I got your blog, right here!

Happy Birthday Emma!

2007-01-10T18:14:00.000-06:00

My baby is seven today. Where does the time go? I can still remember going to the hospital around 4:00 a.m. to bring her into this world. She was an eight pound nine ounce bundle of joy. It's been a fun seven years. Here's to many more.

Have a Great Birthday Emma!

My favorite albums of the year

2006-12-20T21:17:00.000-06:00

I wanted to find some new music this year so I listened to many 30 second clips from I-tunes and E-Music. Some of these I found on my own and some I gleaned from other peoples recommendations.

10. Big Iron World by Old Crow Medicine Show
I first heard these guys on A Prairie Home Companion a few years back. They are a very good modern blue grass band. I really like James River Bues and Down Home Girl.

9. Good Night, and Good Luck Soundtrack featuring Diane Reeves
If you liked this movie then I believe the music had something to do with it. Dianne Reeves is so good.

8. Eighties by Grant Lee Phillips
Grant Lee Phillips has a cool haunting voice and his versions of these songs from the eighties are great. I especially like his versions of REM's So. Central Rain and New Order's Age of Consent.

7. Passover by The Black Angels
I like garage bands. The Black Angels have that great fuzzy guitar sound that I love. Check Out their song The First Vietnamese War.

6. Magic Potion by The Black Keys
The Black Keys are another garage rock band that kicks major glute. Like the White Stripes, its just guitar and drums but with a grittier blues sound. I like all their albums. Check the them out on Conan.

5. Sincerely Black Lipstick by Black Lipstick

Yes know I have three bands with Black in the names. And yes I know that this album came out in '05 but I just discovered this band and I want to promote them. Like The Black Angels, Black Lipstick hale from Austin, TX. Now there are, at the very least, three good things that have come out of Texas. (The 3rd being me. I was born in Ft. Hood)

4. Return to Cookie Mountain by TV on the Radio
I have no problem with bands who have similar sounds to other bands. If I did have that problem TV on the Radio would be my band.

3. Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady are a great rock and roll band. They crank out a very solid song and they do it with some of the best lyrics I've heard in a long time. This live acoustic version of Stuck Between Stations showcases their Springsteenesque writing. The album version really rocks.

2. Rather Ripped by Sonic Youth
I have been a huge Sonic Youth fan for a long time. Daydream Nation is one of my all time favorite albums. Sonic Youth have always been experimental which is great but I don't connect with all that they do. The guitar interplay of Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore is really at its best. Steve Shelly, as always, lays down a good beat. The band sounds best when Kim Gordon does the singing as in the track Reena .

1. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case
I really like this album. I had heard of Neko Case but it wasn't until I heard Hold On, Hold On on the radio that I became a huge fan. I downloaded the song as soon as I got home. It didn't take long for me to get the whole album. Neko has a timeless almost haunting voice. The sound of this album could have come out of the sixties yet it also has a modern quality. Maybe Sparrow has the same qaulities that some of the great songs from the American songbook have. I thought of the song Skylark by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael when heard Neko's birdsong.

Tagged again

2006-12-19T20:33:00.000-06:00

I thought I called no tag backs. Oh well. Trackrick tagged me so here it goes...

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocholate? None. I am a coffeeholic. I do enjoy a cup of the peppermint coffee they come out with at holiday time.

2. Does Santa wrap Presents or just put them under the tree? It depends on the gift. How do you wrap a pony? Oops I hope Emma doesn't read this.

3. Colored or white lights on the tree or house? Colored. I don't have strong feelings about this.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. I have coffee breath. No one wants to kiss me.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Right after Thanksgiving. They come down a day or two after Chrismas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Linda.

7. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was six when I saw Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Before that I didn't realize he used to be a redhead.

8. Snow! Love it or leave it? Love it on the weekends. Hate it on the weekdays when I have to drive in it.

9. Can you ice skate? They don't call me Scott "Eric Heiden" Stratton for nothing.

10. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Checking to see if my mom hung up the Santa walnut I made back in first grade. She hasn't let me down yet.

