I've been saying for years that George W. Bush has been on a lifelong quest to prove that his penis is bigger than his daddy's. It's clear that his loathing for his father has made him a chronic fuckup and the Designated Family Shithead at the same time as he desperately craves his father's approval. Why anyone thought that this guy, who had failed at every endeavor he'd ever tried and ended up having to be bailed out by the friends of the father he both loathes and craves, would be a good president, I have no idea.

But people are finally beginning to talk about the Bush family psychodrama that most have ignored the last six years.

First it was Patti Davis' commentary at Newsweek online, and now it's the U.K. Times:

THE White House was in no mood this week to discuss President Bush’s psychological state after an election defeat that he himself had described as “a thumping”.

Tony Snow, Mr Bush’s press secretary, said: “The President is not a guy who — he doesn’t get on the couch — what he does is [say], ‘What it is, is what it is’ ”.

But if the President ever did lie down on a therapist’s couch, any psychoanalyst worth the name would begin by asking about his relationship with his father, George H. W. Bush. The 41st US President is a figure that his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd President, has variously ignored, clung to, sought the approval of and competed with. Some commentators have long since taken to describing an oedipal struggle between them.

“You want to go mano a mano right here?” Bush Jr demanded after being told off by his father for drink-driving in the Seventies, after an incident when he had dragged a neighbour’s rubbish down the street behind his car.

His brother, Jeb (always regarded by his parents as the brighter one and more likely to succeed in politics) tried to defuse the row, telling his father that George had got into Harvard Business School. “Oh, I’m not going,” said the wayward son, “I just wanted to let you know I could get into it [he did go].”

When he first ran for Congress (unsuccessfully) he would pull out his birth certificate at campaign appearances to prove his full name was not the same as his dad’s.

But Bush Sr has always been there when times are bad. And the father’s inner circle from his White House years now appears to be riding to the rescue of the son. The appointment this week of Robert Gates as Defence Secretary, together with the looming report from James Baker’s commission, are together supposed to be signalling a new direction for the Iraq war.

It was ever thus. When the attempts of Bush Jr to follow his father into the oil business were floundering, it was the friends of Bush Sr who bailed him out. In 1986 Harken Oil & Gas bought out Bush Jr’s holding in Spectrum oil in an over-the-odds deal, an apparent favour to the son of the Vice-President’s son. “His name was George Bush,” said Phil Kendrick, Harken’s founder, and “that was worth the money they paid him.”

Such kindly interventions must inevitably include a stab of humiliation for his son, not least because Bush Jr, whose fiery impetuosity is thought to come from his mother rather than his father, has tried so hard to beat his father, in politics and in war.

[snip]

As he approaches the final two years of his presidency, it may be time to reflect how Bush Jr has more in common with his father in failure than he did when it was all going so well. Both men have a rigid belief that they are right, even when those around them tell them they are not.

The Bush family dynamic, and indeed George W. Bush's whole life story, is the stuff of Greek tragedy. It's just a shame that they've been given an entire country -- twice -- in which to act out their little drama.

Democrats winning the popular vote for the Senate by an overwhelming 11.6% margin - 55%/42.4% is not a mandate:

Detroit News:

Democrats should be careful about interpreting their sweeping victory Tuesday both nationally and in Michigan as a mandate from the voters.

Pat Buchanan:

The principal beneficiary of the election may be Nancy Pelosi, but this election was no mandate for an ultraliberal feminist who spent much of the campaign in protective custody so America would not see what they would be getting when they dumped Denny Hastert.

National Taxpayers Union press release:

Election was No Mandate for More Government

Ocala.com:

Message to Democrats on winning the U.S. House: this was no mandate. Republican ineptitude handed House control to Democrats, not Democratic superiority.

But when George W. Bush barely squeaked by in 2004 due to a largely questionable vote in Ohio, THAT was a mandate:

The Wall Street Journal, 11/4/04:

So the lawyers didn't decide this election after all. The voters did--including millions of conservative first-timers whom the exit polls and media missed--emerging from the pews and exurban driveways to give President Bush what by any measure is a decisive mandate for a second term.

William Bennett, 11/3/04:

Having restored decency to the White House, President Bush now has a mandate to affect policy that will promote a more decent society, through both politics and law. His supporters want that, and have given him a mandate in their popular and electoral votes to see to it.

Tucker the Idiot Boy:

N]obody has done it since 1988. The president wins reelection with a majority of the vote. It is a mandate.

Peggy Noonan, on Hannity and the Lapdog 11/3/04:

He [Bush] has, I would argue, a mandate now.

William "Next Stop Iran" Kristol, in the Weekly Standard, 11/14/04:

The hair-pullers and teeth-gnashers won't like it, of course, but we're nevertheless inclined to call this a Mandate.

More and more and more here.

On Planet Delusional, where both the Adminstration and their fellaters in the media live, a 50.73% of the vote is a mandate, but 55% is not.

Someone please explain this math to me.

Sounds like Mary Matalin has decided to keep the Gates of Heaven closed until hubby Jim Carville rids her and her Republican bosses of this meddlesome priest:

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.

The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.

Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."

This is the same James Carville who told his she-bitch of a wife that John Kerry was preparing to go to battle over 250,000 provisional ballots in Ohio in 2004 (as reported by Bob Woodward). Clearly Carville, like George Snuffleupagus before him, is no friend of Democrats. Bill Clinton has been out of office for six years, and Carville's connection to Democrats was, as far as I'm concerned, broken the day he married one of the most odious water-carriers for the worst of the wingnuts now running this country. And this same she-bitch is now being touted to replace Ken Mehlman as head of the RNC.

So Jim Carville can go fuck himself. And Democrats ought to keep as far away from this shithead as possible.

And Howard Dean's spokeswoman Karen Finney responds:

After the Republicans have admitted to a thumping, why is it that the only one complaining on the Democratic side is James Carville, who today in addition to trashing Howard Dean, praised the RNC, the outfit that brought us the racist ad that defeated Harold Ford, James' supposed candidate for Chair?

Perhaps he's not aware that under Dean in this midterm election the DNC has raised record cash --- all hard dollars -- including three times as much from major donors, eight times as much online and made a $30 million investment in the '06 cycle, three times as much as the DNC put into the last midterm. Not to mention we made an $8m overhaul of our voter file which was successfully used in 47 states and through the 50 state strategy invested in states like Pennsylvania, Kansas, Indiana and Montana where we had critical victories on Tuesday.

The DLC is pissed, and so are their friends in the media. The spin of Tuesday's election as some kind of Great Victory for Conservatism is the DLC's way of trying to delude itself that it's still relevant. They may be making noise about Ned Lamont's loss, but they don't note that it's when Ned Lamont started listening to Hillary Clinton's DLC consultants that his campaign fell apart. And they aren't paying any attention at all to the fact that Jon Tester, Jim Webb, and Claire McCaskill were all netroots-supported candidates in RED STATES. If the DLC and Rahm Emmanuel had had their way, we would have been seeing progressive bloggers already being marched to those KBR internment camps in Texas.

It's over for the DLC, and they refuse to face that fact as stubbornly as Bush refuses to face the fact that his war is lost, he is now irrelevant, and he will go down in history as the worst president ever to plague this country. The DLC is tied with this White House and with the whole K Street culture and it can't accept that the party is over and the trough is now empty.

I'm with Matt Stoller on this one: If Carville is effective in ousting Howard Dean and replacing him with a DINO like Harold Ford, we will proverbially cut these fuckers off at the proverbial knees.

Today is Veterans' Day. It's easy to forget that when you don't even get a day off from work. But it's easy to remember than when you think of all the young men and women who have died over the past four years because the president of the United States has issues with his father.

The fact that the Iraq War was unnecessary and was based on lie in no way minimizes the debt we owe the young men and women in this country who chose to risk their lives by joining the military. It is they on whom we rely when there are real threats to our nation.

At the end of this post, thanks to Steve Gilliard, are the men and women who have died in Iraq just this year alone.

The Washington Post puts a face and a story behind those of the 3,175 American soldiers have died in George W. Bush's misadventure up to 11/7. We owe it to them to read their stories so they become more than numbers. We owe it to them to save their brethren still fighting. We owe it to them to hold this president accountable. We owe it to them to remember them not just today, but every day. We owe it to them to think of their families today, of the loss they've suffered. And we owe it to them to remain vigilant, so that no Commander-in-Chief may ever, ever again take this country to war by cooking the books.



