Tonight I’m hoping to write the shortest post of the (in my mind amazing number of) 120+ previous posts. As I’ve mentioned a few times, when I started to write, I expected a few – at the most. I didn’t expect anyone to find this place in the “web universe” and have been amazed that there’s usually about 20 of you reading this each night (listen to me, all personal and such, as if I have any clue as to who you are – maybe some day someone will register and make a comment! :o). Please, if you read this post and haven’t read the previous one, read it. I was really charged up as I wrote it, and I believe we (assuming you’re of the progressive – didn’t we use to call it liberal? – mindset that is apparently mine) somehow need to get through to President Obama before it’s too late. Tonight I had a horrible thought. I’ve always pictured the idea of Sarah Palin as President as ludicrous. However, if Obama turns off enough progressives – and it could happen, quickly I might add, despite his seemingly high poll numbers (remember, Bush was close to 90% after 9/11) the alternative is scary. Can’t you just imagine Sarah Palin representing us all trying to “fix” our economy, or dialoguing with world leaders at places like the G-20 Summit? I can tell you, the thought of that makes me feel like I’m going to ……. well, I’ll let you figure that out on your own.

Here’s what’s bothering me tonight. I’m a school teacher and have been for several years. I teach 6th grade in a small city’s version of an “inner city” school. Now, if you’ve never been in a small room with 25-30 11 year old kids, many of whom are running things at home and could care less about an education, you’ll just have to try to imagine what it’s like. I won’t go into a lot of details, but I think there’s one important point I’ve learned that would serve President Obama well as he’s trying to “deal” with Republicans. The NUMBER ONE MISTAKE that I’ve seen teachers make, over and over, during my years in the classroom, is trying to be “friends” with the students. IT IS A SURE RECIPE FOR DISASTER! When my students say things like “you’re mean” or “you give too much homework” or “that’s not fair” I think, “hmmmm, maybe I’m doing something right.” I’ve learned that when I make the hard choices, I’m clear and honest with them, and I “stick to my guns” with my decisionmaking – not worrying about whether they like my decisions or not – the end result is that I gain their respect. Gaining their respect is NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS in the classroom!

This is the best analogy that I can come up with for what I believe is wrong with what President Obama is doing in his “first 100 days.” He seems to be trying to please the Republicans. In the process he’s going to alienate his own base and he will lose any chance he had of gaining the respect of these Republicans. They really remind me of the sixth graders I deal with on a daily basis. CONSTANTLY PUSHING BOUNDARIES – TRYING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT WITHOUT REGARD TO ANYONE ELSE! President Obama, in my view, is making huge blunder after huge blunder (I wrote him about this, and, not surprising, have not received a response – I don’t think he wants to hear his “own” criticizing him). He has really brought this to a head in his decision to announce that torture is not against the law in America (even though he’s promised that we won’t do it anymore). What he’s failing to realize is that he’s only going to be President for 4 or 8 years (looking more like 4 to me every day) – and if he allows the Republicans to reserect themselves due to his weak kneed decisionmaking – these guys will be torturing again as soon as they are able. By not prosecuting the guilty parties, I REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND THE THINKING BEHIND THAT DECISION FROM A CONSTITUTIONAL LAW TEACHER, he’s allowing a precedent that will surely be repeated sometime in the future. The end result is that our CIA will have the stigma from the rest of the world that the KGB had from the old Soviet Union. In fact, our country stands in shame in front of the rest of the world because, by not prosecuting war crimes, we are condoning them – THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THIS.

So, I hope there are others who will try to talk some sense into our 44th President. I was very excited the night he was inaugurated, and I really was filled with hope. I was very thankful that the “reign of Bush” had come to an end (his term was the longest, most painful years of my life as an American citizen – because, despite the fact these memos were supposedly “secret” everyone in the world knew what had happened – there was actually no new information on them – just confirmation and individual identification of who did what) and I trusted Obama that he would make it “right.” Unfortunately, in my view, there is no way it can be “right” if the perpetrators of all the lawbreaking are allowed “off the hook” because we don’t want to “lay blame by looking back” on what happened. This is frustrating, absurd, and DOWNRIGHT DISAPPOINTING! Please help me (I’m writing letters to him) convince President Obama that the only way to gain the respect of these Republicans is to do what is right, whether they like it or not. President Obama, being friends with Republicans won’t gain you their respect!

Much to talk about. There’s a bunch of wierdo’s running around throwing tea bags at things because they evidently just figured out that in America we all have to pay taxes for the services we take for granted. There’s two wars (that’s the term I keep hearing in the news – to me they should be called occupations because I don’t think we have a clue as to the enemy in either place), the economy’s in the tank, and I could go on – but, in my mind, the big news is that the President that I helped to elect (OK, my couple hundred dollars over the course of the campaign didn’t really do much, I just like to think it did because I’ve never sent money before) doesn’t have the guts to face the Right Wing Republicans head on when it comes to all the MISERABLE DEEDS they did in the NAME OF ALL OF US during the administration of one George W Bush! This isn’t pragmatism, as far as I’m concerned, this is cowardice!

OK, some may argue that we actually should “Look forward instead of backward” and that it would not serve a purpose to lay blame for the misdeeds done IN OUR NAME while Bush was President. Well, I would tell you that it DOES serve a major purpose to “Look forward instead of backward” and that would UNFORTUNATELY be to almost guarantee we will be having this conversation again – PROBABLY SOONER RATHER THAN LATER! If not us, then our children or our grandchildren. This, in my view, is EXTREMELY shallow thinking on the part of Obama. You might think I’m being a bit extreme myself when I use the word “cowardice” in my description. However, I honestly can’t put my finger (or, I guess, more appropriately, my mind) on a better word. President Obama has been courting Republicans, who are acting like complete whackos since he took office, almost more than he’s courting his own “base,” that is the people responsible for getting him elected. And believe me, I’m one who wants him to succeed – MAJORLY! But this seeming bent to appease Republicans has been very annoying, and then today President Obama came out with some decisions – attributed directly to him – that as far as I’m concerned are disgusting.

If you’ve been reading any of my posts you know that I have been first predicting, and now deriding, President Obama’s continuance of the Bush illegal wiretapping program and, worse than that, his unwillingness to allow the legal system to rule on the program – continuing (and actually expanding on) Bush’s ridiculous claim of “States Secrets” as the reason the courts can’t decide whether or not the government is intruding into our privacy by wiretapping without warrants. This in itself is over the edge to me. If “We the People” can’t get this unacceptable decision overturned we are virtually guaranteeing our children and grandchildren of the reality of “Big Brother” listening to their conversations and reading their emails in the future. Should there ever come a time when they really need their privacy from the government they will have us to thank for standing by while this guarantee was wiped away from our constitution. Now, It’s getting worse – AND FAST!

Supposedly, we elected Barrack Obama for “Change we can believe in.” He has said, during the campaign, that he would “fix” the FISA legislation once in office – an apparent lie – he has said that “No one is above the law in this country” and yet he’s allowing the illegal wiretapping to continue and now, today, said that there will be no prosecution of those responsible for the reprehensible torturing that took place under George W Bush’s regime – so, apparently another lie. And, as you can see, I’m going to call it what it is. I’m sick and tired of making excuses for people in public office when what they are doing is lying. And this one is as egregious, if not more so, than the warrantless wiretapping lie. If you didn’t see or hear the news today, another four “memos” from the Bush White House were released (thanks to the ACLU – for all you ACLU haters out there) that comfirm the worse fears of all of us who have been disgusted with the idea that the United States government would not only condone torture, but would authorize it – and by “it” I mean torture in the worse sense of my imagination.

Tonight, as I was listening to the published details of the memos, I tried to picture myself being put into a box the size of a coffin and I started to get clostrophobic just thinking about it. Now, I know what it feels like to be clostrophobic because I’ve had a couple of MRI’s, and even though both ends of the machine were open, I was unable to breathe until they gave me a sedative before going in. To picture being in the coffin size box and then having them put insects in there – all I can say is WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? (keep in mind that EVERY expert on gaining information from detainees says that torture doesn’t work) There was much more on the list that was distributed, and thinking back to John Yoo’s reluctance to say that burying someone alive is torture (his caveat was that as long as you dig them up before they die, well, then he’s not sure that would be considered torture – UGHHHHHHH!) These people are SICKOS! And then, Barrack Obama does the unthinkable, after the release of the memos(I guess we can be thankful, at least, that he did that), and says that those who participated in this CLEARLY ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR would not be prosecuted because they were “Just following orders!”

Based on that enabling excuse ALL THE GERMANS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE GERMAN INTERNMENT CAMPS JUST BECAME INNOCENT! You’ve got to be kidding me Barrack Obama! Where did you get your law degree – from the same university as John Yoo? What are you thinking? Let me give you a bit more advice (OK, I know that Barrack Obama is not going to read this post – he didn’t read the 3500 word “letter” I wrote him expressing my disgust with his continuance of the warrantless wiretapping) – the people who committed these ILLEGAL ACTS were holdovers, to a large extent, from the people who perpetrated the last great infringement on the American people – THE WATERGATE BREAKINS OF THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION – and of course, Gerald Ford chose to “look forward instead of laying blame” as you put it – and then 30 years later people like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld resurface and “Here we go again.” Mr. President – do you really think that your generosity to these criminal thugs will be the last we hear of this kind of garbage? Let me tell you, if “We the People” can’t get through to you, and fast, and cause you to fix the error of your thinking – someone involved in this will resurface and we’ll see a repeat, and – like this compared to Watergate – it will probably be worse.

