I am never really amazed at the things that go on each and every day. One of the things that has surprised me a bit however is how long this whole supporting our troops = stay in Iraq vs. not supporting our troops = leaving Iraq.  It really is past the point of being pure comedy as it is clear that repeating something enough times on television is enough to make something true.  People here don’t seem to want to say what they really think out loud anymore…and it is not okay to do so either. It is really a shame and I hope that this is something that will change dramatically very soon.

But, the real point of this post is to give a 2 second explanation why George W. Bush will never say we are leaving Iraq (while he is President).  It is simple really, he doesn’t have to.  No matter what Congress or the American public does to him and what is left of his honor, it will never get worse for him.  We have been told that we were going to Iraq for one reason, then another and that has turned into something different.  Martha Stewart, who I have no love for, went to jail for lying to federal prosecutors about a stock trade that netted her less than a month’s salary.  However, lying every day about why we sent 130,000 troops to Iraq (that has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars) is ok.  Strange.  George Bush will never pull our troops out of Iraq because he can only climb out of the hole he has dug himself into.  The vast majority of Americans want our troops out of Iraq.  However, Congress can really only do two things to stand in his way and my bet is, they don’t do either.  If they did, Bush and Co. would simply use their ace in the whole.  Should Congress do something drastic, they would get blamed for breaking their program and then they in turn would own the war in Iraq…not Bush (even though that would simply not be the case).
1) They cut off funding for the war in Iraq.  This can be spun any number of ways by George Bush and Co. and will pretty easily mobilize the people that wanted to elect this man to a second term as President to rally behind him. At the end of the day, Congress would cave and we would simply be further down the line (like we are today) wondering when we will get our boys and girls home with all of their appendages and minds intact.

2) They impeach the President. You can apparently get impeached for lying about getting a BJ from some wacked out intern in the White House, but not for why you sent 130,000 troops to invade another country.  While this makes a lot of sense (sarcasm for those of you too retarded to figure that out), it won’t happen because then Congress owns the war. Bush and Co. would simply be able to say we were starting to turn the tide over there and then Congress kicked us out. They broke it, they own it.

So, boys and girls. I am afraid that unless someone who has some sack stands up and gets in the face of the insanity that we have been living in, I am afraid that we will simply have more of the same for a long time.

[tags]Iraq, Bush, War, Withdrawl, Never[/tags]

Here is what I have learned so far this week…or at the very least have been reminded of.

1. If you are not for increasing the number of troops in Iraq, you do not support the troops. Comedy.
2. Whatever George Bush did to get all of his mini-me’s to repeat everything he said, should be bottled and dropped in bomb over Bagdhad.
3. I believe more than ever that we need short term limits on every public office from Mayor to President. Don’t think so? Look at the people that have been “serving” our country for so many years. There are some real patriots, however most are in it for #1.
4. We need real citizens to run for office and everyone in this country to vote every time there is any kind of election. The United States is a Republic, which means we have a representative form of government. We need mainstream people running this country that represent the majority of the country…not the fringes. Left, right, top, or bottom, the fringes have taken control of public offices and policies. It is unfotunate that mainstream people will not run for office and when they do, they don’t have a shot at winning. Time to take back the country and bring back responsibility.
5. We seem to be getting closer and closer to a police state. I am not an alarmist or some kind of conspiracy theorist. But, I get more scared about how things are run in this country every day I read a paper, watch the news or speak to friends work in law enforcement and the law profession.
6. I almost forgot this one. IF you are a politician and you do something pretty bad; something that could potentially end your political career…go to rehab.

Politicians, Politics, Republic

When I watch the television and our elected officials these days, I often feel like I am in Alice in Wonderland. It is truly a surreal experience for me. All of the ideals that I was raised on and with seem to be so far from where we are as a country and a nation today.  I hear statistics that say 70+% of Americans are opposed to sending any more troops into Iraq, yet that is all our President and his team of repeaters can say.  The tactic of today’s politician is to repeat themselves so many times that they believe it as true and you get Jedi mindtricked into the same.

