Attention El Paso!

In our US House, El Paso's 16th district is represented by Silvestre Reyes. In an article in USA Today, Reyes made a comment that incensed me. I'm telling you because his website will only take comments from people in his district. Maybe he'll hear about it, or maybe you're from El Paso or know someone who is. And in any case, the whole country is stuck with him.

Reyes is the chairman (ranking Democrat) on the House Intelligence Committee, and he is apparently friends with Alberto Gonzales. AG AG certainly has a lot of friends. I take it that he's sweet, and charming, and dumb as a box of hammers. (I heard a great quote similar to that but far funnier, when I figure out who said it and find it, I'll put it here!)

Every time AG AG testifies, Reyes comes out and says something fawning. Remember, this AG is the guy who burst into the hospital room of the ailing John Ashcroft to try to twist his morphine-injected arm. This is the idiot who said the Geneva Conventions were quaint, argued against habeas corpus' legitimacy from the Constitution, and the hospital visit itself was for something so nefarious that Mr. Ashcroft lifted his broken body up and lectured Alberto about why it should never be legal.

But what does the Gentleman from El Paso say? The Chairman of the committee investigating the AG?

"When there are issues of national security at stake, I think certainly one should not question the motivation of individuals," Reyes told reporters. "I'm willing to accept the rationale behind it."

WHAT?!?!? Isn't that the MAIN time to question individual's motivations?!?!?!

Now, I first saw this on Salon.com's War Room, so I am not the first person to do a spit-take over this. And in doing some research this morning, this is not the only apologetic quote from Reyes. Why, according to Reyes, AG AG "explained it very well", and... [frankly, writing time got interrupted by Lil Mr. Patriot who got up early. I'm going to have to fill in these other obsequious quotes later.]

This, BTW, is the same Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who, when asked if Al-Qaeda was Sunni or Shi'a said the latter (it's the former) and when asked about Hezbollah answered, "Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" (Congressional Quarterly, Dec 2006)

Oh, El Paso, we love you. Love us back. Replace this idiot, loyal to his friend to the last, with someone who is loyal to us, the rest of the country, and our Constitution. And for those of you who have more time to write letters, write to Reyes and let him know this is not the time to be an apologist or a puppy who rolls over on command.

The Lady I Knew

Lady Bird Johnson 1912-2007

No, I never had the pleasure personally. But even if you came to Austin as politically untuned as I was 12 years ago, the Lady with the funny name could make an impression on you with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. A riot of horticulture, this goes way beyond garden. If you're ever in Austin, visit the Lady Bird Center, and if you want a lift today, go to the web site and check it out.

Lady Bird passed away yesterday at age 94. A quick trip to the LBJ presidential museum (also here) and the first thing and the last thing you notice is the love these two people had for each other. After over 30 years of being apart, and after two richly lived lives, I'm glad they are together again.

If you thought Texas was like you see in the movies, think again. Here's a taste of why we love the Hill Country!

Just when you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous: Enter the Post-Surge

Or, If You Liked The Surge, You're Going to Looooove This!

From CNN.com:

Six months after announcing an increase of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops that became known as the "surge," Bush is scheduled to appear at a town meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday where he's expected to push for a "post-surge" phase of the four-year war, senior officials told CNN.

However, senior administration officials said that the Bush administration does not plan to make any major changes in its war strategy despite increased calls from Republican lawmakers to begin a drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq.

...The report will show "some of the benchmarks have been made, some of them haven't" and will set off a debate that will result in "the beginning of a new way," White House spokesman Tony Snow told CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday.

"What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," Snow said. "Everyone says, 'We want to do it a different way.' We agree. It's just now started."

Oh, goodie. Because what we really need is

a snapshot (=generated image of a brief moment of the past which may or may not accurately represent the event)

of the beginning (=don't expect to see this yet)

of the retooling (=to redesign the machinery that will allow for improvements to happen in the future)

of the mission (=maintaining a holding pattern while the US crams an immoral oil law down the throats of Iraqis which will cost them billions in infrastructure while the four top oil companies will retain the lion's share of the revenue)

And worse, all that has "just now started"! Gasp!

I'm starting to think impeachment is too good for these people. Do they still do that thing with the ant hills and honey?

I met a wonderful young man who hopes (!) to be heading back oversees very soon. He's hoping because he's made the jump from grunt to Military Intelligence, and he's very excited about it, as any young man would be at his career taking a leap forward. When we talked, I asked him my two main questions (you're going to have to take my word for all this, now that he's in MI he really didn't want me revealing his name):

1. When you come back here and see us all being oblivious and shopping and watching American Idol, do you just think we're idiots? (I asked because I can only imagine coming back from a war zone and then listening to someone bitch about their iPhone must make you want to punch them.)
"No, because we all have our jobs, and that's how it should be. Mine is over there, yours is over here."

2. When you hear that there is discussion back here about the purpose of these wars and everything, does that hurt your morale?
"For me, no. But in general? Of course it does, yes. But everything hurts morale. Not having a shower in the morning hurts morale. So yes, hearing people (especially the ones who don't know what they're talking about) bitch about the war hurts morale. But everything does, so you just get used to that until it doesn't matter anymore."

My answer to this will be familiar to Constant Readers: Our big, shiny military is like a big, shiny gun. It's our job as civilians to take care of this gun, maintain it, treat it with care, and for God's sake be careful where you point that thing. We don't point it at ourselves (Posse Comitatus), we don't point it at our friends (treaties). As they say here in Texas, "Don't pull a gun unless you intend to use it, and don't use it unless you intend to kill with it." (A sentiment I don't quite follow, not being a gun person myself, but I'm sure folks around here would school me.)

I believe in the debate because I love our troops. If we don't debate, it's like shooting off the gun with a blindfold on. If we don't debate, and make sure we are doing the right thing, we are irresponsible. We are irresponsible to them, to that boy who is so excited to go back. We must take care of him, which not only means his equipment while he's there and his mind and body when he returns, but it means that we must be very, very careful where we send him and what mission we give him so that we do not waste our big shiny guns and our eye-candy boys (oops, sorry, I mean professional soldiers, but c'mon, he's dreamy!) on stupid conflicts handled poorly.

I can't confirm or deny that this exquisite specimen of Texan manhood is a member of the US Military.