wassup, dawg?

my dog bit me yesterday.

today, after a visit to the emergency room and the pharmacy, my thumb is throbbing.

but at least it's still attached.

for the record, gunnar isn't mean, he's just stupid. he wanted to eat a dog license form, and my thumb got in the way.

he grabbed the form, and the last half inch of my nail, and clamped down. oh, yeah, he got me good.

the emergency room physician did a fine job with the repairs. first, with the local anesthetic; okay, that hurt. he needled "the four nerves in the thumb," one at a time, each more painful than the last.

then he cut back the nail to expose the nail matrix, which gunnar had made a mess of. then he sutured the whole thing back together. that kinda hurt, too.

bla bla bla, long story short, my weekend is shot. the dog is oblivious. and i'm on augmentin and vicodin.

and the thumb is still throbbing.

frick.

not so fast

the idiot bush, attempting to deflect attention from his treasonous henchman karl rove, today accelerated the selection of a supreme court nominee to replace sandra day o'connor.

so over the next few days/weeks we'll be overwhelmed with rhetoric about the suitability of the nominee, and, in theory, rove's outing of a cia agent will fade to black.

before that happens, let's look back to 2001 when the idiot bush was babbling about the level of discourse in his administration:

"[W]e must remember the high standards that come with high office. This begins with careful adherence to the rules. I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems. This means checking and, if need be, doublechecking that the rules have been obeyed. This means never compromising those rules."

karl rove, the president's brain, blew the cover of a cia agent for political gain.

now, through administrative and procedural sleight of hand, the president would like everyone to forget this fact.

the president, therefore, is at the very least an accessory to treason.

my favorite thing about chicago...

leaving.

and while that's totally unfair, and generally unsupportable, it is nonetheless true.

let us stipulate that chicago is a great city. the architecture is spectacular, it is teeming with friendly people, and there are some great restaurants.

i spent three days there this week, amidst all that splendiferousness...and i still couldn't wait to leave.

i know. the failing is mine. apparently the charm of business travel has deserted me, so no matter how accommodating the location, i can't wait to get the hell out of there.

thus the paradox: i'm having a great time, let's leave.

which way today?

dick cheney says the insurgency is in its last throes. donald rumsfeld says the insurgency could go on for a dozen years.

which is it, fuckers?

i ask this not because of the 1,700 american dead in iraq, but because the wild rhetoric from the bush administration is giving me whiplash.

this war is about WMD.

this war is about freedom.

this war is about terrorists.

this war is about 9/11.

which is it, fuckers?

1,500 US deaths ago it was "mission accomplished". now it's an open-ended commitment to some undefined objectives.

previously, taking down saddam would make the US safer. now iraq is the main battle field against terrorism.

which is it, fuckers?

what's that ringing?

if it's the fourth of july, it must be freedom.

even if the ringing is muffled and muted this year.

freedom of speech is under attack, and if congress has its way, burning an american flag will become a criminal act. apparently some political speech is too unpleasant to hear.

to be sure, not all speech should be protected. for example, you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater.

but for some reason, george bush can yell "9/11" any time his poll numbers drop.