While in the hospital my wife gave me a book to read titled, “Three Cups of Tea.” As I got into this book it soon became the most “I can’t put it down” book since “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest” back, it think, in the 60’s. I REALLY want to write about this book, and I will soon, but “other matters” seem to keep cropping up – so I’ll put that off for another day. That being said, if you’re looking for a good read, try “Three Cups of Tea” – I ordered three copies today to pass along to my children and a friend of mine. I virtually guarantee that you’ll be inspired and uplifted from reading the book.

Tonight’s thoughts, if you’ve been around this site lately, you know that I’m recovering from surgery which has kept me pretty much away from the keyboard for about a week – I think I managed to fit one session in due to some excellent pain medication :o). It’s just been a couple days now since I could manage to sit in a chair long enough to watch one of the “News” programs I watch (really, are there any “news” programs anymore?). For well over six months I’ve been “harping” on what I consider to be the FACT that the “misdeeds” (ie – criminal activity) of the Bush administration MUST be investigated FULLY. Now, I realize we are amid the most severe economic crisis since the crash of 1929 and most people are concerned about their “pocketbooks” above all else. However, the harsh reality is that the economic crisis will be temporary – no matter how severe – and no matter what lifestyle changes are dictated once it “passes.” Abuses of power, if left unchallenged, can easily become permanent. To me, the scary part of all of this is the FACT that power is a very difficult thing to “give up.” I say that to frame my thoughts tonight about the abuses of the Republicans under Bush/Cheney from 2001 until 2009 (and, believe me – if the investigations take place – we’ll discover the abuses started well before 9/11 – that only intensified and expanded them). From the start – Dick Cheney was determined to regain the executive power he felt had been lost because of the Watergate fiasco.

Cheney is the ultimate authoritarian. I read a book on Dick Cheney titled “Angler” by Barton Gellman which, in explaining how Cheney chose himself as GW Bush’s VP, gives a very clear picture of what kind of man he is. He was Bush’s choice to “vet” possible VP candidates and he collected boxes of information on maybe the 30 top Republicans – all in strategic places – telling each one of them that they were on the “short list” for VP, to keep quiet about everything until a choice was made, and to make sure that they didn’t hide anything – just to make sure that someone wasn’t chosen who would be vulnerable to scandalous attack. Sounds like a good plan, right? But, true to his nature, Cheney then chose himself as the VP candidate while, at the same time, leaking information on one of the potential candidates (I believe the guy was governor of Nebraska – or some other midwest state). This information ruined the political career of the governor in question and sent the message to all the other possible candidates of “Oh, my gosh, he’s got boxes of info on me going back to my childhood.” The message Cheney sent to these leading Republicans was “Fall into line, and I’ll keep all this information confidential – step out of line and, well ………..” – I think you can get the message. And, I must add, it was a very effective strategy – for “loyalty.”

So, the abuses began soon after Bush/Cheney took the “controls” of our government. And, the secrecy was there right from the start (which leads me to some of my alarm regarding President Obama, but I’ll get to that later) – remember the so-called “energy task force” which met in Cheney’s office under a complete lid of secrecy and up to the last days in office Cheney had refused to divulge information from those meetings – which I’ve ALWAYS felt would give some of the motivation behind the invasion of Iraq. It would be no secret to anyone happening onto this site that the abuses of our constitution, the abuses of international law, and the power grab in the executive branch of government were ongoing, arrogant, and criminal. The years of the Bush administration were among the most frustrating of my life – as a person who passionately loves this country (and who actually studied the constitution in college). I’ve stated many times on this site my frustration that MY government was violating our laws, international laws, and abusing the power granted the executive branch by our constitution. My frustration has been pointed at the Republican party which “rubber stamped” everything Bush/Cheney did (somewhat understandable considering Cheney’s mode of operation as explained above) – but has slowly been swinging toward the Democratic party, which, based on how our system of government works is the “check” to the abuses being committed by the Republicans under Bush. The Democrats are the ones we voted into office to “fix” all the abuses!

I’ve also mentioned many times that eventually more and more of the truth is going to come out – and I keep hoping that something will be done about these abuses which GUARANTEE that they won’t be repeated. The Republicans have come to a place of almost pity in my mind – they’ve become so disgusting – HOWEVER, MORE AND MORE I FEEL THAT WE NEED A REAL CONSERVATIVE TO EMERGE – someone who’s not “owned” by the corporate heads that seem to be running Republican politics from behind the scenes. Someone who can lead the Republicans back into a respectable opposition party – one that I could vote for! (I’ve been an independent for over 40 years – even though I sent money to Democrats in order to get these Republicans out of office) The Democrats – who I’ve been calling weak and spineless for some time – seem to be all too happy to carry that moniker (weak and spineless, that is). THIS IS MAKING ME EVEN MORE FRUSTRATED THAN PUTTING UP WITH REPUBLICAN RULE. It’s like, well I’m trying hard to find the right words here, they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Let me go over the list – AGAIN – all stuff that is public knowledge, and all stuff that ends up going “unaccounted” for will be damaging to the future of this nation – well, I don’t want to get to descriptive here – but, suffice it to say that, in my opinion, the effect on our lifestyle if we allow the Bush/Cheney crew to “get away” with their crimes will be much more severe than anything that could happen – long term – based on the economic crisis created by the SAME PEOPLE who broke all these laws!

Honestly, as I’m sitting her writing this I can’t believe the words that are flowing from my computer. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE (and, in this instance, I’m talking about the Democrats)? OK, this is the list: Bush/Cheney lied us into a war that is bankrupting our nation (just ask yourself if each one of these things isn’t exponentially bigger than Whitewater – a poor business deal which led to 7 years of hearings in Congress), Bush/Cheney authorized and encouraged the use of Torture openly violating our own laws against such behavior and international laws which the Untited States was instrumental in establishing, post WW II (and, in the process, an undetermined number of prisoners were killed) – both men have admitted this in public MANY TIMES, Bush/Cheney authorized an illegal warrantless wiretapping scheme (that is going on to this day – SHAME ON YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!) which has violated the FISA laws of 1978 on (at least) thousands of occasions, Bush/Cheney “outed” a covert CIA agent to get back at her husband for telling the truth and contradicting their most outrageous lie intended to gain support for their war of choice in Iraq – this is TREASON!, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others PROFITED by sums exceeding ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS from the no-bid contracts associated with their invasion of Iraq (again, compare that to Whitewater!), Surrogates of Bush/Cheney regulary refused to cooperate with Congressional subpoenas – actually refusing to show up when called to testify before Congress, Bush’s Attorney General told more obvious lies in front of Congress than anyone I’ve ever seen in my lifetime of following politics (with still no accountability), The Bush Whitehouse – led by Karl Rove – outed US attorneys based on their “lack of cooperation” in prosectuing Democrats and they used a “loyalty pledge” to the Republican party in their choice of lawyers hired into the Justice Department – totally politicizing it, Karl Rove had the Governor of Alabama (a Democrat) thrown in jail on trumped up charges that were enforced by political cronies, and I could go on, but I’ll end this list by saying that George W Bush wrote more “Signing Statements” declaring his intention to ignore the will of the Congress than all the Presidents before him COMBINED!

HERE’S WHAT IS REALLY BOTHERING ME! How can any Democrat sleep at night while turning their back on this stuff. Tonight, it was leaked that President Bush was the one who sent Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to the hospital bed of then Attorney General John Ashcroft to get him to sign authorization of the secret wiretapping program which had become known and had gained opposition from justice department lawyers who acknowledged the program was unconstitutional. As I mentioned above and in many past posts – this stuff is going to keep coming out – and the longer the Democrats wait in doing something about this THE WORST THEY LOOK! It’s like they have no guts! I remember talking to my own Representative Brian Baird at a town hall meeting about the importance of impeaching President Bush – his response was (despite OVERWHELMING APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE IN SUPPORT OF MY POSITION) – this was during the period between the 2006 and 2008 election – “We don’t have enough votes in the Senate to convict.” This is their attitude. The TRUTH IS that if a President commits “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” the “Check” as per the constitution, is that the House of Representatives is OBLIBATED to impeach the President. This is just like the torture issue for Obama – theoretically – HE HAS TO PROSECUTE WAR CRIMINALS if he’s aware of war crimes. Now, Obama has stated publically that “Waterboarding is torture.” It is listed as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions – Both George Bush and Dick Cheney have publically admitted to authorizing this torture (and, read “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” – it’s far worse than “just” the waterboarding) WHAT MAKES PRESIDENT OBAMA THINK HE HAS A CHOICE HERE? That would be like me having a student tell me they’ve been abused at home and then me, as a teacher, not reporting it to CPS – I would then be guilty of a crime! PRESIDENT OBAMA IS VIOLATING THE LAW BY LOOKING THE OTHER WAY!

This is what’s making me think we’re getting more of the same with a different moniker on it. Sure, the economic pollicies are a bit different and, at least, these guys recognize there’s an economic crisis at hand. But, I’ll say it again, what will be the most important accomplishments or lack thereof (and the lack thereof side seems to be looming strong at this point) will be how the Obama administration deals with the overreaching and lawbreaking of the administration which preceeded them. IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO GET WALL STREET BACK ON IT’S FEET! If we still have a government which is tapping our phones (Obama clearly doesn’t want to give up this “power”), if we still have a government operating in secrecy (the signs are strong here that Obama doesn’t want to “give up” some of the Bush abuses in this area as well), and worst of all, if we still have a government which is failing to enforce our laws on the people at the top, then we have something that is far too familiar to the past administration for me. In my mind, the people at the top are the ones who should be held accountable for their actions FIRST! How can President Obama stand in front of any group of people with a straight face and say that “No one is above the law in America” (I’ve heard him do this) while we have Sargeants and Privates from Army Reserve units (who were totally untrained for the job they were given at Abu Ghraib) doing time at Leavenworth for “Torture” while the men who authorized their actions (and then stood cowardly by, denying their role in the whole disgusting abuse of humanity – while these “grunts” took the entire “fall”) not only are walking free, but have profited handsomely all the same! We are in desperate need of some leadership in America right now and looking the other way to all this “Carnage” is the same as condoning it. If Democrats don’t have the courage to stand up to the Republican abuses, then it’s time for a THIRD PARTY!

