Lunch Meat

• Le sigh.
• Charles II is disappointed in John Kerry (with update on the Rios Montt case).
• A bunch from or via AlterNet:
• Has the "Left" abandoned cheap electricity?  'Cause I missed the memo.  
• The DEA has rehired a paid perjurer because there are still drugs.  

“The DEA rehired Mr. Chambers, is using him in investigations all over the country, is again paying him exorbitant amounts of money and refuses to provide discovery about what he’s up to,” Morgan wrote in a court petition, “If Chambers were nothing more than a run-of-the-mill criminal, that would be one thing. But both Chambers and his defenders in the DEA brag that he is a con man extraordinaire.”

• Georgia Senator makes case for women combat units:
  

  Well now! For a long time, conservatives have argued that it was women who were too hormonal and irrational for combat. But Chambliss has set them straight. It’s really young men who can’t be relied upon to control their emotions and urges under pressure.
  
  It's true that Chambliss doesn’t have first-hand experience of combat because he got a medical deferrment during Vietnam, so he wasn't exactly tearing it up on the battlefield. But still, it seems like he’s onto something here. Do we really want people who are prone to violent hormonal outbreaks doing a job that requires concentration and steady nerves?
  
  I think not. Female troops have already been unofficially serving in combat for decades, and they have distinguished themselves on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan as pilots and in military police units. One hundred-fifty-two have been killed, and nearly 900 wounded. Tanya Biank, author of Undaunted: The Real Story of America’s Servicewomen, explains that women soldiers have exceeded all expectations, despite particular challenges that men don’t face, such as wearing armor that was not designed for their bodies: "They have performed phenomenally. They have done more than just pull their own weight.”
  
  Perhaps they could perform even better without dealing with the hazard of young men who can’t control their irrational impulses.

• Paul Krassner.  'Nuff said.
• Noam Chomsky prognosticates and highlights hidden history, from TomDispatch, via AlterNet.
• You know, just like male desire.  (Salon, via AlterNet)
• Andrew Sullivan flunks American Political History again.  (Driftglass)