Mr. Bush vs. Court Activism

Election Day is just around the corner and the rhetoric is getting worse on both sides of the aisle. Our president is the lead trash talker and fear monger and is out campaigning hard to help bring out the Republican base by bashing everyone in sight.

Just yesterday Mr. Bush was in South Georgia complaining about the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling calling for some form of same-sex marriage that would allow equal opportunity and rights for gay and lesbian couples. In order for him to try and revitalize the extreme right wing, evangelical, GOP base, he called for an end to what he calls “activist judges and courts,” in decisions such as this. The fact is that he calls any court decision not agreeing with his fanatical, religious opinions are “activist.”

What a two faced man is our president. He didn’t object to the U.S. Supreme Court being “activist” when it ruled on the election in Florida in 2000, and the court overstepped its bounds and put him into the office of president, so that he could personally cause and be responsible for the unwarranted deaths of over 2,800 American service people and over 20,000 wounded Americans in his Iraqi war that is leading nowhere. That “activism” was OK by him. Of course it has turned out to be bad for the families involved and has endangered all of America.

Do Nothing Congress

Dear editor:

The media and candidates for national office have hit on a new term in describing the accomplishments of our congress, which has gone home for the upcoming election campaigns. The new name for this congress? “The do-nothing congress.” But, I have to disagree.

Most people do not realize how congressmen (and women) and senators prioritize what they consider to be their most important responsibilities. The following is a listing of accomplishments and priorities which was used by these elected (by us) representatives, while being paid a minimum of $165,000 a year of our tax money. They have accomplished the following:

1.(Most important) Get re-elected by any means, using as much money as possible.
2.Raised campaign funds.
3.Did what’s best for the party first, and what’s best for the country last.
4.Gave themselves a pay raise.
5.Catered to the fat-cat lobbyists.
6.Became a rubber stamp for the imperial presidency.
7.Covered up every ethical breech that occurred in congress.
8.Mortgaged America to foreign bond holders by excessive spending.
9.Burdened future generations with a debt that will someday come to haunt our country.
10Did no oversight.
11.Allowed our rights as American citizens to be trampled on.
12-99. Etc, etc, etc.
100. (Least important) Did what’s best for the country.

And now they want to be re-elected????????

"W's" Presidential Library

Dear Editor:

Watching the news on ABC tonight (10/15/06) I learned that major universities in the State of Texas are fighting to host the George W. Bush presidential library. The three schools, who have spent millions of dollars fighting to house this library are; The University of Dallas, Baylor University, and Southern Methodist University.

I would like to offer an obvious, fitting alternative to these very fine, deserving universities. The proposed library, which will house all of Mr. Bush’s papers, and will probably be completely sealed for fifty years due to “national security,” (papers from his time as governor of Texas are sealed and in father’s library) really belong at a school not presently in the running. That school is The University of Baghdad in Iraq.

No school and country have given more to deserve this monument to arrogance, death and incompetence than UB.

Bushspeak

When the history of Iraq is finally written, the recent surge in sectarian violence is "going to be a comma," Bush said in several recent appearances.

According to that statement there are over 2,750 dead American "commas" and over 20,000 wounded American "commas."

In addition, there are well over 100,000 dead Iraqi "commas."

Thank you Mr. President for your compassion. Your use of the English language is overwhelming.

The McCain Blame Game

Dear editor:

Senator McCain, a true war hero who used to be a voice of reason in the Republican Party, has now taken to parroting the words of the president and his press secretary, Tony Snow, and is blaming former President Bill Clinton for the North Korean explosion of a nuclear device. He has referred to it as a “failure” of the previous administration, which most intelligent people recognize as ending six war-torn years ago. Mr. McCain is pulling a page out of Karl (Rasputin) Rove’s playbook and is trying to run against a past president who hasn’t run for anything in over ten years. Guess he doesn’t know that we can see a person looking backwards instead of forward. Thinking like that, the ancient blame game, doesn’t solve anything.

Is Mr. McCain next going to blame President Kennedy for our present problems with Cuba? Or how about President Truman for today’s Israeli/Palestinian problems? Funny, I’ve never heard of President Lincoln (a real Republican) blaming George Washington for the problem of slavery. But then again, those were honorable men who knew how to accept responsibility for their own actions.

It is time for Senator McCain to return to the persona that Americans came to respect in him when he took a stand against the wasteful (in human terms) Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice War in Iraq. Buying votes by trading in your ethics and honor is not how you get elected president, and it is time now for the gentleman from Arizona to realize that.

Punishment??????

News item: The United States will pursue more aggressively violators of a US trade embargo against Cuba, a US prosecutor said, in an effort to topple the communist regime.

Let's see the effect of actions like this.

Financial restrictions and trade embargo against Iran in order to bring about a change in ledership......failure.

Financial restrictions and trade embargo against Iraq in order to bring about a change in leadership (before we attacked them)......failure.

Financial restrictions and trade embargo against the Palestinians in order to bring about a change in leadership.....failure.

Financial restrictions and trade embargo against Venezuela in order to bring about a change in leadership.....failure.

And on and on.

Let's face it, not one of these countries has had a rising up of the populace in order to effect a change in leadership.

Bill Maher Speaks

The president and his cohorts are always saying that to pull out of Iraq now would dishonor those who have already died there.

As an answer, Bill Maher said it best:

“Do we have to kill more people to honor the people we have already killed?”

Well said Bill.

Rumsfeld the Optimist

Today, October 7th is the fifth anniversary of the Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney/Rice invasion of Afghanistan, and the planned defeat of the Taliban which had been ruling the country. Five years, and we are still there with a resurgent Taliban movement that is gaining in strength and effectiveness. The number of troops in Afghanistan from nations besides the United States has reached more than 20,000 -- to add to the approximately 21,000 American troops already serving there. Five years with no end in sight. We learned nothing from the Russians, which is the same mistake that we saw in Vietnam when we didn’t learn from the French.

The reborn Taliban acknowledges that it has adopted the suicide bombings, beheadings and remote controlled bombs of the Iraqi insurgent movement. Nearly 200 civilians have been killed in suicide attacks this year that look all too much like the wave of bombings sweeping Iraq. “We’re getting stronger in every province and in every district and every village,” said Qari Mohammed Yusuf Ahmadi, who calls himself the Taliban’s spokesman for southern Afghanistan. We don’t have helicopters and jet fighters. But, we’re giving America and its allies a tough time. Our Muslim brothers in Iraq are using the same tactics.” It’s true what he says, as Afghanistan is starting to look more and more like Iraq.

Now comes Mr. Rumsfeld in a speech and op-ed piece in the Washington Post, lauding the progress we and the Afghanistan government have made in the fight against the Taliban. He stated that, “Within weeks of our launching combat operations, however, the Taliban regime had been defeated, consigning yet another cruel regime to the dustbin of history. Coalition forces took control of Kabul, and since then the Afghan people have fashioned a new constitution and successfully held the first democratic presidential election in their long history.” In his speech he also pointed out that the economy there has tripled in the past five years. Of course he did not point out that the increase has come almost exclusively from poppy crops used for the manufacture of opium.

What planet is Rummy living on? How many Americans have to die in a war we never finished? We rushed instead to start a pre-emptive, uncalled for, unending war in Iraq in which almost 2,800 American service people have died to date. Is he so arrogant and stubborn that he can’t see what is happening? Or better still, does he really think that the American public is so stupid that they will believe anything he and his cohorts in the White House say? (Excluding the 1/3 of fanatical, right wing, conservative, evangelical Americans who will back him and Baby Bush no matter what they do or say.)

We must change course and Rumsfeld and company have to go……NOW.