IN A TIME OF WAR a vote for Bush is a vote against yourself...

Listening to Mike Malloy on Air America this evening...I've developed a taste for him. He certainly is a passionate guy. I like his frequent references to the "Bush crime family."

Saw pieces of "Hannity & Colmes" tonight. Hannity promised a tribute video to liberal Democrats or some such. Anyway, he showed Tom Harkin calling Cheney a coward and Al Gore asking "How dare they?" and so forth (I'm sure there was more, but that's all I saw).

Then they cut to his smug, porcine face and he said something like--"Well, there you go. This is the liberal, strident Democratic party, engaging in the character assassination of a sitting president in a time of war while our troops are in harm's way. Remember this when you go into the voting booth" and blah blah blah.

Well, I got to thinking about it, and that phrase "in a time of war" sure has been used a lot by Republicans to heap shame and scorn on anyone with which they disagree. As in, "In a time of war, people shouldn't criticize the government," or "In a time of war, it's inappropriate to question the veracity of the commander-in-chief" and so on.

Which War?

But these creeps are using that phrase to invoke associations with WWII, a war in which we were attacked by Japan and then we declared war on Japan. In this war, Iraq did not attack us, could not attack us, and probably never would have because of the memory of the ass-kicking they received in 1991 (another war I didn't agree with). But Iraq is the country we fought and are fighting--even though we were attacked by Islamic extremists based in Afghanistan.

So my point is, the whole idea that one shouldn't criticize the leaders of our country "in a time of war" is somewhat defensible as impolite (but not illegal, immoral, or unconstitutional) if our country was attacked and then we had to lash out in self-defense against the country that attacked us. But when we are the ones picking the fight, being the bullies? The more criticism the better in that case.

And these chest beating jingos also want to connect this Iraq war with WWII in terms of nobility of purpose, saying that we're fighting against a vicious dictator who killed his own citizens and bringing freedom and sweet, sweet capitalism to their benighted souls.

But when it comes to casualties, they say that the Iraq war is nothing like WWII or lots of other really keen and popular wars. They point out that we've only just now had almost 1,000 casualties--we lost many more than that in Wars X, Y, or Z. George Will argued that in a column today.

So the Iraq war is exactly like WWII. Except that it isn't. Well which is it, you rat bastards? You keep telling John Kerry he can't have it both ways so you can't either!!!

Bloodshot Bill

Heard Bloodshot Bill today for the first time...if you check out his site, you really should download at least "Bloodshot Man"...what great lyrics-- "I been kicked outta school since the 6th grade/for cutting the teacher up with a switchblade" (I know it sounds bad, but when you actually hear it, you can hear his tongue in his cheek).

Looking forward to the new Camper Van Beethoven..."New Roman Times" I believe it's going to be called. Just read about that in the latest No Depression (the one with Willie Nelson on the cover).

Did I already say that the new Mooney Suzuki record kicks ass?

I'll leave you with this thought for the day:

"Dreams are free, motherfucker!"-The Minutemen