As stated in my previous post, I’m fresh out of the hospital from a pretty significant – although not life threatening – surgery, and still taking the pills and still having a hard time sitting here to write. However, I’ve learned in the past couple of days that Robert McNamara died while I was away. For anyone under the age of, say, 55 – this post might not be for you (although, as usual, I don’t know what to expect myslelf until I finish writing) – but just the name Robert McNamara brings back the thought of the trajic Viet Nam conflict – where approximately 50,000 Americans died along with somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple million Vietnamese (included in that 50,000 number were 13 members of my graduating class from high school – that I know of). Upon graduating from high school in 1965 myself and most of my friends believed the lie that Viet Nam was the place to stop the spread of Communism – I think this is why I get so upset when our government blatantly lies to us – because, usually, many people die as a result – AND NO ONE IS EVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE! Along with many of my friends I enlisted in the US Marines. I was in the so-called PLC (Platoon Leader Corps) which became identified as the 90 day wonders – that is, you would get 90 days of training and you were off to Viet Nam as a 2nd Lieutenant – with a high probability of returning home in a body bag.

When the doctor failed me in my physical prior to my heading out to Quantico, Virginia for basic training I was very disappointed and had no idea what a blessing that was. Had my disease, which is causing me so much trouble today, not been apparent to the Marine doctor – I would probably have written my last many years ago. As my high school buddies kept getting killed, or coming home almost unrecognizable – the ones who “made it” – I quit listening to our “leaders” and started researching why we were in Viet Nam. And, the really sad part of this story, is that the answers were so similar to the answers I got when I started researching what we were doing in Iraq and why we were doing it. The irony here is that former President Bush and most of his surrogates have no conception of what war is like. Bush got the “my Dad’s really important” deferral – which was being enlisted in the National Guard, but not having to attend the meetings – AND NO CHANCE OF GOING TO WAR! Dick Cheney was the master of the deferrments (I believe he received at least 5), and you can go through the list of the “tough guys” representing the “neo-cons” and find nary a one who served in Viet Nam.

McNamara’s shame was somewhat akin to Colin Powell’s in Iraq (there’s just so many eerie parallels between the two fiascos). He understood that the war was wrong, but “being the good soldier” he just did what he was told to do as Secretary of Defense. Powell, of course, was opposed to the Iraq occupation (or at least he understood the dangers of the invasion) and, at some point, he had to understand that he was “used” when the Bush administration sent him in front of the United Nations to regurgitate their lies about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities – but, for the most part, he kept quiet until long out of office (there have been reports that his silence was in return for his son’s government employment – which if true, in my mind, makes matters worse for General Powell). What all this did for me, was to re-ignite my thoughts and frustrations about the FACT that our troops are still STUCK in Iraq and we’re increasing our efforts (a mission which is unclear to me) in Afganistan. In essence, President Obama seems to be marching in lock-step with the President he vilified during the campaign on the issue that brought him to the forefront of a large group of candidates – most of whom had originally supported the Iraq invasion.

Both Viet Nam and Iraq were wars of “choice” by American politicians who were connected at the contribution box to companies who made obscene profits (actually, I fully realize that with the companies involved – NO PROFIT IS OBSCENE) while their countrymen were dying in droves and while the United States of America was undermining her own principles in the eyes of the rest of the world. I believe I became so angry about Iraq because, after the Viet Nam affair, I had no doubt that something like this could never happen again during my lifetime – BOY WAS I WRONG! The fact that President Bush was able to lie us into Iraq shows just how hollow the leadership of this great nation really is. Now, everytime I hear a politician giving a speech, it appears to me they are looking out of the corner of their eye to make sure their corporate “donors” or their lobbyist “buddies” are approving their message. I mean, just recently the Franken/Coleman Senate race was ended and the reports were that there was over 50 million dollars spent between the two campaigns for a job that pays a couple hundred grand each year – NOW, WHERE’S THE SENSE IN THAT? Well, the truth is that no matter who won that race, or who wins any other race in America – the real “winners” are the donors who get their “man” in office, with an “expectation” of what they will do once there.

We have too many McNamara’s and Powell’s in the upper echelon of our government. There are too many people willing to just do what they’re told. The end result has been these illegal occupations of soveriegn nations, our own citizens being wiretapped by our government – “to keep them safe” :o( , US citizens torturing people ALL OVER THE WORLD, and – worse than everything else (probably combined) A POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT IS OWNED AND OPERATED BY MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS who have no interest in anything beyond “the bottom line” and/or “shareholder value.” Our nation is becoming mean spirited and our people are becoming – MORE AND MORE – unhappy! Our family units are disintigrating in the face of the constant pressure created by a job market which treats employees as statistics. We, as a nation, are in desparate need of leadership – STATESMANSHIP – that is, leaders who are willing to put what is “RIGHT” ahead of their own self- interest.

This all gets me back to where a lot of my thoughts end up these days – I’m not like Rush Limbaugh – I WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SUCCEED. And, I truly hope that my recent thoughts are wrong – not my thoughts when I so vigorously supported him. However, it just doesn’t feel right. The death of Robert McNamara intensified my thoughts about the Iraq invasion and the FACT that President Obama – at least in my mind – has shown absolutely ZERO courage in extricating our troops from that mess. I’ve read enough books about the Shiite/Sunni conflict to “get” that “victory” in Iraq as GW Bush (at least) implied – IS JUST NOT POSSIBLE. Last week, the Americans pulled out of all the major cities in Iraq – essentially ending the “surge” strategy (which, in my view, has just put off the inevitable) and presumably setting the stage for our withdrawal, right? Well, I’ll believe it when I see it (and, already in major polls, I’m being asked questions like “if violence breaks out again, are you in favor of sending our troops back into the cities?”) – regardless of how all this plays out, the 16 months we were promised during the campaign ARE IMPOSSIBLE at this point – and if you read Thomas Ricks book “The Gamble,” you will understand what I’m saying when I point out our military wants us to remain (in the cities) for upwards of 20 years – as the only possible way to procure “victory.” Everytime I think about this, I get sick to my stomach.

Now, I realize that the economy is uppermost in many American’s lives – and it has pushed the military conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan to the “back pages,” but, to me, President Obama’s actions regarding Iraq (or should I say in-actions) remind me of when my son lies. Until someone finds out about what he did, in his mind, it’s OK – he’s gotten away with it. However, eventually, almost every lie becomes an issue. In President Obama’s case – the Iraq war is on “the back burner” in most people’s minds – and his supporters are busily trying to get health care legislation and an energy bill which will fight “global warming” through the corporate maze called Congress (honorable goals, without question). However, the reality is, in my view, that Obama is going to have to answer for this inaction at some point (he’s essentially following the course set by Bush – if you can believe that!). I can see it now, he will blame the fact that the economy was the “first priority” (I guess continuing the argument that spending $10 billion + per month on unwinnable wars is not hurting our economy) and because the “mess” he inherited was so huge he just had to prioritize. And, I suppose, if MoveOn.org and some of his other ardent supporters ever notice that we’re still as entrenched in Iraq as we were 6 months ago when Obama took office – AND MORE ENTRENCHED IN AFGANISTAN – maybe they’ll start putting some pressure on him to get us out.

Let me just quickly reply to these imagined positions. It would have taken one order the day Obama took the “reigns” of this great nation to begin the complete pullout of our troops in Iraq. By now, over half of them could be back home getting the treatment they desperately need and unquestionably deserve for the “issues” that go “with the territory.” It would have taken one order to instigate a thorough investigation (by the Justice Department) of the abuses of power and the alleged criminal activity (not the least of which was obvious torture) authorized by his predecessor to state clearly this won’t happen again in America (and Obama could have stayed totally “above” the fray politically – it’s too late for that now). It would have taken just a strong belief in our constitution and a frim resolve to stop the NSA from “data mining” phone conversations and emails by the millions from American citizens. Holding Wall Street accountable for “change” similarly to what was done with GM and Chrysler would have led to a hope that any recovery would not revert to “business as usual.” In sum, just a willingness to stand on the principles that got him elected and acting as a statesman – reaching out to only those who wish to be a part of the “new America” was all that was needed. Well, and – of course – the courage to look Republicans and Democrats in the eye and tell them that it is no longer politics as usual on Capital Hill either. In that case there would be a lot to be excited about. So, in that spirit – I’m going to try to take these thougts which were instigated when I discovered McNamara had passed away – into something positive. Let’s see – maybe a statement giving thanks and expressing optimism will do it. I’ll give it a try. I’m thankful that McCain/Palin didn’t win the election and I REALLY HOPE PRESIDENT OBAMA SUCCEEDS!

I’m one day home from the hospital and probably a bit loopy to be attempting to write, but have a thought or two which I want to throw out to the 30 or so people who seem to be visiting this site (I really have no idea who “stops by,” only the “numbers” supplied by my service provider – at this point in time, the record number of “unique visits” in one day is 57 – I also have no idea how anyone happens upon this site, but it makes it more interesting knowing that someone is “watching.”) – Please excuse the potential for a lot of grammatical miscues! :o)

First off – this isn’t my main thought – but having been out of commission for almost a week – tonight was the first time I was able to listen to Sarah Palin’s pathetic meandering public statement about her impending resignation from (what probably seems so small to her at this point in time) her job as governor of Alaska. When she was first chosen as John McCain’s running mate I remember pointing out that she had been the mayor of a town the size of the little community I grew up in, Hazel Dell, with something approaching a population of 9 or 10 thousand people and had then advanced to being governor of a state that had a population somewhat comparable to the University of Washington. At the time, I was just expressing my astonishment as to how the Republican party could allow such an inexperieced person be “a heart beat” from the presidency – should McCain – 72 years old and a two time cancer survivor – be elected President. I haven’t studied all the details of her resignation as governor, but my initial instincts tell me it will allow her to raise money in an attempt to gain the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Should those instincts be correct, my brain is telling me that by resigning her position in “midstream” she will have enough negative labels (she didn’t need any more than she had already accumulated) to make a run for President possible only in the most extreme parts of the rapidly fading Republican party.

In fact, to my way of thinking, it is what Sarah Palin represents that the Republican party needs to “cleanse” itself from before it can again be considered viable in our national politics. At this point in time, it is my opinion that should Sarah Palin succeed in becoming the Republican “nominee” we will finally see a third party emerge which may be a viable alternative to the choice now presented to voters every fourth year. While Palin is seemingly wanting to “defend herself” from all the attacks – I guess, from what I heard if you take her on her word, that COULD be the reason she resigned – the more she does that – the more “attacks” there will be. I honestly picture her as someone about as qualified as me to run for President. SHE HAS DONE NOTHING TO PUT HER IN THAT RARIFIED AIR! In fact, I remember thinking that John McCain was more “out of it” than I had originally thought in listening to him as he sought the nomination when he chose her – over some others who might have made a positive difference for him. It seemed like an act of desperation at the time – and, from the reports I’ve heard coming from McCain “insiders” there is a lot to come out should Palin push on. I believe the political professionals inside his campaign will have a lot to share in the coming months if Palin attempts to put herself at the “head” of their party.

