Old Fashioned Patriot has succeeded in one of his web projects… getting bloggers all over the web to link to George W. Bush’s white house biography using the term Miserable Failure as the link, so that eventually, when one searches for “Miserable Failure” on Google, the bio is the first thing that pops up. Way to Google hack!
Now you can determine Bush’s talking points by generating the text that will appear behind him as he stands at the podium… includes the infamous “Mission Accomplished” backdrop, where you can fill in something more accurate, like “Mission Impossible” or “Operation Vietnam” or make “Total Waste of Taxpayer Money.” My personal favorite, which I tried on all the backgrounds…. “I am a giant moron.”
I drove to my grandmother’s house in Brighton, Iowa on Wednesday last week. Brighton is in south eastern Iowa, an hour north and west of Burlington. My younger brother Gary went with me, and he was very cool to ride with because he’s interesting and funny, despite the constant backseat driving. 🙂 He’s twenty-five, single and a Wabash graduate, BTW, in case you know any single girls. We stopped in Peoria, Illinois on the way to get photos of the Uniroyal Gal. We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Washington, Iowa, which is about 13 miles north of Brighton, because Brighton doesn’t actually have a motel. It’s rather small.
My three other brothers all drove also; Todd and Paul drove their new trucks, too. Paul hit a deer on the way, unfortunately, and damaged the front of his truck, which I just realized I should have taken a picture of, but didn’t.
On Thursday, we all stayed around Grandma’s and ate dinner, then opened Christmas presents. All the male relatives got gag underwear, which they tried on over their pants for a photo. My grandmother gave us beautiful plates that she hand-painted herself, which will I will be hanging in my dining room.
On Friday, we went to the Amana Colonies to eat at the Ox Yoke Inn and to shop. The Amana Colonies were formed in 1854 by a german religious order who bought 18,000 acres of land in Iowa. They aren’t Amish, although there is a large Amish settlement nearby in Kalona, Iowa. Kalona is where we stop to get cheese curds every year. I bought a lot of great things this year at the Amana Colonies, including wine and beer for New Years Eve.
On Saturday we stopped at my aunt Rosemary’s farm for cinnamon rolls and coffee (recipe for the rolls will be posted soon!) and then started the six hour drive home.
“The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”
— Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Notice that the object of terrorist activity is “people or property” — people typically meaning unarmed citizens, not members of the military or of the government. My point here is that the word terrorism has been thrown around a lot over the past several years to describe actions that are not really terrorism, most notably anything that has happened in Iraq since we declared war on them.
This weeks edition looks at George’s visit to England, where he had to cancel an address to the British Parliament because his handlers found out that some British lawmakers planned on heckling his speech. On camera. Also, the conservative new outlets are thrilled about Michael Jackson’s arrest because it took over the news.
Tom Tomorrow had a great new cartoon about what life is like inside the bubble for our “flight-suit Georgie”.
Retired Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff who endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, has left the Republican fold and is backing Democrat Howard Dean in the 2004 race for president.
McPeak joins a small but growing list of top military veterans who have parted ways with the president at least partly because of the war in Iraq. McPeak’s decision could be an important boost for Dean because critics have accused the former Vermont governor of lacking the experience and knowledge needed to be the nation’s commander-in-chief.
Insurgents in Baghdad attacked 2 hotels and and the oil ministry in Baghdad a few hours ago, using rocket launchers mounted on donkey carts.
Troops returned fire, apparently injuring a donkey at the Sheraton. At least one human perpetrator may have been captured.
The damage to buildings and the injuries to people were relatively contained.
“They would certainly have an element of surprise by having a donkey cart,” said Col. Brad May, commander of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. “Most people would not think of a donkey cart being used to fire rockets from.”
Yeah, that’s why it’s called guerilla warfare.