And the idea that this will be too divisive, to me, is pure cowardice. WE HAVE LAWS IN THIS NATION THAT HAVE SERVED US WELL FOR OVER 200 YEARS. The idea that you can selectively enforce them, as the head enforcer, and expect me as a sixth grade teacher to be effective in teaching 11 year old kids that they must follow the rules, IS LUDICROUS! What on earth are you thinking??? In fact, with all respect Mr. President, ARE YOU THINKING AT ALL? Or are you so afraid of the wrath of these Republicans that you think they will ultimately be thankful that you “let them off” and then, miraculously, start becoming rational patriots? GIVE ME A BREAK Mr. President! This is a VERY BAD SIGN! I actually thought that this nation was on the road to recovery. What I’m beginning to think is that you believe if we can just prop up Wall Street – people will be happy because the economic news is brighter and we can just go on believing we are the World’s only “Supre Power.” I can tell you that I’m disgusted with what I’m seeing – and the problem is there’s no place for people like me to go. There’s no way I will fall in line with the Right Wing Whackos who are going to be in your face no matter what (the sad reality is that when enough of your supporters get disgusted like me and decide not to vote at all, we will end up with more whacko Republicans in office and the cycle will repeat itself, ughhhhh! again!). It appears that the only recourse is back to that place of apathy, thinking that it doesn’t matter who gets elected in this country, you can’t trust them to “DO WHAT’S RIGHT!” And, in the case of our leaders condoning these horrific forms of torture, EVERYONE IN THE WORLD KNOWS THIS WAS NOT RIGHT! Here’s the hypocritical truth about this – we (the United States of America) had Japanese soldiers “who were just following orders” prosecuted after World War II for doing what you are looking the other way from! THIS IS DISGUSTING BEYOND MY BELIEF!

Here’s what really bugs me (well, actually, it all really bugs me) – thinking about “supporting our troops.” Lindy England and about 6 or seven other “grunts” who were “just following orders” at Abu Ghraib are sitting in some military prison somewhere as the only indication that “the United States does not torture” – as you say Mr. Obama. Now, how disgusting is that? Lindy England, if I remember correctly was a private first class, and possibly a member of some Army reserve unit that was woefully undertrained for the mission she, and her compatriots, were given. THIS MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH JUST THINKING ABOUT IT! And Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George Bush are all going to spend the rest of their lives enjoying the wealth they gained from putting private England and the others in that spot – and believe me, they have not the slightest bit of remorse for this! THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS and they should be standing in a court of law defending themselves for their actions. If a jury says they are innocent, then that is the end of the problem – THAT IS HOW WE DO IT IN THIS COUNTRY! If you, President Obama, allow these thugs to bypass that process you are doing every decent law abiding American citizen a disservice. You are saying loud and clear exactly what President Nixon got wrong prior to his impeachment that “If the President does it, it must be legal.” Let me tell you this President Obama, just because someone is elected President, that doesn’t mean they are not a criminal! My disgust is turning to anger as I’m writing this post, so I will draw it to a close – please if you read this and you agree with what I’m saying, email it to others in the hope that more people will express their disgust with our President openly refusing to enforce our laws – this should be a BIPARTISAN concern!

OK, my last post was a bit on the LENGTHY side, but the truth is that I’m still grieving that our nation is mired in Iraq and I believe that this false sense of “relief” that appears to be the national mindset, based on the lack of media coverage, is a disservice to our troops and is “lulling” us into a place that is going to allow this travesty to continue for years to come. Today, the Iraq war surpassed the Viet Nam War as the second most costly “War” in our nation’s history, behind only World War II (Remember, the “War to end all Wars”). And President Obama has recently requested almost another $100 Billion to continue this misadventure. I probably won’t be around twenty years from now when the US will, evidently, finally claim “victory” in Iraq – after the present day Iraqi’s are either all dead or have somehow forgotten Abu Ghraib – and have somehow managed to figure out how to live and work together. We will then be able to truly claim that the “Surge” worked! Ughhh!!

However, that is not what’s on my mind tonight – and I really am going to attempt to keep this rather short. This morning I read a very interesting column in the NY Times by Bob Herbert about the recent flurry of violent deaths in the US via “gun violence.” The total, actually, is staggering – including more than one instance where Police Officers have been murdered in the course of their duties. Herbert pointed out that since the attacks of 9/11 there have been in the neighborhood of 120,000 deaths (murders) in this country from the use of firearms. This is approximately 25 times the total of deaths suffered by our military in the so-called “War on Terror” – fighting (or being targets) in Iraq and Afganistan. He also pointed out that the assault rifle ban has expired and Congress has evidently failed to act to renew it.

Of course, the NRA (National Rifle Association for anyone who’s had their head in the sand for the past 20 years) is totally against this ban and virtually every Republican and several of the Democrats in Congress are evidently running scared from the NRA. These guys have frightened a large segment of our population into thinking that President Obama is going to take their guns away from them (I have a wonderful neighbor – I could write an entire post on the ideal “good neighbor” about this guy – and it grieves me when I talk to him because he watches Fox “News” and they have convinced him that he’s going to lose his guns) to the point that there is a “run” on weapons in this country which I can only assume means lots of people are stockpiling them – or these secret militias are more of a problem than those of us who live without guns realize. Let me get to my point.

For some reason the NRA has succeeded in making millions of Americans believe that if the government regulates who can own weapons and what kind of weapons they can own it’s a violation of our 2nd amendment rights to “bear arms.” Now, I’m not a constitutional lawyer (or expert) – even though I did study the constitution 40+ years ago in my first attempt at college, I don’t believe the “right to bear” arms means that the ownership of deadly firearms can’t be regulated and limited regarding the type of weapons we can own. It just doesn’t make sense to me that a hunter, for example, needs an AK 47 to bag their elk or deer. An assault weapons ban makes total sense if we want to continue to have some sort of orderly peaceful society. The question I have with some of the “right wingers” who are backing the NRA is “do they want to have an orderly, peaceful society? After listening to Chuck Norris essentially “predict” that there is going to be some sort of armed insurrection (I’m not sure why – evidently they don’t like the idea of the government “reeling in” some of these out of control multinational corporations who are destroying our economy – or maybe they don’t like the thought of propping up the working people of this nation – or maybe (this is what I really think) they just don’t like the idea of a black President occupying the “White House.”

What is really curious to me. They seem so worried about the second amendment to the constitution – like they’re really worried about the document – but the news that President Obama is continuing the warrantless wiretapping policies of the Bush administration doesn’t even get so much as a whimper from these whackos. I’m kind of glad about that because I’d feel really awkward walking arm in arm with these guys protesting a REAL assault on our constitution. They are worried about rights that don’t exist. THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT GUARANTEE ASSAULT WEAPONS FOR EVERY FAMILY! And while the constitution is a “living” document that has to evolve over time the protection against unreasonable searches – which would clearly include the government listening to phone conversations or intercepting email messages or monitering credit card transactions without a warrant (which requires probable cause) – IS CLEARLY PROHIBITED! Where are these guys when there’s a real intrusion on our rights?

Now, if we allow President Obama to continue this outrage then, down the road, the gun whackos might actually have something to worry about. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a lot of room where the government could regulate the use and sale of deadly weapons without violating our “right to bear arms” as it is put forth in the constitution. However, if we start allowing that document to be undermined in one place – in my view it’s only a matter of time until someone attempts to do the same in another place. And, in the case of the wiretapping, if we say it’s OK because the President says so – due to some unfortunate event that makes him feel like he has to take extreme measures to “keep us safe” – then we are on a road that will eventually lead to the demise of our country as we now know it.

There is not doubt in my mind that we don’t need to sacrifice any of our freedoms to protect this nation from any possible attack that might happen in the future. Of course, President Bush – by allowing Osama bin Laden to walk away unchallenged after 9/11 – sent the absolute wrong message to any potential adversaries around the world. I understand that on the surface President Obama is trying to “right” that wrong by “going after bin Laden” – after the fact – but I believe he is just getting drawn into the trap that was set originally for President Bush. Bin Laden should have been taken out as soon as possible – originally Bush said the right things – any country that “harbors” him will be subject to whatever “collateral damage” occurs as we pursue him in order to bring him to justice. The fact that it’s almost 8 years hence makes that much more complicated – but bin Laden is being “harbored” by Pakistan, not Afganistan. I will have more to say on this later – but getting back to my main point – this failed attempt to bring bin Laden to justice has only brought destruction to our constitution while he has totally reconstituted his forces.

And, in the mean time, the killing continues in the Untited States at an alarming rate. When I stop and think about this (like I did after reading Herbert’s column) I just come to the conclusion that this country is so messed up it might be “past the point of no return.” And these whackos who want more guns (and tomorrow will evidently be dumping tea into rivers and lakes around the country because they don’t want rich people to pay an additional 3% in taxes) are going to do everything they can to insure that President Obama fails. I have come to the conclusion that we are truly in a war. However the war is not in Iraq (that’s an illegal occupation) the war is an internal one in this nation. The war is between a progressive majority of Americans who want to revitalize the middle class, who want to revitalize our environment, and who want this to be a nation that actually lives up to its lofty ideals. These “progressives” want this nation to reclaim the moral authority it had in the world prior to George W Bush squandering it after 9/11. They are being battled and will be battled every step of the way by the very vocal minority of Americans who listen to people like Rush Limbaugh on the radio and who watch Fox “News” on TV – for their information. It appears to me that Republicans won’t be happy until our government is completely destroyed!

