -- from his vigorous support for al-Maliki and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to his rejection of direct diplomacy with Syria and Iran -- bears little relation to what goes on behind the scenes.
Senior White House officials even tangled this week with reporters who suggested that al-Maliki had snubbed Bush at a dinner with Jordan's King Abdullah. A three-way dinner had never been planned, the officials insisted -- until the reporters forcefully pointed out that it had been on the president's public schedule for nearly a week.
"It does seem from his rhetoric, if he's true to it, that he's not going to bend. That he's going to continue down the road toward further disaster,'' said historian Robert Dallek, who has written biographies of such wartime presidents as Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
snip
"But with this guy, I don't know. It's so hard to know what's going on behind the scenes. We'll all know in 30 to 40 years when they open up the documentary record,'' Dallek said.
In other words, don't listen to what he says, just WATCH WHAT HE DOES!
The man is now officially without credibility....without ANY CREDIBILITY.
Time for a nice, quiet vacation on a beach in the Caribean?....maybe not so much......
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A few Sunday thoughts...
I know I've written about this before but guest blogger Dennis Hartley over at Digby's place (Hullaballoo) got one of those "transcendental moments" (okay, okay, I'm making this crap up) while watching his TIVO'd episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Or, as he put it:
"...first few episodes of NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, I got up off my couch, switched off the DVR, went to my DVD shelf and made my annual pilgrimage back to The Source-Sidney Lumet’s Network ."
Why do I consider this important? Or "blog-worthy"? Simply because I think the Movie, Network, should be shown to every Junior High Civics Class (which should be required again, btw) and every Senior Social Studies Class (which should ALSO be required) to teach kids a couple of valuable lessons:
Lesson #1. Not everything you see on TV is true.
Lesson #2. Money and TV News Don't mix.
The predictions made in that movie were profound....remember this was in 1976. Here's a snippet from Hartley's excellent post:
In the opening scene, drunken buddies Peter Finch (as Howard Beale, respected news anchor soon to suffer a complete mental breakdown and morph into “the mad prophet of the airwaves”) and William Holden (as Max Shumacher, head of news division for the fictional “UBS” network) riff cynically on an imaginary pitch for a surefire news rating booster-“Real live suicides, murders, executions-we’ll call it The Death Hour.” Funny punch line back in 1976. Sadly, in 2006, we call it “The Nancy Grace Show”.
Think that's prophecy? Check this out.
Later in the film, when the corporate “hatchet man” for “CCA” the network’s parent company (brilliantly played by Robert Duvall) barks “We’re not a respectable network, we’re a whorehouse”, one can not help but flash on the Fox network.
I will probably bore my son and his new bride to death, but I'm buying Network and showing it over the Christmas Holiday.
In other news:
I was listening to WPR in the car today...(I had another impromptu road trip) and I heard Lieberman from his appearance on Face the Nation today. He's already refuting some of the leaked reports coming from the Baker Commission's recommendations, specifically, he's refuting the recommendation that the Administration talk directly with Syria and Iran in solving some of the issues in the region.....Lieberman says that's like a "fireman negotiating with arsonists"....
bullshit....
Lieberman is so busy kissing Dubya's behind that he's turned his brain off....the Baker commission is talking about DIPLOMACY and Lieberman is playing it like the neocon talking points...
That guy makes me nuts....
The other blogs have pointed out the bizarre juxtaposition of the Republican on the Panel, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who was ripping Bush and company apart, and the Independent (former Democrat) Joe Lieberman, defending Bush....welcome to the twilight zone....
tomorrow....
Friday, December 01, 2006
Just heard on The Stephanie Miller Show
Our "favorite" ex-Congresswoman, Katherine Harris, has formed a PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE, to determine if she will SEEK THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY!
Well, as some of my less reverent fellow bloggers would say, "She got the bat-S**t crazy vote locked up!"
Actaully it will be fun to have "Pink Sugar" to write about again. I was a little sad that she wasn't going to be in the limelight anymore.
We can be certain to see more TV appearances like this:
Let the good times roll!
Steve is a bit cranky this morning
Our old friend from Last Chance Democracy Cafe, Steve, says he has a cold and is "a bit cranky this morning".
He should be cranky more often, take a look at this:
And you know something else I’m sick and tired of, as I wallow in my crankiness? I’m sick and tired of pro-war politicians and commentators attacking those of us who opposed this stupid war from the beginning for not coming up with our own constructive proposals for solving the problem. Hey bozos, read my lips: There are no good solutions to the mess you’ve made in Iraq. None. Whatever we do will be the wrong thing. Whichever turn on the road we choose will lead to despair.
snip
But here’s the thing guys: The burden of proof isn’t on those of us who want out of Iraq. We’re the ones who were right at the beginning, are still right today and have been right at every point in between. The burden of proof is with those of you, dwindling though your ranks may be, who are still part of the war party. It’s your burden to prove that staying in Iraq is likely to produce some sort of good, some improvement in the current nightmare, sufficiently great to justify the expenditure of even more precious American blood and treasure.
I found it interesting that Steve addressed some of the questions I raised in an earlier post about how to respond to the Right-wingers who insisted that the situation in Iraq would only be worse if we pulled out too early. I really like Steve's work over there at "the cafe", and generally I feel like he speaks for me (only in a much more articulate manner)but I have to take issue with him on this one...a slight one anyway.
It's true that it is patently unfair for the war party to criticize us for not having a solution to the mess THEY CREATED but telling them that it's unfair doesn't do anything to solve the problem. As Steve points out early in his essay:
"This war is a wildfire blazing across the body and soul of this nation."
Our goal isn't to blame the other party but to end the wildfire. The other side is so obviously incapable of doing it that they should never, ever be entrusted with the power to make war again, but in the meantime, it is up to us, whom we assume are the more rational, intelligent and patriotic of the two parties to put the fire out. The question still remains, how?
I wish I had the answer at the tip of my fingers but I don't.
I suspect that the answer may in fact lie in some Pan-Regional Coalition where the neighbors step in and impose a peace on the warring factions. I can't buy into the theory that a strong leader will emerge (like Mel suggested in an earlier comment) only because there is much too much meddling by Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and god knows who else (maybe some small elements of Al Queda) to allow an Iraqi "Thomas Jefferson" to emerge. Further, the meddling neighbors are using the religious factions as their surrogates and therefore trying to turn it into a jihad of some fashion.
I guess the point is that the answer will lie in a concept totally foreign to the Bush Administration :
Diplomacy
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