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Iraq Accountability Act

The House passed the Iraq Accountability Act last night. The Senate is expected to pass the same legislation early later today [ed. 1:30pm cmt The Senate just passed the bill]. This is the act that will finally cause a showdown between Congress and the President. Bush has threatened to veto the act because it calls for phased withdrawal of troops beginning in October.

The Whitehouse and Republicans are using the tired meme that by setting a date for withdrawal we are sending a message of defeat to the Iraqis. The problem with that meme is that we have nothing to win or loose anymore in the area. The war has left our hands and entered into the Iraqi hands. They are in the middle of a civil war now, and we are nothing but bullseyes for target practice.

Our troops tours have been extended from 12 months to 15 months (this is how the president is initating his "surge".) Appatently there is talk to extending them to 18 months. This is happening at the same time as their traing and RnR is being cut. They are required to have at least 12 months inbetween tours. That is being cut. They are required to train during those 12 months. No, they are getting, according to Tony Snow, on the job training.

The Iraq Accountability Act takes care of these and other issues our soldiers face, and yet, our president wants to veto legislation that would do more for the troops than anything he has proposed becasue he is being taken to the woodshed.

Here is a video of Rep. Murtha explaining what is in the Act (the candidate he mentions making a joke about putting an IED under a desk is in reference to John McCain on The Daily Show the other night):

Sir Ian: On Acting

It is nice to know Sir Ian and I have the same method:

Stonehenge In The Backyard

This fellow from Flint, MI thinks he figured out how Stonehenge was created, and is proving it in his backyard. Moving and lifting multi-ton stones by himself. It is pretty darn cool.

(h/t Godgirl)

Easter

An anonymous commenter left the following poem in a previous post. It is a memorial to those freedom fighters martyred in the 1916 Easter Rising, leading to the freedom of Ireland.

As we approach the time of the Resurrection, may we remember those who are still stuck under the yolk of tyranny. May they see the light of the Resurrection, and be inspired to continue their struggles for freedom and peace.

Easter, 1916 -- WB YEATS

I HAVE met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

In The Name of Love

39 years ago today Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was martyred for the cause of love. Let us never forget him. Let us continue to work toward the Dream!


Pride (In The Name of Love)--U2

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One come he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach.
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love...

Wrong Sounding Muppets

Friday humor, courtesy of Family Guy