The Pentagon and the Memory Hole

Breaking news, the Pentagon condemns the use of chlorine in Iraq by insurgents! This constitutes chemical warfare in the eyes of the United States. Everyone needs to express their outrage and hate those stinking terrorists even more! Those soulless beasts will do anything to kill and maim! Quoted, “What you have to understand is that chlorine bombs have more of a psychological effect than they do as a killing effect," said the commander, Maj. Gen. W.E. Gaskin. What will be next?!? Killing babies?
What you as an American need to know is that the Pentagon is hoping you don’t do a little research of your own. Do you know what kind of weapon leaves a terrifying wake, just like chlorine gas? How about white phosphorus? Nothing spells “intimidation” like the sight of a body burned to the bone (warning : graphic picture). But America wouldn’t use such a cruel weapon, a weapon that can kill you by burning off all your skin while you are likely still alive! Oh no? Well the US military is using it in Iraq. Not only that, but it appears that the Pentagon has to lie about it because it is internationally unacceptable to use this weapon against targets where there is a possibility of civilian contact. This weapon is as close to hell as you can get anymore, since napalm was banned.
So while the Pentagon tries to drum up more fury and rage against those awful terrorists for their tactics, take a minute to review their modus operandi and ask yourself, “What is the difference between us and them?”

Holy Inflammatory Actions Batman!

I have not written about what is currently going on between Britain and Iran right now, but I have been trying to stay up on the facts. Well we have some new developments and the escalation continues. I ran across what I thought to be an excellent commentary on the context of this current crisis and how we have gotten to this point. Please read this article and ask yourself, "How have our policies on detainment, treatment and interrogation of prisoners in the "War on Terror" affected this current situation? And how can we possibly expect another nation to follow the rules when we have advertised that the rules don't apply to us anymore?" This new kind of war that we have created is only going to hurt us in the long run.

What does a Volvo have in common with the “War on Terror”?

Paul Campos is a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News. Previously I have written to the paper to dispute an article he wrote about the Supreme Court. Neither the letter nor the article are archived, so I can’t show what the arguments were. Anyway, all this to say, I have strongly disagreed with him in the past. He often gets tagged as a Liberal, however if you read his columns with any regularity, you would see he is anything but. He wrote a very insightful piece describing the nature of American attitudes towards risk in general and the “War on Terror”. I totally agree with the premise of his argument and wish more people understood the foundational elements of how and why the US Government has been able to so easily sell this sham of a war to the American Public.

Democrats are flexing political muscles, forcing the President’s hand

Steady forward progress is being made by the Democrats in Congress with their
war spending plan. Some Republicans in Congress are starting to see the political light and are easing up on the firmness of their commitment to “No Artificial Timelines”. Bush is forced to threaten a veto of the bill if it reaches his desk with pullout language, and the steady intensity of his rhetoric dictates that he pretty much has to follow through with the threat. Instead of doing what he promised back in late November, Bush is not compromising and working with the Democratic Congress. Incidentally neither is Pelosi and her gang. However it is the Democrats who have done the work to get the plan to Bush. The President will no doubt try to place the blame on the Democrats if a spending bill is not passed in time for the troops, and the Democrats will do likewise.
The sticking point for Republicans is that there is a timeline and pullout date. The rhetoric from the Right (note John McCain's reference to Zarqawi, who is DEAD!) is designed to shame and scare the country into believing that we must stay and continue the fight and that setting a timeline advertises to the Enemy what are plans are. The truth about the Democratic Bill is that while it does set a timeline and a pullout date, these are NON-BINDING!(this link is a must read) and the criteria for the decision is left up to the executive branch. Also, Republicans claim that this is micromanaging the war and tying the hands of the troops and generals who are on the ground. Actually what it does is gives the first clear strategy of the war and let’s the Iraqi government know that we won’t be around to police their Civil War forever.
The argument is framed so that Iraq is the central front in the War On Terror. While it is true that we are fighting some elements of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the struggle is not against America so much as it is a fight for control of this very unstable nation. Saddam ruled with an iron fist and suppressed this simmering ideological struggle between Sunni and Shiite. When Bush brashly and shortsightedly removed Saddam, he removed the lid and got sprayed in the face with the firestorm that ensued. If we really want to fight the War on Terror, we will go after the international terrorists in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and North Africa. Personally, I am fully opposed to the false War on Terror that has been driven into our psyche by the fear mongering of this Administration, however for the sake of the political debate, I am taking a political position on where we are now.
For a point by point rebuttal of some of the Right’s main arguments against pulling out of Iraq, retired Lt. General William Odom wrote a concise article on why we should get the hell out and soon.