Music

2006-01-28T09:49:00.000-06:00

I can't talk politics all the time. People will think that's all that I'm about. The reason that there are big gaps between my posts is that the most important parts of my life are not politics but as a husband and father.

One of the other things I love is music. I don't get out to see shows but I still try to keep up with what's going on in music. I've always been lucky to have friends and relatives who are into music like me. I'm really glad that my buddy Ken has his blog. I like the recommendations on the sides of his page.

I have my uncle Phil to thank for for getting me to listen to Tom Waits. I remember checking out Small Change from the Iowa City library. The scratches and pops just seemed to add something to the album.

I also remember listening to my uncle's, Bob and Chuck, albums in their basement bedroom at my grandparents house in Wheaton. They had all the Cheap Trick records. They were also into Elvis Costello which made them pretty cool.

My father-in-law recently gave me his whole celluloid collection. I am really having fun going through his classical records as well as his blues collection.

It all started while listening to my parents records. My dad was in the Army and we were stationed in Germany. I was one. The only entertainment they had were records and books. They were into the Beatles, Crosby,Stills, Nash and or not Young, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago and others. As I got older I wore out the grooves on those discs. I remember my dad bringing home Steely Dan's Aja record. I loved that one. Of course I have those records in my pile now.

Can you remember when and where you first had a really good listen to a favorite album? I was staying with some people I knew at University of Wisconsin, Madison. While very hungover Sunday morning, I first had a good listen to The The's Soul Mining album. I remember Chris B. explaining to Dar, Jeff, Todd and I his theory of the story going on in the album. It is a top ten album for me.

Another top ten album moment for me is back at the University of Iowa. I was hanging out with my buddy Matt H. and some others when he put on the Pretender's debut album. I had heard most of the songs before but had never really listened to them together. I never realized how cool and sassy Chrissie Hynde was until I heard the songs Precious and Tattooed Love Boys. They also had a great soft side too as in song's like Stop Your Sobbing, Kid and Brass in Pocket. It is one of those LP's I listen to all the way through. I also think of Matt when I listen to Harry Nilsson's Point with my kids. He put that record on one night and I haven't been the same since.

What are some of your favorite records and momements?

I've been tagged

2006-01-23T20:11:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my buddy Ken (we'll talk later) I have to answer these questions. Here goes.

Four Jobs I've had in my life

caddy (nothing like the movie Caddyshack)

dishwasher (where I met my wife)

fish cutter and gutter at a cannery in Alaska (nasty)

food service in the dorms

Four Movies I could watch over and over

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Apocalypse Now

Office Space

Holy Grail

Four Places Where I've Live

Memory Ct. Glen Ellyn (first house as a kid)

Ft. Hood TX. (I was born there)

Clark St. Champaign (two different houses)

Briarbrook Villiage, Wheaton (our first apartment after marriage)

Four Tv Shows I Love To Watch

*I don't watch any current show with any regularity but I do rent shows from netflix so i am a little behind. These are shows I have recently enjoyed on Netflix.

Freaks and Geeks

Firefly

Westwing

24

Four Places I've Been on Vacation

Montreal

Ashtabula Ohio

Southern California

Post Lake Wisconsin

Four Blogs I visit Daily

DailyKos

GapersBlog

Focus and Distracted

Huffingtonpost

Four of my favorite foods

pizza

Bagels with lox, cream cheese, tomato and onion

chimichangas

chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream

Five Albums I can't live without (like there is just five, gimme a break)

A Love Supreme by John Coltrane

My Favorite Things by John Coltrane

Ode to Freedom Beethovens Ninth Symphony-Leonard Bernstein (recorded in Berlin right after the Berlin Wall fell)

Music of America, Copland-Cinninnati Pops

Small Change-Tom Waits

Five vehicles I've owned

1993 Geo Metro (don't laugh, it may be the best car I ever owned in some respects)

1994 Ford Ranger

1995 Buick Century

1998 Dodge Gran Caravan

2002 Honda Civic (to the dismay of some of my union brothers and sisters)

Tagged!!

if your blog blog is named below you have to do this on your blog. If you fail to comply the NSA will know and you will go on their sourpuss list.

