The week's news in flash cards.
Special Tempest in a Teapottm edition.
The big news, of course, was this weeks desecration of the dead in Fallujah. Apparently not content with merely killing some mercenaries, the people of Fallujah decided to burn them, rip them apart, drag them through the streets and then finally hang them from the top of a bridge. Originally, most of Americans seemed to have the impression that these were "civilians". As the good people at Blackwater Security (in North Carolina) will tell you, they are hardly "civilians".
But the whole event does beg the question: "Why were these guys driving around Fallujah in Black SUVs?". I mean, how much more X-Files fantasy role playing can you get?
But Fallujah was just the back drop for the real scandal. In response to Fallujah, Kos posted a comment that was not politically correct. The Politically Correct Police of the right swarmed over Kos like flies on shit. In a courageous letter writing campaign, they stole a page out of the liberal play book and quickly organized a boycott of Kos' web site. A whole lot of lefty blogs got into the whole act and everyone had a good rousing time, filled with character assassination and censorship.
The whole little event is, of course, just a taste of what's to come. With Iraq spiraling out of control, there's going to be a lot more fuel to add to this fire.
Overshadowed by the whole Kos scandal was the rather odd news that Kerry out raised George Bush this quarter. Kerry hauled in a cool 50 Million dollars. Eight million of this came from California. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office cannot be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the entire Right Wing of American Politics did the snoopy dance over the 308,000 NEW jobs that were created last month. Believing that an explosion of job creation is now in the offing, they now feel super-confident that their man George is going to take the gold and finally get himself elected president in November.
Next week: Uncle Murphy pays a visit to the Iraq occupation.
I am aware that Kos caused a shitstorm of controversy recently, but I'm unfamiliar with the particulars.
I further deduce the storm began when he made a pejorative remark about the fate of the slaughtered mercenaries, who were killed during the past week in Iraq. I'm honestly unaquainted with the finer points of the dust-up.
But I have my own thoughts the "hired help" in Iraq, that I just posted on Digby's 'Hulabaloo'. To wit (and I mean every word):
Personally, I don't give a damn about any "contractor", who, if the mood is upon them, can quit their job and catch the next flight out of Iraq.
Unlike our G.I.'s, those people run risks for mere lucre-- for blood money. They are the scum of the earth.
Rumsfeld's administration of the Pentagon is an ongoing Amateur Hour. That's why those people-- the "contractors"-- are there in the first place.
The Secretary of Defense is a swine, whose moral and intellectual shortcomings are writ Large, (as in) The Blood Of Strangers, both foreign and domestic.
He is as American as apple pie.
The best rundown is by (of course) Stirling Newberry, in A Soldier's Tale.