Jason Lee Bishop 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jan 01 2006
Christopher J. Vanderhorn 37 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 01 2006
William F. Hecker III 37 Army Major Jan 05 2006
Jason Lopezreyes 29 Army Sergeant Jan 05 2006
Robbie M. Mariano 21 Army Private Jan 05 2006
Johnny J. Peralez Jr. 25 Army Sergeant Jan 05 2006
Christopher P. Petty 33 Army Captain Jan 05 2006
Ryan D. Walker 25 Army Specialist Jan 05 2006
Stephen J. White 39 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jan 05 2006
Michael E. McLaughlin 44 Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Jan 05 2006
Adam Leigh Cann 23 Marine Sergeant Jan 05 2006
Albert Pasquale Gettings 27 Marine Corporal Jan 05 2006
Ryan S. McCurdy 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 05 2006
Radhames Camilomatos 24 Army Sergeant Jan 07 2006
Joseph D. deMoors 36 Army 1st Lieutenant Jan 07 2006
Douglas A. LaBouff 36 Army Major Jan 07 2006
Michael R. Martinez 43 Army Major Jan 07 2006
Clinton R. Upchurch 31 Army Specialist Jan 07 2006
Jaime L. Campbell 25 Army National Guard 1st Lieutenant Jan 07 2006
Michael I. Edwards 26 Army National Guard Specialist Jan 07 2006
Jacob E. Melson 22 Army National Guard Specialist Jan 07 2006
Chester W. Troxel 45 Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jan 07 2006
Stuart M. Anderson 44 Army Reserve Major Jan 07 2006
Nathan R. Field 23 Army Reserve Sergeant Jan 07 2006
Robert T. Johnson 20 Army Reserve Specialist Jan 07 2006
Darren D. Braswell 36 Dept. of Defense Civilian Jan 07 2006
Kyle W. Brown 22 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
Jeriad P. Jacobs 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
Jason T. Little 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
Brett L. Lundstrom 22 Marine Corporal Jan 07 2006
Raul Mercado 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 07 2006
Michael Joseph McMullen 25 Army National Guard Sergeant Jan 10 2006
Mitchell K. Carver Jr. 31 Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jan 13 2006
Kyle E. Jackson 28 Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jan 13 2006
Jonathan Kyle Price 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 13 2006
Michael Anthony Jordan 35 Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jan 13 2006
Justin J. Watts 20 Marine Corporal Jan 14 2006
Kasper Allen Dudkiewicz 22 Army Private 1st Class Jan 15 2006
Dustin L. Kendall 21 Army Specialist Jan 15 2006
Ruel M. Garcia 34 Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jan 16 2006
Rex C. Kenyon 34 Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jan 16 2006
Adam R. Shepherd 21 Army Private 1st Class Jan 17 2006
Dennis J. Flanagan 22 Army Sergeant Jan 20 2006
Matthew C. Frantz 23 Army Specialist Jan 20 2006
Rickey Scott 30 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 20 2006
Clifton J. Yazzie 23 Army Specialist Jan 20 2006
Carlos Arrelano Pandura 22 Marine Corporal Jan 20 2006
Brandon Christopher Dewey 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 20 2006
Brian McElroy 28 Air Force Staff Sergeant Jan 22 2006
Jason L. Norton 32 Air Force Technical Sergeant Jan 22 2006
Lance M. Chase 32 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 23 2006
Matthew D. Hunter 31 Army Sergeant Jan 23 2006
Peter D. Wagler 18 Army Private 1st Class Jan 23 2006
Lewis T. D. Calapini 21 Marine Private Jan 23 2006
Joshua A. Scott 24 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 23 2006
Sean H. Miles 28 Marine Sergeant Jan 24 2006
Jerry M. "Michael" Durbin Jr. 26 Army Staff Sergeant Jan 25 2006
Joshua Allen Johnson 24 Army National Guard Sergeant Jan 25 2006
Hugo R. Lopez Lopez 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jan 27 2006
David L. Herrera 26 Army Sergeant Jan 28 2006
Brian J. Schoff 22 Army Private 1st Class Jan 28 2006
Felipe C. Barbosa 21 Marine Corporal Jan 28 2006
Garrison C. Avery 23 Army 1st Lieutenant Feb 01 2006
Marlon A. Bustamante 25 Army Specialist Feb 01 2006
Anthony Chad Owens 21 Army Specialist Feb 01 2006
Caesar S. Viglienzone 21 Army Private 1st Class Feb 01 2006
Sean T. Cardelli 20 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 01 2006
Simon T. Cox Jr. 30 Army 1st Lieutenant Feb 02 2006
Walter B. Howard II 35 Army Specialist Feb 02 2006
Scott A. Messer 26 Army Private 1st Class Feb 02 2006
Lance S. Cornett 33 Army Sergeant 1st Class Feb 03 2006
Jesse M. Zamora 22 Army Specialist Feb 03 2006
Roberto L. Martinez Salazar 21 Army Specialist Feb 04 2006
Jeremiah J. Boehmer 22 Army Sergeant Feb 05 2006
William S. Hayes III 23 Army Specialist Feb 05 2006
Sergio A. Mercedes Saez 23 Army Specialist Feb 05 2006
Christopher R. Morningstar 27 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 05 2006
Patrick W. Herried 29 Army Specialist Feb 06 2006
Orville Gerena 21 Marine Corporal Feb 06 2006
David S. Parr 22 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 06 2006
Brandon S. Schuck 21 Marine Corporal Feb 06 2006
Jacob D. "Jake" Spann 21 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 06 2006
Allen D. Kokesh Jr. 21 Army National Guard Specialist Feb 07 2006
Steven L. Phillips 27 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 07 2006
Javier Chavez Jr. 19 Marine Private 1st Class Feb 09 2006
Ross A. Smith 21 Marine Corporal Feb 09 2006
Felipe J. Garcia Villareal 26 Army Specialist Feb 12 2006
Andrew J. Kemple 23 Army Corporal Feb 12 2006
Nicholas Wilson 25 Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Feb 12 2006
Matthew Ron Barnes 20 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 14 2006
Michael S. Probst 26 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 14 2006
Rusty L. Washam 21 Marine Corporal Feb 14 2006
Anthony R. Garcia 48 Army Captain Feb 17 2006
Amos C. Edwards Jr. 41 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Feb 17 2006
Charles E. Matheny IV 23 Army Sergeant Feb 18 2006
Matthew D. Conley 21 Marine Corporal Feb 18 2006
Jessie Davila 29 Army National Guard Sergeant Feb 20 2006
Daniel J. Kuhlmeier 30 Dept. of the Air Force Civilian Feb 20 2006
Jay T. Collado 31 Marine Staff Sergeant Feb 20 2006
Almar L. Fitzgerald 23 Marine 2nd Lieutenant Feb 21 2006
Gregson G. Gourley 38 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 22 2006
Curtis T. Howard II 32 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 22 2006
Rickey E. Jones 21 Army Sergeant Feb 22 2006
Christopher L. Marion 20 Army Private 1st Class Feb 22 2006
Gordon F. Misner II 23 Army Sergeant Feb 22 2006
Allan A. Morr 21 Army Private 1st Class Feb 22 2006
Thomas J. Wilwerth 21 Army Specialist Feb 22 2006
Dimitri Muscat 21 Army Sergeant Feb 24 2006
Joshua Francis Powers 21 Army Private Feb 24 2006
Benjamin C. Schuster 21 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Feb 25 2006
John Joshua Thornton 22 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 25 2006
Adam J. VanAlstine 21 Marine Lance Corporal Feb 25 2006
Clay P. Farr 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
Joshua U. Humble 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
Joshua M. Pearce 21 Army Specialist Feb 26 2006
Christopher J. Schornak 28 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 26 2006
Dwayne Peter R. Lewis 26 Army Staff Sergeant Feb 27 2006
Tina M. Priest 20 Army Private 1st Class Mar 01 2006
Christopher S. Merchant 32 Army National Guard Specialist Mar 01 2006
Joshua V. Youmans 26 Army National Guard Sergeant Mar 01 2006
Matthew A. Snyder 20 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 03 2006
Kevin P. Jessen 28 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 05 2006
Adam O. Zanutto 26 Marine Corporal Mar 06 2006
Ricky Salas Jr. 22 Army Private 1st Class Mar 07 2006
Justin R. Martone 31 Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mar 07 2006
John D. Fry 28 Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mar 08 2006
Bunny Long 22 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 10 2006
Amy A. Duerksen 19 Army Private 1st Class Mar 11 2006
Kristen K. Marino (Figueroa) 20 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 12 2006
Corey A. Dan 22 Army Sergeant Mar 13 2006
Bryan A. Lewis 32 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 13 2006
Marco A. Silva 27 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 13 2006
Angelo A. Zawaydeh 19 Army Private 1st Class Mar 15 2006
Carlos M. Gonzalez 22 Army Specialist Mar 16 2006
Amanda N. Pinson 21 Army Sergeant Mar 16 2006
Nyle Yates III 22 Army Corporal Mar 16 2006
Ricardo Barraza 24 Army Staff Sergeant Mar 18 2006
Dale G. Brehm 23 Army Sergeant Mar 18 2006
Antoine J. McKinzie 25 Army Specialist Mar 21 2006
Brock A. Beery 30 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Mar 23 2006
Randy D. McCaulley 44 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Mar 23 2006
Frederick A. Carlson 25 Army National Guard Specialist Mar 25 2006
Michael D. Rowe 23 Army Sergeant Mar 28 2006
Sean D. Tharp 21 Army Private 1st Class Mar 28 2006
Robert Hernandez 47 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Mar 28 2006
Walter M. Moss Jr. 37 Air Force Technical Sergeant Mar 30 2006
Joseph J. Duenas 23 Army Private 1st Class Mar 30 2006
Jacob Walter Beisel 21 Marine Lance Corporal Mar 31 2006
Darrell P. Clay 34 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 01 2006
Israel Devora Garcia 23 Army Sergeant Apr 01 2006
Michael L. Hartwick 37 Army Chief Warrant Officer (CW3) Apr 01 2006
Timothy J. Moshier 25 Army Captain Apr 01 2006
Jeremy W. Ehle 19 Army Private 1st Class Apr 02 2006
Andres Aguilar Jr. 21 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
David A. Bass 20 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
Patrick J. Gallagher 27 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
Kun Y. Kim 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
Eric A. McIntosh 29 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 02 2006
Eric A. Palmisano 27 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
Scott J. Procopio 20 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
Felipe D. Sandoval-Flores 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 02 2006
Brian R. St. Germain 22 Marine Corporal Apr 02 2006
Abraham G. Twitchell 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 02 2006
Marcques J. Nettles 22 Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Apr 02 2006
Geovani Padilla Aleman 20 Navy Hospitalman Apr 02 2006
Ty J. Johnson 28 Army Specialist Apr 04 2006
Dustin J. Harris 21 Army Specialist Apr 06 2006
Daniel L. Sesker 22 Army National Guard Specialist Apr 06 2006
Chase A. Edwards 19 Marine Private 1st Class Apr 06 2006
Bryan N. Taylor 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 06 2006
Richard P. Waller 22 Marine Corporal Apr 07 2006
Shawn R. Creighton 21 Army Specialist Apr 08 2006
Jody W. Missildine 19 Army Private Apr 08 2006
Philip John Martini 24 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 08 2006
Juana NavarroArellano 24 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 08 2006
David S. Collins 24 Army Specialist Apr 09 2006
Joseph I. Love-Fowler 22 Army Private 1st Class Apr 09 2006
Gregory S. Rogers 42 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 09 2006
James W. "Will" Gardner 22 Army Specialist Apr 10 2006
Randall L. Lamberson 36 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 10 2006
Joseph A. Blanco 25 Army Corporal Apr 11 2006
James F. Costello III 27 Army Private 1st Class Apr 11 2006
Kenneth D. Hess 26 Army Specialist Apr 11
2006
George R. Roehl Jr. 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 11 2006
Scott M. Bandhold 37 Army Specialist Apr 12 2006
Roland E. Calderon-Ascencio 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 12 2006
Marcus S. Glimpse 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 12 2006
Andrew K. Waits 23 Army Specialist Apr 13 2006
Salem Bachar 20 Marine Corporal Apr 13 2006
Stephen Joseph Perez 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 13 2006
Darin T. Settle 23 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 14 2006
Mark W. Melcher 34 Army National Guard Specialist Apr 15 2006
Derrick J. Cothran 21 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 15 2006
Pablo V. Mayorga 33 Marine Corporal Apr 15 2006
Justin D. Sims 22 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 15 2006
Ryan G. Winslow 19 Marine Private 1st Class Apr 15 2006
Clinton W. Cubert 38 Army National Guard Master Sergeant Apr 16 2006
Ian P. Weikel 31 Army Captain Apr 18 2006
Robert J. Settle 25 Army Private 1st Class Apr 19 2006
Patrick A. Tinnell 25 Army Private 1st Class Apr 19 2006
Jason C. Ramseyer 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Apr 20 2006
Jacob H. Allcott 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 22 2006
Michael E. Bouthot 19 Army Private Apr 22 2006
Kyle A. Colnot 23 Army Sergeant Apr 22 2006
Eric D. King 29 Army Specialist Apr 22 2006
Travis C. Zimmerman 19 Army Private Apr 22 2006
Eric R. Lueken 23 Marine Corporal Apr 22 2006
Jason B. Daniel 21 Army Corporal Apr 23 2006
Robert W. Ehney 26 Army Sergeant Apr 23 2006
Shawn Thomas Lasswell Jr. 21 Army Corporal Apr 23 2006
Metodio A. Bandonill 29 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 24 2006
