Why does every friggin' Nigerian still in Nigeria want me to help them get money out of their country all of a sudden? This ruse must have worked at least once....somewhere....so if you are reading this and you are the one that actually fell for it please go ahead and take yourself out of the gene pool now.

>From reader Suzanne:

I just love it when Susan Sarandon get busted in the chops.....in the Guardian no less.

"I've just heard a snippet of the most disgustingly me-me-me anti-war advert by Susan Sarandon, in which she intones, "Before our kids start coming home from Iraq in body bags, and women and children start dying in Baghdad, I need to know - what did Iraq do to us?" Well, if you mean what did Saddam do to America The Beautiful, not an awful lot - but to millions of his own people, torture and murder for a start. Don't they count? Surely this is the most self-obsessed anti-war protest ever. NOT IN MY NAME! That's the giveaway. Who gives a stuff about their wet, white, western names? See how they write them so solemnly in a list on the bottom of the letters they send to the papers. And the ones that add their brats' names are the worst - a grotesque spin on Baby On Board, except they think that this gives them extra humanity points not just on the motorway, but in the whole wide weeping, striving, yearning world. We don't know the precious names of the countless numbers Saddam has killed. We're talking about a people - lots of them parents - subjected to an endless vista of death and torture, a country in which freedom can never be won without help from outside."

>From a reader:

SEXISM! I was just looking at one of the most common items found in an office environment....the good 'ol Adams carbonless copy phone messge pad. You know how they all have the piece of stiff cardboard in them that keeps you from making too many copies of the message.....well, guess what it has printed on it! Tips on the prevention and detection of breast cancer......which means, of course, that the company that makes them must think that only women womyn take phone messages! Pile out of Augusta ladies, we have a bigger fight to fight!

Nine out of Ten Iraqis welcome U.S. Invasion.

"I AM half Iraqi and residing in Singapore, and I would like to inform all your readers that nine in 10 Iraqis welcome the American invasion of Iraq. The 1/10 are linked to Saddam Hussein's regime. The invasion should be seen through the eyes of the Iraqi people. Whether there is war or no war, Iraqis are dying.

Allow me to recap Saddam's murderous 24 years in power."

Michael Medved nails the Oscars:

"The most prominent personalities in the antiwar movement resist all efforts to classify their angry activism as anti-American. But Sunday night's Oscar extravaganza obliterated such defensive distinctions. For 3 1/2 hours, the entertainment elite indulged in the usual orgy of self-congratulation with only hostile or dismissive reference to epic Iraqi battles involving thousands of U.S. troops. They offered no hint of gratitude, affection, loyalty or connection to the superpower that sustains them."

Chirac has warned that France would vote against any U.N. Security Council resolution that would give "the American and British belligerents the right to administer Iraq." If we ever ask the Security Council for another resolution, then I will be out in the street protesting.

"And thousands of Americans ride alone on to Baghdad." The latest from Victor Davis Hanson.

Sometime this weekend we passed 100,000 visitors and 426,000 hits for just 2003.....which is about eight times the traffic we had for all of 2002. Good work guys and gals. I'll post total stats on our upcoming one year birthday on March 29th.

A suggestion for the boys over at Get Your OJ. You need to escalate your, uh, process a bit if you really want to get Saddam Hussein to quit gassing Kurds and murdering dissidents. I would suggest that you first increase the font size of the lyrics to "Give Peace A Chance" that you have posted on your site to at least 18 points. If that doesn't work, then add the lyrics to "Imagine". Should that fail, then go full-tilt-boogie and post the lyrics to "We Shall Overcome". And, yes, ALL of them in 18 point type. This is no time for half measures....innocents are dying!! If this still doesn't have any effect........unimaginable.....but if it doesn't, we'll think of something else. Or at least wish that we could.

Pure Hell? Sitting through a single dinner with her.

