Duct Tape Blues

I once met a car salesman. I asked him if it was hard to sell cars. He came up and whispered a very basic truth in my ear. "There is an ass for every seat" He says some people just want to be taken to the cleaners. He tells people want they want to hear, and then changes their expectations. He called it "bait and switch" He said it works a majority of the time. He said, he makes a lot of money by selling additional high margin equipment on car after they buy the car too. Sometimes he says he feels sorry for his customers when they realize the limitations of the used car warranties they get as well.

Given these traits, President Bush has proven himself to be a pretty good Used Car Salesman. He has done a great job of selling this War and lots of other things, to the public. He told us what we wanted to hear after September 11th. We wanted someone to take the fear away. We didn't really care who we attacked as long as it took the fear away. But George Jr has no reason to make fear go away. Fear has been a great ally for George W. Bush and he is using it well. He knows no one would balk at anything he asks for, even if it means secret court hearings, unchecked Government eaves dropping, and lack of due process. Many people didn't seem to care, as long as the fear just goes away. It is NOT going to go away folks! Learn to love "Orange Alert Status"! George boy has no reason to make us feel safe right now, well not until the next election cycle anyway.

Here are a few of his accomplishments and the used car sales technique used.

BUT THIS CAR IS MUCH BETTER
When Bush kept mentioning Sept 11th and Iraq over and over and over again, for the better part of a year now. He pulled off the perfect "Bait and Switch" None of the Intelligence agencies across the world have been able to link Saddam with September 11th, but here we are. A majority of the people in this country are now completely convinced he was responsible for planning those attacks on our country , when all evidence points to Osama Bin Laden.
" I know the Corvette was advertised at a great price. Sorry, I just sold it , but take a look at this T-bird, which just came in, and guess what, I can give you a great deal on it too!"

NO, THERE IS NO AIR ON THE LIST
The UN had come together and agreed to pass resolution 1441. This resolution does NOT authorize armed attack, The Bush group however decided that it DID mean that the US can attack Iraq, because they said so.
"No, you didn't ask for air, I remember it very well you said you didn't want air, see here are my notes, see.

THIS LITTLE BEAUTY IS CHEERY
The Bush Administration also sold the country the idea that this War was going to be a "cake walk" and that people would cheer us in the streets and that "Shock and Awe" will cause the Iraq military to throw down their weapons and surrender in droves. These predictions turned out to be wrong, wrong and let me see oh yea wrong.
"You say the car doesn't start, the brakes are failing and the air conditioner does not work? Hey it is still a very good car. We will fix those little problems when you bring it in. You do remember that you only had a 30 day warranty on Labor with Parts were not included?" " How long ago did you buy that car?"

THE CAR YOU BOUGHT IS JUST GREAT, WHAT ABOUT SOME NICE OPTIONS?
Bush has refused to disclose the estimated cost of the Iraq War until after we were well in to the War, Troops were crossing into Iraq, ships were firing Tomahawk Missiles, Planes were dropping GPS guided bombs, when he says, hey, I need a ton of money in my budget to cover this thing.
" You bought a real nice car there would you also want a nice set of tires on that car, too"

These are but a few of the con jobs that have ben pulled on us. As far as that car salesman I was talking to. Well, he lost his job. It seems people just quit believing him altogether.

More bombings in Bagdad. More civilians killed. More soldiers killed. Just another day.
Israel troops shot at a group of little Palestinian girls who were protesting the occupation of their home land, with rubber coated steel bullets. They also fired tear gas at the group to break up these dangerous radicals. They only injured 3 of them.
There is a report that Rumsfield did not take the advice of the Pentagon for the appropriate number of troops needed for this war. Dejavu, this is just how the Vietnam war was managed. It was run by politicians, not the generals. If this continues and Rummy continues to ignore the advice of the Pentagon, we will be in it for a quite a while.
Iran and Syria are both being warned not to interfere with this war. if they enter Iraq they will be treated as combatants. I also heard one news report that there were many ex-Iraquis going back home to fight the American invaders. I only saw one report on this so it may or may not be true, but it would not surprise me. There are thousands of pissed off Arabs all around Iraq.
The ground assault is being put on hold until more supplies can reach the troops. Bush is denying the fact that the war is off schedule, he keeps saying it everytime he gets a chance. I guess he figures that if he says it often enough we will believe it. It worked with selling the idea of invading Iraq to begin with, so he must figure the same approach of constant repitition will work again. Tune in tomorrow for more low lights. By the way, we are at condition Orange Plus I think.