Aaron William Simons 20 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 24 2006
Raymond L. Henry 21 Army Private 1st Class Apr 25 2006
Richard J. Herrema 27 Army Sergeant 1st Class Apr 25 2006
Michael L. Ford 19 Marine Lance Corporal Apr 26 2006
Bobby Mendez 38 Army 1st Sergeant Apr 27 2006
Mark A. Wall 27 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 27 2006
Matthew A. Webber 23 Army National Guard Sergeant Apr 27 2006
Jose Gomez 23 Army Sergeant Apr 28 2006
Bryant A. Herlem 37 Army Staff Sergeant Apr 28 2006
Edward G. Davis III 31 Marine Sergeant Apr 28 2006
Brandon M. Hardy 25 Marine Corporal Apr 28 2006
Lea R. Mills 21 Marine Sergeant Apr 28 2006
Steve M. Sakoda 29 Army Sergeant Apr 29 2006
Robbie Glen Light 21 Army Corporal May 01 2006
Robert L. Moscillo 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 01 2006
Christopher M. Eckhardt 19 Army Private 1st Class May 03 2006
Benjamin T. Zieske 20 Army Private 1st Class May 03 2006
Joseph E. Proctor 38 Army National Guard Sergeant May 03 2006
Brian S. Letendre 27 Marine Reserve Captain May 03 2006
Bryan L. Quinton 24 Army Specialist May 04 2006
Gavin B. Reinke 32 Army Staff Sergeant May 04 2006
Stephen R. Bixler 20 Marine Corporal May 04 2006
Elisha R. Parker 21 Marine Sergeant May 04 2006
Alva L. Gaylord 25 Army Private 1st Class May 05 2006
Carlos N. Saenz 46 Army 1st Sergeant May 05 2006
Teodoro Torres 29 Army Specialist May 05 2006
Nathan J. Vacho 29 Army Sergeant May 05 2006
Dale James Kelly Jr. 48 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant May 06 2006
David Michael Veverka 25 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant May 06 2006
Leon Deraps 19 Marine Lance Corporal May 06 2006
Matthew J. Fenton 24 Marine Sergeant May 06 2006
Cory L. Palmer 21 Marine Corporal May 06 2006
Emmanuel L. Legaspi 38 Army Staff Sergeant May 07 2006
Gregory A. Wagner 35 Army Staff Sergeant May 08 2006
Aaron P. Latimer 26 Army Specialist May 09 2006
Alessandro Carbonaro 28 Marine Sergeant May 10 2006
Armer N. Burkart 26 Army Specialist May 11 2006
Eric D. Clark 22 Army Private 1st Class May 11 2006
Stephen P. Snowberger III 18 Army Private 1st Class May 11 2006
Jason K. Burnett 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 11 2006
David J. GramesSanchez 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 11 2006
Michael L. Licalzi 24 Marine 2nd Lieutenant May 11 2006
Steve Vahaviolos 21 Marine Corporal May 11 2006
Brandon L. Teeters 21 Army Specialist May 12 2006
Adam C. Conboy 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 12 2006
Ron Gebur 23 Army National Guard Specialist May 13 2006
Richard Z. James 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 13 2006
John W. Engeman 45 Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 May 14 2006
Jamie D. Weeks 47 Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 May 14 2006
Robert H. West 37 Army Master Sergeant May 14 2006
Matthew W. Worrel 34 Army Major May 14 2006
Shane Mahaffee 36 Army Reserve Captain May 14 2006
Jose S. Marin-Dominguez Jr. 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 14 2006
Hatak Yuka Keyu M. Yearby 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 14 2006
Grant Allen Dampier 25 Army Private 1st Class May 15 2006
Marion Flint Jr. 29 Army Staff Sergeant May 15 2006
Santiago M. Halsel 32 Army Staff Sergeant May 16 2006
Lee Hamilton Deal 23 Navy Petty Officer Third Class May 17 2006
Lonnie Calvin Allen Jr. 26 Army Sergeant May 18 2006
Nicholas Cournoyer 25 Army Private 1st Class May 18 2006
Daniel E. Holland 43 Army Lieutenant Colonel May 18 2006
Robert Seidel III 23 Army 1st Lieutenant May 18 2006
William B. Fulks 23 Marine Corporal May 18 2006
Benito A. Ramirez 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 21 2006
David Christoff Jr. 25 Marine Sergeant May 22 2006
William J. Leusink 21 Marine Lance Corporal May 22 2006
Michael L. Hermanson 21 Army National Guard Specialist May 23 2006
Steven Freund 20 Marine Private 1st Class May 23 2006
Robert G. Posivio III 22 Marine Lance Corporal May 23 2006
Robert E. Blair 22 Army Specialist May 25 2006
Douglas A. DiCenzo 30 Army Captain May 25 2006
Caleb A. Lufkin 24 Army Private 1st Class May 25 2006
Adam Lucas 20 Marine Lance Corporal May 26 2006
J. Adan Garcia 20 Army Corporal May 27 2006
Richard A. Bennett 25 Marine Corporal May 27 2006
Nathanael J. Doring 31 Marine Captain May 27 2006
James A. Funkhouser 35 Army Captain May 29 2006
Jeremy M. Loveless 25 Army Corporal May 29 2006
Brock L. Bucklin 28 Army Specialist May 30 2006
Bobby R. West 23 Army Corporal May 30 2006
Alexander J. Kolasa 22 Army Corporal May 31 2006
Benjamin E. Mejia 25 Army Sergeant May 31 2006
Brett L. Tribble 20 Army Private 1st Class Jun 03 2006
Darren Harmon 44 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Jun 03 2006
Ryan J. Cummings 22 Marine Corporal Jun 03 2006
Michael D. Stover 43 Marine Major Jun 03 2006
Issac S. Lawson 35 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 05 2006
Jamie Jaenke 30 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Jun 05 2006
Gary Rovinski 44 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Jun 05 2006
Andy D. Anderson 24 Army Corporal Jun 06 2006
Daniel Gionet 23 Army Sergeant Jun 06 2006
Carlos E. Pernell 25 Army Sergeant Jun 06 2006
Ryan T. Sanders 27 Army 1st Lieutenant Jun 06 2006
Richard A. Blakley 34 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jun 06 2006
Mark T. Smykowski 23 Marine Sergeant Jun 06 2006
David N. Crombie 19 Army Private 1st Class Jun 07 2006
Scott M. Love 32 Army 1st Lieutenant Jun 07 2006
John Shaw Vaughan 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Jun 07 2006
Clarence D. McSwain 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jun 08 2006
Luis D. Santos 20 Army Specialist Jun 08 2006
Daniel Crabtree 31 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Jun 08 2006
Ben Slaven 22 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Jun 09 2006
Jose M. Velez 35 Army Reserve Sergeant Jun 09 2006
Salvador Guerrero 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 09 2006
Brent Zoucha 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 09 2006
Zachary M. Alday 22 Navy Seaman Jun 09 2006
Michael A. Estrella 20 Marine Corporal Jun 14 2006
Jeremiah S. Santos 21 Army Specialist Jun 15 2006
David J. Babineau 25 Army Specialist Jun 16 2006
Kristian Menchaca 23 Army Private Jun 16 2006
Thomas Lowell Tucker 25 Army Private 1st Class Jun 16 2006
Brent W. Koch 22 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 16 2006
Robert L. Jones 22 Army Specialist Jun 17 2006
Reyes Ramirez 23 Army Sergeant Jun 17 2006
Christopher D. Leon 20 Marine Corporal Jun 20 2006
Brandon J Webb 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 20 2006
Christopher N. White 23 Marine Private 1st Class Jun 20 2006
Benjamin D. Williams 30 Marine Staff Sergeant Jun 20 2006
Jason J. Buzzard 31 Army Sergeant Jun 21 2006
Sirlou C. Cuaresma 21 Army Sergeant Jun 21 2006
Nicholas J. Whyte 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jun 21 2006
Riley E. Baker 22 Marine Corporal Jun 22 2006
Paul A. Beyer 21 Army Private 1st Class Jun 23 2006
Mario J. Bievre 34 Army Staff Sergeant Jun 23 2006
Ryan J. Buckley 21 Army Corporal Jun 23 2006
Devon J. Gibbons 19 Army Private 1st Class Jun 23 2006
Channing G. Singletary 30 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 23 2006
Benjamin J. Laymon 22 Army Sergeant Jun 24 2006
Justin Dean Norton 21 Army Sergeant Jun 24 2006
Virrueta A. Sanchez 33 Army Staff Sergeant Jun 24 2006
Paul N. King 23 Marine Reserve Corporal Jun 25 2006
Terry Lisk 26 Army Sergeant Jun 26 2006
Michael J. Potocki 21 Army Private 1st Class Jun 26 2006
Raymond J. Plouhar 30 Marine Staff Sergeant Jun 26 2006
Jeremy Jones 25 Army Corporal Jun 27 2006
Terry O.P. Wallace 33 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jun 27 2006
Jason W. Morrow 27 Marine Corporal Jun 27 2006
Rex A. Page 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jun 28 2006
Ryan. J. Clark 19 Army Corporal Jun 29 2006
Bryan C. Luckey 25 Army Sergeant Jun 29 2006
James P. Muldoon 23 Army Sergeant Jun 29 2006
Christopher D. Rose 21 Army Specialist Jun 29 2006
Kyle Miller 19 Army National Guard Specialist Jun 29 2006
Carl Jerome Ware Jr. 22 Air Force Airman 1st Class Jul 01 2006
Collin T. Mason 20 Army Private 1st Class Jul 02 2006
Justin Noyes 23 Marine Sergeant Jul 02 2006
Paul Pabla 23 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jul 03 2006
Omar Flores 27 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 08 2006
Troy Carlin Linden 22 Army Specialist Jul 08 2006
Joseph P. Micks 22 Army Specialist Jul 08 2006
Damien M. Montoya 21 Army Specialist Jul 09 2006
Duane J. Dreasky 31 Army National Guard Sergeant Jul 10 2006
Irving Hernandez Jr. 28 Army Sergeant Jul 12 2006
Jerry A. Tharp 44 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Jul 12 2006
Al'Kaila Floyd 23 Army Sergeant Jul 13 2006
Thomas B. Turner Jr. 31 Army Sergeant Jul 14 2006
Andres J. Contreras 23 Army Sergeant Jul 15 2006
Manuel J. Holguin 21 Army Specialist Jul 15 2006
Jason M. Evey 29
Army Staff Sergeant Jul 16 2006
Nathaniel S. Baughman 23 Army Corporal Jul 17 2006
Michael A Dickinson II 26 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 17 2006
Kenneth I. Pugh 39 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 17 2006
Scott R. Smith 34 Army Sergeant 1st Class Jul 17 2006
Mark Richard Vecchione 25 Army Sergeant Jul 18 2006
Geofrey R. Cayer 20 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 18 2006
Derek J. Plowman 20 Army National Guard Private 1st Class Jul 20 2006
Julian A. Ramon 22 Marine Corporal Jul 20 2006
Matthew P. Wallace 22 Army Corporal Jul 21 2006
Christopher T. Pate 29 Marine Captain Jul 21 2006
Adam J. Fargo 22 Army Corporal Jul 22 2006
Blake H. Russell 35 Army Captain Jul 22 2006
Christopher Swanson 25 Army Staff Sergeant Jul 22 2006
Dennis K. Samson Jr. 24 Army Specialist Jul 24 2006
Jason M. West 28 Army Captain Jul 24 2006
Stephen W. Castner 27 Army National Guard Specialist Jul 24 2006
Joseph A. Graves 21 Army Specialist Jul 25 2006
Edward A Koth 30 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jul 26 2006
James W. Higgins 22 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 27 2006
Adam R. Murray 21 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 27 2006
Timothy D. Roos 21 Marine Corporal Jul 27 2006
Enrique Henry Sanchez 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jul 27 2006
Phillip E. Baucus 28 Marine Corporal Jul 29 2006
Anthony E. Butterfield 19 Marine Lance Corporal Jul 29 2006
Jason Hanson 21 Marine Private 1st Class Jul 29 2006
Christian B. Williams 27 Marine Sergeant Jul 29 2006
Joshua Ford 20 Army National Guard Specialist Jul 31 2006
Hai Ming Hsia 37 Army Specialist Aug 01 2006
Dustin D. Laird 23 Army Sergeant Aug 02 2006
Ryan D. Jopek 20 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 02 2006
Joseph A. Tomci 21 Marine Corporal Aug 02 2006
Marc A. Lee 28 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Aug 02 2006
Kurt Edward Dechen 24 Army Reserve Lance Corporal Aug 03 2006
George M. Ulloa Jr. 23 Marine Sergeant Aug 03 2006
Bradley H. Beste 22 Army Sergeant Aug 04 2006
Leroy Segura Jr. 23 Army Sergeant Aug 04 2006
Clint J. Storey 30 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 04 2006
Brian J. Kubik 20 Army Private 1st Class Aug 05 2006
Carlton A. Clark 22 Army Sergeant Aug 06 2006
Tracy L. Melvin 31 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 06 2006
Stephen A. Seale 25 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 06 2006
Jose Zamora 24 Army Specialist Aug 06 2006
Jeffery S. Brown 25 Army Sergeant Aug 09 2006
Aaron Jagger 43 Army 1st Sergeant Aug 09 2006
Steven P. Mennemeyer 26 Army Sergeant Aug 09 2006
Ignacio Ramirez 22 Army Specialist Aug 09 2006
Shane W. Woods 23 Army Specialist Aug 09 2006
Jeremy Z. Long 18 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 10 2006
Kenneth A. Jenkins 25 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
Michael C. Lloyd 24 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
Kevin L. Zeigler 31 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 12 2006
Jeffrey S. Loa 32 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 16 2006
Michael Dennis Glover 28 Army Reserve Lance Corporal Aug 16 2006
John James McKenna IV 30 Army Reserve Captain Aug 16 2006
John P. Phillips 29 Marine Sergeant Aug 16 2006
James J. Arellano 19 Army Private 1st Class Aug 17 2006
Ruben J. Villa Jr 36 Army Sergeant 1st Class Aug 18 2006
Marquees A. Quick 28 Army Sergeant Aug 19 2006
Gabriel G. DeRoo 23 Army Sergeant Aug 20 2006
Adam Anthony Galvez 21 Marine Corporal Aug 20 2006
Randy Lee Newman 21 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 20 2006
Chadwick Thomas Kenyon 20 Navy Hospitalman Aug 20 2006
Brad A. Clemmons 37 Air Force Master Sergeant Aug 21 2006
Paul J. Darga 34 Navy Chief Petty Officer Aug 22 2006
Thomas J. Barbieri 24 Army Specialist Aug 23 2006
James Daniel Hirlston 21 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 23 2006
Jeremy E. King 23 Army Sergeant Aug 24 2006
William E. Thorne 26 Army Private 1st Class Aug 24 2006
