Making Conservatives Cringe Since 1977

Donald Rumsfeld: "Golly, it sure is a super fantastic morning."

Rest of the Table: "..."

Donald Rumsfeld: "I said good morning staff"

Rest of the Table: "... Good morning Secretary Rumsfeld."

Donald Rumsfeld: "That is much better."

General Peter Pace: "What is on the agenda for this morning?"

Donald Rumsfeld: "We must silence Daniel Goetz. Silence him I say."

General Peter Pace: "Who is Daniel Goetz?"

Donald Rumsfeld: "We must topple his blog like we did that statue of Sadaam in Baghdad."

Rest of the table: "..."

Donald Rumsfeld: "When we take over his blog, called "All the King's Men" we will be greeted as liberators. We will teach him to use Orwellianesque stuff on his blog, the bastard."

Donald Rumsfeld: "Anyone else ever get a craving for a green chile cheese burger at 5:30 am?"

Rest of the table: "...."

Donald Rumsfeld: "Just this morning I was craving one, you know a big and juicy double one, well nobody is open to make me one."

General Peter Pace: "Secretary, back to Daniel Goetz. What did he write on his blog?"

Donald Rumsfeld: "He said mean things about me. Made me cry."

So here is the post (if I’d had time) I should have written last Monday. It’s the follow-up to the story of SSG Daniel Goetz’s blog All the King’s Horses, which had an Orwellian final post entitled “Double Plus Ungood.” If you follow my link to the story you’ll notice it isn’t on his site, because his site doesn’t exist anymore. In print you'll only find its reminants on his fiancé's site. I was heartened to find that Holly had archieved Daniel's work, I'd been planning to do a post on my own "Going After Cacciato" fantsy, much like SSG Goetz’s September 07th post “Tunneling to Iran,” and did a doubletake when I got the "404 page not found" notice. Some are not so lucky. I was alerted to a similar situation by Mom in America, which is best put in her words:

Afghanistantastic [dead link] had the misfortune to be on "Featured Spaces" this week. She's a young Captain, who as of yesterday was stationed in Afghanistan, working on the quake relief. She was there this morning, checked in today and is offline tonight...and is off the "Featured Spaces" list. Her last post was one of frustration. It seems that a lot of people are dying in Pakistan because of red tape and she had the audacity to say so. Probably offended some people that she said that. Could have even gotten a few stars taken off of collars. She could have lost rank for doing it, but if one kid in Pakistan is eating tonight because she did, it'll make up for her lost rank. I know that she knows that. I also know that she knew exactly what she was risking by making that post. She took the gamble. My prayer is that our government ensures that it was worth it, to her, but more importantly to the people of Pakistan. This planet no longer has any use for red tape when people are dying in droves from exposure, starvation and disease. This planet is showing us this year, and more specifically tonight where I live, that it is quite capable of wiping us out if we don't start working together on this stuff NOW. There is no longer room for ego. There is no longer room for profit. One Captain in Afghanistan, by doing her job with all of her heart, tried to bring that to light. She can't anymore. She's "gone silent". It seems to me that the question in all of this is, have we?

posted by Frederick  # 10/29/2005 12:15:00 PM