Heeeeeree's Johnny!!!!

Well, Carpet-bagger John has officially, officially declared his candidacy for President (His what, 3rd declaration??) and he has already made his first offical grab for some headlines:

McCain: Gonzales should depart 'out of loyalty' to Bush

WASHINGTON CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that he is "disappointed" in the performance of embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and he believes it would be in President Bush's best interests for Gonzales to step aside.

"I think that out of loyalty to the president that that would probably be the best thing that he could do," McCain said in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live."

McCain, who has been a strong backer of the war in Iraq, also said he was "surprised" and "disappointed" by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's recent statements that he believes the war is lost.

So, McCain wants Gonzales to resign out of "loyalty to Bush." I guess he sees nothing wrong with the AG's actions.

I see this as McCain wanting to have his cake and eat it too.... He want to appear as a loyal Bush supporter on one hand, and supporting a change on the other.....

So what is up with Johnny???? He just wants every Republican to love him... (and give him a shyte-load of $$)

*The use of the term Loyalty to Bush is JC's attempt to paint himself as a Bush Loyalist... and Johnny sells his soul further dwon the river

A week of thought and reflection...

Well, it has been a week since the tragic events on the Virginia Tech campus. I won't rehash the events, post the rants from a clearly sick individual, nor post links detailing the events of that day. I will just post some of my thoughts about all that has taken place and some of what has been said.

My first reaction was utter shock. But as we learned more about the smoldering fuse that this young man was, it clearly points out just the many flaws that there are in the mental health system in this country.

News coverage: I think that too much emphasis has been placed on finding flaws and fault in the system, and not enough focus on how can the system be improved. Repeatedly the focus on was 'what went wrong' in a sensationalistic way, often focusing on how he was able to buy a gun. Not enough prime time talk was about the state of mental health services and support (or lack thereof) that we have in the US. Focus on making improvements, and there is oh so much room for improvement.

2nd Amendment: there are many on the far left that want to use this incident to help their case for banning handguns. Sorry, but no, that won't solve the many issues we have. Clearly there needs to be some tweaking of the mental health-background check. However, this probably wouldn't have prevented this tragedy. This was a well planned attack. He worked on this for months, and had plenty of time to seek out a gun by other means.

On the flip side, there have been some pro-gun folks that want to to use this tragedy as support for the right for anyone to be able to carry a gun anywhere. Please, there is no way that we want students carrying guns around campus. Remember college??? A lot of god memories, lots of good friends, and a whole shyte-load of drinking. Weren't there enough problems with drunk college students without throwing guns into the mix. Besides, most of these NRA/pro-gun types always forget or ignore the 1st part of the 2nd amendment: A well-regulated militia... (hello, well regulated doesn't mean anyone anywhere can own and carry any kind of gun he/she chooses). A few more regulations may not have prevented this incident, but they do help prevent those crimes of passion where someone who is distraught, angry or upset tries and gets a gun. More on guns et al at a later date.

Backlash: I saw several reports early on where Korean students and students of Korean descent were worried about backlash because the perp was Korean. The media clearly amped up these fears as the repeatedly labeled this young man as 'the Korean gunman'. Thank God there have not been any incidents/harassment of Koreans (at least I have not seen or read about any), though you can't blame them for being concerned. Too often there have been such racist attacks after such incidents. Maybe this nation IS maturing... yeah, I doubt it too, but I can dream.. Maybe we did learn a lesson from the Amish as they forgave the man who gunned down their children. btw: the Amish reaction and actions are one of the few incidents where you can find the answer to the question: "What would Jesus do?"


Academic Freedom (or lack thereof). On Friday a professor was fired for acting out a shooting scenario in his classroom. He was asked by his university to engage students in regards to the events of 4/16. He did, but in an unconventional way. It may have been upsetting to some, maybe even a touch tasteless. Nonetheless, he did what was asked. I find the point that he may have been trying to make (that some of the deaths may have been prevented if a student was armed) a bit scary (see my rant above about arming students). BUT, just because the actions and point the professor was trying to make were controversial and/or upsetting to some or even most does not justify the firing. Academic freedom is already under assault in this nation, and any actions to hasten the demise of a critical part of our democracy must be opposed.