New rules for the playground folks. Uncle Sam has started something now. The price of poker went up babe.
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man in a refuge camp. This is not unusual. We hear about this kind of thing going on so often we don't pay any attention anymore. We have what you may call "grown a little callus" to that particular situation in the Mideast. The big party is down the street. What makes this killing unique is the official Israeli response to the killing.
Witnesses said the army killed the unarmed 20-year-old civilian without provocation. The israeli government did not deny the shooting. Instead the Israeli military sources said soldiers shot two gunmen they considered an imminent threat, killing one of them. How do you like those apples. I guess they got tired of using the same old lines of claiming that they were Hamas or that they were responsible for some bombing in Israel or at one of the settlements. They just admitted that they killed him because they didn't like the way he looked! Sounds like we have a new graduate from the George Bush school of Foreign Policy.
You know the school slogan "Kill-them-all-let-God-sort-them-out!. The school flag is a smart looking bright blood banner with skull and crossbones and the words imprinted just above the skull saying "Die For Democracy Ragheads!" Their mascot is a coiled serpent which likes to curl up and squeese the Bill of Rights and the Constitution until they are completely choked off. It is not a new educational institution, it has very old roots, but it has recently been given a real boost. I expect many new graduates will be unleashed in the near future, to a war theater near you. If the new Grads take it on the road it will be a big hit. The opening act will probably be a killer. People will just die when they see it. Break a leg kid, Break a leg, break a neck, break whatever you can. Just do it! Just do unto others before they do it onto you.("George Bush 2002") Say good night folks!

I have been thinking about how the hell we got into this mess? There are many theories. Here is one of mine. It came to me when I was in a vallium fog. What do you think of the theory that Bush attacked Iraq before he could be seen as being in compliance? Think about it. Is it possible that the US was concerned that Saddam was going to comply to the UN Sanctions? Then Saddam was going to ask the UN to release him from the oil exportation sanctions? It would also eliminate the "No Fly Zones". He was giving in a little at a time, so he would look like he was holding his own with the rest of the Arab world. With the sanctions lifted, Saddam would have major money coming in from expanded oil exports, especially because of the Venezuela problem. He could do what ever he wanted to. He could buy any weapons he felt he needed to stay in power. He could then become a significant power in the Middle East besides Israel? Could this war be the means Bush chose to pre-empt Saddam's ultimate plan? I could just see Bush sitting in the oval office saying "DAMN we gotta bomb da boy before anyone knows he was coming around. How else can we claim their oil and say we are going to use it to help their people."
What do you think of those apples! ................Stay away from drugs, boys and girls.

Lier liar pants on fire
This war will make history in many ways. Here is one big reason for its historical significance..
Last September 24th, the Congress was at odds with the President over information they were originally given early in the game. Congress was preparing to vote on the resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to wage war in Iraq, The CIA had not been able to make any case to connect Iraq with September 11th. A group of senior intelligence officials, including George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq’s weapons capability.
According to two of those present at the briefing, which was highly classified and took place in the committee’s secure hearing room, Tenet declared, that a shipment of high-strength aluminum tubes that was intercepted on its way to Iraq, had been meant for the construction of centrifuges that COULD be used to produce enriched uranium.

The suitability of the tubes for that purpose had been questioned, but this time the argument that Iraq had a nuclear program under way was supported by a new and striking fact: the C.I.A. had recently received intelligence showing that, between 1999 and 2001, Iraq had attempted to buy five hundred (500) TONS of uranium oxide from Niger, one of the world’s largest producers. The uranium, known as “yellow cake,” can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors; if processed differently, it can also be enriched to make weapons. Holy Shit!!! They said!

Five(5) tons is all it takes to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a bomb. (When the C.I.A. spokesman William Harlow was asked for comment, he denied that Tenet had briefed the senators on Niger.)

