You won't find Larry Craig here!

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What was the purpose...

...of (Democrats in) Congress calling for a report by Gen. Petraeus?

Is it the role of Congress to manage a war? To decide how troops should be rotated? I don't believe so.

Is it the role of Congress to investigate how funds it authorizes are being spent? You betcha.

When it comes to government programs created by Congress, it is up to them to decide whether to change those programs.

I believe when it comes to war Congress has two roles:

1. Authorize military action or declare war
   

2. Fund it. Or not.
   

Thus, if Congress, having authorized war (or not), does not believe it is in America's interest to continue the war as conducted by the Commander in Chief, they need to stop funding it.

Saying that this can't be done without endangering the troops is bullshit. I think if you remove the troops from Iraq, they will be in less danger. We're not talking about taking away their armor (you know, the armor that Bush and Rumsfeld didn't give them).

There is only one candidate for president currently in Congress who has had the balls to vote against funding this war, Dennis Kucinich. Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson have also called for pulling all troops out of Iraq. These are the only candidates for president taking this position.

We know the Democratic leadership can't muster enough votes to end the war. But trying to monkey around with it won't help. This is not a place for pragmatic compromise or tricks to try affecting the conduct of the war. Either take a real position or don't bother.

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Don't call it that!

I'm sick of hearing politicians, and reading editorials, decrying the spending of American "blood and treasure" in Iraq. Oh yes, it's a very poetic phrase. Google "'blood and treasure' + Iraq" and you'll get a quarter million hits. Everyone just loves that phrase.

It plays into the unreality of a war orchestrated by people who don't live in the real world I inhabit, funded by a Congress that, ditto.

Call it what it is --

LIVES: Lives lost, lives interrupted, lives forever altered.

MONEY: My money, your money. I don't have any "treasure." I have money. And less of it.

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Rudy Jumps Down, Spins

Rudy logic:

• MoveOn is critical of General Petraeus.


• Hillary Clinton is critical of General Petraeus.


• Ergo Hillary is defending MoveOn

My logic:

• Rudy put the NYC emergency commend/control center in a complex (WTC) that had previously been attacked by terrorists


• Rudy oversaw a city whose police communication system couldn't talk to the fire communication system, resulting in more mayhem and deaths on Sept. 11


• Rudy took no action to anticipate or deal with potential health problems of salvage workers at ground zero


• Rudy put forward a corrupt candidate for Director of Homeland Security


• Ergo, Rudy is about the last person in America we should trust to protect us
  

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If You Hate Us

I passed this uniquely American megachurch on the way to the Dayton airport this afternoon. Flying, on September 11, from the town where the Wright Brothers worked, made me reflect on this country and what it means to me.

Are we imperialists? Capitalists who put money ahead of our environment and safety? Overfed whiney childlike adults? The land of excess? Sure. But we are so much more that is good for us and the world. And, fuck it, it's my country.

So, please, criticize and protest, whether a US citizen or a world citizen. But if you hate us so much that you would wish us harm, please:

• Get off my internet. My military created it with my tax dollars.
• Stop using GPS. My military created it with my tax dollars.
• Don't use airplanes -- we invented them.
• Don't use telephones - we invented them.
• Don't look at TV - we invented that.
• Oh, yeah, don't turn on the light. You guessed it.
• No McDonald's for you.
• And for God's sake, don't wear Nikes and NBA jerseys while you're shouting "Death to America." It makes you look pathetic.
  

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I do this all the time - it's just a nervous tic!

"The undercover officer was monitoring the restroom on June 11. A few minutes after noon, Craig entered and sat in the stall next to him. Craig began tapping his right foot, touched his right foot to the left foot of the officer and brushed his hand beneath the partition between them. He was then arrested. "

GOP Senator Pleaded Guilty After Restroom Arrest
Idaho's Craig Denies 'Inappropriate Conduct,' Says He Regrets Entering Plea
By Paul Kane and Shailagh Murray, Washington Post, August 28, 2007

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Good Reads

Among many interesting posts of late, I recommend for your sampling pleasure:

Mullet Boy on Michael Vick and the NAACP

Schwartzie on Six Sentences

DCup on kids

The Rhetorical Letter Writer

The Ball & Chain on New York

WP on Lewis Black on Bush

Deeper Well on Marian the Librarian

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Believe it or not: Bush Compares Iraq to Vietnam!

President Bush, speaking to the VFW this week:

"...one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms, like "boat people," "reeducation camps," and "killing fields."

There's another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam.

And we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today's struggle, those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001.

In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden declared that the American people had risen against their government's war in Vietnam and they must do the same today.

The number two man, Zawahiri, has also invoked Vietnam. In a letter to Al Qaida's chief of operations in Iraq, Zawahari pointed, quote, "to the aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left their agents," end quote.

Zawahiri later returned to this theme, declaring that Americans, quote, "know better than others that there is no hope in victory. The Vietnam specter is closing every outlet."

Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price for American credibility. But the terrorists see it differently. We must listen to the words of the enemy. We must listen to what they say.

Bin Laden has declared that the war in Iraq is for you or us to win; if we win it, it means your disgrace and defeat forever. "

I won't argue the contention that the vaccuum left when we withdrew from Vietnam (and by the way, it was not a precipitous withdrawal by any means!) may have contributed to the sad events that followed in that region and that our retreat does offer a hell of a talking point for Al Quaeda.

But the only conclusion I can draw from Bush's statement is that he believes we should have not left Vietnam, at least not when and how we did.

So I would like to hear the Commander in Chief's further thoughts on what he believes we should have done with regard to the Viet Nam war from 1972 on. How long should we have stayed and how would we have won the war and avoided the tragedies that followed?

Also, one way we reacted to the chaos we contributed to in southeast Asia was by welcoming thousands, perhaps millions, of Vietnamese and other refugees to our country.

We broke Iraq, yet we will not admit her refugees. The pileup of refugees inside Iraq and in surrounding countries will cause untold misery and further destabilization of the region. I know what George is thinking: We'll fix Iraq and then all those folks will want to return.

It will be for the next president to welcome them.

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Mott

Mott the Hoople

Mott Hupfel

Mott the Hoople

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"Apply black paint, screw on a protective plate, or squirt in goo."

OK, what is it?

1. What Joe down at the body shop may do to fix up your beater car after you scrape another lamppost.
2. What Mistress Xena may do to you during your hour in her dungeon.
3. How the astronauts aboard Endeavor may try to repair the gash in their vehicle that threatens their safe return.

Of course, you guessed correctly. It's number 3.

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