Hammer Mill Days

Okay, what have you got? Mildred... Fitch . Mildred Fitch, 1429 Mulberry Lane, Aurolias, NJ. Got it. Who's next? Get... Get... Stuffed . Get Stuffed. And where does "Get" live? Up... my... HEY!! Oh, hi. Okay, good enough, how are you? Great, great. What are we doing? Funny you should ask. We're working on our mailing list. In fact, Marvin (my personal robot assistant) and I were just compiling names when you logged on. Frankly, it could use a little work. We haven't released a full-length album in almost nine years - that's NINE YEARS to those of you who are hard of hearing - and our list has kind of gone to seed in the interim. Truth be told, we sent out a little teaser message to the folks on our 2000 Years To Christmas list, and it bounced back so hard the sucker hit me square in the face. (I think it loosened a tooth or two, actually.) It's been a rough nine years on our constituency, friends, and a lot of them have moved on to bigger, greener pasture...

Amazing thing happened this past week: the Iraqi government appears to have actually represented one of the main concerns of the nation it purports to represent - namely that the occupying army of the United States start making definite plans for withdrawal... that is, total withdrawal from their country. One spokesperson for al-Maliki actually talked about a timetable for pulling out. Now, this is the government the Bush administration is so very adamant about protecting. The mere mention of a timetable on this side of the ocean is an invitation to be denounced as a "surrender monkey". Those who've advanced the idea are roundly accused of undermining the Baghdad government, whose stability has been bought by the blood of our soldiers, etc. And yet, this is the opinion of the vast majority of Iraqis, so it's little wonder Maliki would bring it up a) while status of forces agreement talks are going on, and b) when there are elections coming up. Maliki's party has...