Tonight I want to begin my discussion of the Iraq “occupation” as of the sixth year of occupation and post-surge. Despite the fact it has been withdrawn from the headlines, in my view it is still the behemoth of a problem which it has been since the day it was begun. Before I get started, please check out my previous two posts regarding the Obama administration’s continuance of the illegal warrantless wiretapping of the previous President, and if you’re as outraged as me over this, please send the address to my site to others who might join in the “battle” to get this outrageous government intrusion into our lives STOPPED! Back to tonight’s topic: Post-surge Iraq. I will start by recommending Thomas Ricks’ book “The Gamble” which came out a month or two ago. This book gives the inside story of the “surge” and how it was initiated and the book ends with a discussion that you could title: so what.

There are many reasons why people are referring to the surge as being a success – especially Republicans, and more specifically members of the Bush administration who are doing everything in their power to influence the writers of history to give them a little slack after the pounding they’ve been taking since it became common knowledge that the Iraq invasion was an exercize in incompetence. There are two books that I’ve read detailing the “surge.” The first was called “The War Within” by Bob Woodward and it detailed the process Bush and company went through in devising the surge. The second book, “The Gamble” gives the perspective of the military leaders involved in implementing the “new” strategy. After reading both books and making inferences from the other available information on the occupation I believe that most of the claims of success regarding the surge are disengenuous at best and dishonest (surprise, surprise!) at worst.

First of all, my take is that the idea of the surge came about out of pure desperation after some military people – especially a retired Army General named Jack Keane – finally convinced George Bush that we were “losing” and we were going to “lose” if we didn’t change our strategy. The first thing that had to happen was for Donald Rumsfeld to be fired as the Secretary of Defense. The more I read about the Iraq invasion and occupation, the more I feel that Rumsfeld should get some kind of accountability for all the death and suffering he is directly responsible for. I believe that Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were largely responsible for much of the thinking that proved to be absurd – and the fact that they both profited handsomely from this adventure – well, in my view, it will be a travesty of justice if they are not investigated for this – and held legally accountable where appropriate. Both of these men – it seems obvious to me – were right at the head of the class when it comes to who was authorizing the torture that so has destroyed the image of America around the world and so recklessly ruined the lives of many innocent Muslims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of these men were clearly willing to sacrifice the principals that this nation was founded on for their own political whims – not to mention that both gained over $100 million dollars according to a book I read because of the increase in their stock holdings from companies they previously headed and gave lucrative no-bid contracts to during this fiasco.

I believe George Bush realized after the repudiation by the voters in 2006 how poorly he had been served by Vice President Cheney and therefore by Rumsfeld who was essentially put in place by Cheney as the Sec. of Defense. Probably the best decision Bush made, in my opinion, during his Presidency was choosing Robert Gates to replace Rumsfeld. About the time this was happening Keane and a small group of Army officers were lobbying for a complete change in “strategy” in Iraq and the result – much to the dismay of millions of Americans – was the surge. At the time it seemed like such an arrogant move by Bush – to increase the level of troops in the face of an election which clearly was determined by the American people wanting the troops to come home. In addition to the increase in troops General David Patraeus was put in charge of the overal military operation in Iraq. He had just completed a study on counterinsurgency which led to a totally different approach to how our troops would operate in the “field.”

Now, I’m going to explain why I believe the surge didn’t work. But, I have to point out right from the start of my explanation that I also believe if the United States had taken this approach from the beginning, there is a much better chance that they could have been successful. Of course, one of the things that I haven’t even heard discussed at all is what success would mean. For the first four years of the occupation the Bush administration threw the word “Victory” around as if that was enough for the American people to grasp. Even though they, themselves, couldn’t explain what “Victory” was. The implication, if you listened to the pro-neocon pundits, was that victory would be a stable, democratic Iraq which was independent of its neighbors (and the inference I got – giving us their oil! – of course that was never publicly admitted). The reality of the situation is that even the Iraqi’s say (several references to this in Ricks’ book) that democracy in Iraq is virtually impossible and our toppling of Saddam Hussein has enabled Iran to become a major “player” in the region – ultimately, Iran and Iraq are going to be “joined at the hip” and whether or not that leads to stability in the region remains to be seen (for those who think it’s a mistake for President Obama to be negotiating with Iran I believe they should take a realistic look at the impending Iran/Iraq alliance and how important that will be to our own interests in the region). During the surge the Generals redefined “success” as reducing the level of violence and providing real security for the Iraqi citizens who were living in a virtual Hell.

You can’t read Rick’s book (at least this is my take) without having high regard for the people in our military. While the debate rages on at home, these people have been doing a fantastic job, especially post-Rumsfeld. Personally, I blame the problems of the first four years almost entirely on the Bush administration and their incredible incompetence in directing the effort. And, I don’t think they suddenly became “competent” after Patraeus took over, I believe General Patraeus and General Odierno (the two “main men”) started to make decisions first and report to the Pentagon and the White House later. Also, I believe that Gates brought an entirely different attitude to the Department of Defense – I believe he will go down in history as a great Defense Secretary. The problem for all of these men is that George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Don Rumsfeld, and others put them in a NO WIN situation. What they accomplished during the surge was to reduce the level of violence and change the attitude of the Iraqi people toward our troops. The Abu Ghraib scandal and much of what happened in the first four years of the invasion and occupation will probably never be overcome – but I was inspired as I read what they accomplished during the two years of this troop increase. And, I have to add that as one who has given money to Move-on.org – I really wish they would print an add apologizing for their “General Betray-us” add put out right before Patraeus testified before Congress in September of 2006. Patraeus kind of asked for that when he agreed to take the political lead on this, but the guy is so dedicated and honorable that I believe he deserves a public apology.

That being said, in my view, the “surge” has only put off the inevitable. Remember, the stated objective of the surge was to give a “breather” (my word) to the violence allowing the Iraqi government to negotiate with the insurgents in an attempt to solve the lingering political problems which still exist today (and might actually be worse because of the actions taken during the surge). Also, the Bush administration was still attempting to get the Iraqi’s to give us first “dibs” on their oil – remember, the architects of the original invasion were all “oil men” – and as far as I’m concerned it takes a person who is just willing to ignore the obvious to fail to understand the “real” motivation of Bush/Cheney et al. The success of the surge has been quantified by the reduction of American and Iraqi casualties. This is true, but remember, had the surge not been implemented, and had Congress withdrawn funds for the occupation (as I believe they should have) we would not have lost the 1000+ troops who have died since then and the 20,000+ who have been injured (and, of course, that figure doesn’t include all the PTSD cases and other traumatic mental disorders that may never be fully known). Additionally, this country would have saved almost half a trillion dollars which would be very handy right now (although they might just give that money to the Wall Street bankers ughhh). Based on the media coverage of the occupation you would think that it is over and we did “win.”

If you believe that, I hate to be the one to spoil your celebration (although, I am thankful that I haven’t seen any celebrating yet). Let me point out the falacy in thinking that we have achieved “victory” in Iraq. First of all, there has been no “coming together” of the different factions which threatens to tear Iraq apart at the seems. The Sunni’s and the Shia’s still hate each other, don’t trust each other, and want revenge against each other. The only thing that has changed there is that Patraeus and Odierno put our troops in between the two factions – actually moved them into the neighborhoods with the idea that we should be protecting the population (obviously what we should have been doing from day one). Prior to Patraeus stepping in as “number one” the Americans were stationed on their bases and they would clear insurgents out of neighbor hoods and then return to their bases – thus, allowing the insurgents back into the places they had just been forced out of. With the new strategy, the troops went in, cleared out what they called the “bad guys” and then stayed there. Actually living amongst the Iraqi population. This led to a change in how the Iraqi’s viewed our troops and it allowed them to hold the gains that they fought to achieve. Also, the “mission” changed from killing Iraqi’s to protecting them – as you can imagine, this was a welcome change from the perspective of the Iraqi population who were tired of Americans raiding their homes and neighborhoods, and then retreating to their bases in the desert. Prior to the surge there was little or no cooperation from the “good guys” because anyone seen to be helping Americans was likely to end up dead. This change in approach was one of the factors leading to a reduction in violence.

Probalby more important were two other factors, both of which have had a lot less publicity, but both being factors why I believe the surge benefits are only temporary. The so-called “Awakening” was (and is) a strategy where the Americans are paying Sunni Sheiks and former insurgents (many who were killing American troops) to take the fight to AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq). As of the time I’m writing this, there are 103,000 former Sunni insurgents on the American payroll, costing us between $20 and $30 million per month. These guys are the ones who have brought AQI seemingly under control. They know who Al Qaeda is, where they are, and they don’t like foreigners in their country killing Iraqi’s – I guess the difference they see between them and us is that we can afford to pay each on of the “Sons of Iraq” – which is what they call themselves – $300 per month to not kill Americans anymore and to take the fight to AQI. There is not much discussion about this, but I believe it probably has more of an affect on the reduction in violence than the “surge.” The problem with this strategy – for the long haul – is that we have heavily armed these former insurgents and they still hate the Shia and the Shia still hate them – whether there can be reconciliation between the two groups is a BIG question – and according to Ricks’ book, HIGHLY DOUBTFUL.