Sarah Palin is not what I wanted to write about – in fact, it is how her candidacy would effect the next election – that has my brain “swirling” as I’m trying to grasp my feelings about the President that I voted for and who seems to be on quite a different “path” than I expected when I sent in my paltry donations. Of course, that would be President Obama. As I’ve stated many times on this site – I REALLY WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SUCCEED. But, I have to say RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW – that success won’t be winning a second term in office. I say that because should the Republicans continue on their present course of self-destruction – Obama could continue some of the present direction and still easily remain in office. Now, I’m not capable of a lengthy diatribe tonight (if my daughter happens by – that will make her happy :o) – but suffice it to say that I want President Obama to have to answer for his decisions to the “base” who voted him into office. Should someone like Palin be his opponent, Obama could easily continue some of the “bush-like” actions he’s been taking and still easily win re-election.

Looking at the long term, should that be the scenario, then the abuses of power orchestrated so masterfully by Dick Cheney while GW Bush was “at the healm” will still be there when Obama leaves office – and potentially there forever – which would be a GREAT VICTORY for the so-called “neo-cons” and a disastrous failure to people like me. This weekend (over the 4th of July) while laying in a hospital bed, I had several opportunities to listen to President Obama speak. There can be no mistake about this – THE MAN IS A GREAT ORATOR. However, it was during this weekend that I started questioning how “empty” is this rhetoric? The troops will come home on the “time-table” negotiated by President Bush, we’re still being wiretapped by the NSA and Obama is defending the Bush wiretapping policy in court, the economy which was undermined by “Wall Streeters” is being “fixed” by – you guessed it – “Wall Streeters,” the Obama justice department is supporting the same “States secrets doctrine” that Bush used to hide their illegal activities, and I learned today that the Obama White House is siding with Cheney in the fight to find out his role in the treasonous “outing” of a covert CIA agent – for political retaliation reasons! THIS IS ALL UNTHINKABLE TO ME!

Because of my condition, let me just rationalize the last noted “shocking’ position that the Obama adiministration is taking. Everyone knows that it was Dick Cheney who “outed” Valerie Plame after her husband proved Cheney and Bush were lying about Iraqi’s importing Yellow caked uranium from Niger – presumably to make an atomic bomb – I’m sure you remember Bush’s reference to the “mushroom cloud” when “selling” the Iraq invasion to the American public in a state of the union message – ONE OF THE MOST ARROGANT AND DESPICABLE LIES EVER IMPOSED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Let me just say that Cheney was not very nice to people who disagreed with him – and he did the unthinkable here. We will probably never know the full ramifications of Plame being identified – the ones who would feel those ramifications would be those over seas who were associated with her “network” which, ironically – was set up to provide information on Iran’s capabilities to build a nuclear weapon. Cheney outed her through his surrogates and “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, took the “fall” for him (Cheney was very bitter when President Bush did not pardon Libby in his last days in office).

OK, here’s the real rub. Why on earth would President Obama stand in the way of the truth coming out on all of this? Remember all the promises of transparancy? (If you’ve been paying attention, those promises are less transparent ALL THE TIME) It get’s worse. The defense that the “Cheney side” is using – and the Obama side is agreeing with – is the executive privilege doctrine – another of the technical legal tactics that Presidents have used for years to try to hide transparency. The argument goes like this – if Cheney’s discussions with Bush are allowed to be made public then the same thing could happen to conversations Obama has with his surrogates. What is interesting here, is that by making this claim, the Cheney side is essentially bringing President Bush into the picture – as a co-conspirator. And, as Richard Nixon found out, executive privilege is not a way to hide criminal activity – which TREASON would fall into that category. To me, the more President Obama gets “sucked in” to defending the indefensible actions of the Bush administration – the more EVERYTHING HE SAYS becomes HOLLOW to me. Yes, we’ve gotten used to politicians breaking promises – but I expected more from Obama – I REALLY DID! Call me naive, but I never could have imagined President Obama defending Dick Cheney in court!

Again, my opologies for all the grammaticla “foopahs” – but my leg is reallly hurting – so I”ll try to edit this later – I just had to get this off my “chest” – It was a shocking realization to me this weekend when I began to think of Obama as a good orator – but potentially a weak President (at a time when we really need someone willing to demonstrate that the days of criminal activity in our government are over )

This will be my last post for a while because I’m going into the hospital for a major surgery (not life threatening I hope – but 3+ hours under anasthesia just the same) and I’ll be “out of commission” for a bit – I have no idea how long. The circumstances lead me to say how thankful I am to have health insurance so that I can follow the advice of my doctor (who’s brilliant at what he does, in my view, and I’m thankful for him as well) and it’s leading me to want to write about the health care debate that seems to be raging in Washington DC and around the country these days. This debate has allowed the Democrats to finally push their failure of leadership in holding the Bush administration accountable for criminal behavior out of the news, but I believe that failure of leadership could be even more evident when all is said and done here, if they are unable to come up with legislation consistent with the overwhelming majority of Americans. There will become a point where voters will hold Democrats accountable for their “fear of Republicans.”

If you’ve been following politics lately you are probably aware that the Minnesota Supreme Court just ruled that Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota, must certify Al Franken as the second Senator from Minnesota and, theoretically the 60th vote in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. So, the Democrats should have no excuses about passing President Obama’s agenda, right? 60 votes in the Senate, a bi-partisan majority in the polls, and a President with a high approval rating (which I believe is getting to the point where you could say that rating is “on the line”) – good things should start to happen, correct? Well, again, if you’ve been following politics you probably already had realized that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

However, from my perspective, it should be. I’ll get to the health care issue, but I will point out up front that I believe President Obama is squarely on the “hot seat” at this point and we will be getting a good idea of what kind of a leader he is as we go through the second half of his first year in office. Now, we all know that everyone has to “learn on the job,” and I truly hope that President Obama is doing so. If you’ve read many of my previous posts you know where my misgivings come from. I’ll try to sum them up by saying that in my view President Obama has been too focussed on “reaching out” to the bull-headed Republicans who are going to VOTE NO on everything he wants – NO MATTER WHAT! Now, he might be able to “squeeze” a vote here or there out of one of Maine’s two moderates – Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – kind of the last of the breed in the Republican Party – but what about his own caucus? And by refusing to allow investigations of the Bush administration and seemingly caving on one piece of legislation after another, President Obama had better soon start worrying about his own base more than he’s worrying about Republicans. I GUARANTEE YOU REPUBLICANS WANT NOTHING OTHER THAN OBAMA’S FAILURE – AT PERIL TO OUR NATION!

So, this 60 member caucus that everyone was so excited about and that was “billed” as the solution to all our problems didn’t take into account the fact that many of the Democratic Senators have been “feeding” out of the same “trough” as the Republicans – that is the endless supply of “campaign contributions” from lobbyists and multi-national corporations which have got into the – hard to break habit – of RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT. So, we now have a CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP! A few posts back I wrote about how I’m concerned that I’m seeing more politician than statesman from Obama. Politicians are a dime a dozen – WE HAVE 535 of them in Congress (well, there really are a few good ones, but I’m going to leave that discussion until later) – WHAT WE NEED IN THE WHITE HOUSE RIGHT NOW IS A STATESMAN! We need someone with a clear vision for America and the courage to FIGHT for it NO MATTER WHAT! If President Obama wants to show bipartisanship he should do so in the fight – THAT IS, PUT THE DEMOCRATS ON THE SPOT! And, when I listened to Bernie Sanders tonight on TV – he’s smart enough to be an independent, even though he caucusses with the Dems – there’s a way to do this. BUT IT WILL TAKE COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP!

To me, worse than the Republicans holding the so-called filibuster over the heads of Democrats on every piece of legislation, the fact Harry Reid NEVER FORCES THEM TO ACTUALLY FILIBUSTER is very frustrating. EVEN REPUBLICANS WOULD GET TIRED OF TALKING ENDLESSLY AT SOME POINT! But here’s what should happen according to Sanders. President Obama and Reid should get the Democratic caucus together and get them to agree that they will stick together on every attempted filibuster and vote as a bloc to stop any filibuster the Republicans attempt. That would not preclude individual Senators from voting against any particular piece of legislation; it would simply insure that each piece of legislation got an “up or down” vote. THAT WOULD BE A GOOD FIRST STEP IN RESTORING CONFIDENCE with those of us paying attention. The other thing it would do is force Senators to take PUBLIC positions on important matters SO THAT THE VOTERS KNOW WHERE THEY STAND ON ISSUES! This no filibuster, no vote process is very clever in making sure that nothing gets done and no one is held responsible. Of course, the Republicans are OK with being held responsible because their entire agenda is based upon helping President Obama to fail! And, it’s no secret what they’re doing.

But, shouldn’t the voters be totally aware of which Democrats are going along with these obstructionists? OK, let’s get back to the impending health care legislation. President Obama and 72% of the voters (now there’s bipartisanship for you) want a “public option” included in whatever legislation comes out of Congress. In fact, from the polls I’ve seen, well over 50% of the American public would prefer a single payer government run health care policy – which, due to all the private money from insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and others is a “non starter.” However, the “public option” – where people have the option of going with the government “plan” makes total sense – unless, I guess, you’re an insurance company like Blue Cross which spends 10 to 15% of the premiums collected to deny health care and a total of 30+% in administrative costs – compared to Medicare’s less than 5% in administrative costs (costs which could be further reduced with an upgraded computer system dealing with health records). Apparently, the private companies (who spout continuously about how inefficient the government is) don’t think they can compete with the government plan. THAT MAKES NO SENSE TO ME! If the government can figure out how to reduce the costs of health care and, at the same time, provide competitive services – HOW CAN THAT BE A BAD IDEA?

OK, I think you can see where I’m going here. The Democrats have 60 votes in their caucus. President Obama says he wants a “public option” in the final bill. The public is in favor of a public option almost 3 to 1. The only thing standing in the way are the NO TO EVERYTHING REPUBLICANS, RIGHT? Well, the truth is that the real problem are the Democrats. It’s time for President Obama to stand tall and demand that the Democrats unite to “block” the obstructionists. And, then put the votes of these politicians on an issue like health care right out there for all to see. Take for example Senator Ron Wyden, the senior Senator from Oregon (Democrat), right across the Columbia River from where I live. I have long felt that he was above most of this, but he’s proposed health care legislation (which is getting Republican support) which appears to me to have been written in the office of the health care provider’s lobbyists, which doesn’t support the so-called “public option,” and which he promotes very hypocritically, in my view, by stating “The heath care industry isn’t going to stop health care reform this time, I won’t let that happen.” To me, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” (I’ve heard that Wyden’s bill supports the “McCain option” of taxing employer provided health care benefits) And then there are the two Democratic senators from Washington, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both of whom I’ve sent money to before. I’ve heard that Cantwell, and maybe both of them, are not supporting the “public option.” Well, this will be my reaction to that – and I intend to let them know this – should they vote against the will of their constituents, Democrats or not (actually, I’ve been an independent for over 40 years, but I’ve been sending money to Democrats since the beginning of the Bush era) – no more money from me and I will vote against them when they come up for reelection.

