It Is Time to "Duck and Cover" Especially if you are hunting with Dick Cheney... This born wrong the first time, inbred, evangelical fundamentalist extremist, Armageddon loving, President is bringing back the horror of nuclear Armageddon.

We learned how to "Duck and Cover" in the "old days". Now, Bush's "No Child Cared About" education reform will leave no child behind when it comes to teaching them to Duck and Cover, and Then Wrap Themselves in Plastic and Duct Tape. (Note to self, entrepreneurial opportunity to develop and market "Ducked Tape" for those "special times" when your idiot president starts a nuclear war. Advertising campaign: Ducked Tape - It is totally useless and won't stick to anything, but if you need it - you won't need it - because - when we are talking about nuclear war - uh - we are really talking about the eternal peace of eternal death - so... it never fails. Ducked Tape - It Never Fails)

Once upon a time, in a universe where common sense ruled, the United States and other nuclear powers made pledges not to use nukes against non-nuclear powers. See: Nuclear Pledge. This assured non-nuclear powers that they did not need to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent because they were not in danger of being attacked. But then the thoughtless Bush regime thought the unthinkable. See: Nuclear Pledge, and Plan to use Nukes Preemptively, for elaborations of their thoughtless idea-logic idiocy. They make many completely illogical and unsupported assertions, like: our pledge not to use nuclear weapons actually inspired other countries to develop them. Yea sure, like being threatened would not make other countries all the more convinced that they needed them? Please.

Then Santa Bush proceeded to make a list, and check it twice, to find out who he could label as an axis of evil, and then told the listees, that they that we were coming after them one by one, and that they were next. These heavy handed tactics did effectively separate the men from the boys. Moammar al Qaddafi became one of the "boys." Although he had been headed that way for a long time, as a result of the diplomacy of previous Presidents. Unsurprisingly, Iran and North Korea went the other way.

Now into this cauldron of Bush regime inspired geopolitical instability comes the Bush regimes "operational" plans for nuclear war with Iran (that is "operational" not just contingency). Granted, operational plans are still contingent on the Presidents order to execute them - but they are real plans, presented as real options, for real consideration, to kill real people, and really make the U.S. the first - and second - nation to use nuclear weapons. This is real folks. (Note to self, entrepreneurial opportunity, develop and niche market black latex hazmat suits with white lace and white rabbit fur for those intimate moments when you clutch your radiation poisoned beloved as their life force slowly seeps away. Niche marketing.. it is the bling thing.)

Notice of coarse, that operation "Chicken Hawk" to use nuclear weapons, is not threatened against North Korea - only Iran. Notice that - and know that leaders of other countries all over the world are smart enough to to infer why this chicken hawk president is so much more aggressive toward Iran than he is against North Korea. Know that all countries around the world are reevaluating their need for nuclear deterrence in order to protect their sovereignty - even our boy Moammar.

As bad as this is, the thoughtless idea-logic idiots of the Bush regime have found new and creative ways to destabilize nuclear non-proliferation. I have an imbecilic idea-logic idea, let's let India ramp up their military nuclear program in exchange for mangoes. Helping India to increase the speed of making warheads two or three fold will not encourage politically unstable radical wahabist Islamist nuclear proliferator Pakistan to speed up their program - oh wait it will. Pakistan cannot afford an arms race with India. They will be forced to proliferate to all comers in order to finance the inevitable arms race with India.

Bush wants to teach our kids to duck and cover, but he is leading by example. What better way to distract the American people from lies, incompetence, and corruption than to "Duck and Cover" by starting a little nuclear war with little nukes, and once again wrapping himself in the flag as wartime Commander and Chief. The evil genius Rove has probably figured out that this bold decisive move is the best long shot hope of preserving the Republican majority in Congress thereby preventing effective Congressional oversight and avoiding prison for high crimes. He is probably correct. The American people are in love with their phallic false power of military might instead of their real power of love, peace, courage, justice, equality, nobility, tolerance, and diplomacy. They love the big "stick" but they have forgotten the wisdom and courage of walking softly with a carrot.  ¶ 4:56 PM 4 comments

