Christmas gift ideas

The Abu Ghraib bobblehead! The Dick Cheney Shredding Snowball! And more!

Find them at America: The Gift Shop.

Meanwhile...

Our soldiers are shooting each other, too.

The Big Battle

Driving home the other day, this song came up in a shuffle:

Johnny Cash, The Big Battle

I think sir the battle is over
And the young soldier laid down his gun
I'm tired of running for cover
I'm certain the battle is done
For see over there where we fought them
It's quiet for they've all gone away
All left is the dead and the dying
The Blue laying long side the Gray

So you think the battle is over
And you even lay down your gun
You carelessly rise from your cover
For you think the battle is done
Now boy hit the dirt listen to me
For I'm still the one in command
Get flat on the ground here beside me
And lay your ear hard to the sand

Can you hear the deafening rumble
Can you feel the trembling ground
It's not just the horses and wagons
That make such a deafening sound
For every shot fired had an echo
And every man killed wanted life
There lies your friend Jim McKenney
Can you take the news to his wife

No son the battle's not over
The battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
The part that has blackened the sun
The fight yet to come's not with cannon
Nor will the fight be hand to hand
No one will regroup the forces
No charge will a general command

The battle will rage in the bosom
Of mother and sweetheart and wife
Brother and sister and daughter
Will grieve for the rest of their lives
Now go ahead rise from your cover
Be thankful that God let you live
Go fight the rest of the battle
For those who gave all they could give

I see sir the battle's not over
The battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
This part that has blackened the sun
For though there's no sound of the cannon
And though there's no smoke in the sky
I'm dropping the gun and the sabre
And ready for battle am I


One of my favorites of his, but it's been at least a year since I've heard it. I was floored all over again. How brilliantly does this expose the folly, and the permanence, of war? I got chills.

On top of that, the timing was perfect. Of the last couple days, Atrios and TBogg have been pounding on Michael Gerson, one of the chief marketers of our Grand Iraqi Adventure. Now that he's done coming up with catchy slogans for killing brown people, he's moved on to the more fertile pastures of wingnut handwringing over the "vulgarity" of media and entertainment and political commentary. Yes, you read that correctly. A rethuglican getting his panties all in a bunch over incivility in politics.

These three posts cover it quite well, I think.

Makin' mad coin, and of course not paying taxes

Via TJ, a quite relevant follow-up to the previous post.

New Rule: companies that operate under government contracts need to hire Americans as employees, and pay all employment taxes.

Makin' mad coin

Killing our own soldiers.

Shoddy work = bigger profits.

It's a no-brainer, to a Republican. Or is that redundant?

Snort

I'm sure Michelle Malkin will be all over this...

A right-wing "reporter," sending in false dispatches from Iraq?

Inconceivable!

You've Been Told

Just. Go. Read. Steve. Benen. Now.

You've Been Told

To go read this right now!

Iraq, the giant Republican cash grab.

Or, as Jonathan Chait said about the GOP, "[a]n organized conspiracy to redistribute wealth upwards."

(h/t Toast on the quote)