The stigma of mental illness. To me, this problem is at the root of the incident. The young man clearly had some serious mental health issues,m and not just recently. As more is reported about the history of this kid who called himself ?, a broad deep picture of a very troubled young man is revealed. Some news organizations covered his relatives in Korea and how they noticed from an early age how different this kid was. One news report talked about how mental illness was a stigma in the Korean community and that may have caused the parents to not seek treatment. This is bullshit. The stigma is cross-cultural, cross-ethnic, cross-SES. Society treats mental illness as something to be ashamed of and hidden. The is never enough $$ for the treatment of mental illness, often leaving those will mental illness on the fringes of society.

The kid had serious mental issues from early childhood, but they manifested themselves in ways that didn't immediately draw the attention of those around him, or maybe it did and they didn't know or have the resources to deal with it. I don't blame them. There have been a couple of issues in my own family of issues with mental health. Getting the right help is challenging when you know something is wrong and you have the resources. Education about mental health and taking away the stigma of being treated for mental illness will go a long way to preventing an incident like this from re-occurring.

Thanks

....segregation tomorrow.... segregation forever???

Did the Iraqis elect George Wallace as governor of Iraq??
Officials downplay criticism of Wall

In his inaugural address in 1963, Alabama governor George Wallace gave us the infamous "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." line. Well, as a nation, we became enlightened to the evils and inherent fallacies of segregation, de jure segregation came to an end across the land and eventually Wallace, the poster child segregationist ideology, changed his view. Things are still far from perfect, but clearly segregation was an evil policy that just codified discrimination and racism.

So why are we actually overtly supporting the Iraqi government's plans and efforts to wall of sections of Baghdad based on ethnic/sectarian lines? Here we are, almost 53 years to the day after Brown vs this years after the landmark Supreme Court Ruling that struck down the notion of seperate but equal, Brown vs the Topeka Board of Education?

Have they gotten so desperate that they are willing to try things that failed in much of the world? Segregation walls did not bring peace to Belfast. What makes the Iraqi government, with clear support (maybe even encouragement??) from US 'advisors' think it will work now?!

A.G. the AG caught with his pants down, so to speak

Ah, nothing like a little pressure to change the mind of the AG.

AG and the justice department had waged an all-out war against the fired US attorneys and Congress, attempting to destroy their reputation as well as blasting those that questioned the firings as 'playing politics'.

Along comes some Republicans who were very concerned about these firings who more or less states that the AG himself may join them in the unemplyement line. Suddenly, the AG, who has had his pants down mooning the entire justice system and the Constitution, has a change of heart.

Gonzales rushed to the capital to meet with democratic leadership. Apparently he is backtracking.. It seems that he will not oppose legislation removing his power to appoint attorneys w/o congressional oversight. He would also allow his staff to testify w/o being subpoena as part of a deal:

White House backtracks in row over U.S. attorneys

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Slapped even by GOP allies, the Bush
administration is beating an abrupt retreat on eight federal
prosecutors it fired and then publicly pilloried.

Just hours
after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed the hubbub as an
"overblown personnel matter," a Republican senator Thursday mused that
Gonzales might soon suffer the same fate as the canned U.S. attorneys.

A short time later, Gonzales and his security detail shuttled to the
Capitol for a private meeting on Democratic turf, bearing two offerings:

President Bush would not stand in the way of a Democratic-sponsored bill that
would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint federal
prosecutors without Senate confirmation. Gonzales' Justice Department
previously had dismissed the legislation as unreasonable.

There would be no need for subpoenas to compel testimony by five of Gonzales'
aides involved in the firings, as the Democrats had threatened.
Cloistered in the stately hideaway of Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, the attorney general assured those
present that he would permit the aides to tell their stories.

It was a striking reversal for an administration noted for standing its ground even in the face of overwhelming opposition.