Gordon George Solomon 35 Marine Staff Sergeant Aug 24 2006
Dwayne E. Williams 28 Marine Staff Sergeant Aug 24 2006
Jordan C. Pierson 21 Marine Corporal Aug 25 2006
Edgardo Zayas 29 Army Specialist Aug 26 2006
David G. Weimortz 28 Marine Corporal Aug 26 2006
David J. Almazan 27 Army Sergeant Aug 27 2006
Kenneth Cross 21 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Dan Dolan 19 Army Private 1st Class Aug 27 2006
Seth A. Hildreth 26 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Moises Jazmine 25 Army Sergeant Aug 27 2006
Joshua D. Jones 24 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Qixing Lee 20 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Shaun A. Novak 21 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Tristan Smith 23 Army Specialist Aug 27 2006
Darry Benson 46 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 27 2006
Jeffrey J. Hansen 31 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Aug 27 2006
Donald E. Champlin 28 Marine Lance Corporal Aug 27 2006
Matthew E. Schneider 23 Army Specialist Aug 28 2006
Shannon L. Squires 25 Army Corporal Aug 28 2006
Matthew J. Vosbein 30 Army Sergeant Aug 29 2006
Christopher Tyler Warndorf 21 Marine Corporal Aug 29 2006
Joshua R. Hanson 27 Army National Guard Sergeant Aug 30 2006
Colin Joseph Wolfe 18 Marine Private 1st Class Aug 30 2006
Michael L. Deason 28 Army Staff Sergeant Aug 31 2006
Angel D. Mercado-Velazquez 24 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 01 2006
Cliff Golla 21 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 01 2006
Eugene Alex 32 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 02 2006
Edwin Anthony Andino Jr. 23 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
Justin W. Dreese 21 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
Richard J. Henkes II 32 Army Sergeant 1st Class Sep 03 2006
Nicholas A. Madaras 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 03 2006
Jason L. Merrill 22 Army Sergeant Sep 03 2006
Ralph N. Porras 36 Army Sergeant Sep 03 2006
Shane P. Harris 23 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 03 2006
Philip A. Johnson 19 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 03 2006
Ryan Edwin Miller 21 Marine Private Sep 03 2006
Hannah L. Gunterman 20 Army Private 1st Class Sep 04 2006
Marshall A. Gutierrez 41 Army Lieutenant Colonel Sep 04 2006
Germaine L. Debro 33 Army National Guard Sergeant Sep 04 2006
Jared M. Shoemaker 29 Marine Reserve Corporal Sep 04 2006
Eric P. Valdepenas 21 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Sep 04 2006
Christopher Walsh 30 Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 04 2006
John A. Carroll 26 Army Sergeant Sep 06 2006
Jeremy R. Shank 18 Army Private 1st Class Sep 06 2006
Luis A. Montes 22 Army Sergeant Sep 07 2006
David J. Ramsey 27 Army Specialist Sep 07 2006
Vincent M. Frassetto 21 Marine Private 1st Class Sep 07 2006
David W. Gordon 23 Army Sergeant Sep 08 2006
Anthony P. Seig 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 09 2006
Johnathan Benson 21 Marine Corporal Sep 09 2006
Alexander Jordan 31 Army Specialist Sep 10 2006
Harley D. Andrews 22 Army Specialist Sep 11 2006
Emily J.T. Perez 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Sep 12 2006
Matthew C. Mattingly 30 Army Captain Sep 13 2006
Jeffrey Shaffer 21 Army Private 1st Class Sep 13 2006
Marcus A. Cain 20 Army Corporal Sep 14 2006
Jennifer M. Hartman 21 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
Russell M. Makowski 23 Army Specialist Sep 14 2006
Aaron A. Smith 31 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
David Thomas Weir 23 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
Clint E. Williams 24 Army Sergeant Sep 14 2006
Ryan A. Miller 19 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 14 2006
Cesar A. Granados 21 Army Corporal Sep 15 2006
David Sean Roddy 32 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 16 2006
David J. Davis 32 Army Sergeant Sep 17 2006
Adam L. Knox 21 Army Reserve Sergeant Sep 17 2006
James R. Worster 24 Army Sergeant Sep 18 2006
Robert Thomas Callahan 22 Army Specialist Sep 19 2006
Ashley L. Henderson Huff 23 Army 1st Lieutenant Sep 19 2006
Jared J. Raymond 20 Army Specialist Sep 19 2006
Eric Kavanagh 20 Army Private Sep 20 2006
Charles Jason Jones 29 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Sep 20 2006
Robb Gordon Needham 51 Army Reserve Master Sergeant Sep 20 2006
Yull Estrada Rodriguez 21 Marine Corporal Sep 20 2006
Christopher Michael Zimmerman 28 Marine Sergeant Sep 20 2006
Allan R. Bevington 22 Army Sergeant Sep 21 2006
IV Kenneth E Kincaid 25 Army Private 1st Class Sep 23
III Velton Locklear 29 Army Sergeant Sep 23
Windell J. Simmons 20 Army Specialist Sep 23 2006
Carlos Dominguez 57 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Sep 23 2006
Howard S. March Jr. 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 24 2006
Rene Martinez 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 24 2006
Casey L. Mellen 21 Army Corporal Sep 25 2006
Jose A. Lanzarin 28 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 26 2006
Henry Paul 24 Army Private 1st Class Sep 26 2006
Edward C. Reynolds Jr. 27 Army Staff Sergeant Sep 26 2006
Christopher T. Riviere 21 Marine Private 1st Class Sep 26 2006
James N. Lyons 28 Army 1st Lieutenant Sep 27 2006
James Chamroeun 20 Marine Lance Corporal Sep 28 2006
Christopher T. Blaney 19 Army Private 1st Class Sep 29 2006
Michael A. Monsoor 25 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sep 29 2006
Luis E. Tejeda 20 Army Corporal Sep 30 2006
Robert Weber 22 Army Specialist Sep 30 2006
Scott E. Nisely 48 Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Sep 30 2006
Kampha B. Sourivong 20 Army National Guard Specialist Sep 30 2006
Chase A. Haag 22 Army Corporal Oct 01 2006
Mario Nelson 26 Army Sergeant Oct 01 2006
Denise A. Lannaman 46 Army National Guard Sergeant Oct 01 2006
Justin D. Peterson 32 Marine Captain Oct 01 2006
Christopher B. Cosgrove III 23 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 01 2006
Aaron L. Seal 23 Marine Reserve Corporal Oct 01 2006
Raymond S. Armijo 22 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
James D. Ellis 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 02 2006
Satieon V. Greenlee 24 Army Private 1st Class Oct 02 2006
Justin R. Jarrett 21 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
Joe A. Narvaez 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 02 2006
Michael K. Oremus 21 Army Private 1st Class Oct 02 2006
Joseph W. Perry 23 Army Sergeant Oct 02 2006
Kristofer C. Walker 20 Army Specialist Oct 02 2006
Daniel Isshak 25 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 03 2006
Jonathan Rojas 27 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 03 2006
Dean Bright 32 Army Private 1st Class Oct 04 2006
Timothy Burke 24 Army Specialist Oct 04 2006
Christopher O. Moudry 31 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 04 2006
George R. Obourn Jr. 20 Army Specialist Oct 04 2006
Edward M. Garvin 19 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 04 2006
Benjamin S. Rosales 20 Marine Corporal Oct 04 2006
Nicholas A. Arvanitis 22 Army Corporal Oct 06 2006
John Edward Hale
20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 06 2006
Bradford H. Payne 24 Marine Corporal Oct 06 2006
Brandon S. Asbury 21 Army Sergeant Oct 07 2006
Carl W. Johnson II 21 Army Corporal Oct 07 2006
Lawrence Parrish 36 Army National Guard Sergeant Oct 07 2006
John Edward Wood 37 Army National Guard Specialist Oct 07 2006
Shane R. Austin 19 Army Private 1st Class Oct 08 2006
Timothy Fulkerson 20 Army Specialist Oct 08 2006
Stephen F. Johnson 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
Derek W. Jones 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
Jeremy Scott Sandvick Monroe 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 08 2006
Robert M. Secher 33 Marine Captain Oct 08 2006
Phillip B. Williams 21 Army Private 1st Class Oct 09 2006
Julian M. Arechaga 23 Marine Sergeant Oct 09 2006
Jon Eric Bowman 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 09 2006
Shelby J. Feniello 25 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 09 2006
Shane T. Adcock 27 Army Captain Oct 11 2006
Nicholas R. Sowinski 25 Army Sergeant Oct 11 2006
Justin T. Walsh 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 11 2006
Gene A. Hawkins 24 Army Sergeant Oct 12 2006
Johnny K. Craver 37 Army Lieutenant Oct 13 2006
Thomas J. Hewett 22 Army Private 1st Class Oct 13 2006
Kenny F. Stanton Jr. 20 Army Private 1st Class Oct 13 2006
Leebenard E. Chavis 21 Air Force Airman 1st Class Oct 14 2006
Joseph M. Kane 35 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 14 2006
Charles M. King 48 Army 1st Sergeant Oct 14 2006
Timothy J. Lauer 25 Army Specialist Oct 14 2006
Keith J. Moore 28 Army Private 1st Class Oct 14 2006
Jonathan J. Simpson 25 Marine Sergeant Oct 14 2006
Jr. Lester Domenico Baroncini 33 Army Sergeant Oct 15
Stephen Bicknell 19 Army Private 1st Class Oct 15 2006
Joshua Deese 25 Army 1st Lieutenant Oct 15 2006
Jonathan E. Lootens 25 Army Sergeant Oct 15 2006
Mark C. Paine 32 Army Captain Oct 15 2006
Brock A. Babb 40 Marine Reserve Sergeant Oct 15 2006
Joshua M. Hines 26 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 15 2006
Russell G. Culbertson III 22 Army Corporal Oct 17 2006
Joseph C. Dumas Jr. 25 Army Specialist Oct 17 2006
Nathan J. Frigo 23 Army Petty Officer 1st Class Oct 17 2006
Ryan E. Haupt 24 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
Christopher E. Loudon 23 Army 2nd Lieutenant Oct 17 2006
Garth D. Sizemore 31 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
Norman R. Taylor III 21 Army Sergeant Oct 17 2006
David M. Unger 21 Army Corporal Oct 17 2006
Daniel W. Winegeart 23 Army Specialist Oct 17 2006
Ronald L. Paulsen 53 Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Oct 17 2006
Joshua L. Booth 23 Marine 2nd Lieutenant Oct 17 2006
Patrick O. Barlow 42 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 18 2006
Jesus M. Montalvo 46 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 18 2006
Jose R. Perez 21 Army Not reported yet Oct 18 2006
Daniel A. Brozovich 42 Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class Oct 18 2006
Edwardo Lopez Jr. 21 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 19 2006
Kevin M. Witte 27 Army Staff Sergeant Oct 20 2006
Tony L. Knier 31 Army Sergeant 1st Class Oct 21 2006
Clifford R. Collinsworth 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
Nathan R. Elrod 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
Eric W. Herzberg 20 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
Nicholas J. Manoukian 22 Marine Lance Corporal Oct 21 2006
Joshua C. Watkins 25 Marine Corporal Oct 21 2006
Nathaniel A. Aguirre 21 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
Matthew W. Creed 23 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
Willsun M. Mock 23 Army Sergeant Oct 22 2006
Nicholas K. Rogers 27 Army Specialist Oct 22 2006
David G. Taylor 37 Army Major Oct 22 2006
Amos C. R Bock 24 Army 1st Lieutenant Oct 23 2006
Carl A. Eason 29 Army Specialist Oct 23 2006
Richard A. Buerstetta 20 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 23 2006
Tyler R. Overstreet 22 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 23 2006
Charles O. Sare 23 Navy Hospital Corpsman Oct 23 2006
Donald S. Brown 19 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 25 2006
Daniel B. Chaires 20 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 25 2006
Thomas M. Gilbert 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 25 2006
Jonathan B. Thornsberry 22 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 25 2006
Charles V. Komppa 35 Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Oct 25 2006
Ricky L. McGinnis 42 Army 1st Sergeant Oct 26 2006
Luke J. Zimmerman 24 Marine Sergeant Oct 27 2006
Troy D. Nealey 24 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Oct 29 2006
Kenneth E. Bostic 21 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
Kraig D. Foyteck 26 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
Michael T. Seeley 27 Army Sergeant Oct 30 2006
Michael R. Weidemann 23 Army Sergeant Oct 31 2006
Jason Franco 18 Marine Private 1st Class Oct 31 2006
Gary A. Koehler 21 Marine Corporal Nov 01 2006
Minhee Kim 20 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Nov 01 2006
Michael P. Bridges 23 Army Private Nov 02 2006
Paul J. Finken 40 Army Lieutenant Colonel Nov 02 2006
Joseph A. Gage 28 Army Staff Sergeant Nov 02 2006
Eric J. Kruger 40 Army Lieutenant Colonel Nov 02 2006
James Brown 20 Marine Lance Corporal Nov 02 2006
Jason D. Whitehouse 27 Marine Staff Sergeant Nov 02 2006
Luke B. Holler 21 Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Nov 02 2006
Michael H. Lasky 22 Marine Reserve Corporal Nov 02 2006
James L. Bridges 22 Army Specialist Nov 04 2006
Jose A. Galvan 22 Marine Corporal Nov 04 2006
Douglas C. Desjardins 24 Marine Specialist Nov 05 2006
Miles P. Henderson, 24, Army Chief Warrant Officer, Nov 06, 2006
John R. Priestner, 42, Army Chief Warrant Officer, Nov 06, 2006
Ryan T. McCaughn, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 07, 2006

