Hammer Mill Days

Spread some oil on them sticks. That's good. Now bring a bundle of straw over here. In a bunch, in a bunch! Okay.... kerosene. Where'd I put it? What? You sure that's not Vodka? Well... take a glug and let me know. Now, who's got a match? Yikes - didn't know you were logged on. Again, I apologize. Keeping this place in order is a 24/7 kind of job, as you might well imagine. Yes, friends - the Cheney Hammer Mill may be a decrepit, broken down, fetid old ruin with rising damp and water snakes in the basement, but it's home and every once in a while you need to start a bonfire in the courtyard to let the place know you still care. Oh, you may laugh. You may laugh! But we have our traditions here in Big Green . One of them is making Marvin (my personal robot assistant) do all the heavy work. (Of course, that's more a habit than a tradition.) More to the point, another of our traditions is that of setting bonfires on alternate Saturdays during the growing seaso...

September is here, and the progress reports are rolling in on the Iraq project. The president brought several high ranking administration officials along on a "surprise" visit to a fortified base in al-Anbar province, there to crow in his trademark way about what he sees as evidence of success in his "surge" strategy, but which is actually the result of a coincidence of purpose between U.S. forces and Sunni tribal leaders there who had resolved to rid themselves of al-Qaeda types some time ago. I can't tell you how many times I heard about insurgent groups in central Iraq turning against that stark minority of foreign jihadists through the course of last year. That is not the work of our military strategists - that is probably the Iraqis taking on a destructive force they feel they can actually defeat, as opposed to fighting the U.S., which they can bleed but not defeat. No one should kid themselves into thinking that this is the beginning of a long-term allian...