March Round-up

So I think it's been almost a month since I was on here last, and with all that has been going on I’ve certainly been missing reading you all and writing about the currents – that is for SURE! Work has been very, very busy; and good too. So I can’t really complain about much. I came back from my fourth trip in four months almost a week ago, and I’m happy to be here (for once). I’m not really a big fan of LA, but it was enjoyable like never before after coming back from freezing New York!!!

I’m sure you‘re all on top of things as usual, and I doubt that there is much more I could contribute at the moment anyway. I have only heard (in what precious little time I’ve been able to listen to my beloved talk radio) a couple of things that I think have been overlooked.

Again, as we are dwindled down to one candidate on each side, I would like everybody to take notice of it – but REALLY take notice. Notice how there are some states that have finally become viable in the primaries, their vote has actually mattered lately (and even Pennsylvania was thought to be given some say for the first time that I can ever remember). Why must it be in the US that some states get a choice and others have none? Why shouldn’t everybody have a say in whom the Democratic or Republican candidate should be? Why is it that Americans are quite OK with this voting system, which is so obviously UN-democratic? "Hi, I'd like to place an order for Instant Run-Off Voting please...and while you're at it, can you END primaries all together? Thanks."

I just have to ask too, since it was a topic that I have put my two cents in before on…Can anybody tell me why Hillary is still running or hasn’t yet announced she is done when mathematically it’s impossible for her to garner enough elected delegates to win? Even if she won every last one that was left to obtain, it would be enough for her to catch Obama now, so why hasn’t she stepped aside? Unless…she thinks she could still steal the nomination by pandering to the Super Delegates.

I think her out and out lies about Obama “choosing to withdraw” from Michigan were totally disgusting! What it really showed was that she was desperate, and that she was willing to break her own party’s rules in order to get whatever she wants – and why aren’t people talking about how that would translate in a presidential position? Then there was the fear-mongering commercial she ran in Ohio. It just reaffirmed my thoughts on her actually being the establishment candidate, the one that is really just a Republican in disguise. I can’t believe that Democrats didn’t completely wash their hands of her after that stunt. The most disturbing thing to me is, the more she exposes the poisons inside of her, the more support she seems to get! There is yet ANOTHER lie she has been telling completely exposed in the video posted at the end of this blog, and yet nobody seems to really want to call her on it. Hmmmm…let’s see, who else seems to be getting a “free pass” from the press? Oh yeah, McBush…uh, I mean McCain, yeah.

McBush slips right on by with his uneducated statements about Iran and Al Qaeda – even though he said it more than once. Then the press turned the other way as he’s been railing against the lobbyists, even though the ones that are some of the highest officials seated on his campaign board have been exposed as being involved in various scandals. The one that gets to me the most has been talked about the least, and hasn’t even been brought up since, as far as I know – as usual I suppose.

His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.

United Technologies has put a “hostile bid” on Diebold (voting machines) – meaning that an unsolicited bid was placed on Diebold may actually be forced by the market to sell their voting machines to this company, like it or not! The $3 billion dollar bid they placed on it was the equivalent of $40 a share when placed; when the actual market value was just over $24. Gee, I wonder, why would this company think the voting machines are actually worth almost twice as much as the market says they are, hmmmm….

Hello? Has everybody forgotten the term, “conflict of interest”? Can anybody out there say HYPOCRITE!??!?! How about STOLEN ELECTION - remember what we get when that happens? How about a little screaming, give with some protest people – COME ON!!!

This story broke early this month, and now with the corporate bailouts being handed out for the mortgage companies going on, it sure is interesting to look back on this story now and see JP Morgan on the list of McBush’s campaign-manager’s/lobbyist’s client list. That’s the company that bought Bear Stearns Mortgage Company for pennies on the dollar. JP Morgan got a hell of a deal too! The GIANT discount price of just $2 a share was 93% off of Bear Stearns’ last closing stock price. When was the last time you’ve seen a sale sign that read, “93% OFF”? Seeing as how Bear Stearns also received a corporate bail-out subsidy, don’t you think we should have been offered an option to buy into that too? Hell, I’d go hog-wild at that price! I’d buy myself fifty shares of that for $100!!!!!!! Wouldn’t you at least want to put your lunch money down on that action? Well, yeah…except, those kinds of sales are reserved for the richest – those that don’t even need the bargain price. Don’t despair though; you really did help buy it after all - with your tax dollars! Not that you will getting anything back on that investment you were forced to make. That was perfectly fair, made all the sense in the world, right? Why should we pay for socialized medicine when we can pay for socialized corporate bailouts instead? They need the money more than we do anyway, those poor, poor corporate billionaires, awwww….a little sympathy please, they need your hard-earned dollar to keep their pockets full of million-dollar retirement plans, hedge-fund bonuses, and their mouths full of caviar – have a little compassion, please. And if you don’t like it, then you can pay them to take your job and ship it overseas, OK? Just face it already: Even when it doesn’t work, deregulation is totally awesome – for THEM.

