Ahh, the two thousandth death. That's two thousand dead American soldiers and the most people can focus on is the price of gas. Oh wait, no, it's the implosion going on with the right-wing, because we've been subjected to Republicans turning the knives on each other, what with the destruction of Harriet Miers' nomination and Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Washington has more important things to do than be distracted by any reports coming from our Iraqi Expedition.

Do we care anymore? Are the mindless morons who inhabit middle America just shrugging and taking Bush's heed that we need to continue staying the course? No exit strategy, no words on the subject of when we can get out of Iraq. Nope, just another fucking speech talking about sacrificing other peoples' lives for a failed jaunt down Imperialist Drive.

The Fitzgerald investigation will probably confuse many Americans, but there's a real issue here beyond naming a CIA agent. It's a little thing called the case for war, which of course, is no case but a pack of lies concocted at the request of the erections of neo-convservatives. An unjustified war with 15,000 injured soldiers and 30,000 Iraqi dead (I think that figure is probably too low). For a nation that loves to crow about how much it cherishes life (witness the centrality of abortion in Republican's limited universe), we don't seem to care too terribly much about the significance of two thousand dead soldiers — well, other than to call them brave and what not.

But there are plenty of Americans out there who still think Iraq has something to do with 9/11, so for these dolts, we still haven't reached the death toll of that day. When it does, I'll make sure to give these fuckers a call and ask them if they think the war should be over.

Well, now that the lame-ass owners of this sucky Web site have finally paid their bill, we can get back to business. But where to start? In the last week and a half , so much has happened in that otherwise calm region of the world we call the Middle East, that it's a little like cleaning your room: the mess is everywhere but where is the starting point?

The wonderful news out of Iraq today is that the constitution got a “yes” vote, despite a strong Sunni vote against it. Of course, there's a great deal of irony about all of this, considering Iraq was one the many countries where 99% of the votes always went to the dictator. There was no shortage of election day complaints and calls of fraud (vote early, vote often), but since when does a tainted election ever bothered the Bush Administration?

The Shia and the Kurds are, of course, the big winners in this, since roughly 80% of them voted for the document, the success of which leads to a full blown vote in December. For the life of me, I don't know why we just skip over the boring part and get right to the breakup of Iraq. I said it before we launched our Iraqi Expedition: partition the country before it splits itself up. There will be a lot of posturing about keeping Iraq's territorial integrity and united, but a federated Iraq is probably on the way. Well, at least until the long-awaited civil war starts, but that's been predicted so much that I would be surprised if anyone showed up when it's officially started.

And of course, there's Syria's little problem. Now, I believe that Syria belongs in Lebanon as much as “Israel” belongs in Palestine, so nobody can accuse me of being pro-Assad, whose visage looks more and more to me like some villian in a comic strip, what with his eyes too far back in his head and those dangerously high cheekbones. Whatever hope people felt when he came to power after his dad died were quickly smashed: Syria remains a police-state in the old school style. And like all good totalitarian powers, it bullies, intimidates and murders the opposition, regardless of the location and another country's “sovereignty.” It remains to be seen if Syria will pull its tired song-and-dance routine of buckling under international pressure and promising reforms, just enough so to get it out of the withering spotlight. Then it will be business as usual.

And finally, there's the “trial” of Saddam Hussein. I put that word in quotes because I want to know why he's not being put on trial for Halajba, wherein the brutal dictator gassed one too many people in 1988. (Estimates put the number killed in that Kurdish village between 5,000 to 7,000). Don't get me wrong: a massacre is a massacre is a massacre, but why not start criminal proceedings with a more well-known atrocity than a relatively obscure one? Could it be, perhaps, that Halajba is a little too close for comfort, seeing as Saddam used weapons that the United States had furnished him during the Iran-Iraq war? Perhaps Saddam would have called Bush the Smarter, Rumsfeld, Cheney and other stellar members of Bush the Dumber's current regime to the stand?

Nah, that couldn't be it all.

I often wonder why Americans consider Islamic fundamentalism such an evil, but are silent when it comes down to Christian fundamentalism. Enter: Pat Robertson.

I've grown sick and tired of listening to Robertson and his ilk shoot their mouths off at every opportunity and manage to keep getting press. No one calls them for it, no one does anything about it. But you can rest assured that his mindless followers hang on his every word and believe the ridiculous shit that pours forth.

His latest crapfest underscores –in my opinion– the natural consequences of people who believe in things like intelligent design. According to him, the spate of natural disasters is proof positive that Jesus Christ is coming back. See what happens when a pissant interprets natural happenings in religious terms? You get abject stupidity, ranking right up there with the Muslim clerics who declared that the tsunami was also the work of God. Never mind that there have been other disasters caused by Mother Nature over the years, including the earthquake that killed thousands in Iran a few years ago. Never mind that there are things called earthquake faults and tectonic plate movement and massive releases of energy when it comes to subduction and subsuction. Oh no, according to all these assholes, it's an expression of divine whatever and proof that God is real.