The testimony about the attempted purchase of 500 tons of uranium oxide scared the crap out of everyone, and it helped to swing the Democratic vote, two weeks later the resolution passed overwhelmingly, giving the President a congressional mandate for a military assault on Iraq.
Does anyone remember how President Bush cited the uranium deal, along with the aluminum tubes, in his State of the Union Message on January 28th? He also said that, “Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.”
Bush lied folks! He lied to, Congress and to the American People. .
On March 7th, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, told the U.N. Security Council that the documents involving the Niger-Iraq uranium sale were FAKES. “The I.A.E.A. has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that these documents . . . are in fact not authentic,” ElBaradei said.

One senior I.A.E.A. official went further. He said, “These documents are so bad that I cannot imagine that they came from a serious intelligence agency. It depresses me, given the low quality of the documents, that it was not stopped. At the level it reached, I would have expected more checking.”
I guess that world-changing-decisions being made by the Pentagon, Congress and the Administration is based on what do you call it again ahhhhhhh oh yea CRAP. Some call this crap mis-information.
The I.A.E.A. had first sought these documents last fall, shortly after the British government released its dossier. After months of pleading by the I.A.E.A., the United States turned them over to Jacques Baute, who is the director of the agency’s Iraq Nuclear Verification Office.
It took Baute’s team only a few hours to determine that the documents were fake. The agency had been given about a half-dozen letters and other communications between officials in Niger and Iraq, many of them written on letterheads of the Niger government. The problems were glaring.
This official said the I.A.E.A. has not been able to determine who actually prepared the documents. “Somebody got old letterheads and signatures, and cut and pasted.”
Baute, according to the I.A.E.A. official, “confronted the United States with the forgery: ‘What do you have to say?’ They had nothing to say.”

ElBaradei’s disclosure has not been disputed by any government or intelligence official in Washington or London. Colin Powell, was asked about the forgery during a television interview two days after ElBaradei’s report, he dismissed the subject by saying, “If that issue is resolved, that issue is resolved.” OOPS, Oh well I guess that's that.

A few days later, at a House hearing, he denied that anyone in the United States government had anything to do with the forgery. “It came from other sources,” Powell testified. “It was provided in good faith to the inspectors.” I want to believe that he too was set up and deceived.

Is there any wonder why the rest of the world doubts our intentions? The forgery became the object of widespread, and bitter, questions in Europe about the credibility of the United States. But it initially provoked only a few news stories in America, and little sustained questioning about how the White House could endorse such an obvious fake. On March 8th, an American official who had reviewed the documents was quoted in the Washington Post as explaining, simply, “We fell for it.” This is our Government in action folks.

Sources cited:
Seymour Hersh
The New Yorker
Posted 3/25/2003 9:58:40 PM
March 31, 2003 Edition

The odds of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are 100% .
The reason is that the US has already faked information as a reason to invade. The planted information on the aluminum tubes made in Nigeria was reported by the UN inspectors. So, the odds of finding chemicals will be most certainly there, for the same reason many people found throw away guns at some crime scenes back in the 40's.
Bush has some Special Exploitation Teams to specifically look for chemical weapons. The US has refused to have any international or UN inspectors work with these special teams. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to why the US has refused to have any witnesses, I mean help?

How can we believe other nations will follow the Geneva Convention when we have ignored those same rules ourselves.
The prisoners in Guantanimo Bay have not been treated according to that same international law. Now, Iraq has some of our soldiers. General Colin Powell was very worried about this very exact situation when the Afganistan prisoners were not been held as POW's and they were not being treated according to the Geneva convention. He stated that it may become a precedent for treatment of our soldiers, should they be caught behind enemy lines. Powell was right. Whatever saying you choose works here. "What goes around comes around" or "don't piss in the well because you may have to drink from it someday". We have put our soldiers in an extremely deadly situation if they are caught.
Bush however, wants every one in the world else except him, to play by the rules. How hypocritical is that. Unfortunately, our troops are going to pay the price for his arrogance.
Now, lets take the other view. If the US would have gone into the war with UN blessing, would the Iraqui army follow the Geneva convention? I doubt it, but we will never know. One thing I do know for sure, Bush's complete inability to deal with other nations, put our soldiers there to begin with.

Did you really want to know what is really happening? As I read the news from papers around the world I get a variety of perspectives. Parlay this with the Government's game of never letting anyone know what is really happening, and you have a real challenge.
You have to figure out how to unspin the spin.
Looking for the truth is extremely elusive and very frustrating. It also means looking at the information objectively without bias. THAT is the hard part. If you are only listening to information that mirrors your idea of the world, you will miss a lot of key data. It is VERY hard to abandon your views and leave yourself open to opposing information. Life would be so much easier if everyone just behaved like you think they should. I honestly don't know how unbiased I can be. I am a cynic at heart. I have lived through Vietnam, Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, so I have, a huge distrust of the Government. That makes it several times harder to be unbiased. I have been lied to alot over the years. This is war and the first casuality of war is always the truth.

