"Garrison could consult the Constitution and note that after Congress authroizes war, it's legal."

Yes, for sure, after Congress authorizes war, there we have it.

However, when the Current Occupant (who was never legally elected, IMO) has lied about the reasons for invasion and occupation, with no real plans for what happens next, criticism is valid.

And the present situation wasn't all that hard to predict. It's been years since I had a Secret clearance, but I didn't need one to know before the invasion what was going to happen. I read the open literature, unlike the Current Occupant. I knew for sure that Saddam/Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11. I knew that he did not present any significant threat to the USA. And I knew that, as we were ramping up for the invasion, we had no significant plans for the occupation and "reconstruction" of Iraq. And I will never forgive any Congress-critter for voting in favor of letting Shrub do whatever-the-hell he wanted to do.

Even if the Dems are also venal, at least we the people have delivered a loud message to the Current Occupant. And just for starters, he got rid of Rummy. Next, we need to have the Dick resign "for health reasons."

As milo said, "Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and the lot of them should be tried for what they are - WAR CRIMINALS."

Here in San Diego, we're theatrically trying George Bush, in a play call A Patriot Act: The Trial of George W. Bush.

http://www.sledgehammer.org/.

The play is presented as a trial for the crimes of failure to defend the constitution, war crimes and treason. Members of the audience can join one of three juries, each considering a different charge, or they can testify for or against the defendant, and "you can make it your sacred duty to watch and remember."

I'm planning to go with a couple of friends.

Oh, and BTW, if I have the choice, I'll testify against him.

Having read both the article and the Editors' Choice letters, I am so happy to say that I wouldn't even recognize a photo of Paris Hilton. That's how little I care about her and her shenanigans. I don't watch TV news (I listen to NPR). And I don't care about any of the people mentioned above. I'm so glad.

This item reminds me that more than 25 years ago I was told that Muslim women who went to France and got it on could later go to a doctor to have their hymens surgically reconstructed. The person who told me the story was a Canadian woman who married an Algerian man, and converted to Islam. She was not approving of the procedure. She simply told me about it. So the procedure is not "plastic surgery's 'final frontier.'"

I first read Kurt Vonnegut when I was an adolescent enamored by science fiction. I guess that's when I read Cat's Cradle. And, of course, I read Slaughterhouse 5. But I was surprised that it wasn't written until the late '60s (when I was no longer an adolescent). And when I looked in my personal library this morning, I was surprised to find that it's the only one of his works that I still have. Having listened to the recording of him reading from it, I guess I'll have to go back and re-read it.

Thanks to Salon for all the quotations from other writers and his friends. We'll all miss him.

Reading this critique of the movie, I keep hearing her in my head. I'll have to go play the CD I had copied from an old LP, the one with "Milord" on it.

Another alternative is to have a non-traditional wedding dress. A couple of days ago, I went to a rehearsal for a non-traditional wedding to be held 7/7/07, as will so many thousands of other weddings. The couple to be married are middle-aged, and the theme of their wedding is "back to the sixties." The bride and bridesmaids will all wear tie-dye dresses, hand-made by a friend of the bride, and flip-flops. Those dresses could all be worn again without shouting out their provenance. Guests are encouraged to wear tie-dye, too. I'll be wearing a tie-dye vest. I'm not a bridesmaid, but I'll be shaking a rattle, along with three other women, as part of the ceremony. (As I said, the wedding is non-traditional. It will start with a married couple sage-ing the premises, and will include a groomsman calling out the four directions.) And the music is definitely non-traditional for a wedding. Oh, and BTW, the rehearsal dinner was at a Wendy's hamburger restaurant.

Although I've never attended Comicon, I've heard stories. Several years ago, a friend of mine who was both a writer and an artist, created a drawing that he submitted for display at the event. The drawing displayed a female of a "wolfen" race he had created. She was kneeling upright, facing the viewer, showing two rows of multiple breasts and also her pubic region. He had done of lot of drawings of this race of creatures, and this was the one he chose to submit, along with the check required.

When he was working on his bank statement, he noticed that the check had not cleared. So he called the woman who was in charge of receiving and accepting submissions. She told him the drawing was not acceptable because it showed "naughty bits." Nothing he said could persuade her to accept the drawing.

In revenge, a friend of his imprinted T-shirts with the banned image, surrounded by a red circle with a slash through it, and the label "Banned at Comicon 19XX" (whatever year it was).

When I told one of my sons and a friend of his about it, they could hardly believe it. The friend said, "They wouldn't allow that at Comicon, where women are running around with pierced nipples?"