All the news that's fit to blog

Morning all. It's a grey, spring, Friday morning and snow showers are on the way for the weekend.

In global news, if any of you have heard of this new book Cobra II out on shelves now, it's a detailed account of the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom (replace Freedom with pun connoting how horribly it's gone here). The gist of it is that as soon as we went in to Iraq Rummy and all the generals were either seeing or had been told that this was going to be an insurgent battle. The army was escaping and blending in with their weapons. It turns out Sadaam had planned for the army to return as an insurgency. But all the while he never thought we'd actually attack and didn't take measures to escape until we hit Bagdad. He really was only worried about Iran and Israel. He had to fake his neighbors into thinking he had WMDs and never once thought that irony of not having them but lying he did would turn into an American invasion. The crossroads was upon Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Instead of stepping up the number of troops in order to quell the looming insurgency, he, like his boss, doesn't like to admit any form of defeat and stuck to his original plan of 200,000 troops thereby dooming Iraq and indeed all of us to these past three years of chaos that is now organizing itself into civil war. But Bush, in his latest press conference, vehemently thinks he still needs his Rummy and no resignation (two were given during his first term) will be accepted.
I guess I'd just like to take this opportunity to talk to anyone who thought Bush was bad but Kerry would most definitely be worse. I agree on many levels that Kerry is an idiot. He can't not be boring. He makes Gore's civic lessons look exciting. And he picks the Alito nomination to the supreme court to stand and filibuster while he's skiing in, where else, Davos Switzerland. Granted, he wouldn't shoot any one in the face by accident, but Kerry had a lot of miss steps. But look at Bush. Look at what his steadfastness, or rather stubbornness is getting us. And look at Bush's team. His inner circle. With Kerry in, they would have been gone too. And in would have come fresh blood. One thing we always say about Bush is that he's the devil you know. But why do we also chose devils we know over those we don't? Does anyone really think Harriet Meirs, Katrina, Rita, Iraq, etc... would have been treated this badly under a Kerry administration? Come on! Even Bush's tax cuts don't fully take effect until 2008 so we wouldn't have had higher taxes. I used to say a few years ago if Bush is re-elected he'll go down as a good president because he'll have the second term opportunity to clean up his mess (back when I thought Iraq was still winable). And if he wasn't reelected all his bafoonery would be revealed. Turns out it's the opposite. Another terms is giving the Bush administration the finals nails into its own coffin. And a single term would have put all Bush's deficits and fumblings into the hands of Kerry or whoever to clean up, being the responsible but poorly received president. I guess we have more to think about when elections come up again.

And in local news. It's anniversary time! The 21st was my parents 30th anniversary since they met. Wonderful story that I've already blogged about, go check that one out. It's also my dad's dead dad's birthday (my grandpapi I never knew). He would have been 121 this year. I know! But the 23rd was also the anniversary of my parents first date, and coincidentally my AD's, Linda's, first date with her man. As we were having lunch with RB's BDH and Janny yesterday it occurred to us it was also a year since our dear Bacon Greese had left us in NY for the sun and surf of the west coast. We miss you RB! And The 12th was the first anniversary of my bro and his dear lady, Mary. How sweet a couple they are. Without knowing it, they gave each other the same gift, 5 hours at the same day spa.
And lo and behold, Ekta's back! She surprised me yesterday when my phone rang and it was her Ameican cell phone number and not some weird long Indian one. She took the plunge, she's back, she's freelancing and interviewing, and let's all welcome her to where she belongs, good old NYC!

That's the news lady's and gents. Goodnight and Good Luck. (I think I'm gonna have to come up with a more original sign off)