Memorial Day

I don't want to sound like I am some pinko commie by having this blog that is mostly about the bad things the Bush administration has done. I really do support our troops. I, like almost everybody in the U.S., have had relatives who fought in wars. Some didn't come home alive. We have it easy in this country and we have our military to thank for that. Our soldiers have been asked to do a lot in these past few years and they have done it well. The war in Iraq may not be the most popular war we have had but it isn't the fault of the men and women in the armed forces. I may not agree with the Bush Administration's decisions about the war but I feel strongly that our soldiers are doing a good job in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan. We have a volunteer military and they not only risk their lives for little money but it takes a horrible toll on their families as well. I have included a web site that honors our fallen soldiers. I have also included a way to support the families of the wounded soldiers through an organization called Fisher House. I am going to enjoy this extended weekend with my family. The fighting in the middle east isn't going to stop this weekend. I don't want to forget why we have this holiday.

Will the Walls Come Tumblin' Down?

It seems Like fortress Bush is cracking a bit more. Carl Bernstein, who co-authored the book All the Presidents Men with Bob Woodward, wrote a very good editorial about how the Republicans should do the honorable thing and ask Bush to step down as they did to Nixon.

Speaking of Republicans and honor(or lack there of)....Bill Frist the Republican senate majority leader was campaigning against Tom Daschle the Democratic senate minority leader in Daschles home state (one of the Dakotas)this past weekend. Big deal you say, well I guess there is an unwritten rule that senate leaders do not do this in support for bipartisan cooperation. This has raised many eyebrows even from prominent senate Republicans.

There is more discord in the senate this week as the Bush administration tries to push its budget through congress. There are four senate Republicans who say they will not vote for the bill because of the tax cuts Bush wants to keep for many years. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) argued that there has never been tax cuts during wartime in our nations history. Tax cuts would look good for a reelection though. McCain says that the republican party used to stand for fiscal responsibility but not anymore.

Retired General Anthony Zinni said in a 60 minutes interview that he believed that this Pentagon really botched up the war in Iraq. I know it seems like I like to pick on the president but I'm trying to show people that it's not just Michael Moore, Al Franken and other noted liberals who dislike Bush it's many people who normally would like a Republican candidate who have grown to dislike him. Neocons say the media is out to get Bush. I say there are a lot of people like Richard Clarke, General Zinni and former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who normally lean to the right, that are fed up with the lies and the arrogance of the Bush administration.

One last thought on the Bush administrations ineptitude to run a war. As you may have read, Ahmad Chalabi is out of the Bush Houses' good graces. His offices and home were raided last week because they suspect that he was giving intelligence to Iran. He also has given the U.S. intelligence for millions of dollars. Mr. Chilabi was one the sources telling Bush that the Iraqi people will line the streets to Baghdad with flowers. It turns out that Mr. Chilabi was not trusted by no other department in our government except by top officials under Bush.

from Nick Berg's father

The Guardian in London has a special commentary from Michael Berg who's son, Nick, was the victim of beheading by al Queda terrorists. I hope our leaders read it.

I was working on a computer at my union hall last week when another instructor logged on to one of the web sites that shows the horrible video of the beheading. I could not watch it but the sounds still haunt me. My thoughts were of how terrifying it must have been for Nick and how his parents must feel. The comments from the other instructors were just as terrifying. "Bomb the whole damn country and get it over with", one of the teachers said. I have heard this before at work. Bomb the whole damn country. I am sure someone in al Queda has said the same thing about our country.

It is amazing that people still can't differentiate the Arab people who fly airplanes into buildings and who decapitate innocent people from the Arabs who raise children, go to work and want to live in peace. Bomb the whole damn country. That is what Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists want to do to us. They view all Americans as infidels so we all should die. There are some people in our country who view all Arabs as terrorists and that they too should die. I just hope it is a minority of our people who are this narrow minded just as it is a minority of middle eastern people who are also.

Republican Senators Not Towing Party Lines

Not that anything will come of this but the L.A. Times is reporting that Republican senators in the armed services committee are not happy about being in the dark about the prison abuse in Abu Ghraib. They are going to look into this matter further. They are going to focus on higher level Pentagon officials. This is a story that won't die. The New Yorker and Newsweek are both printing articles suggesting that Rumsfeld had secret orders to abuse Iraqi detainees.