The other factor leading to the reduction in violence was the “cease fire” ordered by Moqtada al Sadr – the Shia cleric who is now in Iran studying (or whatever they do) to become a “Grand Ayotollah.” From what I’ve read this is supposed to happen in about another year or two and I fully expect Sadr to return to Iraq and to make a push for power somewhat allong the lines of what Ayotollah Khomeini did in Iran 30 years ago. I believe the result of this will be an Iraq/Iran unification under the same type of Shia religious law that today exists in Iran. The end result will be Bush’s power play designed to get the oil of Iraq will enable one part of his “Axis of evil” to become a major power on the world scene. And, of course, how that turns out will depend on others besides Bush – he’s just managed to pass this HUGE problem on to his successor, President Obama and whoever might follow him. I believe this is a likely major problem facing the US for the forseeable future. The point here is that the “Awakening” and Sadr’s cease fire were probably more responsible for the reduction in violence than the surge. OK, if you’re wondering why I believe the gains of the surge are temporary, I’ll try to explain.

The Sunni’s in the “Awakening” have been armed by us to the point where they can cause a lot of damage if they decide to return to their insurgent ways. And, once we reduce our forces, if they don’t get what they consider to be fair representation in the Iraqi government, I believe the violence will be ramped up. Keep in mind, there are still over 2 million Iraqi’s displaced by this occupation and insurgency (many of them Sunni and former Saddam loyalists), and when these people start returning there is likely to be a lot of tension. Why, you might ask? Well, consider this – say there was a problem in our country where you felt for the safety of your family you needed to go to Canada for a year or two. For arguments sake let’s pretend it was a Christian vs non-Christian conflict. You come back home after peace is restored and the other side is occupying your house and tells you it’s no longer your house and says “Beat it!” I believe there are enough people who would be really angry if that happened that an increase in instability could be the result – in fact, in my mind it is likely.

And Moqtada al Sadr. If you’re not familiar with this guy there’s a book out with his name as the title, I can’t remember the author and I gave it to friends to read, and this book gives you a good idea of how the Iraqi’s “interact.” These guys are, for the most part, not very nice. And the idea of Democracy and cooperating amongst themselves and compromising with their opponents isn’t something they do well. If Sadr disagrees with you he is more likely to have you killed than to try to work it out. I believe the reason he had his militia “Stand down” was purely strategic on his part. He expects the Americans to be out of Iraq by the time he returns with the status which will allow him to take the role as the spiritual leader of the country – and when you read the book I mentioned earlier, he has a lot of revenge on his mind relating to the Sunni minority which ruled Iraq for many years under Saddam. His father and grandfather were murdered by the Hussein regime and I believe he is planning to exact revenge once he has power. For those who don’t think he is going to have power all I can say is that he’s got a following in the millions and he is very smart – he’s not planning to topple the Americans, but he fully expects them to be gone in two years or so (I believe this is why the American Generals want to remain with a large force in Iraq indefinitely).

Which brings me to my final, and painful, point of the evenings rant. General Patraeus, General Odierno, and others involved in the surge have gained a lot of credibility for their successes of the previous two years (and deservedly so, as far as I’m concerned). However, understandably they see things in the political realm from a purely militaristic point of view. The idea of giving up the gains they’ve made in Iraq, I’m sure, makes them feel like a lot of men and women would have died in vain. I believe they fully understand what will happen when the United States withdraws from the country (and I might add – for the sake of brevity [I realize this post has been anything but brief] – I haven’t even mentioned the Kurds tonight – who are sitting on the largest part of the Iraqi oil reserves and have a whole different batch of problems to pose for the situation) – the Iraqi’s are likely to fall back into a state of violence that very easily could turn into an all-out civil war and could totally destablize the middle east region more than it already is. It could cause Israel to do something totally stupid as far as our interests are concerned and it could totally disrupt the “precious” oil supply which motivated this invasion in the first place. The only thing that’s holding Iraq together (kind of like a bandaid) right now is that our troops are lodged between the Sunni and Shia. When this changes, all hell might break loose.

The aforementioned Generals are hoping that the politicians can find a way to solve the political problems before the American people demand our troops come home once and for all – in fact, according to Ricks, these Generals believe our significant presence is needed in Iraq for the next 10 maybe 20 years to have any kind of a realistic chance to allow for a political solution that is binding and lasting. This won’t go over well with all the people who are expecting President Obama to get our troops out of Iraq within the 16 months he promised during the campaign. He’s already “reneged” on that promise and changed it to “19 months” with the caveat that there is somehow 50,000 troops who can stay because they are “non-combat.” I’m wondering if that means that they are just going to stand by if the violence increases. And if Moqtada al Sadr becomes sufficiently upset at the idea of a long term American presence – will we just leave these “non-combat” forces in place if they’re being attacked on a regular basis? And knowing that Osama bin Laden’s dream is the United States mired in Iraq indefinitely (actually his dream was us mired in Afganistan, but George Bush essentially “put icing on the cake” by including Iraq in the countries we are “mired” of “bogged down” in) does anyone really think he’s not going to do everything he can to keep the insurgency going in order to keep us there? And, will we continue to withdraw as the violence returns?

Unfortunately, I believe Ricks is “right on” as he’s been with most of the reporting I’ve seen from him. He’s predicting the United States will have a significant presence in Iraq in 2015. Him, and the Generals he interviewed, think the only way for any chance of a stable Iraq is the continued occupation by the United States. These Generals will prove to be very persuasive and it will be interesting to see how President Obama presents this to his “followers.” As I mentioned last in last night’s post, I’ve already asked for my money back. Obama is continuing (much to my dismay, disbelief, discouragement, and outrage) the illegal wiretapping policies of the Bush administration. He’s sending more troops into Afganistan – remember, this is the country which virtually bankrupted the Soviet Union (hint, hint) – and he has already extended the date for American troops to be out of Iraq by about 18 months. I’m afraid he will not have the courage to stand up to these Generals and the Iraq occupation will be an issue in the 2012 Presidential election – I REALLY HOPE I’M WRONG! – Ultimately, the Iraqi’s will have to solve their own problems and I truly hope that we will start looking after our own problems and realize what this HUGE MISTAKE by George W Bush is (and has been) costing us in lives and resources. If Barrack Obama follows the advice of the Generals this will become his occupation – he is already close to having to take partial ownership of the fiasco. I believe the time to let the Iraqi’s solve their problems on their own is SOONER RATHER THAN LATER!

I’m not feeling too good tonight, but I have to make a short post for anyone who might have visited this site in the past couple of nights. Last night I wrote about President Obama’s support of the Bush warrantless wiretapping policy. I have been warning people of this for the previous almost three months, since I first heard “inklings” that led me to believe this was going to happen. I heard one person, I can’t remember who it was- but they were part of his “team,” saying that President Obama didn’t want to give up this “power.” WHAT “IRKS” ME THE MOST ABOUT THAT IS THAT HE DOESN’T HAVE THE POWER. And the worst part is that we are depending on a spineless Congress to “call” him on this. Maybe some of the people like Keith Olberman will stay on it, but if history is any guide, the “furor” will die down quickly and we, as Americans, will have effectively given up one of our basic rights (that is that the government MUST HAVE PROBABLE CAUSE AND A WARRANT to monitor our phone calls or to invade our privacy). It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to imagine where this kind of abuse of our constitution could eventually lead.

For anyone who has been reading my posts – TONIGHT I DID EMAIL THE WHITEHOUSE AND ASK FOR MY MONEY BACK. Now, I pointed out that I didn’t realistically expect them to do it, or even for Obama to read my letter – some flunkee will read the post and delete it – probably after about the first couple of hundred words (if I’m lucky – I wrote about 3,500 words!). This action on their part is just further confirmation that there will be no investigations and prosecutions of the Bush administration – even in the areas where my sixth grade students know they were violating the law. Which brings up a good point – as a teacher, I can’t tell you how difficult it makes it for me to teach students about the importance of honesty and integrity along with “following the rules” when the leaders of our country are arrogantly breaking the rules, lying pathologically, and getting away with it. Do the people in Congress and the White House, for example, think that parents all across this nation weren’t talking about the routine lying that was going on while Bush was President? If they think that, they need to come talk to my students. These kids are going to grow up thinking this kind of garbage is OK!

Well, I’m going to cut this one short, but I just finished a book by Thomas Ricks called “The Gamble.” He wrote the great book, “Fiasco,” which spelled out in detail the incompetence of the Bush administration in the first few years of the Iraq occupation. “The Gamble” is focused on the so-called “Surge,” from the perspective of the military officers who carried it out. I had read “The War Within” by Bob Woodward which looked at the planning of the “Surge” from inside the White House. There were some contradictions in the two books, but between the two of them, I believe I gained a lot of insight into the Iraq occupation as of today, and what is going to happen in the future. I’ve already mentioned on this site that President Obama has already begun the “doubletalk” that was and has been a part of the executive branch of our government for as long as I can remember. He’s saying “I never said I was going to remove ‘all the troops'” – well, I took him to say the the troops would be coming home within 16 months of him moving into the White House. That time frame has already been “tweeked” by about 3 months – plus he’s claiming he’s going to leave 50,000 “non-combat” troops in Iraq for an additional year and a half from when the troops were supposed to come home.