"Hello, I'm calling to add onto my order? Ummm, yeah...I'd like some publicly funded campaigns to go with that Instant Run-off Voting, so I can have a real election please. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!"

This round-up wouldn’t be complete without mention of our fifth year in Iraq. Nealry 4,000 Americans and more than likely over a million Iraqis - are dead. Best estimates say that there are over 3 million Iraqis displaced outside as well as within Iraq, and about a third of them continue to go without clean drinking water or electricity. We have well over 40,000 Iraq vets that aren’t getting the care they have needed for the injuries they’ve acquired in the Middle East, and somewhere between a fourth and a third of America’s homeless population are vets (even more if you include vets from all wars). And the administration has the audacity to celebrate the “successes” and claim it has all been worth it. “Um, Mr. president, and Mr. vice? Get our troops and your private corp-whores the hell OUT of the Middle East NOW - and then, GET BENT!!!”

Just so I can end this on a positive note, I have to say that Obama really came through like I always knew he could – good for him. If you’ve been reading me for more than a year, you would know that I have been listening to him for over two years now. Long before he was ever a presidential contender, I somehow discovered him (I forget how exactly) and had been subscribing to a podcast he used to have. I was just listening because I loved to listen to him speak. It was for various engagements at universities and the like, but I always found him inspirational and encouraging to listen to. When he first announced his candidacy, I was really excited – but then I went to see him live here in LA, and watched a few other campaign speeches he gave. I was really disappointed to say the least, but I figured he was tired of repeating the same thing over and over in different cities, one right after the other… That speech he gave after all the hub-bub about his preacher was truly extraordinary, and I was thrilled to see his true talents return. Not only did he respectfully dismiss the absurd allegations that his preacher’s opinions were his own by association, but he also addressed some very important issues in a way that was incredibly intelligent, and in terms easily understood by all Americans – all races & ages. Simply brilliant Obama. Just listening to you made me proud to be an American again, and to have you as president would be an honor. Thank you.

I think this particular edition of GoLeft.tv below, summed up quite a few things very well. Enjoy

Dysfunctional Congress Solution

Ever wonder why the business of Congress hasn't been taken care of since the Democrats have taken the majority? I sure have! I've also suspected that there was some stinky business going on in DC in order to keep the few good reps in Congress down too (blackmail perhaps?). It is just amazing to me that even with the hearings that have taken place, that Congress continues to allow the administration to cut them off and get away with illegal and immoral activities!

Well, one thing is for certain, the leadership is totally inept! I can't understand why the few representatives that were in favor of and openly advocating for impeachment hearings have stopped since the Democrats have taken the majority - unless it's due to the leadership somehow clamping down on them.

I might add that Reid & Peloser have recently decided that they will not even try to remove our troops from Iraq by way of legislation either, and have instead opted to support yet ANOTHER unconditional blank check for Bush's war-profiteering machine!

Below is a petition to remove some of the blockage of justice, please sign it.

Online Petition to Remove Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives
CLICK HERE For The Petition

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please watch this video of my latest poli-crush ♥ Congressman Wexler - and sign his petition to hold impeachment hearings too. He is determined to do his congressional duty of oversight of the administrative branch, and we need to support his motion! Allow the hearings to determine the truth, and make way for justice to be served as was intended to be in America.

Sign Congressman Wexler's petition.

New Classified Cover-ups by Our Rogue Exec. Office

What do you do when you're a nation at war, several of your officials are about to be busted on a variety of felonies, and the secrecy-card is about to expire?
When is doubt...VACATION-IT-OUT!!!
va-ca-tion...all I ever wanted...va-ca-tion, GOT to get away...
Yep, since everything is going soooo well in Iraq, it's time to put it on the back burner and let it simmer. Our entire Congress and the Rogue Executive branch are going to do exactly what the Iraqi Parliament is going to do about the war - go on vacation for the entire month of August! It's beyond me how our government has the nerve to scold the Iraqi Parliament for not meeting benchmarks and going on vacation, when our Congress intends to do the very same thing! Not that the move is shocking, or strays at all from the hypocritical M.O. of this administration or anything...


