Isn't it Ironic?

"Independent" republican joe "I work for Israel" lieberman says that disagreeing, publically and officially, with bush's latest plan will "encourage the enemy". I wonder if he thinks the last four years of incompetence and mistakes by bushco in their war in Iraq "encourages the enemy". Does this chicken hawk think that not being able to secure a capital city after four years "encourages the enemy"? Do not blame the outcome on those who are starting to think of ways to get us the hell out of the policing of a civil war that BUSH instigated with his invasion of Iraq. LIEberman should know what encourages the enemy. Just look at his last days as a "Democrat" and his first days as an "Independent" and you can see how he "encouraged" the republicans.

Another great talking point concerning bush's war of choice in Iraq is that anyone who is against the "surge" and/or the war in general is from the "fringe Left". Senator John Warner, Senator Chuck Hagel, and the all but about 20 of their republican colleagues who are against the surge, are not on the "fringe Left". Representative John Murtha is not from the "fringe Left". Generals Abizaid and Casey are not on the "fringe Left". I wish that the almost 62% of the US citizens, who polled against the "surge", were on the "fringe Left". They are not, yet. When the Senate votes on the, albeit non-binding, resolution against bush's "surge", maybe all this broad brushed crazy peacenik left talk will stop, and once again we will be able to take our rightful place on the "we were right about bush's war in Iraq from the start" mantle all by our "fringe Left"-selves.

Speaking of pinko, hippy, commies, the March on Washington that took place last Saturday seems to have been made up of more than just the normal "protest for the love of protest", dread locked, unfocused, Mumia liberating, anarchists that the mainstream media, as well as blogland, informed Us made up the millions that protested this war in Iraq before it started. Young urban professionals (who really aren't the easiest to motivate), soldiers and their families, and union workers showed up to protest the war in greater numbers than has been reported before. Some even carried and waved the American flag. Damn flag burnin' Liberals!

According to the free dictionary ironic is defined as:

1. Characterized by or constituting irony.

2. Given to the use of irony.

3. Poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended

Just something to think about while you're listening to "sanctity of life"/war monger-in-chief talk about tax breaks to help citizens afford health care, even though most of the people who can't afford it don't make enough money to pay taxes. The blinding irony of scarlet macaws (red parrots), like faux news anchor brit hume, talking about how prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald over stepped his bounds in investigating the administration's disclosure of Classified information concerning our National Security. I wonder what the "do as we say now and not what we did then" crowd thought of investigator starr, who was sent to investigate a real estate case the Clintons were involved in BEFORE HE WAS PRESIDENT only to start asking the questions of the President's marital fidelity (obviously essential to our National Security). In case you forgot, here's what republicans used to think about the rule of law.

Next week Iran and what we've done to the region of South West Asia that we call the Middle East, as well as "global climate change", and maybe even an update on the scooter libby trial. So far ex-bush mouthpiece, ari fleischer, testified that scooter lied, libby has testified that vice president dick told him to do it, and rove and bartlett (counselor to the president) have been subpoenaed.

Show me What Democracy Looks Like!

This is What Democracy Looks Like!

A Hundred Thousand People (soldiers, celebrities, and members of Congress included) rally and March on Washington.
You have my Full Support. I'll see you on March 17th.

Shout along, it's on C-SPAN!

WE WANT PEACE!
STOP THE WAR!
IMPEACH CHENEY, then BUSH!

20 questions: Iraq Edition

Inspired by the Timeline of the Iraq War at Think Progress
1. What happened to all of your other plans, like the last Strategy for Victory?
2. Have we "turned the corner" yet in Iraq?
3. Is the "insurgency" in its "last throes"?
4. Is the "mission accomplished"?
5. Are there just "pockets of dead enders" left?
6. How many fake turkeys will it take to keep troop morale up?
7. How many jokes by the president about there being no WMD's will it take to soften the blow to Our country that was abu ghraib?
8. Are we still "going to war with the army that we have"?
9. When will rumsfeld receive his Medal of Freedom?
10. Why is Baghdad so much more important than New Orleans, or Afghanistan for that matter?
11. If "we are not winning" are we losing, or does it depend on what the meaning of losing is?
12. If "clear, hold, and build" is our new strategy, what the hell have we been doing for the last four years?
13. Is the parroting of "We're not planning on invading Iran." supposed to remind us of your Run up to your getting rid of UN inspectors and going to war unilaterally in Iraq?
14. How can you have a "national sanctity of life day" while you send more men and women to kill and die?
15. How many chances do you think someone should get?
16. When did your watch start, before or after September 11, 2001?
17. What's worse lying about cheating on your wife or starting an illegal war?
18. What's wrong with having three co-equal branches of government?
19. When will Iraqi oil revenue start paying for this war of choice in Iraq?
20. What type of "sweets and flowers" were we greeted with when we invaded Iraq on your orders? Were they cherry?

