I watched some of the debate on C-SPAN last night. I could only take so much.

I felt my intelligence being insulted every time a Republican got up to speak. One went on about how some were saying we couldn't invade Afghanistan because of the terrain and the mountain fighters and how no one had ever successfully done it until we did. Then he talked about our "victory" there, the elections, the choosing of a leader and so on. Sound familiar? Then he talked about how people said we could not invade Iraq and occupy it. It had never been done. No way it could be done. Then, we did it, he said. We took out Saddam Hussein and we occupy the country. Great for us. Aren't we the shit?

I really tried not to scream. I really tried to keep my brain cells from frying with indignation and remain rational. Here was this empty suit of a US Congressman praising not our military, not our troops, but our tactics of pre-emptive strike and occupation. You'd have thought this was some Roman senator beating his chest about the spoils of wars won, enemy regimes brought to heel. It was mind bending. This is when I realized that the Neo-Cons live in an alternate reality. The one you read about in the old comic books where the villain crows about how well his plans are going and about how he will soon rule the world, HAHAHAHAHAHA!

No one can stop me, HAHAHAHAHAHA!

In that psychotic scenario, the rest of us look like weaklings. Whiners crying out for silly things like "patience" and "restraint" and, most sacriligeous of all, "withdrawal". The truly terrifying thing is that these Republicans really believe their own fevered fantasy and they are once again with renewed vigor trying to force it on the rest of us. A couple of points in the apporval rating and Bush & Co. think they've got "momentum". It's up to us "liberal whiners" to continue doing the thing that is shifting the war of ideas (I believe) in our favour. KEEP TELLING THE TRUTH. Now I realize that some here will think that we aren't winning the war of ideas, and I'm not suggesting that we have yet. But if we continue to tell the truth, and deal in the truth, and not give in to despair, it will become quite obvious what utter fools these people are for trying to pee down our leg and tell us it's raining.

Let's be clear about our accomplishments to date.

In Iraq,

2500 US soldiers DEAD

20,000 US soldiers WOUNDED

Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians DEAD

Insurgency: essentially unchanged

Musab al-Zarqawi DEAD, but now he's a martyr to the cause, and we could've taken him out long ago.

New Iraqi Government installed, but effectively a government of what? Muslim theocrats with sympathies towards Iran left to run a country that has been plunged into civil war. Good job. Maybe that big smoking hole in the ground where Iraq once was will yet come about.

And on the Afghan front, let's see.

Taliban resconstituting, sort of like the Borg in regeneration mode.

New leadership. Hamid Karzai who can't go anywhere outside Kabul. Real effective.

Violence and lawlessness on the rise, and finally he who must not be named still on the loose.

And you will note that these "conditions on the ground" persist no matter how many airstrikes, raids, or offensives we launch.

Yet as our fearless leader says, "We're making good progress"

I suppose that would be true if this were a game of "Jenga"

Kind of smacks of desperation on the guys' part.

You NEED to watch girls get it on to get next to girls?

You might try something else. Try being a decent, relatable man with something going for him besides the size of his equipment. Girls typically dig that. As for what possible reason some girls might be down with getting a guy's attention this way...I don't think I'm smart enough to figure it out. The whole thing just seems...desperate. Are we that starved for connection that we have to resort to silly tactics like this? Do we know nothing after all about how to relate to each other, talk to each other except through some psuedo sexual expression? I'm hoping this is not the case. I really am. Because after all these hijinks (yes that's an old expression; I'm 40-something, what do you want?), there is still the total human being to deal with. Can you handle the morning after, when she's sober and wonders what the HELL she was thinking when she finds YOU next to her in bed and realizes that this was all it meant?

Almost makes me long for the days when guys hollered at women from construction sites. Distasteful perhaps, but at least there wasn't any subterfuge.