WHERE TO EVEN BEGIN...

Freedom is on the march all right--away from American citizens. A U.S. soldier was arrested for questioning the mission in his blog. The soldier's name is Leonard Clark, and one of his friends has been keeping up with this situation at his blog (scroll down a little).

Is that legal? I mean, I have no idea, but I wouldn't think so. Aren't soldiers supposed to disobey orders they know to be wrong? And wouldn't that require them to be critical thinkers? And might that critical thinking bring them to a place where they don't agree with the mission? Is freedom of speech signed away when you join the military?

If so, no wonder the National Guard didn't meet its recruitment goals again.

And if Bush didn't smear himself with the blood of 9/11 victims every time someone asks him a simple question, Karl Rove would be sooo fucked. But remember, we don't have to get him fired (though that's the preferred outcome) or have him resign (another nice possibility)--we just have to smash the windshield of their credibility. Maybe also slash the tires and put sugar in the gas tank of the Bush administration. So then the press and the public won't let Bush and company pass the inspection and won't give them an inspection sticker and Bush will then be given a ticket and have a court date set.

I know it sounds vindictive, mean, and nasty to say all that, but we don't make the rules right now. Our guys aren't in charge of all three branches of government, our guys aren't spouting their ideas on every backwoods AM radio station in southern Rubetown 24 hours a day, and so forth. They make the rules, and a big chunk of the rules have to do with ending civility and rational discourse. If we put on our best suit and speak in the most precise yet polite language there is, we will only be laughed at and called out of touch with the people--see Al Gore in Election 2000.

The current rules are to be folksy and perceived as down-to-earth. You also have to be willing to fight. Pleas for civility are seen as weakness. So we only have to break out our rhetorical brass knuckles long enough to kick these motherfuckers' asses bad enough that we can get things back to how they should be. You know, where we're in control.

Always remember and never forget:

Oh yeah, and don't forget that the facts were being "fixed around the policy."

Don't forget, Iraq had no WMD, no nuclear program, no chemical weapons.

Saddam was given the key to the city of Detroit in 1980.

George Bush lost the popular vote in the 2000 election.

Bill Clinton was America's favorite president out of the last three.

America is the only country in the world that has ever used atomic weapons against another country.

Writing was invented in the area where Iraq now is--between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

A Muslim born in Baghdad introduced algebra, use of zero, negative numbers, and so forth.

The Catholic church forced Galileo to recant his heliocentric theory of the universe.