"Patriot Act" response

Since I haven't had time to write my own content in the last few days, I am just going to post one of the comments that I received on my post from last week, "Patriot Act Abused...." I feel it is a very good summation of the direction that our country is going. These changes may not happen in our lifetime, but we are responsible for the country that we leave to our children. I will keep the author anonymous unless they let me know that they want credit for this. Here it is.....
"In answer to the question posed at the end of your write up, it will never end. The goal was never to fight terrorism, or to increase security. The patriot act was simply a hodgepodge of power expanding tools that law enforcement had tried to ram through congress before and failed(sometimes more than once). http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17326res20030403.html The only purpose of the patriot act is to expand government power. To show why snooping, gag orders, and opacity in the ruling power do not, and cannot increase security (or, as it is sometimes put in true double-speak ("preserve the American way of life") imagine an environment where the police can search your dwelling or person for any reason or no reason. As a matter of course, they tap your phone, they read your mail, and they watch you 24/7 both in person and with cameras. You are not allowed a weapon of any kind, but they constantly scan the horizon, automatic weapons ready for use at the first sign of trouble. Imagine a world where privacy is not an option. Where those in power choose what you read, what you watch on TV, even what you wear. It might not sound fun, but it would definitely be considered secure by those who support the patriot act. This world already exists: it's called prison. Would you feel safe in prison? "

Slow progress is still progress

It looks like Liberals are accepting the pragmatism that they will need to move ahead with pulling the troops out of Iraq. The Democrats, namely Nancy Pelosi, have managed to swing some more votes to their Emergency Funding Bill in the House. I am still not convinced that the House measure is going to do much in the way of actually bringing troops home. It leaves major decisions in the hands of the President as far as determining whether the Benchmarks are met. In a government designed to be slow moving, this process could be prolonged well past the 22 months that Bush has left in office, and long enough to leave the mess to the next president. Besides that, Bush has guaranteed a veto if the bill makes it through Congress. The White House and the Democratically controlled congress are both under intense pressure to get a spending bill through, and unfortunately, it is our troops that hang in the balance. For an excellent commentary on the politics of this fight, click here. Basically, we are quickly approaching a situation where one side or the other will have to back down. And in this intensely charged politically charged debate, there is no telling who has the most guts. The consequence for inaction is a lack of funding for the troops already on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and neither side wants to be stuck with the political fault for this. This debate and the resulting consequences are sure to have an enormous impact on the ’08 election.

Patriot Act Abused. In other obvious news : Breathing is good for you

Turns out those whacky nuts who decried the dangers of the USA PATRIOT ACT were not totally misguided after all. Over the last couple of weeks or so the FBI has been stuttering and stammering in an attempt to explain their gross misconduct involving their use of National Security Letters. This is one of the issues that I am most passionate about when it comes to politics in general. The systematic destruction of our rights as Americans and as human beings makes me ill and outrages me to no end. No doubt I will be writing more about this subject on this little blog, but the point I want to make in this post is that FBI has proven that government cannot be trusted with the kinds of powers that the Patriot Act bestowed. Kudos to congress for at least acting upset about this, but I doubt this will lead to any real change, with or without Democratic control. To see the direct impact of the use of NSL’s, click here. And for some anecdotal evidence of more abuse of power that affected regular people like you and me, click here. Please give this topic some serious consideration as it affects you whether you know about it or not. Please read some of these articles and ask yourself, “If it doesn’t stop here, where will it stop?”

Democrat’s War Spending Plan Struggling, Big Surprise

It looks like despite the political tricks, the Democrat's plan for ending funding for the war is stumbling. This is despite intense lobbying by Pelosi and her gang. Democrats are again proving their inability to unite on anything important. While some Democrats say that this bill goes too far by strong-arming the funding for the war, others further left decry that this bill does not go far enough. This is indicative of the way the next 2 years are going to go if Democrats don’t stop bickering amongst themselves and move forward with a real plan. The mission and heart of the Left movement is a noble one. I support bringing the troops home soon and ending this sham of a war. However a real and workable plan is needed. In addition to that, a real and workable plan must be accepted by the entire Party, as well as center leaning Republicans. This just doesn’t seem plausible at this point. There is too much extremism within the Party. Listen up Liberals, we cannot simply pull the troops out tomorrow! There was no plan when the troops went in to Iraq and if we try to leave with the same strategy, there will be untold bloodshed and chaos, both for Iraqis as well as American troops. And there can be no pullout of the troops without unity within the Democratic Party. Failure to progress in this issue will result in certain defeat for the Democrats in 2008. How can they win if they fail to complete the one thing they promised to do?