I highly doubt Jesus is going to return and is announcing this through the indiscriminate murder of thousands of people. I mean, that's what it is, no? It's not enough that there were two world wars in the last century robbing millions of people of their lives – oh no, it must be earthquakes that really prove Jesus is coming back.

The scary part is the millions of morons who actually believe this shit.

Right in the midst of low approval ratings, scandals, conflicting “progress” reports on Iraq, there's a terror scare. Or, as I like to call them, distraction alerts.

I've said it before in these entries: I don't tempt fate by dismissing all terror claims. I just tend to dismiss the terror alerts the administration gives out like candy at Halloween. Even former director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge stated that the White House would issue terror alerts over his objections.

So, was there a threat or not? At this rate, it doesn't matter too much because it's the political factor you have to consider. Terror threats have helped Bush out before, and it's a nice reminder to the cadres of moron Americans that they should be grateful Bush is in charge to protect us from all the evildoers. Not to mention his speech (unremarkable as it was) of last week wherein he talked about the ten or so al-Qaeda plots that have been foiled. It's the administration's way of trying to hold up the war on terror as the only thing they're doing right while everything else is going so badly.

And as far as that is concerned, I found it mighty telling that the unspecified subway bombing plot was tied to Iraq. News reports specifically described these potential terrorists as coming from Iraq, a play right out of the Republican handbook of putting terrorism and Iraq in the same sentence. The government insisted that Saddam Hussein was involved in Sept. 11, so by invading that broken country, we would take the fight right back to the terrorists. Well, thanks to the unblinking, uncritical assholes in the media, this lie was reiterated with the subway bombing plot.

Could there be terrorists from Iraq who have made their way here? Sure, but I for one am tired of these alerts being issued as distractions to political problems and encouraging the invasion rationale as an added bonus.

Or maybe it's just coincidence. No, really.

I must state outright that I know very little about the European Union and its admittance policies and procedures. I do know that the Union has historically been "lead" by France and Germany; that Britain probably doesn't consider itself a part of Europe and insists on using its own currency at the expense of the Euro; and that for years, Turkey has been wanting Union membership.

I don't know much about all of this, but I have always been a little stymied as to why Turkey seems like a lover who is trying so hard only to be rejected consistently. And recently, French president Jacques Chirac has been "warning" that Turkey needs a cultural revolution in order to get membership. The way I read this, is, change your stupid Muslim ways.

Turkey is often heralded as the prime example of a secular state with a Muslim majority. And indeed, its secularism was set into motion by Attaturk, who wrenched Turkish nationalism from the dying embers of the Ottoman Empire and set about creating a country where the military had its fingers in everything and kept Islamist elements (and Armenians and Kurds) at bay. But the way that it's often portrayed in the West always smacks of parochialism: see how Turkey is a picture of "good Muslims," unlike their wildly uncontrolled Arab friends in the Middle East?

And the fact that Turkey has to jump through hoop after hoop just to prove it's worthy makes me uncomfortable. It's not as if Europe is going to be flooded with Muslim immigrants: after all, France has the largest Muslim population of any Western European country, and Spain has no shortage of North Africans drifting across her borders. But Turkey, well, that country just can't seem to please the (Christian) European Union enough to get membership.

Personally, I keep wishing Turkey would just give up and say fuck you to the EU and stop trying to please these Christian overlords and go about its own way. After all, the European Union allowed Greece in, which lied about its own finances and let's face it, doesn't exactly have the highest standard of living in Europe. Why Greece and not Turkey?

Oh, maybe because they wear crosses in Athens and use a crescent in Ankara. Nah, that couldn't be it at all.

Okay, allow me to put Mr. William Bennett's (R - Insane Asshole) comments into a certain perspective: Jews run Hollywood, and if we want less sex and violence on television and in the movies, well then, gassing large number of Jewish executives should result in better, more family-oriented shows and films. I mean, that would be reprehensible and immoral, but the quality of Hollywood's product would rise dramatically.

Now, let me excuse what I just said by 1) not apologizing; 2) not endorsing what I said, but just throwing it out there for this nation of intellectuals to ponder.

This is just the same lack of reasoning that Mr. Bennett decided to use in defending his grossly racist thoughts about abortion, black babies and the crime rate. For Mr. Bennett and other Republicans, the only good nigger is a dead nigger, and the bonus is that we no longer have to live with a crime rate, especially since all crime is black and all blacks commit crimes. The solution is so simple, I don't know how we all overlooked it!

This the core of Republican thought when it comes to race: niggers is niggers is niggers, and the reason why so many pro-life fanatics are lilly white is because they don't want abortion for Caucasoid fetuses, they want it for black babies (i.e., future criminals). It's just more racist ideology from a party that lives and breathes discrimination, and then gets a free pass from the sycophant pissants in the media who probably find all of this endearing.

Unless it was a Democrat who said these things, of course.