The adults are starting to speak.

Senator Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska challenged his colleagues to do their duty to their Country and Countrymen (and women) or "go sell shoes". I'm with you Senator Hagel! I'm with you Senator Feingold! I'm with you Senator Warner! Eat it lieberman!

These bastards (and bitches) have taken debate concerning the largest and most important issue we, as a Country, face, and made it a bad and unpatriotic thing. Debate on war, and all things concerning and of interest to the United States of America, is a neccesary and obligatory function of a Democratic society. It's about damn time Congress did something, said something, and stood for something.

Will the real leaders Please Stand up.

the state of the union

The thumped little prince took the stage to give us his laundry list of repeated promises from energy independence to health care. Once again, he connected terrorism to Iraq, which his foreign policy has now made true. And now a "plan", which Wesley Clark has called "stay the course", Presidential hopeful John Edwards has dubbed the "McCain Doctrine", and what one presidential hopeful who is tied to bush's war in Iraq and "surge" more than any other , senator john mccain, calls "our last chance".

A few more candidates have entered the 2008 Presidential race or at least have formed exploratory committees (the primaries are over a year away). The big one, of course, is Senator Hillary Clinton, but personally I was more interested in Governor Bill Richardson's hat getting thrown into the ring. Now I'm not one to be racialist, but you tell me which party is more inclusive. The Democrats have a White woman, an African-American guy, a Latino guy, and 5 White guys. The republicans have 7 White guys, to be fair one is the first Mormon to run for President. That's a minority, right.

So as Speaker Pelosi, who along with her Democratic House passed their "First 100 Hour" agenda with 30+ hours to spare, smiled behind lil' bush as he talked to a country that likes him as much as they liked Nixon after Watergate, I thought about what this man and his minions have already done to Our country and it's reputation. Try to remember how many different reasons he has given us for going into his unnecessary war in Iraq. A war that claimed 27 American Soldiers last weekend as well as 100 Iraq people and how many of those reasons have turned out false. Remember that he has touted a new energy policy and conservation in every State of the Union and has done nothing.

The New Democratic House has already passed legislation that stops big oil tax breaks, cuts the interest on student loans, raises the minimum wage. The Democratic Senate has passed massive ETHICS reform, even after the Republicans tried to stop it. It's nice to see the failure-in-chief flip flop on his domestic spying program, which now has to go through the FISA court, again. It's nice that his administration is finally checking and editing the no fly list. But with all due respect (to your office) Mr. president, it is too little, too late, as is the 21,500 soldiers you've already started to send. Even though high ranking members of your own party havee submitted a resolution to the Senate against it. You chose this war. It is your legacy. It is your Presidency, that and maybe your pathetic and anemic response to the worst natural disaster in our nation's history (which you neglected to mention in your State of the Union).

We can't change the past. It is Our mess to clean up. But your "new " plan disregards the opinion of the American public, the United States Congress, The James Baker/Lee Hamilton Iraq Study Group, General Abizaid, General Casey, and on and on and on. It has to stop and you and all those connected to you have got to go. Maybe the I. Scooter Libby trial will bring the latter starting with vice president d!ck cheney. Seeing Gonzales squirm under oath was a start, as well.

Next time Global Warming (or as bush calls it Global Climate Change), China shoots down a satellite, and the irony of bush and the religious right's "National sanctity of human life" day.

"Six years ago, we held off [saying anything negative about the administration]. But considering what's happened, I think we're owed an apology. Anyone with a rational mind and a sense of decency is being positioned as a lefty by the extreme right. I believe in the tenets of democracy, and when they get pushed, it pisses me off."

- Robert Redford, at the opening of the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday

What a difference two weeks can make.

I first started this blog entry with Speaker Pelosi's quote "Today we make history. Today we change the direction of our country,". Little did I know the newly elected Democratic House of Representatives would have already passed legislation that Enact 9/11 Commission Recommendations, Increase Minimum Wage, Expand Stem Cell Research, and Negotiate for Lower Prescription Drug Prices, leading a GOP hold over from the do nothing 109th Congress to admit that his party is "low on ideas". Imagine a Congress banning meals, travel, hotels, gifts, or future employment opportunities allowed from lobbyists.

