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.