Let me tell you, first of all there are not non-combat troops in Iraq. How much combat pretty much depends on the Iraqi’s – but that is an absurd claim and I wish he wouldn’t stoop to those disengenuous levels. I will have a lot more to write about Iraq soon – I believe the economy has drowned Iraq out of the news, and I suppose from a politician’s point of view that will allow for some “cheating.” I have felt for a couple months now that Obama is not going to live up to his promises regarding Iraq and the evidence is beginning to become overwhelming – SO FAR I HAVE NOT HEARD OF ANY TROOPS COMING HOME! But Obama is ramping up troops to go to Afganistan, presumably to be bogged down there for the next few years so we can be mired in two illegal wars! ugghh – based on Ricks’ reporting and the imperical evidence – the US isn’t coming home from Iraq anytime soon! Ricks believes that we will still have a major force (at least 50,000 troops) there in 2015. I HOPE HE’S WRONG AND I HOPE I’M WRONG. As an Obama supporter, I believe this wiretapping policy and the potential of remaining in Iraq has the potential to make President Obama a one term President. And maybe, after seeing the daunting task in front of him once he assumed the job, that is just fine with him. All I can tell you is that if we can’t trust President Obama to keep his promises on Iraq and wiretapping this progressive “revolution” will be all for naught. I will have more later on Iraq and “The Gamble.”

Well, I have to pat myself on the back again, UNFORTUNATELY, because – as I’ve been saying for the previous (almost) 3 months of the Obama administration – my fears have proved true. Last night I was watching the Keith Olberman show on MSNBC and it was reported that not only is the Obama administration defending the illegal wiretapping done under George Bush, but – if I understood what was said correctly – they’re taking it one step further. That is to say, where the Bush administration was using some legal maneuvering called “State Secrets” to prevent the courts from hearing cases regarding their warrantless eavesdropping on the phone calls of virtually ALL AMERICANS, not only is the Obama administration upholding those baseless claims but they’re suggesting that anyone who has been wiretapped has no legal basis to challenge the government in court! As I said in an earlier post – if this happens I will – WANT MY MONEY BACK.

I’m actually going to follow through with this and write a letter to the Obama website asking for my money back. I wrote them during the campaign when Obama inexplicably supported the FISA bill which granted the retro-active immunity to ATT&T and Verizon (and maybe others) and I was assured that (should he become) President Obama would “fix” the problems with this bill once he gained the office of President. Well, he has apparently “fixed” the problems alright – he’s (if this reporting is true) MADE THINGS WORSE! I’ve said it before, what motivated me to start writing on this so-called “Blog” was the reprehesible behavior of our 43rd President and his administration. Behavior that was openly and arrogantly in violation of the constitution and, not only our domestic laws, but international laws as well. They re-instituted the “Nixon doctrine” which states: “If the President does it, it must be legal.” Well, that “doctrine” was no more ridiculous then (during Watergate) than it is now, and it’s high time that we find some leaders in this nation to stand up and say something about this! Now, I know about 20 people per day view this blog. As I’ve mentioned many times, I have no idea who you are (I’m talking directly to you, because – not trying to be presumptuous – I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re one of the people who I don’t know who you are :o) – but if you at all agree with my disgust with President Obama on this issue – please do two things. First: call or write your representatives in Congress (Republican or Democrat) and express your outrage – DEMAND CONGRESS TO STEP IN AND PUT A STOP TO THIS – and Secondly, email the address of this blog (https://www.dfpiper.com) to some friends who might do the same. I have either known or suspicioned this was going to happen for three months. I’m just a 6th grade school teacher, so I think it’s safe to assume that many members of the media (what’s left of it) and members of Congress either knew, or should have known, that Obama was going to continue this outrageous government behavior. REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE NEED TO JOIN ARMS IN PROTEST OVER THIS CONTINUED VIOLATION OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY. Here’s a fantastic opportunity for the bipartisanship President Obama is seeking – I’d love to see a veto-proof majority of both houses of Congress enact legislation stopping this violation of our basic rights.

Let me give you an example of why this is so important – THAT IT BE DEALT WITH IMMEDIATELY. Everyone knows that the economy is in the tank. As a teacher, my salary is dependent on the health of the state economy because about 75% of my salary is paid by state funds (either from state generated funds, or funds passed to the state from the federal government). The state of Washington (my home) has a shortfall of around 8 or 9 BILLION dollars! It stands to reason that there is not enough money to continue funding education at the levels that it presently is “enjoying.” We are going to be taking a “haircut” – to use the vernacular I’m hearing regarding investors committed to companies like GM who are fighting to stay out of bankruptcy court. I am a member of one of the few remaining unions in this great country (which, I might add was made great largely on the backs of union workers the last time we went through a major financial crisis about 75 years ago). I am also the de-facto union rep from my school, so I attend all the union meetings, and understandably there is a lot of intensity in the bargaining process which is getting under way for our new contract. As you might imagine, both sides in the “talks” regarding the teacher contracts are taking the position that we should do what’s best for the students (and whether or not the “sides” are genuine in their “stance,” I certainly believe that is the proper stance to take – because the reason we teach is for the benefit of the students).

Well, the “haircutting” began with the moneys delegated from the state to the district that I work in. First of all, the amount of money teachers will receive next year (and maybe the next two, I’m not sure if the state talks are for one or two years) will be reduced by somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 7 percent (the disparity comes from the fact that a legally mandated COLA has been cancelled – this is money that we were supposed to get, but an argument could be made that it’s not a reduction because we haven’t technically received it yet so based on our 08-09 salaries the cut from the state is “only” 3 percent. Well, in the face of millions of Americans being without jobs – THERE’S A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR! Now, we go to bargaining with the district which has a shortfall of somewhere between 5 and 8 million in their state allocation and they, of course, want the teachers to take additional cuts. In fact, what they want the teachers to do is provide what we call “give backs.” That is, to give up benefits that have been bargained for in previous years. I apologize for the length of this analogy, but I’m getting to my point. The union has been through this before and the reason they are reluctant to “give back” is because history says that once you “give back” after the crisis is over, the district will not be willing to undo the “give backs” and we’ll find ourselves going through battles again that have already been won.

The question becomes how much are we willing to “give back” in order to save jobs for our compatriots who are basically going to be the younger teachers (yes, the beauty of unions – at least from the perspective of someone who has committed a large segment of his adult life to teaching – is that experience matters). And, I believe there will be a willingness to sacrifice if it is truly “shared” which is what the administration of our district is proposing – it’s just that the sacrifice and the “give backs” have to be across the board. The reality in this situation and the one I’m trying to make a point on is that LEADERSHIP COMES FROM THE TOP – CHANGE COMES FROM THE BOTTOM! (that is, the people at the top should make the largest “sacrifice” – they should set the example)

OK, back to my main point. Just like where our union doesn’t want to “give back” because once you do this whatever you give back is basically, for all intents and purposes, GONE! The same holds true – AND IN SPADES – with our constitution. I remember Republican friends of mine when the illegal wiretapping first became common knowledge saying stuff like, “It doesn’t matter if they’re listening to my phone calls, because I’m not saying anything for them to worry about.” To me, that is classic STUPIDITY! Let me give you a scenario based on one of the guys who was defending the government’s intrusion into our computers, cell phones, and landlines. (Keep in mind that it’s been documented that the Bush administration was closely monitoring communications of numerous members of the media – newspaper reporters, columnists, and TV personalities ie people like Olberman). One of the “water carriers” for Bush and, for that matter, anything Republican was Rush Limbaugh – the de-facto head of the now pathetic Republican party. Is Rush going to be defending this policy NOW when he finds out that Barrack Obama is listening to HIS phone calls (and I’m not talking about the ones when he’s on the air) and monitering his emails, credit card transactions, and who knows what else they’re doing? I DON’T THINK RUSH IS GOING TO LIKE THIS! And, for once, I’m going to be on the side of one of the people that I despise the most.

I have 3 grown children, one grand child, another on the way, and potentially several more. I don’t want them to inherit a country which has abandoned the constitution which held this nation together for over 200 years, the constitution which has allowed this nation to grow into the greatest nation in the history of the world, the constitution which has had untold men and women give their lives so that the rest of us can live in a state of relative FREEDOM! If we give this up, DOES ANYONE REALLY THINK OBAMA WILL CHANGE COURSE ONCE OSAMA BIN LADEN IS CAPTURED? If you do, I respectfully would suggest that you’re being a bit naive. And what comes next? We give up our right to privacy and then – maybe – FREE SPEECH? I mean Bush managed to get a law through our spineless congress allowing him to basically identify anyone he wanted as an “enemy combatant” and cart them off to some secret prison somewhere and leave them indefinitely without being charged with a crime, without habeous corpus, without any rights at all. IF THIS ISN’T GETTING YOUR ATTENTION, WHAT WILL????