I'm sorry....

...that I was listening to a radio show on my way home from work on WLS am 890. The host was daring those who doubted that there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to call in and say sorry. No one did. If you had not heard our government discovered there was sarin in a bomb that was detonated in Baghdad Saturday.

I guess Bush was right after all. This bomb full of sarin was an imminent threat to our country. Give me a break. I am very surprised that we didn't find more WMD over there. I believe he was hiding some WMD. That didn't mean we should of gone over there to occupy their country. Bush drew that line in the sand not me.

Some cool links

I have been spending an hour or so a night scouring the web about current events mostly about the War on Terror. Chicago used to have a frequency for Air America Radio but it has lost it a few weeks ago. I was hooked. Al Franken has a funny and informed show. My favorite host is Randi Rhodes. She is funny but very intelligent. I like the way she challenges her listeners to argue with what you can prove, not what you feel. She has a good web site also. You can listen to Air America on their web site, airamericaradio.com.

The Guardian, which my father-in-law says is a liberal British news paper, has a good web site also. They have a time line of Iraq from 1979 to the present. There is a section with Rumsfeld when he was an envoy to Iraq in the late eighties.

Michael Moore also has a good web site at michaelmoore.com. There is a section that has letters from our soldiers in Iraq. There is some very moving stuff.

One last web site is very funny but crass at times. It is the web site for Get Your War On a cartoon strip. Some of these strips are in every issue of Rollinstone magazine.

One last note... I am interested to see what Seymour Hersh's article in the New Yorker has to say about how Rumsfeld not only condoned the abuses but that he ordered it.

Prison Abuse in Iraq

Many interesting things have come up about Iraqi prison abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison. I watched some of the congressional hearings with Rumsfeld on C-Span and something struck me as odd. He said he had read the reports of abuse in January but it wasn't until he saw the pictures that he fully realized the horror of the abuse. I don't know about you but if I read about naked prisoners being attacked by dogs I don't need to see the pictures to be horrified.

The Red Cross says that they have been reporting various abuses at Abu Ghraib and other prisons for over a year. These reports were sent to people in the Bush administration before January 2004. So I ask why weren't these reports brought to the attention of higher ups in the White House? Maybe they were. In any case someone should be held responsible. George Will a conservative columnist from the Washington Post even has suggested that someone up high in the chain should be held responsible. Rumsfeld got a pat on the back from Bush. I wish my boss would give a press conference about how good I am doing when I make a mistake at work.

The fact is Rumsfeld has no respect for the Geneva Convention. Just today in the Chicago Tribune I read how senators are looking at Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense policy. They want to see how his office in the Pentagon created directives that set up the type of interrogations in Iraq. According to the article six top military legal officers met with Scott Horton who used to chair a committee on international human rights. These legal officers were worried that Feith's office made light of guidelines on prisoner interrogations. In Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack he says Feith and Rumsfeld are tight.

I guess my point is the current administration holds no one accountable for the mistakes it's made. How can things get better if we don't admit our mistakes? The Bush House likes to say how horrified they are to see prison abuses at Abu Ghraib but no one except the low ranks are going to be punished. If someone in the higher ranks(Rumsfeld)isn't put to task then how is the world supposed to take Bush's apology seriously? If this pipefitter in Americas sees a problem with this just think what a Muslim in the middle east is thinking. Our country is trying to sell a better system of government to the middle east. I'm not sure I'm sold on Bush's brand of democracy.

Hello and welcome to my blog.

This is my first time with a blog. I have read some other blogs in my time. Ed B.from Canada had a very good blog but I won't even try to have one as good as his.

Gran Dorse said I should try this so here I am. The reason for having this blog is to try to engage some banter on current events namely the conflict in Iraq and our countries War on Terror.

I know I am not alone with my views on our current administration. I feel like we are being lied to and their intentions in Iraq are not sincere.

I hope that there can be some lively chit chat on the War on terror and other issues as we head toward the most important election I have ever taken part of.