International Relations

Let's see........China is tying up oil supplies in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, and drilling rights off the coast of Cuba.

And what are we doing internationally? We're fighting a losing battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, threatening Iran in the United Nations, won't talk to Cuba, building a huge embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad, exporting manufacturing jobs to China and India, and going deeper and deeper into debt to the rest of the world,

Isn't there something wrong here in our international relations? Who's winning the USA vs. China race to be the world's only superpower?

Bush's Oil Saving Plan

Letter to the Times of London

Dear Editor:

As reported in the London Times today (April 26, 2006) President Bush announced a four point plan to try and help lower the cost of gasoline for the American consumer. This oil president's so-called plan is once again nothing more than "spin" on the truth. Take the first two points:

1-He directed the Justice Department to join the Federal Trade Commission inquiry into possible price manipulation by big oil companies. THE TRUTH- The FTC has been doing this since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and surprise, surprise, they haven't found anything yet, which he already knows.

2-For this summer the oil companies will not have to repay any of the oil they borrowed from the government's reserve, thereby putting more oil into the marketplace. To quote him, "Every little bit helps.". THE TRUTH- The oil companies borrowed 70 million barrels from the government's reserve and have already repaid 68 million barrels. The two million barrels still owed are a big nothing in the daily US usage, which he already knows.

Once a bender of the truth, always a bender of the truth.

Solving Gas Prices???????

Dear editor:

News release: President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump. He also halted for the summer the purchase of crude oil for the government's emergency reserve. Bush also announced steps to ease environmental standards governing fuel grades.

Typical Bush. He put a bandaid on a huge cancer, which the big oil companies (his buddies and backers) welcome. Now they don't have to do a thing about their outrageous profits or executive pay. But, let's face it, these new executive regulations he has ordered will only worsen our environment, which is causing global warming. Oh I'm sorry, the Bush administration says there is no such thing as global warming.

Why Iraq? It's Simple....and Sad

Dear editor:

Let's face it, Baby Bush attacked Iraq for a reason.

In one of his early speeches he once again invoked the phrase "Axis of Evil" referring to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. To prove, wrongly, that he was a man of power and destiny, he chose the one he knew would be the easiest to tackle, since Daddy Bush had already shown how weak their army was. Iran and North Korea scared the hell out of him so he left them alone. He had no idea how things would turn out in Iraq, which we now all know since "Mission Accomplished."

Now that he has shown the world what a "paper tiger" we are, Iran and North Korea are not afraid of us and threaten day in and day out. Our problem is that we have no cards to play. Where does that leave us? Up the creek. And it encourages other despotic countries like Venezuela to walk all over us.

Let's face it, the only Superpower in the world today is China, and Bush, understandably, wouldn't say boo to them. They own our manufacturing, our ports, and our national debt.

Illegal Immigration Solution?

Dear editor:

“Illegal immigration.” Those two words represent one of the most divisive issues facing America today. The President doesn’t agree with Congress on a solution and evidently our legislative branch can’t even reach a solution within itself, regardless of political party.

The problem is two fold: 1) How do we handle those illegal immigrants who are here now, and; 2) What do we do about our porous borders that are constantly overwhelmed by individuals and groups sneaking into our country on a daily basis? We are all aware of the problem from the viewpoint of both American citizens and from those seeking a better life for their families. Even though everyone seems to have an opinion, no one seems to speak of a rational solution. So I would like to offer the following three step idea.

1) The President should recall all of our National Guard troops serving in foreign lands, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, freeing them up from the continuing debacle in that part of the world. They would then return to their historical role under the control of each state’s governor.

2) The governors of our Southern Border States should then be given the responsibility to reassign these troops to border patrol within their state, aiding the under manned and stretched thin Border Patrol. If this is not sufficient, the governors of adjacent states would be required to come to the aid of the border state and “lend” that state their National Guard units as needed. (The same could be done, if necessary with our Northern Border States.)

3) With our borders now secure and the problem not a growing one, the administration and Congress could proceed with legislation to solve the problem of those already in the country, be it amnesty, work permits, citizenship, or whatever avenues of solution are thought necessary.

But, if we do not take steps one and two, step three will always be meaningless as the problem will grow and never go away. Now, the question is, Does the President and the Congress have the guts to take these steps?