Gone were the department's biting assertions that the prosecutors were a
bunch of "disgruntled employees grandstanding before Congress."

And the department no longer tried to shrug off the uproar as "an overblown
personnel matter," as Gonzales had written in an opinion piece
published Thursday in USA Today.

Read the entire article:
www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/09/congress.prosecutors.ap/index.html

Was it just pressure from fellow Republicans that brought this about, or is there something else afoot???

I think that the AG is trying to broker a deal where all testimony is in closed session, and that someone under Mr. Gonzales will end up falling on his/her sword.

But the real question is, will these guys get their jobs back? I know, no way that happens after all of the stuff the Justice Department said about them that they would take their jobs back.


I hope Congress makes the hearings open and that they subpoena all of the records of the corrupting cases the US attorneys were working on so they can finish the jobs that these guys were fired for doing.

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Like shooting fish in a barrel

From CNN.COM:
Bush to show soft side on Latin American junket

This is nothing new..... we have seen GeeDub's soft side for years.....

HIS HEAD







Yeah, I know, this was just too obvious of a punch line, but I had to post it. I've been too busy to do much blogging lately.

The true religion of the Republican party??

McCain says he misspoke when he said that American lives were wasted in Iraq:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. John McCain on Thursday became the second presidential contender to back away from saying the war in Iraq had "wasted" the lives of U.S. troops.

During a Wednesday night appearance on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman," McCain announced that he would enter the 2008 race but said a formal announcement would come in April.

He also said the nation had paid a "grievous price" for mistakes made in the first years of the nearly four-year-old war in Iraq.

Americans "are very frustrated," he said, "and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/01/mccain/index.html

After catching some flack (and deservedly so) he tries to 'amend' his statement, claiming he meant to say 'sacrificed American lives.'

Interesting, calling dead US soldiers 'sacrifices'. Many of us have long suspected GWB, Rumsfeld, Cheney, McCain et al of not truly being Christians, but who knew they were Mayan or Aztec.


Seriously, though. I find it disturbing to think of a soldier's death as being a sacrifice when there is, and never has been, a direct threat to the US or world peace in, from, or because of Iraq (well until WE got there, anyway) A soldier's life, if it ever should be called a sacrifice, should be given in defending his country, ie sacrificing his life so we can remain free and safe. His (or her) life being lost to cover for repeated mistakes and lack of planning and foresight by military and political leaders is not a sacrifice. It is a shame, and maybe even a crime.

Hopefully McCain and all those that think we should stay the course in Iraq, as well as future leaders, will learn from the mistakes made by Rumsfeld, Bush, Rice, Powell, et al. If they don't, then truly the lives of our soldiers will have been wasted.

Deja Vu, all over again

"Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it."

-George Santayana

Does history repeat itself? A question that is often asked, and often answered in the affirmative. I attribute this to the fact that as humans, we tend to make mistakes-sadly the same ones. It is not from ignorance (well, GWB may be the exception) but due to stubbornness, selfishness, egotism, and blindness. People are often too full of themselves and full of self importance to see that situations from the past apply to them.

Take Vietnam. In 1964 Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the ability to escalate the war. Well, a few years later it came out that the administration and the Pentagon had not be completely truthful with what happened. By that time we were so entrenched in IndoChina that it took several more years, and 10's of thousands of American and Vietnamese lives.

Fast forward, oh lets say 38 years. The current President (and hopefully LAST) Bush and the Pentagon go public with evidence that Iraq was developing WMDs, as we all know. This led Congress to give the President the ability to wage war in Iraq. After a few years, we all learned that things were, once again, not what the administration and Pentagon had portrayed. And, we are deeply entrenched in a war that is costing American and Iraqi lives. , starting to sound familiar?? Well, the scary part is yet to come, I fear....

Fast forward to 2007. Pentagon and the Administration announce that they have conclusive proof that Iran is directly involved in supplying insurgents with weapons and explosives. (though there is some backpedaling on just exactly what they were saying and what it all meant). Questioned about whether or not they were making a case for war with Iran, Bush et al cry foul, saying there is no such plan or effort. In fact, GWB gets quite indignant, wondering why people are so skeptical (see, I said GWB was the exception).

