Standards?

The eagles are flying upstream very early this morning, and that should mean they have their nest going again. When the nestling (or nestlings, they had twins last year) get to squawking, Mom and Dad fly by with all sorts of dead things in their talons. They are lazy and opportunistic, and food thieves but they'll keep the baby fed, whatever it takes. They will take road kill away from a bunch of crows on occasion.

Baby loves road kill, apparently.

I've seen them come by with rabbits, ground hogs, and squirrels, But I've never seen an eagle fly by with a possum. Even eagles got standards.

*****


The stupid season will last much much longer this election cycle. We will have primaries before Christmas this time. I wish we could wait until next spring to start this thing. And then, instead of letting Iowa and New Hampshire pick our nominees, why couldn't we have a series of National primaries? It's all screwed up, but don't worry...Our state parties will work overtime to figure out how to screw it up far worse than it is now.

*****

The takeover of American media by the right was excruciatingly apparent in the differences between the questions asked of the Presidential candidates in recent debates. I could only watch so much.

For the Democratic candidates, Brian Williams read questions that sounded like the "When did you stop beating your wife" sort of thing.

WILLIAMS: Senator [Barack] Obama, you go first. You've promised in your campaign a new kind of politics, but just this week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on questionable ties you have with a donor who was charged last year for demanding kickbacks on Illinois business deals. Aren't you practicing the very same kind of politics that many of the others on this stage have engaged in?

Senator Obama answered well but there was a misleading attack on Senator Obama in the question itself. Brian Williams essentially implied that the other candidates were corrupt. If anybody practices that kind of politics they weren't on the Democratic stage but the other one later in the week. The Republican party is bleeding scandal anfter scandal but it was never brought up in their questions.

Williams also phrased a haircut question to John Edwards in such a way as to mislead folks about Edwards' haircut, which was simply billed to the wrong account. Edwards has great hair and spends a lot on a haircut..but not $4oo as was claimed.

This wasn't fair to the Republicans...Chris Matthews could not have addressed similar questions to Giuliani and McCain, because these GOP front runners...

Don't HAVE any hair.

Is it fair to ask Obama about a campaign donor he has never met but not ask Giuliani about his best friend at one point, Bernie Kerik who has connections with the Mob? And is charged with corruption?

Here's what Giuliani got asked:

Matthews: "Mayor Giuliani, how do we get back to Ronald Reagan's morning in America?"

That's not a question...that's a campaign ad!


*****

Is this what we bargained for when we invaded Iraq? Videos posted on the internet of a young girl being killed while an Iraqi security force watches?


Baghdad, May 4: "A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion... "

"A large crowd watched as eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged Aswad into the street. There they hurled stones at her for half an hour until she was dead. The stoning happened last month, but only came to light on Wednesday with the release of the Internet video. It is feared her death has triggered a retaliatory attack. Last week 23 Yezidi workmen were forced off a bus travelling from Mosulto Bashika by a group of Sunni gunmen and summarily shot dead."


The rest of this ugly story