Catzmaw's Commentary

• Foreclosure Phil Hates Whiners

  For a superb article on just why Phil Gramm is a greedy lowlife who is more responsible than any other Congress critter for the mortgage foreclosure crisis, take a look at this article from Mother Jones Magazine.
  
  Foreclosure Phil
  
  Foreclosure Phil was in the news this week, [...]
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  Posted: July 12, 2008, 11:28pm EDT
  

• In Sorrow for Four Boy Scouts

  
  An elegy is a mournful remembrance, usually a poem, which expresses sorrow for death, quite often the deaths of the young and innocent. I'm not much of a poet, but would like to express here my sorrow over the deaths of four young Boy Scouts, [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2008, 7:38pm EDT
  

• Wrong About Wright - Or How the Punditocracy is Making Suckers of Us All

  Cross-posted to Raising Kaine
  
  Show of hands - who here has actually listened to the Moyers interview, the NAACP speech, and the National Press Club speech WITH its follow up Q&A session?
  
  Me, me, I did!! Really? Okay, anyone else? How about you David Gergen? How about all [...]
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  Posted: April 29, 2008, 3:21pm EDT
  

• Travesty - Fort Bragg's Treatment of Returning Soldiers

  This was posted on Fred2Blue's blog, who deserves credit for bringing it to our attention, and viewers were encouraged to copy and circulate it wherever possible. It tells of the treatment of the 508th Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, who returned only a week ago from a hellish 15 month [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2008, 5:03pm EDT
  

• Obama Repudiates Pastor's Excesses

  Obama here handles his pastor's inflammatory statements about as well as they can be handled.
  
  
  
  I'm getting a little annoyed at the guilt by association being foisted on all three candidates who are being trailed by ridiculous statements from embarrassing surrogates. McCain has Hagee and Parsley; [...]
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  Posted: March 16, 2008, 10:50am EDT
  

• I'm Stealing Phriendly Jaime's Post

  (Stolen, by invitation, from West of Shockoe)
  
  Please steal this post from me and spread it far and wide I'm serious. I would like as many of you as possible to steal this straight from here, put it on your blog(s), email it to everyone you know, tell [...]
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  Posted: March 13, 2008, 8:04pm EDT
  

• The Incarceration Crisis Revisited -

  (Cross-posted to Raising Kaine)
  
  From the Washington Post comes the unsurprising news that more than one percent (1%) of all the adults in America are in jail or in prison. Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison.
  With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of [...]
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  Posted: February 28, 2008, 10:07pm EST
  

• Contractor Cupidity and the Long, Late Arm of the Law

  From the Chicago Tribune on February 21st came this story of indictments of KBR contractors for massive corruption in procuring and administering contracts before and during the occupation of Iraq.
  
  Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2008, 7:28pm EST
  

• Veterans Harmed By Errors on DD214s

  Cross-posted to Raising Kaine
  
  Military.com has posted a story, originally from the Buffalo News, of the plight of an increasing number of veterans who are finding their DD214s, the records of their military service, contain sometimes critical errors and omissions.
  
  The story tells of close to [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2008, 2:08pm EST
  

• Afghanistan Combat - Civilian Casualties and the Impossible Goal

  From the New York Times comes this article by Elizabeth Rubin, who was embedded with Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the Korengal River valley of northeastern Afghanistan.
  
  The author originally went to the Korengal Valley to find out why there have been so many civilian [...]
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  Posted: February 24, 2008, 6:52pm EST
  

• Touting Torture - Waterboarding and the Ethically Impermissible

  The Department of Justice took out the trash on Friday, February 22nd, and dumped a little tidbit into a news cycle which perhaps it hoped would be missed between accounts of Britney's child visitation woes and Hillary's increasingly desperate attacks on Obama.
  
  The New York Times reported Friday [...]
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  Posted: February 23, 2008, 9:11pm EST
  

• The New GI Bill - Webb Proposes and the Pentagon Opposes

  In the last two days there have been two broadcasts featuring Senator Jim Webb's proposed S.22, the Bill to amend the GI Bill to provide for payment of the education costs of our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
  
  The Bush Administration, which is long on yellow car magnets [...]
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  Posted: February 13, 2008, 10:21pm EST
  

• FISA Freakout - Senator Webb, the Constitution, and What It All Means

  Cross posted to Raising Kaine
  
  On February 12, 2008 Senator Jim Webb issued the following statement on his vote for passage of the FISA bill:
  