Got some notice from a Mr. Jason Meltzer on the "pro-their-version-of-peace-anyway" web site getyouroj.com for Walsingham calling at least some leftists "ass-hats". Here is part of an entry pulled from his blog:

"Look, everyone wants Saddam out, yes he is a tyrant; it's the process that most people disagree upon."

"....Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny."

From that well known mouthpiece of The Right......wait for it......The Guardian:

"You just arrived," he said. 'You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave.'

'For a long time we've been saying: Let them come,' his wife, Zahara, said. 'Last night we were afraid, but we said: 'Never mind, as long as they get rid of him, as long as they overthrow him, no problem'.' Their 29-year-old son was executed in July 2001, accused of harbouring warm feelings for Iran."

Protest this, you leftist ass-hats.

"A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

Who says the French are useless in the fight against terrorism? This from a reader:

"In a brilliantly conceived military maneuver, six French protestors inserted themselves into a Paris McDonald’s. Overcoming the fry cooks and cashier, the group proceeded to destroy the onsite weaponry. Forty completed cholesterol bombs were defused and materials for eight hundred more were seized. Also captured were three metal canisters holding 5,000 cubic feet of deadly carbon dioxide, a heavier than air gas that can displace oxygen rich air in low spots causing asphyxiation. The manager claimed it was used for carbonation of beverages. Carbon dioxide is the deadly gas known to coal miners as black damp.

The leader of the group Pepe Petain, known as PP, is the grandson of fearless Marshall Petain of Vichy fame. President Chirac immediately summoned Petain for presentation of the Croix de Guerre. At the ceremony, with fists raised they sounded the new French Battle Cry – La nuit tous les chats sont gris!

Unconfirmed are reports that Pepe Petain has been invited by Gerhard Schroeder to attend his initial meetings for the formation of the Fourth Reich."

Saddam has declared that he will pay $14,000 for every American killed and $28,000 for any American captured. What are the chances of collecting on that?

Eric Sigmund at Fire Ant Gazette finds something interesting on Mike Conaway's campaign website.

>From Lileks today:

"Press Conference with Rumsfeld, who really looks as if he has someplace better to be. Usual jabbering blather from the 4th estate. One fellow from Bloomberg asked a two-pronged question - the setup was so interminable the Senate actually moved for cloture. I forget what he wanted to ask, but we were all very impressed with his encyclopedic grasp of the front page of today’s Washington Post, and touched by his conviction that a recitation of the same would cause Rumsfeld to reveal the entire war plan on the spot."

"How, exactly, will leaving Saddam Hussein in power promote peace and justice in Iraq?" Version 2. Here is a link to the actual transcript of this wonderfully enlightening exchange.

Mr. Townsend not only lives in GreenTree but is a member of the GT Estates Homeowners Board of Directors. Other members are Dan Tisdale, Elizabeth Moses, Bill Bucy, Jim Clark, Mary Frances Griffiths, Andy Price, Mark Carr, and Sandra Shiplett. They, along with the Board members from GT North, have gone off like rockets with misinformation and scare notions about the impact of the reliever route on Green Tree. They originally spread the rumor that Tom Craddick owned the land just west of GT and directed the route of the road so as to enrich himself...when presented with the fact that he had sold out his interest to his partners some years ago, they persisted in vilifying his former business partners. The Board has acted irresponsibly, and owes Mr. Craddick an apology. They owe the residents of Green Tree more reasoned direction.

"How, exactly, will leaving Saddam Hussein in power promote peace and justice in Iraq?" A question posed on radio to an anti-war protester by an Iraqi exile. Listen here. (Requires sound).

This from Parody Pages a new blog in Midland:

"My problem is, we are going to go to war without it being the will of the people of The United States Of America. King George has decided he knows whats best for this country. He will protect us from ourselves no matter how much we object, but what more could we expect from a president we never elected?"

Want information on how to "Boycott Old Europe". Here is a list of French brands. There is even this flyer in PDF format that you can download and print.