Five Year Accomplishments

Let’s look at the world situation and see if I have it right:

1-Iran, with the world’s fourth largest oil reserve, is planning to build an atomic bomb, is threatening the United States to cut off oil exports, is threatening to use military force, is talking of closing the Gulf, and has threatened to wipe out the State of Israel.
2-Afghanistan is slowly sliding backwards in its fight against the Taliban, which is now using suicidal bombers ala Iraq. We can’t find Osama there, and our military is so small in the country that it is ineffective.
3-Now there are suicide bombers in Pakistan.
4-Hamas has taken over Palestine and has sworn to destroy Israel.
5-A civil war is brewing in Iraq with way in excess of 30,000 civilians killed, and our soldiers still dying there.
6-Caesar Chavez is threatening the United States with cutting off their oil.
7-Mexico’s President Fox has declared that the problem of both illegal immigrants and drug dealers shipping to the U.S., which continue to grow, are the United States’ problems and not Mexico’s.
8-Our so-called European allies are at odds with our foreign policy and have their own problems with immigration.
9-We have made enemies of all the Arab/Muslim world.
10-The American public has lost faith in this administration and only 38% of the public supports the efforts of the President. Questions are being asked about the honesty of the president.
11-Congress is at a standstill on immigration reform and doing something about our porous borders. The public has no faith in them at all.
12-Our government spending is out of control and our national debt is skyrocketing.
13-The war in Iraq is a disaster with no end in sight.

Isn’t that a wonderful accomplishment in just five years of the Bush administration? And no, I don’t feel safer.

It's Their Fault, Not Mine

Dear editor:

Someone needs to explain the workings and control of the U.S. government to me. I thought I understood.

For the past five and a half years, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White House, most of the governorships in the country, cabinet members, and almost all heads of federal agencies are Republican, and that party has a complete control and hold of our government. And yet, when a legislative bill, such as the one dealing with immigration reform, does not pass or is pulled from consideration or a vote, the first words out of Republican mouths is “those liberal Democrats are at fault.”

Today, in his weekly Saturday radio message, President Bush called on the minority Senate leader (Democrat) to allow the immigration bill to come to a vote. Senator, Dr. Frist, the Senate majority leader blamed the stoppage on the Democrats and said they had “put a strangle hold on the compromise bill” and “the problem is with the Democratic leadership.” So glad those two are united on something even though their unity is a joke of fact. Republicans, if they got together could pass and approve any bill they want, but when they fail to do their job and disagree within the party, they blame someone else, the Democrats. All this reminds me of the little boy who tells the teacher that the dog ate his homework and it isn’t his fault.

Isn’t it about time that the President and Senate leader both grow up and accept blame?

Need An Immigration Solution

Dear editor:

Illegal immigration is a major problem in this country today and the U.S. Senate is trying desperately to solve it with a bill that will lead many immigrants to citizenship in this country. The effort to solve this problem is a good one. The resolution and compromise that our senators are working on is a program with a three pronged approach: 1) Illegals who have been in this country for over five years would eventually be granted citizenship if they remain employed, had background checks, paid fines and back taxes and learned English; 2) Those who have lived here for two to five years would have to travel to a U.S. border and apply for a temporary work visa; 3) If they have been here less than two years they would be required to leave the country.

This all might sound good on paper, but how will these people be identified and who will see that the law will be carried out? Do our senators really think that someone who has been here less than two or five years, who right now cannot be identified or found, is going to step up and say “Hey, I’m an illegal immigrant, have been here less than two years, and as a result am going back to my country of origin?” And for those here for over five years, scraping by to make a living, how are they going to come up with the money to pay fines and back taxes? Doesn’t sound very realistic.

And what about our porous borders that illegals will continue to cross making the problem a continuing one? Somehow we need a solution to all this, but what is in the Senate right now is not a practical one.

Rice admits "errors"

Dear editor:

A high ranking member of the Bush Administration has finally taken a second look and candidly admitted that the five year old leadership of the United States has made mistakes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that the Bush administration has probably made thousands of "tactical errors" in its handling of the Iraq war. "I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure," Rice said. "But when you look back in history, what will be judged is, did you make the right strategic decisions." In response to a question of whether the administration has learned from their experience, she said that they would be “brain dead” if they did not recognize where they had erred. (One can’t help but notice that she kept referring to the mistakes in the sugar coated term of “errors” instead of the deadly blunders they actually were.)

What she didn’t touch on though, was what the cost of these “errors” and learning curve had been. Was the education for the neo-con gang who couldn’t shoot straight worth the over 2,300 American troop deaths, the over 15,000 Americans wounded, an estimated 30,000 Iraqis dead, a brewing civil war, the contempt of the entire Muslim/Arab world, a financial cost that is helping to sink the United States deeper and deeper into debt, the loss of faith in America by so many of our so-called allies, and the dangerously deep and growing division the war has created within our own citizenry? All this she has the nerve to define as “errors?” Sounds more like tragedy.