Remember when the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush as president, and you said, "Well, it won't be so bad, the guys around him will keep him from screwing up too badly"? You and I weren't the only ones. A New Jersey man named Ron Breitweiser, a staunch Bush supporter who died in the World Trade Center attacks, believed that too, as his widow Kristen recounts in her recent book.

You believed that having old hands like Cheney and Rummy around would keep him from the disaster we sensed his presidency would be, because to believe otherwise was unthinkable.

They said they'd run the company like a business, and so they have. There's just one problem. The business they ran it like was the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root:

Can a company under investigation by the Justice Department raise hundreds of millions of dollars in an initial public offering? What if there are two separate investigations? Or three?

Next week, we will get an answer to an even more daunting question. Can KBR Inc., as Kellogg Brown & Root is now known, raise half a billion dollars from investors even though four Justice Department investigations are pending, as well as an inquiry by the British government?

KBR is now a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil services giant. In recent years, it has lost money on most of its operations, but has made that up with profit from its work for the American and British governments in the Middle East, mostly in Iraq.

One of the criminal investigations stems from KBR’s Iraq contracts, with a grand jury looking into issues of fraud in purchasing supplies for the government. Another inquiry is investigating possible overcharges for work that KBR did for the United States in the Balkans from 1996 to 2000.

If this deal were being sold by a real estate agent, the ad might read “motivated seller.” Rarely has any major company been clearer about its desire to be free of a subsidiary. Whether or not the offering finds buyers, Halliburton plans to distribute its remaining shares in KBR to Halliburton shareholders.

Why the desire to get out? David Lesar, Halliburton’s chief executive, called KBR a drag on the parent company’s profits. But reading the prospectus raises at least two other possible explanations. One is liability concerns. The other is more psychological. The legal problems that could be most important serve as a reminder of a deal gone awry.

That deal was Halliburton’s $7.7 billion 1998 acquisition of Dresser Industries. Engineered by Dick Cheney, then Halliburton’s chief executive, the merger accomplished a major strategic goal, making Halliburton the world’s largest provider of oil field services.

But Halliburton’s due diligence failed to either uncover or appreciate the importance of some significant issues. There were asbestos liabilities, which ended up forcing some Halliburton units into bankruptcy and cost the parent company billions.

Halliburton also failed to notice what it now says may have been illegal behavior overseas at Kellogg, a Dresser subsidiary that is now part of KBR. It says that there appears to have been bribery of Nigerian officials for years in connection with contracts there and that similar behavior may have occurred elsewhere. The Justice Department is investigating possible violations of the foreign corrupt practices act, and Britain has a similar inquiry.

While looking into those charges itself, Halliburton found evidence that Kellogg “may have engaged in coordinated bidding with one or more competitors on certain foreign construction projects, and that such coordination possibly began as early as the mid-1980’s,” KBR says in its prospectus. That is the subject of the final federal investigation, and of some foreign inquiries as well.

Would YOU buy a used company from Dick Cheney?

Since ModFab has tagged me, it's time, now that the election is over, to dip a toe back into the waters in which I dwelt for seven years:

1. Popcorn or candy?
If I go alone, nothing. If I go with Mr. B@B, a taste of what he's eating. Because if it's someone else's, it has no calories.

2. Name a movie you've been meaning to see forever.
Casablanca. My eternal shame is that I reviewed movies for seven years and have never seen it all the way through.

3. You are given the power to recall one Oscar: Who loses theirs and to whom?
No contest: Helen Hunt loses hers for As Good as it Gets and it goes to Kate Winslet for Titanic. As someone who was swept away by that film and now wonder how on earth I sat through four hours of James Cameron's clunky dialogue, I know that only an actress of Winslet's caliber could have pulled it off. Besides, she deserves to win one already.

4. Steal one costume from a movie for your wardrobe. Which will it be?
Anything from the party scene in The Cat's Meow. Or The Great Gatsby, for that matter.

5. Your favorite film franchise is...
Not much of a film franchise person, myself, but I'd have to say the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

6. Invite five movie people over for dinner. Who are they? Why'd you invite them? What do you feed them?
Like ModFab, I'm assiming they have to be alive. So I would invite George Clooney for wit and intelligent conversation, Kate Winslet because she's Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson because she's one of the few movie people who comes across like someone you'd actually want to know, Josh Lucas just so I could look at his eyes for a few hours, and Patricia Clarkson because I didn't want to say goodbye to her at the end of The Station Agent. I'd make up a batch of my award-winning chili and a big green salad, and an assortment of homemade cookies served with coffee lightened with Sangster's Rum Cream.

7. What is the appropriate punishment for people who answer cell phones in the movie theater?
A Tec-9 is always appropriate in these circumstances.

8. Choose a female bodyguard: Ripley from Aliens. Mystique from X-Men. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2. The Bride from Kill Bill. Mace from Strange Days.
Sarah Connor. Because my sister once said I look like Linda Hamilton, and it would be cool getting saved by my own mirror image.

9. What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in a movie?
I'm not much of one for scary movies....but the most scared I've ever been in a movie is -- don't laugh -- Poltergeist. I didn't watch TV for a week after seeing it.