I realize that I’m just one vote – but if you happen upon this site and you agree with me, call your Congressional leaders and let them know how you feel. Recently I heard Barbara Boxer, Senator from California, state that, essentially, she could care less what the voters think. To me, that was as arrogant as anything Bush said while he was destroying our nation. These Democrats who have been bought and sold by the “industrial health complex” need to be identified and “put out to pasture.” And this really is a crisis of leadership for President Obama. In my mind he’s not showing the fight that the present circumstances call for. I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO SEE HIM AGRESSIVELY FIGHT FOR WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT THAN TO SETTLE FOR SOME INCONSEQUENTIAL COMPROMISE. When Republicans are asked if there’s going to be a public option, they very confidently say NO! When President Obama is asked the same question he says something like “it should include a public option, but our main goal is to reduce costs.” THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! PUT THESE REPUBLICANS IN THEIR PROPER PLACE! PRESIDENT OBAMA, LET THEM KNOW WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE! THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION SHOULD BE AN UNEQUIVICAL YES! And, don’t let these Democratic Senators get away with secret deals that undermine the whole process and leave them as innocent bystanders. INSIST ON PUBLIC VOTES ON THIS. Let me put it in simpler terms: Overwhelming public support + Super majorities in Congress + Democratic President SHOULD = PUBLIC OPTION! Anything less should equal new members of Congress in 2010! What’s the old saying? $@#* or get off the pot!

OK, I’ll say it again, I REALLY WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SUCCEED! If you’ve been on this site much before, you probably can anticipate what’s coming next – and you’re right – I’m going to criticize our new President (I wanted to use the term “blast,” but I don’t think it’s quite time for that yet – but, if you read this and agree at all with my thoughts, please write to him – maybe if enough people write, he will start acting like the candidate we all voted for – or, at least thought we were voting for). There’s about three things in particular I want to “get off of my chest” these last couple of days before I encounter an extended time of rehab for a major surgery that all I can tell you assuredly that I’m MOST THANKFUL TO NOT BE AMONG THE 50 MILLION AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE! First is President Obama’s performance (or lack thereof) as a leader in getting our troops out of the “mistaken occupation” of Iraq. The second is his continued support of the “State’s Secret” policy used by the Bush administration to hide their (and possibly his) illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, and the last is – well, you guessed it – my TOTAL DISCOURAGEMENT with the fact I voted for a President who is willing to ignore WAR CRIMES! (there’s more, but read some of my previous posts if you want a broader range of my unhappiness with our new President).

OK, today is June 30th – “Iraqi Freedom day” – that is, the day the Iraqi’s and the Bush administration agreed that the “surge” would effectively come to an end. And, it’s true that the surge accomplished one important thing – it reduced the level of violence in many of the worst neighborhoods in Iraq (what it didn’t do was cause the Sunni, Shia, and Kurds to reconcile – in any way). Essentially, the Americans started paying the Iraqi Sunni’s to stop shooting at them and to start cleaning up the “Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia” mess – that no one, particulary the Iraqi’s themselves, liked. Al Qaeda was not only killing people, they were doing it in the most brutal and disgusting manor, so that the Iraqi’s themselves finally aligned with the Americans, who they despised, to quash them. In the process, the Americans armed something in excess of 100,000 Iraqi Sunni’s – who still hate and distrust the Iraqi Shia. And, it wouldn’t take a brain scientist to figure out that the Iraqi Shia (the sect that essentially controls the government) doesn’t trust the Sunni Awakening, which consists of many of the “lieutenants” of Saddam Hussein’s Republican guard. In addition to paying the Sunni’s to stop shooting at Americans and to fight Al Qaeda, the Americans essentially moved into the neighborhoods that were the most violent and put themselves between the warring factions. Essentially, the Americans focused on protecting the Iraqi’s instead of terrorizing them as they had for the first 4 years of the occupation – IT’S WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FROM DAY ONE – but the damage from the previous four years had been done, and the Iraqi’s wanted (and want) the Americans, understandably, out of their country. Iraqi Freedom day signifies the day when the Iraqi’s took over the control of their own country.

Now, I’m not totally naive. There are still 130,000 American troops in Iraq and if violence intensifies I wouldn’t expect them to sit idly by and watch the country go into a civil war. Based on what I’ve read, it’s the presence of the American troops in these neighborhoods which is preventing this from happening and our military leaders are predicting that our presence, realistically, needs to be there for another ten to twenty years. UGHHH! Well, getting back to President Obama. He campaigned – and quite convincingly – that he would get our troops home in 16 months. Realistically, for that to happen he would have to have started the pullout shortly after taking office. He’s been in office for nearly six months now and we still have the “pre-surge” number of troops in Iraq – and, I haven’t heard anything about a “time-table” to get them out – other than the Iraqi’s are to vote in July, I believe, about getting ALL Americans out of THEIR country by the end of July 2010. At one brigade a month (which is what I’ve heard would be a reasonable time frame for moving out) that isn’t possible – I believe there’s something like 15 brigades still over there. Plus, in the next month or so, the Iraqi’s are going to be “in control” and I am curious what President Obama will do if the sectarian violence escalates again (keep in mind, Osama bin Laden would like nothing better than to have the U.S. bogged down in an endless conflict in a Shia nation – so, I’m guessing he’ll try to “stir” things up a bit).

So far, in my view, Obama has shown little to no leadership on this issue. It appears to me that he’s just waiting for the time frame established by President Bush to guide us out of there (with the caveat that he’s already stated that he wants to leave 50,000 “no-combat” troops over there). Here’s how it looks to me – by following the Bush timetable Obama can avoid a “fight” with Republicans over the Iraq issue – so he can concentrate on other things, as he might say. THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE TO ME! I would have never voted for him had I known how he was going to deal with this. Honestly, it would be less discouraging for me to have some Republican in office than to have the Democrat I voted for “cow-towning” to Republicans – the people who inflicted this horrendous misadventure on us all. We are continuing to spend huge amounts of money on something that is tearing this nation apart – I realize Iraq has moved from the front page of the news because of the economy – BUT WE’RE STILL SPENDING 10+ BILLION PER MONTH ON AN ILLEGAL OCCUPATION! Yes, it’s long past time for the Iraqi’s to solve their own problems and as long as we stay there, the Sunni and Shia will not have to figure out how to “get along.” Whatever the final outcome is going to be, it won’t be dictated by us – and I would have thought (and I trusted) that President Obama “got that.”

My second problem with President Obama is his continuation of the Bush wiretapping of Americans. Recently I read an article in “The Washington Spectator” regarding the “Al-Haramain v. Bush” lawsuit which has been brought by lawyers for a (now defunct) Islamic charity that was located in Portland, Oregon and which re-affirms what I’ve been “harping” about since shortly after President Obama took office. The “gist” of the case is that the Bush administration labled this charity a “terrorist” organization (or something along those lines) based on wiretapping evidence that was clearly in violation of the FISA satutes of 1978. Now, everyone knows that Bush and company violated that statute an undetermined number of times (probably at least in the thousands – but, who knows given the data-mining capability that they developed during their administration). The penalty for each violation (it’s a felony) is 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. I don’t know if you remember President Bush, on national TV, stating that if the government listens to a phone converstation “They need a warrant.” Well, as in other instances, President Bush was perfectly willing to adhere to the “Nixon doctrine” that “If the President does it, it must be legal.”

Sadly, President Obama seems to be going along with this. In the case of the Al-Haramain case President Obama (now, I know it’s his justice department arguing the cases, but – come on – President Obama is a constitutional scholar, we know who’s calling the “shots” here) is taking the identical stance as President Bush and claiming the “States Secrets” doctrine prevents the lawyers for Al-Haramain from presenting evidence in court which would prove their case. It seems the lawyers were inadvertently mailed copies of phone logs which show that phone calls to them had been intercepted and listened to, illegally, by the federal government. In fact, these lawyers have stated in court that if the government will just show their FISA warrant, the case will be over. Of course, they haven’t shown it, because they didn’t get it, and therefore they are using this states secret doctrine to protect themselves from the legal consequences of violating this law. As much as I want President Bush to be held accountable for his illegal activities I DON’T WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO BE FOLLOWING HIS LEAD. If President Obama continues to protect Bush on this one (the case will be resumed in September), as far as I’m concerned, he becomes just as guilty.

It says in the article I read that there is no evidence they could find that President Obama is continuing the Bush wiretapping policies. But, I’m saying right here, that why else would he defend this unconstitutional activity in court? I believe the NSA is still “data-mining” phone calls and emails, just as they were doing under Bush at the end of his term. Now, if you remember, Obama inexplicably voted in favor of the FISA bill in Congress during the campaign, saying he would “fix” it once in office. Well, just as in his Iraq complicity, I believe the same thing is happening with the wiretapping. And, if this becomes public knowledge, President Obama could be terribly weakened as far as his public support. WE REALLY ARE EXPECTING SOMETHING – A LOT – DIFFERENT!

Ok, I’ll end this with my disgust with President Obama’s refusal to hold the Bush administration accountable for torture. I’m almost done reading “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” and it is disgusting what America has been doing during this so-called “War on Terror” whatever that is. The treatment of prisoners (many of whom should never have been in custody in the first place) happened very consistently in Abu Ghraib, in Afganistan, in Guantanamo, and in other parts of the world. Prisoners have been abused in the most deplorable of ways and an undetermined number of them have been killed through torture. It’s like we are becoming like the people we are supposed to be against. I was listening to a radio show the other day – the Ed Schultz show – and I had an interesting thought. Schultz, if you haven’t listened to him, is a real “blue collar” kind of guy. To me, he’s usually “right on” (keep in mind, I was a sawmill worker before I became a teacher) and he was questioning why President Obama wasn’t more assertive in the campaign to have a “Public Option” included in the health plan. Schultz was comparing President Obama’s responses to questions with the responses of Republicans like Charles Grassley and Lindsay Graham who, when asked about whether or not there will be a public option in the final health care bill, flatly stated NO! President Obama and his surrogates seem to have difficulty with using yes or no answers. They continually “beat around the bush” suggesting to people like me – and Mr. Schultz – that the Republcans are still weilding WAY TOO MUCH POWER – seeing as how they are down to 40 members of the Senate.

