Tannishblog

Apologies to the makers of the famous powdered H2O additive:

That must be good stuff they pass around the sauna stones at Republican National-whatever gatherings. To say it’s Electric Kool-aid doesn’t cover it; the Merry Pranksters gang got some compassion from their experiments. People like John McCain and Mike Pence (R-IN) are drinking Crack Cocaine Kool-aid to think that a staged, one-hour "tour" of the Shorja market in Baghdad was anything like a normal shopping trip.

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

I regularly don body armor, hire sharpshooters and a full company of soldiers with Humvees when I go to the market. Apparently so does Mike Pence:

At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and his three Congressional colleagues described Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming Iraqis — “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime,” offered Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who was a member of the delegation.

I’m glad I don’t live in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, in Realityopolis, the Iraqi merchants view yesterday’s pageant differently:

“They paralyzed the market when they came,” Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.”

He added, “This will not change anything.”

I’m sure the impact of such high-and-mighty Americans will make no difference to the beleaguered Iraqis, but this silliness may have profound impact on John McCain’s electability quotient. Pass the juice, son!

Four years ago and then some, the Bushniks created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) out of fear and the need to look like something was being done about their fear. Amorphous and veiled behind a blackout of news coverage and secrecy, this huge addition to our already vast bureaucratic behemoth has

Just for giggles, I searched the following phrase in Google to see all the great and wonderful things the Wizards of DHS have been doing for our country:

"What has the Department of Homeland Security done for you?"

This is the resulting page; one article that has little actual substance. I tried a different tack:

"accomplishments of the department of homeland security"

Much to my bemused un-surprise, the Greatest Search Engine Yet Created, after years of aggregating the collective knowledge of the Known Universe, found one page of entries. A grand total of seven items, most involving testimonies of DHS officials to congress after only the first year. At least one entry is a duplicate. Nothing since then.

Has congress not bothered to monitor the fledgling agency? Perhaps the information is part of the mountain of classified documents our secretive, paranoid administration holds so tightly. Whatever the cause, information about the DHS is not the the delectation of the masses.

I ask this: What has the DHS done for you? Name five clear accomplishments of the Department of Homeland Security? I can only think of one. The politically expedient and curiously convenient thermometer of Terror Alerts. (did you know in the new Windows Vista sidebar gadgetry you can get the latest terror alert downloaded right to your desktop?) It’s not like the DHS has hammered out a smooth protocol for airport security. Besides absorbing long-standing governmental agencies like a cancer gobbles up cells, or putting spin to the impossible and impractical "problems" the DHS was supposed to be tackling, (PDF) is there anything concrete the agency has done for the People of the United States?

Well? Do you feel safer?

What is that sound… Oh. Crickets.