10. Your favorite genre (excluding comedy and drama) is?
Chopsocky. Ever since Mr. Brilliant took up Shaolin kung-fu, I've become enamored of Hong Kong cinema.

11. You are given the power to greenlight movies at a major studio for one year. How do you wield this power?
I look for intelligent, talky scripts with characters who seem like people you know -- or want to know -- and cast wonderfully natural actors in them.

12. Bonnie or Clyde?
Tough one. Bonnie had better clothes, but Faye Dunaway is one cold fish. I'll go with Clyde.

13: Who are you tagging to answer this survey: Lynn, Tami, Jay, Spiidey, Rix, Bitty, and Maya's Granny.

Today's Bad Timing Award goes to Lincoln Chafee, who didn't switch parties when it might have saved saved the lives a few thousand soldiers and civilians, but is considering NOW, after losing his Congressional seat, becoming a Democrat.

Meanwhile, perhaps in response to being outed by Bill Maher on Larry King (before CNN decided to censor that part for the rebroadcast), Ken Mehlman, the Bush Party Line-Bot, is leaving his post as well.

Now the Cheney "health watch" begins, as Poppy and his consigliere, James Baker, continue their mop-up duty. Not that they're any better, but I think that with them running the show, my nightmare scenario of an appointed George Allen as the new Vice-President isn't as likely. The down side is that Favorite Son Jeb is going to be out of a job in January...

Scream this, bitchez!

A little over two years ago, I went to a Meetup at Panera Bread in Paramus, NJ, to work on the campaign of the former governor of Vermont. I'd seen him on Press the Meat very early in the year, and realized that I was going to go once more into the breach of politics.

For all the heartbreak that John Kerry and Dick Gephardt caused me when they pooled their resources to run negative ads against Dean in Iowa and knock him out of the race, I wouldn't trade the last 2-1/2 years for anything. Because of my involvement with the Dean campaign, I made new friends, I started this blog, and now I've seen what I hope is an end to the relentless march towards fascism of the Bush years and a stop to the theocratic aims of the Christofascist Zombie Brigade. And it's the man in the photograph who deserves our thanks. Rahm Emmanuel can hog the spotlight all he wants to; he's just a Terry McAuliffe K-Street-sucking clone hack. No, it was Howard Dean who realized that people on Montana and Virginia and Missouri and Ohio and even Kansas want the same things the rest of us want -- jobs, a good education for their kids, health care, and security -- all things this Administration has taken from them. It was Howard Dean who decided that we don't have to be branded as "red" or "blue", that Democratic values are American values.

I'm so proud of Howard Dean today.

So is Joe Conason:

Despite all the complaints and demands directed at him over the past 18 months, Dean stuck to his principles. He and his supporters in the netroots movement believed that their party needed to rebuild from the ground up in every state, including many where the party existed in name only. These Democrats prefer to think of their party as one of inclusion and unity. They openly disdain the divisive strategies of the Republicans who have so often used racial, regional and cultural differences to polarize voters.

And they believe that relying on opportunistic attempts to grab a few selected states or districts as usual -- rather than establishing a real presence across the country -- conceded a permanent structural advantage to the Republicans that would only grow more durable with each election cycle.

Breaking that advantage would be costly and difficult, as Dean well realized, but it had to be done someday, or the Democrats would fulfill Karl Rove's dream of becoming a permanent minority party -- or fading away altogether. Against the counsel of party professionals, whose long losing streak has done little to diminish their influence, the new chairman began the process of re-creating the Democratic Party in 2005. And contrary to the gossip and subsequent press reports, he succeeded in raising $51 million last year, about 20 percent more than in 2003 and a party record for an off year.

Much of that money was spent in ways that obviously paid off on Tuesday, including the 2005 election of Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine in Virginia -- where Jim Webb's upset victory over incumbent Sen. George Allen overturned Republican control of the Senate. Several million dollars was spent on rebuilding the party's national voter files, yet another essential sector in which the Republicans have enormous technological superiority.

Less obvious but equally significant was the spending on hundreds of organizers and communications specialists -- and their training -- in every state. In some places this meant taking the chains off locked, dusty offices that had seen no real activity in years; in others, it meant bailing the state party out of literal bankruptcy and convening meetings in counties where party activists had given up.

In Indiana, among the reddest states north of the Mason-Dixon line, the Democratic National Committee placed two field organizers and a new party communications director on the ground a year before the midterm elections. While that doesn't sound like a very impressive assault on a Republican stronghold, those few organizers created a party presence and started preparing for battle in vulnerable congressional districts. Suddenly the Republicans had to deal with ground opposition where traditionally they had faced no field operation at all -- not only in Indiana but in deep-red Idaho, Wyoming, Kentucky and Nebraska, too.

The Democrats didn't win in all those districts, of course, although they did enjoy several unexpected victories. What Dean and his organizers created, however, was an environment that allowed insurgents and outliers as well as the party's chosen challengers to ride the national wave of revulsion against conservative rule. That enterprise, in turn, surprised and overwhelmed the Republican capacity to respond. Faced with many more viable challenges than anticipated, the Republicans made mistakes in allocating resources -- and were forced to defend candidates in districts that are usually safe.

For now, Dean has reached a peaceful accommodation with his internal critics and enemies, many of whom were motivated by his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq and his support from the unruly netroots. Debate will continue over the wisest national strategy for 2008. Should Democrats continue to pursue the 50-state strategy, even in the difficult terrain of the deep South? Or should they seek to consolidate and expand the gains made this year in the mountain states and the Midwest?

Ultimately, the party's presidential nominee will make that decision. In the meantime, the party chairman has won the argument he started last year. Rebuilding the Democratic Party in every state is as much a matter of pragmatism as principle. There would have been much less for the Democrats to celebrate on Election Night if Howard Dean hadn't been so "crazy" -- and so persistent.

History will be the ultimate judge, of course, but right now it looks like the infamous "Dean Scream" will be remembered generations from now, not as the last breath of a dying campaign, but the birth cry of a revitalized party.

Burns and Allen both conceded today.

(Sorry, but SOMEONE had to do it.)

OK, one more, and then I have to leave for work.

In case you needed further proof that the Bush family and Osame Bin Laden are BFFs, meet your new Defense Secretary, Robert Gates:

Robert Gates made Osama Bin Laden what he is today. This is not exaggeration. By funding Osama Bin Laden's operations, training camps, weaponry and political influence from 1979 (even before Russia invaded Afghanistan), Robert Gates personally gave us our principal enemy in the "War on Terror".

More frighteningly, all of Robert Gates' support to Osama Bin Laden ran through Pakistan's ISI. ISI has been linked to training and funding the 9/11 bombers, the London bombers, the Madrid bombers, the Bali bombers and the Delhi bombers but is strangely immune from official Washington scrutiny.

I really wonder which side Robert Gates thinks he's on. With a 30 year history of pomoting and financing state and non-state terrorism, I doubt it is the side of the peace and prosperity of the American people and bringing our troops home safe.

[snip]

The cynicism with which Gates and others backed Al Qaeda is revealed in this Zbigniew Brzezinski interview:

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Meanwhile, on Planet Delusional....the Democratic victory on Tuesday is seen on the right as either a capitulation and whyolesale handing of the country over to Al Qaeda or a Great Victory for Conservatism.

A quick look at the Daou Report reveals that on Planet Delusional:

1) "we're in for two years of defeat and retreat, pandering to Islamic extremists, extreme political correctness, multi-culturalism, open borders beyond belief, amnesty...in other words, we're going back to the 1970s, right after Vietnam." (Iowa Voice)

2) "Bin Laden and Zawahiri and all the rest of the goose-stepping Islamo fascists are probably besides themselves with glee right now." (Strata-Sphere)

3) "The elections are over and America has fallen for the al-taqiyya and distortions of the Democratic Party, rolled over on their backs, and surrendered to al-Qaeda. Radical Islam has won a very important victory, and the West is now full on its way to defeat." (Hyscience)

4) "President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available." (Hugh Hewitt)

5) "The changeover in the House may well be a conservative victory, not a liberal one. Blue dogs are rabid budget balancers." (Larry Kudlow)

And amidst all this wingnut frothing and crowing, we have one voice of sanity, the irreplaceable John Cole, the only one of these lunatics who isn't one, whom conservatives will probably believe when he says:

6) "Tomorrow, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer come over to my house, and, at taser-point, I am forced to give all my money, have an abortion, and promise I will never ever enjoy gun violence on TV. Afterwards, they hand me the new National Anthem- in Spanish. Afterwards, we are we are all forced to attend a mandatory rally for the Democrats and Al-Qaeda, because, after all- the terrorists have won."

If there's any consolation for wingnuts in Tuesday's election results, it's that a Democratic Senate and House keeping Captain Codpiece in check provides fodder for the whining and bitching of the Beleaguered White Male in the corridors of right-wing talk radio. Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly are undoubtedly happy guys today, because they and their callers can wallow for the next two years in dire warnings of the Threat That Is Nancy Pelosi.

I'm not sure whether it just hasn't hit me yet how cataclysmic what happened on Tuesday night was, or if I'm just skeptical. But on the surface, at least, it looks as if the collective insanity that has gripped this country since long before the 9/11 attacks; indeed since Bill Clinton took office, suddenly disappeared and American voters saw the cold light of day.

George W. Bush came to office armed with a false iconography -- one in which Al Gore was a child of privilege and he was a hardscrabble kid from scrubby Texas -- when in reality he was raised largely in the WASP enclaves of Connecticut and Kennebunkport. After the 9/11 attacks, this man who deserted even his cushy National Guard job during the Vietnam years became the War Hero, an iconography that culminated with the bizarre recharacterization of an actual veteran as a coward during the 2004 campaign. The Bush years have been a triumph of bullshit over substance, and finally voters said "Enough." Whether it was Tom DeLay's Abramoff connections, or the realization that the Republican House was pimping teenaged boys for Mark Foley, or the revelation of top evangelist Ted Haggard as a self-loathing closet case, reality finally shone its light on the American voter, and the American voter responded.

Sidney Blumenthal ponders this false iconography in Salon today:

The cultural crackup of conservatism preceded the final political result. For weeks before Election Day, prominent figures on the right threw themselves into their culture war only to be left in the trenches battered, scorned and disoriented. They were unable to shield themselves through their usual practices. Their prevarications were easily penetrated; derision hurled at their targets backfired; hypocrisy was fully exposed. These self-destructive performances were hardly peripheral to the campaign but instead at the heart of it.

The Bush administration and the Republican Congress could not defend themselves on their public record and urgently needed to change the subject. They required new fields of combat -- not the Iraq war, certainly not convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, convicted Rep. Duke Cunningham, investigated Rep. Mark Foley or indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. So they launched offensives on Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease, Jim Webb's novels and gay marriage. Yet battle-hardened cultural warriors -- Rush Limbaugh, Lynne Cheney and the Rev. Ted Haggard, among others -- did not find themselves triumphant as in the 2004 campaign, but unexpectedly wounded at their own hands.

