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Thursday, November 06, 2003

From TomPaine.com, this little story… Helicopter Down  Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA, regularly briefed George H. W. Bush as vice president and, earlier, worked with him closely when he was director of CIA. Mr. McGovern is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is now co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington. The killing of 18 U.S. troops and the wounding of 21 others in Iraq on Nov. 2 brings to mind the successful attack by Viet Cong guerrillas on U.S. forces in Pleiku, Vietnam on February 7, 1965. The Johnson administration immediately seized on that attack, in which nine U.S. troops were killed and 128 wounded, to start bombing North Vietnam and to send 3,500 Marines to South Vietnam. Unlike the U.S. advisory forces already in country, the Marines had orders to engage in combat, marking the beginning of the Americanization of the war. By 1968 U.S. forces had grown to over 536,000. And from VOANews.com, this coincidental announcement… Pentagon Expected to Announce Return of Marines to Iraq The U.S. military is preparing to announce a call-up of replacement forces for Iraq including a return of U.S. Marines and reservists. The decision comes amid increasingly sophisticated attacks on coalition forces there and no sign that other countries are ready to contribute more troops of their own. 5:36:18 PM    comment []

The Shrimp Butler® $38.95  This wonderful new tool serves up succulent, perfectly deveined fresh shrimp in your home that look  like they were prepared in a fine-dining restaurant! This sleek non-electric cook’s tool will make you feel pampered in your own kitchen!     Oh, it sounds like so much fun, but I’ll probably pass on this gadget. Not that I’ve reformed as a gadget junkie, I have as many kitchen toys around here as Rush Limbaugh’s backyard dumpster has empty Oxycontin bottles. This one however, is a little pricey and Harris Teeter has regular specials of EZ-Peel shrimp (vein already removed) for $2.98 a pound, so I’d hardly ever use one of these. Maybe if it were $20. $40 dollars is a lot tp pay for something that may or may not work. I’ve never seen anything billed as a “shrimp deveiner” that has been much good at all.   4:30:59 PM    comment []

If you Google “maverick senator,” you’ll get about 26,000 hits and most of them will be on John McCain. This USATODAY article shows him at his best.   WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain sharply criticized the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war Wednesday, saying the United States should send at least 15,000 more troops or risk "the most serious American defeat on the global stage since Vietnam." "Victory can be our only exit strategy," said McCain, one of the strongest supporters of the war. No matter what your sentiments about the war, it’s refreshing to hear candid talk instead of the politically expedient gibberish emanating from the direction of the White House. Despite the chutzpah there, you get the feeling that they’re preparing to back pedal out in time for the elections a year away.    6:14:11 AM    comment []

Not much food has been getting cooked here the past couple of days. On Monday morning, I woke up and walked over to the computer to read the news. Then I sneezed. Then again. I went to work and a co-worker said I sneezed 87 times. I went through a whole box of Kleenex by noon. As funny as this sounds, it is debilitating. It’s impossible to get much work done. Tuesday was better and I managed to catch up a bit at work, but I missed yesterday and spent most of the day sleeping. On the bright side, I’ve lost 5 pounds from whatever this bug is, so when I’m feeling better I can pig out. 5:30:53 AM    comment []