A quick fast-forward to today: Reports say Iranian patrol boats are making incursions into Iraqi territorial waters........

.. it's deja vu, all over again.

The administration HAS to know that Congress and the American people will remain skeptical of anything that it puts forward, so it will look for something more substantial to push us into another war. I feel this is being done for two reasons. 1. They really really want to 'get Iran' and 2. A means of taking the Iraq war off of the front page.

Is John McCain a man of his word??

We may have the chance to find out, MAY that is. The senior senator from the great state of Arizona and perennial Presidential candidate filed a voluntary statement with the Sec'ty of State Brewer that says he would resign if he lost a recall election. Well, the paperwork for a recall election has been filed and petitions are now being circulated.

Recall drive targets McCain over Iraq
A new recall drive targets Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a top contender for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.

Organizers oppose McCain's continued support of the unpopular Iraq war and consider him complicit in what they perceive as the erosion of American civil liberties associated with the war on terror.

"For the most part, he's been all right, but he's supposed to be representing Arizona, and right now he seems to be just representing himself," said William Crum, treasurer of Americans for Integrity and Justice, the Glendale-based recall committee. "He's got tunnel-vision for the presidency."
The recall application filed Tuesday with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office accuses McCain of "shirking his duties as a senator from the great state of Arizona" and of having "acquiesced in his role as a member of the legislative branch to strongly check the power of the chief executive, who has for all intents and purposes become a king."

"Please, help restore our democracy, recall 'Bloody John McCain,' " the handwritten application says.

McCain's Senate office did not respond to requests for comment. McCain was elected to his fourth Senate term in 2004 and is not up for re-election until 2010.

The recall group faces long odds. It must collect 381,696 valid petition signatures by June 13 to force a statewide vote. That is 25 percent of all votes cast in the 2004 Senate election. Although McCain is a federal officeholder not bound by the Arizona Constitution's recall provisions, he has signed a voluntary pledge on file with the Secretary of State's Office agreeing to resign immediately if defeated in a recall election.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0214mccainrecall0214.html

I doubt that they will gather enough signatures, but lets play make believe.
If they do get the sigs and the recall goes forward, McCain has a huge warchest to fight the recall and would likely win. But I don't think things would get that far. His pledge says he would resign if he lost, but I think he or others on his behalf would challenge the validity of the recall on Constitutional grounds. The recall provision does not apply to senators, and that will be the basis of a challenge, that I believe would be successful. McCain could not afford to be fighting a recall while running for President, there is no way he lets this get in his way, he will back such an effort to challenge the recall, though probably under the table. (though I could see some other Republican prez candidate quietly funding the defense of the recall)

Besides, we already know that Mr McCain is not a man of his word. HE still walks this Earth after promising to kill himself if the Democrats took back the senate and house.

Free press and Free speech, Can you go too far???

The editor at Central Connecticut State University's newspaper, The Recorder, wote an editorial that seems to have gone just a little too far. In the editorial, he claimed that rape was a positive force and that it benefitted 'ugly women'. Here is the article, taken from the PDF version of the paper (February 7th, page 7):

Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It
JohnPetroski
Opinion Editor
Most people today would claim that rape is a terrible crime almost akin to murder, but I strongly disagree. Far from a vile act, rape is a magical experience that benefits society as a whole. I realize many of you will disagree with this thesis, but lend me your ears and I’m sure I’ll sway you towards a darkened alley.

If it weren’t for rape, Western Civili¬zation might not exist as we know it today. When the Romans were faced with a dispro¬portionate ratio of women to men in the early kingdom, they had to do something, lest their fledgling society die for lack of sons. To solve their little dilemma, they did what any rea¬sonable man would do: they threw a festival for their Sabine neighbors, and then stole and raped their women. It’s quite logical; in fact I don’t understand why the settlers at Plymouth didn’t do the same to the local Indians—it cer¬tainly would have saved on shipping costs.

