archived: 22 - 28 May, 2005 Back Next
LEUTISHA STILLS
“The Cowardly
Administration”
Some days, I really can't keep up with political events. Having said that, and after reading a godly number of blogs that point out:
Butt-Kicking 101, or "How to Get the Snot Beat out of You" by MP George Galloway;
Newsweek's version of "Thank You, Sir, May I have another?" (Kevin Bacon's character in "Animal House")
Laura Bush being sent to the Middle East to teach a class on "How to Smooth Over Feathers Ruffled by Your Husband", followed by:
The "Saddam Skivvies Skin Pics"
I have to weigh in on the obvious. For example: I didn't want to be the person who pointed out the obvious: Bush sending his wife to the Middle East to clean up the mess he created. Is it me, or, since Bush is a "man's man", wasn't there just a hint of cowardice in sending his wife to an area of the world where she was placed at considerable risk, by sending her over to the Middle East to make "feel good, and America isn't that bad" speeches? Did he not know of the risk? Or didn't he care?
Has any other President sent his wife to do the job for which he was elected? Would Ike have sent Mamie to the Middle East to smooth things over?
Newsweek told the truth, when Mike Isikoff wrote that story about the prison abuse. They should not have backed down, but since they are literally begging for the opportunity to assume a kneeling position in front of Karl Rove, in their mea culpa, well, that also means that every friggin thing that goes wrong for the Administration in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world, Newsweek will be held accountable and responsible. Not Donald Rumsfeld, not Dick Cheney, not Paul Wolfowitz, not Doug Feith - no one in this Administration.
Brave people take responsibility and allow themselves to be held accountable. This is something we have yet to see from this Administration - the following words: "We made a mistake", or "We were wrong".
It should not have taken a British member of Parliament to hand Sen. Norm Coleman his behind on a silver platter and call the entire government liars. Everytime I see Norm Coleman, I'm always thinking, "If Paul Wellstone hadn't been killed in that plane crash, you wouldn't have that Senate seat."
If nothing else, George Galloway demonstrated the very act of bravery, by facing his accusers head on, never breaking eye contact, never wavering, not being bowed down, and not being broken.
You wonder if any Democrats not named Conyers, Boxer, Kennedy, Feingold, Byrd, Slaughter, McKinney, or Barbara Lee, learned anything from a British MP?
And just when the Newsweek debacle is showing signs of dying down, along comes the version of "Saddam's Famous Photo Album" purely designed with the intention of further humiliating someone who really can't be humiliated anymore. I mean, who's facinated by seeing a nearly 70 year old man in his underwear? Who had the gall, the unmitigated gumption (as my grandmother would say) to take these pictures?
Some poor sod enlisted in the Army, thinking he or she was going off to "Be all they Can Be" and getting short shrift when they were told that the $20,000 pay off for college wasn't going to be there, and they had to pull another six months in Iraq, before they could even be considered being sent stateside. No body armor for protection, food rations that San Quentin inmates would probably riot over, if it were served to them, and getting paid $1300 a month (and I think that's the pay for a Private First Class) to place his life on the line in the name of being a Patriot for his country. The buck private knows he could get a cool $25Gs for leaking those pictures to the press; just had to be the foreign press. Unless it was going to be beneficial to the Administration (as in "Big, Bad Cowboy Leader In Charge" enhancement), no MSM would touch them.
Or is this another Karl Rove tactic for drawing the spotlight from where it should go and directing where it doesn't need to be?
The reality is this Administration is really good at taking credit where they shouldn't, and schlepping off responsibility on to others where they should take it themselves. This is the coward's way out of things - to either hide behind your wife's skirts, or blame the MSM for the poor image of the United States and the Federal Government, instead of owning up to your participation in the mess you created.
First, we have "President Hypocrite". Now, we have "The Cowardly Administration".
And a trip down the yellow brick road to the Land of Oz is probably too late to give this Administration the "bravery" it purports to have. Real bravery comes from within - but if your inwardness is hollow as a pumpkin on Halloween, then cowardice is your only option.
ERIC
COX
“The Secret US Defense Budget”
There is little chance you will learn the immense size of our defense budget.
Much of the media like to sugar coat it, reporting that it is a smaller
percentage of the GNP that in past years.
Jane's Defense Industry presents a different picture. As Paul Krugman wrote in the NYT, Jane's reported that next year, our nation will spend as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. The think tank founded by retired admirals, namely the Center for Defense Information, in its current newsletter, includes all relevant items in that budget, reporting that for FY ‘06 it will come to $667.2 billion. That staggering figure does not, however, include interest on the national debt caused by borrowing for the arms build up by President Reagan. Probably 30 percent or more was triggered by defense costs to be paid for by our children.
It is a dangerous world and as a
result we need a lean, mean, defense budget as contrasted to the fat, pork-fed
one of today. For many years a Republican senator repeated his mantra that we
get only 30 cents on the dollar in defense because of waste, fraud and
mismanagement. That senator is Charles Grassley, now chair of the Senate Budget
Committee. My view is that we should have a threefold program to advance a safer
nation. We should shore up regional and global institutions so that they can do
a better job of protecting all nations. Especially should we endow the United
Nations with the structures, funding and authority to promote a safe world
rather than trying to wreck it. Stated differently, we should have global burden
sharing rather than having our nation do the heavy lifting at the expense of the
blood or our youth and the drain on our taxpayers. Also, we need good
intelligence. I think the only way we can get it is to end all groups that are
part of the CIA structure and start again from scratch. When the CIA was
established way back, the then Secretary State, one Dean Atcheson warned that it
might run amok, as it has.
At the monthly discussion group of the Nation Magazine readers here in the
City of Confusion, namely Washington, DC, we all agreed that the staggering sums
for defense cannot be comprehended by most. To remedy this, we all agree to
write to Move On, requesting that it sell tee shirts with columns contrasting
the great size of the defense budget with the much smaller sums for pressing
domestic needs, such as education and helping chidden at risk.
_____________________________________________
BERNIE HARGADON
“Chutzpa”
Junkie: This letter to the editor to the Charlotte News & Observer is being circulated around the internet. The author, from North Carolina, is a former CEO of a pharmaceutical company who has perceptively identified the core of Bush’s hypocrisy.
_____
To The Editor:
We learn today that Newsweek has been told by the White House to snap to it and repair the damage it (Newsweek) has done to tarnish America's image abroad. I say this calls once again for all of us to stand at attention and give a hearty salute to the concept of chutzpa--this just might be its finest hour!
Last Update: 03/23/2006