  There were a number of measures brought before the Senate today that I believed could have improved the FISA bill which passed overwhelmingly [...]
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  Posted: February 13, 2008, 6:17pm EST
  

• From Silent Spook to All Kiriakou All the Time - Something Doesn't Smell Right

  Cross-posted at Raising Kaine
  
  Is it just me or is there something fishy about this Kiriakou guy? Just last week we learned out of the blue that the CIA destroyed hundreds of hours of videotape of detainee interrogations, some of which included torture such as waterboarding. Within a few [...]
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  Posted: December 12, 2007, 2:06am EST
  

• Finally Free of Photons - Fabulous

  Here's my last post from the Parotid Tumor Patients' Forum. Of all the things I've lost it's my mind I miss the most, and look forward to renewing its acquaintance after a few days or weeks off the radiation. Let's hope it missed me and wants to come home.
  [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2007, 2:24pm EST
  

• Photon Freakout

  Another couple of weeks have gone by and with them seventeen photon treatments; seemingly endless treatments. It's hard to remember what it was like not to report to the hospital every weekday. I'm there walking the hallways so much that not only have I found all the shortcuts to the [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2007, 11:53pm EDT
  

• Radiation Update - Parotid Tumor Journal

  Thank you to those who've expressed their concern about my situation. I feel fortunate in that my condition is not cancer, and I will not require chemotherapy, and that I live in an area where there is easy access to cutting edge modern medical treatment. For those who may have [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2007, 10:08pm EDT
  

• Radiation Therapy Follies

  The last few months have been a whirlwind of weird medical issues and elderly relative caretaking responsibilities. Oh, and there's also running the business and all that. I haven't posted in a very long time, but I've missed my blog.
  
  Starting next week I begin radiation treatment for my [...]
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  Posted: August 03, 2007, 12:18am EDT
  

• Death of a Soldier

  Just read this powerful article about the life and death of Army Staff Sgt. Darrell Ray Griffin, Jr. E-Mails Reveal a Fallen Soldier's Story. Sgt. Griffin was killed by a sniper in Sadr City on March 21, 2007 while standing in the hatch of his Stryker vehicle. Embedded journalist [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2007, 5:11pm EDT
  

• The Good That We Do Ain't Doing So Well - Iraq Reconstruction Projects Going Down the Tubes

  A common complaint of Iraq war supporters is that the MSM "doesn't tell the success stories" of projects built and progress made. Setting aside for a moment the story of those projects which never made it off the ground thanks to rampant corruption, contractor incompetence, and diversion of funds to [...]
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  Posted: April 29, 2007, 11:25pm EDT
  

• So Are They Prisoners of War or Criminal Detainees?

  For a brief period on Thursday, April 26th, Senator Patrick Leahy became a witness and testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the rights of Guantanamo detainees.
  
  Leahy described the indefinite detention of hundreds of individuals as "un-American". Senators skirmish over Gitmo detainees. Thank goodness for people [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2007, 9:29pm EDT
  

• Bush Administration Continues Its Attack on Gitmo Lawyers

  Cross-Posted to Raising Kaine
  
  Here's an article from the New York Times describing the latest in the government's efforts to curtail and obstruct Guantanamo detainees' attorneys in their pursuit of fair hearings on the evidence for their clients. Court Asked to Limit Lawyers at Guantanamo
  
  The government [...]
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  Posted: April 26, 2007, 9:50am EDT
  

• How Do I Scandalize Thee? Let Me Count The Ways.

  Cross-posted to Raising Kaine
  
  For all the people who wished me well during my recent parotid tumor surgery - Thank You. The surgery turned out far better than anyone could have predicted, and I face the world today with a normal (albeit not very striking) face and a renewed [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2007, 8:39pm EDT
  

• Living With A Parotid Tumor

  I've been pretty busy working lately, which accounts in part for why there haven't been any new diaries, but there is also the knowledge that in a few days I will be having surgery for the fifth recurrence of a medical oddity known as a parotid tumor. For all the [...]
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  Posted: April 15, 2007, 8:04pm EDT
  

• Confessions of a C-Span Junkie - Two Callers Show the Way

  Every morning I watch the news until the fake bonhomie and pressing stories of how to make the best fashion decisions or adopt a shelter animal get to me and I feel compelled to change over to C-Span's Washington Journal.
  