The president, vice president and secretary of defense, meanwhile, marched to their Maginot line to defend the fortifications of the "war president" and his war paradigm ("alternative interrogation techniques" ... "terrorist surveillance program" ... "terrorists win, America loses"). Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld behaved as though they were the latest in a straight line of descent from heroes past, inheritors of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill. Mythologizing themselves as they struggled to gain support for "victory," they sought to distract from catastrophe by casting deepening failure as inevitable success. Envious of the "Greatest Generation," they claimed its mantle. But elevating themselves into the latter-day versions of the leaders from World War II was delusional imitation as the highest form of self-flattery.

And now the first of the Bush "warrior-heroes" has fallen. Although President Bush had said he would keep Rumsfeld in his job until the end of his term, on Wednesday Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation, naming former CIA director (under the elder Bush) Robert Gates as his replacement. Currently serving on the Iraq Study Group led by James Baker, secretary of state under the elder Bush, Gates remains close to the realist foreign policy circle that has been excluded and dismissed for six years. With Gates' appointment, it appears that the father is at last being acknowledged by his son.

I disagree with Blumenthal here. It's less that the father is being acknowledged by his son, and rather that just as he has had to do the son's whole life, the father is stepping in to clean up the son's massive screw-ups. I don't believe for one minute that Bush has called on his father. I think that the father has decided to finally step in to try and salvage the family legacy, probably so that Favored Son Jeb can run for president in 2012 -- or perhaps even sooner.

But Blumenthal is on to something about the entire Bush iconography embodying perfectly the concept of kitsch:

The cultural style of the Bush warriors is the latest wrinkle in one of the most enduring modes of antimodern aesthetic expression. "Kitsch is mechanical and operates by formulas," wrote art critic Clement Greenberg in his seminal essay, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch," in 1939. "Kitsch is vicarious experience and faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times."

Kitsch is imitative, cheap, sentimental, mawkish and incoherent, and derives its appeal by demeaning and degrading genuine standards and values, especially those of modernity. While the proponents of the faux retro style claim to uphold tradition, they are inherently reactive and parasitic, their words and products a tawdry patchwork, hastily assembled as declarations against authentic complexity and ambiguity, which they stigmatize as threats to the sanctity of an imaginary harmonious order of the past that they insist they and their works represent. Kitsch presumes to be based on old rules, but constantly traduces them.

The Bush kitsch warriors have created a cultural iconography that attempts to inspire deference to the radical making of an authoritarian presidency. These warriors pose as populists, fighting a condescending liberal elite. Wealthy, celebrated and influential, their faux populism demands that they be seen however as victims.

Having risen solely by association with sheer political power and economic force (News Corp., etc.), the cultural charlatans become the arbiters of social standing (especially in a capital lacking a secure and enduring establishment). In Washington, the more status-conscious elements of the press corps, aspiring to the shabby fringes of the talk-show media (the low end of the entertainment state), often serve as publicity agents in the guise of political experts, and it is from this platform that they then derive greater status. Indeed, the conservative kitsch cultural industry is centered in Washington, where Republican political power has protected philistinism from the ravages of cosmopolitanism, unlike in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago.

Under Ronald Reagan, conservative kitsch was the last nostalgic evocation for a glowing small-town America before the New Deal, with its raucous city dwellers, brain-trusters and an aristocratic president gleefully swatting "economic royalists." Reagan drew his raw material for "morning again in America" from an idealized view of his boyhood in Dixon, Ill., where his father was the town Catholic drunk, rescued at last only by a federal government job. Reagan also had a well of experience acting in movies romanticizing small-town life, produced by the Jewish immigrant moguls of Hollywood for whom these gauzy pictures enabled them to assimilate into a country that had richly rewarded them but in which they remained outsiders.

Bush's America contains no nostalgic evocation of small-town life. The scion of the political dynasty, raised in the oil-patch outpost of Midland, Texas, where the streets are named for Ivy League universities, and whose family retained its summer home in its New England base of Kennebunkport, Maine, attended all the right schools as a legacy, one of the last of his kind before more meritocratic standards were imposed and religious and racial quotas abolished. George W. Bush's inchoate resentment at the alteration of the world of his fathers impelled the son of privilege to align with the cultural warriors of faux populism.

The pathology of Bush's kitsch is the endless reproduction of vicarious hatred of the "other," who is the threat to the sanctity of what kitsch represents. The "other" lies beyond the image of the lurking terrorist to the lurking Democrat -- "America loses." "You're either with us or with the terrorists," Bush said famously. You either have a "pre-9/11" mind-set or a "post-9/11" one, according to his strategist Karl Rove, who carefully set the terms of demonization. In the great act of kitsch, Bush et al. apotheosized their fiasco in Iraq into a battle against Hitler -- "appeasers" ... "Islamofascism." By impersonating a historical context, they projected themselves into it.

Unlike the kitsch before and during the Reagan era, the Bush warriors' kitsch lies beyond unintentional camp. Their kitsch lacks more than irony or self-consciousness. It is deliberately sarcastic, mean-spirited, fearsome and fearful. Their unbridled bullying reveals their deep fears within. Their personal disintegrations expose what they fear most about themselves. Whether it is accused sexual harasser Bill O'Reilly (the biggest right-wing TV star), thrice-divorced drug addict Rush Limbaugh (the biggest radio star) or closeted gay drug abuser Ted Haggard, their self-destructive patterns invariably emerge.

It may very well be that the most enduring and devastating image that cemented the Republicans' loss of absolute power is not the few photos of caskets coming home from Iraq, or Tom DeLay's bizarrely grinning mug shot. It may not even be Ted Haggard denying meeting prostitute Mike Jones for sex and meth while nodding his head. The final nail in the coffin of the Christofascist Zombie Kool-Aid Years may be the footage of the bloated-again Rush Limbaugh, cigar clamped in his mouth like a pacifier -- or a penis, take your pick -- wiggling around in his chair in cruel imitation of a man whose face is familiar to everyone in America; a man in his 40's who still looks like a teenager, but in whose eyes is the unsettling knowledge that his disease means he may not live to see his children reach adulthood. When Rush Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox of faking the extent of his Parkinson's Disease, and then added fuel to the fire with his non-apology "apology" before going right back to his original comments, he crossed a line that made most decent Americans who still have their souls say "Enough."

Not that Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and the rest of them are likely to be chastened by Tuesday's election. Last night, after trying to hang on to Keith Olbermann's audience for weeks, Joe Scarborough was back to his wingnut roots, implying dire consequences to Democratic control of Congrtess. For a certain type of conservative male, who has seen his earning power eroded, his future questionable, his ability to provide for his family forever endangered by the very policies he supports, the coming changes are going to be as frightening as they were when Bill Clinton took office. And so they will seek solace in the Charlatan Shrinks of the Air, Drs. Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Reilly, who instead of helping these misguided souls improve their lives, will instead enable them -- and ensure their own continued employment -- by reassuring them that yes, they really are victims, and it's all the fault of that mean bitch Nancy Pelosi and her feminazi and homosexual supporters -- and make sure that they don't look at the guys in the White House and the pulpit.

It's hard to feel sorry for a guy who's as responsible for the deaths of almost 3000 American kids, the maiming of tens of thousands of others, and the killing of countless Iraqi civilians as Donald Rumsfeld is. But yesterday Rummy learned that when you're dealing with the Bush family, loyalty goes only one way.

Yesterday George W. Bush told perhaps the only truth of his life by saying that he had lied when he announced that Rumsfeld and Cheney would be staying on until the end of his presidency, only to slip the shiv to Rummy yesterday.

But when a presdient gets the kind of rebuke Bush got from the military newspapers on Monday, he has to do something. And since the Reputation of the Family trumps all, the senile old man at the Pentagon had to go:

Walter Shapiro:

In the annals of presidential truth-telling (a thin volume), there is no obvious precedent for Bush's startling admission that he lied to reporters when he offered Don Rumsfeld a strong presidential vote of confidence just before the election. As Bush tried to explain Wednesday, "I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question ... was to give you that answer." Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution whose knowledge of the White House dates back to his days as a young Eisenhower speechwriter, called it "the honesty of the honest lie. Bush was telling the truth when he said he lied."

This was a gambit of a rogue politician, not a president whose stock in trade is that he is a straight-talking conservative. The shiv in Rumsfeld's back, belated though it may have been, was also at odds with Bush's image as a don't-rock-the-boat leader who prizes loyalty. Displaying a rarely seen Machiavellian side, Bush all but said that he had been in serious negotiations with former CIA director Robert Gates about taking the Pentagon job even before Rumsfeld was told that it was time to write his memoirs.

At the core of Bob Woodward's latest book, "State of Denial," was the mystery of Rumfeld's job security when even Laura Bush was privately raising questions about his fitness to continue. Woodward's implicit answer was the hidden hand of Dick Cheney. But what does it say about the new power realities in the White House when suddenly Rumsfeld -- an inflexible ideologue wedded to victory on the cheap in Iraq -- is axed to make way for Gates, an establishmentarian whose pragmatism seems at odds with the history-will-absolve-us certainty of the Bush inner circle?

The Gates selection is just the latest example of an unheralded retooling of the Bush administration that began, earlier this year, when Josh Bolton, the budget czar, was selected to replace the overmatched Andrew Card as White House chief of staff. This was a talent upgrade akin to the sooth-Wall-Street selection of Henry Paulson to replace John Snow at Treasury, or the choice of ready-for-prime-time Tony Snow as the new White House press secretary. This is not the stuff of TV specials and news-magazine covers, but it does suggest that the president is slowly learning the virtue of opting for competence rather than sticking with smug complacency.

[snip]

One of Johnson's trademark phrases was "I'm the only president you've got." As rancorous as the current divisions are in American politics, Bush has now entered that twilight zone in which he has moved beyond the will of the voters, yet he has a long 26 months still to go in office. So in a patriotic sense, rather than in a narrow political sense, the question must be asked: Can this presidency be saved?

There are parallels for a successful late-term adjustment in course, most notably Reagan bringing in Howard Baker as White House chief of staff in 1987 after the Iran-Contra scandal. But Reagan was the Gipper -- the conservative ideologue whom many liberals found difficult to hate. "Remember Reagan carried 49 states in 1984," said Stephen Knott, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs. "And to be blunt about it, people weren't dying over Iran-Contra the way they are in Iraq."

Bush's determination to govern as if he had a sweeping mandate even when he owed his presidency to hanging chads, and the Republican get-out-the-vote juggernaut in Ohio, has created wounds that will still be festering years after Bush has returned to the life of a semi-retired rancher in Crawford, Texas. The arrogance demonstrated by this administration when everything was breaking right for Bush does not leave the president with a reservoir of goodwill now that everything is broken.

Yet something is changing in this White House -- and it may be time to redraw those one-dimensional portraits of Bush as president. As Fred Greenstein, a professor and expert on the presidency at Princeton, said, referring to the press conference, "I think Bush is after a niche in the Guinness Book of Records -- for trying to reconfigure his whole style of governing when he should be a lame-duck president."

As much as my own reptilian brain would love to see the Democrats come in snarling and biting the way the Republicans did, and as much as I viscerally want to see George W. Bush and Richard Cheney frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs and sent to the Hague to be tried for war crimes, I also understand that there is this wreckage of a country that needs to be fixed. I understand that impeaching this president is not going to happen, largely because it would take too long, and while the energies in Washington are devoted to punishment, the country would continue to deteriorate under the stewardship of this mean-spirited, stupid and inept empty suit who occupies the White House.