Collateral damage, sounds like what happens when two cars have a fender bender on the expressway. Unfortunately we are faced with the War time definition which means innocent people are going to die in this war. These deaths are unavoidable during a war. So we are killing Iraqi people to free other Iraqi people. We must rationalize this by saying that if you are unlucky enough to be near where a bomb falls, you don't deserve to be free?
Then there is the question of hitting what the military calls "dual-use targets," like installations that are critical both to the military and to civilians. These targets are bridges, roads, tunnels, or electric power grids. In the 1991 Persian Gulf war, for example, the United States destroyed Iraq's power grid, crippling its military communications. That also created severe food shortages, destroyed water-purification and sewage-treatment plants and disrupted medical care, which violated the Geneva Conventions. The United States defended hitting the targets, arguing that it was crucial to defeating the enemy. Geneva Convention! We don't need no stinking Geneva Convention we are the US of A boy!

We keep hearing about how smart the weapons are, but has anyone seen a demolition of a large building? It takes engineers quite a while to figure out how to set up the explosives to bring the building without hitting any other buildings. So, does anyone really believe that a bomb falling out of the sky can do the same thing? You know that pieces are going to fly everywhere, even if it hits right on target. Remember the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11? As the wars in Serbia and Afghanistan showed, air strikes cause collateral damage. "There are always intelligence errors or missiles fall short and go wrong,"
Here is a riddle for you. If intelligent people make occasional intelligent errors what kind of errors do you think Bush makes? That was a cheap shot, sorry about that, but the word "intelligent" in relationship to this war, made be think about the "lack of intelligence" and the image of Bush just popped up. I couldn't help it.


Work Cited:
New York Times
DAPHNE EVIATAR

War in the Ruins of Diplomacy

The mistakes that contributed to America's current isolation began long before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. From the administration's first days, it turned away from internationalism and the concerns of its European allies by abandoning the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdrawing America's signature from the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court. Russia was bluntly told to accept America's withdrawal from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into the territory of the former Soviet Union. In the Middle East, Washington shortsightedly stepped backed from the worsening spiral of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, ignoring the pleas of Arab, Muslim and European countries. I wonder why other countries resist US aggression on Iraq? They see us pulling out of everything the rest of the world wants from us.
I believe Bush has a plan to completely isolate the US from the rest of the world. He will dump the responsibility to rebuild the country to private companies, and stick the UN with as much of the following costs as possible. He will use the UN to put the pieces together after all the destruction. He will bully them into it. I can now see Ari Flesher at the podium saying "The UN is being given a second chance to be relevant and act as the responsible international body that it is supposed to be". Spin spin spin. That is how Bush gets by. Don't get dizzy folks and hang on tight for the ride, because it is not going to stop anytime soon. We are in this ride pretty much alone. England will be discouraged and dismayed soon. England's agenda of setting up a Palestinian state, will get dumped as soon as the war is over. Hey thanks for shedding your blood for our cause, but you didn't think we were going to completely along with you now did you? Just kidding, we had our fingers crossed!

Sources cited: New York Times March 18, 2003

I see glee on the faces of retired military experts on the news channel, as they talk about the devastating power of the weapons we are employing. We really like our toys of destruction. I hope this war is over quickly, but when it is, we may not know about it right away. So far the Vietnam war was the only war that was aptly televised. The Government quickly clamped down on them after that little escapade. Bush has been especially controlling of the media as soon as he took office. He doesn't let anything out, not even to Congress when he is supposed to. That is why he does not take questions from the press corp. The press corp has been successfully muzzled. I guess I'll wait for the movie to come out. Lyndon Johnson curtailed information. He started a war on a lie too. The public would not have known anything about what really happened to start Vietnam, if it was not for a whistle-blower. Thank god for Daniel Ellsworth, a true patriot that risked everything to get the truth out. Maybe some day the truth will come out about this war as well. Bush learned a thing or two from old Moscow on handling information. Hitler had Goebels manage his propaganda, but he didn't have an Ari Flesher on TV spinning the truth in front a TV monitor. So far Bush has suspended Habeus Corpus, the FBI can now tap phones, see what internet sites you call up, check your e-mail, monitor anyone at anytime with no restrictions no checks and balances. The FBI can monitor the books you buy and the books you check out of libraries. They can hold you without access to lawyers and have you deported with no one being the wiser. They can send you somewhere to have you interrogated for months on end. Just how far are we from a true dictatorship led by this Zeolot?

