Missing in Afganistan.
Topic: General News.

As of the moment my writing, the search is on for what the pentagon is now saying is a recon team of four men in a mountainous region in the east of Afghanistan near the city of Asadabad in Konar Province near the Pakistani border where a MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shoot down by Taliban fighters last Tuesday, killing American 16 soldiers. An RPG brought down the Chinook during either an effort to reinforce the team or to extract them. (Reports now say one sailor has been found alive.) The story from the pentagon is still unclear. It is reported now that hundreds of U.S. forces are in the area looking for the lost soldiers. A self styled Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, quoted by various news organizations claims the Taliban have captured one American. Apparently, the area in question is very rugged and perfectly suited to traditional Afghan insurgent tactics, which have been known to, in the past, lead to costly defeats for invaders. Time will tell.

What the hell is going on in Afghanistan anyway? I thought after three years over there it was all wrapped up. Instead, the Taliban are back with a vengeance, literally, the poppy crop is bountiful and we’re taking serious loses from car bombs, RPGs and IEDs. Last I heard the Talibs were history and the Afghan people were rallying behind their elected government. Perhaps the reports of victory were premature, a senior Afghan official is quoted in the NY Times as saying, “We were wrong. It seems they were spending the time preparing.” [Mood of anxiety engulfs Afghans as violence rises]

Everyone is talking about what a disaster it would be to pull the troops out in Iraq, but what about Afghanistan? What the hell are we doing there and when will those poor bastards be coming home? What major defeat to U.S. prestige will us leaving Hamid Karzai to his own devices do? (Hell, the Chinese will be taking over the Goddamn Centgas pipeline anyway when they buy Unical, so our job is done, as far as I can see. Let them worry about the freakin’ pipeline.)

It might be time for another one of those stay-the-course speeches by Bush with the creepy silence and green tarp in the back covering the basketball court. I dunno. What about the “Pakis,” as W likes to call them? What is Pervez doing to stem the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan? Regime change in Damascus might be the only answer!

Senate Supreme Court conformation hearings are quaint.

But wait! Here comes the best distraction from the mess in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, too: A Supreme Court nomination fight. They could nuke Kabul and you wouldn’t find out about it until next month. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for “operation revenge cull” in Baghdad and maybe a little Israeli incursion into Lebanon to boot. And you’ll never hear that story about the V.A.’s 1.5 billion dollar budget shortfall because they forgot to ask for it, again. (Down the memory hole.)

Everybody is talking about Alberto Gonzalez (Mr. Water-boarding.) being Bush’s choice, but I don’t know. The left hates him because of all those torture memos and the right hates him because he’s not sufficiently rabid when it comes to the government getting into the gynecology biz. Then again, forgetting the fact that he’s a real lightweight when it comes to the law and apparently doesn’t have his own opinions on things, this might actually be the perfect candidate from Bush’s handlers view. Both sides equally despise him so he’d be considered a moderate, right? Where’s that baby king Solomon?

Lincoln was a gun nut and Diane Rehm is a commie!

My time is limited today (sorry for the lack of links), but I thought these two items are of interest:

One reason the government is a little slow on paying for things thee days might be because they are spending money on things like this. It appears reverend Louis Sheldon, of the Traditional Values Coalition, told the Park Service an eight-minute film they show at the Lincoln Memorial was full of liberal bias. [AP] “The video gave the impression that Lincoln would have supported abortion and homosexuality.” AP reports a FOIA request found the Park Service spent $20,000 scrambling to get video footage of “ President Bush, pro-gun advocates, and pro-Iraq war rallies, “ and even considered removing Clinton, to revamp the video. Some might say the Park Service was turning into another propaganda arm of the administration and caved to one religious nut, but no! Park Service deputy-director Don Murphy says the service has a “responsibility to present a balanced approach. We do not respond solely to any special interest group.” No not solely, they heard from the White House, too I’m sure. And whoever the political commissar at the service is.

Liberal Bias at NPR: (The lesson is: sucking up doesn't pay.)

Then there is the CPB. All these years NPR has been trying to get over to the “right” side of the nuts in congress, all those endless stories about anti-abortion activists, the worshipful wall-to-wall coverage of Ronald Reagan’s death, all those powerpuff questions to all the leading lights of the right wing, trying everything they could not to even utter the name Bill Moyers and this is what they get!

Kenneth Thomlinson launched secret investigation to monitor liberal bias on public radio. [AP] A “researcher” Fred Mann, whose work product of 50 pages was exposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan, who called it a “little nutty” and a sham, cost the tax-payers $14,700. [Note: in the president’s budget 1 million was cut from efforts to teach children about the dangers of obesity because it was considered redundant since Nickelodeon and the Disney channel has similar drives.] Those reds under investigation were, Bill Moyers, Tavis Smiley, David Broncaccio (A big time commie) and Diane Rehm and for a little balance Tucker Carlson. (What?) They call Diane Rehm the Red Queen; I don’t know what she thought she was getting away with. She says she feels betrayed because she actually interviewed Thomlinson and he didn’t mention he had siced a radio spy on her. Tough luck Madam Mao.

Come to Iraq: The rules are different here.

AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents mounted attacks against Arab and Muslim diplomats in Iraq on Tuesday, wounding Bahrain's top envoy in a kidnapping attempt. Pakistan's ambassador also escaped an assault on his convoy. The attacks came three days after gunmen seized Egypt's top envoy to Iraq as he was buying a newspaper in the capital..."

Pakistan's enoy "AFP Younis Khan will be shifted to the Jordanian capital Amman following Tuesday's assassination attempt, the third attack in four days on a foreign diplomat in Iraq's main city, Pakistan's foreign ministry said."