My thought: the reason Obama seems so un-assertive on this issue is BECAUSE HE IS! The evidence is mounting up to support that being the case. As I’ve stated in previous posts, the Republican’s main argument about Democrats is that they are weak. Unfortunately, I’m feeling like President Obama is falling into that trap as he tries to “reach across the isle. The fact that he won’t allow prosecution of the Bush administration for torture (and other crimes), the support of the State Secrets doctrine regarding the illegal wiretapping, and the apparent lack of courage to just get our troops out of Iraq are almost overwhelming evidence to me that THERE WON’T BE A PUBLIC OPTION in the health care bill, if there is a bill at all. In fact, I’m anticipating that I will be paying a tax on the health care benefits that I receive from my employer when all is said and done – now, if you don’t remember who’s proposal that was – it was JOHN MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL during the last campaign. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, WE VOTED FOR OBAMA, BUT WE’RE STILL IN IRAQ (MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL), WE’RE STILL WIRETAPPING (MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL), AND WE’RE LIKELY TO HAVE MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL FOR HEALTH CARE!

All of this is very discouraging to me (and I believe the general tone of what is happening is permeating the other issues, such as global warming and the economy) where I’m seeing a President who should be castagating Republicans for the malfeasance they’ve put on ALL OF US – but, instead, seems to have this overwhelming desire to “bring people together.” I’ll say it once more – the way to bring people together is to make a stand on principle that restores the ideals of this nation. Being “nice” to Republicans will go NOWHERE! Regarding the condoning of torture (and make no mistake about it, by “looking the other way” President Obama is condoning it – no matter what he says. Remember, Republicans will be back, and the way Obama’s going about this it will be “sooner rather than later”) – when we allow our government to condone torture, we, as a people, are condoning torture! And, if you don’t understand how disgusting we were during the Bush years, read “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” and keep in mind that the orders for what these soldiers were doing came from the White House – and, the same kind of stuff (and worse) was happening in several other places around the globe.

I often find myself in a precarious position politically. I absolutely believe that Jesus Christ lived and died for the benefit of all mankind. When I read the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, I find it difficult to understand how someone could profess belief in them and still put their faith in politicians of the Republican party (I should probably say, any politician). I realize that as Christians we are called to be responsible and to respect the authority of the state (at least that’s the interpretation I’ve made), but I was sitting in Church this week and the scripture that was “preached” on really motivated me to write. It reminded me of what was going on with the Bush administration (and is still going on with the Republican leadership). I have many times complained about the corruption of the Republicans (remember, this blog was motivated by my disgust with President Bush’s response to the 9/ll attacks – lying us into war which led to war profiteering by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others, “shredding” our constitution justified by “keeping us safe,” and ransacking our economy to the tune of Trillions of dollars while saying they were “reducing the size of government”), mostly because of my frustration with the Iraq occupation.

I have alternately felt frustration (that has bordered on anger) with the Bush administration and with the FACT that their main support comes from CHRISTIANS! I have often struggled to find any reason why a Christian would support what they were doing. They were lying (en masse), stealing (in Iraq and at home), murdering (Cheney’s “death squad” to name one), and torturing – almost gleefully! Yuck! I realized all along that most Christians I know support Republicans because they associate them with “anti-abortion” – despite the fact Republcans have been “in charge” for a large part of the past 30 years and have done nothing (and intend to do nothing in my view) to stop it. In fact, as I wrote earlier, I don’t believe abortions will be stopped by reversing Roe which is the dream of all these Republicans, that would just move it to the “back rooms” as it was before Roe and create more danger for women’s health (the “It would serve them right crowd would be OK with that, but not me – and I don’t think Jesus either!). One thing that I do agree with President Obama on is the call to figure out how to minimize the demand for abortions. But I digress.

So, it bothers me that Christians aren’t paying attention to what the government is doing and just blindly supporting anything that has the endorsement of these (what I see as evil) Republicans. This is the kind of support that brought Hitler to power in the 1930’s (isn’t it ironic that there are some Republicans comparing Obama to Hitler – evidence that you can twist the meaning of words quite easily – and I’m trying not to do that tonight). So, I’m sitting in church and my pastor quotes from the book of Titus. Titus is a young man who is “enlisted” by Paul (If you haven’t read the Bible, Paul is the Jewish convert – chosen by God – who is preaching the “Gospel” to the Gentiles – people like me – and he is responsible for much of the New Testament besides the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – which contain the story of Jesus’ life) to confront the “Cretans who are liars, evil brutes, and lazy gluttons.” He is telling Titus that this behavior is wrong and you can’t just “look the other way” (remind you of Obama and torture?) and Paul gives Titus a very clear and direct message.

“Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” Now, if you are not a believer in Christ – I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU! As the saying goes, “please disregard this message!” :o) But, just think about Mark Sanford for one – I mean he’s the most recent. As it says “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.” I’m not one who feels like my leaders have to “Claim to know God,” but, if they do, I expect their actions to reflect that belief. And, as a Christian, I feel that people like Sanford, Bush, Ensign, Gingrich, Limbaugh, and others do more to turn people off to Christianity than anyone.

As a Christian you are supposed to try to set an example that would encourage others to “follow Christ.” For me, Christianity is a great help in teaching me how to live my own life. But, IT IS PERSONAL. For you, it would be different than it is for me – that is, you could listen to the same sermon as me and get something entirely different out of it – based on your own personal needs. But, the point of this weeks sermon at church was that if you do profess belief in Christ and your actions bely that belief, you need to be REBUKED! Now, don’t get me wrong – we are all sinners – but if you look at someone like Sanford, the guy is such an incredible hypocrite that it’s disgusting. And, he’s not back from his vendetta in Argentina one day before he starts quoting scripture (about David) as justification for keeping his job as Governor of South Carolina – the job he went AWOL on for 6 days, leaving all kinds of possible potential crises in the “lurch.” I mean, the guy seems pitiful to me – and he needs to be REBUKED! Yes, he should be able to “rebuild” his life, but he should do it in a different capacity than Governor of South Carolina.

And, then there’s George W Bush. The guy really made a point that he was a “believer.” And, the right wing Christian Community just went along with everything he did. He lied us into war, he oversaw an incredible “bilking” of our economic system (which included the unthinkable war profiteering that not only went on in Iraq, but was perpetuated by Bush and his associates – to the tune of Billions of dollars), he showed disregard for human life (I guess for those already born) as, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands perished because of his misadventure in Iraq, he showed his purely “evil” side by authorizing the most obcene forms of torture – seemingly delighting in it, and he violated the very constitution that he swore to defend! Well, based on the book of Titus, George W Bush should be REBUKED, BIG TIME! (he was, by the voters) And, it shouldn’t be the “non-believers” doing it, it should be those who seemingly form his “base,” The Christian Community! Yet, they continue to support him and, I’m sure, would be disgusted with my thoughts. But, I have no problem REBUKING Bush, Sanford, and any other “Christian” who takes delight in lying, being “evil brutes” (ie torture), and being lazy gluttons (that is, lying around the pool and waiting for your stock portfolio to go up).

Now, as I wrote yesterday, I wish we had political leaders who would actually call these people on this stuff. It’s not too hard to recommend that Governor Sanford resign, and there are many voices expressing that view. But, where were all these voices when Bush was destroying the fabric of this nation – it should have come from the so-called “Christian Right” not from what they term “the liberals.” What Bush was doing was wrong according to the very book that we, as Christians, base our beliefs. It is absurd to expect credibility when you are condoning hypocricy! As Christians, we need to be the ones who REBUKE where the Republican party (Ok, I could write another post about Democrats – but it just wouldn’t support the point I’m trying to make) is at in order to hope that it would change and regain its place as the opposition (and possibly the majority) party in our system. These people like Bush, Sanford, Ensign, Limbaugh, Gingrich, Palin, and Rove should all be REBUKED for “their actions deny Him” – the very one they profess “guides their actions.” I wish President Obama would lead the way in this by enforcing our laws against torture – I’m not sure if that would relieve the “need” I feel to do so, but it “couldn’t hurt” as the saying goes. The bottom line to me is that if you’re going to claim to believe the Bible, you should act accordingly – especially for people who want to be leaders! (and, let me just add one last thing for anyone who tends toward the legalistic side and might read this – before you quote Old Testament scripture to me – read the Gospels! Christ was all about LOVE and REACHING OUT TO THE POOR!)

This feels, as I’m sitting here beginning to write, like a night of “I hope I’m wrongs.” I feel like I need to take a break from “bashing” Republicans (it seems like I could do that endlessly) and take a closer look at President Obama. As I’ve said over and over on this site I HOPE PRESIDENT OBAMA SUCCEEDS! I’ve been waiting over 40 years for a President that I could energetically support – and, for me, I did during the campaign. I sent him money, I read his books and shared them with others, I listened intently to his message of “hope,” and I trusted that he would follow through on his MAIN campaign promises – which I took to be, ending the war in Iraq in 16 months (I never dreamed that “ending” the war – I should call it an occupation, I don’t think anyone in Washington knows who the “enemy” is to this day – would include leaving 50,000 troops there indefinitely), restoring sanity to our economy, FIXING THE FISA BILL (I was promised this in an email from his campaign staff), holding members of the Bush administration accountable (we were all promised this when he said “No one is above the law in America”), ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” policy in the military, and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice – to name a few (the main ones which stuck with me).

As I stated on a post the other night, I “get” that American Presidents make promises they can’t (and don’t intend to) keep during the heat of the campaign. However, I’ve also stated many times that I’ve been waiting for over 40 years for something different. I was pretty sure it was going to be President Obama. I cried the night he was elected. Waiting for his inauguration I got a good chance to meditate on the severity of the problems he would inherit (Bush was almost AWOL during the last year or so of his Presidency – especially the last 6 months) – and they were growing every day with the federal government seemingly incapable of “fighting back,” which just made matters worse. I listened to President elect Obama say all the right things (from my perspective) – but there were a couple things I greatly miscalculated which would have tempered my excitement (and, since the inauguration – have). Actually, the first red flag for me was when then Senator Obama voted for the FISA bill which gave retro-active immunity to the Telecom companies (I believe mainly ATT&T and Verizon) who had been allowing the Bush administration to essentially listen in to any phone conversation taking place in America and read any email. Obviously, they weren’t listening to or reading all of them, but they were developing super-computers with sophisticated software which could “data-mine” huge volumes of “data” giving the federal government a free pass beyond the fourth amendment of our constitution.

When I discovered that President Obama continued this program once in office and actually defended the Bush position in court I said to myself, “No more money until I figure this out” (Obama’s team continues to solicit contributions now that he’s in office – none coming from me). As an aside, I’m still wondering where is MoveOn.org and the other so-called “progressive” groups in calling Obama on this – for me, obviously, a BIG ONE! I really don’t want my granddaughter having her phone conversations monitered by our government – and I fear that many in Washington are just accepting this as a necessary result of the “War on Terror.” Ughhh!