Did anyone know there was such a thing as an Orange Plus alert? It sounds like a fruit drink. Is there also a Red Minus? What is the difference between orange plus and red minus? Are we grading the level of terrorism on a curve?
I see many graduates students in the future, writing papers on how the Bush administration successfully managed to turn world opinion from completely supportive to completely against us. Hearing the latest news one hears, about 20 to 30 countries are joining the "coalition of the willing" or as most people know them as "the coalition of the bought off". Besides Britain, Poland is sending 200 soldiers, and Australia is sending 2000. Even Spain said they will not send any troops. Just in...It was just stated that Syria is now considered the next nation to be taken over by our troops. Since we already have troops in the region. Hey why not what's a few more casualties as long as we are there?
So, what do the polls around the world say about Bush's stance on the war with Iraq and how he went about it?

How does the British people feel about it, just 23 percent approve.
85 percent of the French oppose war in Iraq (French Institute for Public Opinion).
A poll for Reform newspaper found 70 percent of Mexicans opposed to military action.
Eighty percent oppose war with Iraq in Chilie (MORI Omnibus)
In Italy, 85 percent oppose military action (SWG Organization).
How about Japan? No try again, Eighty-four percent are opposed ( Mainichi Shimbun ).
What about Israel? They must support us right? Bush should find support in Israel. But according to the latest poll, by the newspaper Ma'ariv shows Israelis wavering: 45 percent say they support an immediate U.S-led attack on Iraq, And 49 percent of Israelis say the U.N. inspectors should be allowed to continue their work.

If Americans feel like we are all alone going into this war, there's a damn good reason for it. We are.

Work Cited: by William Schneider Washington Post

I feel sorry and sad for everyone today. The world changed today at 10 am, and millions of lives will never be the same. I firmly believe the US power will be attacked in many ways. Some may be overt terrorist acts but others, will be much more subtle. Some of these attacks on the US will be stealthy and multilateral. Governments have already started to work to raise tariffs, undermine the dollar, and and punish the US economically for years to come. Colin Powell may also be a victim in this train wreck. He tried his hardest to reason with unmoveable and unreasonable people, you know, the George W./Cheney/Rumsfield trio, the real axis of evil. I know Powell does not agree with the mess the President made. George's own father does not even support the President's approach to this problem either. How sad is that!
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Bush Sr warning over unilateral action
From Roland Watson in Washington

THE first President Bush has told his son that hopes of peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with Iraq were not backed by international unity.

Drawing on his own experiences before and after the 1991 Gulf War, Mr Bush Sr said that the brief flowering of hope for Arab-Israeli relations a decade ago would never have happened if America had ignored the will of the United Nations.

He also urged the President to resist his tendency to bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between the United States, France and Germany.

“You’ve got to reach out to the other person. You’ve got to convince them that long-term friendship should trump short-term adversity,” he said.

The former President’s comments reflect unease among the Bush family and its entourage at the way that George W. Bush is ignoring international opinion and overriding the institutions that his father sought to uphold. Mr Bush Sr is a former US Ambassador to the UN and comes from a family steeped in multi-lateralist traditions.

I finally started to feel better, just in time to attend a candle light vigil against the upcoming war. It was very moving. I thought that maybe 8 to 10 people would show up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a couple of hundred actually came. Several people spoke about their feelings about the impending war. I took a moment to express my feelings about my frustration about the lack of a national debate, and the way many people are responding to President Bush like lemmmings, ready and willing to go off that cliff just because he says so. One group played a song they made for the occasion. We all lit our candles and gathered together to share our patriotism, our concern, our prayers for our soldiers and our hope for the the impossible; avoiding war at this time. After the gathering, I felt a sort of peacefulness, knowing that I was there and that I was not alone in my thoughts about how our leadership has failed the country. I also learned how eternal hope can be, even against all the odds.