Focus and Distracted

Chickenbutt

Trackrick's Self Indulgent Ramblings

I don't know any more friends with blogs. What a loser I am.

Balancing the Scales of Power

2005-12-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

As we know by now, President Bush has green lighted spying on Americans without warrants. We know this because he says he has. He says he is going to continue to do so. He says these actions are in the interest of national security. Maybe it is. He might have our safety in mind. I don't think there is anything wrong with spying on potential terrorists. The only problem is that there is no need for him spy without a warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the President to do what he says he has been doing with a warrant. In fact FISA rarely rejects a request for a warrant. The FISA court also doesn't slow the spying down. You can spy and then ask for the warrant up to 72 hours later. So why is he bypassing the legal process? Bringing up 9/11 isn't going to cut it this time.

Yes it is true, everything changed after 9/11. We need to be smarter with our intelligence. One good aspect of the Patriot Act is that it allows the different intelligence agencies to share there findings. Sharing of intelligence is one of the things we did not have before 9/11 that could have prevented the attacks. This sharing of intelligence doesn't take away from our civil liberties. Spying on American citizens without a warrant and holding American citizens without due process does affect our civil liberties. Ben Franklin said,"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor saftey."

He is right. There is a balance between the 3 branches of government. President Bush thinks that the executive branch has the most power. He is wrong. When he bypasses the FISA court and spys without a warrant he is saying that he doesn't have to answer to the Judicial branch. When he holds Americans as enemy combatants for three years, as in the Jose Padilla case, he is saying that he doesn't trust the Judicial branch of our government to a good enough job trying terrorists. The problem with this is that he doesn't get to decide this. The events of September 11 didn't give him the ability to usurp power from the other branches.

We haven't been able to know about this because we have been living in the fog of 9/11. The media has giving the Bush administration a pass in the last few years. Now the fog is being lifted. We need to let the President know that he has to protect us but not at the cost of our civil liberties. If we let the President continue to abuse the priviledges of the exective branch we will lose one of pillars of our democracy. The balance of power.

Wesley Clark

2005-08-26T21:58:00.000-05:00

Former NATO General Wesley Clark wrote a great piece in today's Washington Post. There are many anti-Iraq war writings that criticize our President but don't offer solutions. Wesley Clark presents some valuable ideas on how to win peace over there. He calls on a change of policy in our war in Iraq. He also suggests pulling out if the President continues to stay the course.

The growing chorus of voices demanding a pullout should
seriously alarm the Bush administration, because President Bush and his team are repeating the failure of Vietnam: failing to craft a realistic and
effective policy and instead simply demanding that the American people show resolve. Resolve isn't enough to mend a flawed approach -- or to save the lives of our troops. If the administration won't adopt a winning strategy, then the American people will be justified in demanding that it bring our troops home.

Many of the reasons we were given for going into this war have turned out to be based on lies. The war has been run poorly to this point through no fault of the men and women fighting it. We owe it to our troops and their families to do the what is best for Iraq. There will probably always be turmoil in that region. There always has been. We need to leave Iraq in a state of turmoil they can handle themselves.
I believe change starts with getting rid of Rumsfeld. The Neocon agenda has failed in Iraq. His replacement needs to be an experienced Military man or woman. We need someone who has been in combat. Lets learn from our mistakes in Vietnam and let the military do what it needs to do. Then lets get out.

Remember Rovegate?

2005-08-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

Rovegate is not going away. There hasn't been that much new information in the last month surrounding the Rovegate case. The L.A. Times recently published a comprehensive account of the case. It is over eight web pages long but it is worth it. It is the best overall article about the case I have read so far.

