Day: October 4, 2006

Ah, my favorite month.

Today is perfect, too — grey and in the low 60s. (Of course, it’s going to be almost 90 on Saturday. Fuckin’ Kansas….)

I’m finding it easier to work on Black Powder, Black Magic when I’m in an Octobery Mood. This is a good thing, as I’m sure my writing group will agree.

…and, while I’m in a spooky mood: Check out this link.

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for 2006 was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Congressional Republicans have now written into spending legislation, and approved by the Senate and House, language which allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007.

The original legislation empowered the president to designate “a day of celebration” to commemorate the success of the armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to “issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”

Of course, with more soldiers dying in Baghdad yesterday than in any single day since 2005, it makes me more than a little bit sick that the Republicans seem more concerned with planning “Mission Accomplished” self-congratulatory PR stunts and celebrations than actually, oh I don’t know, planning the war itself.

…and even sicker that if, by some miracle of a rush of sudden voter intelligence or spontaneous failure of rigged Diebold voting machines, the Democrats actually return to power — If they pull us out of this god-awful mess, they’ll be painted as “cutting and running,” despite the number of lives it will save.

Chest-beating and “kick-yer-ass” slogans have always been more popular than rational thought. I don’t see that changing at any point in my lifetime.