Packing everything up over the last week, to try to take it with them and possibly disappear-it all with public forgetfulness?...
Here are just some of the things they have in their classified suitcase:

---1) Despite Cheney's assertion that his office doesn't require oversight in the handling of classified documents, a second person has been convicted of passing classified info (originally pleaded guilty). He sent strategic information to the Philippines, to a group that was planning a political-coup to over-throw their president. The classified documents were sent by one of Dick's former aides, via Dick's office phone/fax. He worked as a military aide for both Gore and Cheney, then was an intelligence analyst for the FBI - he was just sentenced to prison for ten years.

---2) Not only has Cheney refused oversight from the Intelligence Security Office since 2002 and suggested having it abolished. but now the Justice Department admitted that the oversight board responsible for identifying intelligence abuses didn't report a single thing for the first five and a half years of this administration! They literally ignored hundreds of claims from the FBI, determining nothing about the validity of the alleged abuses. Their first report was filed last year and I haven't looked to see if they covered anything more than 2005, but I doubt it.

---3) Cheney's Energy Task Force: There was finally some coverage of the notorious meetings; however, it was severely played-down by the negligent press. The press has generally taken the position that there was nothing to be so secretive about. The press made the release trivial, reporting; Cheney met with the environmental agencies for consultation (that he said he had) after the policy-making meetings. Instead, he consulted in at least 40 meetings with energy producers' special interest groups. I don't think the public is as concerned with the environmental groups (that Cheney didn't even bother to show up for), at least not as concerned as we are with having information as to who his consulting team consisted of, and what was said in those 40 other meetings. The press pretended that the people involved were pretty non-sequential, burying the names way in the back of articles - when it should have been front-page, screaming headline, NEWS!

As it turns out, Cheney's Energy Task Force was made-up of some lobbyists, and oil baron-types, some who later cashed-out as environmental agency workers (Dept. of the Interior), and they all helped author the US energy policy. Three of them have already been convicted in the Abramoff case, and this is the detail that Cheney is REALLY hiding. Three convicted officials that Cheney consulted with to legislate national energy policies, now convicted felons serving time for taking bribes.
PRESS: "There you go, secret revealed, strange that they fought so hard to cover this up...Move along! Nothing to see here!"

---4) While the Democrats in the Senate were holding an all-night session to get some sort of benchmark for troops withdrawal into the Iraq plan, the Republicans and pundits were busy misconstruing it as "political theater" and a "stunt." The fact that people are actually believing this, just goes to show how invested Americans are in this war/occupation; not at all. An all-night Senate session is the very least of which can be sacrificed for our troops! To call an attempt to do the will of the growing-majority of the people, and to get the business of wartime dealt with in a timely manner (as should be)...to call this a "stunt" shows absolutely no understanding of how Congress works (or is at least, a show of the belief that viewers don't understand). The press was also reporting that "Democrats couldn't achieve a simple majority"; an out-right LIE. The Republicans' filibuster required MORE than a simple majority to have it passed, and had there not been the filibuster the closure vote would have passed. The vote that didn't pass was to blocked an "up or down" VOTE, it was just a vote to end the debate; not an actual vote on the measure itself. We obviously need more action in Congress in order to get anything done thee days, and I can't understand why anybody would be so reluctant to support Congress. that amendment was far from spectacular, but it would have been the first real legislation for an exit-strategy!

Let the records show: Republican Senators have absolutely no intentions whatsoever to even allow a vote on a plan to bring the troops home.

---5) Harriet Miers (former council to Bush) is currently in contempt of Congress' subpoena in regards to the US Attorney purge scandal - on Bush's dime. Bush has not officially asserted his executive privilege - yet - nor have the documents been specified as to what may or may not be released (according to Bush). Regardless, her required testimony is being contested by Bush on this basis. Miers will be cited in contempt if things don't change soon. Chairman Conyers of the Judiciary Committee sent/released a letter today addressed to Bush's attorney to inform them that their claims of executive privilege have been deemed invalid and the committee insists upon Miers appearing - as well as the requested documents.

---6) The same judge that ruled Cheney could keep his Energy Task Force meetings secret, has now dismissed a civil suit against Cheney, filed by former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame's attorney is going to appeal the judgment of course, and I hope she looks to recuse the judge that dismissed the case on a prejudicial basis!