The only new information, to me, were some statements made by Colin Powell's top aide at the time of his speech to the United Nations in February of 2003, Lawrence Wilkerson.

Does anybody find this story as fascinating and important as I do?

Cindy Sheehan

2005-08-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

What a few weeks Cindy Sheehan has had. I really admire what she is doing and the debate she has created. I wonder if she ever imagined the impact she has had on the country when she decided to camp out in Crawford TX, near President Bush's ranch. Ms. Sheehan intentions are to meet with the President. I don't think he will meet with her. He doesn't answer to people.

I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.
-- As quoted shortly following 9/11 in "Bush at War" by Bob Woodward, Washington, D.C., Nov. 19, 2002

Cindy Sheehan won't get an audience with our President but she has sparked a renewed debate about the War in Iraq. Ms. Sheehan wants to see the troops pulled out. I'm still not sure this is the answer. On side I feel that we were lied to about the reasons for going to war so we should cut our losses and save our troops. On the other hand its not just our losses but the losses of the Iraqi people. Although they are better off without Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi people have a long road to any kind of stability ahead of them. We are responsible for this instability so we should help stabilize it. They call this the Pottery Barn philosophy, you break it you buy it. Isn't that what Colin Powel said before the war?

I'm not buying the crap about how we are safer with our troops over there. Terrorists will attack us any time they feel like it regardless of which country we decide to occupy. Al Queda attacked our country four years ago. Al Queda is not a country. Al Queda is everywhere. My concern is with the Iraqi people. Pulling our troops out right now would not be fair to the Iraqi people. I believe we have to change our current strategy. We can't continue to keep losing cities to the insurgents months after we took control of them. We can't continue letting insurgents come across the borders. If it takes more troops then let it be more troops. It just doesn't have to be all of our troops. I believe that we have to put our tails between our legs and ask the international community to help us do this. Tell them that we fucked up Iraq and we need their help to fix it. Unfortunately this isn't going to happen under our current regime. Bush didn't appoint John Bolton to ask for help from the U.N. It's my blog and my fantasy.

Cindy Sheehan is bringing some these arguments to the surface again by drawing our attention to the real losses of this war. The real losses of our troops like her son Casey. The real losses of the over 100,000 Iraqi people who have been killed so far. We went to war based on lies. Our troops went over there to get rid of the terrorists responsible for 911. They went over there to protect us from WMD and from imminent use of them on us. These reasons turned out to be false. Our troops did liberate the Iraqi people from a violent tyrant. Our troops have been spilling their blood for over two years to bring peace to Iraq. Bush owes it to the troops and their families, who have sacrificed their sons, daughters, husbands, mothers and fathers as well to the Iraqi people, to do whatever is necessary to end this war without leaving a mess behind. We need to do this quickly. "Staying the course" isn't going to cut this time.

What do other Journalists think of Judith Miller?

2005-08-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

This article puts some perspective on how some of Judith Miller's fellow journalists are torn on whether her intentions to keep silent are good. Here is an excerpt I thought was good.

Anita Bartholomew, a freelance journalist who has contributed to Reader's
Digest, wrote in a resignation letter, "The First Amendment is designed to
prevent government interference with a free press. Miller, by shielding a
government official or officials who attempted to use the press to retaliate
against a whistleblower, and scare off other would-be whistleblowers, has allied
herself with government interference with, and censorship of, whistleblowers.
When your source IS the government, and the government is attempting to use you
to target a whistleblower, the notion of shielding a source must be
reconsidered. To apply standard practices regarding sources to hiding wrongdoing
at the highest levels of government perverts the intent of the First Amendment."

Is Judith Miller shielding her source to protect a free press or is she obstructing justice?

More Rovegate...

2005-07-31T06:57:00.000-05:00

I know. I should let it go but this investigation is very important. I feel that if we let up then Rovegate will no longer be front page news. That is just what the Bush administration wants. I find this story to be very exciting and disturbing. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the soap opera appeal of a DNA stained dress. In my opinion, the actions of the Bush administration are infinitely more sordid. The investigation ends in October so I feel we need to keep pressing.