I feel like shit today. I feel like I should have been 3 sheets to the wind last night and in my bed with one arm holding onto one of the bedposts for dear life. So here is a quickie.

Florida Told to Repay $517 Million in Excess Contributions
HHS Inspector General Janet Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, is under fire from members of Congress for alleged professional misconduct, announced last week that she will leave the IG post June 1

According to a draft report of the audit findings, federal officials have recommended that Florida repay the $517 million in excess contributions or accept reduced future federal contributions to the pension fund until the overcharge is made up

An audit of a Florida state government pension fund was delayed last year while Gov. Jeb Bush (R) was seeking reelection.

The Florida audit was delayed at least three times at the request of state officials as Bush prepared for what appeared to be a tough reelection fight. The delays in starting the audit were allegedly designed to shield the Florida governor, President Bush's brother, from any embarrassing findings until after the election

One of the documents was an internal HHS e-mail that said that, before the initial delay in starting the audit, a draft report of the findings was expected by Sept. 30, more than a month before the Nov. 5 election.

Does anyone have any doubts, that Janet Rehnquist will find herself a real nice job in the private sector. perhaps a Rebublican private sector?

Work Cited:
Edward Walsh
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2003; Page A09

My brother once got real drunk, no surprise here if you know my brother. This was a long time ago when he was serving in the Armed Forces, in a Mideast country. He was saving us from the red horde. That is the red horde, not the red whore, whose real name is Shirly and happens to be a mixed up but really nice girl, with a heart of gold. Where was I, oh yea, drunk brother in Mideast country, forget Shirly for now. In this Mideast country, everybody barters back and forth on erverything. My brother decides to go into a local shop and just for the hell of it, starts to argue about the price on the first thing his blurry eyes saw. My brother was proud, he was arrogant, he was primed for the challenge. He used his favorite negotiating style, he called the shopkeeper a thief, he called the price an insult and he called upon Allah to infest the shop keeper's beard with sand fleas, and for his camel/car to go lame. Before my brother knew it, he was walking out of the shop happy with his deal but wondering how the hell it happened.
The Mideast is full of shopkeepers. They have been doing it for centuries. So, as far as the Bush/Saddam thing goes, is it any surprise that Saddam has gotten a lot of the world calling the US a terrorist nation and Bush a madman. I know Bush was inept enough to walk right into it, as far as foreign affairs are concerned, George W. just fell of the turnip truck.
Unfortunately for Saddam, Bush is a sore looser and he doesen't care if you own all the properties in the Monopoly game. Georgie boy is going to flip the board off the table and stomp on you and the pieces. So, if you negotiate with Bush, remember he is a one trick pony. He only knows one way of dealing with people. May Allah keep your pieces intact.

Here is another little tidbit about the upcoming Iraq war.
According to U.S. offficials, the Bush administration is pulling together a huge Iraq rebuilding project, this one is larger that the one after World War II. The construction contract will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This massive contract, would pay for construction and repairs to roads, schools, hospitals and mosques.
A select few U.S. construction companies were invited to bid on this contract. Analysts said that the company that wins this bid will be in position for future projects for the repair and development of the country's oil industry. Guess which company was asked to bid? None other than Cheney's old company, Halliburton!
Has Cheney set himself up for life or what! Isin't it nice though, that we are going to rebuild everything we blast to hell. Job security for some, but death for many others.
Is this what they call the "Circle of Life"?

WORK CITED:
Mike Allen, Peter Slevin
Washington Post
Tuesday, March 11, 2003; Page A13

