Next question: "Why do you call our people 'troopers' not 'troops'? Just wondering..."

House Minority Leader John "Not Boner" Boehner (R-OH) will never be accused of being well-timed in making outrageous statements. But his latest assessment of our losses in Iraq as "a small price" is as far as I've seen a foot go into a mouth in quite some time. If he gets away with saying this and not needing to apologize, we're all asleep at the switch.



Dubya speaks down to the Nation tonight. We all know what's coming. My only question is whether there will be any reference to the leading provincial Sunni Sheik blown to smithereens today, just 10 days after meeting with Dubya on the American base in Anbar Province. I expect he'll need to make this latest casualty into the latest psuedo-inspiring figure. How sad. I just hope some of the media availability of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker that has been so pronounced these last few days will continue today so that somebody gets to ask the question - "How can you hold up Anbar as such a success when one of new allies was just assassinated?" Please, somebody ask that question.

Hope your own calm is anything but relative today. Rock on.

And you thought "Encino Man" was bad...

Ah, twue wuhv.

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is the latest "family values" adulterer to see his goose again nearing the edge of the stove. Hustler's Larry Flynt outed the hooker that Vitter would "visit" 2 or 3 times a week yesterday. Weirdly-timed, but still a stinkstorm should arise. It would have infinitely less impact if Larry Craig hadn't announced his "intent" to resign. As has been stated by many others in various forms, the big difference being that Louisiana has a Democratic Guhvanator (unlike Idaho) and most of us know that the replacement is appointed by the Guv. I can't say that I'll be buying my first Hustler to gain intimate insight into not only this tawdy affair. But my political tabloid gene will definitely be keeping a leering eye on Vitter as this story sputters or roars.

Petraeus and Crocker had thankless jobs before the Senators yesterday. But how did they actually do? Miserably. They took fire from all angles. Now Dubya's gotta come into the fray at long last Thursday night in a televised address meant to redirect fire at him. Ugh. Lee. Obama's finally showing some foresight in scheduling an Iraq withdrawl address this afternoon in Iowa. He'll get a huge bump in whichever direction. He'll dominate the argument today among the Dems especially since the only news Hillary's making today is ugly fundraising broadsides being thrown from all angles. But everyone else is going to trash this "surge" extension worse than the entire career of Paulie Shore. The dynamic will change. The Bushies won't be on offense any longer. And like so many other instances, they didn't see this one coming even though they should have.

Hope your own hookers know enough to stay on drugs and avoid ratting you out today. Rock on.

Welcome, yet again, to The Suck

Six years. Six long, horribly depressing years of Dubya's misadventures since the attacks of 9/11. How are we as a Nation celebrating it? By largely ignoring the compelling hearing of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. How surreal. Osama Bin Laden is being reduced to a footnote by the dwindling neoconpoops while Petraeus tries to make 32 dead American soldiers since the start of September sound like progress. I see where this whole "report" charade is headed, as do most Americans. We ain't going nowhere. Our troops aren't coming home. The daily reports of death and maiming will be forced further and further out of the spotlight. The largely forgettable movie "Jarhead" introduced to the lexicon the unwieldy cliche` "Welcome to The Suck." Well, each passing day of this quagmire makes me rethink the wisdom of that soldier's prescient phrasing. We, my fellow citizens, appear to be stuck in this version of The Suck for some time to come. Now that REALLY sucks.

To all those that have lost in this era of American shame, I send my heartfelt regrets. For those that think victory is at hand, I pull back the civility and say that I fear you. Not because I'm afraid of you. Just that I don't understand how much loss and shame you will need to satisfy the bloodlust that seems to have arisen from you ever since that terrible day a mere six years ago. Hope for the future. Rock on.