Conservative pundits called for the assassination of members of Congress, and republican Congressmen whined about a "minority bill of rights" (actually written by Pelosi in 2004 and was, of course, ignored by the reds) as the 110th Congress was sworn in (one congressman with a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson). Making Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House in US History. Sure lil' bush says he'll work with Democratic leaders now that he has to. We'll have to see how he works with people like Congressman Murtha who has already said that he "will be recommending extensive hearings that will address accountability, military readiness, intelligence oversight and the activities of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Of course the biggest issue is still bush's war of choice in Iraq. 70 people died there Tuesday, and the UN estimates that over 34,000 Iraqis have died last year alone (saddam was hung for killing under 200). Speaking of saddam, there has been another botched hanging of one of his officials. This time a Sunni baathist was decapitated. It's so bad that now Saudi Arabia is saying they will send troops to help. An influx of Sunni Arab military? What do you think the Shiite military of Syria and Iran will do? No wonder the Iraqi Prime Minister wants to quit.

So let the "man" who smiled and laughed through questions on the war in Iraq during his 60 minutes interview shuffle the chairs on the titanic yet again, switching John Negroponte from the recently created Director of National Intelligence to Deputy Secretary of State, sending the UN Ambassador to Iraq (a practicing Muslim, oh my) to the UN, harriet myers resigning as White House counsel and perhaps most importantly, those Commanders on the ground lil' george was always "listening" to are being fired/resigning, coincidentally just after the top man General Abizaid disagreed with bushco. on the "surge" the little prince spoke about last week.

21,000 troops over two and a half years will not win this war. We had 20,000 more troops in there in 2005. It didn't work then. The idea is to secure the capital city of Baghdad now that we've been there for four years. The question is "Can we stop this civil/sectarian war and is it our to stop?" . We started it. Lil' bush and his cronies put these people in this horrible position. All that bush/mccain "surge" over the next two years is going to do is get "withdrawal" off of bush's table and on to the next president's. Saddam is dead (a point bush missed in his speech on Iraq which shows you just how fouled up it was). That's the only mission that has been accomplished. That and proving saddam right. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. Iraq posed no "urgent", "immediate", or "imminent" threat to the United States, but the terrorists/america haters bush has created do.

Stories since last we spoke that I couldn't fit in:
Funniest story : Senator Charles Rangel got cheney kicked out of his Capitol Hill office.
Scariest story: bushco. writes a signing statement allowing him or those in his charge to read the US mail, your mail if he deems it neccesary.
And in Entertainment: Congrats Sasha Baron Cohen, Martin Scorcese, and Prince on your drunken awards show statuettes.

Happy 2007 and the last big story of 2006

Happy New Year! That's what we all yelled Sunday night. And let's hope to hell it is.

With Conyers, Waxman, and Pelosi at the ready, and Obama, Clinton, Edwards, and Vilsack steppin' up to the batter's box, looks like 2007 might be pretty good. Pretty good for minimum wage earners. Pretty good for kids without healthcare. Pretty good for parents struggling to send their kids to college. Pretty good for applying the breaks to old "stay the course", "surge" george. And it may very well turn out to be good for defense lawyers specializing in the government. We'll just have to wait and see.

The last big story of 2006 took place in Iraq, or should I say is still taking place in Iraq. First, there's the execution of saddam hussein. The debate, among most, concerning this hanging boiled down to whether or not you believe in the death penalty, or so I thought, but the Iraqi government couldn't even get the execution of enemy #1 right. Instead of having uniformed government soldiers or police execute the former dictator, the American backed Iraqi government had al sadr supporters dressed in jeans and leather jackets with sky masks pulled over their faces like street thug militia men do it. The hanging has been broadcast on the net, and is linked to the likes of the drudge report. The cellphone video taken by a witness looks more like a terrorist video then the act of a sovereign government that We support. I 'm not saying saddam hussein deserved confort. I am saying that the execution of the former dictator Breaks Iraqi Law. Shouting support for the leader of the Mahdi militia while they executed saddam sent a clear sectarian signal from the shiite militia to the sunnis of Iraq. Not good. Of course Bush praised the "fair trial" saddam was given. A "fair trial" that bushco. refuses to give to people the United States has captured and continue to detain. It begs the question, what have we created in Iraq and what have we become ourselves?

The rush of the Iraqi government to kill saddam, once they were granted custody by the United States, also sends a sign that the Iraqi Government is moving without the control of bushco. A friday night, on New Year's weekend, with a presidential funeral, a funky funeral, and college football? The campaigner in chief couldn't have liked that. Hell, he had to provide a "statement" from Crawford.

Unfortuantely, the first big story of 2007 is the breaking of the 3,000 mark in American Troops Killed in bush's war in Iraq. There has got to be a way out of there, and it needs to be with the support of the country, with the support of military, and with the support of the world, including those countries in the region and I'm not just talking about Israel.

So Happy New Year!

I leave you with this from Governor Spitzer's Inaugural Address.
"It will require a new brand of politics — a break from the days when progress was measured by the partisan points scored or the opponents defeated. No longer can we afford merely to tinker at the margins of the status quo or play the politics of pitting one group against another. We must replace delay and diversion with energy and purpose in the halls of our capital."