I supported Obama, I am one who wants him to succeed. But, I don’t think many of the people who voted for him understand the position he’s taking on this – at least I hope they don’t. And I certainly hope that they will take a firm stand against what he’s doing on this when they find out. That is why I’m asking you to email this “post” to as many people as you can – Republican or Democrat (I’m not trying to become famous, I just don’t want Uncle Sam listening to my phone calls or reading my emails or – more importantly – those of my children). To me, THIS IS SCARY! Truly the implication that our government is becoming BIG BROTHER is real. If we don’t get this stopped NOW – every day the chances of permanance becomes more real. And believe me, if they get away with this, it is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. I’m outraged, I’m encouraging anyone who might read this to be outraged! Illegal warrantless wiretapping is WRONG whether being done by a Republican President or Democratic President!

When I started this “blog” (I’m not sure if it’s technically a blog because so far no one has made any comments except me) I wasn’t sure if I would write 2 posts, let alone almost 120 as I’m writing tonight. Additionally, I have always felt that I’m writing to myself, kind of like an online journal, for the purpose of allowing me to express my political views without making all my coworkers turn and walk the other way each time they see me. For several months I had no idea if anyone was “watching” until one of the guys at 1and1 (my service provider) showed me how to get the “web statistics.” These techno geeks can do amazing things these days – I know people are occasionally visiting (my highest count for one day is 49) – I just have no idea where they’re (you if you’re reading this) coming from. That all being said, it appears that I’m going to continue writing for awhile. In fact, I’m almost finished with the new book by Thomas Ricks, the guy who wrote FIASCO – one of the best books I read on the Iraq occupation. The new book is called the Gamble which is about the so-called Surge in Iraq and soon I will have several comments about that book and by extension the surge itself.

That all being said, for the last couple days I’ve been thinking of the word “habit(s).” My previous post was based on the word greed and I’m sure you can speculate on that post if you’ve been on this site before – at least what my take would be on it (if not, read the post :o). In a “nutshell” I believe greed is a MAJOR problem in the United States and has driven us to the brink of becoming a second rate nation. Despite the efforts of Republicans to “help” President Obama “fail,” I believe the future of this nation for at least a generation depends on his success. That is, I feel certain that the rest of the world is loosing patience with America and the policies that the Bush administration (and the Republican party for the past 30 years) was following. They are looking for change almost more than we are. One of the problems that Obama has to overcome is, in my view, the bad habits we have developed as a nation.

For example, take the banking crisis. A small number of “risk managers” – at least as I understand it – took some ridiculous “risky” risks, and the result is huge losses for millions of Americans in their stock portfolio’s, their retirement accounts, and in the value of their homes and other real estate. Now, at least as far as the real estate, it didn’t take a genius to see that prices were escalating at WAY to “brisk” a pace – around where I live upwards of 20% per year for several years. The problem was that as a property owner it’s easy to get in the HABIT of thinking that real estate ALWAYS goes UP! In fact, not only had people in the real estate business (brokers, and sales agents) been convincing one buyer after another that this was the case, but the banks got in the HABIT of believing their own ridiculous rhetoric and they started making absurd loans to just about anyone who could write their name on the bottom line. It was not unusual for me to get several “You’re Prequalified” offers to loan me 125% of the value of my home – EACH WEEK! Thank God, I didn’t fall for it – but unfortunately millions of Americans did – because we have developed the HABIT of living on credit – and our homes became like cash machines.

I am guilty of this (abusing credit) myself. I bought into the 0% credit card scheme that the banks were “pushing” 3 or 4 years ago and ran up huge credit card debt – almost destroying my marriage in the process (well, there were some actual marital issues that were involved as well, thankfully now resolved) – but my point is that it was easy for me to borrow as much as I wanted to borrow. I kept making the payments, so all these credit card companies kept increasing my “credit line.” Ultimately, I could have paid off my house with credit from the credit card companies – which fortunately (again) I’m not that stupid. I had enough equity in our home to pay off the credit cards with a low interest refinance – but had I waited another year to address my stupidity, I would have been caught up in the crisis which is now nearly destroying our nation’s financial standing in the world.

Remember, much of the debt being carried by this nation is held by foriegn countries with China, I believe, holding almost $2 Trillion itself, and who knows how much being held by the oil suppliers of the middle east. This HABIT of constant borrowing is VERY BAD! Then there’s the HABIT of thinking that we are the world’s greatest democracy and we should be turning every other country in the world into a democracy. In fact many people think we are obliged to do this (they think occupying Iraq is a good thing and actually believe we will someday turn Iraq into a thriving Democracy). The problem, as I see it with that line of thinking, is that these people would bring us more of what Bush gave us, and they’re terrified of what Obama is bringing to the table. Tonight I talked to a gentleman who is a great guy (he fixes my garden tractors), very honest and excellent at what he does. He made a comment that led me to believe (I chose not to “get into it” with him) he’s listening to the right wing “talkers” as he drives around from one broken lawn mower to another – saying we are no longer a democracy because we have the “Muslim” Obama as the President. Now, I know this guy is smart enough to know better than that, but we have a bunch of people spewing “garbage” on the radio and television air waves (which are “owned” by “we the people”) which is undermining the very government we all depend on. These talkers aren’t just disagreeing and proposing alternatives, they are “riling” people up with venomous talk that is, not only completely untrue but, seditious.

And these right wing talkers, based on the statistics I’ve seen, control about 90% of the air waves. I know several otherwise intelligent people who listen to them and actually believe what they’re hearing. THEY HAVE A HABIT OF TRUSTING PEOPLE LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH for their information! This used to be annoying to me, but it is getting to the scary stage. When I start hearing the talk about the President of the Untited States “is going to take your guns away,” or “The United States is no longer a democracy – it’s a Muslim nation with a Muslim President,” or “President Obama is a Communist” I believe the people have gone too far. I realize there are a lot of institutionalized racists in this country who are never going to accept a Black President, despite the competence he’s showing, but this venomous talk going over the air waves is getting to be over the “edge” for me. I believe it’s beyond free speech and someone is going to have to deal with the results of it – SOONER RATHER THAN LATER as far as I’m concerned. Based on what I’ve heard the three police officers who were killed in Pittsburgh over the previous weekend are victims of this venemous rhetoric.

I mentioned a few weeks back that the Republican leaders who are associated with “Walker Texas Ranger” – Chuck Norris – should be forced to either agree or disagree with his successionist remarks IN PUBLIC. Mike Huckabee in particular should be called on this (I often saw Norris at Huckabee rallies during the 2008 election). The guy in Pittsburgh was evidently listening to these extremist whackos who are claiming Obama is a Communist, he’s going to take everyone’s guns away, and he’s going to destroy this nation. These right wing whackos on the air waves have developed a bad HABIT of making vile comments almost routinely with no concern as to what the results might be. REMEMBER TIMOTHY MCVEIGH?? Have we learned nothing since the bombing of the federal building in Oklahama City? Are we going to have another major trajedy before we call these people on this seditious rhetoric? Another really bad HABIT in my view, and this one is on the Democrats – and that is looking the other way when people are breaking laws because they don’t want to “rock the boat.” THIS IS BIG!!! So far, they’ve let the Bush administration walk all over the constitution with little hope that there will be anything close to a full accounting – the Democrats seem to be getting manipulated by what few Republicans remain in the Congress – and I don’t see much disgust with all this armed revolt, successionist, talk coming from Republicans (remember, Sarah Palin’s husband was part of a successionist movement in Alaska and she spoke at their convention – with little or no consequence to her national standing in the Republican party – THAT IN ITSELF SHOULD BE A DISQUALIFIER!)

So I hope we, as a nation, can get out of the HABIT of putting up with these bad HABITS. We all need to start thinking “green” (I didn’t even mention our bad HABITS regarding the environment), stop abusing credit, and definitely stop allowing people with access to the national airwaves to spew anti-American garbage. I put up with eight years of George W Bush and never once suggested anything besides people needed to work together to change things at the polls. That is how things have worked in this great nation for the past 200+ years. These people like Norris, Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin, Savage, and the others who are making comments suggesting that people take up arms against our own government ARE WAY OVER THE LINE! And it’s time the Democrats developed a spine and started enforcing the existing laws which have provisions for whackos like this. Let’s not wait for another Oklahoma City trajedy before we hold people accountable for seditious rhetoric!

Greed, this is the word that keeps coming to mind as I’m trying to get my mind wrapped around where we’ve come as a nation, and what we need to do in order for “the good times” to return. And, I suppose there could be a spirited debate just on that. What constitutes the “good times?” Trying to put myself in the shoes of the business people who have so lavishly benefitted from the previous administration and the past 30 or so years of trickle down economic theory in vogue with our leaders in the federal government – I would guess more of the same. In fact, we’ve proven in the last 6 months (at least from the perspective of our government leaders) how valuable these people are. As taxpayers, we are replacing their losses from bad “gambles” virtually dollar for dollar, because they are supposedly “too big to fail.” We – and by we, I’m assuming there are a lot more people besides myself – have discovered how much money many of the people on Wall Street and the Corporate elites (remember these people referring to Barrack Obama as an elitist during the last election – laughable then, pathetic now as I look back) actually make. The CEO of GM was recently “fired” by the government because he’s led GM into what for all intense and purposes amounts to bankruptcy – and he walked away with a severance package worth over $23 million. And, of course while it’s still fresh on anyone’s mind who might happen by this site, the AIG bonuses for executives who created a large part of the so-called economic meltdown receiving “retention” bonuses in the millions because they are too important to “fixing” what’s wrong with the company.