It seems to me that the ruling that has kept those energy meetings classified was the precedent that created the path to secrecy in which this administration has depended upon so heavily.

---7) The Executive branch found yet another opportunity to use its executive privilege, in the "friendly-fire" case of Corporal Pat Tillman; the story of how fratricide was first showcased by the government as a great American hero's sacrifice for his country, only to discover that the Pentagon knew what happened all along and had attempted to completely bury the story.

If you are unfamiliar with Tillman's story, there is a really great 7-part expose that is authored by a military man that has done several interviews with Tillman's mother. There has been some speculation that the Pentagon had decided to capitalize on Tillman's service and death, to encourage enlistments and bolster American support for the war. Some say it may have even been the purpose for his murder in the first place. That is the only thing that could possibly explain why the rest of his records are being held secret under executive privilege now. In response to a committee's request for all documents and records concerning Tillman, they received "10,000 pages" - of newspaper clippings. Upon reasserting the request for military records etc...they were refused on the basis of executive privilege, and told, "We already gave you ten thousands pages worth of documents!" Seriously, what other possible reason could Bush have for covering-up and obstructing the investigation into Corporal Tillman's tragic death?

---8) Cheney will most likely claim executive privilege AGAIN for his involvement in the illegal wiretapping program (despite his recent claims not to actually be part of the Executive Branch). Cheney's legal advisers asked for the same extension given to Bush for complying to subpoenas for documentation, and it was granted. The only real problem with the extension was that there was no rescheduled mandatory date for compliance.

WOOO HOOO! Only this administration gets ALL of the powers with NONE of the responsibilities! Well, and the next one will too, and the next...but only if we let them get away with it this time.

In the words of Lt. Col. Bob Bowman:

"If the government has nothing to hide, why is it hiding everything?"

Update on Cheney's Rogue Nation:

On the 21st, the House Oversight Committee wrote Cheney a letter about his illegal evasion of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). They noted that when Gonzales was asked last January to verify if Cheney's exemption claim was valid, Cheney's response was to recommend an amendment to the presidential order that would abolish the ISOO instead.

Here are some of the other highlights:

"Your decision to exempt your office from the President's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk. It is also hard to understand given the history of security breaches involving officials in your office."

and:

"To my knowledge, this was the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Information Security Oversight Office that a request for access to conduct a security inspection was denied by a White House office."

also:

"In 2001 and 2002, your office had provided the...data...as required by the executive order. Your office ceased to provide this information in 2003, and has refused to provide it in each year since. No rational for this change in policy was provided..."

and lastly:

"Your office may have the worst record in the executive branch for safeguarding classified information."

This last tid-bit quoted above is followed by descriptions of security breaches out of the VP's office; plus numerous attempts by the ISOO communicating their need to fulfill their duty to conduct oversight, with their requests for explanation as to why they had been denied being ignored.

Dick has been on the run for a long time, but he may not be able to hide his illegal activities that he uses to cover his illegal activities anymore.

Dick flippity-flopped yesterday on his "legal" (however unconstitutional) 4th branch position, and reclaimed the executive branch just before being faced with the possibility of his rogue nation's funds being cut off (almost $5 million per yr.). As Rahm Emanuel had said he would earlier this week, he entered an amendment to stop the Cheney's portion of the appropriations normally alloted to the executive branch. In Rep. Emanuel's floor speech today, he essentially said that there's no 4th branch of government called Cheney; but even if there was, it's not above the law - NO branch of government is exempt from oversight.

Cheney's was office subpoenaed, and since he has since decided (in spite of his own recent claim), that he is part of the executive branch again, he claimed executive privilege.

It appears that Cheney won't be able to "work, though, sort of the dark side" for much longer, if you will...

While this is all very amusing, I found something that disgusted me even more (as if that was possible) about Fred Thompson. As it turns out, not only is he a slimy lobbyists posing as a harmless "good 'ol boy," (Dubya's 200 ploy) but he's also got strong ties to the Bush crime family - AND - he has an election fraud (voter disenfranchisement) criminal for an employee (Tim Griffin).

Cheney: A Rogue Nation

According to representatives of Cheney's office, he is not bound by the executive order requiring reports on the handling of classified material, and he has not complied since 2002. Despite the Constitution's definition of the Vice President, they believe that Cheney is not part of the executive branch. They try to explain it by saying he has both executive and legislative powers, as if to suggest that each power exempts him from oversight of the other. So how the hell is Cheney able to invoke "executive privilege" every time he or his records have been subpoenaed? Which is it Dick? As Olbermann points out (June 21: Cheney in Charge), if Cheney is not part of the executive branch, nor part of the legislative branch, then he can only be one thing: A Rogue Nation. Olbermann's resolution for this problem is just as apt: "Invade him, in order to establish a free and democratic Dick Cheney."

