Democrat Election Over Kill

With all the hype over the election it makes one wonder who the real person is that is actually the candidate for President of the United States of America. I can picture John McCain red faced with anger in a doubting mode just before bed forgetting where he put his glasses only to have his lovely wife point out that they are on the tip of his nose. Hillary, upon getting ready for bed would kick all of the campaign staff off the Clinton couches and out of the kitchen so she could get the 3:00 AM call from Bill at yet another undisclosed location. Barack would be rolling into bed as the stars were perfectly aligned, the sound of choirs from heaven above singing and just as he kissed Michelle good night she punches him solidly in the arm demanding that he shut the damn motivational tapes off and go to bed like a normal person.

All of the candidates claim to be what is best for America and yet each has their own faults. While John McCain takes a walk as the duly elected next candidate from the Republican Party he is not the next President. He might as well be if the two candidates on the Democrat side keep up the daily slams of one another. He said, she said, is bull and the only one that wins in that kind of debate between Obama and Clinton is McCain.

I have been in constant contact with some very interesting friends and bloggers that write about politics all the time and this election is unique in a generation or more time span. Not since the primaries of Bobby Kennedy have the Democrats been so active with such a passion for politics that we are all in fact wearing our heart and soul candidate for President on our sleeves. Our choice of candidate no matter who it is can be and is the only hope for change in America. We are a political party so desperate for change that the actual process of selecting the one candidate to represent our political party could be our undoing. While we tear the candidates down in comments on blogs we in fact tear one another down in the process. Who benefits from that other than the one true candidate from the right, Senator John McCain.

If you do not know what Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama stand for then you have not listened. If you know one then you know the other and the end result is a Presidency based on change. Neither is George Bush and that is honestly clear. If you love W then by all means vote for more of the same in John McCain. If you want a new America not owned by special interest where the future is just a little bit brighter than a ten thousand year war in the Middle East then vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Pick a damn issue and they are close enough on those issues to be brother and sister arguing over who did the dishes the last time. As a voter you should not care who did the dishes last but care if you have a clean plate to start your meal off with.

If there is one more debate, Obama and Clinton should not bash one another over the issues but concentrate on what McCain will not do for the people. Other than his commitment to continue to send our sons and daughters off to fight in a land that would not recognize freedom even if it was stuffed down their throats. Isn’t that what Hillary and Barack are both running against anyway?

The people are voting in such large numbers because they do not want George Bush policies anymore. Concentrate on that and you win the election.

Papamoka

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Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones and Bring IT ON!

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W W W?

President George W. Bush has done it once more. He’s taken the Constitution and pretty much shredded it this time. He wiped his backside with it over wire tapping, tromped on it over the Patriot Act and pretty much stuffed it in the trash with his personal war in Iraq. For a man that took an oath to uphold the Constitution before the people on his inauguration as President he sure finds it to be a pesky little thing to deal with. Apparently, none of the photographs showed his other hand that was not on the bible had his fingers crossed. This is not my President, not your President, this man thinks and acts like a damn King!

As a lame duck President he is enacting laws that no matter who is elected the next President will have a difficult situation to change. W is back room dealing to guarantee our military presence in Iraq permanently and without Congressional approval.

Over at the Washington Post they have this opinion piece on it…

An Agreement Without Agreement

By Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway
Friday, February 15, 2008; 4:30 PM

The Bush administration is so intent on securing its legacy in Iraq that it is once again ignoring the Constitution. Without seeking the consent of Congress, it is well on its way toward a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that threatens to deepen the American commitment without the congressional support the Constitution requires.

President Bush's plan to cut out Congress has provoked a growing chorus of criticism, joined by both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In response, the administration has begun to back-track from its vision of a sweeping military and economic agreement. Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the agreement would not contain a security guarantee committing the country to fixed troop levels or permanent bases. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, speaking before the Senate Armed Services last week, stated that the agreement will be "like other Status of Forces Agreements," which deal with the rights and obligations of the military when operating on foreign soil.

Such agreements, the White House is quick to point out, are not usually subject to congressional approval. That is true. But this truth will not suffice, since the administration is still aiming for an agreement that moves far beyond the traditional scope of these limited military accords. We should not allow false advertising to serve as a cover for a constitutional fait accompli.

Snip the Constitution

Worse yet, the administration is keeping most of its plans secret. (Much of what we have learned comes from leaks reported in the press.) Congress has held two hearings -- on Jan. 23 and Feb. 8 -- on the legitimate scope of the Iraqi agreement, and the administration has twice refused to testify. While Gates and Rice have made a few reassuring remarks, they have fallen far short of full disclosure.

