Of course the Dixie Chicks were right and sometimes all you get is shit on your boots.

I am actually in the process of watching the documentary Shut Up and Sing about the Dixie Chicks. It basically covers the controversy when King George started his stupid invasion of Iraq and during a Dixie Chicks concert one of the trio said they were ashamed he was from Texas.

Well, the redneck crowd went apoplectic. Their reaction clearly showed the dangers of decades of inbreeding. And it was very interesting to watch this years after the controversy. I say that because you watch the Bush-rah-rah crowd making utter jerks out of themselves.

I grew up with with some old fashioned country singers. But it’s been years since I’ve listened. I used to listen to Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette. I outgrew it but I have to say that I like the more contemporary sound they give their music.

What was so funny was seeing how all these individuals were out there predicting great success for the invasion. And there was some really pathetic country singer named Toby Keith who sang this jingoistic song with such crappy lines as “Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass. It’s the American way.”

Rather crude and classless but certainly in keeping with the people who were out attacking the Dixie Chicks. Maybe Mr. Keith will do a sequel about how sometimes, when you put your boot up someone’s ass the only thing that happens is you get shit all over your shoes.

Bush: just whistling in the dark.

What a sad, pathetic creature Mr. Bush has become. He doesn’t even appear to believe his own lies anymore. He is the quintessential schoolboy walking through the graveyard at midnight whistling away in the hope of proving to himself, and anyone else watching, that he’s not afraid.

It isn’t as if he didn’t know that Gen. Petraeus would give the Bush “surge” a thumbs up. That was a given long before it was written. The problem is that Bush advisors know they have to tell the man what he wants to hear. The truth is not the issue. Loyalty is. And to Bush loyalty means telling him that his decisions were right and are working regardless of any factual information to the contrary. That’s how Bush got America into this messy war in the first place. He heard precisely what he wanted to hear and ignored anything to the contrary. Worse yet he made it clear that provided evidence to the contrary was grounds for dismissal. A petty man with the mind to match.

In his speech Bush claimed the “the Iraqi army is becoming more capable”. Gee, that doesn’t say much. But a report on the state of the Iraqi army said it will take another year or two before it can contribute much of anything. The report said the police force was corrupt and and should be disbanded.

A symbolic withdrawal of a few troops is only meant as a sop to the voters who are sick and tired of this war. Considering that the troop levels were recently boosted the withdrawal, in reality, may well end with more troops in Iraq than before the “surge”. This is like doubling the price of meat at the grocery store before advertising a 25% off sale. Bush admits the war is going to drag on for years and years to come.

No doubt support for Bush’s perpetual war policy will increase slightly. That will come for the voters who only know what the government tells them. These are the kinds of people who really do think weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq or that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attack. The problem is that these people have notoriously short attention spans. And since Bush gave nothing dramatic in his speech verifying real progress there is no single event to keep their attention. The increase in support is most likely to be a short one. And it certainly won’t last until November of next year.

The real legacy that Bush will leave America, beyond the increasing dead and the deficit will be a Democratic majority and Hillary in the White House. George Bush has singularly destroyed the “small government” principles -- admittedly very weak principles -- in his own party. But this is a man that pretty much botched up every “job” he has ever held.

I suspect Mr. Bush is fully cognizant of his own astounding inabilities to get anything right. That, no doubt, is behind his constant demands that his advisers only tell him what he wants to hear. To disagree is to remind him of how inept he is. One thing you can say about the man -- he is unskilled on a borader range of topics than one normally would expect.

The great misfortune of political power is that it allows the mistakes of one man to impact the entire country. Despise the market if you want but when a businessman makes a mistake the damage is limited to himself, his employers and stock holders -- if any. When politicians make mistakes we are all forced to suffer because of it.

Maybe the troops need less support.

With Memorial Day we think of the dead killed in the wars that the United States has been involved in: domestic and international. And that has caused me to ponder the slogan that is used today to cut off debate: “Support the troops.”

Say: “I support the troops” and people will cheer. Even opponents of this godforsaken war “support the troops”. I watched a video about how fans of the show Jericho are flooding CBS with nuts to protest the cancellation of the show (the only CBS show I saw that was even worth bothering with this season). Right on the boxes of nuts being shipped was the slogan “Support the troops.”

