Flinging Poo

As if the vile machinationistic intentions of a certain right-wing party weren't enough to sink this country to the pit of despair, one of it's most conservative and staunchest groups is being spat in the face. As we know, those serving in Iraq were given extended duty and additional deployments. As we know, the government has failed to safeguard them by refusing home assistance in the form of extra armour and as we know they've dragged their feet on supplying armoured HumVee's. The VA hospitals are widely acknowledged outside Red circles as being woefully inadequate. All this we know. And, as a further sign of what should have already been painfully obvious to people but somehow isn't (that is, that the Republicans take advantage of the military and don't care for their needs while relying on their support for elections), we get word that a lawsuit from a group of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are suing the government for inadequate mental care.

You can easily argue that Al- Qaeda did Dubya a favor by crashing those planes. By doing so, they've enabled Bush to run roughshod over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. By doing so, they've enabled a protracted war in Iraq with no foreseeable win-win situation resulting. Another angle to look at it is what the image of America around the world had evolved into. Certainly, for many nations, it has been a school bully since Vietnam, but never so widespread has been the negative view it presents presently. Pretty much everyone hates us now and while some leeway was given due to the events of 9-11, the cronies in the Republican Neo -con hierarchy have taken advantage of that goodwill and run with it. So, we're hated around the world. And Bush, while not alone in projecting this negative image, has done much to make it far worse. Perhaps being a 'good ole boy' cowboy type that talks straight and 'shoots from the hip', basing decisions on his vision of

It was not exactly the most ideal of vacations, but all and all I think it was a very positive experience for my boys. it rained about 90% of the time I had the car on the road, and it was much cooler than a more desirable vacation would suggest, but we fit a lot of things in and had fun anyway. For the trip down, it was drizzling the moment I picked up my boys and headed out of Fort Wayne and didn't let up an iota until I hit the North Carolina border. We went via highway 30 to Dayton and down. We arrived in Triangle Park about 6 and settled in for a couple of hours (my boys playing Halo with Jeremy). Then, Jeremy and I went to The Flying Saucer, a bar with hundreds upon hundreds of different types of beer from around the world. It was mostly a college and young adult crowd and the waitresses all wore skirts that barely covered their gluteals , so you know I was okay with that! Anyway, stayed there for about an hour and headed back to Jeremy's. Saturday morning, I threw the b