QT's Blog Site

Well...thankfully, the Cheney drama is dying down. I was getting tired of hearing about it. Our administration does so many unethical things. Why were we focusing on this?!?!?

So, here are my thoughts.

1) There is no debate it was an accident. Likewise, I have no doubt that Cheney was truly sorry for shooting his friend, and was extremely concerned for his health all week.

2) Of course he took full responsiblity for the accident. He had no other choice! Can you imagine him coming on Fox News, and saying, "Yeah, shooting my friend sucked, but he shouldn't have stepped out of line. It's his fault."  In other words, Cheney's noble words are not news!

3) Why did he get a standing ovation in his home state again?

Now...let's turn out attention back to the real problems facing this administration.

This week, Bush finally told us about the 2002 plot to fly an airplane into the "Liberty" Tower. It was the latest excuse that he was using in his PR effort to garner support for his controversial (and illegal) wire-tapping program.  However, I'm not sure I can believe this story...I'm not accusing Bush of lying yet, but certain things strike me as strange.

1) First of all, it's Library Tower. Ok, if you hear about a terror plot against Los Angeles, I'd imagine you'd be talking about it all the time to try to figure out how to thwart the criminals, right? I'm assuming the name of the target would come up numerous times in one conversation. In all those discussions, wouldn't Bush have learned the real name...?

2) Why is he coming out with this information now? What happened in 2006, that he's now able to tell us about this plot? And why couldn't he tell us before? The timing seems a little suspicious.

3) Why wouldn't the mayor of Los Angeles know the details of the alleged terror plot before hearing Bush's public speech?

I am all for the president protecting us from terrorism, and I want him to do everything he can to catch these terrorists (without creating new ones), but I am a little unhappy at the prospect of him lying about a terror plot to scare us into giving him unnecessary powers. 

Well...it's time for me to come back to my blog. I've been so busy these past few months, that the thought of turning on my computer to write a blog has been quite unappealing. But now, I'm back! I plan to keep this blog up to date and keep people informed, so they can make the right choice in the upcoming election.

I believe it is VERY important that Democrats take back at least one of the houses this year! Even if I liked this current administration, I would want to have some balance in the government. With the right controlling the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of the government, there are no more checks and balances (a fundamental belief of our founding fathers, by the way) in our administration.

Republicans have controlled our government for a long time now, and have proven that they can't handle it. Our administration has been plagued with lying, fraud, neglection, cheating, invasion of privacy, crime and downright selfishness. It's time for the United Status to demand that we get democracy back.

And I hope I can contribute to that cause!

Yesterday, the Democrats made a big deal about a "closed session."  Apparently, the public was led out of the room, so the Senators could discuss Iraq war intelligence. Our Democrat representatives seem to think that they somehow struck Bush in his weak spot....people's growing discontent with the Iraq war. However, I disagree.

First of all, I would venture to guess that only 10% of America heard about this. And I imagine that these 10% already have strong views on politics and won't be swayed by this move. Since almost 1 in 5 people have never heard of Tom Delay or Valerie Plame, there's little chance that this closed session made big news.

Second, I am going to predict that very little will come of this session. The dramatic way in which it occurred indicates that it was purely for show. And what was the outcome? The Senate Intelligence Committee is going to continue "investigating prewar intelligence." Does anyone know what that means? I am guessing things are going to progress as they were...

I am all for Democrats being more vocal about the failures of the current administration. But I wish they'd be smart about how they handle it. They need to appeal to the average person, which can be done by boldly pointing out how life is so much less comfortable than it was before Bush. When Bush was running for president (1st term), Republicans bluntly stated that they wanted to "give us America back." Back then, an unfaithful husband as the president was a huge problem. Well, now Democrats need to say the same thing! We really do want America back!!!

And going back to the issue, I have one more pointt. Why is a closed session such big news? Why doesn't it happen more often (the last one was in 1999 about Clinton's impeachment)? Don't our Senators ever work, without the disturbance of the public weighing them down? Or is EVERYTHING for show?

Bushie's new SCOTUS nomination has brought back, to its fullest, the hot issue of abortion. Since many are worried about the possibility of abortions becoming illegal, they are anxious to know the intentions of the new Justice. Well, there's no secret when it comes to Alito. He's against abortion, according to his mother. However, we women have nothing to worry about. According to Bush, "He understands that judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people," Since the existing laws are in favor of giving women the right to choose, we can relax. Alito won't impose his views on the country, right? Well, we'll see, I guess...