You see the bumper sticker on SUVs and pickup trucks from Maine to California. Why is there such universal acceptance of the slogan? Because it doesn’t mean anything in particular. Or perhaps it really means everything.

It’s a bit like the claim by Americans that they believe in a god. No one defines the term when they say it so everybody nods in agreement -- well not everybody thankfully. So one person means Jesus, another Allah, another Jehovah, another worships a “life force”, others speak of a ”divine mind” or some whacked out guru in some palace in India. By using the one word “god” to cover thousands of definitions a general consensus appears to exist when in reality it does not.

So it is with “Support the Troops”. How we support the troops is left unstated. But King George and the war crowd use the slogan to intimidate war opponents.

I use the term “war opponents” advisedly since I mean Democrats and I’m not convinced they actually oppose the war. I suspect they wish to use the war. Congress could have defunded this venture but didn’t. Why? Because they want the war to drag on until the presidential elections. They want the dying to continue and the dissatisfaction to grow.

Bush built his power based on the dead bodies of 9/11 and the Democrats are building theirs on the corpses of American troops killed in Iraq. Politicians are such vile creatures that they will use sorrow and misery to secure power for themselves.

Voters chucked Republicans out of power in the Senate and the House mainly over the war issue. Most voters want a clear cut timetable to leave Iraq or immediate withdrawal. The Democrats control the House and the Senate and cave in at the last minute to King George. They didn’t need to surrender. They could have held to what they pretend are their principles.

But securing the White House, along with the Senate and the House, is far too important. So to “support the troops” they passed another funding bill. Conveniently that keeps the war going and continues the downward slide in the polls of Bush and the Theopublicans. That increases the chances of a Democratic landslide. And those soldiers who keep on dying in the meantime? You have heard of collateral damage haven’t you?

As I see it no one is really supporting the troops at all. The war is a lost venture everyone knows that. Bush won’t acknowledge it but he knows it. It was lost before it started because he rushed in without facts and information. He ignored contrary voices, as he continues to do with his fundamentalist mindset today. From the day the decision was made to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, based on false evidence, the results of this war were determined. Our men and women will keep on dying and nothing will be gained from it.

Bush’s policy is to deny he makes mistakes. God picked him to be president and he has a view similar to the claim of papal infallibility. He’s the “Decider” and when he decides there is no turning back no matter how wrong the decision. But then his decisions are never wrong. Typical fundamentalist. He supports the troops. And they keep on dying.

Now the Democrats support the troops. And the troops keep on dying.

What a strange definition of “support”. Maybe the troops need less support. Maybe that would allow them to come home to their families before they lose a leg or their life. It’s worth considering.

Give them the real support they need: bring them home.

This short news story makes clear one reason why all the men in Iraq should be brought home now. The Bush plan is to bring them back, one at a time in body bags, for years and years to come. Damn him to hell.

They said he was hero, now what will they say?

Here is a powerful story on several levels. According to ABC News, Staff Sgt. Eric Alva was the first U.S. Marine to be seriously wounded in Iraq. He enlisted when he was fresh out of high school -- just 19-years-old. His father had been in the Army and served in Vietnam and so had his grandfather who served in World War II and Korea. He said: “I wanted a bigger challenge” so he joined the Marines.

A decorated officer Alva had done duty in Japan and Somalia and was then sent to Iraq by President Bush. He was leading his men to Basra from their base in Kuwait. The desert was dark that night and the sand blowing made it difficult to see. They stopped momentarily and Alva went to retrieve something from his Humvee when the explosion went off. It was a land mine that changed Alva’s life.

Evacuated to Kuwait Alva awoke to find his leg was gone. “It was like a nightmare. And I remember just crying for a few minutes, and I fell back to sleep because the drugs were really heavy.”

The Department of Defense has a web page dedicated to Eric Alva with this headline: “’Credit to the Corps,’ Hispanic War Veteran Honored.” They have a picture of him receiving he Heroes and Heritage Award from Major General Christopher Cortez. It was Cortez who said that Alva was “a credit to the Corps”. He also said: “We are grateful for his faithful service and proud to honor him today.”

Alva was touted as a symbol by the pro-war crowd. President and Mrs. Bush paid him a visit when he was transfered to Bethesda Naval Hospital . Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stopped in to say hello. So did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.