  The Democrats Do Not Have a Unified Plan for Iraq Republicans create an impossible mess with no good answers and then want to criticise the Dems for not having a unified answer. How exactly are we supposed to have a unified answer for a problem that has no good answers? We don't know what to do. Well, we have a plan - I guess, but it is not really a plan, plan. See: Democratic Plan

A lot of us have good ideas - but no consensus. That is the whole point. This incompetent president has led us into a no-win situation. We went to war for the wrong reasons. We went to war in the wrong way. We fought the war in the wrong way. We managed Iraq in the wrong way after we "won." We iced out international partners that could have helped. And now there is little doubt that we will leave Iraq in the wrong way. There is no "right way" to leave Iraq.
The best metaphor that I can think of for this Republican created mess is: You meet a women. You seduce her with vows to love, honor, and cherish until the end of time. She enters a deep psychosis and you dump her. Except in this case we date raped Iraq to begin with (Rumsfeld's idea of seduction) - no wonder she is nuts. We probably do need to leave her - she'll kill us if we don't. But she will stalk us if we do. It is a mess. There is no good answer. The divorce will be expensive and ugly. She is going to take all of our treasure. But what are we going to do? Our friends tried to tell us to stay away from her... They said she was nothing but trouble... But we had to listen to our "little head" (Bush) - (he has the brains of a penis) - (some vulgar person might say dickhead) - (and the Downing Street Memo proves that he was certainly hot for her).
We went to war for the wrong reasons:I actually cannot support this assertion. I cannot support it because we really do not know why we went to war. We know that Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld were in a headlong rush to war from the very start of the Bush regime. We know that they were not straight with the American people. (Maybe that is why they are so "freaked out" by gays - because they are not "straight" - sorry - couldn't resist the play on words - anyhow...) We know that they cherry picked intelligence and played games with the UN and the UN inspectors... Maybe Baby Bush wanted to "show up" his daddy... Maybe the reason's were idiotic idea-logic... Maybe the reasons were geopolitical oil politics and war profiteering... Maybe there was a good reason (probably not)... We just don't know. We know that the real reasons were not presented to the American people. We sent our beloved sons and daughters to die in far off lands on the basis of lies - for reasons unknown.
We went to war in the wrong way:In the commentary thread to Jack's article titled, "The good guys are winning in Iraq" which he posted on 10-21-05, I wrote:

The problem is this: This worthless #$^%%# dry drunk piece of $%^$## incompetent commander and chief is rapidly creating a situation where we cannot win. As listed above the American people were not adequately prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to win. The American people are losing patience with the war and will soon demand our withdrawal. We went in without enough troops.

To that I would add that, as a result of our refusal to allow the UN inspectors to finish their work - because we already had a date penciled in to start bombing - we failed to build a real coalition. We sent our troops in without enough armor. We had a great plan for war, but no plan for peace. Well our great plan worked. We have got war.
We fought the war in the wrong way: In the same commentary thread from Jack's article listed above, I wrote:

We disbanded the Iraqi army there by leaving weapons all over the country for insurgents and creating millions of unemployed disaffected young men. We gave no-bid contracts to Haliburton instead of employing Iraqis. Bush either knew or should have known about the torture in Abu Ghireb. The list is just endless.

It is possible that we will still have a good outcome in Iraq in spite of the incompetence, lies and amorality of this corrupt administration... however if we do have a good outcome, 100% of the credit belongs to the courageous American soldiers and to the noble intentions of the American people who may win this in spite of President King George the Second. It steadily becoming increasingly unlikely… less troops then the Generals wanted, Rumsfeld setting the preconditions for torture at Abu Ghireb and Gitmo, failing to train Iraqi security forces fast enough, disbanding the Iraqi Army, giving no bid contracts to Haliburton instead of local Iraqi contractors, failing to rebuild, failing to create a real coalition, lies, lies and more lies, and on and on,