Well, I am sick of it. Here is the short and skinny. IF creating a democracy in Iraq (since that is what they have seemed to have settled on as the reason we went there) is something that is vital to OUR nation’s security (forget the nonsense about what the Iraqi people “want” supposedly), then let’s do what every general, the Baker-Hamilton commission, and sensible person thinks and let’s have a draft and get the other 250,000 troops we need to do that thing right into Iraq. Otherwise, congress needs to do one of the two things that they are able to do here. One, cut the funding allowing the President to use the power they gave him/give him to wage war.  Two, impeach him AND Cheney.  There is nothing else they have power to do. Clearly the President doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what anyone else in this country thinks. I am not sure why that doesn’t incense people like it does me.

This is a Republic…a representative form of government. It would be nice to see some goddamned representation already.

[tags]Iraq, Bush, Policy, Politics, Cheney, War, Powers, Congress, Impeach[/tags]

Here is a pretty funny article I read this morning. It caught my eye as it was the first link on the Google News site.  It is entitled, “Dumb and Dumber.”

For all of you citizens out there who are unaware, the President will be addressing you and your fellow compatriots at 6pm PST on the channel of your choosing.

[tags]Links, News, State of the Union, President[/tags]

So, I try to read a few different online news outlets and Op-Ed pieces each day to hear what the “two sides” (since that is apparently all we are allowed to have here now) have to say and I soon realized that the Neo-Conservatives are truly crazy fanatics. Not that I did not think that they were before, but I really believe that many of them are really crazy. I was reading Frank Gaffney’s Op-Ed piece in the Washington Times just now and was pretty taken back. In his open letter to President Bush, Gaffney suggests that the President let the country and the world know that we are not engaged in a “War on Terror” against “terrorists” but, we are engaged in the “War for the Free World” against, at the moment, those adherent to “Islamofacism.”

What scares me most is that this is the group of people that are creating our policies these days and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that they don’t want to listen to what anyone has to say. That is fine, just do it in your own little shack in the woods, ala Montana Ted, and have a day…just don’t do it when you supposedly represent the 290MM+ people in the US of A. Has anyone on this team of geinuses ever spoken to any of the people that we are supposedly helping in the muslim world? There was an interesting article about Pushtunwali in the Economist last week and I think it is something that everyone in this country should read. Basically, it talks about some of the predominant cultures in the Middle East and their heritage. Bottom line, I don’t think any of these people want to be “liberated” by the US or anyone else. They just want to live like they have been for thousands of years.

If we want to go to war to stake a claim to the world’s great oil reserves, ok. Let’s just call it what it is, I am down with that. We have the muscle and we want a piece. Just don’t make up 10 different names for something until one sticks. Bottom line, if there was no oil in Iraq, we would not be there. I am sure there are millions of other people in the world that need to be liberated as well, don’t see us running to save them.

Bush, Muslims, Neo Con, Neo Conservatives, Pushtunwali, State of the Union, USA

I am just plain tired of the trash talking.  It never seems to end, especially from the ultra-conservative side of the park.  I lean more to the conservative/libertarian side (not liberal folks) of things most of the time, but one thing that irritates me most about the super conservative types is that they always appear to be driving some kind of wedge.  I am not sure why that is, maybe because they learned as children that they could get a rise out of someone and that it made them feel good. I really don’t know. But, this commentary by Larry Kudlow this morning in the Washington Times got under my skin…I suspect that was his goal.

Kudlow jumps all over John Edwards for his percieved views on mega-disasters like the Katrina/New Orleans mess and on Iraq policy.  I think that it is pretty lame (for lack of a better, family friendly term) for someone as intelligent as Larry Kudlow to do that. Why? Pretty simple, I don’t think anyone, anywhere can say they have the goods when it comes to the end-all, fix-all of these two debacles.  If Larry Kudlow is so on top of his game, then we would all be better off by him using his vast resources (montetary, political and commercial) to promote solutions for these and other items he has all of the answers for. Instead, he chose to write an inflamatory piece in the WT.  In my mind, that is on par with the rest of the lip service that we are now accustomed to from our political “leaders”.