The second “red flag” for me was the constant attempts to placate Republicans, in an attempt to gain “bi-partisanship,” seemingly with a willingness to risk his relationship with his own base. Well, this has led to more discouragement for me. Let’s start with the “stimulus” bill. After reading reports saying that the infrastructure of America (roads, bridges, etc.) needed about 2.2 Trillion dollars of investment to bring it up to code (after years of neglect) I thought, “There’s the ticket out of this economic downturn” – which is the worst one in my liftetime. President Obama did get a stimulus bill passed, but in his effort for “bi-partisanship” he accepted almost 300 billion in unneeded tax cuts (I hardly notice mine) and included only 100 Billion toward rebuilding our infrastructure. I said to myself, “It’s a start” and I’m sure there will be more to follow (and I truly hope there will be).

I liked how President Obama dealt with the auto makers, demanding critical changes to how they operate in return for the loans designed to keep them “afloat.” And, like everything else, I REALLY HOPE this one works out. There are millions of American workers who make up our auto industry and it’s one of the last bastions of manufacturing in this great nation – IT’S IMPERATIVE TO KEEP IT GOING. And, while much of their problems came from mismanagement over the years – the truth is that the Wall Street “meltdown” was at the root of their problems. When credit dried up in this country, it made it next to impossible for our auto makers to survive. It looks like Ford may make it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they go the same route as Chrysler and GM. The point is, the Obama administration didn’t just throw money at Detroit and hope some of it would “stick.” Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about what they did with the Wall Street banks – which brings up another issue that has me on “pause” in my support of President Obama.

When I look at his economic advisors, what I see are remnants of Wall Street and the philosophy which created this mess in the first place. I remember criticizing Hank Paulsen (Bush’s Treasury secretary) because of his connection to Goldman Sachs and how his “intervention” seemed to come at a time when Goldman was potentially “on the ropes.” If you remember, Bear Stearns had been snapped up in a very questionable deal by JP Morgan Chase (who later reaped the benefits of a run on Washington Mutual) with the Federal Reserve essentially guaranteeing the investment for Chase (who purchased Bear for $2 per share), then Paulsen inexplicably let Lehman Brothers fail (as many felt he should have done with Bear), and all hell broke out on Wall Street. The rumors, as I remember it were that Goldman and Morgan Stanley were next. Of course, I can only imagine how much Paulsen had invested in Goldman (he was the CEO just two years earlier prior to his stint as Treasury Secretary) – but that is when Paulsen rammed through the TARP bailout of $700 billion, originally intended to purchase the “toxic” assets (I’m not sure how they were termed assets) of these banks which were considered “too big to fail.” Paulsen “threw” about $350 Billion at these Wall Street firms in a period of three or four weeks – with little if any restrictions and less oversight.

Well, the reason I point all this out is because President Obama chose Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary – presumably because he understood the “meltdown” better than anyone else – and Larry Summers as his chief economic advisor. The problem I’ve had with that from day one is that Summers was a key figure in the Clinton administration when much of the regulation governing the financial industry was “gutted,” and Geithner was the head of the New York “Fed” and there is little doubt in my mind that he was right in the middle of all the “stuff” which “backfired” on all of these banks. He too is connected to Goldman and basically, I’m not feeling that Geithner and Summers are going to lead us to the “change we can believe in” regarding our economy. I’ve heard reports that the federal government has made promises to these “too big to fail” companies that put the taxpayers at risk for something like 11-12 TRILLION dollars! – that’s with a T! I am very concerned that President Obama is leading us right back into the false economy we’ve been dealing with for the past 30+ years. It appears that he is very comfortable with many of the policies of the Clinton administration – and while I was happy with the surplus achieved under Clinton – some of his decisions on deregulation were like huge green lights to these greedy, ME FIRST Wall Streeters and their Republican base. I’m not looking for “business as usual,” an economy whose health is measured by the Dow Jones Industrial average – but one that is measured by the health of our middle class, the rising wages of our workforce, companies being rewarded for “green” initiative and loyalty to their workforce. I’m really tired of the brutal attitude in business – I would like to see a return to REAL FAMILY VALUES in this country where the workforce is the backbone of the company – not the shareholders. In other words, I’d like President Obama to lead us back into a time where people earn their money the old fashion way – by working for it. We have a consumer based economy because we’ve sat idly by as one company after another moves their operation overseas in an effort to reduce labor costs – mainly to increase shareholder value – leading those at the “top” to receive obscene salaries and justify them by pointing out how much money the shareholders made.

The problem with all of that is to have a consumer based economy you need consumers. And, when consumers don’t have money to spend, BIG PROBLEMS FOLLOW – and, personally, I feel we are far from “out of the woods” on this recession which still could make it to the depression stage in my opinion. Unemployment, by all measures I’ve been able to find, is expected to exceed 10% nationally by the end of this year and still be climbing – it’s something like 14% in Michigan and 12% in Oregon, two of the states I’m familiar with – and, if you counted EVERYONE out of work, my guess is that the rate would already be well above the 10% figure as I’m writing this. I’m saying this because I believe people will give President Obama about another six months before they start getting too critical of his initiatives if they’re not working. In my mind, he should be working on another infusion of government money into infrastructure RIGHT NOW! Six months from now could be too late.

OK, there’s two of my concerns about President Obama’s first 6 months in office which I believe could magnify into problems which could determine whether or not he succeeds (as I want) or fails (as Limbaugh and virtually every other Republican wants). The Republicans, as I’ve stated here since well before Obama was inaugurated are not going to agree to anything he wants. So, his reaching out to them has been a big problem for me – and he continues to do that. I think he’s trying to be some kind of a combination of Reagan and Lincoln – and I’m concerned that it will eventually bring him down – that is, make him a one term President. I’m not going to go into great detail with my next concern because I’ve done so on several of my earlier posts – but President Obama’s refusal (I used to call it reluctance) to investigate the Bush administration and prosecute any illegal activities IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND! He promised that this would take place and that “No one in America is above the law” – I heard him say that with my own ears. For me, this is a deal breaker. It sets such a horrible precedent for the future of this nation that I will not be able to vote for Obama again should he continue this illegal behavior. I say it’s illegal because he took an oath to uphold the constitution and enforce the laws of this great land. By turning his back on clear legal violations he’s doing the unthinkable as far as I’m concerned. According to the Geneva Conventions, if you are a national leader and you’re aware of torture taking place YOU HAVE TO PROSECUTE IT! IT’S NOT AN OPTION! Obama is being a total politician on this one and our children and grandchildren could be paying for this for generations to come. I can’t even believe I’m writing this – President Obama is a constitutional expert! THERE IS NO EXCUSE HERE!

Failing to keep his promise regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage act will potentially alienate the gay community and those of us who believe that our civil rights should belong to everyone, his continuance of the Bush wiretapping policy could alienate many like me if it becomes common knowledge (he’s doing a good job of keeping it off of the nightly news), the fact the troops aren’t coming home could alienate many more (although Obama could luck out on this one and the Iraqi’s themselves might kick us out), the refusal to hold Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Rice/Addington/Wolfowitz/Feith and the others accountable for war (and other) crimes may undermine much of his support, especially if the economy doesn’t rebound. And, even if the economy does rebound, if we end up with “more of the same” there are many (again like me) who won’t vote for Obama out of principle. While it’s true that most politicians don’t keep their promises and they vote the interests of the corporations who have “bought” them, I expected something different from President Obama – I expected him to be a statesman who had the courage to stand up to the dregs who have been bringing this nation to her knees for the sake of insane profits. In his first 6 months in office, I’m seeing signs that Obama is more of a politician than a statesman! Again, I HOPE I’M WRONG!

OK, I know I have to write about Governor Sanford of South Carolina (hopefully, soon to be former Governor Sanfrod) because I’ve been writing about what hypocrits the leaders of the Republican party are since I started this blog and he’s put himself right at or near the top. Governor Sanford, if you haven’t been paying attention is one of the self-righteous Republican governors who tried to refuse the stimulus money from the federal government. Of course, he wasn’t going to refuse all of it – in his case just the money which would have helped to keep teachers employed in South Carolina’s public education system (which already ranks toward the bottom in the country and surely would get closer to the bottom – I believe the bottom is Mississippi – without the federal aide) – you know, the Republican’s agenda puts destroying our public education system at the top of their “to do” list. Their vision is for the disadvantaged children in this country to grow up without a first class education – and they hide their intentions in a bill titled “No Child Left Behind.” And, on top of all this, Sanford was one of the leading candidates for the Republican party’s Presidential nomination for 2012 (Oh, yes – I forgot to mention – while he was criticizing Democrats as being “immoral” he was sneaking off on the taxpayers expense to rondevous with his girlfriend in Argentina of all places).

Based on the other leaders of the party (Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich) having an affair shouldn’t disqualify Sanford from his political dreams, but he might have to wait a few years like Gingrich, after his dismissal from the House, and Limbaugh, after his viagra and oxycontin fiasco in the Caribbean did before they could reclaim their positions as leaders of the Republican party (Well, now that I think of it, I really believe Limbaugh’s elevation of late is a first – at the time of his arrest for abusing prescripition pain killers he was considered no more than the bloviating blowhard that he really is – I don’t think anyone took him too seriously until GW Bush screwed things up royally). Actually, I don’t think Sanford’s affair compares to Gingrich meeting his wife as she is rolled out from Cancer surgery and informing her he’s divorcing her to marry another woman – I mean that is a topper! I can’t think of anyone doing something more mean-spirited than that, which I’m sure is why Republicans love Gingrich. If he’ll treat a wife like that, just think what he might do to Democrats (don’t you like how they function in private whil eschewing in public they’re the “party of family values”).

Seriously, I could care less about governor Sanford’s personal life – as you might be able to guess – there’s no way I would ever vote for the guy even if he was faithful to his wife. I just found it interesting that he disappeared for 5 or 6 days over Father’s day weekend (the man’s got 4 boys), all the while lying to his staff, using public money to pay for his jaunts to Argentina to be with his mistress, and then trying to lie his way out of it when he’s caught at the airport coming back into the country – In Georgia of all places. So, the fact that he went AWOL from his job as Governor of a state and used public money to carry on an affair – these are the things that bother me the most – shouldn’t this man have legal issues? Fortunately for him, we live in a country where public officials don’t have to answer for breaking the law. I can tell you this though, as a public school teacher (you know the kind of person he was trying to put out of business by refusing the stimulus money) I would lose my job if I did either one of those things – and you have to really screw up to lose your job as a teacher after you’ve been there for awhile.