Did someone ever beat the absolute crap beat out of you? I was in grade school when I got into it, with this group of hungarian kids. They talked funny but they hit pretty hard. As I lay there in the grass, looking up at the overhead clouds going by. I really wanted to find some big kids, you know 8th graders and beat those hungarian kids until they cried uncle in english. I was angry, and I wanted revenge. What I did instead was beat up the little kid next door. It was not cricket I know, but it felt good anyway.
Maybe that explains why Bush is so intent on killing Sadam. He can't kill all the terrorists that want to destroy us in one fell swoop, so he takes it out someone smaller and easier to deal with, Iraq.
If Bush decides to defy the UN, we become a rogue nation. Someone who will be feared more than any other country in the history of the world, a superpower axis of evil to everyone in the world. If countries piss us off, they may become due for a taste of good ole trade sanctions, restrictions or american colonization. We don't need no stinking UN! We'll build our own clubhouse and only let those nations in that we can buy off. We can call it the superpower league of nations! Blair will be the club mascot. Bush will be in charge of talking to God. Bush will also be in charge of the really loud PA system used for communicating the new bible according to him. Rumsfield will be the enforcer, you know the guy who thumps you in the forehead if he thinks you are out of line. Cheney will be behind the club's curtains moving all the levers to make the smoke, noise and light show. He needs to stay near electricity to keep his pacemaker charged. Ashcroft will train dogs to tree those pesky foreigners that look funny. He will also keep the minutes and record all phone calls. Tom Ridge will be in charge of color coordinating the clubhouse, perhaps something in orange and red. He is also in charge of the electrified fence around the club house, but Bush gets to throw the switch when someone gets tangled in it. Old habits are hard for him to give up.

Today was a fairly quiet news day. I saw that the penguins in California stopped swimming in circles. That was good news. I also read that Colin Powel may not get Bush's resolution through the UN. That may be good news for some but bad news for Colin Powell. I really respect Powell and I believe most of the country does as well. He has an impossible job. One that I am extremely sorry to say, he may soon loose.
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Los Angeles Times
NEWS ANALYSIS
Powell's Credibility Rides on U.N. Vote
By Robin Wright, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON
In a hint of the dilemma he faces, other U.S. officials and foreign policy analysts say Powell didn't dare leave town for fear of what administration hawks might sell the White House in his absence. Neoconservatives in the administration often talk about "us versus them," referring not to their conflict with Iraq nor with balking allies. The "them" is Powell's State Department. In his place, Powell has opted to dispatch lower-ranking staff, who often keep exhausting travel schedules.

"The war within the administration is almost as fierce as anything we face abroad. That may be a bit of a caricature, but the bureaucratic infighting is pretty fierce. Powell may feel that if he goes away and leaves his camp unattended, then opposing camps may do more harm than the good he could do by traveling abroad. Some crazy initiative could pop up that he wasn't around to put back in the box," said Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

But pressure from the hawks has undermined Powell's strategy from the beginning. In an August video conference with Bush and the national security team, Powell mapped out his grand strategy to go to the United Nations, get a new resolution, press for a final round of inspections and then, if Iraq failed to surrender its suspected arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, use force. According to all accounts, Powell prevailed despite extensive questioning.
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If we lose Powell, who knows how many countries Bush and company will try to bring down. Some how the use of atomic bombs against other countries in a pre-emptive strikes does not seem like a big stretch for Donald Rumsfeld.
The penguins probably swam on instinct. They gave in to their instincts. If I followed mine, I would be in Canada. Do bacteria toxins live in the cold?

I am getting really worried about our President. He is starting to remind me of a certain Air Force General in the movie Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
In the movie, Strategic Air Command General, Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is in charge of a squadron of airborne B-52's with atomic bombs. He is obsessively paranoid, he is crazed, and a right-wing commander. He is delirious, believing that communists have poisoned our body fluids with flouride. Ripper orders Plan R, an emergency war plan in which Ripper orders a nuclear attack on Russia, a godless country. Ripper puts the air base on Condition Red. He concludes with words of encouragement and enforced loyalty before he kills himself. The general establish the recall code for the B-52 bombers to start with POE which stood for Peace On Earth.
Did Bush take a page out of this movie or what! Watch your body fluids, and let your teeth rot, if you are a true American. Remember "Peace on Earth", it maybe an important recall code.

I was out to lunch this last week. But I am back now. I guess we are on "Yellow" alert now until we drop the 1st bombs on Iraq. This must be our time to bask in the brief freedom that 'Yellow Alert" gives us. So lets take the time to pay only $2.00 a gallon for gas. Watch the stock market and our IRA's hit new lows, Say goodbye to our friends and family members in the reserves, stock up on Malox for the Bush speechs. Protest the upcoming war without being called a traitor. Comfort our friends and relatives as they loose their jobs. Ask our grandparents about those old folk remedies and depression era recipies. And finally, ready our horses, shine up our armor, and sharpen our lances for the upcoming Crusades against the godless hordes in the Mideast, Have faith in Bush, he will teach them about God and Democracy no matter how many of our youth dies or how many of them we have to kill!