One thing I did find interesting was his biography on Wikipedia.  I am sure that whomever contributed/wrote that bio has their own bias, but I can’t wait until Larry decides to use the “flip-flopper” term.  He could be the King Trash Talker and King Flip Flopper.

[tags]Larry Kudlow, Lawrence Kudlow, Trash Talk, Flip Flop, Iraq, Katrina, John Edwards[/tags]

Here are some good news reads for today, December 11th, 2006.

Pakistani / US status changed to MNNA – Basically, they now enjoy many of the perks that countries like Japan, Israel and South Korea enjoy.

US Was Tapping Princess Diana’s Phone – Cool, we had a tap on her phone in the days and nights before she was killed in that fatal car crash.

Iran’s “Holocaust Didn’t Happen” Conference – Real live or South Park…you make the call.

Me, Me, Me, Me – The spirit of entrepreneurship…is it bad. This nobel laureate thinks it may be.

[tags]News, Links, December, Politics[/tags]

Hey everyone, let’s send nuclear material to India! We don’t want terrorists getting their hands on nuclear (nu-kyeh-ler as our president says) material right? So, then why the hell are we planning on shipping a bunch of nuclear fuel to India?  Maybe I missed something.  Let’s see, we don’t want to fund islamic facism, yet we buy millions of barrels of crude oil each day from the middle east. We don’t want islamic facists to get their hands on nuclear material, but we are seriously considering sending nuclear fuel to the 3rd most populus muslim country in the world.  Does anyone in this country actually care about anything we say is important?  Jesus christ, how is this not the biggest item in the news right now?

[tags]Nukes, Nuclear Fuel, India, Muslims, Dirty Bomb[/tags]

Well, this may not be as dubious as it sounds. I was on the Hertz bus headed to LAX last Saturday and the last people on the bus included Tony Blankley.  I am pretty sure most people would have no idea who that is, but he currently writes op-ed pieces for the Washington Post, appears on shows like Hardball and the McLaughlin Group and is labeled by most as a Conservative and by some as a Neo-Conservative. Well, when I was exiting the bus with Danielle I asked him if, “he was going to be on this week” to which he replied that he off for the week.  Well, I guess I should have been more specific because I turned on Hardball last night and there he was!  All kidding aside, I don’t agree with most of what Tony says, but it is great to read and listed to what he has to say as I think it represents what many Americans think today. He has actually led a pretty interesting life, you can read more on Tony’s Wikipedia page.

[tags]Tony Blankley, Politics, Liar, Joke[/tags]

It is sad, but true that most of the people are happy to let all of the work be done by a small percentage of the people. Yet, most people like to complain. It has always been that way, and I am sure that it will most likely continue to be that way.  I am sure that is most of the reason why we have such a bunch of back slapping donkeys in the house and Senate.  When did anyone who calls themselves a Republican think they would hear something like this in a financial news bulletin?

Treasuries are about to have their best week since September based on expectations President George W. Bush will curb spending in response to Democratic control of Congress.

I just received that from a bank that we are working with in one of their daily market updates. The Congress’ members should all be ashamed of themselves no matter what side of the aisle they have been sitting on.  Their job is not to look out for each other, it is to represent the people of their district and their state.  Jokers.

My favorite part of the festivities the other day, when president Bush spoke, was when Bush started to talk about how, “Stay the Course” did not mean keep doing the same thing. Sure pal.  It would have been nice to see Chuck Barry out there with the hook or someone throwing a cream pie in his face right after he said that. I think one of those would have been an appropriate response. What a jerk.  With all due respect, if there is any left in the Presidency, I have not seen someone who is so full of crap in a long time.  Somehow he has convinced his minions that repeating after him is all they need to do. I hope Bush Bot Mania is over and we can get back to living like normal Americans again.

[tags]Bush, Bush Bots, Politics, America, Congress[/tags]