Sanford can use the Cheney defense if and when he gets accused of any crime. If you’re a high government official we just look the other way, and in this case, he probably only skimmed a few thousand from the books for his plane ticket and hotel in Buenos Aires – I doubt that he stayed at his mistresses house. And, this all gets me back to the thing that I’ve been trying to “hammer” home for several months now – and this goes straight to President Obama – you can’t be selective in enforcing the laws of this great land. Obama has chosen to look the other way regarding the admitted torturing authorized by the Bush administration. I’m reading a book right now titled “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris which makes me even more angry that our leaders are letting this disgusting saga kind of disappear into the sunset. The problem with that line of thinking is I don’t believe it’s going to disappear – there’s a lot more to the story than what’s come out so far and sooner or later it’s all going to come out (Obama’s not going to look good if he doesn’t deal with this beforehand).

These Republicans are daring Democrats to stand up to them, and the Democrats keep folding like a cheap tent one time after another. And, President Obama has a lot of tough decisions laying in front of him and these guys (Republicans) are going to be in opposition – EVERY STEP OF THE WAY! Abu Ghraib’s abuses were clearly ordered from above – according to the book I”m reading, the suspicion is that the orders came from the very top – at least the Vice President’s office and very probably the White House. What was done in Abu Ghraib was disgusting, but the most disgusting part of it to me was the fact that a few untrained, overtaxed, well-meaning soldiers are or have been in Leavenworth while the real “culprits” are not only “walking free,” in the case of Dick Cheney – going around defending the policy of torture and making ridiculous claims about the Obama administration that SHOULD NOT GO UNANSWERED!

I realize President Obama is focused on health care and energy as the focul points of his agenda – and is still holding out some kind of hope that he can get “bi-parisan” support for his pet issues. Who is standing in the way – TIME AND AGAIN – it’s those disgusting Republicans. If there’s a decent one in their midst you wouldn’t know it because the one thing you (well, I guess I really mean I) have to give them credit for is sticking together. They ran Arlen Specter right out of the party for “turning on them” and voting his “conscience” (if he has one) on the so-called Stimulus bill. They honestly remind me of a herd of sheep as they bunch up around whoever is at the podium for their capital hill news conferences – where one of them gives the “party line” while the rest stand behind the spokesperson nodding like a bunch of bobble head dolls. I know President Obama isn’t going to listen to me, but the best way to get bi-partisan support from Republicans is to allow the investigation of the Bush administration which will accomplish two things. First, it will shut up Cheney and now President Bush himself (who’s starting to follow Cheney’s lead in trying to salvage the Bush legacy by lying their way into the history books) along with the rest of them (Rove, Addington, et al) who would need to start worrying about legal problems instead of causing problems for Obama. Second, this would send a message to the rest of the Republicans (and, hopefully to any Democrats as well who are putting themselves above the laws of this great nation) that we are a nation of laws and not men and that when he said “No one is above the law” in the campaign President Obama really meant it.

Here’s the problem President Obama is facing right now. The Republicans always considered him weak and ill-prepared for the job at hand (I’m not sure if they even understand now what a job they left him with) and now Democrats are starting to question some of his decisions because he’s not following through on some of his campaign pledges. OK, I know that this is always the case with Presidents, but Obama had a different campaign and his supporters expect different decisions from him. There are many more besides me who EXPECT OBAMA TO FULFILL HIS CAMPAIGN PLEDGES. He needs to start with the investigations of the Bush administration (and Obama is so “into” the health care debate that I don’t think this is even an issue for him anymore – WHICH IS A HUGE MISTAKE!), he needs to “fix” the FISA legislation (which he promised ME during the campaign when I complained about his astonishingly discouraging support of the Bush FISA bill), he needs to follow through on his pledge to end the “Don’t ask Don’t tell” policy in our military which is siphoning off one highly qualified person after another, he needs to get our troops home from Iraq (there’s still over 130,000 there with no sign of them coming home – except for the Iraqi’s forcing us out) – in general President Obama needs to quit waffling on these issues because if he loses the support of even 10% of his “base” he will struggle to get re-elected.

I can’t imagine the Republicans will end up running someone like Sanford or Senator Ensign (the two unfaithful candidates) or Sarah Palin – despite the FACT she can see Russsia from her front porch (or whatever she claimed) or even Gingrich. I pointed this out about 6 months ago and I’m getting more confident that I might be on to something as every day passes and as these potential candidates keep eliminating themselves – in 2012, if Obama seems vulnerable at all (and, unless he changes this reluctance to go after the lawbreaking Bush crowd – he will be vulnerable), LOOK FOR THE NEXT BUSH – Jeb Bush is in the background – and, I believe the Republicans are setting traps for Obama; Cheney and GW are going around trying to convince everyone they weren’t so bad – “THEY KEPT US SAFE” (I’m sure, under their breath when they say that they mumble, “except for 9/11”), and they are going to start pushing the “good Bush” on us within the next year. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! :o)

These guys think the American people are stupid. I think that there is a large portion of Americans, like myself, who just long for someone to act like Americans are supposed to act – in theory. Now, this – I’m sure – is a bit idealistic and naive – but the alternative that the Republicans have been cramming down our throats for the better part of the past 30 years is destroying this nation. We have the opportunity to totally change the direction of this great country, and President Obama has the right ideas and many of his supporters are eager for a rational energy policy, national health care, a first class commitment to the education of our children and grandchildren, a sensible and peace first foreign policy which doesn’t thrive on depriving third world countries of their natural resources at the benefit of our multi-national corporations, and an economy which is balanced and a national debt which is shrinking (doesn’t that sound conservative?). The only way President Obama should be reaching out to Republicans (like Sanford, Cheney, and GW Bush) is to recommend good legal counsel. Governor Sanford, Vice President Cheney. and former President Bush are not only hypocrites, they are criminals!

Most of my ranting has been aimed at Republicans (and justifiably so, in my opinion). I mean they HAVE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for bludgeoning our economy, almost destroying it (and It’s still in desperate straights as far as I’m concerned – the jury’s still out as to whether President Obama has the “right stuff” to fix it – I’m not sure even he understands how damaged it is) – they got us mired into two wars, one which should have ended in around 6 months with the capture or death of Osama bin Laden and the other which was originally predicted to end in 6 months and will probably only end when the Iraqi’s themselves kick us out of thier country, and possibly worse than all of that – they treated our constitution as a document with virtually no meaning. The wiretapping, the torture, the lying to Congress, the refusal to answer subpoenas, the outing of a CIA agent, the war profiteering, the signing statements, and I could go on have left a legacy of shame and disrespect for that great document which this nation has rested on for over 200 years. The early years of the 21st Century in America have been reprehensible; we voted “the bums” in (actually, the Supreme Court did – but, this is not Iran – therefore, we just accepted that debacle), consequently we’re all accountable – and, I believe, in the election of 2008 America decided it was time to do something about it. It felt, for the first time in many years (at least to me) that America was ready to re-claim her ideals – no matter how imaginary they might be.

I have been writing about Republicans because they, simply put (at least their ostensible leaders) disgust me – it’s therapeudic. On top of all the abuses listed above, they constantly come across as selfish, racist, and mean spirited. They are devoid of ideas, and they seem to be able to do only three things now that they’ve lost “power:” vote ‘no’ on every intitiative offered up in Congress, propose more tax cuts for the wealthy, and stir up the right wing fringe in an attempt to undermine everything the new President is trying to accomplish. All of this, to me, is disgusting and is leading our great nation into second class status. I mean, the leaders of the Republicans – Rush Limbaugh (can you believe this? But polls actually suggest he’s the leader as much as anyone else), Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Dick Cheney, Eric Cantor and others are suggesting that they would prefer more of the Bush philosophy to President Obama’s attempts at “righting the ship.” They consider a stimulus package (in the face of 10% unemployment – and still rising) designed to create working class jobs, “socialism” (despite the fact they were throwing money at large corporations like there was an endless supply of taxpayer dollars in order to save the people who originally caused the problems), and they oppose EVERY initiative before Congress designed to restore sanity to our nation’s economy.

So, it’s mid 2009 AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! WE WANT CHANGE! We have a new President, a Democratic Congress, and a national will which is “behind” the new President in almost unprecedented numbers. President Obama has accomplished alot in his first five months, make no mistake about that, but there is much left to do (and, keep in mind that I’ve stated my unhappiness with President Obama’s reluctance to fight back against the Republican assault on our constitution and our legal system – but that’s a story for another time). And the big issue on the “plate” right now, gets me to my point of the evening – the issue is HEALTH CARE REFORM – and my point is DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS.

It has become clear that President Obama’s “centerpiece” legislation is health care reform. It’s hard to argue against the importance of solving this problem – both from the issue of health insurance for the general population and the issue of the looming medicare crisis. I am convinced that the reason Obama is not pursuing accountability of the Bush administration is because he feels it would undermine his attempts to get health care reform passed (I heartily disagree – but I will accept that President Obama had a much higher standing in his college class than I did in mine :o). And, there is one reason this may be true – DEMOCRATS. This is very frustrating as it all becomes more clear to me. We have a Democratic President, both houses of Congress are solidly in Democratic control, and the national population is strongly (70+%) in favor of the health care reform President Obama is “pushing,” and yet most “experts” give him less than a 50/50 chance of getting a bill signed by the end of the year.

In fact, many of the so-called experts that I’ve heard have gone so far as to suggest that if President Obama gets anything passed, it will be watered down to the point that it will pretty much leave the system that is destroying our economy “in tact.” This seems so unbelievable to me, but when I double check what I’m hearing from as many perspectives as I have time – I keep coming up with the same problem – DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS! Actually, it appears that it’s Democrats in the Senate. Despite all of the political “capital” mentioned above (I mean just the thought that 70+% of the American people want a “government option” in whatever they come up with is astonishing to me in its own right) most “experts” believe that the “Blue-dog Democrats” are going to undermine the whole process. THIS IS BEYOND COMPREHENSION! These guys (and gals) are going to publicly display – in the worst light – how much they are beholden to the special interest lobby of the insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical industry. It’s time for President Obama to treat them exactly as I’m suggesting he treat the Republicans – PUBLICLY TAKE THEM ON – VERY AGRESSIVELY!