Hmmm...what exactly would Cheney be so keen on hiding since 2002? After all, in his own words, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about - right? Or as LT. Col. Robert Bowman (former director of Advance Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, founder of the Institute for Space and Security Studies) stated, "If the government has nothing to hide, why is it hiding everything?"

Let's take a look at just a few of the issues Cheney is believed to have abused the intelligence department over:
Cheney's Energy Task Force Meetings
Classifying Documents at an Unprecedented Rate, as soon as he set foot in office
Forcing Evidence to Materialize in order to build a case against Iraq.
Outing of a covert CIA agent Valerie Plame
Manipulating Congress to protect CIA, so they can be exempt from bill baring torture of detainees.
Cheney even admitted that he spends more time with the Director of the CIA, than the director does with his own family. Yet historically, visits with the CIA have almost always been with the president, not the vice - and Cheney has made an unprecedented, enormous amount of visits.

This secret nation of Cheney is destroying the US, and nobody has described the dangers of secret government better than JFK. (speech in video below, in the previous blog)

UPDATE (6-25-7): Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois (chairman of the Democratic Caucus) is planning to put Cheney's assertion to the test this week. He is proposing that in the Executive Branch appropriations bill, a cut-off of funding for Cheney's non-Exec. Branch office be enforced. WOO HOO!

Last Week's Edition, Published Here

Due to a publishing glitch, last week's article wasn't posted, so I'm posting it here. The current edition will be published on Monday as usual, and the subject of it is FEAR. But take heart...because, in part...

The Jig is UP!
June 2, 2007

There have been some truly incredible developments in the US Attorney purge scandal, and if you haven’t been keeping up you can read all about it in my last two most recent articles:
Gonzo-Wolf Gate; A Neocon Nightmare
There is also more information in last weeks article:
Patriots and Pragmatists

Again I ask; what was the purpose of the scandal? Voter disenfranchisement - that’s it, plain and simple. Remember all the missing emails that the Judiciary Committee had sequestered? Of what was received, much of it was redacted, and much was suspected of missing because one of the emails coming from Rove appeared to have come from an external server (external to the White House, and from the RNC server to be exact). Anyway, the RNC claimed that they were "mistakenly" erased. Then they admitted that in order to be in keeping with the Presidential Records Act, they disabled the ability to erase emails. Rove however, had found a way around that, and he had to be given a talking to about it. Hmmm...what kind of nefarious things do you suppose he was up to? Well, you don't have to guess, because now we KNOW.

Like I'd mentioned it was all about voter disenfranchisement, and more specifically, the "caging lists" that were used to do so. Palast has an article all about caging, so I will save my breath explaining it. This isn't what's NEW though, he has been on this case for several years now...

What's new is that there has finally been some notice taken of the situation by the House Judiciary Committee! Chairman Conyers met with Palast on Thursday night and he turned over all the emails that he had intercepted straight over to Conyers. Most humorous was that these caging lists were accidentally sent to a friends of Palast's that host a site called "GeorgeWBush.org" (the official is .com), so they sent out their evil plan to deny tens of thousands of Democratic voters their right to vote.

Best of all, there was an immediate reaction to that meeting that points to certain guilt. One of the US Attorneys (Tim Griffin) was put in office to replace one of those that wouldn't comply with the evil plan, and had been fingered in Goodling's testimony last week. Griffin resigned the very next day after Palast met with Conyers. Better than that, Griffin was one of Rove's protégés and I expect we will soon hear him squealing like a little piggy before we know it!!! Let's just hope that this new and incredibly consistent Republican-policy of resigning before being successfully prosecuted before the public, doesn't deny us a proper investigation into why we really need to repeal the provision in the latest version of the Patriot Act that allowed Griffin to be seated without congressional approval in the first place. I’m also quite excited about the prospects of resolving these fraudulent election practices with plenty of time to spare (if they move on it NOW) before the 2008 elections!

There was also some nefarious behavior (or MORE I should say) on behalf of Cheney last week too. Apparently Cheney is anticipating the need to cover his ass, as he asked for his records to be destroyed. But just in case that doesn’t do the trick, he also has his lawyer arguing that revealing Plame's identity is included in his immunity as an official. Really? Do officials get immunity from treason too? Anybody want to place bets on a date for Cheney’s resignation?