We managed Iraq in the wrong way after we "won." Of coarse this overlaps with; no-bid contracts, disbanding the Iraqi Army, AbuGhireb, not enough body armor, and not enough troops, but I would add: Micro-managing the war by political civilian leadership (Rumsfeld), for political civilian reasons, that prevented the military from making the necessary strategic and force adjustments to deal with the mess that we sent them into. The same mistake we made in Vietnam... If you are going to tell the Generals to fight a war - you need to take the "gloves off" and let them fight it. Bush does a good job of giving lip service to this idea, but the reality is quite different. For example, they did not send in enough troops because of the political ramifications. They needed to convince the American people that it would be quick, cheap, and easy. In reality, competent leaders, if they were going to lead us to war, would have done the exact opposite. They would have prepared the American people by explaining in detail that it would or could be long, extremely costly, and painful. But the American people would not have supported the truth so they micro-managed the military for political purposes - and they got their war - and now our sons and daughters are dying in far lands on the basis of lies, for reasons unknown.
We iced out international partners that could have helped.Even after the war, we could have gotten France, Germany, and Russia to support the rebuilding of Iraq, but we wanted all of the plunder for Haliburton, so we iced them out of the rebuilding contracts. God, we could use them now - but now - it is too late. We wanted the plunder - instead - our treasure is being plundered. Senator Joe Biden still thinks that it would possible to get regional powers to participate int he stabilization of Iraq - but it won't happen until we have "regime change" in Washington DC. See: Biden Video.
And now there is little doubt that we will leave Iraq in the wrong way.Bush is already drawing troops out. Iraq is descending into civil war, and he is drawing the troops out. And... he is probably right... as mentioned above - I don't know what to do - but it is obvious that he is drawing them out for political reasons - because the war is unpopular - which is the wrong reason. We need competent leadership, like Biden, Murtha, or Weasley Clark  ¶ 1:33 PM 0 comments

  Illegal Wiretapping is Illegal We must fight to force Bush II to accept the rule of law...to accept that he must not spy on Americans without Constitutionally mandated oversight from the Congress and the Judiciary. Republican Senator Arlen Spector seems to be the only Senator with real power fighting for American civil liberties. The Democrats can do virtually nothing because they do not control congress. Senator Spector's attempt to fashion legislation is hampered by the fact we still do not know what the Bush Administration is actually doing. His legislation is also pointless until the Bush Administration either agrees, or is forced, to accept the rule of law, and accepts that its executive powers are not limitless. We must have a full investigation and find out exactly what the Bush Administration is doing. Under questioning by Senator Joeseph Biden before Arlen Spector's committee Attorney General Alberto Gonzalas admitted that he could not certify that the full extent of the NSA wiretapping program has been disclosed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601001.html.

We do know that there are other domestic spying programs including illegal Pentagon spying http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/24010res20060201.html and illegal spying by the FBI and the JTTF http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/24011res20060131.html. There seems to be a pattern of violating basic American civil liberties here.
Many Americans believe that we must chose between being tough on terrorists and protecting our Constitutional Fourth Amendment rights. This simply is not true. It is true that we must be tough on terrorists. It may even be true that the FISA law may need to be updated. There will doubtless be some Republicans who will use the same tired line that we Democrats are soft on terrorists. But fighting for American civil liberties - as our founding fathers fought for American civil liberties - has nothing to do with being soft. The Republicans have all of the power in this government. Why does there only seem to be one that is really fighting for us?
This (Bush admins spin) idea that we should not be concerned about domestic spying as long as we have nothing to hide is ridiculous. He, or some future president, could use this awesome power to spy on political rivals, and use the information to political advantage, there by undermining our Constitutional Democracy. He, or some future president, could use this excessive Unconstitutional power to spy on journalists in order to get advance warning of negative news stories so that he can be prepared to lie and politically spin the situation, there by undermining our Constitutional Democracy. "Power corrupts." If this massive, unbalanced, power is successfully gathered into the Presidency, with no Judicial oversight - with no Congressional oversight - with absolutely no checks and balances... some future President will abuse it.  ¶ 7:51 PM 0 comments