All is Welllll...
At least in the world according to Chris...

Ahhh Chris, you never fail to disappoint me. Ever the optimist. Yes, Zarqawi is gone. It only took what 3+ years and how many lives lost to take him out? I could ask the obvious (where's Bin Laden) but I won't. This is WAR right?
I hadn't heard that Rove had been cleared, but doesn't surprise me. Cover ups are easy when you have someone waiting in the wings to take the fall.
Bush in Baghdad? I can't tell you how that excites me. Ahh the possiblities. For democracy and all.

Yes, this is shaping up to be a steller year for the repubs isn't it? Congratulations. It's been a hard won victory.
Sure hope you undersand sarcasm. Cause this is me at my sarcastic best.

On the other hand this may well be a symptom of why I'm having such a hard time summoning up the desire or passion for the political process anymore. Those who see, see all too well. Those who don't, never will. It's like spitting into the wind. Even as a child I was never fond of 'spitz baths'.
posted by wanda at 6:20 PM

She's Backkkkkkk

I know I've been MIA for awhile now, and I'm so sorry. Funny thing, life got in the way of blogging.
For so long this blog was one of the primary focus's in my life. I thought I was doing something important. I had so much to say. There were times when it was almost an obsession. The blog itself, and those who read it. I remember spending hours here writing, and going from blog to blog, filling up my senses with the words of my fellow flame carrier's. It kept me busy. It enabled me to avoid dealing with the real world. The one I actually lived in.

Then one day, something inside me cracked. Well, actually it was a slow process, little fissures began to develope, each one moving slowly toward the other. Until they finally all met in the middle. I began to see I was using this blog as a means of escape. If I buried my mind into this, I could ignore the reality of my own unhappy life. I know I'm not expressing this well, I suppose misery makes a better story. Alas it is what it is.

These days I find myself spending more time on making the changes in my real life. It's working out rather well. I felt I'd left the blog in good hands. Speaking of which, Scott, where ARE you? I still care deeply about the state of affairs in this great country we call home. It's just that for now I need to try to put my own house in order.

I'm going to try to be around more. I don't want to give this up completely. I've missed all of you, even hardheaded Chris.

So, the Dixie Chicks are back, popular as ever. Dubya, is still around, sinking lower everyday. Lets hope that translates in to major changes come November. Does anyone think Rove or Cheney are going to make it through this term? I predict Rove will be moving out within the year. Cheney will probably go sometime next year. Leaving the way for Condi to step into the VP seat. Ya'll remember I said that!

Well, that's about all I have time for today. Ya'll come now ya hear???
posted by wanda at 7:18 PM

Alphonso Jackson, the Republican Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told a story recently during a talk he gave in Dallas. Here's what he said, according to the Dallas Business Journal: Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.' "I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

You're probably not too surprised to hear that. Frankly, neither am I. And that's the problem.

The Republican culture of corruption has so infected our government that we aren't even surprised to hear a cabinet secretary talk about the "logic" of potentially illegally awarding federal contracts based on political affiliation. That's right -- if this story is true, it is probably illegal. Our taxpayer dollars are required by law to be spent based on merit.

Public pressure for Jackson to resign is already building, and Democrats in Congress are calling for an investigation. You can be a part of the groundswell of support for clean government by demanding Jackson's resignation.

We're shooting for 100,000 Americans sending a clear message to Secretary Jackson that he is not fit to serve. We will deliver your message to him when you sign this petition demanding his resignation: http://www.democrats.org/hudscandal

Jackson summed up what's left of the Republican philosophy of government when he said, "That's the way I believe." The journalist Josh Marshall put it well when he wrote yesterday:

"Just as interesting was Jackson's follow-on statement in which shows his understanding of how government contracting works: political supporters get contracts so they can pump a percentage of the profits back into the political party. Standard machine politics, at best. Organized bribery, at worst. And whatever you want to call it, the guiding principle of all contracting and government spending in the second Bush administration."

That's exactly right. And Jackson isn't the only example of this entrenched Republican corruption. Bush's Republican procurement chief -- the man in charge of spending huge sums of taxpayer dollars -- was arrested and charged with conspiracy in the evolving scandals associated with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

This kind of mentality must be rooted out. But you don't have to wait until November to send your message that you want change.

Sign this petition now and demand the resignation of Secretary Jackson: http://www.democrats.org/hudscandal

Just like many Americans, the media has come to expect this kind of corruption from the Republicans. But it's up to those of us who want change to build public pressure and ensure that our friends and neighbors know that corruption is a day-to-day reality in Republican Washington.

Sign this petition and send your message to Secretary Jackson -- and then pass this message along to your friends:
http://www.democrats.org/hudscandal

Enough is enough -- and we're not going to stop until we achieve real change.

Thank you,

Tom
Tom McMahonExecutive Director Democratic National Committee

P.S. -- For a helpful guide to the Republican culture of corruption in all its forms, check out our special presentation: http://www.democrats.org/cultureofcorruption
posted by - Scott at 11:40 PM

The Pretender


Tonight while flipping through channels on the TV, I came across coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner. I listened for a few minutes and thought, "Wow, Dubya's really on a roll here. I actually like him a little bit." Then I realized it was some actor pretending to be Bush. Figures. It takes somebody pretending to be him to make him likeable. At least to me.
posted by wanda at 10:37 PM

(Congressional Reasearch Service's current working assumption is $10 billion/month and does not include future allocations required for military equipment replacement, veteran's medical costs or benefits, etc.)
posted by - Scott at 10:20 AM

IRIN is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It recently published the results of a report by a non-governmental organization that concerns itself with women's freedom in Iraq. The report surveyed women in leadership roles in Iraq.

Women represent roughly 60 percent of the Iraqi population. Despite a 25-percent representative presence in parliament, however, they are seldom entrusted with high government positions, while their contribution to political debate is rarely taken seriously.

“When US troops entered Iraq, we thought it would be a great opportunity for Iraqi women to begin having their voices heard,” said Senar. “But we were wrong – the opposite has happened, and we’re losing ground by the day.” Women’s groups point to the new government, many members of which take a conservative view when it comes to the role of women. “When we tell the government we need more representation in parliament, they respond by telling us that, if well-qualified women appear one day, they won’t be turned down,” said Senar, a woman's freedom organization leader in Iraq. “Then they laugh at us.”

“...Women should stay at home with their families. Participating in politics will distance them from their kids,” said Sheikh Marouf Abdel-Kader, a religious leader at one of the mosques in Baghdad.

The new poll of leaders of Iraqi women's-rights groups finds that women were treated better and their civil rights were more secure under deposed President Saddam Hussein than under the faltering and increasingly sectarian U.S. - installed government. “The results show that women are less respected now than they were under the previous regime, while their freedom has been curtailed.”

{Columnist/TV host Bonnie Erbe said of IRIN's reporting of the survey: "Oh, and I'm sure the black-helicopter types, (the guys who go rabid at the mention of the United Nations), will have a field day discrediting IRIN's report. But given that "anti-U.N. types" were the same guys who got us into the Iraq invasion in the first place, who has more credibility now? I vote for IRIN as the lesser of two evils."}

[ -Scottnote: tho they represent 60% of the population no women are in the running for any of the nation's top nine (9) posts in the newly forming government. Gads, if our pre-emptive invasion was not for WMD (increasingly clearer all the time), and it's not democracy or freedom(increasingly clearer all the time), then geez what's left?...............uh...certainly not for large oil company interests seizing control of vast oil resources under Iraq... Bush could not possibly have used the amerikan military and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in a pre-emptive invasion of another country for that? Just couldn't be. ]
posted by - Scott at 8:28 AM