I like a good troll diary. When I see one with a lot of comments I jump right in loaded for bear. The first thing I do after reading the diary is see if they're foolish enough to put up a tip jar. But I've been really dissapointed at the quality of trolls we've been getting here lately at dkos. They just haven't been doing it for me.I expect to be outraged by a troll diary. But the ones I've seen in the past few weeks have been just plain dumb. Now I'm pretty dumb myself which is why I have a pretty extensive collection of "Dummies" books. There is a new Dummies book out written by Elmer Fudpucker, troll extrordinaire. I highly recommend this book for our troll friends. I have included an excerpt from chapter one.

I attended the anti-Bush rally here in Salt Lake the last time Mr 28% came to town in August 2005 when he spoke before the American Legion at their convention. That rally drew a crowd of 3,000-4,000 people. Now he's back again with Mitt Romney for a pair of private fundraisers for McCain. McCain himself is afraid to show his face with Bush, even here in Utah, the reddest state in the Union, which Bush won in 2004 with 72% of the vote, highest in the nation. One of the fundraisers had to be moved from the Grand America Hotel to a private residence because of low ticket sales. Read all about here.Salt Lake Tribune Well Utah ain't so red as she used to be, more of a purple now. Our mayor at the time, Rocky Anderson, was replaced by an even more progressive mayor, John Becker, when Rocky decided not to run for another term. Also in 2006 two Republicans on the city council were thrown out and replaced by two even more progressive Democrats. A lot of the Republicans in the State Legislature are nervous about the coming elections in November.And they should be. It is not a good year to be a Republican. Even in Utah.

When I was in kindergarden a schoomate came to school one day chanting "we want Nixon,we want Nixon, Nixon for president." When my mother picked me up from school I asked her who Nixon was. She explained  to me about Nixon and Kennedy and the presidental election and about Democrats and Rebulicans. When I asked her what we were she said that her and dad and all of our family were Democrats. The next day I went to school chanting "we want Kennedy." I have been a Democrat ever since.  We are truly a big tent party. But our diversity is both our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. My party is now split into two factions. There is more bad blood between us each day. I'm worried about this party I love. We need unity. Maybe the only way to heal this rift between us is the dreamticket
                                                                           

Some of you may have read this diary about Buttars calling a bill he opposed "a black baby, a dark ugly thing." Poor Buttars has been catching a lot of hell the past week for what many considered to be a racist remark. Buttars is quite a character here in Utah. If he isn't trying to get the teaching of intelligent design manditory in our high schools, he's killing a bill to make animal cruelity a felony because felons cannot own guns. The NAACP has been calling for Buttars' resignation. He was scheduled to meet with NAACP leaders Tuesday but backed out because he learned that the media would be present, calling it a "cheap shot". He also told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was the target of a "lynch mob" because of all the critical e-mails that he has been getting (One of them mine). When he was criticized for using that term, he dug himself a deeper hole by saying "How do I know what words I'm supposed to use in front of those people."

This will be a short diary of my series on Blackwater as it a pretty straight forward story. Henry Waxman is investigating Blackwater for tax evasion. He is claiming that Blackwater has been classifying it's employees as individual contractors rather than employees in order to avoid paying social security, Medicare and workman's compensation taxes,  and also for failing to withhold federal income taxes from their employee's paychecks. I am personally familiar with this scam as I worked for a man several years ago who tried to pull it on me. I didn't let him get away with it. This is Henry Waxman's letter to Erik Prince. and this is  the IRS letter to Blackwater. This is a common tax evasion scam and it only came to the IRS's attention because a Blackwater empolyee blew the wistle.

In this segment I want to try to figure out what happened on September 16, when Blackwater mercenaries killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 24 others. There are many conflicting stories. The incident took place in Nisour Square, just outside the Green Zone. On that day a Blackwater security detail was escorting a convoy of State Department officials to a meeting with officials of the United States Agency for International Developement in western Baghdad. The incident may  have started with an explosion close to the convoy as they were entering Nisour Square. Whether the explosion was caused by a car bomb or a mortor round or if it happened at all is unclear. Nothing is clear in this story.

In this entry of my series on Blackwater, I want to look at what they were up to in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. It is disturbing enough that Blackwater is operating in Iraq and other nations, more so here in the United States. First, let's see what Jeremy Scahill has to say about it.

This is the second installation of my series on Blackwater. In part one I concentrated on the executive officers of Blackwater. Since then I have discovered some interesting facts about the rank and file employees. They are not only comprised of former American special forces types, but also foreign nationals. Most interesting is the 60 former Chilean commandos who served under the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. They were flown from Santiago to North Carolina for training and then deployed to Iraq. The international flavor of the Blackwater security forces brings up the question of how loyal they actually are to the United States. My guess is that their primary loyalty is to Blackwater. Like most people I first became aware of Blackwater when four of their security people were killed in an ambush and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah on March 31, 2004. So this seems like a good place to start.

The Great Dismal Swamp in North Carlolina. Nickname.......Blackwater

I like to fancy myself to be somewhat of an amatuer military historian. A couple of years back I read a few books on the 30 Years War which was fought in what is now Germany during the years 1618-1648. One of the characteristics of warfare during this period was the widespread use of mercenary armies by all sides.

I've been watching the ongoing debate over the Imus controversy and I must say I'm damnned confused over who is allowed to say what. That what Imus said was wrong is a given. What he said was a double no no. Offensive to both blacks and women. I think we can all agree on that point. But after that nobody seems to be able to agree on anything. Ganster rappers use the same kind of language and worse and nobody gets fired for that. I understand the argument that blacks should be able to use the N word and whites can't even though I'm not sure that I agree with it. But taking that argument further then only women should be allowed to use the terms bitches and ho's, right? And what if someone if half black and half white, what's the rules for them? And transexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals, what are the rules for them?  

I urge my fellow Kossacks to join me in declaring a cease fire with our blood enemies George Bush and the Republican party. After being very sceptical that the Iraqi Study Group report would actually ammount to anything substantial I was downright shocked as I listened to what the group had to say this morning. Honestly brutal is how I would describe it. It heartened me to see that this country still has some REAL leaders left, on BOTH sides of the aisle. Maybe ... just maybe ... we might have one last dog's chance in hell to pull this thing out. One last chance to prevent a diaster from turning into a full blown catastrophe. Maybe. Honestly I'm not very hopeful, and I get the feeling neither is the ISQ. But we have to at least give it a shot. We owe it to our troops, to the Iraqi people, and to ourselves. This war has put our Republic and the world at large in grave danger. We have an obligation to pull out all the stops and make one final last ditch massive effort to find some sort of solution to this Rubik's cube of a mess. If we don't, the entire war on terror could be lost.

  I get so tired of hearing the Bushies say that if you don't support the war then you don't support the troops. We all know that one has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Regardless of how you feel about the war, these are our people fighting and dying and being maimed over in Iraq. To suggest that opposition to the war means we do not support our troops is to me outrageous.
  So what can we do to show our support beyond just words? There is one small way that is both simple and cost nothing more than a few minutes of your time. Mail call is something all troops in all armies have always looked forward to. This website will allow you to pick out a postcard designed from pictures drawn by school children. Select a short thank you message and it will be sent for free. It is the least we can do.Lets Say Thanks