If you were parent to twins and one of them had to sustain a spinal cord injury during the birth process, which would you choose?  

Come on, Mister Bush.  We know you excel at deciding, so go ahead . . .

While you're thinkin' it over (we wonder what it's like to be you and think at the same time!) maybe you could watch this little movie.

It show some friends of mine.  LIttle guys with more pure gumption, humanity, and smarts than the Bush administration in toto--why, these kids would put the shame to your brain Karl, your minder, Dick, your spokesliar, Tony, and your lawyer, Gonzo wthout even trying.  Watch the one in the kid-sized wheelchair struggle to pick up a baseball . . . he's a six-yr-old quadriplegic now, but just imagine the rest of his childhood, pissing into a catheter while watching his brother pull away.  What do you call a quadriplegic in diapers???  Ordinary!  Ha ha, it's not a joke.

Or, imagine his brother trying not to feel bad for being whole and healthy.

Want to choose, Mister Bush?   No?  How about you, Laura?  Jenna or Barbara?  Barbara or Jenna?

On this Memorial Day, when we remember the lives lost and sacrifices made by uniformed men and women, and when we are told that sacrifices are needed today in Iraq and Afhanistan, I have one question: where are the Bush twins?

During WW II,  President Roosevelt's 4 sons all served in uniform - it would have been unseemly - if not hypocritical, for these well-connected and wealthy young people to avoid service when so many of their fellow citizens were serving and dying in uniform. So I ask today: where are the Bush twins?

War can only be the last, unavoidable option, necessary when our survival is at stake. At times when war is necessary, all of us must sacrifice, so I ask where are the Bush twins?

President Bush stood at Arlington Cemetary today and memorialized the dead uniformed men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. He said we still need to sacrifice today, and some of us will die, in his war in Iraq and Afhanistan. So I ask: where are the Bush twins?

Around the Bush family dinner table, does conversation ever turn to the dead and wounded men and women - many of them contemporaries of the Bush twins? Does the First Family ever discuss premature death, amputations, schrapnel in heads, ruined lives? If so, does the family ever turn and say, "where are our twins?"

I never thought I'd have anything in common with a Bush twin, other than perhaps avoiding military service, but apparently Jenna's gone vegan. Not only that, but she's now working in alliance with those of us on the left who've been advocating for more responsible food policy for years.

When asked about her sudden conversion, she credits several animal rights protestors that frequently show graphic photos of factory farmed animals and hand out vegetarian starter kits on the streets of DC. (FYI, Barbara hasn't gone vegan quite yet, but with Jenna's encouragement, she's given up all meat except for fish and she's considering going vegetarian.)

More on the flip...

No, this will not be another 'don't support the dynasty' diary.  I refuse to use such a weak excuse as a rationale to prop up my own preference schedule which I feel is powerful enough without the weak wooden prop of 'dynasty' added in.  This diary is instead about the abhorrant and contemptible Op-Ed column I read in todays Wall Street Journal.  

As a dedicated member of the modern American left -- or as I like to call us, the last guards of Democracy -- I can safely say that nothing enrages me more then seeing some Wall Street idiot opine that "the trend to royalism may not be all bad.".

This is so worthy of a copy & paste diary:

Via ABC

First Daughter Barbara Bush had her purse and cell phone stolen as she had dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, even though she was being guarded by a detail of Secret Service agents, according to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News.

Robert Todd Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's son, Capt. Robert Todd Lincoln, served on U.S. Grant's staff during the Civil War.  Weird trivia:  as a boy he was rescued from falling from a moving train by Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth's older brother!).  

It was, arguably, a 'mere' political statement:

"Much criticized for not earlier entering the Union Army, Robert interrupted Harvard law school to serve briefly on General Ulysses S. Grant's staff in 1865.  He and his parents battled over his desire to serve in the Army."

Keep going . . .