I mean, how do you explain to the electorate that you couldn’t get your centerpiece legislation passed with a near super majority in both houses of Congress along with well over two-thirds of the public on your side? YOU HAVE TO PUT THESE GUYS IN THE NEWS – MAKE SURE EVERY AMERICAN UNDERSTANDS WHO IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. I live right across the Columbia River from Oregon. Oregon has a Senator, Ron Wyden, who I have always looked up to as one of the people in the Senate who had maintained his independence. BOY HAVE I BEEN STUPID ON THIS ONE. Senator Wyden has made his own healthcare proposal – that he shields in claims that “I won’t let the health industry stop this reform this time” – a proposal which seems to me to be an attempt to get something that can be called reform and, at the same time, do minimal damage to the insurance industry which is apparently giving the Senator enough campaign contributions to convince him that the “public option” is a bad idea. There are about 10 or 11 Democratic Senators who fall into the same category as Wyden, and the one thing that is consistent with all of them is the large health industry support – in millions of dollars – for their campaigns. In fact, one of them, Senator Max Baukus of Montana – who is a VIP in this process due to the committee he chairs – has received, from what I’ve been able to find out, several million dollars in campaign contributions from insurance companies and other interests related to health care. He is leading the “charge” against a “public option.”

What is a public option? Well, the idea – which, again, has merit in the eyes of about three out of every four Americans – is that once this reform is completed the consumer will be able to purchase health care from private insurers or from a public medicare-like insurance company run by the government. Those who oppose this option do so because they claim it would wipe out the private insurers – they won’t be able to compete with the government plan. To that, I would say – if they can’t compete, then those who are calling for a single payer system right now are correct. It would also validate those who claim that going to a single payer system should be gradual – and if the “government option” does put private companies out of business that would lead to a gradual shift to the single payer option.

Personally, I believe that once you get everyone insured – mandatory – and you eliminate the need for insurance companies to be spending large sums of administrative costs on figuring out how to NOT PAY CLAIMS, OR NOT INSURE PEOPLE they should be able to compete with the government run program – especially, if the government is as inefficient as most Republicans would have us believe. As a consumer, I feel that having the option will cause both the private companies and the government run operation to compete and it should increase efficiency in both cases. And, even if there has to be a “tax increase” to pay for this, people like me are paying upwards of $15,000 per year to insure their families already and I can’t imagine that any tax increase would be higher than that – that is, for those of us who have health insurance – we conceivably could be paying significantly less. The reality is that those of us who are insured are paying for those of us that aren’t ALREADY! An example of what I mean that is “close to home” for me: A good friend of mine recently needed emergency surgery which essentially saved his life. He was in the hospital for about 4 or 5 days and had a significant surgery. The hospital bill alone was over $30,000 and he was anticipating the doctor charges would be somewhere approaching $20,000. I’m not sure if those numbers are accurate, but what I am sure of is that without insurance that is an amount of money which most Americans (my friend included) can’t afford to just throw into the budget. Essentially, there are hospital “charities” that pay these bills and they are funded by the over-charging of patients who go to the hospital with insurance. So, a public option will only spread the cost of health care to everyone – whether they like it or not. And, believe me – just like medicare taxes – once the system is in place for a few years we will adapt to whatever taxes are needed to fund it and those of us who are paying these huge premiums right now will be paying less “in the long run.” And those who constantly complain about taxes will continue to complain, they’ll just be covered should they have a medical problem in the future.

Getting back to my main point of the evening, this all sounds so practical as I’m sitting here writing that it makes me even more disgusted with these Democrats in the Senate who are sold out to the private insurance companies and the other health care providers who are concerned that their “gravy train” might be coming to an end. When I try to rationalize in my own mind why members of his own party would undermine the key component of his attempt to revitalize our nation’s economy – in the face of overwhelming BIPARISAN public support – I can come to no other conclusion than these Senators have been BOUGHT by the health care industy (Ron Wyden included). Here’s some of the “fallout” from their actions: First (and worst for me): I believe that this could explain why President Obama is not pursuing accountability for the torture issue – if you’re not sure how I make the connection, make a comment and I’ll explain it. Next: This is forcing Obama to “reach out” to Republicans who should be getting “what for” and , instead, are getting a relevence they don’t deserve. And last: this could conceivably undermine the Medicare debate that is imminent and could empower the Republicans who would love nothing better than to see the end of Medicare. All because these Democrats have gotten themselves into positions where the healthcare industry is (presumably) dictating their actions. Do you remember Congressman Jefferson from Louisiana who was storing his “campiagn” contributions in his freezer? Well, maybe we should be checking the freezers of some of these Senate Democrats who are willing to undermine healthcare reform!

As I’ve said many times, I want President Obama TO SUCCEED. I feel a bit uneasy in criticizing him because he’s getting it from all sides at this point, and I’m very concerned that his “honeymoon” is about to be over. The last thing we need at this point in time is a President that is perceived to be weak. And, it’s not the perception of those around the world, who I believe are even more encouraged than many Americans about the possibilities with an Obama administration, it’s the news media, the right wing, and – eventually – the Democratic party that need to be kept “in line.” Whether we like it or not, the system we have is the system we have. So, to “change” it requires one to be realistic about what you’re dealing with.

I don’t presume to be one who should be giving President Obama advice, but it appears to me that he has surrounded himself with people from the “old guard” – you know, the thing we wanted to change. On top of that, it seems to me that President Obama is going out of his way to “reach across the isle” in an attempt to “bring people together.” In my mind, while the objective is admirable, the strategy (or at least what appears to be the strategy) is impracticle. There are several things (some I’ve mentioned many times already in previous posts) that need to be done differently for Obama to circumvent the Republicans who are setting him up to be another Jimmy Carter in perception. And, keep in mind, I really felt that Jimmy Carter was one of the better Presidents in my lifetime. The public perception, to this day, is that Carter was weak (mostly because of the Iran hostage situation), but had we “stayed the course” with some of his economic policies – namely the CAFE standards he implemented which Reagan repealed – we’d all be in better shape today.

This is where the news media and the right wing come into the picture. The Republicans have been on a propaganda binge for 30+ years which they are showing no signs of giving up, and the media is showing no signs of exposing what they’re doing – the lying seems to be uncontested. About the only place you can “vet” what they’re saying is on the internet, and most Americans just don’t have the time, and it still hasn’t sunk in to them how dishonest these politicians are (and, believe me, I’m not giving Democrats a pass here – they are just a lot less sofisticated about their lying). We REALLY WANT TO BELIEVE IN OUR LEADERS. This is why President Obama has such an opportunity, but also why he’s in such a precarious position. Most Americans really do want “change we can believe in.” But, it will take someone who is very assertive and determined, and someone who is standing firm on the principles that a majority of Americans believe is the “fabric” of this nation.

I will state this again for the I have no idea how manyith time, President Obama is not going to get any support from Republicans until he proves that he can stand up to their leaders. HE HAS TO SHUT UP THE BUSH/CHENEY crowd once and for all. Their constant criticism of him will ultimately undermine his entire administration – remember, these Republicans are looking at a generation or two of being in the background – if not obscurity – if Obama “succeeds.” They are NOT going to “work with him” on anything. HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO PASS HIS AGENDA OVER THEIR OBJECTIONS AND COUNT ON HIS POLICIES WORKING in order to succeed. The first step (well, it can’t be the first step because it’s already too late for that) is to not only allow, but to encourage, the investigations of the wrongdoing of the Bush administration. I’m going to say it right here, if President Obama lets their transgressions go he will be a one term President. Many might say, well, his popularity is over 60% – but, I would remind you that at one point GW Bush was close to 80+% after 9/11.

And, trust me on this one, should there be another attack on the US, you won’t see the Republicans lining up behind Obama as he deals with the crisis like everyone did with Bush following 9/11. In fact, they are trying to set President Obama up for something like this, so they can ring down their “I told you so’s” – almost as if they’re rooting for something like that to happen. Additionally, the so-called “left wing media” (here’s a great example of the Republican propoganda machine – they’ve been calling the media {which they’ve quietly been taking almost total control of} “left wing” for so long that even the right wingers in the media believe this – it’s shameful) refuses to confront these Republican liars – in fact, they have become part of the caucus, so to speak. These guys spew out the “talking points” that come out of the caucus as if they are Republican staffers. This is SO DANGEROUS to our Democracy – AND CALLS FOR STRONG ACTION BY THE OPPOSITION.

Unfortunately, the opposition is made up of a bunch of Politicians who have taken money from the same corporations who own the Republicans, and they seem to just obediently be willing to go along with the “way things are.” I mean, Nancy Pelosi – inexplicably – took impeachment off of the table for possibly the most corrupt administration in history – and believe me, there are many Americans who will never “get” how bad the Bush administration was unless our leaders in Washington hold them accountable. And, you have Harry Reid, who backs down at the threat of filibuster. It’s been many years since I’ve seen a Senate leader actually force the opposition to stand up and speak until they couldn’t speak anymore. They’ve just caved to the idea that good legislation gets held hostage to a minority of 41 – AND NOTHING CHANGES IN AMERICA.

I’m trying not to digress too much, but the health care issue gives everyone a good idea of the major problem in Washington. Something like 59% of Americans are in favor of a single payor health insurance run by the government. The percentage is higher for those who at least want there to be a national health care policy with a public option – that is, I can choose to keep my Blue Cross, or I can choose to go with the medicare like public option. Certainly, no one except the insurance companies and maybe the for profit hospitals object to getting better health care in this country for substantially less money. This one would seem like a no-brainer. However, that’s without considering how much money the long time members of the Congress have received from insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other health care interests (remember, the person who negotiated the medicare bill under Bush – the one where medicare couldn’t negotiate the price of drugs – received over ONE BILLION DOLLARS for his efforts). Even Ron Widen, the Senator from Oregon (Democrat) who I thought was above this, has introduced a bill for health care that shows his “connection” to the health care industry, and then he promotes it by saying he’s not going to let the health care industry stop “reform” this time. And Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, has taken millions from the health care industry and he’s trying to stop the public option ostensibly at their behest.

So, President Obama faces a formidable task – no one questions that. I can’t imagine a President coming into office under worst circumstances. However, that doesn’t change the realities of American politics. I admire that he wants to change the climate in Washington. I just don’t think he can do it the way he’s going about things. Job number one is to “call” the Republican party on their misdeeds. If President Obama continues to look the other way regarding torture, and all the other abuses that happened under Bush, he will slowly loose his own party on key issues. THERE IS A LOT OF MONEY OUT THERE WHICH CORPORATIONS WOULD BE HAPPY TO SPEND IF THEY THINK THEY CAN SUCCEED IN UNDERMINING HIM. Make no mistake about that. And, unfortunately, Obama is not blessed with a strong group in Congress behind him. They have shown themselves to be almost cowardly on many issues. Obama shouldn’t even have had to deal with the issue of Iraq – Congress should have pulled the funds under Bush after the Dems took over – but they didn’t have the guts to do it (and it looks like the only way we’ll get out of Iraq is at the demand of the Iraqi’s). In addition to that, the reason there’s so much debate on the health care proposals, is because President Obama doesn’t have the support of many in his own party. I’ll say it one more time (probably not the last) Until President Obama confronts the Republicans with investigations of Bush he will not have full support of Democrats. He’s running out of time!