What makes these CEO’s and Wall Street bankers so important? I “get” that many of the multinational corporations are huge with hundreds of thousands of empoyees in some instances and that a few people can have a large impact on the “bottom line” of these corporations. I’m just wondering what has brought us to the place where the guy at the top is worth hundreds, maybe thousands, more than the guy at the bottom? In my younger years I played lots of sports, mostly basketball. I managed to continue playing basketball for several years after my college playing days ended. One of the things that sticks out more than most others from that experience is remembering how the good coaches I played for always emphasized that the team was no better than the guy who sat on the end of the bench. Even if his job was just making the “starters” better by working hard in practice, he was an important part of any success the team experienced. That seemed to be the business attitude in America in the 60’s when I graduated from high school and entered the work force. The guys at the top of the corporations made maybe 5 to 10 times what the guy at the bottom made. In those days peple who had very high salaries paid a much larger percentage of their income – I believe once it went over a certain amount – in income taxes. There were incentives, in the form of tax write-offs which encouraged these people to invest in churches and other non-profits with their excessive incomes. Of course, this led to many illegal tax schemes, but the point was that there wasn’t this desparity between the “haves and the have-nots” as it exists today.

I have watched over the years as the Republican party has become virtually sold out to the large corporations and the executives that lead them. They (the corporations) figured out how to give money to the politicians as an investment that paid exponential returns. This has led, in my view, to a society that is being destroyed by GREED. I have wondered over the past 20 years or so, how much is enough for these people? I have personal friends who I feel are caught up in the same cycle of GREED and don’t even have a clue what is happening to them. And, the one thing that is common between all the people I know in this “cycle” – they are all, 100%, Republicans. When I talk to them they sound like the Republican politicians in Washington DC. Any discussion relating to politics ends up with complaints about paying taxes. I’ll give you one example. I have a very good friend (I know a few details about this person because I used to have a Real Estate business and helped him buy some properties) who is a very successful businessman. And, I’ll give him all the credit he deserves – In my mind, I actually worry about him because he works too much – he is very good at what he does, but I actually pray for him that he won’t work himself into an early grave (I’ve never told him this – probably should, but I don’t think it would do anything except strain our relationship – which I value). I’m guessing that his business brings him a profit in excess of half a million each year and I helped him purchase several properties many years ago which he still owns. One of them, a 10 acre piece of land, was purchased for the then absurd price of $9,000 per acre – based on my advice (I’m only including that part because I could never follow my own advice due to the fact I couldn’t afford to) – and today he is selling it for something in the neighborhood of 60 times that amount. I’m only pointing these things out because everytime we get together he complains about all the taxes he pays.

Now, I get that a small businessman such as my friend does pay a lot of taxes. I look at my paycheck and see all the payments my employer makes “matching” my FICA and Medicare payments, the Labor and Industries taxes, retirement (I’m certain my friend pays into a retirement account for his employees) and expenses for health care which I’m sure seems like another tax for him (he is a very honorable man – despite being a Republican :o). But, the bottom line to me is that the people who are in this position (and I do agree that there needs to be tax incentives to encourage people to have small businesses) benefit more than guys like me from all the services that our taxes pay for. We need roads, we need police and firemen, in general we need organized functioning communities with vibrant “mini” economies for these small businesses to flourish. Right now, all across America, we are witnessing the result of what happens when the GREED factor puts too much money at the top of the “food chain” and these businesses start running out of customers who can pay for their services. Now, in the case of my friend, I’m not at all suggesting that he’s greedy – in fact he’s just the opposite in the sense that he performs an important public service, very professionally, at a far better price than his competitors. It’s just frustrating for me, in this instance, that he believes that the Republicans are the “answer” because of their annual push for tax cuts for the wealthy (he’s a Christian so maybe part of his rationale is the Republican’s disengenuous use of the abortion issue for the past 30 years). I, personally, look at it more like my basketball coach. When the guy at the bottom can purchase my friend’s services the economy is then flourishing and he will make even more money!

Where the real problems set in is when the small business people like my friend give credence to the Republicans who then pull the strings for the large businesses resulting in damage to the “infrastructure” or fabric of our society. These large corporations have no sense of patriotism – EVERYTHING IS BASED ON THE BOTTOM LINE. I was listening to a discussion today about how a corporate “head” was rewarded for bringing India nationals into the US to be trained to do a certain job and then shipped back to India where they took over a “public relations” part of the business at a fraction of the cost – allowing this person to “eliminate” several US jobs in the process – thereby increasing the bottom line for his company, increasing the unemployment rolls in America, and – most importantly to him I’m sure – increasing his bonus. Words like loyalty, longevity, and community are no longer part of the mantra of many of the large corporations in America. Hewlett Packard was once a very employee friendly company. Years ago one of my friends who worked there said they had NEVER laid off one worker! Enter Carly Fiorina (one of John McCain’s economic “advisors”) – who, over the strong objection of the Hewlett Packard (original) family, created a merger with COMPAQ corporation, a company HP was in direct competition with, for the express purpose of eliminating jobs. Another of my friends who still works for HP said the workers stopped what they were doing and cheared when it was reported that Fiorina was ousted – but the damage had been done – and HP is now a “modern company” where the workers don’t know from one week to the next if they will still have a job. It’s like we have traded the idea of loyalty for the notion of constant accountability with your job being on the line.

And the reality is, just as with General Motors, the American workers are the best in the world. They are the most productive, the most reliable, and the most skilled. It is the executives who usually make the huge mistakes and it is the workers who pay for their mistakes. I wonder what the hard working blue collar men and women of GM think about their former boss taking $23 million away with him while the company is going down the tubes – thanks in large part to his reluctance to make prudent decisions about the focus of the company. This idea of “squeezing” the workers has permeated most of American society at this point. I don’t know how we turn this around without some kind of major change in thinking by the general public (the place to start, in my view, is to get rid of the Republican party and replace it with something more in tune with the needs of the average American – we desparately need an opposition party to the Democrats).

I would just remind anyone who might read this about the theories of Karl Marx. Now, he is a bad word in most of American culture, but the reality is that Marx was a philosopher and his theories about capitalism are ringing quite true in America these days. It is greed that funnels the money upward until you “hit” the breaking point, which is when the “proletariat” rebel. Our economy is getting way too “top heavy” – and there needs to be an orderly redistribution of the wealth. Despite the fact these greedy ultra rich will, in most instances, fight this tooth and nail – what made the United States the greatest nation on the earth was a strong and vibrant middle class. Entreprenuers, Small businesses, and hard workers are the backbone of what made this country what it is – and we need desparately to get back to that “model.” These large corporations have gotten way too powerful and they’ve received way too much favorable treatment from our government. I believe rules need to be put in place which protect workers and cause these corporations to have to participate more in the society that produces their profits. There needs to be caps placed on the salaries of the top executives – even if it’s in the form of higher taxes on the higher levels of earnings. And this idea that people on Wall Street, or across America, can make huge profits gambling on stocks has to change as well. Rules have to be put in place where the stock market is returned to a place where people make long term investments in companies and the people who are gambling as day traders and the like, should be taxed more heavily. What they are doing produces nothing (except grief for the real working class in this country).

And the idea that corporations can do business in this country and not pay taxes has to end. Corporate “tax havens” off shore need to be “discovered” and ended. Companies like Halliburton, who bilk our government for billions with favorable “no-bid” contracts, shouldn’t be allowed to operate in this country if they want to move their headquarters to places like Dubai in order to avoid taxes and government oversight. WE COULD GET ALONG JUST FINE WITHOUT HALLIBURTON – SOMEONE WOULD FILL THE VOID. We live in a great nation, we should all be proud of that and be willing to pay our fair share to keep it that way. I accept that my fair share is more than my son who is young and is just getting started in life. Once he’s more established in whatever carreer he chooses then his “share” will increase. We are sending the wrong message to our children when we complain about taxes, we borrow to the hilt, and we support a government which does the same. It is time for the general mentality to be changed – the old “attitude adjustment” – where we start thinking collectively about preserving and maintaining the infrastructure of this nation (and I mean the physical infrastructe as well as the internal – meaning the institutions, government ideals, education system, etc.) and placing more importance on those who facilitate that than those who generate huge profits for their companies and stockholders. Our schools, our bridges, our forests, our environment, and our principles are all FAR more important than the shareholders of the major corporations in this great nation!

Today I watched some of the reports on the so-called G-20 Summit that is happening (or happened) in London – Barrack Obama’s first “foray” onto the international “stage” as the President of the United States.  While I’m absolutely certain the Republicans of this nation will find many things Obama did that were “anti-American,” by all accounts he was a very refreshing change to the people of the rest of the world who were probably more sick of GW Bush than we were.  I am trying to keep an impartial view of how Obama is doing, as best I can, because I am so happy that we have finally removed Bush and the Republican party as it is presently constituted from the mainstream scene.  Despite the few misgivings I have about his first 75 or so days in office, I was pretty impressed with what he accomplished during this London conference (and his wife was even more impressive – based on the results I saw).