Trying to get noticed

If you are politically inclined, check out my Technorati Profile. I did this in an attempt to get some traffic to my blog. If you like my blog, please tell others. This blog has a few purposes but I would really like the focus to be politics and political debate. So please spread the word. All views are welcome. TELL THE WORLD!

Adoption : Episode I : The Application Process

My wife Jen and I are planning on adopting a child from Ethiopia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia) soon. We have some big decisions coming up, mostly financial. If anyone out there is reading this, some suggestions about how to generate extra money would be helpful. And I don’t mean selling candles door to door. We are considering sending out fundraising letters. There are a lot of grants and loan programs that sound really good but most require that you have a certain amount of the process completed before you apply. The main step that needs to be completes is the home study (http://home-study.adoption.com/adoption_home_study_process.php), which involves a hired social worker coming to your house to make sure you are not a child abuser. The upfront costs seem to be prohibitive at this point, though we are trusting that God will provide the money some how as we move forward with what we believe He has called us to. We have sent in the initial application and are waiting for the agency to review and approve it. The home study is the real application. I am sure that we will get through it with flying colors, as long as Isaiah doesn’t tell the social worker about all the crack we sell out of the garage (that was a joke, in case any real social workers are reading this). We would really appreciate your prayers (if you are the praying type) as we try to move forward in this process. I will try to keep this updated as we make progress.

Democrats pull a dirty trick

After running their 2006 congressional campaigns, in part, on a platform of cleaning up politics in Washington and getting rid of legislative bills engorged with special interest spending tacked on, the Democrats are one-upping the former Republican majority with a low down dirty trick (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901615.html?nav=rss_politics). While I definitely support pulling out the troops, and while the only way this will happen is for Congress to assert their power over the funding for the War, I strongly disagree with the tactic they are employing here. It gives ammunition to all the Right-wingers to unload on the Democrats for not only going back on their campaign promises, but also using cheap ploys to get the votes they need for their spending bill. This will only hurt them in the long run. Even if the bill passes in both Houses, which seems unlikely given the lack of unity within the Party (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000840.html), Bush will most assuredly veto it. Democrats continue to spin their wheels and create more doubt about their ability to run the country. Their seemingly short sighted plans are causing me much frustration.

Fight Night : Obama vs Clinton

The ’08 Presidential race is in the early stages of downright nasty-not-niceness. Obama and Clinton are starting to throw the right hooks and haymakers ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902165.html?nav=rss_politics ) and the blows are not landing on each other, but rather on the overall chances for a Democratic victory in November 2008. Everyone knows this about the Democratic Party, everyone but the Democrats it seems. Politics is a dirty business and Obama and Clinton are expected to take their shots at each other, but this meaningless bickering between the two camps this early in the game is bound to do more harm than good for both of the candidates and the Party. The strength of the Party is its ability to disagree and present several views that are not conforming to a strict party line. However this is the main weakness of the Party as well. It impedes its ability to gather widespread support from within the Democratic base under one candidate or central idea. Occasionally the Democrats can pull it together enough to do some real politikin’ (Clinton in ’92 : http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1992/ii921024.html ) but this seems to be a rarity in recent years. Its amazing to me that in this political climate, the Democrats were only able to win a slim majority in the Senate. I wait with cautious optimism to see what unfolds in this early race. Obama ( www.barackobama.com/ ) is my favorite candidate right now and I hope he stays above foolish arguing at this point and garners more support as we approach the primaries (http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_state_primary_dates.php ).

Welcome to This Lame Blog

I am not sure who does this kind of thing. Who writes blogs? Apparently I do now. I was inspired by a friend of mine, Bmer. Anyway, the topics that this "blog" will be wide ranging and inclusive of all genders, races, creeds blah blah blah. I guess the main points will be what's going on with politics, office life and family life. Not necessarily in that order. I desperately want to sound smart so please comment if you have anything intelligent to add. I will post more later today.