Mind Boggling

Driving home rather late last evening, I caught the BBC on KCPW, and caught this little gem escaping Governor Bush's mouth:

"My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time, so I had a very frank discussion with him."

Ummm, what? If Mr. Bush believes that you can't be both president and head of the military...well, I can't...I just...The Decider...he's, you know...The Chosen One, right?

My mind will explode if I try to wrap it around this any longer, or I'll need to start screaming obscenities. I might do that anyway.

This week's GOP Coming-Out Story

And now for our weekly Republican Coming Out story, we turn to The Columbian:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, admitted to having sex with a man he met at an adult video store in Spokane last week, according to a police report released Tuesday afternoon.

Curtis, 48, is married and has two daughters. The two-term legislator and retired fire department captain was in Spokane last week for a retreat with other Republican lawmakers in preparation for the 2008 Legislature.

During a brief phone interview with Columbian Editor Lou Brancaccio on Monday afternoon, Curtis said he did not have sex with the man and is not gay.

Or, maybe I should have titled it "This week's Republican who doesn't think sneaking around and having gay sex makes him gay"? Oh, but I like DownWithTyranny's better "Republican sex mania Richard Curtis can't quite get the toothpaste back into the tube".

Madsen, in his report, said Castagna told him that Curtis wouldn't say what he did for a living.

"I work to help people out," Curtis reportedly said, before adding, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Doh!

But, hey, it's ok with his wife...

Castagna said Curtis told him that "his wife knew he liked men when they got married, but she was not into that, so he only did that when he was out of town," the detective wrote in his report.

I wonder if she knew about "the bag with the nylon rope and toy stethoscope in it"?

(h/t Crooks and Liars)

Where in Baghdad did they stay, again?

Where did John McCain and the rest of the "important" government official stay while in Iraq? You know, the ones who came back and said with a straight face that the situation is improved in Iraq.

They stayed here:

I’m sitting on a gilded chair, writing on a gilded table. The floors beneath me are marble, and the chandeliers above are sparkly and crystal. The only reminder that I’m in a war zone is the pair of man-high concrete barriers I can see out my window. “It’s Sunday, man, you’re working too hard,” a national guardsmen just told me. Welcome to Baghdad.

You know, the place where:

Not all that far away, Marine grunts are going weeks without showers or toilets, chomping on rations – and generally maintaining a positive outlook on life. I got my laundry done by a Philippino maid. Yesterday, I listened to a salsa band play in the chow hall, while I supped on alu gobi and navratan vegetable curry.

As Noah Shachtman says in the article:

This isn’t a war. It’s a war convention. Too bad I didn't bring my bathing suit; maybe I would have taken a dip in the big, outdoor pool a few hundred yards away.

Next time one of our officials visits, and wants to come back and tell us how nicely everything is going, I think he or she should try staying in the barracks with the guys who are there for the war, and not the war convention.