This is unacceptable. Sen. Joseph Biden, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is a strong critic of the administration's unilateral approach. But if the stone-walling continues, he should make it his committee's business to sponsor a congressional resolution declaring invalid any military agreement that seeks to go beyond the traditional limits of the standard Status of Forces Agreement. No president has the unilateral power to impose broad international obligations on the nation without congressional support. But it is especially wrong for a lame-duck president to make such commitments about a controversial policy that is at the very center of the debate among the candidates vying to succeed him. - Washington Post

What is next for W? Is he going to annex Canada because he really likes their bacon? Then he moves on to Mexico because he just happens to like taco night at the White House and we all know them brownies make the best tacos. I didn‘t coin that phrase, the Bush family did… (No offense to Mexican American’s intended… I’m on a rant). W will probably next rename Iraq Haliburtonville in one of his notorious “Screw the Constitution Signing Statements” and his buddy Dick Cheney will have a shorter commute to work from the headquarters in Dubai when they leave office in 2009.

One thing that every President of America had in common prior to Bush was faithfully taking the pledge to defend the Constitution. In doing so George Washington built the Presidency from the ground up not as a King but an office based on the greater good. Thomas Jefferson propelled our nation out of a religious based government into a man made government. To which some today think and believe is wrong but isn’t that what Iran and every Middle East government is. How’s that looking lately? Abraham Lincoln divided but united our nation in the midst of a states rights issue that cost hundreds of thousands of lives but his integrity and place in history is sound because he believed in the greater good for all. Read any news report and you can clearly see that President Bush has no intention of legally upholding the office he was elected too. Full speed ahead for Bush and damn the consequences as he lets the chips fall where they will. There is no historical value to any action he has performed as President that is for the greater good. In all of his actions he has turned the people on themselves and not for the same reasons as Lincoln. He is a rogue President and if the Congress will not reel him in then they are a body without power and Bush has succeeded in his mission.

This is the reason why Republican’s will not see the White House in the next election. Our so called defender of our Constitution thinks it is just a piece of paper and it is not. In the same respects that our flag is just a piece of cloth, burn it, shred it, stamp your dirty boots on it will never kill or mame the meaning behind it. He hijacked our nation and his own political party to serve his own personal, political and financial gains. AKA Dick Cheney and his net worth going through the roof on a VP’s public servant salary. President Bush does not like our form of government and he has proven it over and over again and still he is not called to task for it. Both political parties should be screaming at the top of their lungs over this sidestep of the Congress ensuring our military presence in Iraq for any time the secret documents will make law. If our President is never to be held accountable then he does in fact have a monarchy. Should that fact alone inspire you to contact your representative in government with your anger?

Our Constitution is our government. That is the foundation of America no matter how we look at it from any perspective. No matter who you are as an American it still starts out with “We the People…”

W, W, W, what are we going to do with you? In less than a year there will be no problem with the door hitting him in the back side as the ghosts of Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington will be the ones slamming those doors on the White House as he exits. Thanks for visiting W. Somebody else will clean up the mess you left behind.

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring IT ON!

Other folks talking about this issue:

Loveable Liberal

Firedoglake

Rock the Truth

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A SUGAR-COATED LEGACY

Contributed by Michael Linn Jones

George S. Patton was a brilliant tactician. He served his nation well despite his tendency at times to put his foot in his mouth. His nickname was "'ole blood and guts." Some of the soldiers who served under him groused that yes, it was his guts, but their blood. In other words, Patton's roaring rhetoric was paid for by someone else's physical sacrifice. It must be said, though, that General Patton was no coward; he was a brave man, a throwback to 19th century thinking that even generals should be prepared to stand the front lines if need be.

I mention this because it has come to the forefront of my mind that enough is enough. The much-vaunted "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has become nothing more than a huge millstone around the neck of the United States of America. It has become a disease eating at the vitals, and the vitality of our nation.

Say what you want about anyone in the Bush administration involved in starting the debacle on its downhill lurch towards disaster. Take your list of names....Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Pearl, Rice, and so on. The fact is, no buck stops with them. It stops, one way or the other, in the Oval Office. And the man currently employed there by the American people is the ONLY one who matters. It is HIS judgment that we live with.

The point has been reached where the grasping of straws is commonplace; the tried and true method of blowing smoke up the ass of the populace. But....but, as Lincoln said, not with all the people all of the time. When I hear these complaints that the media is not telling the "full story" on Iraq, that the wonderful works being done with schools and hospitals is going unheeded in the press.....I no longer cringe. I get angry.

For, it is put across like some dubious business deal. Look at all this great stuff that's been done in Iraq. They have water, electricity, facilities, their zoo is making a comeback. And ALL it is going to cost you to 3,500 (so far) totally forgettable people and a mere trillion dollars or so. So give us your son or daughter, and even if they return home in a coffin, well, you get a free flag. And, the eternal thanks of a nation.....along with a passing glance by the man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Maybe a tear or two if the cameras are rolling.

