Hey, the freakin’ Olympics are finally over, so when I don’t watch Press the Meat this week, I can not watch it at its regular time. And what does Timmy Potatohead have in store for us this week? Why, it’s the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace ( I guess they realize nobody fucking believes anything Rummy or Cheney have to say, and Condi’s having her hair waxed or something) so they need a new face. You think dubya has him out there on the teevee to really tell it like it is in Iraq (or begin preparing the true believers for the new cut and run strategy)?

If you happen to watch, let me know if Timmuh and the General mention that we’ve now gotten to 2,300 US soldiers killed in Iraq (confirmed, at least, by the DoD, when they’re not busy “engaging” bloggers), and have squeaked past the 2500 mark in coalition deaths. The closest to us is the UK, with just over 100 killed. :no: Come on, coalition partners, you can do better than that – hell, we’ve got several months with more casualties…. And we’re well on our way to 17,000 wounded US soldiers (that they admit to). Some 20,000 families shattered. Moms and dads and kids and husbands and brothers and sisters, either not coming home or coming home a few parts short. Multiple amputations, record numbers of traumatic brain injuries, probably higher than ever cases of PTSD (that won’t manifest themselves until much later on when they can be labeled “non-service related”) and suicides and God (who is apparently on vacation) only knows how many future cancers and birth defects from exposure to depleted uranium, experimental anthrax vaccine and whatever else the good old US of A has cooking over there. Complex injuries involving complicated, long-term (many of them lifetime), and expensive rehabilitation and treatment, from VA hospitals that were already overwhelmed and under funded, thanks to the peculiar way that the purple heart band-aid crowd have of supporting the troops.

Of course, that doesn’t count the Iraqis killed and maimed and orphaned and widowed, because, well, they just don’t count. See, the way I understand that one is, we love the Iraqi people so much that we had to go “liberate” ‘em. But we hate ‘em so much, that we gotta kill ‘em. Except the ones we don’t hate – them we gotta kill for their own damn good.

But I digress. After our General pep talk, Timmuh boasts an “exclusive” with John Edwards and Jack Kemp. Now, I have nothing against Edwards – hell, I’d even vote for him without holding my nose, if it came down to it – and Kemp is a big hero in Buffalo and all (not unlike Timmy himself, I s’pose), but to boast “Edwards and Kemp — only on ‘Meet the Press,’” I mean, c’mon. How hard a “get” can two VP losers be?

CBS apparently wants to keep their Fazed the Nation guests a secret these days (there is a “don’t miss” opinion piece by Bushyboy Bob Schieffer on whether e-mail is a “good thing” or not :yawn: ) – or maybe they’ve just outsourced their web work to KTLK. So let’s see what George Snufalufagus has got going over on This Weak. Hey, now here’s something worth watching for a change.

No, it isn’t for faux “moderate” Republican Susan Collins of Maine, and isn’t for Republican Duncan “Donuts” Hunter of California. It could be to hear Wesley Clark stick it to Bush over Iraq, and there might be some entertainment value in watching little Robert Reich take on George :jerk: Will (who smugly acts as if he knows stuff) and Bill Sammon “Ella” (who has apparently jumped form the rightwing Moonie Times to the free Nazi Propaganda rag, Washington Examiner), but really, the only reason to watch is to see Stephen Colbert give Jon Stewart some advice on hosting the Oscars (see a preview, here).

Since anything else after Colbert will be a letdown anyway, this might be a good time to tune in to CNN.

Over at Fux News Sunday, Gen. Peter Pace continues his special mission (shouldn’t he be out, Generalizing or something?) and then the newer, bolder Brownie sits down to talk with Chris “Fuckface” Wallace.

Later, on 60 Minutes…. 🙁 Oh, this will be sad. Scott Pelley interviews Willie Brand, court-martialed and convicted of assaulting and maiming one of the two prisoners detained during the war in Afghanistan, who were found beaten to death and chained from the ceilings of their cells (one was beaten so badly that the medical examiner coined the word, “pulpified,” to describe it). Brand says, “This is what we were trained to do, and this is what we did. I was not the only one; there were many others hitting them.”

On a less difficult note, Bob Simon talks to Marc Emery, the Canadian “Prince of Pot,”who could wind up in a U.S. prison for life if the DEA successfully extradites him for selling marijuana seeds. Sounds like justice to me. He says, “I would rather see marijuana legalized than me being saved from a U.S. jail. I hope that if I am incarcerated, I can influence tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people to take up my cause.” Then Dan Rather reports on how hospitals are screwing over uninsured patients by charging them more – way, way, more – than those who have insurance (because, hey, what better time to kick somebody than when they’re sick and without insurance). And finally Andy Rooney will ponder why the elastic in his Depends® gives out before the diaper part does. “You ever wonder why that is? What good is being able to hold all that stuff, if the darn things keep riding down on you?”

And there’s still not a new episode of the West Wing on.