I'm not saying this because I'm happy about the idea that Bush and Cheney may get off scot-free. But I keep thinking about the feud between Rahm Emmanuel and Howard Dean that was profiled in the New York Times Sunday Magazine a few weeks ago. You'd never know it by the way Rahm Emmanuel has been taking all the credit for the Democratic House win -- and the way Dean has been allowing him to do it, but it is Dean's 50-state strategy, designed to build a party apparatus nationwide for the long term, which is the reason the Democrats hold both houses of Congress as of January 2007. Without Dean, there is no Senator McCaskill from Missouri. There is no Senator James Webb of Virginia. And there sure as hell is no Senator Jon Tester of fucking MONTANA, of all places. If Rahm Emmanuel had had his way, all of the money and resources would have been plowed into "sure thing" races. And Republicans would still rule the roost today. But Dean understood that sometimes you have to bite the bullet now to obtain more benefit later. That Dean didn't have to wait that long doesn't disprove, but underscores the point.

I know it's going to be an unpopular thing to say, but I think the Democrats just might be on to something here. They're making all the right noises about bipartisanship and working with Republicans to accomplish OUR agenda now. What I'll be watching for is what they do when the Republicans, inevitably, refuse to play along -- as they will, because that is their nature. And when that happens, then the Democrats had better start the investigations -- not necessarily with an eye towards impeachment, but instead to shine the cold, harsh light of day on what Republican rule means, so that Americans can never, ever forget what allowing these people to control everything meant.

God, I hate not being able to blog from work. Such a huge day yesterday, and my fingers are tied -- and it was just too yucky out to head to the library at lunchtime.

Anyway, take a minute to savor this:



Yes, it's true, whether soon-to-be-ex-Senator Felix Macacawitz likes it or not. You see, Felix, sometimes rich family scions DON'T get everything they want. Maybe you and that Bush fella in the White House should get together and commisserate. But you see, Macacawitz, karma's a bitch, isn't it? Remember what you said on the Today show on November 8, 2000:

"we'll need to move America forward as soon
as those votes are cast."

Well, that applies to Republicans too, pal -- even you. Even sons of legendary football coaches. But it's like I said, Felix -- it's time to man up, concede, and go home. Go home, play golf, spit on your second sanctity-of-marriage wife if you want, go speak of the perils of gay marriage in front of the kind of Christofascist zombie groups who will still love you. Yes, Felix, I know you wanted to be president, and you wanted it in 2008. But look at how bad that Bush fella looks after six years of being a nitwit with an affable demeanor in the White House. And after all he's tried to do to redeem his place in his family, his father is pissed at him anyway. The presidency is no place to resolve your Famous Father Namesake issues. Trust me. Go find yourself a good behavioral/cognitive therapist and work it out there. I'm only thinking of your welfare, Felix. The presidency isn't all it's cracked up to be.

So it's time to concede, Macacawitz. It's perfectly OK to want a recount, but when the recount confirms the original result, and when the recount takes place without the opponent's goons rioting in the halls -- you know, like these guys did in 2000:



-- when the recount says it's over, it's over. Even for you.

Come on, Felix, when even "Man-on-Dog" Santorum can go out in a classy way, so can you. Try it. You might even save your soul.

Just when I was ready to give props to David Brooks for understanding that a change in Congress is a good thing, he proves that he never, ever disappoints me:

Why am I weirdly happy? I’m a conservative. Many people I know and admire lost tonight. And yet somehow this strikes me as a good night for the country.
First, there would be something wrong for the country if the Republicans got to act this way in the House and then keep their majority. That would be a sign we’d become a one-party state.

But more than that, the voters have voted for change, but they haven’t gone overboard. They did not choose the Ned Lamont wing of the Democratic Party. Many moderate Republicans survived, despite my pessimistic expectations – Chris Shays, Deborah Pryce.

What Bobo has conveniently forgotten is not only that vocal war critics Bob Menendez and Sherrod Brown won Senate seats, but that Ned Lamont's anti-war stance ultimately forced Joe Lieberman to moderate his "Anything you want is fine by me, boss" stance on the Iraq War:

Ned Lamont made Joe Lieberman talk about the Iraq war. He made Joe play on his turf. Lamont made Lieberman not only explain his "stay the course" talk on the Iraq war, but actually move his rhetoric, his image and even his stance, if only in talking points, towards the majority position in the Democratic Party and in America. Lamont made Joe openly admit that it was long past time to change the course.

Now everyone was talking about the war. The referendum on Bush and the rubber stamp Republicans' stay the course Congress was real now. Lamont and the primary voters of Connecticut made that happen.

Before Ned Lamont came along, Joe Lieberman was just another Bush parroting Congressional rubber stamper. He had breakfast with Donald Rumsfeld. He was touted as being the next secretary of defense, which could still happen if Rumsfeld is forced to resign after the midterms. Joe chanted "stay the course" right along with all the other Republicans.

Then Ned Lamont came along and blew Joe Lieberman's comfortable, anti-opposition stance, stay the course incumbency out of the water and his political resume for a loop. Now Joe Lieberman's bio will always read that a revolutionary candidate named Ned Lamont beat Joe in a primary fight and Joe had to buck the voters of his own state in order to keep his political life alive, while remaking his talking points to match his challenger on a war that he'd supported from the start

Tbogg. And a quote:

I'm very surprised that Jim Ryun (Kansas-02) was kicked to the curb (regardless of his shady real estate deal), but not so surprised that all the women-beaters (Fine - MN , Sherwood - PA, Sweeney - NY) found out that Smack My Bitch Up doesn't work well as a campaign slogan.

What a night. And it's not over yet.

I woke up this morning to find that, miracle of miracles, Missouri was NOT one of the states still waiting for a Senator, that Claire McCaskill had prevailed over Republican incumbent Jim Talent. Thank you, citizens of Missouri, who broke just enough in all categories -- men, women, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents -- to give McCaskill the edge. And it looks like minor candidates pulled enough from Talent to push McCaskill into victory. And thank you, Michael J. Fox, who may very well yet be solely responsible for wresting control of the Senate from the Republicans.

As for Virginia, the squeaker we now see, which is likely to result in weeks of legal wrangling, can probably be largely attributed to not just the robocall harassment from the Macaca campaign, but also from the threatening (and false) calls made from the campaign in minority districts, designed to suppress the Democratic vote:



If Jon Tester prevails in Montana, and Webb prevails in Virginia, then the Democrats control the Senate -- and the netroots deserves credit from all those (*cough* Joe Klein *cough* David Broder *cough* Tweety -- DAMN this cold is hanging on...) who persist in believing that bloggers are just a bunch of kids and unemployed people writing rants.

If either Tester or Web falters, it creates the unfortunate situation of turning Joe Lieberman into THE powerbroker in the Senate, capable of breaking to one side or the other depending on what benefits Holy Joe. And speaking of Lieberman, the collapse of Ned Lamont is the best argument yet for keeping the Washington consultants out of your campaign. As long as Lamont was running on his gut and his heart, he was doing just fine. As soon as he started listening to the Washington consultants sent by Hillary Clinton (and frankly, I wonder about the real motivation behind THAT) and toning down his message, he became just another wussy-ass Democrat. Let this be a cautionary tale to those Democrats still tempted to triangulate.

In the House, Americans nationwide said a giant "Fuck you!" to the Decider, proving me wrong by telling him that no, we don't want a dictator, thank you very much. The big winner here, and also in the Senate if Jon Tester prevails, is DNC Chairman Howard Dean, whose 50-state strategy of building organizations in every state, not just plowing money into just a few "sure thing" races, paid off big-time last night. Rahm Emmanuel, the Clintonista hack who heads the DCCC, owes Dean a big apology, though I don't think Dean should hold his breath.

Here in the 5th District of New Jersey, the best chance in years for a Democrat to take the Congressional seat was squandered by the party organizations' endorsement of Paul Aronsohn, the dweeby Pfizer PR flack who parlayed experience in the Clinton White House into an extraordinarily lackluster and amateurish campaign, handing this moderate Republican district right back to Christofascist Zombie wingnut Scott Garrett.

It was never clear to me just why Aronsohn decided to run this race. Determined to be as inconspicuous and innocuous as possible, Aronsohn thought he could whine and kvetch and name-drop his way into office. He started out by raising $100,000 before even declaring, prompting presumed repeat candidate Anne Wolfe to first file an FEC complaint and then drop out of the race after it became clear that national organizations were not going to fund a race in this district. An early indication of the haplessness of Aronsohn's effort and his utter inability to connect with people came at Blue Jersey, where one diarist opined:

I haven't met the man, but when he paid a visit to a field event for Damian Fracasso, the candidate for Warren County Freeholder, he did not even introduce himself to anyone. Never mind speaking, Damian had to drag him around to each person at the event and when he met the people I talked to, he didn't say much.

A candidate who's so painfully shy he can't talk to people. Why on earth would he run for office, and why would the Democratic organizations support him? Aronsohn early on stacked his "exploratory committee" with Clintonista heavy hitters, thus giving him some stardust and apparently dazzling local Democratic leaders, hungry for a winner, into thinking that with those connections, he could raise enough money to mount a formidable challenge to Ernie Scott Garrett.

It's just a shame that the misperception that money talks blinded them to the obvious shortcomings of the man as a candidate. 2004 nominee Anne Wolfe, who garnered 41% of the vote with no help from the county committees, was right on the money when she said, "I have real concerns about his resume...because I know what Garrett's people will do with him. Just simply because he was so close to McGreevey and close to Clinton. Those kinds of things will turn voters off before he's even got a chance to get out of the box."

Well, they didn't turn voters off completely, largely because he kept his McGreevey connections mostly under wraps until Scott Garrett, predictably, went negative very late in the race. But in a year in which voters nationwide, even in Republican districts, threw the Bush apologists out on their ear, here in NJ-05, Paul Aronsohn, with all his connections (few of whom came through with the dollars Aronsohn believed he could raise), only mustered enough votes to beat Anne Wolfe's performance by a meager three percentage points. When a kid like Matt Fretz, running a campaign nights and weekends, seemingly using only the change found in his pockets among the dryer lint and a few high school kids, could manage to be at every event in which people were in attendance and garner almost 3000 votes scattered all over the district, that a well-connected candidate like Aronsohn could only pull out 43% of the vote in a year of strong anger at the right, is nothing short of criminal. Let this be a lesson to all Democratic organizations tempted to buy into grandiose promises of campaign fundraising: It's the candidate, stupid!

And so today we celebrate. We celebrate that we have been able to thwart even Karl Rove's gutter campaign tactics. But we can only afford to celebrate for one day, for tomorrow the real work of first putting the brakes on this Administration's rush to Armageddon, and then trying to, as best we can, fix what George W. Bush and his corrupt Republican compadres in Congress, have managed to wreck in six and a half short years.

And lest these Democrats think we're going to be like Republicans and march in lockstep, defending every craven and destructive move they may make, putting loyalty to party above loyalty to country, guess again. We are different. We are progressives. We are the American patriots. And we will be watching you.