there's a difference.

i can respect you if you're a conservative.

what i cannot respect is if you support this president and this administration.

that's all.

Lee Hamilton of the 9-11 commission is on the Diane Rehm show right now. Tangentially: check out that picture of Diane on her homepage. I don't know if I'd call Silver Fox, but I have to admit I'm surprised. From the sound of her voice, I've usually pictured Ms. Rehm as some sort of Egyptian mummy, eternally cursed to (slowly) roam the halls of WAMU and interview mid-level government functionaries, her ever-parched throat laboriously forming horrible, guttural noises that slowly coalesce into requests for explanations of exactly what the Alternative Minimum Tax is. Then Brendan Fraser shows up and kills her.

But I'm posting this because Mr. Hamilton has just revealed that he and his fellow commission members have agreed that in the face of any potential conflict of interest they will "re-cooz" themselves (as opposed to the more traditional practice of recusal). If you haven't picked up enough Italian slang from the Sopranos for this to click, suffice it to say this sounds like a pretty awesome commission to be on.

Thanks to everyone for coming out on Saturday. We're still fine-tuning our barbeque methodology -- a later start next time, perhaps? Now that sun isn't in such short supply we're free to prioritize being able to maintain party-mode into the wee hours, so we can feel like the reckless college students we all wish we still were.

I was initially going to make some jokes in extremely poor taste about the Will to Party and something called grillensraum that I had only half worked-out. You'll have to forgive me; entirely by accident, every meal I've eaten for the past 60 hours has involved sausage of one sort or another, and I'm sure it's done something unpleasant to my brain -- if I had to guess, I'd say cumin poisoning.

Still, maybe it's inevitable that this blog's twin enthusiasms for furious, ill-considered political thought and grilling come together in a new barbeque-centric ideological movement. For now, though, the political landscape will remain un-rocked. At least until we can work reality TV into our platform. Then... REVOLUCIÓN!

man. mondays are bad enough without having to come into work and read the dozens of ways our president has made a mockery of american credibility, democracy and justice.

stealing directly from mark kleiman:

1. The President told the Saudi Ambassador about our war plans two days before he told his Secretary of State.

2. The Saudi Ambassador promised to knock down oil prices in time to help the President get re-elected.

3. Money appropriated for Afghan reconstruction was instead used, without Congressional approval, for preparations for the war in Iraq.

sometimes, i just want to cry out of frustration.