Wednesday Wrapup (5/9)

- As an ongoing tribute to the eternal Molly Ivins (who surely would have something to say about this), I should take note of the fact that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has decided not to veto a law passed by the Texas legislature that, in effect, blocks Perry’s order to inoculate girls in that state of about age 11 with the human papillomavirus vaccine starting in September 2008. Perry will instead let this ban become law without his signature.

The story describing this sorry episode notes that Perry chided “the lege” (as Molly once referred to these life forms), appearing with women who have battled cervical cancer and HPV as he did so.

Maybe Perry’s action is merely a political calculation given that he probably would not win on this, amazingly enough. If so, it illustrates once again that the position of governor of the state of Texas is truly ceremonial and nothing more.

- I have a request; no more Iraq photo ops, OK?

And I promise I’m not saying this just because Darth Cheney went over there and apparently tried to do his very best Knute Rockne bit to rally the troops (yeah, Mr. Five Deferments really carries a lot of weight with our service people when it comes to stuff like that, I’m sure). And I’m not saying this just because Kit Bond and Saxby Chambliss went over there, came back, and told us everything was just peachy keen (if a Dem went over there, I’d still be in favor of ending this stuff).

I’m saying this because enough is enough. I mean, it’s not as if Bob Hope is going to descend from a chopper landing at Chu Lai Air Field with the Doc Severinsen Band and Ann-Margret singing show tunes in the most provocative manner possible and tossing out garter belts or something. It’s not as if there is anything that we might call “normalization” going on (nothing that can be sustained once the moment our people leave, anyway).

There is nothing left to do but start getting our people out of there.

- Our Man Arlen Specter chimed in on Abu Gonzales recently, and these pearls of wisdom were captured by the Philadelphia Inquirer here (regarding Specter’s non-call for Gonzales’ ouster).

"I think there's a distinct possibility, maybe probability, that the president will act on his own," Specter said in an interview. "I think the president is more likely to fire him if he's not being told what to do . . . if he didn't have the 'anvil chorus' coming down all around him and making it appear like he's yielding to pressure."

Glad to see that Arlen is utterly waffling to the point of towing the Bushco line outright; I mean, why break with tradition?

- As noted here, there were 27 plane hijackings to Cuba in 1968. Given that, would this be considered irony?