As for abortion, my opinion is quite simple. In addition to all the common arguments brought up in favor of “pro-choice”…men don't get an opinion in this matter. When men have to go through pregnancies...the nausea, exhaustion, constant need to pee, sore boobs, headaches, labor & delivery, postpartum depression, and the loss of that perfectly flat stomach we once took for granted, then they can give us their opinion about whether or not we should be forced to endure it. Until that happens, we women don't care about their thoughts. We don't make men suffer for a year against their will. They should show us the same respect. Pregnancies are hard on our bodies, boys! They shouldn't be forced upon us, because you suddenly feel moral (What is the percentage of men who cheat on their wives, again?).

Enough said! 

This week was rough for our president. First, his Supreme Court nomination decided to withdraw her name from the confirmation process. Either she realized that getting confirmed was an uphill battle, or the Bush administration pressured her to resign (since she was making them look bad). As if that wasn't rough enough, Libby was indicted on 5 counts. And that's supposedly just the beginning.

But don't feel too bad. Bush is relaxing at Camp David, while he "mulls over his next Supreme Court nomination." Things are rough...so Bush has been forced to take (another) vacation to sort it out. Whoever said being president was easy?!?!

:)

You were probably surprised when you read that a Bush family member took responsibility for something, right? Well, don't get too excited. Jeb Bush is no different from the others.

At a news conference today, Jeb told everyone not to blame FEMA for the slow recovery efforts in Florida. Any delays in assistance after Hurricane Wilma are his fault...not theirs. However, just when you thought he was being noble, he throws in, "People had ample time to prepare. It isn't that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water."

Of course, I agree that people should do everything they can to prepare for upcoming disasters. However, I'm not impressed by this so called admission of guilt. It doesn't matter how much people prepared beforehand. The issue is how uncoordinated the recovery efforts were. Distribution points were given out prematurely, supply trucks struggled to make it to their destinations, banks ran out of cash...in short, all kinds of problems unrelated to preparation levels existed.

Yet, this sounds a lot like,"I did something wrong, but that wouldn't have mattered, if you hadn't done everything wrong." Once again, the blame is being shifted.

Sorry I haven't been able to write in such a long time. I recently started a new job, so I have been distracted. I will try to be better about blogging from now on.

In the meantime, here is another joke I found on moxiegrrrl.com. Click on the picture, and make sure you go through all 10 screens, because they're all hysterical. :)

...was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional."

If you've been following the hearing to determine what happened with the (lack of) Katrina response, you'll recognize this as Brownie's defense. Additional mistakes he admits:

"Not having more media briefings"

"Not trying to work out the differences between Nagin and Blanco"

Somehow, in his list of mistakes, Brownie completely missed his failure to deploy the resources quickly enough. Instead, he claims that such actions are not the job of FEMA. According to him, it is unreasonable to expect FEMA to respond to EVERY federal disaster in EVERY community. This would make sense if there were other large scale federal disasters going on at the time...but there weren't.

Brownie also says that the lack of a mandatory evacuation, before the hurricane hit, largely accounted for the disaster. Again, this would make sense if the mandatory evacuation was ordered after the hurricane hit, but it wasn't. The voluntary evacuation order came on Saturday, the 27th, the mandatory evacuation order came on Sunday, the 28th and the hurricane made landfall on Monday, the 29th. So, apparently, Brownie didn't even bother to read up on the timeline before his testimony!

And finally, for those of us who don't know what FEMA is, he clarifies it for us. "FEMA is a coordinating agency, we are not a law enforcement agency." So, that means that FEMA should have COORDINATED some emergency response resources. Hmmm...interesting that it didn't happen sooner than 72 hrs. after the disaster.

Ok, let me clarify: The government at all levels deserves some blame. However, Brownie's incompetence is nothing short of astounding!

Today, Bush ruled out raising taxes to pay for the hurricane relief. He said that government spending needs to be cut, instead.  It's going to be hard, since his colleague Tom Delay has already figured out that no more government spending can be cut...The government is running as efficiently as possible.

Of course the government is not running as efficiently as possible and Delay's statement of "victory" made me laugh. However, in a way, he's right. Whether or not government spending can be cut, it won't be to an extent large enough to pay off the current loans (especially with a war going on). The amount of money donated to the hurricane relief will be added to our already enormous deficit. And at some point in the future, this large national debt will have to be paid off. What will happen then? Our kids will have to pay the taxes that we should have paid...in addition to the taxes they will be paying anyway.

Is everyone ok with that?