Incendiary Advice

You know, just when I think I'm fresh out of new outrage, the Bush administration brews more. Just like Braun, only not remotely wonderful.

Saturday at one a.m. I read an excellent diary by Sherlock Google at Daily Kos detailing how phony defense companies are created as fronts for money to be funnelled to the GOP -- the consequences of which we're starting to see in the form of resignations like that of Duke Cunningham.

Granted, it was one a.m. and I was just waking up, so the vision and mental processes weren't firing on all cylinders; but that was only a partial reason I was left scratching my head, reading it over and over. It's all so very beyond the pale, outside the realm of decency, that often I'm simply left cold, unsure whether to cry or vomit first.

Take this, for instance:

Families are upset because their children who are killed in action in Iraq are being shipped back home AS FREIGHT.

Our thoughtful, extravagant Pentagon (only both those things when it comes to finding creative ways to make more money off the war), rather than honoring the troops by bringing them home in the traditional flag-drapped coffin, is sending them back amidst the luggage in the plane cargo holders.

I cannot imagine being a parent, like John and Stacey Holley, who went to retrieve the body of their only child, Matthew John Holley, only to discover he was treated like so many boxed computers and suitcases.

Of course, the Holleys contacted their senator, Barbara Boxer (D-California) who had to intervene to make sure their son was brought home with the dignity and respect he deserved. How horrible.

If anyone in the Bush administration dares suggest others do not support the troops, one need only look at how they treat soldiers who gave up their lives fighting this war.


Last time I checked, people shouldn't be left in boxes that say "This End Up."