I came, I saw, I pressed a crease

“In an act of callous political opportunism, Gov. Jeb Bush last week basically kicked down the door of a hospice and forced a feeding tube down poor Terri Schiavo's throat.” Read more.

Never has a Washington Post editorial, or at least its headline, expressed an opinion so diametrically opposed to the wishes of everyone in the United States and indeed the world: “Speak Up, Mr. Rumsfeld.”

Oddly, the same section has an op/ed piece by Rummy, which seems to call for a hard slog, to coin a phrase, against terrorists and what he calls terrorist states, in which the nearly pointless war in Iraq is once again conflated with the war on terrorism. By the way, last week the Senate voted 97-1 to allow the “War on Terrorism” medal to be awarded to soldiers who fought in Iraq (Jim Jeffords was the one). I hope soldiers who think they were lied to about the reasons they were sent into Iraq will publicly throw those medals away; indeed, I don’t see what else they can do with honor.

We’ve heard a little bit in the last week about the wounded in our little colonial brush war. I’d have said casualties, but the Pentagon has redefined that word to refer only to dead soldiers. You’ll be pleased to hear that wounded reservists will be moved from their current facilities to some place with indoor plumbing (they’re in Georgia, so what do you expect). Hurrah!

Click here, if you don’t believe me about the lack of indoor toilets.

The Post has an analysis of Iraqi weapons, and concludes that there were none of the weapons programs the Bushies claimed. I’m not sure it says anything we didn’t know, but others are treating the story as a big deal, so I pass it on.

Russia has arrested its richest man, an oil tycoon. Before you giggle too much, understand that Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the main financial support of the liberal opposition and that elections are less than 2 months away. A previous richest man in Russia was granted political asylum by the UK last month.

From the Times: “THE bishop at the centre of the dispute over same-sex blessings in the Anglican Church yesterday compared homosexuals in the Church to the Israelites wandering for 40 years in a wilderness infested with snakes.” But not in a good, you know, metaphoric way.

Israel releases its plans for the fence/wall, and yes it will cut 15 miles into Palestinian territory. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: Mr. Sharon, stick this wall up your ass.

This weekend, Israel destroyed several 13-story apartment blocks in Gaza, leaving thousands homeless. Also, all those homes destroyed, allegedly in the search for tunnels, were actually to create a giant buffer zone. Also, the military is ordering Palestinians who live in 15 villages near the Berlin Wall to get permits to live in their own homes; they are deeming the area a “closed military zone.” Any Palestinian (but not a Jew) visiting the area will require a pass. Note that when the UN Security Council was debating condemning the wall, Israel promised that the legal status of Palestinians would be unaffected.