I read the Standard's article in question. It's interesting to note that Barnett twice took a swipe at John Kerry by mentioning his "botched joke" but never once stated that Kerry enlisted in the service and served in the war. All of this while he's berating the Cold War generation (that's one big generation, btw) for not embracing the military as he claims the current "9/11 generation" does. Apparently Kerry doesn't count for anything other than criticism. No surprise there.

I also find the concept of the 9/11 generation pretty odd. What is it? Does 9/11 only belong to people of a certain age? How does he deal with the fact that the enlistment age for the army is now up to 42? Are all of those people part of his "9/11 generation?"

He also only recounts the stories of 3 servicemen who've served in Iraq. That's a pretty small sample for any story that tries to encompass an entire generation. Not to mention they were all college educated, which fit nicely into his snipes at Kerry.

Speaking of samples. I think the Blumenthal video would have been more powerful with a large sampling of college Republicans. While it was interesting to watch most of the people he interviewed recoil when asked the big question (do you plan to enlist?), it would have benefited from more. I suspect he was tossed out before he could ask more. And did anyone notice how sparsely attended the meeting was that he did show. There were a lot of empty seats in that room.

And finally, regarding the Blumenthal piece, it's frightening to see that Tom Delay is just as nuts as ever & getting paid to share that with an audience.

I am neither an editor nor a writer, only an avid reader. I thoroughly enjoyed this article. And I understood exactly what kind of editor Kamiya was writing about from the subtitle alone.

The LW needs to date divorced men who already have children. They generally don't want more children, unless they marry a younger woman who doesn't have chilren "of her own" yet. You get the idea.

Otherwise, we "older" women need to stop chasing the romance thing & just enjoy life. It's much more satisfying.

And so, the conflation of 9/11 and Iraq continues.

So what this Ohio rep is suggesting, whether he knows it or not, is that both the man & woman must sign off on all pregnancies. If it's to be done for a termination, it should be done for continuation.

Now if we could just legislate things like stupdity and common sense, life would be perfect for everyone. Ha.

The solution is simple & the LW himself suggested it. Let her use the cellphone only for emergencies, since that is why he claims she got it. He must, though, hope that she is able to communicate her emergency needs to the person she calls during that emergency.

So, in other words, he needs to stop calling her on her cellphone.

Does anyone have the time to research or the memory to count up how many times Arlen Spector has made noises that he was upset with the administration only to roll over at the crucial time? This sure isn't the first time, nor will it be the last. He's famous for being publicly critical of the administration only to roll over and do exactly what they want when it counts. He gets himself a lot of press that way.

Readers who are interested can check the voting records (& also get a Progressive Score) of any Congressperson via ProgressivePunch.com.

Below is the introduction on their front page:

"ProgressivePunch is a non-partisan searchable database of Congressional voting records from a Progressive perspective. But we're convinced it's extremely useful irrespective of anyone's political positions.

We show the performance of members within 160 different issue categories, and detailed vote descriptions, thereby empowering you to zero in on what matters to you."

I've found it to be a useful tool.

For a shill, I mean man, who claims he has trouble getting work, I sure see his face on TV alot, not to mention see his name far more than I want to.

Time to retire, Bob.

A true leader doesn't need a bullhorn to be heard.

"Speaking of Padila, what's the status of Gonzo's case against him? Do you know?"

-- Jebbie

Lewis Koch at Firedoglake is covering the Padilla trial.

http://www.firedoglake.com/category/padilla-trial-coverage/

Just popping in to send belated Happy Birthday greetings to Mr. Keillor. I hope you had a great day yesterday.

No new column for two days & no notice on the front page of Salon as to why. What's the deal?

I don't mean to sound cranky, but it's now 12:30pm ET on August 9th & we're still only reading day one (August 8th) of this new "daily" feature.

I love HH & know that she doesn't reside in the ET, but I hope someone realizes the futility of posting the morning TV shows' guest lists after 12n ET.

I also hope that HH's participation in TV Daily doesn't stop "I Like to Watch."