I woke up thinking about the scene from the film "Full Metal Jacket." Sgt. Hartman discovers a contraband jelly doughnut in the footlocker of Private Leonard Lawrence, branded by Hartman as "Gomer Pyle." Hartman has the entire platoon do push-ups while Private "Pyle" stands on his footlocker and eats the jelly doughnut. He tells "Pyle" to enjoy it, because the other marines are paying for it.

And so goes our nation. We have a rich boy who will never really grow up sitting in the White House. His flawed decision making is evident in business and politics. After 9/11 he really broke bad and proved to his daddy that he, not his father, has the bigger pee-pee. What is life, after all, if one is asked to face the consequences of their own decisions? Such burdens are for the little people.

So, enjoy your sugar-coated jelly doughnut, Mr. President. In 2009 you can do the 1,000-mile mosey back to Crawford and rest your laurels. Enjoy it all, because everyone else is going to be paying for your sweet tooth for a very, very long time.

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Fallen Soldiers Bodies as Airline Baggage

Fighting for your country at the request of your President and Commander in Chief is an honor for all of our armed services members. Wearing the uniform of the United States of America and its military means serving our nation in battles in lands far away from home and is what they volunteered for. As a soldier or sailor you wear that uniform with dignity and ultimate respect knowing that you and that uniform are representing the American people, your family back home, your neighbors, and your state.

Some of these patriots of America don’t survive the battles or circumstances that our citizen run government places them in. They followed the orders given to them and in giving the ultimate sacrifice, being killed in action; our nation should treat their bodies coming home to their families left behind with ultimate respect and honor. That respect was not the case prior to January of this year according to the Houston Chronicle.


April 6, 2007, 3:56PM
Grieving dad changes how military brings bodies home
By BILL POOVEY
Associated Press - Houston Chronicle

In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.

That change — which took effect quietly in January and applies to members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan, too — came after a campaign waged by a father who was aghast to learn that his son's body was going to be unloaded like so much luggage.

John Holley said an airline executive told him that was the "most expeditious" way to get the body home.

"I said, 'That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,'" said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. "If it was 'expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"

SNIP

Some were met by smartly uniformed military honor guards. But in other cases, the flag-draped caskets were unceremoniously taken off the plane by ordinary ground crew members and handed over to the family at a warehouse in a cargo area.

Now, the military is flying the dead into smaller regional airports closer to their hometowns, so that they can be met by their families and, in some cases, receive community tributes. And the caskets are being borne from the plane by an honor guard.

Last year, the U.S. military spent about $1.2 million to bring home the dead on commercial flights. Switching to charter flights will cost far more: The six-month Kalitta contract is worth up to $11 million.

"It's so much more dignified, so much more a respectable way of getting them home," said Tom Bellisario, a Kalitta pilot who has flown more than 30 of the missions.

"It's definitely an honor for all of us," Bellisario said. "You figure the last time they saw that person they were alive. As soon as we pull the flag-draped casket into the doorway you hear the crying. You can sense it in the air."

John Holley said he believed his 21-year-old son deserved a more dignified return than the Pentagon was planning, and complained to his congressman, then-House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. He also got help from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

They made sure an honor guard from Holley's unit based at Fort Campbell, Ky., was sent to Lindbergh Field in San Diego for the arrival of the body. Holley said the ceremony was dignified and fitting. – Houston Chronicle

Simple actions like this by one father prove to me that one voice in a land full of bickering self righteous know it alls, I include myself, make a difference in the treatment of our fallen soldiers. I would like to extend a personal thank you to Mr. John Holley for having the courage of his convictions to make sure that not only his sons remains were dealt with respectfully but that those to follow would be treated accordingly.

Now we know why the Bush administration did not want photographs of our fallen soldiers coming home in the press. Those pictures of coffins off loaded by fork trucks at JFK, LAX, or Logan would have had him run out of office on the hypocrite express. Support the troops but to hell with the fallen soldiers? Rings a bell with Walter Reid and the survivors of this war but that is another GTL post from another day.

Knowing that billions of dollars fighting this current administrations war on terror is going into many of the special interest pockets of the friends of Bush and Cheney, I personally have no problem spending the money to respect our fallen military war dead. It is the least we can do for them and their families.

This issue is not of the right side of the aisle or the left. It is simply about doing the right thing for the men and woman that served their country and having paid the ultimate price for doing so and that has no place in political opinion. Let us do what is right and not have to look over our shoulders in shame for past actions.

Papamoka

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