The next time you hear someone say Valerie Plame wasn't covert you will know how to respond. I found more information that proves that she was, in fact, covert. Ex CIA agent Larry Johnson has been asserting her covert status anywhere he can, including the TPM Cafe.

I found a good Rovegate timeline at Bushwatch. Some of the links provided have expired but it provides some perspective on the complexities of this story.

John Bolton

2005-07-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

It looks like President Bush is poised to make John Bolton ambassador to the United Nations as a recess appointment. As a recess appointment, Bolton's position will only last until the next Congress. It is a temporary job. After that he has to be approved by the Senate. From what I understand the President has the right to do this but it is not used very often.

The President will use the democrats as his excuse for doing this. Bolton supporters say the democrats are stonewalling the vote for his approval. The democrats, lead by Joe Biden, are saying that the White House is refusing to give up pertinent information they need to make their decision.

Why are the Democrats (and some Republicans) wary of Bolton? Why do they think that he is not being forthcoming? I wonder why. There is an interesting article that says Bolton forgot to mention that he was interviewed by the State department in regards to Iraq buying uranium from Niger. Sound familiar? He had previously wrote in a senate questionnaire that he had not testified to a grand jury or any investigation in the past five years. He was not interviewed in the Plame investigation.

I'm sure that this is an honest mistake. If President Bush does appoint Bolton, who is very controversial, next week, then it really fits his MO on personnel choices. Our president loves to reward the people who make mistakes. Check out the pattern, Rumsfeld, Wolfiwitz, Rice, Hadley, Rove and I'm sure there is more.

Arianna vs. Judith Miller

2005-07-29T15:45:00.000-05:00

Arianna Huffington is taking Judith Miller to task on her website The Huffington Post. Huffington suggests that Millers incarceration is not noble but self serving by way of protecting herself from prosecution. Yesterday she surmises that Miller could have been the source for Libby. Miller has many contacts with intelligence officials. Huffington reminds us that Judith Miller was the main reporter validating the false intelligence Bush and Co. were using to justify war in Iraq.

Today Arianna rips Miller's embedded reports during the early days of the war in Iraq (before "mission accomplished").

I don't know if you realize this yet but our government is no longer calling our military actions the Global War on Terror. The war is over! We are now entering the Global Struggle against Violent Extremism. Rolls right off the tongue. The article I read on the Heritage Foundation (conservative thinktank) website about the name change is interesting. They said the old phrase connoted military action only. The new name reflects the other aspects of the struggle including homeland security, law enforcement and international diplomacy. Since when is this administration interested in diplomacy? Randi Rhodes of the Randi Rhodes radio show on Air America noted the other day that the Arabic word for struggle is jihad. The German word for struggle is kempt.

Found this cartoon today thought it was funny.

McCain

2005-07-24T10:04:00.000-05:00

I used to have a little respect for John McCain. I respect his service to our country in Vietnam. I respect his work on campaign finance reform. I lost a lot of my respect for him when he campaigned vigorously for Bush in last years presidential race. I certainly didn't expect his endorsement for Kerry. He is after all a Republican. I just thought he was a Republican I could really respect. I am Democrat but I would like to think that I would always vote for the best candidate no matter which party. McCain is definitely not one of these candidates. If he runs for president in '08 I will not vote for him, especially after his actions these last few weeks.

If this Rovegate controversy reveals what I believe to be part of a grand conspiracy to deceive America into the war with Iraq, then McCain will regret his role in defending Karl Rove these past weeks. In my mind Rove and Libby violated our country's security whether they knew what they were doing or not. At a minimum the president should strip them of their intelligent access until the special prosecutor finishes his case. The president has already lowered the bar he set in this case by saying that he would fire anyone who committed a crime in the Plame leak. He previously said, through Press Secretary Scott McClennan, that involvement in the leak would result in job termination. (I believe some people on the Right call this a "flip-flop".)