The first complaint I saw that was stirring Republicans was that Michelle Obama evidently put her hand on the Queen’s shoulder (while the Queen was putting her hand on Michelle’s back) and I thought these people have no boundaries which they will stoop to in order to attempt putting a negative “face” on what President Obama is trying to achieve.  Now, as I’ve stated on a couple of my earlier posts, I’m not all that happy with everything that’s coming out of the White House since Obama’s inauguration.  For example, I’m sure there are many who are happy that the stock market has taken a strong move upward in the past 3 or 4 weeks.  I have to say that I’m very concerned that we will judge the “recovery” based on the health of the stock market – in other words, Wall Street will continue to “rule.”  I really hope that is not the case – it feels to me that we are pouring so much money into Wall Street, in an attempt to (for some reason) allow them to escape from their misdeeds in one piece (while GM is headed for bankruptcy) and, as I’ve said before, I hope that we start measuring the health of this nation by somehow measuring the health of the middle class.

We are seeing first hand the obscene salaries of the “moguls” on Wall Street, and if we prop up a system that is so top heavy in rich people – that is, continue to support an economic system that funnels money to the few at the expense of the many – my take is that we haven’t learned anything.  Everyone knows that the family unit has been deteriorating in this nation for a generation, and, in my view, the only way to turn that statistic around is to “retool” in a way that better rewards “work” and productivity, and more realistically rewards bankers and executives.  It is hard for me to “get” that a Wall Street banker is worth a bonus which is 50 times my salary as an experienced teacher.  They talk about the huge risk involved in their jobs – but what kind of risk is it when you can fail and still receive an obscene salary.  The truth is the risk these guys are taking is with other people’s money – and when they lose, it’s the other people who lose and they apparently walk away as if nothing happened.  People got up in arms when the 160 million of AIG bonuses were dished out recently, but they didn’t say much when $3.5 Billion in bonuses went to the executives who “crashed” Merril Lynch (and millions of American’s retirement funds) or the other $15 Billion in bonuses to banks receiving so-called TARP funds from the government.

Internationally, we saw the results of this greed personified with the protestors at the Summit meeting President Obama was attending.  People around the world are hurting and the recession is intensifying – no matter what Wall Street says.  I really want Obama to succeed and, as I said above, I was very impressed with how he handled himself at this summit – but I caution anyone who reads this blog that there is a lot left to solve before we are on sound footing again.  And we need an opposition party in the United States – one that can participate in the dialogue of how to get out of the mess left behind by the Bush administration (I honestly don’t know how he sleeps at night).  Some of Obama’s supporters are sounding too much like the Republicans under Bush – whatever he says is going to be OK with them.  If that is the case, then we haven’t gotten very far in the struggle to get this nation back on the so-called “solid ground.”  And, as the Republican party is constituted today, it is a joke.  They either need to completely change their leadership and their message, or we need another party to emerge to keep the Democrats from feeling too good about themselves.

I mean, I didn’t read the Republican budget, but I listened to the guy who was chosen to present it, and all I could think about was that it was April fools day, and this must be a joke.  These people are unbelievable!  More tax cuts for the wealthy (maybe they should just propose no taxes for the wealthy and get it over with) and a reduction in spending.  And, of course, their budget proposal would increase the deficit even more than Obama’s despite the desparagy in government spending.  On top of this they are being led by people like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and Dick Cheney (the guy will probably only go away if he’s put in jail, where he belongs).  Well, I forgot to mention John McCain – the man who proved his incredible incompetence as Obama’s “foe” in the previous election – and Mitt Romney, the liberal Republican turned Conservative (he’ll be whatever you want him to be – mark my words – as the public views become more internalized by Republicans Romney will be like the Prodigal and he’ll return to his “liberal Republican” ways – whatever might get him their nomination) – and then there’s the one they would really want, Jeb Bush, but I don’t even think the Republicans are stupid enough to put another Bush in front of the voters any time soon.

What we need are Republicans who will actually stand for family values – not for rich people.  Republicans who will take the anti-abortion fight to a realistic place where they attempt to find programs which minimize the demand for abortions and where support for unwanted pregnancies goes beyond the birth of the baby.  That is the party needs to get some empathy regarding the average people in this country – and the plight they face in today’s world.  They need to actually stand for fiscal responsibility and get off of this platform that “deficits don’t matter.”  For them, the only time deficits matter is when a Democratic President inherits their ridiculous deficits – then you hear them squacking about “tax and spend” liberals – when they are actually the guilty party.  They need to stand firm for the constitution and stop manipulating it as a document that only has meaning to the “little people.”  The other day the present Attorney General set a great example of how they should treat our constitution and system of justice when he vacated the convicion of Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of “unearthed” prosecutorial misconduct.  He didn’t allow partisan politics to interfere with a fair judicial decision.  That is the way Republicans should act – with fairness to the system we all depend on.  Instead of wanting Obama to fail, Republicans should be standing for traditional values which will make this a better nation when he succeeds.

I don’t normally write two posts in one day – but I’m a school teacher and I’m on spring break, so I’ve got a bit of extra time (before I start correcting papers, etc.).  And, based on information I saw today, it calls for a little “patting on the back,” if I do say so myself!  Actually, I do say so myself – I guess I get to do this because it’s my blog :o)  Also, it’s time for the “alarm” to go up a bit as far as the direction of this nation, at least, in my opinion.  If you’ve been reading any of my posts (and based on my service provider some people have) you know that I’ve been calling for investigation of the Bush administration from day one.  Actually, in the beginning of this blog, I was challenging the Democratic Congress to find the courage to impeach the most corrupt administration in our history – the administration of George W Bush.  The main target for me was none other than Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice President – in the view of many, the man behind many of the most blatant violations of American law during their eight years in office.

 On several occasions I have pointed out that the authorization of torture – admitted publicly by both Bush and Cheney during their final days in office – violated international law, more specifically the Geneva Conventions which were essentially put in place by the United States after World War II and the torturing of American troops by the Japanese.  In fact, I believe one of the “techniques” specifically outlawed at that time was what Cheney calls “enhanced interrogation” and what civilized people call “waterboarding.”  Cheney has openly claimed that the use of waterboarding has been instrumental in “keeping us safe” since 9/11 because of all the attacks that have been “thwarted” with the information gained.  Notwithstanding the fact that his claims have been debunked numerous times by people involved in the actual running down of the “leads,” the use of this technique led to the trial and execution of members of the Japanese Army post WW II.  Everyone who knows even a little about American law and International law understands that by authorizing this torture Bush and Cheney became war criminals (as did the CIA agents who carried out the orders – they’ve destroyed 92 tapes in an attempt to protect their agents).

Where I believe I deserve the “pat on the back” is that, also on several occasions, I have warned President Obama of the consequences of not only not allowing investigations and prosecutions where warranted, but of not encouraging these investigations – and making a firm stand in front of the rest of the world that we will police our own when they commit International crimes.  I pointed out that it would look very bad for the Untited States in its attempt to reclaim the “moral authority” it squandered during the “Bush years” if another country took up the “gauntlett” and did the prosecuting for us.  Well, it looks as if my warning is coming to fruition.  It was announced today by more than one source that the Spaniards are preparing to indict six former Bush administration officials for the war crime of torture.  Based on the reports I saw, David Addington, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, and three others (including a sitting federal judge – appointed, of course, by former President Bush) are soon to be indicted.  According to the report I saw, they will not be arrested unless they leave this country.  I’m not sure how that will play out, but I think this could get even stickier.  Neither Bush nor Cheney was one of the six members of the administration listed in the reports that I saw – one report listed all six and the other listed four – with the caveat that the unnamed two were not Bush and Cheney.

Well, since both Bush and Cheney have admitted to authorizing this, President Obama is left with an interesting dilemma.  Should he encourage prosecutions from our own Justice department or wait for another foreign country to lose patience with our government and indict both Bush and Cheney.  EVERYONE KNOWS THEY AUTHORIZED THIS – and some of the reports I’ve seen imply that the torture went way beyond waterboarding.  When he testified before Congress John Yoo wasn’t even decisive in saying that burying someone alive and then digging them up before they suffocated wasn’t torture – he seemed to imply that as long as they were not killed – it was not torture – THIS GUY IS STILL TEACHING CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELY – OUCHEEEEE!

In my opinion, WE NEED LEADERSHIP HERE!  Sure the economy is in a disastrous state – but how we resolve the lawbreaking of the Bush administration will have far greater long term effects on our nation than this recession – even if it takes five or ten years to get out of this economic mess.  The misdeeds of Dick Cheney are HUGE!  I believe he was the catalyst behind the warrantless wiretapping (which will have to be dealt with sooner or later – whether Obama wants to deal with this or not), the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson (Treason), many of the no-bid contracts in Iraq which resulted in an as yet undetermined amount of fraud against the taxpayers, and this torture policy.  On top of that it has been reported that Cheney was running a Death Squad right out of the Vice President’s office and as many as 10 foreign leaders may have been assasinated as the result, and today it was reported that he was busy undermining Obama’s authority with Israel as his term in office was winding down and they were occupying the Gaza Strip.  I mean, how much does everyone in this nation need to know about Dick Cheney before President Obama decides it’s time to uphold the laws of this great land?  Are we going to leave it up to Spain to prosecute Dick Cheney for all his lawbreaking?