A quick one

The Oscars…
Kudos to Al Gore for winning the Oscar and doing it with some humor and grace. The bit with Leo DiCaprio was a riot and the global warning mini-lecture was spot on.

Helen Mirren is all class.

Martin Scorcese finally wins Best Director. It’s about damn time.

Today was a really rough day in Global War on Terror…
Dick Cheney survived an attempt on his life (FWIW, the Taliban says he was the target) but the bomb killed 23.

A car bomb killed 18 kids while they played soccer in Ramadi. This kind of thing just makes the heart ache.

The Sunni Vice President of Iraq warns that the US needs a “Plan B” if the surge fails. We are on, like, Plan R at this point dude. So unless you bring something worthwhile to the table or demand we leave, STFU please. You are just giving W an excuse to try something else stupid and get more soldiers killed.

In the meantime, Laura Bush waxes cognitively dissonant (hat tip to AmericaBlog).

Many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, uh, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone.

Sure honey, whatever you say.

And finally, a couple of reasons to stay the hell out of Pakistan…
11 people were killed in a Pakistani kite festival(?!?!?!?!?!). Throats cut, stray bullets, electrocution, etc. at a kite festival – I swear to God, there is nothing safe in that part of the world.

Segue to this atrocity; a 16 year old girl is fighting to escape a forced marriage after she was lost in a poker game by her father when she was 2. You cannot make this stuff up people. This is just so wrong to our Western sensibilities, it smacks of the absurd. Except that it is real – all too real for this poor girl I am sure. To paraphrase Bill Maher, it is not that our cultures are so different, it is that our’s is so much better. And he is right. You can call this many things but if you don’t call it slavery, then you are full of shit.

Joe recoils in horror

Tom Tomorrow has a revealing post covering a review of a recent book on Ariel Sharon in which it is revealed that George Bush wanted to sodomize Osama Bin Laden. I kid you not.

And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: “I will screw him in the ass!”

The visual I had when I read that nearly forced me to cough up my breakfast.

Factory Food

My taste in food is pretty wide-ranging. There is a very short list of things that I will not eat – brussel sprouts, potted meat, bugs (chocolate covered or otherwise). These are things that I think just taste bad. To this list I have added reecently hamburger that is anything but well done and all pre-packaged lunch meat. I won’t eat either of those items purely for reasons of safety and I thank Molly Ivins for that. In a book she wrote a few years back (I can’t remember which one and I don’t have time to go look it up), Molly explored the rather disturbing world of factory meat production and the equally disturbing lack of effective inspection in such places. In her work, she found that Big Food, firms like ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland, could use campaign contributions as a successful deterrent to stricter regulation. It should be no surprise that Big Food and conservative, anti-regulatory politicians get along famously. To paraphrase Ivins, when Republicans are in office, it is a good time to consider vegetarianism.

Given the recent outbreaks of foodborne illness, it is high time that the food production industry had a little more oversight beyond determining just how much visible feces is permissible on an unprocessed side of beef. BTW – I am not making that up. There really is such a regulation and, much to my horror, the answer is more than none. So when the FDA announces that they are going to change the inspection regime for meat factories, I am more than a little skeptical. Particularly when you read something like this from someone who should know:

Inspectors fear they will be assigned too many plants to inspect, said Stan Painter, chairman of the National Joint Council of Meat Inspection Locals. "Too many plants, too little time, too little authority," Painter said. "Tell me how we could do a better job when we already have the flexibility to do what they're talking about?"

We live in a world where spinach can kill you and designer potatoes are being linked to cancer. Food safety has a real and tangible benefit to society and is something that government can do effectively, if it wants to. It is simply a matter of priorities. Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” just over 100 years ago. That work laid the foundation for government regulation of food production and safety. It is something of a mystery to me that generations later, we still struggle with the same problems. I bet that Sinclair would feel the same way.

Sick

After yesterday's rant about the lack of appropriate coverage on the war, Dana Priest and Anne Hull prove that there are excellent reporters out there doing excellent work (hat tip to Atrios). Their article in today's Post on the sorry state of Walter Reid Army Medical Center is one such piece. For those unfamiliar with Walter Reid, it is the primary surgical and recovery center for injured troops. And as the article reveals, the facility is a cockroach-infested dump; a disgusting place for honorable men and women to recuperate.

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

[Snip]

While the hospital is a place of scrubbed-down order and daily miracles, with medical advances saving more soldiers than ever, the outpatients in the Other Walter Reed encounter a messy bureaucratic battlefield nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields they faced overseas.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.

Oy - this is shameful. And somehow, voting against escalation equates to not supporting the troops. Well, what the hell do you call this?

