Editorial on the news of the Day and Review of the Gridlock around the world.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Drafted in the Navy at 40?

My name is Brett and I am a veteran.  I served in the active duty Army for 4 years and for 4 years in the inactive reserve afterwards.  I joined to earn money for college and left to go to college.  I would have made a career out of the military if I could have become an officer, but that was not an option.

I say all this as a preface, because today I received a letter from the Navy asking if I'd like to re-enlist, this time into the Navy Reserve.

In-the-Navy

I am 36 years old.  If I had stayed in the Army, I would be looking at retirement in two years.  I know there are lots of very capable people that serve in the military to ripe old ages, but I do not plan to be one of them.  I chose my path, the decision is made and I'm not changing my mind.  The military made their choice years back at the same time, and they chose not to keep me under the terms I required.

So now that they are in a jam and having to send people from the Navy to go reinforce troops on the ground in Iraq as the Army and Marines are stretched thin, I do not have too much sympathy for the actual organization itself. 

For my fellow soldiers, I have a lot of sympathy, but not for the people in the Pentagon and in Washington that made stupid policies back in the 90's that kicked off the depletion of the military, which was flat out buried in the ground by the even worse policies of George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. 

I am not going to go and bail them out for their lack of planning and stupid mistakes.  After I left the military I learned of a term called the 'hero complex'. 

Its the concept that often times when an organization is in trouble, a hero will step up and save the day.  The thing is that when they save the day, the organization might give them a slap on the back, but eventually the organization might also institutionalize the need for a hero to save the day.

When the organization is saved by a hero, and they fail to learn the lessons from what went wrong, what it was that required a hero to save they day, they start to take advantage of that hero and every other hero in the organization.  Today, the US military and politicians of every stripe are raping our heroes in uniform.  They are taking advantage of them backwards, forwards and sideways and they are not learning any of the lessons learned from the organizations failing.

Now, I am definitely not calling for a general strike by our military, but the military leadership is partly to blame here.  Their Can Do attitude and Yes Sir auto response, has served our country poorly and needs to be replaced with a military leadership with a better grasp on reality, one that will stand up and demand the items necessary to bring a successful resolution to a problem.

So I thank the Navy for their kind offer, but I will decline at this time.  Twenty Thousand dollars is not enough to get me off the couch, let alone leave my business and family and go risk my life half way across the planet.  I've been there and done that once already, and its time that the DoD get its act together and stop making their lack of planning my emergency.

All that said, if they don't reach down and find a pair soon, I do suspect we will see the draft reinstated, and in that case, they can call me up when I'm 40.  I'll serve and I'll do a great job at it just like I did before, but in the meantime, they can kiss my ass until they get their act together.  In the meantime, the only travel I'll be doing will happen with the travel deals I find on expedia.

Note. I'm not serving for any organization that condones or practices torture, so they can start their first!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Obama - My Wife is Just a Girl-Leave her Be?


As I listen to Barack Obama try and defend his wife from the political attacks that she suffered after making political mistakes stumping for her husband,



The things that he says, sound sexist to me. He is using her on the one hand to stump for him politically, yet doesn't want anyone to debate with her mistakes and mis-steps.



This feels and seems a lot like the same mistakes that Bill Clinton made in the early 90's that left Hillary's competence in question.

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

With Friends Like This John McCain Needs More Enemies

John McCain's inability to enthuse the Republican base which is licking its wounds from a President that has ran them hard and put them away wet keeps running into 'friends' that no mother would wish on her son.

John McCain's latest would be friend is Clayton Williams.  Williams ran for Texas Governor against the late Gov Ann Richards in 1990.  His campaign was foiled by his own poor sense of humor when he joked that women being raped, should 'lie back and enjoy it.'

So I say, with friends like that John McCain would probably do better with more enemies.  As it stands it would appear that you couldn't keep track of all the bad friends that John McCain has on a brand new memory stick.

Maybe McCain's camp needs a memory stick of John's friends.  That way the next friend like Williams that wants to throw a fundraiser for John, can just be told no right up front before it erupts into a political scandal not to mention a foiled fund raising attempt.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Vote Today-Send Impeachment Articles Forward

1) House members are expected to vote Wednesday (today) on sending articles of impeachment against President Bush to the Judiciary Committee. The 35 articles introduced by Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, on Monday are pressuring the Democratic Party to make good on a promise many of them made before the 2006 elections: to impeach!





2) Calling it "a sworn duty" of Congress to act, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida signed on yesterday to Dennis Kucinich's 35 Articles of Impeachment. "President Bush deliberately created a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people and the charges detailed in this impeachment resolution indicate an unprecedented abuse of executive power," Wexler said in a statement.

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Obama Interview on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me


Barack Obama appeared on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/) in August of 2005. Here he is, talking about his name, the senate (being 99th in seniority...), preschool, and Wade Boggs.

He is definitely a funny guy with a great sense of humor, but the reality is that I've known lots of funny guys with a great sense of humor and I wouldn't vote for them as President. Does it make you like the guy? Sure. Does it mean he's a good leader? Nope.