I really didn't need to look up Mr. Townsend's address in the telephone directory to know that he lives in Greentree. But I did.....and he does.

Natalie Maines has terribly misjudged her American fans. They are not buying her apology. Perhaps if she showed up at the oval office wearing a thong under a blue dress…

Site Admin: The maternity ward is moving back to the “main campus” as the original site is now called. Apparently doctors were worried about newborns with serious medical problems having to be transported to the main campus before getting treatment. It makes sense, but it should have occurred to someone before the purchase of Memorial West.

I liked the Dixie Chicks once. Once. According to news reports, group member Natalie Maines told a London audience:

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

I am probably late to the party on this.....but I hear that the maternity ward that was relocated to Memorial West after its purchase is now moving back to Memorial. Anyone out there have any scoop on this?

Walsingham: As almost every teacher will tell you, teaching is one of the few jobs that cannot be evaluated by any objective standard. This applies to tests of new applicants as well as evaluations of practicing teachers. Maybe with a big pay increase more of the applicants will be of higher quality, but by their “logic” we have absolutely no way to know. In the next breath, these same teachers will also tell you that the quality of most teachers is very high now. Huh? I guess they are using some non-objective standard.

Teachers are headed to Austin to demand things from the taxpayers legislators. This is interesting:

"But teachers may have other complaints to air to lawmakers during the rally, which will begin at noon, including legislation loosening requirements for the non-renewal of a teacher contracts.

The bill, filed by House Public Education Committee chair Kent Grusendorf (R)-Arlington, would allow school boards to fire teachers if their principal determines the termination is in the best interest of students. The bill would also abolish requirements for notification of the non-renewal and prohibit appeal of the action."

Gee, if these Iraqis are mad enough at Saddam to tear down his statues then why on earth were they part of the 100% that voted for him in the last election? Maybe Susan Sarandon can ask......how does The Onion put it....."in that condescending Earth-Mother way of hers."

>From Sunday's Letters to the Editor, reader Scott notices what the Editor doesn't....but then he (Scott) actually reads the letters:

"'Fatal accident causes one to give thanks' is a perverse enough headline to begin with, but then you read the letter. To the best of my reading ability, I can find no one who died in the accident."

and

"Also, the letter under 'Press biased toward pro-America support' seems to be making the opposite point. Perhaps this is all cleverly designed to allow students to check the newspaper for errors. This is suggested by the 10th letter, but that writer takes a shot at Mr. Ott's writing and so cannot be taken seriously."

"My problem with "old Europe" is that it's taken on the characteristic of its capital's most famous statue: a small boy who just stands there pissing 24 hours a day."

"You remember Mike Farrell. He’s the guy who played the guy who wasn't Alan Alda in M*A*S*H. No, no, not the guy who played Trapper John. Trapper John left after the second season and some other fellow took over, and people spent the next 20 years saying he wasn’t as good as Trapper John. Mike Farrell played that guy. Not the guy you remember, but the guy you remember for not being as good as the guy you remember."

Lileks on the State of the Union address:

"Stirring rhetoric would have been nice, but stirring rhetoric frightens the Europeans, much as the sound of a newfangled motorcar makes the horses nervous."

KUDOS TO MYWESTEXAS.COM!. If you ever wanted to try blogging you can at least practice over at the MyWestTexas.com website. I am ashamed to say I didn't notice when they did this but they have provided the ability for readers to add comments on the end of individual stories. This is a great idea. They should pursue it even further and have a weekly print feature of Best Comments from the web.

I hope they see one. I want to see what happens when a trucker grabs 'holta (catches) a terrorist.

You have to love the "Human Shields" for what they (un-intentionally) pointed out about the difference between the U.S. and Saddam Hussein. They head over there in their double decker London buses to act as shields for things like hospitals and schools, etc. Upon arrival they are alarmed to find out that the Iraqis want to place them at things like oil refineries and power plants.....you know, something that may actually be bombed. Of course, they don't actually want to do anything dangerous so they pack up and, at last check, were able to get about one-third of the way home before running out of money.

