When asked why Bin Laden is still at large after years of dogged pursuit, George Bush revealed that Osama is not out “leading any parades” or “feeding the poor”.
Oh, okay then. No wonder we haven’t found him yet. Thank goodness we have George Bush to tell us the obvious as if we were children.
Ahh, but Chastise Man is tired today. So we will simply refer to the transcript of the press conference here, and an interesting analysis of it here.
Have a nice day.
—————————————————————————————————–
george bush osama bin laden terrorism press conference white house war in iraq
Filed under Chastise Man, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War in Iraq by 
Well, apparently the democrats in Congress are, if you want to consider George Bush the Big Bad Wolf, though Dick Cheney is probably an even better fit.
No matter – same difference.
I could have sworn I heard a big sucking sound the other day, off to the east. I think it was the vacuum created when Democrats lost all political will and caved in on the war funding bill.
$100 billion dollars, supposedly to fund the war only through September, with no timetable or talk of troop withdrawal. Instead, “benchmarks” for the Iraqi government.
Sure, Bush would have vetoed another bill, but nobody said the job would be easy. Force the vetoes. Face the inevitable rhetoric that the right wing pundits and loyal Republicans would plaster all over the media. Perhaps come up with a good argument of you own. Show some guts, some willingness to put something besides you own political consequences at the forefront.
Instead the Democrats are left trying to explain why they suddenly caved in to Bush. Yeah, we’ll get some great sound bites from that, won’t we?
Let me think. Why is it that we voted the Democrats into office? Hmmm…
Ah, yes. To do something about George Bush and the Iraq war.
They’ve done a nice job so far in pursuing the will of the people, haven’t they?
If only these guys had any will of their own, ours might have a chance of representation.
Instead, there’s another $100 billion for Bush’s war with no end in sight.
This isn’t the job we elected them to do. If they thought that there wasn’t going to be a fight with Bush and his cronies, then they’re even weaker and dumber than many suspected all along.
WANTED:
Democratic congress with some backbone.
Job starts immediately.
——————————————————————————————————–
war in iraq george bush war funding congress democrats politics democratic congress
Filed under Chastise Man, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War in Iraq by
I know I’ve been hitting it pretty hard lately about the war in Iraq. It seems hard not to.
Looking for a good bit of news on the war is a daunting task. One that, I am afraid, I have yet to find success.
Another phrase we hear repeatedly from the white house and loyal republicans is that we should allow the generals to run the war. Bush states he defers to the advice of his generals on the ground.
Really? Maybe as long as they agree with him in the first place.
I wasn’t looking for it, but I came across a very interesting essay by Colonel Douglas Macgregor.
Apparently – and not surprisingly – incompetent civilian leadership begets incompetent military leadership. Though Macgregor asserts that the problem is more systemic than merely a bungling president.
The full text of the essay is here.
————————————————————————————-
Filed under Chastise Man, Mumbling to Myself, Politics, War in Iraq by
The stalemate continues between congress and the white house over funding for the Iraq war.
Diehard Republicans – most Republicans I guess – continue to sport the current one-liner that a timetable only tells the “enemy” when we surrender. No way to win a war, they say.
But who is the enemy? It isn’t the Iraqis, either Sunni or Shia is it? These are the people we came to liberate.
Then it’s Al Qaeda; a terrorist organization – or by now a militaristic philosophical movement something like Nazi Germany where nationalistic fanaticism is replaced with religious fanaticism.
The very nature of Al Qaeda means that they generally pursue the route of least resistance for access to Americans to kill and terrorize (with the notable exception of 9/11). It seems obvious that invading Iraq is only an invitation. And now it could be argued that 9/11 has served to bring the their enemy – the infidel American – to them through an ill-planned invasion and bungling occupation.
That Iraq would likely implode in violence from internal religious and tribal fundamentalism if we left, and if we stay our troops remain targets to Al Qaeda, means that we are stuck.
We can’t leave; and we shouldn’t stay.
Bush’s refusal to recognize, accept, and properly act on reality borders on the pathological.
We are told that we need to defer to the analysis and recommendations for the generals in the field. Yet if those generals disagree with the political agenda and spin from the Pentagon or White House, well, you’re fired.
Perhaps there was a window of opportunity to win over the general population. But now it seems as if every opportunity has been squandered through sheer arrogance and incompetence.
No credible plan has yet employed to effectively occupy Iraq. A situation the is plagued with incompetence and a fundamental failure to consider Iraqi culture and the consequences of unleashing the tribal tensions that Saddam had kept screwed down tight.
It is the Bush administration that has brought us to the situation we now face. A situation that Bush continually fails to address. A situation to which we should have never arrived in the first place.
It seems to me that the intention and desire of the current funding bills that either have been vetoed or will soon be vetoed is an attempt to deal with the realities of the current situation. A willingness to face a tough realization and decision.
Yet it remains a valid question: Is this any way to win a war?. The question, however, needs to be asked of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld (wherever he’s hiding right now).
And one, apparently, that Republicans should be asking themselves.
————————————————————————————–
Filed under Chastise Man, Mumbling to Myself, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War in Iraq by
A news item I came across reports that former president Jimmy Carter describes current president George Bush as “the worst”.
The full story is here.
It’s painful for all of us sentient beings to watch Bush and endure his devastating presidency. One can only imagine how hard it is for an ex-president. Especially, perhaps, Bush’s own father.
———————————————————————————-
george bush jimmy carter politics government news presidency
Recently I heard George Bush lament in an interview that one of the problems he has to deal with, along with all those watching TV, is only seeing the “car bomb” in news stories from Iraq. There is never any news showing a normal life.
I guess like John McCain taking a leisurely morning stroll through an open market in Baghdad; wearing a kevlar vest, surrounded by an armored contingent of Marines, and hovered over by Apache helicopters.
Yeah, normal like that.
That it doesn’t occur to George Bush that is exactly what people are doing up until the moment the car bomb explodes – just trying to pursue a normal life.
Only now so many bombs have gone off, so many lives have been shattered, so many bodies have been left to rot in the streets, that pursuing a “normal life” has lost all meaning.
And here we sit, lamenting all this ugly violence on TV.
Perhaps we should change the channel, go back to American Idol, and not miss a chance to cast a vote for the next pop idol.
On the other hand, maybe we should consider what the foreign policy pursued in our name has done and what it means for each one of us.
In an attempt to exploit fear, Bush warns that leaving Iraq is an open invitation for the terrorists to follow us back to our own shores, looking for the women and children – the innocent – to kill.
We fail to see that the horror of Iraq has already arrived; in shattered families, broken bodies, disturbed minds, body bags, and bankrupt leadership. The consequences of war are not contained within the battlefield, and the terror has already arrived, slipping past us in the dark night of the soul of a nation that has lost its way.
The emperor has no clothes, and it is time that we awakened to the truth.
—————————————————————————————–
Filed under Chastise Man, Mumbling to Myself, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky by