Obviously, in the case of the Rape of the Sabines, rape was a tremendous help to society. The Sabine women, for their part, didn’t seem to mind so much, as they threw themselves between their brutish old Sabine husbands and their charming new Roman ones to prevent bloodshed when the Sabine men came to reclaim their wives. Yet even when society was totally against a rape, the raunchy act has benefited society too. Where would the Romans be, after all, if it weren’t for the Rape of Lucretia infuriating the people to the point of overthrowing their last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus? If it weren’t for that event, the world might never have had the Roman Republic for a pristine example of flawless government.

Rape’s glorious advantages are not, how¬ever, exclusively found from 2,000-year-examples. In actuality, rape’s advantages very much be seen today. Take ugly women, for example. If it weren’t for rape, how would they ever know the joy of intercourse with man who isn’t drunk? In a society as plastic-conscious as our own, are we really to believe that some man would ever sleep with a girl re¬sembling a wildebeest if he didn’t have a schnapps in him? Of course he wouldn’t—least no self-respecting man would—but there in lies the beauty of rape. No self-respecting man would rape in the first place, so ugly women are guaranteed a romp with not only sober man, but a bad boy too; and we all know how much ladies like the bad boy.

Ugly women are not, however, the only people who benefit from rape—prisoners en¬joy its many perks too. What, after all, could possibly be more boring than spending years of your life confined to some tiny cell 23 hours a day? The answer, of course, is spending years of your life confined to some tiny 23 hours a day and never getting some hot ac¬tion. With rape, prisoners never have to worry about that. Instead, they merely need worry about treating their rapists with enough love and respect to earn a quick reach-around.

But if there is one bread and butter reason for why rape should not only be accepted, even endorsed, it is because our news editors are in dire need of interesting stories for front page. Bookstore stories? Fossils? One dollar coins? Please. Now, some saucy circle-jerk rape action? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
----------

As you can imagine there has been quite an uproar:

Author of Rape Editorial Faces Critics

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- A former college newspaper editor who wrote an article describing rape as a "magical experience" apologized to a large crowd of students and faculty at Central Connecticut State University.

John Petroski's Feb. 7 article in The Recorder was headlined, "Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It." It argued that rape has been a positive force in western civilization and benefits "ugly women."

The 23-year-old sophomore history major was removed as the newspaper's opinion editor over the weekend amid protests by campus groups. Critics also demanded the resignation of editor Mark Rowan and the paper's faculty advisers.

Petroski said the article was satire.

"When I hear about girls crying or feeling suicidal over something I wrote, it doesn't make me feel so good," Petroski told the gathering Monday afternoon. "I'm concerned about you, and I want you to hang in there."

One student, Nicki LaPorte, tearfully condemned the article.

"I am not a victim of rape, I am a survivor of rape," LaPorte said.

Rowan, who has no plans to resign, said Petroski will be allowed to continue writing on a limited basis. He said the experience has made him more sensitive.

"Up until now, I had always seen the world from the narrow vantage point of a 21-year-old white male, but now I see that it needs to be broadened," Rowan said.

The newspaper plans to appoint a woman to replace Petroski as opinion editor. The current editorial board has seven men and four women, he said.

When I first read the above article, I was really beginning to doubt my faith and belief in free speech and freedom of the press. I mean, rape is good?? I was appalled that someone would even THINK about writing that. Maybe prior censorship is needed after all. Sure, the young man claims that it was satire, but that was after the fact. People are always finding excuses for their indiscretions and faux pas.

But, after finding the actual editorial and reading it, I think that the young man was actually attempting satire. He just didn't do a good job, and picked a very poor topic to attempt to be Jonathan Swift. Read Swift's A Modest Proposal.

