A Blog is Born

Welcome to Reasonable Rant, the 8 millionth-some blog on the web, where the blogosphere serves up more blogs than MacDonald's serves burgers. In the spirit of carrying the metaphor too far, we're gonna be the cholestoral that gums up the theo-neo-con body Republican, the cheese on the media and celebrity shit enchilada.

Nuff said. Let's get it going.


Run Away Bride, Run Away Sanity

Further proof of America's boundless opportunity for those with the pluck to seize it . . .

Remember the Runaway Bride? Yeah, she was the one who ditched her fiance at the altar, jumped on a bus and headed for Vegas. Vegas! Who-yeah! After scaring the crap out of her family and friends, embarrassing her would-be husband, dominating the airwaves and media for a week, costing law-enforcement tens of thousands of dollars, we get this:

"New York superagent Judith Regan has bought the rights to the life stories of run-away bride Jennifer Wilbanks and her fiance after offering them $500,000 for a package that -- in an unusual twist -- included the first news interview with the couple. NBC anchor Katie Couric interviewed the couple last weekend for an hour-long prime-time special to air Tuesday. . . "

Ain't that sweet? Love (and money) are in the air.


Ooo, the Liberals are coming, the LIBERALS are coming.

This is so typically Republican: The link on the front page of Matt Drudge's website: Shock: Kansas Abortionist Suspected of Eating Fetuses leads to a World Net Daily article (Pat Buchanan's right-wing posting site) and will cause some/many/all think-not-at-all Red Staters to begin debating and preparing for this new onslaught of the horrible left.

"Hide the fetuses, Mildred, the abortionists are coming!"

Never mind it's some employee's absurd claim the fetuses were being eaten. Microwaved, prior, giving new meaning to the phrase 'tater-tot'.

Sub-point I: This is remeniscent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, claiming Jews ate Christian babies.

Sub-point II: It'll probably get picked up by Hannity and boys and girls at Fox and be the main point on O'Reilly: "Fetus-eating abortionists. Do we as a country have to accept it? That's next in the No-Spin Zone."

Extra-credit question: Anybody know what fetuses taste like?


SPECIAL FROM OUR IRAQ, THE UNTOLD STORY DEPARTMENT:

Despite what we're being told about Iraq's progress toward a civilized nation of peace and prosperity, numbers are not bearing it out. May featured the sixth highest daily-killed number since Bush declared Mission Accomplished at 2.84 deaths per day. June is currently at 2.87 and stands to be the third deadliest if the rate continues. Also, when it's claimed Iraq is no Vietnam, the claimant is correct. As the following website shows, at the same stage of the war, Iraq is deadlier than Vietnam . So, once again, we are being 'sold' overly optimistic claims, sold, basically, more lies.

IRAQ: ADD 1

From a NY Times article today:

"The Tal Afar police force disintegrated last fall, and the few who remain stay
in an ancient hilltop castle, afraid to venture out. Commanders here caution
troops to assume that anyone on the street dressed as a policeman is an impostor. Insurgents wearing police uniforms shoot at American helicopters and threaten residents."

THIS is progress? To ASSUME people dressed as policeman are insurgents? For the cops to hide out in the police station?

And this:

"We have a finite number of troops," said Maj. Chris Kennedy, executive officer
of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in Tal Afar several weeks
ago. "But if you pull out of an area and don't leave security forces in it, all you're going to do is leave the door open for them to come back. This is what our lack of combat power has done to us throughout the country."

Yet we're constantly assured by our president that US military commanders can have all the troops they need. They just need to ask, right?

Oh, yeah, our boys and girls will be out of Iraq in no time.

IRAQ ADD 1.1

As reported on this website, the casualty rate for June has risen to 3.12 deaths per day, from 2.87, as reported two days ago.

Yeah, things are really getting better.


IRAQ ADD 2


If take the time to read this article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902245.html you'll realize our boys and girls will never come home having succeeded. Many won't come home at all.

The Iraqi army can't take control of it's country and free up US soldiers. It can't even be trusted to be told where it's going on missions:

" . . . The Iraqi soldiers had no clue where they were going. They shrugged their shoulders when asked what they would do. The U.S. military had billed the mission as pivotal in the Iraqis' progress as a fighting force but had kept the destination and objectives secret out of fear the Iraqis would leak the information to insurgents.

"We can't tell these guys about a lot of this stuff, because we're not really sure who's good and who isn't," said Rick McGovern, a tough-talking 37-year-old platoon sergeant from Hershey, Pa., who heads the military training for Charlie Company."

They are considered cowards by US Soldiers:

"As Arab men, they want for us to think that they're just the same as us as soldiers, that they're just as brave," Lieutenant Joseph Cato said. "But they show cowardice. They'll say to me, 'I wasn't afraid.' But if you're running, then you were obviously not just afraid, you were running away."

And they hate us:

Along dirt roads bisected by sewage canals, the men of Charlie Company crouched, their weapons ready. Before them was their home town, dilapidated and neglected. Iraqi Cpl. Amir Omar, 19, gazed ahead.
"Look at the homes of the Iraqis," he said, a handkerchief concealing his face. "The people have been destroyed."
By whom? he was asked.
"Them," Omar said, pointing at the U.S. Humvees leading the patrol.

Meanwhile, the President and all his generals continue to say things are improving. It's a lie, just like the sell-job leading up to the war was a lie. I find myself asking: Will this Theatre of the Absurd ever end? If it weren't so deadly, it would be comical.