I hadn’t heard that. Too funny. I wonder if the President has heard of $5 a gallon gasoline.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EKZOKxdxj4]
I was right
Five plus years ago I received a nice letter from the White House informing me that the President appreciated my letters asking him not to go to war, but that he (the president) knew better and that we had committed our forces to battle with Saddam and eventually kill innocent civilians and destroy the country of Iraq. I wish I’d have been wrong. I wish there weren’t 4100 dead American soldiers who died in vain. I wish there weren’t another thirty thousand or so gravely wounded and I really wish there were no Iraqis dead as a result of American aggression.
A long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report made public Thursday concludes that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made public statements to promote an invasion of Iraq that they knew at the time were not supported by available intelligence.–Read more here from the McClatchy News Service.
Wholehearted agreement
Lately I’ve been thinking that maybe the most important factor in the precipitous rise in oil prices in the past five years is our program of endless war. It’s a karmic reaction certainly and one that might have been easily predicted. Just yesterday President Bush was in Saudi Arabia begging for a production increase. Today I read an article at Common Dreams written by a Philadelphia journalist, Dave Lindorff.
Analysts keep getting trotted out on TV and in print, attributing the dramatic price rise to everything from “peak oil” — the idea that producing countries have reached their peak of productive capacity, and that the only direction for oil supplies looking forward is down, while demand continues to rise — to increasing demand in China and India, to supply bottlenecks, to specific news events, like a pipeline break in Nigeria, or a closed refinery in California.
Politicians, like Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, have called for a two-month moratorium on federal gas taxes, but with taxes running at something on the order of 18 cents a gallon, this is not going to do much to bring prices down-in fact it might do nothing, since retailers would be free to just raise prices to match the tax break, and pocket the profits.–Dave Lindorff
Dear Mr. President
Olberman’s rant and my earlier post made me think of a touching lyric I first heard a couple of years ago and I blogged about it then. Music animates my life and always has. These lyrics by Pink are powerful and as moving as when I first heard them.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eRApNHSRRk]
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let’s pretend we’re just two people and
You’re not better than me.
I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
Bogey man
Yesterday, President Bush told a reporter that he gave up golf to be in solidarity with the parents of loved ones who had been killed in Iraq. Soldiers, Sailors, Air Force and Marines who’ve been killed in an un-necessary and illegal war can draw solace that Mr. Bush has given up golf. What a guy? Do you think George Bush belongs in the same history books as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln? Does this poor man get it? What planet is the guy on? Tonight Keith Olberman lit into the President in a tongue lashing without peer. View it here.
Sadly this is too little too late for thousands of Americans and Iraqi people who have been killed by a person who cares little if anything about human life. I have to wonder what if any lessons we as a country have learned from this debacle in Iraq. Have we learned that war only begets war and that only peace can bring an end to terrorism. I wish the president had kept playing golf and given up lying. You want to engender solidarity, call the nation to shared sacrifice. There should be no tax cuts for the wealthy in war time. You want to promote solidarity, how about gas rationing or a call to use alternatives to fossil fuels. How about an end to no bid contracts for your buddies. How about less “bring’em on” speeches and less politicization of opponents of your failed strategy.
You want to show real solidarity with the troops, own up to your mistakes honestly. Admit you were way wrong and ask forgiveness for yourself and your wrong headed strategy. Instead of a presidential library how about taking the money and putting it towards a trust fund to help the widows and children of the four thousand dead military personnel and the countless thousands of wounded from this debacle. How about asking the war profiteers to give back some of the billions of tax payer dollars to establish the beginning of an international aid program. Start playing golf again and while you’re out there invite some of the orphans of Katrina, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere to join you for lunch. Live with the victims of war and you’ll be a little less likely to start another one. Spend some time living with a military family, eat the food they eat, sit up with them while they worry and pray for their loved ones. When you’ve been in their shoes it’ll be a little tougher to start another war.
Thank you
Thank you President Bush for having the foresight to invade Iraq five years ago. I thought it was wrong to do, but you’ve proven that war is the ultimate right weapon in the fight against terror. I salute your insight and forthrightness. Now, thanks to you the Iraqi people have a democracy and today mark their fifth year of freedom from Saddam and peace in their lovely country. Thanks to your leadership we’re all driving more and spending less because you were right the oil revenues have not only financed the reconstruction of the new Iraq, but also have driven the cost of gasoline down here in the United States. To those who thought more troops would be necessary you can just thumb your nose.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFijzDyJnVE]
Letterman on Bush
Dave Letterman has been regularly mocking President Bush with his great moments in presidential history spot each night. He’s going to have to come up with a new spot next year when President Bush leaves office. Will it be John McCain, Hillary or Obama?
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Dennis Kucinich: “If Congress does not impeach..
Dennis Kucinich: “If Congress does not impeach President Bush for intentionally misleading the public, the next president should hand over Bush and his administration to law enforcement officials”
The old shell game
Be sure to read Sy Hersh’s latest on the growing threat of war with Iran. The Bush administration has been ramping up the threat and just last week the Senate gave its tacit approval to an encounter with Iran.
In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.–Seymour Hersh