Tried to post a comment to the Froomkin column from Thursday, but the comment has not been posted. Perhaps I cussed over at the Post site at some point. I wouldn't put it past me.

Here is the item from Froomkin's column:

Bush Gets a Purple Heart

Joyce May writes in the Cove Herald of Copperas Cove, Tex, about a Vietnam veteran named Bill Thomas who decided to give Bush one of the three Purple Hearts that he received in Vietnam.

"Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.

"'We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds,' Thomas said. . . .

"Thomas said he drew up a citation and he and his wife signed it before dropping it and the medal off with Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, to forward to President Bush.

"Carter later called Thomas to inform him that the president was very moved by the gesture and would like the couple to present it in person."

And that's what happened on Monday, in the Oval Office. Why exactly Bush felt that was appropriate is a pretty good question.

"'He said he didn't feel like he had earned it,' Thomas said."

But "not earning it" didn't stop him from accepting it! He's so cute, isn't he?

Anyway, this was the comment I posted this morning:

It looks like a comment I submitted yesterday has disappeared. Since my ego is too big to let that happen, I will try to re-create it. While outrage has lost its meaning in relation to the Bush Administration, this Purple Heart stunt is actually outrageous. Here is a man who is accepting a medal that he himself did not earn, a medal that was awarded in a war in which he did not serve (defending Texas from the Commie hoarde doesn't count), and he is accepting it at a time of war, a war which he started for his own faulty reasons, a war in which those who are serving are being wounded and killed and are earning their Purple Hearts, a war which he refuses to end, therefore ensuring that more Purple Hearts will be awarded. And do not forget the mockery on display at the '04 convention, where Kerry's Purple Heart was sneered at by those attending. There must be someone in the White House who consciously and deliberately comes up with these outrages, although I can't understand why.

Can't keep me down, Post! Can't keep me down!

OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

Government serves a purpose. But it can only work if we elect people who are going to see that each government agency serves its purpose.

Happy horseshit about small government doesn't get the job done. Putting hacks and cronies in charge of the agencies doesn't get the job done.

The teevee won't show you any of this, because there is no entertainment value in policy and policy enactment. The papers go for the easy stories, who has raised more money and who is leading in the polls. Politics as niche entertainment.

This stuff matters. The FDA is fucking up. The Justice Department is serving the Republican party.

We can laugh about government, about bureaucracy, about government employees. Fine. Whatever. But if government doesn't do its job, people die, people get sick, people get hurt.

It matters.

Not that this matters, at all, but it's a telling exchange.

As Ms. Crow and Ms. David described it on the Huffington Post Web site on Sunday, when Mr. Rove turned toward his table, Ms. Crow touched his arm and “Karl swung around and spat, ‘Don’t touch me.’ ”

Both sides agreed that Ms. Crow told him, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us,” to which Mr. Rove responded, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” Ms. Crow and Ms. David wrote that Ms. Crow shot back, “We are the American people.”

Rove claiming that he works for the American people, as opposed to exclusively working for the GOP, is laughable. Rove not acknowledging that Crow and David are part of the "American people," well, that's just stupid.