There was another interesting resignation turned in on Friday as well, that of Bush’s longest serving personal aides. Dan Bartlett has been with Bush since his gubernatorial race in Texas, and had even worked for Rove before that. Bartlett merely announced his departure, but isn’t planning to leave until next month. There was no reason really given as to why he has decided to leave. He’s only 36; yet he vows not to write any books, take another government job, nor even back a candidate for the 2008 election.

Speaking of presidential candidates, there was an interesting development last week as well. Without really examining why there was a need to do it, Edwards retracted his statement that he had read the NIE before voting to authorize the war. Then Clinton Hillary did exactly the same thing. I’m assuming it’s because now that the public has now been able to take a look at those NIEs that were released the week before, that it doesn’t look right to Americans. If you actually read them it’s hard to believe that anybody in their right mind would vote in favor of that! Just as the NIEs were released at the end of the day on the Friday leading into the Memorial Day weekend, so were these statements made. Why did they wait a week? So as not to attract attention to the connection between the reports and their decision? To bury this correction in yet another weekend report, when most Americans aren’t paying attention? Yes, and yes. They were both on the Intelligence Committee, so they both had access to those reports – which means the rhetoric about how “If I knew then what I know now…”-crap doesn’t hold water. What I really think this retraction or “correction” was about actually goes much further than the media would lead you to believe. You see, there is one Democratic presidential candidate that has dealt with exactly the same scenario but had gone an entirely different direction…

Senator Mike Gravel is famous for reading the Pentagon papers in 1971' aloud on the floor of Congress, so they would be entered into the record and revealed to the public. That led Nixon to take Gravel all the way to the Supreme Court; but Gravel won his case, and therefore, the right to have done so. So what excuse does Hillary and Edwards have since Gravel had set precedent 30 years prior, for not telling the public that they knew the administration was lying to America? NONE. Senator Gravel is right, any presidential candidate that had voted for the war isn’t fit to be president – but especially those that had access to this kind of information beforehand!

What kind of reaction can we expect from Bush in such trying times? Well, if his last press conference in the Rose Garden is any indication, then I say we shouldn’t expect the fear-mongering to stop. We could also expect him to continue to lie to Americans since he went on to say that we were in Iraq “at the invitation of their government officials”; who incidentally, have already voted that we should set timetables to LEAVE, and as soon as possible! Bush added that if Iraqis had requested we leave, we would – but that’s a blatant lie. I’d say that continued crony loyalist practices are a given (even if his pals are proving to be the criminals many of us have suspected them to be), considering he is still determined to express his “total confidence” in Gonzales. Although, what I see coming down the pike as his buddies are resigning left and right is a total breakdown and there has been evidence of it happening. Two times within the last month, Bush has lashed out in idiocy at two different people that were questioning his handling of the occupation of Iraq. The most recent was a fabulous display that could only be compared to a spoiled brat that isn’t getting his way. While meeting with friends in Texas, a wild-eyed Bush thumped his chest and repeated over and over, “I am the president!” So now the Texans (and everybody) that took offense to the Dixie Chics saying they were ashamed of Bush being from Texas (their home state) should own up to feeling the same way about him being president, or get on the megaphone to try and defend that! Don’t attempt to tell me that’s something we shouldn’t be ashamed of.

Lastly, a word about Cindy Sheehan quitting the peace movement: Honestly, I don’t think she will ever completely stop, it just isn’t in here nature. I think she meant exactly what she said, that she realized that once she held the Democrats up to the same standards as the Republicans in regards to Iraq, she received the same sort of slander from the left. As a growing percentage of Americans are, she is disenchanted with the system – and frankly worn out. I know that thousands of her supporters are sad about http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/05/sheehan_steps_o.html”>her announcement, but truth be told, she has done more than her fair share. I had the excellent fortune as to have crossed paths with her several times, and I can honestly say that her heart is squarely in the right place. The first thought I ever had about her upon discovering what she was doing was that no matter what comes of it, she has set an excellent example for us all. She had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that one person CAN make a difference. For that reason alone, I have to disagree with Cindy on one thing; her son did not die for nothing because she empowered thousands of Americans to stand up against the war and occupation of Iraq. It’s a painful price to pay in order to mobilize the nation, but I have to say that I can’t thank her enough for everything that she and her son had done for us all. She is exactly right to say that it’s up to us now…but then, it always has been. The war is over, and the jig is up – if you want it to be.