In an article in the L.A. Times, Julian Barnes brings an increase in the use of stop-loss orders to our attention.

The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military's controversial "stop-loss" program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was briefed about the program by Army officials who said that thousands of new stop-loss orders were issued to keep soldiers from leaving the service after Gates ordered combat tours extended from 12 to 15 months last spring.

The Army has resorted to involuntary extensions of soldiers' enlistment terms to prevent them from leaving immediately before a combat tour or in the middle of a deployment.

Though the article is a good one, Barnes is actually missing the point here a bit.

My God. This man has no frigging shame.

Here's Cheney, speaking to Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: I want to start with the milestone today of 4,000 dead in Iraq. Americans. And just what effect do you think it has on the country. Your thoughts on that?

CHENEY: Well, it obviously brings home I think for a lot of people the cost that's involved in the global war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think -- it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have. The president carries the biggest burden, obviously. He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us.

Look.

I've supported Barack Obama for a while now, but, unlike many here on the site, I wasn't so sure that the math was going to be enough to get him across the finish line. It was possible, I thought, that he could slip up and say something really foolish (which, of course, would be out of character) and fall hard. This was, it seems, the Clinton campaign's only hope. With the tide turning against her, she would need a miraculous flub to overcome the Big O's "Big Mo."

And this week did provide Americans with the spectacle of an embarrassing,  campaign ending gaffe lie. Unfortunately for Senator Clinton, she made it.

There was a time when Ralph Nader made sense. He was once a strong voice crying out against corporations and their detrimental, dehumanizing effects on the American body politic, but, somewhere he lost his way. In 2000, though, Nader had only his anger left. He seemed not so much to be fighting for the presidency--which he could not win--but simply to be heard.

I'm all for that. I support those who speak up on behalf of progressive causes and I believe in fighting for differing voices to be heard--that's why sites like DailyKos are so important. Ultimately, however, Nader's candidacy was just enough to sink the chances of Al Gore in 2000.

Oh, this is wonderful. Soldiers who are fighting, I'm told, for our rights are now being deprived of their own.

The pictures were just what the White House wanted: A teary-eyed President Bush presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to a slain war hero in the East Room, then flying here to join the chow line with camouflage-clad soldiers as some of them prepare to return to Iraq.

[snip]

Assuring there would be no discordant notes here, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, the base commander, banned the 300 soldiers who had lunch with the president from talking with reporters. If any of them harbored doubts about heading back to Iraq, many for the third time, they were kept silent.

[More]

George Allen has failed us on Iraq and the economy, but he got us tiny robots! Cool!

Snippet after the flip.

(Note: This has been edited to reflect that the above is the "shorter" version of the endorsement. For definitive source of "shorter" posts, see Busy, Busy, Busy.)

I want everyone to donate a few dollars to The Warrior Fund.

Here are his own words on the subject: (Memo below)

He writes about the 1983 scandal when Democrat Gerry Studds and Republican Dan Crane were censured for having sex with pages--Studds with a male. Unfortunately for Kouri, he not only fails to make a point, he also gets things just plain wrong.

"When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month, the highest monthly tally of violent deaths since the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations reported today.

[There's more.]

"Unelected judges can cut the voters out of the loop and decree liberal dogma as the law of the land." - Thomas Sowell

[More below]

The important point here is that the liberal blogosphere has received substantial -- really, endless -- media attention over the past few months, coverage which has included everything from the upsetting use of bad words to petty bickering to rank Internet gossip. But the pro-Bush blogosphere is all but ignored by the media, and it is long past time for a substantive, thorough examination of the extremist rhetoric and violence-drenched imagery which composes the backbone of their dialogue.

If the press is so desirous of press conferences and so angry that Bush doesn't do enough of them, why do reporters just ask the same questions over and over again?

If half of what right wing blogger BlackFive has posted on this matter is true, then University of Arizona professor Deborah Frisch is one crazy lady. She apparently threatened Jeff Goldstein's kids, but he's been down and I can't read the whole story. Of course, the right, smarting from the embarrassment of putting a jihad on the New York Times over something one of their heroes authorized, will try to say that this is an example of how [Limbaugh voice] "deranged the left has become," forgetting all about how their bloggers sicced the flying monkeys on the families of Times reporters and photographers.

Neo-Cons like the $8+Trillion debt because they buy U.S. Bonds and collect interest. Neo-Con family values send children of working Americans to a war that boosts their defense contractor stock holdings. Neo-Cons ignore the Constitution and the law and encourage illegals to do the same. Neo-Con CEOs swill salaries of $100 Million plus, while cutting worker pay, benefits & retirement.

A Marine who served in Vietnam and continued to serve in the National Guard until 2005--including an active duty stint in Operation Enduring Freedom--Joe's a fighter.

There are several ways to fight a war. On the one hand, you can put on a uniform, climb into a tank, rumble across a field and fire on the other fellows' tank. On the other, you can find a 12-year-old girl, persuade her to try on your new suicide-bomber belt and send her waddling off into the nearest pizza parlor.