This mixed message from our President tells our country and the rest of the world that he values politics before national security. If the President, at the very least, would restrict the intelligence clearance of Rove and Libby it would show Americans and future foreign informants that he takes the CIA and human intelligence gathering seriously. Let's remember that it was the CIA that called for this investigation. Despite what the pundits on the right think, Valerie Plame's identity was a secret. They are obviously concerned that someone in the administration leaked the name of one of it's own agents. If that isn't bad enough, someone in the administration did this while our country is at war. Oddly enough Ms. Plames area of expertise is WMD, one of the main reasons Bush used to get us into the war in Iraq. Bush should show the world that he is appalled that this breach of our national security came out of his administration. This should appall us as Americans. Not only does the CIA worry about it's own agents but they are also concerned that this leak will affect future information collecting in foreign countries. Why would someone give secret information if they believe their anonymity could be revealed by this administration? Regardless of what the Republican talking points would have us believe, the Plame leak has rattled the CIA.

This is why I have lost all respect for Republicans who are going on the talk shows down playing the significance of this case with their talking points. John McCain is one of these politicians. I really think the Plame leak should be disturbing to all politicians. I expected better from McCain.

Cheney lies for Bush (no really it's true)

2004-06-30T17:38:00.000-05:00

Vice President Cheney told the MSNBC a couple weeks ago that the Bush administration never claimed that Saddam had anything to do with 9-11. He said that they had a relationship. Well here is a letter to congressional leaders from George Walker Bush March 18, 2003. The letter is worded very carefully but it clearly implies a link between Saddam and the attacks on 9-11. It was clear to me at the time that the link between Iraq and al Queda in regards to 9-11 were one of the main reasons that we attacked Iraq. The Bush administration wants us to now believe that it was the relationship itself that was the problem. Bush and Cheney still claim there was a relationship but provide no facts to back it up. Bush and Cheney remind me of that Martin Short skit on Saturday Night Live where he plays the liar on Sixty Minutes. "I didn't say that you did. The media keeps distorting what we said". I just wish Bush and Cheney's lies didn't cost so many lives.

History will not be nice to the War on Terror

2004-06-03T15:42:00.000-05:00

I read the speech Bush gave to the Air Force academy last weekend and it really blew my mind. In it he says our war on terror is unique and in many ways similar to our wars of the past. He sites WWII as one war that has similarities to the present conflicts. It is unique in the fact that we attacked a country that did not declare war on us as Hitler did. It is also different because, unlike Japan, Iraq did not attack us first. The war on terror in Iraq is unique in the fact that the Bush administration went in with a fraction of the troops needed to turn that country around in a timely manner.

Bush sites the similarities between the Pearl Harbor and 911 attacks in provoking us into war. Afghanistan aside, if Bush was president during WWII would he have attacked Peru? I think our president should quit the analogies. This is a purely unique war in Iraq. Not only did they go to war on shaky intelligence but Bush has changed the reasons why we are there many times. He claimed he didn't endorse nation building but now he talks about how we are going to liberate Iraq with democracy. Talk about flip flopping.

Reasons for going to war aside, we went to war in Iraq in the worst possible of ways. General Zinni, in a Sixty Minutes interview, said that it was the wrong time to go and the wrong way to do it. We went in with half the troops we should have used. Sure, they were enough to overthrow the regime but not enough to secure the country. I wonder if there would have been fewer casualties if we had gone with a bigger force. Let's not forget that no one(Rumsfeld)has been held accountable for this. All there is from this administration are pats on the back.

Memorial Day

2004-05-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

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?

2004-05-24T21:52:00.000-05:00

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

2004-05-21T19:28:00.000-05:00

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

2004-05-17T21:59:00.000-05:00

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....

2004-05-17T17:06:00.000-05:00

...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

2004-05-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

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

2004-05-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-05-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

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.