and I'm back...

with today's "hilarious and horrible irony":

From the Washington Post:

President Bush yesterday signed an executive order expanding sanctions against companies and individuals linked with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, part of an effort by Western nations to ratchet up the pressure on a government accused of killing and terrorizing political opponents in order to remain in power.

The move by Bush, which followed a similar maneuver earlier in the week by the European Union, freezes any U.S. assets and forbids U.S. financial transactions with a list of companies controlled by or affiliated with the government, particularly in the mining and minerals industry, a key sector of Zimbabwe's ailing economy.

"This action is a direct result of the Mugabe regime's continued politically-motivated violence, disregarding calls from the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the United Nations to halt the attacks," Bush said in a statement.

"No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences," he added.

Let's have a contest to see who can name the most instances of the Bush regime ignoring the will of their own people. No, really. I'm laughing and crying on the inside.

hundred dolla bills y'all

Just read from this article from RawStory that the Iraq/Afghanistan war effort, over the next decade (and possibly including what we've already spent - that part isn't clear) will cost more than $2 trillion, with over $700 billion in INTEREST - because we are spending borrowed money.

W.T.F.

No, seriously, let me write that all out:

$2,700,000,000,000.00 total

$705,000,000,000.00 in interest

RawStory estimates that this amounts to $8000 per person in this country. And I thought Republicans were meant to be fiscally conservative. Yeah, that's right Republicans, you just got told. Feel the shame.

supporting the troops?

You all might want to read this article by the folks at The Nation.

They interiewed 50 Iraq and Afghanistan vets who were willing to state their names and tell stories about absolutely atrocious stuff that was done to Iraqi and Afghani civilians. Including shooting children, raiding completely innocent people's houses, and planting weapons (or shovels!) to make it look like something other than 'shoot first, ask questions later'.

Up till that article, I had been fairly universally supportive of the American soldiers. I do feel still that they are not entirely culpable for their actions, having been ordered to go, barricaded in isolation, poorly educated about the culture, and instilled with a sense of fear and hatred of the Iraqi people. But there has to be a line drawn somewhere, right? These soldiers certainly cannot take their attitudes back into the U.S. and act in any similar fashion without expecting some kind of punitive reaction by Americans. Why can they behave with such disregard for human life over there, and how well can they be expected to adjust when they come back over here?