Another visitor, one not noticed so much by the media, was Lois Alva, his mother. Eric’s first impulse was to apologize to her. Two weeks before Alva was sent to Mr. Bush’s war he decided to fly his mother out to California to see her one more time before deployment. He hadn’t been able to go home for Christmas. The one thing he promised her, as he dropped her off at Palm Springs Airport for her return flight to Texas, was “I’ll come back. I won’t get hurt.”

From Kuwait Alva was sent to Germany for surgery but before his surgery he asked to call his parents. He said he wanted to speak to them and to tell his mother he was sorry for not keeping his word. He hadn’t kept his promise to her. He couldn’t keep his word. He told her: “I’m so sorry I got hurt.” Lois said she could barely breath at that moment and told him all she cared about was that he was still alive.

That night in the desert Alva’s friend, Brian Alaniz, rushed to his side to help his comrade. "I knelt down to put together a suction device,” said Alaniz. Alva was in such pain he couldn’t understand what was happening and he temporarily lost his hearing from the force of the explosion so he couldn’t hear what anyone was saying to him.

As Alaniz was helping his friend there was another explosion. He said, “the second explosion went off underneath me”. Alaniz lost his leg in that explosion. “I didn’t realize that it was -- that it was -- that it was Brian that actually got hit that time,” says Alva.

Lois says that Eric feels bad and blames himself for Brian’s injuries because he thinks “if it hadn’t been for him, [Alaniz] wouldn’t have stepped on the mine.” Eric told one news crew: “You think of the what-ifs in the beginning. And if I hadn’t gotten hurt, then Brian would still be -- have both legs... I felt responsible for what had happened to him.”

Alva says: “I went through countless nights of agony and tears but there was never any doubt, I kept faith that I could recover, and I’m still recovering.”

Lois said that lying in the hospital Eric had already been contemplating his future. “I look at Eric having a strong heart; he’s very strong-spirited and not the type to easily give up. He’s talking about working with children with disabilities.” He is now studying for a degree in physical therapy.

Brian Alaniz says he’s learned so much from Eric Alva. “Eric’s a hero for everything that he’s accomplished since his injury. It’s easy when you’re on top. But when you hit rock bottom and then try to climb back up, you know, it really defines who you are and -- and what you stand for.... He inspires me a lot.” Eric says the same of Brian. He says he has become the brother he never had. “I thank him every day for -- for -- for the effort and the job that he did that day.... To me he’s a hero.”

Eric Alva is putting his life back together. He was a marathon runner in the Marines and has been learning how to ski again, without one leg. He’s been asked to join the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. “It’s amazing how quickly I was able to get back into skiing. Cross country skiing was a bit tougher than downhill, though, because I had to use a lot more upper body strength and I’m still getting used to my right arm not being as strong.”

Each week Alva takes time out to speak to various groups about the war. He says at the schools children always want to talk about he guns but that he tries to steer them away and toward more important things. “I want to get across to them that I was lucky to make it home, and others were not so lucky. I also want to motivate them do something with their lives.”

Perhaps that ought to be the theme for Alva’s own life. Here was a young man who wanted to do something with his life. He wanted to make an important contribution. And certainly he has inspired people. The testimonies of his friends and family bear witness to that.

Alva dreamed of running again in the Marine marathon. And he seems like a man who can do whatever he sets him mind to do. But he can’t. He is no longer considered fit to be a Marine or to serve his country in the military. And it's not because he lost a leg.

He was home one evening spending time with the love of his life, who said to him that Alva lost his leg defending freedom and rights that he himself will never be allowed to enjoy. He was told: “Look at the rights that people are being denied. And look at the rights that you are fighting for. Look at the rights that you put your life on the line for, for this country. And yet you don’t get any of them.”

Alva was shocked, perhaps a little hurt, but he realized it was true. His partner is another man and Alva is gay. That night he realized: “I’m just a second class citizen who isn’t going to get anything unless I say something. And I’m in a position to do something.”

So war hero Staff Sgt. Eric Alva publicly announced he was gay and that he would fight for the repeal of government policy that prevents men like himself from serving in the military. “There are certain things you do in life at a certain time and a certain place. In my heart, I this this is the right time.”