The real question is, should this editor and others be canned (the author was)? After reading this article, I say no. I think that the uproar has taught this kid a lesson. I also think that as offensive as we may find the choice of a topic, we still do have a free press in this country. Giving into a group just because they were upset about the content. I know that this will upset many of my fellow liberals. Before you rush to judgement, think about this: in the 60's there were newspapers that called for equal rights, a very controversial thing to do. Would you have fire these editors? If we are to truly have a free press and free speech (you know, those things mentioned in the Bill of Rights) we must allow unpopular and offensive ideas and statements to stand. Suppressing and oppressing unpopular views and ideas would make this a totalitarian state. I know we all (well, all but a select group @ 1600 Pennsylvania) very much oppose.

Corrupt Intelligence

And this time it it isn't justification for war... or is it???

The former 3rd man in charge at the CIA, Kyle Foggo, is about to be indicted for corruption. Here we have the man who was in charge of the day to day operations of the CIA accused of corruption involving military contracts. He is linked to the same contractor in the Cunningham scandal.

This has to make you wonder if this whole push by the CIA into the Iraq war was motivated by contractor bribes???

Don't be quick to judge....

The murder of three migrants NW of Tucson Wednesday has become a popular topic among some of my fellow liberal bloggers. Two that I read regularly, potential City council candidate Daniel Patterson and Man Eegee, seem to want to tag this as the work of vigilante groups. These vigilante groups have clearly have a negative image among many, myself included, and deservedly so. However, the groups do not have a history of violence as of yet. (Hannigan Brothers Being the exception.) The violent nature of this particular attack indicates it was committed by someone to whom violence is not something that is new to them, but quite a routine thing. If the vigilante groups had gotten to this level of violence, we would have seen a significant number of acts of a lesser violent nature, with the nature of violence increasing steadily. To me, this is clearly NOT the work of vigilantes.

I suspect, and posted so on both of the afore mentioned blogs, that this is quite likely the handiwork of a rival coyote gang. Violence between these coyotes is nothing new. A few years ago there was a running gun battle on I-10 between rival coyotes. There is a lot of money to be made smuggling people. Some of the same groups doing the smuggling are also drug runners. This level of violence is nothing new to them.

I hate the vigilante groups and think that their presence poses more problems than they pretend to solve, but let us be rational in our analysis of the situation and avoid the lynch mob mentality. Otherwise we are no better than they are.

Common Ground

No, this is not about the charity Common Ground, but about some common ground between the US and Iraq.

It seems that as different as the two nations are in many aspects, they do have some things in common, and not necessarily in a good way.
The US has its Dispensationalist Christians that want to 'immanentized the Eschaton' who want to accomplish the same via proxy via Israel or directly with US military invlovment in the Middle East. I long thought that this was a phenomenon was limited just to certain US religious circles. It seems that Iraq has at least one group that wants to do their own 'immanetizing of the Eschaton'. The group that recently attacked Najaf wasn't just some Shia group out to wreack havoac on Shiites, but were in fact memers of a messianic cult bent on bringing about the rise of the Islamic Messiah:

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) -- Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other top Shiite religious figures were the apparent targets of a plot by a Muslim messianic cult intent on seizing the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said.

The plot was thwarted by an intense battle that began early Sunday when Iraqi police and troops were dispatched to go after the insurgents. U.S. forces took the lead Monday as the fighting wound down, an Iraqi police official said.
The cult believed their plan to seize the Shiite holy city and assassinate top Shiite clerics would bring about the coming of the Mehdi, a Muslim messiah, the official said.
Col. Ali Jraiwi said the insurgents detained after Sunday's fighting told Najaf police they are members of a group called "Soldiers of Heaven" and are a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Cult Plotted Attack on Shiite Clerics, Iraqis Say

(Note the last bit "a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims". Well, at least there is something that the two groups can agree on.)

A big difference between the American and Iraqi 'immanetizeres' is that the Iraqis are willing to die for their immanetization, but the Americans are just willing to get others killed for their END resutls

For more about Immanetizing the Eschaton, read:

Must be nice to live in a state of denial

Veep-creep Cheney says that there have been NO blunders in Iraq.

Now, I can understand a desire to paint things as rosey as they can, but does this man really believe that there have been NO blunders in Iraq???
Cheney: Talk of blunders in Iraq is 'hogwash':

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, conducted a day after Bush delivered his State of the Union address, Cheney was asked to respond to some Republicans in Congress who "are now seriously questioning your credibility, because of the blunders and the failures."

