self-grat·i·fi·ca·tion
Pronunciation: -"gra-t&-f&-'kA-sh&n
Function: noun
: the act of pleasing oneself or of satisfying one's desires; especially : the satisfying of one's own sexual urges

OK, I'm about to go Freudian here so all of you Jungians can move on; there is nothing to see here.

I love to read.  I suspect that this is probably something that is common among Kossacks.  Most of you, like me, probably went to the library as kids, raided our parents bookshelves and could easily while away a summer day lost in books.  Unfortunately, the pressures of adulthood, parenting and work have diminished my ability to just find a book for escape in recent years.

Reading is something that I grew up with.  My sisters, brother and mother (but not my dad) were all voracious readers.  At my Granny's memorial service last year, my aunt pointed out the love of books that Granny instilled in her children.  My aunt noted that Granny read and she read to her kids.  As my aunt pointed out, "If you go into the house of any of her children, grandchildren or great- grandchildren, you will find books.  Lots of books." The interesting thing is that she (Granny) grew up in the dust-bowl of Texas as a child and none of her many siblings or parents were readers.  Granny's greatest disappointment was that she was forced to drop out of school in the eighth grade to help pick cotton to support the family.

Down past the jump, see what has reinvigorated me as of late.

Disclaimer:  This is a serious inquiry.  I am not plugging a product and I have never heard of this product or this company before today.

I listened to the Ed Schultz Show today during lunch and heard about an interesting product that was developed in the Midwest and is really gaining steam.  

Ed interviewed Dave Cermak of CMH Industries, about a fuel additive known as CA-40g.  You can listen to the interview here.

So what is this new product and what does it claim to do?  

The Washington Post Sunday Edition has a feature article today titled Four Hired Guns in an Armored Truck, Bullets Flying, and a Pickup and a Taxi Brought to a Halt. Who Did the Shooting and Why?

The article focuses on four security contractors working for a company called Triple Canopy.  

The article goes on to describe two incidents that occurred on July 8th, 2006 as these security contractors went to the airport to pick up a VIP and as they returned.  The incidents involve allegations of random shootings that were not reported, predicated upon an alleged statement made by the Team Leader, Jacob Washbourne, that "I want to kill somebody today."

The AP has a story released over an hour ago on the Friday night document dump by the DoJ.

The title of the story is "Agency weighted prosecutors" politics.

More below the fold.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced today that they will begin investigating whether there have been misleading statements surrounding the Army's handling of the Patrick Tillman case.  They will hold a hearing on April 24th.

According to this AP article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, they have been quietly investigating the whole Tillman fiasco since the Pentagon announced their findings on the handling of the friendly fire incident that killed Tillman in Afghanistan.

Now, they have also decided to expand the investigation to investigate the alleged rescue of Jessica Lynch.  

I am a die-hard football fan.  I have followed the NFL for several decades now and I really enjoy watching the games.  With the Super Bowl approaching the media cover every angle of the players, coaches, fans and Super Bowl's past.  However there is a story that is less glorious and much more tragic.

Those who are younger see sports figures who make enormous sums of money for playing at the professional level.  It has not alway been so.  There was a time when players made a living playing their chosen sport and worked regular jobs in the off season to make ends meet.  Those players who saw the owners increasingly enriching themselves off of their labors worked hard to organize and many suffered for it.  Many are still suffering today

I am not a diary poster, more often an avid reader and frequent commenter.  However, today I got into a discussion with Peter Laesch and I felt that the subject of absentee ballots for our troops in Iraq should be brought forth in a diary.

Peter's diary titled 2008 and John Laesch deserves a read if you have not seen it.  It is a good diary with lots of good comments.

In the course of posting comments, I asked Peter about the feeling among those soldiers he knew concerning the mid-terms and about any problems with absentee ballots.  

I received another of those flag-waving emails today. The difference is that I decided to answer it and return to send. I wanted to share it and Daily Kos seemed to be the place. My replies to the points are italicized.

Today's Washington Post editorial, "Mr. Bush on Iraq" brought us a new concept.  They have pronounced that Bush's connection of Iraq to 9/11 is not spurious.  You see, according to the Post, "Clearly Iraq is now a prime battlefield for Islamic terrorists"! Wonder if anyone could look into how that happened?

Now I realize that the Post has been covering their behinds for years now since they egged Bush on in his crusade.  They quickly tut-tut some things that he may overlook, or that he does not communicate his message to the people, but once the obligatory qualifiers are neatly laid out they remind us that we have a solemn duty to persevere.  

In the meantime they refuse to cover real news with their minimal coverage of the DSM and the subsequent British memos--other than that condescending piece of garbage that Dana Milbank put out on the Conyers hearings--until seven weeks after the story first broke.