So the reality is that Barack Obama continues to show that he is interesting as a person and entertainer, but continues to fail to show any substance beyond self deprecation. With the level of depth that he has displayed so far (sarcasm to follow) you'd almost expect him to have taken up a career of a super model peddling a diet pill that works. Then again, if he had done that maybe he would at least have some results to show for his efforts. I'm still scratching my head looking for his accomplishments....


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Kucinich Offers Impeachment Resolution for Bush

So I was flipping the channels and came across CSPAN, despite being accused of political junkyness from time to time, I do not watch a lot of CSPAN.

However, tonight was exceptional in that Dennis Kucinich was reading a 35 article calling for the Impeachment of George W Bush in the House of Representatives, which will have to be decided up on within the next 2 business days.

Democrats in Congress do not want to Impeach George W Bush for obvious reasons, they've supported him for 7 + years. Republicans are in no better shape than their Democratic partners on the other side of the aisle.

Despite the 2006 election which gave political power to Democrats to end the war and Impeach Bush among other items, Nancy Pelosi promptly seized control of the House of Representatives and promised to keep George W Bush in office as long as possible to further the goals of the Democratic Party.

Apparently, every day that Bush stays in office is one more day that the United States as a country is further despoiled. The cumulative effect is that the country will be so thoroughly waisted come November of 2008 that voters will be slightly more likely to choose more Democrats to continue the work they started in 2006 (not keeping Bush in office this time, but making life miserable for Republicans, the country be damned.)

I apologize if these prose do not drip with sarcasm, but it was actually uplifting to here someone read articles of impeachment against the President, finally.

People sometimes ask me why I do not support Democrats. The answer is that they do not have the fortitude to stand up for their convictions and our country more often than not. The perfect example of this is manifest in the lack of actions by the Democratically controlled Congress and especially in Nancy Pelosi (May Cindy Sheehan still have a chance of defeating her some day...).

Yes, it is true that Democrats can make it pretty far with political dirty tricks and underhanded slights, but there does come a point where you have to stand up and put your money where your mouth is. This was one of the reasons why I was slowly coming around to backing Hillary Clinton. She seemed to slowly be shedding her 34 years of experience at corruption and was starting to stand up for her beliefs. Dennis Kucinich, tonight definitely stood up for his beliefs. I have yet to see Barack Obama stand up for his beliefs at all and that includes his belief that he should be President.

I'm not necessarily looking for someone that will unilaterally take a position and hold stubbornly to it come hell or high water or Katrina or all of the above, that's a Bushism. However, I do want to see people take a stand and say, "This is what I am for, and this is why." I then want to see them defend that position and strike out to achieve the goals inherent in the position. I would not tie an absolute to it though, so if they get a better idea from somewhere along the way, then stand up and say, "This is now what I stand for and why I changed my mind."



The press pundits believe that Kucinich's resolution for impeachment of the President will not have support in Congress, neither at the House level nor at the Senate level.



So here is the real dirty secret behind what appears on the surface to be a shame, the shame is on us. If we do not pressure our politicians and representatives to support the resolution for impeachment then, we today, are choosing to keep President Bush in office again.



Today, tomorrow and Wednesday, could be our last chance to get Bush out of office a little sooner and help our country and the world start healing. If we do nothing, we are endorsing George W Bush and his administration yet again, and we are endorsing Congress to change nothing.



It is expected that within less than 30 days, oil prices will hit $150 a barrell and gas prices will hit $5 a gallon. It is now possible that gas will even hit $8 a gallon by Christmas. That's right, gas prices could double before the year is out. If you re feeling pain at the pump, paying $80 - $150 to fill up your vehicle, imagine paying $150 - $300 for a single fill up.



If you can afford that, then do nothing. If you think our economy can afford that, then do nothing. If you think that those types of prices, will encourage and ENABLE people to switch to alternative energy options that have not been rolled out en mass yet, then do NOTHING.



I don't drive everyday, and I can't afford it. I can't afford for our economy to get any worse than it is already getting. I can't afford to see my fellow Veterans hung out to dry both here in the US and deployed around the world. I can't afford to watch George W Bush and his administration make another mistake that will harm this country even more.



Now, even though I feel that Dennis Kucinich is an unlikely champion for the American People, he is the only one that was brave enough to stand up and call for the impeachment of the person responsible for so many problems that have struck this country in the last 8 years. So, I for one am calling my Representative in the morning (a Republican no less) and I will tell him that I do support this Resolution ad want to see the Resolution for impeachment advanced for debate in the House of Representatives. I want this if for not other reason than to give George W Bush a chance at a fair hearing. He needs it as much as the rest of us, otherwise he will be questioned and ridiculed by history for decades. If he is not responsible for the ailments that are specified in the resolution, then I want to hear the defense and see how this can be possible.



The pessimist in me feels that the Democratic controlled Congress and especially the House controlled by Nancy Pelosi will squash this resolution and continue to endorse George W Bush, but I will try none the less to help this resolution along otherwise, I am no better than blind supporters of George W Bush or GW himself.

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