To that, Cheney answered, "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."

Come on, 'dead-eye' Dick, can't you even admit that the blanket removal of ALL Baathists from their government posts was an abject failure? This damage done with this move is still felt throughout Iraq? Can't you even admit that the move to boost the # of troops should have been done at the start of the war??? I KNOW you'd never admit that the intel was a bungled fiasco!

What is scary, is Cheney claims that Saddam would be in a nuclear arms race right now if he were still in power. Um, Veep, don't you understand, you need more than just a few irrigation pipes to build a nuclear program, let alone developing nuclear weapons.

These guys just won't let go of this whole "Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction' bit. It has been debunked repeatedly, Dick. Pay attention to news other than your buddies at Fox every once in a while...

MORE TAX CUTS FOR ME!!!!

Yes, great news for me and my family of 5. WE GET A TAX CUT! Just because I have health insurance through my job (as does my wife)!!

Damned, makes me feel so special! Another 15K of my income will be TAX FREE! yippie!

For those who missed it, Bush's solution to the health care crisis is to give americans a new DEDUCTION to take when we fill out our tax forms! Oh, that just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy all over!
From Bush's speech:

Tonight, I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans afford their own insurance. First, I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance will benefit from lower tax bills. (Watch Bush propose health care initiatives Video)

At the same time, this reform will level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance through their job. For Americans who now purchase health insurance on their own, my proposal would mean a substantial tax savings -- $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care affordable for more Americans.

Just how the heck is it supposed to help the millions of Americans get health insurance is beyond me! An uninsured family of 4 making $60K will get an extra $4500 in tax savings. BUT, this sounds like it will only come at tax time. How will that help a family pay the FULL premium for health insurance every month???

All that Dubya's plan does is give tax breaks. It does nothing to help stem the rising costs that Americans are paying.

My random thoughts during the speech.

OK, here are my random thoughts while the speech was in progress. Forgive grammar and spelling issues. A more coherent post will come later:



The State of the Union.

Not as smug look on his face as last year at this time.... interesting how a dish of humble pie served up by the voters this past November can change a man!

Sucking up to the women and the Democrats right out of the gate.

Nice touch, mentioning Johnson and Norwood. I do hope they both make a speedy recovery.

Determined enemies... on and on with that theme.

Economy on the move, but for whom! Wages up, but healthcare costs rising faster.

Oh, Now he wants to balance the budget...... took him 6 years but he realizes there's a problem!

Eliminates the Federal deficit in 5 years?? BULLSHIT, not with billions being spent in Iraq. Earmarks increased with the Republicans.

McCain looks smug as ell as if HE wrote that....

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid reform.
NCLB getting a lot of attention, but his budget proposals have made major cuts the past two years.

NCLB and tons of unfunded mandates. Will he fund it now?? No mention of funding for NCLB, just reauthorization..

Healthcare: TAX DEDUCTIONS!! Is that his answer to everything??? How does a tax deduction help!

Price transparency??? how about some transparency in how the Whitehouse handles the creation of public policy!


Immigration: Temprary worker program.... that won't go anywhere. Enforce at the workplace, (but only at certain companies)

Resolve status of illegal workers without animosity and without amnesty.....

Stable supply of energy.. and a stable supply of $$ for his friends.

CLEAN, SAFE NUCLEAR POWER??????

Reduce gasoline usage by 20% in 10 years..... (not a very lofty goal for such a long period of time)

More research on Alt fuels...
Oh, the congressman from Ohio loves it.. more profits for corn farmers, (but corn-based ethanol is NOT very efficient)

Oh, climate change... how about signing the Kyoto Accord!!

Fair and impartial: sure, how about recinding the patriot act for starters.

Protecting America: “to win the war we must take the fight to the enemy” (then why the frick are we in Iraq???)

OK, PROOF of these alleged plots!! I bet he has the same level of proof for these acts as he did for Iraq having WMDs!