  This morning, as I got ready, then left [...]
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  Posted: March 22, 2007, 1:40pm EDT
  

• Jim Webb on the Incarceration Crisis

  Cross-posted at Raising Kaine
  
  This comes a little late, but a week ago Senator Jim Webb was on the ABC show This Week with George Stephanopolous and said something which took me by delighted surprise. We've -- this is a chance to put a lot of issues on the [...]
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  Posted: March 18, 2007, 2:44pm EDT
  

• Surge Scandal - Army Deploying Medically Unfit Troops

  Cross-posted at Raising Kaine
  
  Mark Benjamin of Salon.com reports that the Army is deploying troops to Iraq who have well-documented unfitness for duty (read here).

  
  Is it any surprise that commanders are feeling the pressure to activate as many of their troops as possible to meet the demands [...]

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  Posted: March 12, 2007, 8:11pm EDT
  

• Habeas Corpus - Why Congress Must Act

  A great article from Aziz Huq, found on the Thomas Paine website, Habeas Corpus Can't Wait
  Delay in the day of reckoning occurred not due to the detainees’ lawyers, but through a series of increasingly reckless maneuvers by the administration and its lawyers to avoid any review of the [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2007, 9:38pm EST
  

• GMU! GMU! GMU! Lookout VCU, we're coming for you ...

  Sorry, very excited right now after watching GMU dismantle ODU in the Semis at the CAA tournament. Great game, terrific defense, and great teamwork. Congratulations to Coach Larranaga and his team. [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2007, 7:57pm EST
  

• Iraqi Insurgency in a Nutshell - Or Why We're Up the Proverbial Creek

  Kevin Berger of Salon.com, recently interviewed Evan Kohlmann, founder of GlobalTerrorAlert.com, "a clearinghouse of virtually every communiqué -- video, audio, Internet, printed -- issued by insurgent groups in Iraq." The Iraqi Insurgency for BeginnersKohlmann has ... emerged with a clear-eyed view of who is fighting whom in Iraq and [...]
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  Posted: March 03, 2007, 12:14pm EST
  

• How American Am I?

  Another one of those darn surveys. Here are the results:
  
  You Are 71% American
  Most times you are proud to be an American.
  Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe
  Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home.
  You [...]
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  Posted: February 16, 2007, 9:17pm EST
  

• Tortured Detainees Are Not the Only Ones Traumatized

  A very disturbing column in the Washington Post today from a former interrogator who has nightmares about his complicity in brutal treatment of detainees should give us pause and make us consider the human cost, not only to detainees, but to those we place in charge of them.
  
  Eric [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2007, 10:55pm EST
  

• Congressional Investigation of Blackwater

  Comes a report from PilotOnline.com telling of a Congressional investigation of Blackwater and other contractors. New Congress to Shine a Spotlight on Blackwater USA
  
  Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., ascended to the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which will hold four days of hearings beginning [...]
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  Posted: February 05, 2007, 8:14pm EST
  

• Four Ghosts of the White House

  This comes courtesy of Comedy Central:
  
  The Four Ghosts of the White House
  
  
  One night, George W. Bush is tossing restlessly in his White House bed. He awakens to see George Washington standing by him Bush asks him, "George, what''s the best thing I can [...]
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  Posted: February 02, 2007, 11:12pm EST
  

• Senator Webb Sheds Light on the Matter, Lampshade or Not

  In keeping with his status as a rising star in national politics Senator Webb was interviewed on Face the Nation and declared a Person of Interest on the McLaughlin Group today.
  
  Bob Scheiffer on Face the Nation started off asking Senator Webb what he thought of the peace rally [...]
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  Posted: January 28, 2007, 12:00pm EST
  

• Finally! Contractor Abuse Investigation

  The Associated Press is reporting that the Army has set in motion as many as fifty criminal probes into contractor abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. [news.yahoo.com]
  
  Senior contracting officials, government employees, residents of other countries and, in some cases, U.S. military personnel have been implicated in millions [...]
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  Posted: January 28, 2007, 12:22am EST
  

• Wilkerson: Administration Rejected Iran Overtures in 2003

  In an interview on the BBC News program Newsnight, former senior aide to Colin Powell Lawrence Wilkerson said that Vice President Cheney and other ideologues at the White House rejected Iran's offers of concessions in return for talks in 2003 despite enthusiasm for the proposals at the State Department. [...]
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  Posted: January 18, 2007, 7:55pm EST
  

• William Friedkin on James Webb

  Great article by William Friedkin on Jim Webb as he knows him.
  