Some of his friends in the Marines knew his secret. He tells of a night when he was having drinks in a bar with a fellow Marine who commented on some of the women. Alva didn’t say anything and the other Marine made a remark: “Dude, what’s the matter? Are you gay or something?” With two margaritas under his belt he was feeling bold and replied “As a matter of fact I am. So what do you have to say about that, jerk off?”

When the other Marine realized he was serious he told Alva he’d keep his secret. He didn’t. He would tell others and repeatedly he found himself shot down because the other service men didn’t care.

Eric says he just want to “be your regular, average American citizen who has a voice, who has a point to make and wants to empower other people about the rights and equality of what people really deserve in this country.”

Eric Alva is truly a second class citizen. His sexual orientation makes him ineligible to serve the country which honored him for the very service they say he is incapable of giving. He can’t marry his partner. As Eric says: “Any American willing to serve their country shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not the government will give them fair and equal treatment when they return home.” Of course he is right but then neither should it deny them fair and equal treatment even if they don’t enlist in the military.

Equal rights before the law ought to be the birthright of every American. Jefferson’s magnificent Declaration didn’t say that “all men are created equal (except for homosexuals)”.

In one interview he was asked about the wedding band he wears on his hand. He told about his recent flight to Washington to speak out in favor of equal rights for gay military personnel. He was waiting to board the plane: “This very nice woman next to me said she recognized me. She looked at my ring and asked about my wife. I told her I have partner. His name is Darrell. She paused and said, ‘Good for you.’”

Good for him, indeed.

Not so superior now.

The smug Jonah Goldberg at National Review is trying to put to bed the issues revolving around his bet concerning the state of Iraq. Two years ago Goldberg was bragging that his powers of observation are superior and he knows that the Iraq war will turn out just peachy. He bet critic Juan Cole that within two years most Americans and most Iraqis would admit that Caesar was right and the war was won and life is wonderful.

Two years have come. Nothing remotely like the prediction, based on Goldberg’s superior intellect, came to be. Of course he is unhappy because “various leftwing pests are clogging my email box” wanting to know what he is going to do about the issue. His out is that Cole declined the bet. Poor Jonah thinks the bet is the issue. Only tangentially. The issue is that he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about two years ago! He still doesn’t.

Now, in his statement on the issue, he merely alludes to a bet on Iraq’s future. Very nebulous. He doesn’t say what he specifically claimed would happen. That would be a bit humiliating. Oh, hell, Jonah deserves a good humiliation for being so pompous and superior in defense of King George and the new American empire.

I’ve already posted the content of the bet but since Jonah avoids any mention of what he actually said I’ll repeat it.

Let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now).

Of course since I mentioned his foolish statement “my judgment is superior” then I must be one of those leftwing pests he speaks about. Never mind I believe in more free enterprise than he does. Never mind I believe in private property and limited government. (Well considering the authoritarians who pretend to be conservatives today maybe I am a leftwing pest. If so I hope the buzzing keeps Jonah and superior judgment awake at nights.)

Jonah's reply is indicative of the infestation that the Ann Coulters have brought to the conservative movement. Anyone who dares ask Jonah about his superior judgment is dismissed as a “leftwing pest”. Instead of substantive content you get claims that because one is a "liberal" (or whatever group they are hating at the moment) that anything they say is unimportant and worthy of dismissal. Of course once you do that then you don’t have to grapple with the facts.

Jonah pontificates how he intends to give to “war related” charities. What are war related charities? Do you buy grenades or bullets? And to be quite honest I have trouble equating war and charity at all. Jonah says he won’t give any more than he was going to give and he won’t tell anyone what he gives or to whom. That’s fine. He doesn’t have to.

But what I’m waiting for isn’t him just saying he would have lost the bet had Cole taken him up on it. I am waiting for him to retract his claim of having “superior judgment” and waiting for him to admit that he was about as wrong on Iraq as one can get. But the smugness that caused him to offer the bet is the same smugness that will prevent him from acknowledging that he was spectacularly, totally wrong about Iraq and the results, and that, on this issue, his judgment is not superior to Cole’s but inferior.

Photo: Illustrating the paradise Jonah predicted Iraq would be enjoying this week.