He is turning this into a war against Islam with this rhetoric of Sunnis this and Shias that..


He still misses the point about what drives people to joining the terrorists.

Not the fight we joined but the fight we are in... how about calling the fight we helped to create!

And didn't he just describe a civil war?? (re comments about Sunnis bombing Shia mosque and the Shia retaliation and the continued escalation)

he still doesn't get it. Al Qeada would NOT be in Iraq if WE hadn't gone in their first!!. HE created this problem. We should have focused on Afghanistan and fought the terrorists THERE, not create other battlefields for them.


He keeps saying the Sunni's are allied with Al Q, but Bin Laden wanted the Sunni rule in Iraq to END!

Support the troops... great rallying cry that means NOTHING. He labels ANY dissent to his policies as NOT supporting the troops.

Building up the number of US troops... 92K increase. Questions:
1: where will the $$ come from to pay and equip them?
2: Where will the recruits come from??? They can't meet quotas now!

So, he wants a sort of volunteer corps??? To me, it sounded like an antithesis of the PEACE CORPS..

Fund the Millennium challenge, supporting democracies where democracy increasing and corrupting retreating.... wow, money for Washington DC!!

and over.....

OK, Money for AIDS, malaria, a larger military, money for alt fuels research, money for emerging democracies, another tax deduction, no increase in taxes, and a balanced budget to boot!!

Prepping for the State of the Union Address

Well, here it come! Domestic issues to be the focus of the speech, including asking the nation to curtail use of gasoline. by 20% in 10 years. Imagine all of the gas we could save if we didn't have to keep flying wounded soldiers out of Iraq to Germany and the US.

WAR:GOOD! MEDICAL RESEARCH: BAD!!!!

So, acting on the WILL OF THE PEOPLE, the House passed the stem-cell bill. Now, GWB is threatening to veto the bill. Kind of Ironinc that a man who just last night asked this nation to send 20,000 more troops into Iraq to kill and/or be killed is against medical research that hs the potential to improve and or save lives.

So the Bush administration, which claims that human life is sacred, is willing to sending MORE troops into the middle of a civil war to be potentially killed and the lives of the millions of lives to be saved from stem cell research are not worth anything.

Rice and Fox sitting in a tree....

K-I-S-S-I-N-G......
First comes Iraq, next Syria
then come georgie bombing North Kor-eea!



Condi Rice love Fox News!
Rice 'loves' Fox News

Ok, so it is not really news. I mean there is a mutual love kinda thing going on between Fox and the BuSh administration. (recall Veep Cheney's requirement that ALL tvs in his hotel room be turned to Fox News) But for the Secretary of State to say: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them" is just somehow not very dignified, not to mention a public servant of her stature stating her prefernce for one news organization over another.

Deer in the headlights?

George W. TRIED to make his case for increasing the # of targets available to Iraqi insurgents last night. I say try, because he clearly failed to make a convincing case. He started off by talking about what his plans were for 2006 and how they failed miserably. Now he expects us to believe that this new plan is a well designed one, designed to bring us victory. Who is he kidding?At times it looked like he didn't even believe his line of bullshit.This so-called surge is an INCREASE: an increase in insurgent targets, an increase in the profits of the contractors supplying the US Military, and increase the number of families left without a loved one.

Another republican comes to his senses!

Senator Gordon Smith, R. Oregon, has come out in opposition to U.S. involvment in Iraq. Not that surprising, in that many politicians are jumping on this bandwagon (It took them awhile, but I guess they finally get it, that and polls and recent election results force their hand). What IS refreshing is he actually uses logic and reasoning:

"You know, this is a fight, when you get right down to the root of it, between Sunnis and Shias that goes back a millennia of time over who is the rightful successor to the Prophet Mohammed," Smith told Wolf Blitzer in an interview set to air on "The Situation Room." "That is not our fault. That is not our fight, and that's not something we can fix."
Oregon Republican explains why he no longer supports Iraq war

There have been few, Democrats, Republicans, or Talking Heads that have framed it so clearly.