If you want to survive out here, you've got to know where your towel is.

Friday Towel Blogging.

Today is the anniversary of the death of the greatest man the universe has ever had the temerity to squat out- Douglas Adams.

In memory of this great man don't forget to take your towel with you wherever you go.

If you have a minute you might want to play a little bit of the Infocom Text Adventure based on the book. The "Babel Fish" puzzle is universally considered to be the hardest puzzle ever included in a computer game.

(I made that last bit up but it's true.)

Then don't forget to drink a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in memory of Douglas.

Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it's *stupid*, but I'm gonna do it! Okay?

In the off chance you haven't seen this already - Olbermann is spot on is right; they were elected to one thing.

They've failed.

If you want to join the People's Front of Judea, you have to really hate the Romans.

I realized yesterday that although my outrage meter on George W. Bush has long sense maxed out, I still have room for plenty of outrage aimed at Democrats in congress. I am simply livid that they caved to Bush on the Iraq supplemental and basically gave him everything he wanted to let him push this disaster onto the lap of the next President.

There's a whole hell of a lot to say about this and how it's a fundamental betrayal of the will of the American people not to mention just plain stupid politics when dealing with a President as unpopular as Bush, but I just want to address one little canard that crawled out of the mud yesterday - Nicholas Beaudrot's much talked about contention that this is a direct result of Democrats taking power through the election of moderates in Republican districts.

Put aside the dubious methodology to Beaudrot uses to come to this conclusion the bottom line is it's completely irrelevant how Democrats won the last election. What's important is that there was a referendum on George W. Bush and his execution of the war in Iraq. Can anybody name any other national issue that was debated in every district in the country? Can anybody seriously argue that the message voters sent to our leaders was to get our boys the hell out of that quagmire?

Democratic congressmen of all stripes - moderates, liberals, conservatives or martian - were put in power to end this stupid fucking war. Democratic politicians like Pelosi and Reid who fail in that fundamental task aren't just sticking their finger in the eyes of the Democratic base, they're giving the majority of Americans the finger.

Walter, you're wonderful, in a loathsome sort of way.

It's not often that I feel the need to comment on the death of a famous businessman but I was saddened to hear that local tire legend Les Schwab. The couple of bios I've read focused on Schwab's involvement in the community, focus of keeping the corporate headquarters in rural Oregon and commitment to sharing the profits of his company with his workers. All admirable stuff.

But the thing that sticks out in my mind when I think of Schwab's company more than those things is their commitment to providing excellent service to customers. The company stands head and shoulders above any other company I can think of when it comes to provide quality service. In today's world that's just unheard of.

A few years ago the Missus and I were visiting a small Washington burg on a Sunday when the breaks went out on our car. We were able to make it to a Les Schwab that was closing with only a couple of employees left. After explaining the situation to the guys they re-opened the shop just for us and repaired our brakes, only charging us cost and not overtime and refusing tips. That led to one of the only letters I've ever written to a company praising their service.

I wish more American companies followed Schwab's model for service. I'm keeping my finger's crossed that his death doesn't lead to a downturn in such service at the company he ran so successfully.

Shame, shame, shame!

Maybe it's just me but I think Siun is being a little hard on the Marines.

Yes, it's important that the Marines act honorably and take steps to reduce civilian casualties but I think that's missing the broader point. As I've said many times the U.S. Marine Corps shouldn't even be in Iraq in the first place. At least not since the initial hostilities ended.

The Marines exist as a branch of the U.S. armed forces for reason only: to destroy the armies of our enemies. Brutally, and without mercy. They are very, very good at fulfilling that charter. Probably the best organization in the world when it comes to that.

When it comes to things outside of that charter such as peacekeeping and police work the Marines are wholly out of their element. It's like trying to use an axe to slice a loaf of bread. It's not only the wrong tool for the job it's the wrong family of tools.

It's another aspect of the attempts by the administration to hide the true costs of the war and prosecute it on the cheap that they've put branches of our armed services into situations they aren't equipped nor trained for. The deaths that've occured to Iraq civilians are as much the responsibility of the civilians who made these decisions as they are the individual Marines who did the killing. You don't leave your baby with a pit-bull then complain when it gets mauled. The same formula works here.

I'm the Horned One. The Devil. Let me give you my card.

As consumers of information, as most of my friends who read this blog no doubt are, It's fascinating to me how disparate tidbits of information gel into the larger narrative. Just this morning I'm reading Digby's take on yesterday's Comey testimony before congress and Josh Marshall's continuing coverage of the U.S. Attorney firing scandal and am struck by how very much alike these two scandals are.

First Digby -

How over-the-top must this have been for staunch Republican John Ashcroft to have risen from his ICU bed to argue against it and the entire top echelon of the DOJ were preparing to resign? These are not ordinary times and the law enforcement community has not been particularly squeamish about stretching the Bill of Rights. None of those people are bleeding heart liberals or candidates for the presidency of the ACLU. For them to be this adamant, it must have been something completely beyond the pale.

My suspicion has always been that there was some part of this program --- or an entirely different program --- that included spying on political opponents. Even spying on peace marchers and Greenpeace types wouldn't seem to me to be of such a substantial departure from the agreed upon post 9/11 framework that it would cause such a reaction from the top brass, nor would it be so important to the president that he would send Gonzales and Card into the ICU to get Ashcroft to sign off on it while he was high on drugs.

Then Marshall -

If you look over the broad scattering of documents thus far released on the Attorney Purge, there's at least an argument to be made that it unfolds something like this. Someone gets the bright idea, very early in 2005 to can all of the US Attorneys or a lot of them. But for one reason or another the idea gets rejected or just dies a slow bureaucratic death. However it happens, by the end of 2005 the idea's basically moribund.

But then in early 2006 some problems come up -- a rising wave of Republican corruption scandals and declining Republican political fortunes. And the US Attorney Purge idea gets revived -- but now with a much more specific focus, with an eye toward the 2006 and 2008 elections. Certain US Attorneys become more of a problem with expanding corruption investigations.

If I'm sure of anything with regards to what the founders intended for this country it's this: the power of the federal government should never be engaged in partisan political activities. The modern Republican party as embodied by the Bush administration seems to care less about this truism.

This is just one of the examples why I consider the Republican/ Democratic party are equivalent argument absurd. The Democrat party has a hell of a lot of problems. But nothing they could do could compare to the sheer un-American evil we've seen out of Bush and his crew in congress this past six years.

Let the joyous news be spread. The wicked witch at last is dead!

The above quote expresses my best sentiment at the death of the odious Jerry Falwell today.

Vital signs are weak, Cover Girl. But Duke's no ordinary man.

I was debating a more conservative buddy at work and his view of how America projects itself to the world and it struck me that much of his own sense of politics, at least his continued loyalty to George W. Bush, stems from his belief that Bush's redeeming and defining quality is the concept that he's muy macho.

When my friend looks at George W. Bush Commander Guy he sees this-

The picture of resolution and strength.

But what most of America and much of the rest of the world see when they look at Bush is something more like this-

Therein lies the breakdown of communication between my friend an I. He has a twisted view of machismo.

When your head says one thing and your whole life says another, your head always loses.

Thank God President Bush is now turning that massive brainpower he's used to fight the War on Terror towards fighting air pollution.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; we'd all be better off if Bush spent the rest of his term golfing. Every day.

He is simply incapable of making the right decision about anything and doesn't even have the blind luck to win a toin coss.

Some of these buildings are over 20 years old.

If you like film You'll probably enjoy this tour of locations used in movies in Los Angeles-