Chickenhawk
It's funny how the language of influential blogs eventually makes its way into mainstream political language. Yesterday, Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey blasted Vice President Dick Cheney as "the lead chicken hawk", while defending John Kerry.

The term "chickenhawk" has been incredibly prevalent on the internet for the last couple years. There are a number of sites with lengthy lists of politicians who avoided war themselves, but never hesitate to send someone else to get their limbs blown off. Hence the term: chickenhawk.

It's funny how the current Repugs, who play dirty politics like it's never been played before and have the media in the palm of their hands, cry when someone says something about them.

Hey, it's the truth. Cheney said he didn't serve in the military because he "had other priorities." There's nothing wrong with that. Just admit you said it and continue sending people to war.

Doesn't want to get his hands dirty
There's no denying that for all his tough talk, GW doesn't have much stomach for hand-to-hand combat. After all, the guy was a cheerleader. Anyway, Josh Marshall made this point recently with a column that came after longtime Bush advisor Karen Hughes (who Bea Arthur will have to play in the movie..) attacked Kerry. Here's what Marshall wrote:

"What's the signature pattern of the president's life?

When he faces a challenge or a tough scrape, he lets his family and friends bail him out, do his fighting for him. You see it again and again through failed businesses, legal scrapes, the whole matter of ducking service in Vietnam and then getting help cleaning up subsequent unfortunateness while he was serving in the Texas Air National Guard.

It's even come up again and again on the campaign trail. George W. Bush has faced three opponents (McCain, Gore and Kerry) since he came onto the national political stage -- each served in Vietnam, though each under very different circumstances. He's had his lieutenants attack the service of each one.

So here we have the same pattern again -- no different. The president wants to challenge John Kerry's military service. So he gets Karen to do it for him. You can get tripped in the chutzpah of this because this not only throws light on an earlier period when the president couldn't fight his own fights, it repeats the pattern."

Right-O.

Deny, Deny, Deny
Did you see "Meet The Press" yesterday? The second segment was with Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. I work in public relations but I could definitely learn something from this guy.

Every time Tim Russert presented him with evidence of Saudi support for terrorism, Bandar laughed it off and spoke condescendingly, "Tim, Tim, that is completely false. Ha. Ha."

My favorite rebuttal of his was when Russert showed a clip of the Saudi royals holding a televised telethon to raise money for Palestinian suicide bombers. That was the intent of the telethon!

Bandar said the Saudis had made some mistakes in supporting terrorists, but 9-11 had made them reassess what they were doing. Only one problem: the telethon took place in April 2002! When questioned about this, Bandar said, "Ahhh, Tim, Tim. Ha. Ha." or something like that.

It was a mind-blowing perfomance. I can't wait for Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" to get ahold of it.

Someone help me
It seems that every year the Red Sox lead the Yankees in the standings when June rolls around. So it's important to temper any excitement about this weekend's sweep of the Yanks or the fact that the Sox have won 6 of 7 against New York.

Still, I can't help it. It just feels different. Someone help me! Please! (That is the cry of a Red Sox fan who feels himself going down the same road again!)

The Empire strikes back
This comes from a recent Molly Ivins column about the mindset of those who think the democratization of Iraq is our responsibility.

"The perpetually peevish pundit George Will has condescended to explain to us all that our problems in Iraq are but the obligations of empire. Yup, Bwana Will-ji says we gotta take up the white man's burden. "Regime change, occupation, nation-building -- in a word, empire --are a bloody business. Now Americans must steel themselves for administering the violence necessary to disarm or defeat Iraq's urban militias."

That's us, gotta steel ourselves to administer the necessary violence because THEY are making us do it. One assumes after penning this advice, Bwana Will-ji grabbed the memsahib and headed on down to the Imperialists' Ball."

Boy, that's not what the Administration told the country when we went to war. You think if we explained to the country early last year that we were going to Iraq to spread democracy, people would have jumped on the bandwagon so quickly?

I don't think so either.

Baby puke
There's nothing like seeing your kid puke really bad. Just wanted to share that.

Learned my lesson ... again
One of my favorite lines was from my friend Craig, back when we in our 20s. He kept having the same problems with the same girl and he said, "Learned my lesson...again."

I remember this because I haven't posted in a while and I've had a few people razzing me. I don't blame you. There's nothing worse than going to a blog or website and seeing old posts.

The best razzing came via e-mail after I finally posted something less than scintillating yesterday. Her e-mail read: "We waited nine days for this?"

I had one other long hiatus where I didn't post for a while. Won't happen again. Honest. (Now, as a group, say to yourself: "Learned my lesson...again.")

In the line of duty
This comes off www.dailykos.com. You knew there had to be more to this story because for the most part, Vietnam vets don't attack each other.

Of course, it's not very surprising that the Cheney-Wolfowitz-Bush axis who didn't go to Vietnam would endorse this sort of behavior. Kerry, the guy who served in Vietnam and got wounded gets attacked publicly, while the guy who didn't show up for his Guard service gets off the hook.

Here it is:

"We found out earlier today that John O'Neill, the guy Bush trotted out to attack Kerry's military service, also did Nixon's dirty anti-Kerry work (in addition to clerking for Rehnquist). A partisan hack spanning multiple administrations.
We also found out that he's a partner at the Houston firm of Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson and Fulkerson. One of his co-partners is Margaret Wilson, who was George Bush's general counsel 1998-2000.

Well, there's more about good ol' Margaret. She was a lawyer at Vinson & Elkins before she worked for Bush. Vinson & Elkins was Enron's main law firm -- the very firm that facilitated Enron's frauds. Vinson & Elkins was also the firm that spawned Al Gonzales -- Bush's current general counsel.

In other words, Vinson & Elkins and COPWF are the very embodiment of the Houston good ol' boy Republican network. That this network spawn Kerry's harshest critic should be of no surprise (his career was probably made thanks to the Nixon dirty work). Thus, there should be no illusions that O'Neill is in any way an independent and impartial critic of John Kerry."

Shocker, huh?

Bar appetizers for breakfast
Today is Administrative Professionals Day, which of course I didn't know until one of the Administrative Professionals in my office reminded me. We have a secretary/assistant/administrative professional in our department who is awesome to work with so I figured I'd take her to lunch.

Unfortunately, I had a noon and 1 o'clock meeting so we went to Newport Creamery at 11 a.m. I figured we could have breakfast but by the time we got there, they weren't serving breakfast anymore. So we proceeded to have buffalo chicken tenders, cheese quesadillas and french fries.

Consequently, I feel like I'm going to barf. Just thought you'd want to know.

The Vacation President
How the hell can Bush keep going on vacation with what's going on in Iraq? This simpleton spent last week being taped for some outdoor sporting show, showing off his prowess with the fishing rod. And it was the White House's idea to invite them along, as a means to further cement Bush's reputation with hunters and outdoorsmen.

Check this out from CBS News:

"A CBS News tally shows this is Bush's 26th presidential trip to Crawford. He has spent all or part of 166 days at the ranch or en route -- the equivalent of 51/2 months. When Bush's trips to Camp David and Kennebunkport, Maine, are added, according to the CBS figures, Bush has spent 250 full or partial days at his getaway spots -- 27 percent of his presidency so far."

If you're going to be a "war President," like Bush says he is, at least be around to conduct the war. Further evidence -- along with the fact that George's Uncle Dick has to go to the 9/11 Commission with him -- that the Cheney-Rummy-Wolfowitz crew is really running the country.