  Ambush: Reflections on My Friend Jim Webb
  
  Highlights:
  We've known Jim since 1999 when he wrote an original screenplay called Rules of Engagement, which I directed. We remained friends in spite of numerous "creative differences" [...]
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  Posted: January 17, 2007, 12:08pm EST
  

• Webb Interview Re State of the Union

  For the second year in a row a Virginian has been chosen to deliver the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union speech. Newbie Senator Webb has been picked by Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi to make the response. Webb was interviewed by phone for WAVY 10 in [...]
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  Posted: January 16, 2007, 10:02pm EST
  

• How Much Do Contractors Charge? - Request for Information

  Several days ago I was talking to the family of a soldier in Mosul who complained about the costs to their Army son in Mosul of just the ordinary comforts and things at their son's post, telling me that he was being charged $45 for a case of Coke by [...]
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  Posted: January 15, 2007, 8:37pm EST
  

• Why Habeas Corpus, the Hamad Project, and the Duke Lacrosse Case Are All Related

  In response to my post about Mr. Stimson I received an invitation to view this website: Project Hamad

  
  The invitation came right on the heels of my having seen most of the 60 Minutes report on appalling and flagrant prosecutorial misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case.

  
  As the [...]

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  Posted: January 15, 2007, 3:44pm EST
  

• 10,000 Dead? 100,000 Wounded?

  From Capitol Hill Blue comes this story about a classified Pentagon memo which projects 10,000 casualties in Iraq by the end of 2008. Pentagon memo
  Pentagon planners this week warned President George W. Bush that his "troop surge" plan could double U.S. casualties in Iraq in the coming year [...]
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  Posted: January 14, 2007, 1:09am EST
  

• Charles Stimson is Un-American and a Disgrace to the Legal Profession

  Excuse the emotion running through the heading of this post. Today I learned that Charles Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs and a lawyer educated at a pretty good law school, George Mason University, apparently believes the pro bono attorneys representing detainees at Gitmo and elsewhere, should [...]
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  Posted: January 13, 2007, 4:20pm EST
  

• Fighting Words

  Great article about a recently returned Maryland National Guard officer/DC Lawyer, Adam Tiffen, who maintained a blog (thereplacements.blogspot.com). I haven't checked out the blog, yet, but it's a solid story about one man who felt called by duty to go to Iraq, who did the best that he could [...]
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  Posted: January 10, 2007, 8:59am EST
  

• Waldo Jaquith's General Assembly Tracker

  Congrats to Waldo Jaquith on Richmond Sunlight, tracking every bit of legislation and vote in the General Assembly. Here's the link: Richmond Sunlight [...]
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  Posted: January 09, 2007, 12:41pm EST
  

• RTD Shows Mac McGarvey Some Love

  I remember the article Jim Webb wrote for Parade Magazine in the early 80s about his friend and former radioman, Mac McGarvey. It is quoted extensively in this Richmond Times-Dispatch story about his new role as Jim Webb's legislative assistant for Veterans' Affairs. What impressed me then, and continues to [...]
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  Posted: January 08, 2007, 10:50pm EST
  

• My Book Quiz Results

  Here's the result of my Book Quiz:
  
  

  
  
  
  You're The Poisonwood Bible!
  
  by Barbara Kingsolver
  
  Deeply rooted in a religious background, you have since become both isolated and schizophrenic. You were naively sure that your actions would help people, but of course they [...]

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  Posted: January 08, 2007, 9:59pm EST
  

• Webb's New GI Bill

  Keeping a promise he made during the campaign, Jim Webb's first act as Senator was to introduce a sweeping expansion of veterans' educational benefits, Senate Bill S.22. Here are the highlights from the Marine Times.
  
  Called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, Webb’s bill would boost benefits so they [...]
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  Posted: January 06, 2007, 5:31pm EST
  

• Webb Party at Clarendon Ballroom

  I was hoping to have a twofer to report; having intended to go to the Senate Open House today, but I ended stuck at work today and must settle for a report on the goings on at the Clarendon Ballroom last night.
  
  At 4:45 I walked around the corner [...]
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  Posted: January 04, 2007, 9:11pm EST
  

• Casualties of War

  Interesting and poignant article on the 59 women soldiers killed so far in Iraq and the memorial to them at Fort Lee, Virginia. (U.S. Deaths in Iraq Mark Increased Presence)
  
  One thing this war has done is settle the question of whether women can function in combat situations, [...]
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  Posted: January 02, 2007, 11:00am EST