Tuesday thoughts

Just some thoughts:

1) we spent last year listening to Democrats harping that we didn't have enough troops on the ground (from Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Kerry, et al), that that represented a failure on the part of the administration. Now we're listening to the same people complaining that we have as many boots on the ground that we have. Then, we weren't supporting the Iraq process toward government enough; now we're "there too long" -- which says nothing of the fact that, in the interim, we've had one election (successful), a constitutional assembly that produced a constitution (successful), and are on the cusp of the next election. What we have last year are Dems arguing that we need to support "the process" (elections, forming a constitution, etc.); what we have this year are that they don't care about the process anymore, it's "going too long". Which is historically ignorant and dangerous -- remember, it took the United States literally DECADES to secure itself as a democracy. Note to Dems: make up your mind. Stop playing politics with something that will literally affect the world going forward and OFFER A VIABLE, REALISTIC alternative.
2) Moveon.Org has already demonstrated over and over again that they don't care what facts are, they'll just run whatever ads they think supports their positions. Case in point: the latest ad, criticising U.S. troops, which they finally just pulled. Why is this agregious? Because the ad showed troops in shorts in chow lines... who were BRITISH, not U.S. troops. When confronted with the error of their ad, Moveon.Org... didn't do the decent and honest thing and withdraw the ad with an apology, they touched up the ad and graphically darkened the uniforms to look more like U.S. uniforms and touched up the shorts to look like full-length pants -- or, rephrased, they refused to pull the lie and furthered it by deliberately tailoring a photo to represent something that wasn't. When confronted (finally) about their blatant hypocrisy and lies, they have finally withdrawn the ad altogether. What is astonishing is that any American (or any person of the world) would give money to an organization that knowingly and deliberately falsifies information in order to push its politics. Note to MoveON: if you can't make your arguments without falsifying information and deliberately lying, you might want to reconsider the merit of your arguments. Second note: grow up.
3) Firefly. Nothing to do with politics. Just a note on how grateful I am to the powers-that-be that they released the Firefly series DVD with the episodes in the order they should have been run (as opposed to Fox's idiocy of running the series out-of-order). Wish the movie (Serenity) had made more bucks, but hopefully they'll resurrect the series on SciFi -- it drew more viewers on Fox than anything on SciFi, including the new Battlestar Galactica and the two Stargates, so it would be a shoo-in. Fantastic series, deep characterisations, morals without being "in your face" or preachy about it... nothing like it on television now (a shame).
4) Note to Republicans: keep pushing to get drilling in the arctic (we're talking about a few hundred square miles in the midst of literally tens of thousands of square miles), it's worth it to get at the huge reservoir of oil up there. Go back and rewrite the moronic bankruptcy bill that was passed -- start by junking what was passed and actually focus on helping people instead of crushing them. Stand up for what's right -- deposing a dictator who used poison gas on his own people and on other nations, who set up "rape rooms" in his palaces, who did things far more disgusting than even those, is NEVER a bad thing, nor an improper thing. There is NO decency in arguing that the Iraqis were "better off" in Saddam's world, where women were grabbed off the streets and mass-raped and worse. It's a pity there are so few Republicans with backbones who will stand up and say so, forcibly and with conviction. There are a few Democrats (VERY few), like Joe Leiberman -- nice to see a rational adult among the Dems.