Covering the wrong story the wrong way

The vote to rebuke Bush’s escalation failed in the Senate; not really a big surprise given the Republican’s insistence on rules that required 60 votes. What I find maddening about this thing is the coverage. Here we have a Democratic majority holding a symbolic vote to express the majority position of the country on the war and the press is falling all over themselves to repeat the bullshit conservative pro-war talking points on the issue.

Seriously, has any elected Democrat said that they would cut off funding for troops in the field? Yet every time the war comes up, some Republican screeching weasel is in full throated roar declaring that the Dems are going to strand our troops in the desert without money, bullets or a way out. Case in point, this awful passage from the CNN:

Republican leaders insisted that members get a chance to vote on two GOP alternatives, and that the process be conducted under rules that called for 60 votes to pass.

Republican critics have claimed that passing the resolution could lead to a cutoff in funding for the troops.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said before the vote that Republicans would insist on "a measure of fairness," allowing them to offer alternative resolutions -- including one stating the Senate won't cut off money for troops in the field.

OMG – where to start? First, having Mitch McConnell complain about fairness after the way R’s ran the Senate marks the death of irony. It is like having Rupert Murdoch decry the coarseness of network television. Mitch should shut his hypocritical, Deputy Dog looking cryhole. Second, why would “Republican critics” have any credibility when it comes to what the Democrats are going to do, especially when none of same has even suggested taking that course of action? If the stenographers in the press pool are going to let this crap pass without question, then the R’s should go whole hog and declare that the Dem leadership wants to vote on funding the insurgency. Right now, both votes are equally plausible. Finally, how come no one in the press is talking about how we got to this point? If Congress had sacked up when this disaster got started and provided some measure of oversight, perhaps GWB could have fucked up a little less. But that didn’t happen and now we find ourselves in a fine mess; 3100 dead soldiers, a half trillion dollars in the hole, and an Iraqi government that couldn’t find its own ass with both hands and a team of doctors.

That is the damn story people. Everything else is meaningless by comparison.

Silly/Serious

OK – I must say that I am a bit torn about this. On the one hand, spending $25,000 for a single meal is selfish, absurd, and ridiculous. To piss away that kind of money for dinner is just not something I would ever do, even if I could afford it.

But I must admit, I am completely intrigued by the idea of three four star chefs coming together to craft an extravagant meal. The menu is amazing; caviar, truffles by the handful, foie gras, lobster and a wine list that costs as much as my house.

As the article says, it would be an experience of a lifetime and also a waste of money.

Mo-bama

I saw Obama’s announcement this morning – pretty good stuff. Say what you will about his lack of experience (FWIW – I would probably agree with you), but there is no denying that the man can speechify. On the stump, he is going to be just awesome.

For me, the most notable about his speech was his bit on alternative fuels. He is like the fifth or sixth candidate to make that a major plank of his or her platform. It seems that this idea’s time has come. IMHO, that is a very good thing.

Busy

The soul-crushing enterprise that is my job has prevented me posting much recently, but things will slacken off soon and I can resume ranting at my regular pace.

In Al related news today…

As a result of his work on global warming, Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I swear, the longer he stays out the Presidential race, the better a candidate he becomes.

In other news, word is out that Al Franken will take on incumbent Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman in 2008. I think it is safe to say that this will be the most entertaining race in the next election cycle. Coleman is dumber than a box of hammers and there is no way he is quick enough to handle a professional comedian. Franken will just shred him. I am hoping against hope that Coleman agrees to a debate. That is going to be pure comedy gold.

Joe wants to cry

My beloved Molly Ivins died today of breast cancer. I wish I could write a eulogy appropriate to the woman that, in my heart, was THE working man’s voice. Dear Lord, I loved her writing so. Her compassion, fire and courage to call out the powers that be; she was one of a kind. I pray that Hunter Thompson had a Shiner cold and at the ready when she approached the Pearly Gates. In my perfect world, this is how it went…

HT: Molly, I have had this on ice since I heard.

MI: Why thank you Hunter. I knew you were a gentleman (crack). Would you care to join me?

HT: I have a Greyhound at the ready my dear.

MI: In that case, “Cheers”. Do you think they will figure it out?

HT: They already have. That’s why I left.

MI: Atta boy, Hunter. Let’s go get a whiskey. Death requires stronger stuff.

HT: That is an excellent idea – after you. Molly, you are going to like Heaven.

MI: After cancer and Texas, you bet your ass I am…


God rest your soul Molly Ivins. God rest your soul. I will miss you something terrible. You were one of the greats…