But before leaving they were able to show to the entire world what they (no America lovers they) thought the chances of being injured by the Great Satan America really were when hanging out next to hospitals and schools. We have to thank them for that.

I've just returned from a Peace Now meeting in Santa Fe and have enlisted as a human shield for deployment in Iraq. The Iraqi government has given me a plum assignment – I will be stationed at the refinery outside Baghdad. Walser, they have one spot open at the Baby Formula Factory. Are you in?

On the nightgowns.....are they willing to stipulate that Mister Gest has never worn them?

In today's edition of the MRT as a special tribute to deceased Councilman James Bradford, we chose to print a photograph of the actual James Bradford, rather than a photo of Commissioner Mike Bradford, even though they share the same last name, and the commissioner is much more photogenic than the councilman. It is hoped that our decision does not offend our readers who are unaccustomed to such pains-taking accuracy in these pages.

Sincerely,
Lil S. Wonder, Manager
Photo Editorial Board

Ok. I won't tell you where this charity auction is being held, nor for whom because it is a good cause......but......Oh. My. God.

"You break into her movie star trailer, there it is! Liza with a Z's Red Nightgown! You grab it and run! You are her biggest fan, after all! You deserve it! But crime doesn't pay, Liza needs her space and you don't want to do stalker jail time because you can buy it here!"


"You weren't on the Gest List for Liza's wedding in New York. Get over it. You can see what all the bedroom excitement is about anyway. Mrs. Gest looks wonderful in it! Classic Collector garment worn by a legendary national treasure known as Liza Minnelli!"

Councilman James Bradford is dead. I had read that he was in the hospital but this is a shock.

UPDATE: More here.

If I am reading this article correctly, the City Councill will soon be looking for people to serve on the Midland/Odessa Urban Transit Board that, basically, possess the business skills to ensure that the losses will be kept to an absolute minimum.

I loved this line in the article:

"The struggle for bus transit ended earlier this month when the Council voted 4-3 in favor of the transit system."

Jessica's Well in the Blogosphere Ecosystem: #346 With A Bullet.

OK, #346, anyway.

UPDATE: Maybe just a bullet. The list appears to be pretty dynamic and growing. We have moved down (now #608) but the list itself has grown mightily. Oh, well......"it is an honor just to be mentioned."

Whoa! Kerry Phillips is a babe!

KMID-TV re-designed their website. Looks much better.

Inbound e-mail from Jessica's Well reader George:

"Dear Jessicaswell:

A Midland blog - wow! This is better than an oil well!

Anyway, I did a page search on your blog for the word "Patel" and didn't find it. So I assume you haven't discussed Dipak Patel, M.D.

It must have been quite a scene at the local jail when his representative brought in $2.5 million cash to post his bond. So, now that he has jumped bail, which local, state or federal government agency gets that forfeited bond money?

I don't know, and you may not know, but it's something we should probably be curious about."

Usually I have to beat you guys with sticks to post on a regular basis and since I announced our 78,000 visitors since January 1 suddenly everyone is posting again. You are all such Ho's.

Carroll Thomas is out of the race to replace Larry Combest leaving only, at last count, about 35 other people. My early prediction: It will come down to either Mr. Conaway or Mr. Isett.

Update for Rolf from Belgium: Mom says "Baaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh".

>From Letters to the Editor Manuel Lujan writes:

"With the opportunity to elect competent and progressive City Council members, will those who possess these qualities heed the call or will we be subject to the same cast of characters?"

"Public transportation is the dividing line between a major city from a small city. If we had just one bus holding 50 work commuters, there would be 50 less cars on the road. We'd have more parking. We'd have less pollution. Now take that one bus and multiply it by 10 or 50."